Updated Pictures of the garden - as promised!

So we got almost an inch of rain last night, and I decided to go out early this morning to get some updated pictures.

Outside


Inside, from the opposite corner





Looks like there is a Beefsteak Tomato just about ready to be picked!!!!


Red Onions and Zucchini.  We've already eaten a few zucchini, but the heat we've had the last couple of weeks really slowed the growth.  FINALLY there are a couple small ones growing again.


Patio Tomato plant - still producing!  These are smaller tomatoes, but are great for just me.  I can usually eat at least one a day.  The netting on the top of the garden didn't work - the birds just figured out to fly THROUGH the fencing.  So I took it down and wrapped each individual plant and it seems to be working - no more holes in the tomatoes!



Cucumbers!!!  I've picked a few of them, and there are another four or five on the vines, but they are short and FAT!!!  I think the heat affected them, too.  I'll be picking them at the end of the week no matter what size they are - hopefully that will let the other tiny ones that are on the vines start to grow and they'll grow to a bigger size.


The Beefsteak Tomato plant!  The tomatoes aren't growing very big, but I think (again) the heat is the problem.  The plant still looks a little shriveled and ordinarily I'd water it, but there's a possibility of more rain today, so I'm going to wait.  All the tomatoes taste so good!  They aren't as pretty as the ones you buy at the store, but the flavor is SO Much better!  I had to tie one of the branches up, so used pantyhose so it's not so hard on the plant.


The three Heatmaster Tomato Plants - lots of green tomatoes on them!  They also taste really good - yesterday for lunch I went out to the garden to pick some lettuce and a tomato, so within 5 minutes of picking I was eating them.  Nothing like FRESH food!



The four Roma tomato plants - these aren't producing very well, but I think it's because they don't get quite as much sun as the others.  When I have time, I think I'll try to figure out a way to rearrange them so they get more sun.  That's one of the benefits of having the plants in containers.


The pepper plants are doing super - they've really grown in the past couple of weeks.  Still waiting for them to produce, so don't know which one is red, orange or yellow.


My green beans!  I guess I'm lucky that I'm still getting beans - one of the ladies at work said most people have pulled up their green beans already.  I don't get a bunch of beans, just enough for a serving or two, but I try to pick some every day and if they're not eaten, blanch them in boiling water, then a bath in ice water and put them in the freezer.  I may try to can one or two jars just to see how they work.  I still haven't canned anything but I'm anxious to try.


A close up of a few of the beans.


Long shot of the raised bed - closest are the green beans, then red onions, lettuce, another variety of lettuce, white onions, then two more kinds of lettuce, then green onions.


Here are the red onions - a few of them were shaded by the green beans so didn't grow, but a few more are doing pretty well.  You don't pick them until the tops fall.


Giant Ceasar Lettuce


White Onions - a couple of them were growing too high so I added some top soil I had.  Next year I think I'll plant the seeds of most of the things in the garden a little deeper.


Outsides are lettuce #4, middle rows are the black seeded lettuce.


Green Onions (planted first)


More Red Onions


Potatoes!!!!  I planted some in the entire barrel, but for some reason only half of them sprouted.  Really anxious to see how many I get from these!  Have to wait - these you don't harvest until two weeks after the plants fall.  The container was too close to the side of the garden and the deer ate a little off the ends.  I pulled it in then.


Angel's corn - they recently moved so possibly he'll be able to take it home.


Radishes - these are pretty old and probably just need to be picked, but I've been busy with other stuff lately.


The second batch of green onions -these have really looked better the last couple of days - probably due to no as much heat and the rain.


more radishes


more green onions


Carrots - need to take time to thin these out, but the tops have grown quite a bit lately.


So there are the pictures.  Still love having the garden and think it's doing pretty well for my first garden.    I"m really enjoying going to the store for groceries and not buying salad, tomatoes or green beans (which were almost always on my list).  Next year we're hoping to have at least two more raised beds instead of using mostly containers, but we'll see.

In other news, we finalized the 2nd qtr tax report for the CPA and he's telling us that we're going to have to start paying estimated taxes for the last two quarters of 2012. Todd's either making too much money or we're not spending enough!!! lol  Guess I'll need to go shopping!  (Already had to buy a new laptop for the business, so that's a deduction.)

The new people at work are now licensed, so I'm probably going to cut back to one or two days a week, then fill in more when people are on vacation.  I keep going back and forth as to whether I should quit completely or keep working.  I keep busy enough when working three days a week and also working on Todd's business; the extra money is nice (Hawaii trip will be paid off soon), but the days I work I just don't get anything else done around the house or for Todd's business.  I think I'll work a maximum of 3 days a week when I need to fill in if someone's out.

