FLOWERS?

Now, I will admit that by this point, this post is rather old, but one day about a month plus ago now, I went to move the ground cherries, tomatillos and eggplants into pots. As you can see the nicely planted seeds had become a mess of plants growing everywhere.  They had started to try and grow over the herbs I had placed in the missing cells spot to contain some water for them. 

Another small jungle

Imagine my surprise when I pulled out the one tomatillo that grew (one out of 6 cells had a plant). The tomatillo was flowering before it ever gets out of the seed starter... I think the grow light was worth it. The plants did seem rather happy under our new addition. We may have to set up a second one next year for a bit better coverage of the plants.

Flowers already?

I left the flowers on as I placed the tomatillo into its pot. The tomatillo and the ground cherries both I used our same method of planting as tomatoes where we buried part of the stem to help increase root production.

into the pot

That day, Pooka and I managed to get all the eggplants, ground cherries, and tomatillo into pots. The plants were all much bigger and sturdier than in previous years, so I do think the grow light has helped. Although it is always nice to be able to say "and at least now they are in dirt." Although, lets be honest, Pooka just loves being able to say "And now I am playing in the dirt."

More pots done

We also managed to get the valerian and the yarrow into pots as well. Due to pot space (and lack of pots) we did have to have them share a space, but it worked out great when we were transplanting later. These 2 ended up living on the front porch to harden off while the rest went out to live in the same jungle as the tomatoes. But at least they are done now. 

Yarrow and valerian

Tomatoes learn personal space

Okay, I admit it. In all the end of semester, end of school (since the kids and I are in different schools), spring garden plus the return of garden club for Pooka, and spring birthday world, I have been less than on top of things here. I promise stuff is still getting done, but here is me starting to play catch up and hopefully getting caught up.

A few weeks ago now, Pooka and I went to do our morning check on the tomatoes and realized that well.. they may of gotten a bit big. As in, big enough to start touching the light bulb on the grow light. Somethign needed done.

I think the grow light is working

And while it was a bit cool still outside, Pooka and I took our tomato tray outside to try and deal with this mess. Yes it looked worse once it was out of the light.

Oh dear... its a forest

The tomato plants had gotten rather big, so we started trying to gently pull the plants apart from the mass of vegetation. I will admit I should of done something sooner, but oh well. This is just one of the average size tomato plants. Yes those are regular coffee filters for scale (okay, honestly, they were there, but it gives you a good sense of how big these things got).

Tomato plant

I will admit it took Pooka and I the better part of a day to just sit there and pot the tomatoes. While we were doing that, Daddy and Brother were working on the side bed pulling off rocks and pulling out the old brick. I am not sure if Daddy or I got the worse end of the bargin. However, at least from my work, we will have food one day. The tomatoes no longer look like this, and some may or may not (okay may) of been a bit frost burned in my attempts to harden them off when it was still a tad chilly outside. However, this is why we plant extras. If nothing else, just means less tomatoes I need to find a home for.

Tomato army

Signs of life in the garden

This time of year is a fun one for Pooka. Daily and some times multiple times a day, she walks through her gardens and just loves watching to see what is coming back. Its almost like a second Easter bunny that comes daily. She will walk through the garden always looking for that new sign of green, and with all the rain we have had lately, things are starting to wake up.

Blueberry is waking up

One of Brother's blueberry bushes is looking rather excited to see spring. It was the first to bud and may even leaf in the next few days. The other two are budding out, but no where near this close to showing signs of green.

Raspberry

Just like the blueberries are all starting at separate points so are the two raspberry bushes. This one is green everywhere and showing lots of life. The other one I am not entirely sure it isn't dead, so we are going to focus on the fact that one of the bushes lived. Seeing all that green gave Pooka and I a bit of hope maybe we weren't getting in too far over our heads, maybe.

Chives

The chives were one of the first things up. They don't look like this much longer, but rather Daddy has been joking he may need to mow them soon. My response was more along the lines of maybe we need to be making some bake potatoes and eggs to use them up. Well, that and I need to let Pooka and her friend K at them They won't last long after that. Pooka has already gone through the chives and gotten herself a few snacks saying "Oh, how I love the first chive of the season." Seriously, I can't make this stuff up, it is how she is.

Tarragon

In the old reliable department is the tarragon. The "lets' eat the sidewalk and everything on either side" tarragon. I am actually going to have to do something about this guy since this was taken on today, and spring isn't even all that sprung. Imagine how big it would be by the end of the summer. Stay tuned for my first attempt at dividing something.

