Gardening Bug

My gardening bug has me again.  This season is a new zone for me, and a new (quite a bit smaller) garden in containers. I've been researching and learning a lot of things from scratch. I'm going from a supposed 5B (I always planted sooner than recommended) to 7A.  The last frost dates, however, indicate a later last frost date here in Alexandria than in St. Louis. Besides those differences, everything is in containers, and has its own microclimate being that I'm 9 stories up, and actually tucked away from much, if any, wind.

My lettuce, spinach, and green onions have all overwintered well on the balcony.  I frequently run out for a few clippings of spinach and scallions to add to my morning omelet.  I gave most of the lettuce a good trim a week or so ago to clean out the burnt leaves, but all of the plants seem to be putting out plenty of growth.

My Aerogarden is in full swing again. It's about time to harvest some lettuce! I am growing three kinds of lettuce, two basil plants, and a strawberry plant in my Aerogarden right now. I found an excellent Thai recipe for Red Coconut Curry, and it uses a lot of basil. I have never had much of a use for the basil I've grown, but the $2.49 I've been spending on a small container for this recipe meant that basil was a priority for the Aerogarden planting!

Here is a lone lettuce seedling I pulled from the Aerogarden when I bought some strawberry plants, and decided to try one out.  I couldn't bear to just trash this, so I'll eventually transplant it outside.

Planted so far, I've got radish, spinach, lettuce, and snow peas. I also grabbed a few strawberry plants from Home Depot this weekend, and I'm trying my hand at some wintersowing.  I decided that since my apartment doesn't really allow for the room to have my full light set up (nor plant many tomatoes/peppers), I'd go this route with a few varieties.  I ordered a few plants from Henry Fields, (and will have to share some of those even!) but decided back up plants never hurt.  I threw in some jalapeño, Green Zebra tomatoes, marigolds, Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes, and some saved Cherokee Purple seeds that came from a tomato I got from seed given to me by Jeff at Our Engineered Garden.   All of those seeds went into a divided gallon milk jug and a water bottle, and now they're just waiting.  We'll see how they do! I like the idea of not really having to harden the seedlings off when the time comes.

Well, this post has gotten wordier than planned, so that's all for now. 

Long time, no blog.

So it's been nearly a MONTH since I last posted. It's been an overwhelming (to say the least) thought of updating this the longer I go. I had over 80 photos to upload to my photobucket for it to even happen. I attempted that part while I made dinner, and food for church this morning, and by the time that was done, there just wasn't time left in the day.

I've been very busy! After a year of searching for a nursing job, I start my first real job as an RN tomorrow! Finishing up at my other job, and getting everything ready to go for the new job has taken up a lot of time! My brother-in-law was living here, and has left, we had to ask the 20 year old who was living here to move on, which was kind of a lot in itself. That also meant that I had to completely redo that room. (My new job means that I'll be working nights for a while, so I needed to make the only basement--no window-- bedroom livable)

I have continued to garden, and harvest, and eat plenty out of the garden (not as much as I would have liked) and still took many pictures (also not as much as I would have liked)

Here's a before and after of the room I worked on. Definitely still a work in progress. I'd like to refinish the dresser, and get some bedding for this room, but I didn't want to just leave a plain mattress in there and call it "finished".  Took about three or four coats of primer to cover up those Sharpee drawings on the wall-- note to self NEVER allow that to happen when you have kids.

Here's a sample of what has been harvested this past month. 

The three green zebras in the center are the only three we'll have. One has been eaten.  Both plants died from some sort of wilt, and I had to pull them.  I'm very sad about that, it was one of my favorite plants last year!

Some of the turtle eggs are definitely fertile, and we're very excited about it! I've been "candling" them. Those with chickens are probably familiar with this. I've done this with all of the eggs (though I don't actually pick them up, like you would with chickens). I shine the flash light up next to them, and have watched as veins are forming in 6 of the 15 eggs. I'm pretty certain all of Eleanor's eggs are duds (which is a bummer, she's by far the prettiest turtle) I've read different websites that have said you can candle box turtle eggs, and others that say that you can't, well... you can.

(Egg laid by Nadine-- June 5) Picture taken June 30

picture taken today-- July 10

Garden June 18

Garden-- July 2

Since the first picture, all lettuce has been pulled, it finally got incredibly bitter (after weeks in the 90s!), we pulled three of the four broccoli plants. I'm holding out for the fourth. Also pulled were the peas... much to the dog's dismay. They had a good run, and we ate as many as they gave us. No frozen ones this year, but we weren't good about eating the frozen ones last year. I'm hoping for a fall crop this year as well. I've planted and staked up pole beans, and planted more. We've had our first green bean harvest, though not impressive. We've had several handfuls of cherry tomatoes. I know that means that I missed my first tomato of the year post, but we've yet to have a great full sized garden tomato. We have had a severe issue with squirrels stealing them before they're ready. They're not discriminatory either, they take the green ones and the ones that are ripening!  I snagged this (crazy looking!) Cherokee Purple (thanks EG!) one off of the plant, and it's ALMOST finished ripening on the counter. I wasn't going to risk it any longer. I want to taste these!