Have a wonderful day!

It's RAINING!!!!!

This will be great for my garden!!!  I'm off the next couple of days, so check back - I'll be posting updated pictures of the garden!!!!

In other news, Brute has fully recovered from his whiplash. YAY!!!  No more drugged dog in the house! He's back to his normal self.  Not enjoying the rain tonight, though.  He's been shaking like a leaf and hiding under the couch.

Pictures to follow - I promise!!!!

I worked in the garden this morning, but didn't take any pictures.

Maybe sometime this week.  I figured out the Mockingbirds have been trying to eat the tomatoes as they ripen, so I ordered some bird netting on Amazon and put it over the entire top of the garden enclosure.  A few days later, the birds had figured out they are small enough to fly THROUGH the fence, so I took the top off and wrapped each individual tomato plant with the netting.  I'm really hoping that works!!!  I've gotten quite a few tomatoes out of the garden, a few radishes and FINALLY the cucumbers and zucchini have started to produce! Still waiting on the onions, I've pretty much decided those won't be large enough to harvest until late summer/early fall.

I was sitting out in the garden one Monday morning enjoying my coffee and Kindle, when Brute saw some deer in the neighbors back yard.  Being the tough guy that he is, he started off at full speed to get the deer, but instead when head-first into the side of the garden.  He cried for a little and couldn't use his front feet for a few minutes, but then seemed OK.  I was busy working Tues, Wed, and Thurs and also dealing with some family issues, and it wasn't until that Friday that I noticed he just wasn't himself.  Called the vet and they couldn't get him in until Monday. All weekend I was beside myself thinking he did something really bad and I'd have to put him down  :(  .  Sunday night he wouldn't even be in the living room with me - he was all by himself on the other side of the house!!!!  Anyway, the vet said he had Whiplash!  Gave him some muscle relaxants, pain pills and anti-inflammatories and he was getting better by Wednesday morning.  (What a relief!!!)  Now he'd pretty much back to himself.   Since his neck was sore, the vet said it would be a good idea to raise his food and water, so I did that and decided to leave them like that.  I used an old box from one of our laptops and just wrapped it with some "dog footprint" flannel I had.  He also has some "belly bands" that match, along with mattresses for his kennel - he's a SPOILED DOG!!!!

I've heard many people say it's better for dogs to have their food up, anyway.

I'll try to get some more pictures of the garden and the harvest - I have a bunch of tomatoes ripening on the window sil in the kitchen!

It's time for a GARDEN UPDATE!!!! (and you won't believe how it looks!!!!!)

To say I'm happy about how it's doing wouldn't come close to how I feel about my garden!  It's doing WONDERFUL!!!!!!  I've even had some neighbors comment on how well it's doing - one saying "I've never seen a garden take off like yours has!"  Not too bad for the first garden I've planted in Texas!!!!  I'm planning to share some of the harvest if it gets too much for me.  The kids will want some and since I'm still working a few days a week I can take some there, but I have a feeling I'll still have some that I need to get rid of.  Eventually I want to can tomatoes and possibly green beans for the winter.   My goal for the Roma tomatoes, onions, salsa peppers and cilantro was homemade SALSA, but I'm not sure that will work out.  If it does and I'm happy with it, I'll can some of that, too.  (Probably need to talk to Todd about building more shelves somewhere for more storage of canned food.)

On my morning visit to the garden (I make at least three a day, morning, noon and evening), I counted a total of 39 tomatoes growing!  So far we've harvested three - two from the Patio Tomato plant (which I thought was a cherry tomato plant but didn't read the label very good) and one from one of the Heatmaster plants.  They all tasted GREAT!  Nothing you buy at the store compare to fresh-out-of-the-garden tomatoes!  Right now I have two that are pretty big on the Heatmaster plant that I'm waiting to turn red.  That plant alone has 9 growing on it, all different sizes, so they will all mature at different times, meaning soon I'll have all the fresh tomatoes I want (and probably more than I want).

But I'm getting ahead of myself - first here's a picture of the entire garden enclosure:

I've gone out a couple times in the morning and there were deer just on the outside of the garden! I'd just DIE if they ever got in and ate everything!!!!   If you go to the back corner, you can smell the tomatoes on the plants - HEAVEN!!!!

This is the first Heatmaster plant to produce a tomato.  It's also got the two big ones that I'm waiting to turn red - should be soon!!!!!  It is also the plant that has 9 tomatoes growing on it.



Also Heatmaster plant - it has a few tomatoes on it but they still need to grow.


The last Heatmaster plant.


This is my Red Beefsteak Heirloom tomato plant!  So excited for these!  The storm yesterday blew it over (only had wind and very few sprinkles), so I'm hoping it wasn't hurt.