Rose bush

Gremo's rosebush came back this year. Pooka asked if her letter underneath had been destroyed during the winter. Being a coward, I changed the topic. So far all the growth seems to be at the bottom of the plant, and I am hoping that is a good sign. Never having done much with roses, I am kinda flying blind. Although Daddy asked if we should do something about the big spear.. I mean stem growing up the middle. It has HUGE thorns and no signs of life yet. I told him we wait and if its still dead looking by mid may, I will remove it.

stars

Not all of our stars survived. In fact, this seems to be the only set that did, but they are happy as can be. I am hoping they will eventually take over this area, much like they did at my grandmothers. Right now, we are just waiting to see what it does, since my attempt to bring one inside died horribly.

SURPRISE

In the "Wait that's alive?" category is the chamomile. Yeah, I am not sure why it is alive either since again, I heard it was a very temperamental annual. It seems quite happy in its little spot and Pooka actually told Ms. A (The owner of our favorite nursery) that it came back and even she was shocked. Free tea supplies for mommy and Pooka gets to once again prove people wrong.

Moving her orchaid

Around Pooka's birthday, she got an orchid that was on clearance. It is surviving okay, but it had a bit of a hard time (even with the stick) staying upright. We decided maybe it needed a bit bigger pot since that is usually the problem. Remember, we know nothing of orchids but that hasn't stopped us before.

Orchid ready to be moved

We had to find the orchid potting soil since I knew it was different from regular dirt. Beyond that, I knew nothing. Fortunately, our favorite nursery was open and we went there. They knew exactly what we needed and even opened the unopened greenhouse for us to get an new pot for the orchid. She kept saying "I am so sorry its messy back here" but Pooka was in heaven. I swear she was ready to dig in and help. But, Miss A found a wonderful little pot for Pooka and we headed back home.

New home for the orchid

I will say, I thought the new pot was a bit bigger, but part of me is rather surprised at the lack of extra dirt we needed. All in all, after a few weeks now, it is doing much better in the new pot, and we still water it with an ice cube. It does need to move back to Pooka's desk, but for now, its doing well and its not as floppy. Maybe I should look up care for it, or we can wing it as we always do.

All settled in

We didn't see this coming

It never ceases to surprise me or Pooka how Mother Nature doesn't give up. We went outside the other day to harvest and found that the confused blueberry had suddenly waited till the end of June to start getting leaves. Pooka just went "Mommy, it has leaves" And they are not small leaves, but you can tell its the first tenative leaves of spring.

Surprise leaves

It had a couple green tips begining to appear. Maybe this blueberry plant isn't dead yet. We are going to leave it alone and see if it can get itself strong enough to survive the summer and maybe even the winter. 

I am trying to be alive

Sadly, the probably dead blueberry is dead dead. It breaks instead of bends and has the look of a dead plant. So we pulled it and are saving the pot to replant something else into. At least we didn't lose them both to the polar vortex. 

It's dead Jim, take it's pot. 

New home for Caroline

I have been saying this needed done since last year. Caroline the lime tree was basically in pot from the store for over a year. It was a good sturdy pot but I kept saying "we need to get a real pot for Caroline." I swore I had one so I didn't want to buy one. I just needed to make time for it.

Well, then one day Pooka and I went looking for the mysterious pot and could not for the life of us find it. We went through everything and Pooka wondered if Daddy was hiding it. (This is her answer anytime she can't find something, someone is hiding it.)

Then months ago we were at a different home improvement store looking for something. I found this pot, and no it wasn't on sale or clearance, but I had that moment of clarity that says "Hey, you need this for that."  I asked Pooka which one she liked and she said a green one. Pooka carried the pot up to the counter and we finally had a pot. Perfect, I thought, we can transplant Caroline the lime tree this week.

This week, turned into this month. This month turned into 2 months. Finally, I was potting things up in the yard almost 3 months after I got the pot. The pot had sat in the garage, waiting on me. I almost forgot again, but I looked over and remembered right as I was cleaning up. I told Pooka to get the pot.

So we potted Caroline into a new home. I swear somewhere I have pictures of all this. She was rather root bound, but in decent condition otherwise. There was a moment while Pooka tucked the dirt around her in the new pot you could almost here her say "AAAAAAHHHHH"

Caroline the lime tree in her new pot. 

However it has taken me a few weeks to get this post up. Timing is not my friend this year, but I am hoping that now we can start to play catch up and get back on track. In the meantime, Caroline has budded out with more limes. Here is to hoping we get some decent sized ones. I would love to say we are getting limes now.

One big push and 1st of the month pictures

I can officially say the garden is in the ground. Over Memorial day weekend, Daddy, Pooka and I made a huge 2 day long push to get everything in the ground. It was a long couple of days, but now we can sit back and work on other things without worrying that things will die in pots.