Here's the "MESSIEST" part of my garden. The catch all of the extra plants within the turtle/compost pen... It doesn't get near enough sunlight, but there are several squash, zucchini, marigolds, and volunteer tomato plants coming up anyway. if I get food from back there great, if not it's just a place for me to be a bit "extra messy".

 

Here's the front of the house in bloom. The fuschia petunias to the right were planted from seed, and are only four plants! It's a "wave" variety, and I ran out of seeds so that's one I'll have to reorder for next year. They are GREAT bloomers!  I got to see my daylillies for the first time this year, and my glads are in bloom along with my rose of sharon.  

I think that's about all I'll fit into this post, and this evening... I've already gotten the "are you going to be off of there soon..." comment. So, hopefully I can do some catch up readings on some of the blogs I read as well! 

Harvest Monday

Here are some of the things I harvested, and some of the ways that I used them this past week. If you want to see what others are harvesting, head on over to Daphne's Dandelions! She graciously hosts this every week!

I harvested the scallions that went on this dish, but didn't get a before picture.

My crazy zucchini, some side shoots, more peas, and one I missed!

The lettuce is needing to be pretty much picked this week or next.  Most are showing signs of bolting, but we've really enjoyed our salads this season!

More peas, my first yellow squash, and another zucchini.

Here is the first way I used some zucchini.  We tried a new recipe, and I'd share it, but we weren't thrilled with the results.  We would have liked less mush to the zucchini and more crisp from the breading.  It was a nice little treat, we just didn't need two whole zucchinis for it. 

Yesterday, I made a delicious stir fry/chicken lo mein dish with the remaining broccoli, peas, zucchini, and yellow squash from this week, and we loved it. I forgot to take a picture of it fresh, and I refuse to take a picture of the leftovers in the tupperware.  We are loving having such a fun variety of food coming from the garden!  The lettuce has been my husband's favorite so far. 

Busy Weekend

My in-laws were in town over the weekend, so I missed Harvest Monday, but it was nice to spend Memorial Day with someone who still currently serves our country (my father in law). We were able to eat loads of stuff from the garden, which had such a satisfying feeling about it!  So here is last week's harvest plus a few extras in there, so that I can catch up. If I would have had time, these would have been separate posts, but I didn't, so it's another picture flood.

So, after extra potatoes from last week's potato bar, I used these scallions...

to make this delicious baked potato soup.

I finally decided that the one broccoli head that was growing was in fact bolting...

so we sauteed it up, and had a nice little tasty treat!

This harvest of lettuce made for enough salads for all six of us in our house this weekend, where the six of us shared one shower.

These radishes made it in those salads too!

These strawberries...

plus these strawberries...

made a very delicious and fittingly colored red, white, and blue dessert!

My squash and zucchini have begun flowering, though they are all, strangely enough, female flowers! I don't have any male pollinators yet, so they're just going to drop off, which is VERY sad!  I have never tried frying squash flowers, though I know many do, so I didn't attempt that this weekend. I think my zucchini has powdery mildew already (although it doesn't dust off, which I feel like I remember from years prior) but they are still beautiful blooms, and the plants are getting enormous!

Here's my typical garden shot... I'm really pleased with the lettuce down the middle of my tomatoes.  It won't be long before it is out of there, but the mixtures of greens is really nice!

Tomato blossoms! I have two baby tomatoes on my Celebrity (nursery start), but I'm not counting it until MY plants make tomatoes. I'm not sure which will be first the Roma, Big Boy, Sweet Million, and Cherokee Purple are all in a dead heat for first.

My snow peas are bringing in a great harvest, which was a nice addition to some store bought green beans, and to some of the salads.

My strawberries have been shared with an unknown culprit...

until now... I found one. A beer trap is to be set tonight... so here's hoping there isn't much more sharing this season.

vindication. EG squishes bugs... I feed them to my very grateful turtles.

More salads and strawberries! We made identical desserts with these strawberries last night, so no need for a picture.  That impatien is one I planted from seed.

Since I have so much lettuce this year, I have learned what a chore it can be to clean EACH leaf!  This is the only bug I've seen on them so far, which is nice! Anyone know what this is?

Harvest Monday

Thanks for hosting Daphne! Check out what everyone else is harvesting over at Daphne's Dandelions!

Here's what we harvested this week!

 My women's group from church met at my house this week for a potato bar, so I contributed the baked potatoes (not from garden) and scallions...

These were a great addition to the potatoes!

It's nice to get to use them even though they've gone to seed!


I had a few more berries this week! They've started to get sweeter as it's gotten a bit warmer.