Zucchini!!!!  We had left over lattice from the stairs on back of the garage, so I'll just weave the vines of the zucchini and cucumbers in that.  Both of them have come a long way in the last couple of weeks.



This is the Patio Tomato plant - I think I counted 5 or 6 tomatoes  on it.  They get bigger than cherry tomatoes, but not as  big as the larger ones that we'll get off the beefsteak or heatmaster plants.  They'll be great for me when Todd's not home.  There are two that are fully grown (I think), just waiting for them to turn red.



The four Roma Tomato plants.


Roma #1


Roma #2


Roma #3


Roma #4 - the two small tomatoes just showed up in the last couple of days.


Cucumbers!!!!!


Green Pepper plant (one growing), cilantro - I haven't harvested much off of this lately, and Red Radishes - they are still all pretty small.


Salsa Pepper Plant - this kind of comes and goes, right now it's looking pretty good, but there for a while it was kinda yellow.


Giant Caesar Lettuce:  I've had lots of salad from the two kind of lettuce that has grown enough to harvest.  I have a great Red Raspberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing that is really good on it.


Black Seeded Lettuce:


Last weekend (Memorial Day Weekend) Todd was home and we harvested a bunch of lettuce, but the Black Seeded Lettuce doesn't hold up very well, so I decided to get a couple other varieties to try.  Alyssa and Angel came over on Monday and helped me plant them, and I noticed last night they are already coming up!  I planted them in some empty spaces in the raised bed.




The best plants are the green beans!  I originally planted 9 seeds, but only a couple came up, so I replanted a few more and now they are taking over the far end of the raised bed.  We've already had a couple of servings of them - I usually steam them and they are GREAT!

The other side of the plants:  (I have some organic bug/anti fungal spray that I've been putting on the plants - safe for fruit and veggies, all I have to do is make sure I wash it good before we eat it.)


Red Onions that were planted from bulbs:


White Onions planted from seeds:


Green Onions planted from seeds - these aren't doing very well.  I'm kinda disappointed:  the two bright green things in the front is actually grass, so I pulled them up.


I planted two other containers of green onions from the same seed packet, but two weeks later - they seem to be doing better.  I just need to thin them out:


Mini Carrots - they are only supposed to get three inches long, so they should be OK in the container - we'll see!! lol  They probably also need to be thinned out.


My potato plants are doing pretty good - added the straw to hopefully keep them cooler during the summer.


I'm guessing the Red Onions, White Onions and Potatoes won't be ready for harvest until the fall, so we'll be able to eat on them all winter.  I still need to figure out the best place/way to store them so they keep all winter.  Maybe the garage will be OK, but since it's not attached to the house, it may get too cold during the winter (yes, we do get a freeze or two down here).

The new resident of our garden is Angel's Sweet Corn plant - it was getting too big for their apartment balcony, so I told Tab I'd take care of it for him.  He was actually crying when he had to leave it so I told him I'd text Tab a picture every few days so he can see how it's doing.


There are also three more containers of Red Onions (from bulbs), and they are looking good.  Those I want pretty large, so leaving them alone.

I forgot about some Miracle Grow Tomato/Garden food that I bought a while ago, so started using that last week, and I can sure tell the difference!!!!  All of the plants have really grown since I used it the first time.  I"m going to use it once a week for a few weeks, them possibly go back to twice a month.

In other news, my birthday was early in May.  I've been wanting an e-reader for a while, so decided that was a great reason to finally get one.  I ended up buying a Kindle Fire at Target and just LOVE it!!!!  I've downloaded a bunch of free books, and also purchased the "Fifty Shades " trilogy.  Already read all three books and they are great, but the other thing I really like about the Fire, is I can get on the internet with it, so Facebook and Pinterest can go with me anywhere in the house.  After the free 30 day Amazon Prime Trial, I decided I really liked it, so I'm going to keep it ($79 per year).  This will let me watch TV shows and I'll also be able to download movies and things for our trip to Hawaii in December.   The last few nights there hasn't been much on TV that interest me, so I've been watching Showtime's "The L Word" series that I get through my Prime membership.I started out with season 2 and finished that last night.  It's nice to be able to watch that while I'm in bed.  We've switched our home phone to Suddenlink, and have Video On Demand in the living room, so there's never a time that I can't find SOMETHING to watch on TV (either in the living room or on my Kindle).  If you've ever thought about getting an e-reader, I can't say anything bad about the Kindle Fire!!!!

Well, I'm not working today and have a list of things that need to get done.  Todd's probably not going to make it home this weekend, so I'll finally be able to get a few things done that I've been putting off.  I'll also be doing another blog post for my craft/sewing blog sometime this weekend, so make sure to check it out!