Pollinator bed

 Pooka's pollinator bed is in and starting to grow. Since we did so much from seed and in a scatter pattern, I don't know what is a weed and what is a plant. we are going to let it grow a bit and see what happens. I do know I need to pull some nettles out, but those require gloves sadly.

Garlic bed

 The garlic bed is growing quite well. We finally have some scrapes we are going to try for dinner this week. We have only been waiting for 3 years to try them. Although some of the garlic plants are really good sized, I am hoping for a much better garlic haul this year. Daddy is so tempted to pull the plants and I have to keep telling him no. You can also see the mint plant in its new home.

The herb bed part A

The herb bed you can see took a running start this year. We have had to replace a number of plants, but we are doing well. This picture is also after Aunt T took almost a half pound of tarragon in hopes of making her own plant. Looks like the tarragon needs cut back as well as some parsley and oregano. It is so nice to have fresh herbs to cook with again. At this rate, the dehydrator may need to come out sooner rather then later.

Herb bed part B

As you can see the second section of garlic is doing well but not as well as the other. But this section is primarily the grocery store grown garlic so I am still okay with it. We have the colored peppers in next to the garlic then the basil plants next to that. We keep increasing the kinds of basil we use. I don't mind buying these as starts since it means I have less to keep alive as seedlings.

The deck

The pots on the deck are doing quite well. The squash has sprouted, as has the zucchini. Soon this entire will be covered in green and making food. Audrey the morning glory as sprouted as well, so I will be keeping her in line as well.

Plant stand corner

 The little plant stand corner is doing well. Pooka's hummingbird planter has come to life and is covered in color. We haven't seen any birds yet, but maybe later this year. Everything in this corner is started and sprouted, even if it doesn't look it just yet. Some of the potted plants were the last to get done. In fact, this last weekend Pooka and I were running out between rainstorms to get the last of the lettuce and spinach seeds planted.

Onions

The onions are doing well. The store bought onion is seeming to grow quite well as well. This is another bed of leave it and let nature do her thing. I just need to watch the weeds in it.

Brandywine        rainbow cherry        fireballs

This area is our 3 year rotation for tomatoes. The brandywine tomatoes are next to the stairs, followed by Rainbow cherries then fireballs. I have already seen flowers starting on the rainbow cherries and the fireballs. Tomatoes here we come. I am so looking forward to them.

Peppers and peas

 All the sweet peppers are doing well. We have carnival next to a couple of sweet peas and then Pooka's lilac pepper, then the long sweets that are a favorite around here followed by Daddy's cubanelle peppers.











These 2 containers hold peas. The big one is blue podded peas while the small one is regular sugar peas. The sugar peas I did start later then the big one, but I see peas in our future.

Leeks beefsteaks      roma        blueberry tomatoes

This is the second half of the tomatoes. Since it doesn't have any support behind it (like a trellis) we decided to go standard tomato cages on it. I am kinda hoping this works. I also have our homegrown leeks as well as some storebought plants tucked in a bit of free space in this bed. I think they get alone well, but we will have to see. Luckily, they are close to the beefsteaks, so I am not as concerned about them. There is beefsteak, Roma and Blueberry tomatoes in this bed.

Pots galore

In this little area we have tucked away a bunch of pots. I don't know if this will work (the weeds are getting a bit big back here) but we are going to try it. The 2 green pots are the raspberries (and yes, on doesn't look so good). The blue bin is blue corn, and the white and brown with the tomato cages are the watermelons. Cross your fingers those do well.

Beans and       tomatillos and           peas

On this side of the shed I have the green beans and tomatillos. It is really hard to find companion info on beans so we are just going to see what happens. There are more blue podded peas in the blue bin next to the bed.

Hot peppers and eggplants. 

In this bed is the hot peppers. Furtherest from the camera is the jalapeno, then the poblanos and then eggplants. This area I think may of been just a bit too dry for the tomatoes but that just means we will get nice and spicy jalapenos. Supposedly eggplants like these conditions as well, so here is to hoping for some nice eggplants that we get to figure out how to use.

Peas       broccoli               cucumber

In the last bed are the cucumbers and broccoli. I know they generally like things a tad bit shadier and cooler, but with crop rotation, they may have a less then good spot every few years. The cucumber has a bit of extra room since they like to sprawl, but I have the ever handy trellis there to help them. The broccoli still has a bit of a cage around it since the bunny issue. I am hoping to take that down in the next week or so.