Even though they don't NEED this now, this is probably still one of my favorite ways to eat them... since I have to bring them inside to photograph them, and all... :)

We had a GREAT lettuce harvest this week, and we made some huge salads on Saturday, and have some left in the refrigerator.  It was nice to have a full plate worth of food from the garden! We added a store bought tomato to the mix, but not until after I'd taken the picture

I pulled a bunch of radishes to make room for some lettuce transplants... so they went into the salad too!

This salad included our first harvest of SPINACH! My first harvest of it ever. Considering how much I planted, I should have spinach enough to make the neighbors smoothies, and spinach pies, but not much of it did anything. The texture of what we did get was fantastic though!

I even had a little BOWL of berries Sunday!

The Garden In May

I felt like a full look at what is going on in the garden was appropriate, as May is coming to a close. Hard to believe when it feels as though it has JUST started to be warm...

Things are progressing, but not at the same rate as last year.  Hopefully, we don't get a slow down due to ridiculous heat this July like last year.

Anyway, I was able to spend several hours in the garden Saturday morning because the hubby was giving three different students guitar lessons.  The weather was beautiful! (especially since I was expecting rain)  I bailed on a garage sale with good friends, just needing some time at home.  I have been sick in some capacity for the past three weeks as of tomorrow, and really enjoyed some refresher time in the garden.

I fed everything, watered everything, cleaned up all of the tomato plants, and extra transplants that I had lying around.  I even CLEANED all of the trays and seed starters, and put everything AWAY!  I finished up with pruning out my tomato suckers.  My blog isn't called Megan's MESSY Garden for no reason, that work is not something I willingly embark upon without much drive. I feel very satisfied when I walk out there now.  Some of the extra plants that I didn't have room for in the garden were haphazardly planted in the turtle pen near the compost pile. If they grow, then great! If not, then I didn't kill all of my "babies" without giving them a chance.



Here are some pictures of the garden progress so far:

Strawberries are growing like weeds, and are now sweet, thanks to a bit of a heat up! Many are small, and some are strangely shaped, but I guess that's what I get for not picking off the blossoms last year. There is certainly no lack for berries though!

side note: Sunday, I saw a pesky squirrel enjoying a BRIGHT red strawberry perched on the corner of the strawberry patch cover... which was the perfect incentive to repair the netting that was attacked by the weed whacker last year... so that job is done. No more sharing of my berries.

My scallions have all gone to seed, but they're pretty neat looking, and I still eat them, the center stalks can be a bit woody, but the rest is great. I'm planning to replant as I start to use them up.

Here are my four okra plants (still need to thin them...), and my beans that have some sort of slug or other pest damage

Newly transplanted lettuce

Onto the tomatoes: with the lettuce/spinach down the middle that is getting harvested more and more

See the runt Green Zebra, top right? Looks like it's starting to recover...

The Celebrity plant below is the only plant that I ended up using with from my $.50 nursery back ups... it's turning out to be a really nice plant, and is currently the only plant that I actually have open blossoms on... I want to take a picture of the first from my OWN starts though for it to count :)

Here are my only other two runt tomato plants. As time progresses, the difference is pretty marked.  The little Pineapple is actually recovering, I'm still waiting on the Cherokee Purple to bounce back, but they've both been fed again, so I'm hoping.  The really LUSH Pineapple plant below is from my saved seed, which is kind of rewarding.  

Zucchini and Squash are growing like crazy.  A couple of leaves on the zucchini plants have been damaged, and I'm considering removed them.  They had loads of eggs of what looked like plain old gnats on the bottoms of them. I couldn't decide if they'd be harmful, but those are the leaves that are damaged.  Live and learn.  I'm not sure how I would have gotten rid of them though, the eggs were numerous and TINY!  I can see several female blossoms that will be coming shortly. I don't normally see those until much later, so there might even be early harvests (pending there are males to back them up when the time comes!)

Pretty little lettuce heads. I harvested the top left one after the picture! It was delicious!

Here are all of my pepper plants: jalapenos in the back, and bell peppers in the front.  We tend to harvest the jalapenos in big chunks for jalapeno poppers, so I put them in the back to not be in the way of traffic.

The last of the radishes, and a little cilantro.

More lettuce... and a small basil plant.  Red lettuces are my favorite this year!

Cayenne pepper plant is loving it's little pot! It's actually much bigger than any of those planted in the garden.

Broccoli: still much smaller than my friend's, but the bottom left head was about to bolt, so that was harvested today, though will be saved for next week's Harvest Monday.  The top left has started to form a little head. Those are both nursery starts, so I'm hoping the ones I planted will eventually form heads too...

Peas as beautiful as ever!

There are little peas all over the place. Some not so little too, we'll be getting our first harvest of peas tomorrow!

Sorry it was so picture heavy, I just want to TRY to keep good records this year! Hope everyone is out enjoying their gardens too!