Tornados.

Last night's Good Friday service was cut short due to impending tornadoes in the area. We all went to internal hallways of the church building, waiting out the storm.  We are a church of about 40.  We were getting some updates about tornadoes touching down in the area, only to hear that our pastor's neighborhood had been hit, and that houses were collapsing.  My pastor's 19 year old daughter was home alone, and couldn't be reached. My husband offered to go check on the house, and within minutes, my pastor's wife received a text from her daughter saying the roof had collapsed, her head was bleeding, help.

The events of the night were crazy.  I rode with them to take her to the hospital.  We were lucky to even get to her. It wasn't but a few minutes, and they closed the road to her house. The ambulance that was called couldn't get to her due to downed trees and power lines. She was carried/walked to the top of her street by neighbors. We got her to the hospital after a trip that required a change of driver, and a drive the wrong way on an on ramp.

After several hours in the hospital, a shower (she was completely covered in insulation and blood), she was released with not even a concussion from the tennis ball sized knot in her head.  How she came out of what she did, the way she did was absolutely unbelievable.

A friend took a picture of their street this morning, after some of the trees were cleared, street now drivable. The whole backside of their house is just ruined. Our house had absolutely no damage, a mere 5-10 miles from here.

I need tomato help!

So, I was sorting through my tomato plants today, to separate out for the different people that I grow for because I was planning to hand them out on Sunday.  I'll see most of them that day, and within the next two weeks they should be completely safe to be in the ground.

I was pretty disturbed when I found this along the stem and up some of the branches.  Can anyone identify this? I am afraid it's a fungus, and that I'm going to be out of luck with my tomatoes this year, because I don't want to INTRODUCE a disease to the soil.  Anyone who can offer help would be appreciated! I can "scratch" this off with my finger nail, and it almost feels gel-like, watery almost.

Click on any of these to enlarge

Also, we're getting unrelentless storms this week. Here's a picture of the hail from today...

I got to garden with another friend right before the onslaught of this storm.  I'm really excited about how cute her garden is going to be! I love how beneficial having a "trend" like gardening can be!

More Hail, More Storms

This is a rainy, stormy April! I got out and planted some bush beans, nasturtiums, and edamame right before the torrential down pours. Fortunately, our specific area has been out of the range of the tornadoes that are touching down in the St. Louis area, but we're still getting the rest of the storm!  Some have gotten up to BASEBALL sized hail, ours has only been pea to dime size fortunately!  The seeds were a bit of a risk, as it is going to get a bit chilly over the next two days, but I've got loads of those seeds, so I'm not too concerned.    Sorry for the small picture- my aunt posted this on Facebook... she lives about 40 minutes from me. Crazy, huh?

A Gloomy Saturday...

...is good for catching up on a garden blog.

We had a nice little hail storm yesterday. It was a good thing I had all the tomatoes and peppers tucked inside for the night before.  It looks like today MAY be the last time they have to be brought back inside.  They've been outside most of the past week, week and a half, but there was supposed to be some strong storms yesterday (way to go weather man!) so I brought them in, and today is colder than it has been in a while.

Here's some of the flowers (or weeds, whichever you prefer) growing around my house.

Here's what the garden is looking like today.  (I have cold feet now, from running out to grab these!)

I can't tell that the broccoli that I replaced has done much of anything yet, but I'll keep waiting. I wonder if that is just a bad spot for broccoli? My peas, however, are thriving, and grabbing on to anything they can!


Lots of growth has occurred on my strawberries, but it looks like I'm going to have a hole to fill in with some runner plants.  There are flowers forming all over the place now, so it looks like I'm going to get quite a few strawberries!

Summer squash, Moon and Stars watermelon, zucchini, vegetable spaghetti, and Marketmore cucumbers were planted inside last night. That's not really worth showing a picture of dirt in newspaper pots, but it at least helps me keep a record!


Arphaxad, Nadine, and Ilene enjoying some sun earlier this week.

Future Harvest

My first strawberry blossoms of the year

Backed up

So, I haven't posted in some time, and that's not because pictures haven't been taken, and not because there hasn't been gardening done... more to do with finding/sharing the camera with my husband, and just plain being lazy about it.

Friday 4/1- I started the potting up process with my tomatoes and peppers. I think I got about 30 done that day.

Saturday 4/2- This was an incredibly productive "gardening day". I started the morning by finishing up the potting up of my tomatoes and peppers (the rest of them to total 107).  I was able to do this outside, and enjoy the weather, and leave them outside to get some sun.

I spent the rest of the afternoon helping my friend Mandi fill her garden with the order of compost and garden mix that she had delivered while her husband was out of town.  We had a good time doing all of that work ourselves.  We set up the fencing around her garden, and planted it as well.  We had to use 3 foot chicken wire, because she needed to keep on their beagle and puggle.

I think that day was a good 8 hour stretch of pure garden work... it felt incredible.

This is the finished work from the day, and also a picture of her broccoli from yesterday, a week later (if you look closer, you can see some radish and spinach sprouts in the second picture!).

The rest of the week has been absolutely gorgeous, we've enjoyed some VERY warm temperatures.  Today it reached 89... a little warmer than I'd like, but the high tomorrow is around 69, and the rest of the week should hover in the 70s.

Here are some updated pictures of my garden.

The squirrels have been furiously digging in my garden, and I'm just as FURIOUS as them...

Beautiful pea shoots.  I just love looking at these grow!

Radish sprouts-they've got their first true leaves now

I really haven't had any growth on the things that I transplanted because they all were hit during that snow storm.  I was lucky enough to be given two broccoli transplants to replace two of mine. They just haven't done ANYTHING, and after seeing the growth on Mandi's in just a week, I was very grateful to get the replacements!

I was able to do some turning of the compost yesterday, which took an HOUR, and I didn't even finish it, our pile has gotten so big.  The turtles sure let me know it was spring-- I had my first spotting of turtle mating for the season, and it doesn't look like that will be slowing down anytime now.  It's fun to get to see them out and about anyway... :)

That's all I've got pictures of now... I'll be starting my cucumbers, squash, and melons inside this week, so I'm grateful that I've had nice enough weather to keep the tomatoes and peppers outside... there is just not enough room with my light set up!

Happy Spring!