I know the garden isn't completely done. Pooka needs to put out all her little fairy houses and butterflies and things, but we have it in the ground and will be slowly working on getting it done now that we are not as pressed for time. I am also hoping the butterflies will help a bit with the bunny problem. We haven't seen much of a problem but its only been a week. Cross your fingers that mr. bunny found a different buffet.

Another causality of winter.

Well, I finally called it. One of the blueberry bushes just did not seem to want to wake up. I don't know why, but I was tired of waiting. We have one that the buds had started to open and the cold snaps hit, so it waited and is finally reopening. But the one just was not doing anything. 

As you can see, its looking a bit sad

Daddy, Kiddo, Pooka and I went out and bought a new one. We found a nice one that had leafed but not flowered. Hopefully we might get something off it this year. We started to transplant the berry plant and realized 2 things. One was that the pot had tons of standing water. Apparently it was not draining well. The other thing we learned was that the blueberry bush didn't seem dead. it was still springy when you bent the branches. I couldn't just throw it away if it might be savagable, so we transplanted it into a smaller container. This will either give it a place to dry out and wake up, or it will kill it. Either way, it will free up the other pot for something else. Oh, and we made a point to fix the drainage issue for the berry plants. Hopefully they will not have standing water anymore. 

Blueberry given one last chance

I will say Kiddo loved watching the water gush out of the new drainage holes in the pots. Since these are his bushes I made him do his share. Technically right now we have 4 blueberry plants. This may mean we keep 4 plants, or we go down to 3. Its a matter of what the sad blueberry wants to do. Honestly, I would just love everything to green up and prove that it is ready for another year, even if we don't get much out of it. I know the winter was hard, but I keep hoping that I have finally found all the losses and we can move on for the year. 

4 blueberries all in a row.

Cave has a surprise

The other day I was looking at the lemon tree and I thought I saw a weed. Until I got closer...

Turns out our lemon tree had a seedling. I guess we will be getting another lemon tree. It won't hurt anything to let it grow for awhile and see if it even lives.


Pooka is already naming this one Wheatley. You better be a tree and better live Wheatley, I don't want to tell a Pooka anything else.

Sign of spring

Back deck covered in pots. That is a sign of spring. Now to get it all in the ground.

The back deck hoping to get planted soon

3 little blueberry bushes all in a row.

One bush is ready to go, it has leaves and flowers. I am glad at least it survived the winter with little issue. the problem is I have one that is very very slow to wake up (it is finally budding but taking its time) and the last well, I think it died. I can't be sure, but it doesn't seem to be doing much.

3 Little blueberries

This is the bush I think is waking up slowly. If you can get close enough, there is a bit of green sticking out the ends. It still springs back when you pull on it and I just keep hoping it will wake up. 

May still wake up, it has green in the buds

This is the bush that may have died. It had little buds on it, but they don't seem to be doing well. I am really afraid it didn't like the polar vortex. Daddy and I have talked of replacing it, but we keep hoping the blueberry plants will go on clearance first.

I think it may be dead

Strawberries Everywhere

Well, I wish I could say I had strawberry fruits everywhere, but I do have strawberry plants everywhere. They have accumulated in stages, so I didn't realize how many where here until the other day. At first we bought a few plants to fill a strawberry hanging planter that Aunt B gave Pooka. Pooka loved it even if we have to make sure to hang it low enough so she can reach the berries. 

The first 4 berry plants

 Then on our shopping trip, Pooka bought herself another 3 little strawberry plants. She was in love with them and since it was her money, I didn't really feel the need to stop her. At least it was something we could make use of.

Pooka's haul from the shopping trip

Then one day, Pooka and I were at the home improvement store, and we saw a strawberry plant with RED flowers instead of white. Well, you know Pooka and color. She loved the idea of different colored flowers. So I talked to Daddy and we decided to buy her one.  

This is a bad picture, they are closer to red then pink

Now, I will admit I didn't realize what I had gotten myself into. We assumed something, and well it came back to bite me. What I didn't know when I went to pick them up was that I couldn't buy just 1. All I needed was one. These strawberries only come in a 6 pack. Sadly, we were in a rush, and I had promised, so we bought a set. 

A few days later, I declared all the previous strawberries dead. They did not handle the winter well and frankly, there was not a single sign of life. Signs that should of been there. I guess it is a good thing we replaced them now, but I will say having all these little strawberry plants floating around is making me nuts. They are already starting to produce and really need established into pots. I guess I know what I should be doing this week. Pooka is just ready to play in the dirt and she is really excited to see if the red flowered ones taste like regular strawberries. She went around the garden yesterday saying "Produce Strawberries. I am hungry and I want fresh fruit." She then proceeded to remind the raspberry and blueberry bushes to get to work as well. I think she is either hungry or excited. I can't tell which.