Digging...

She's digging! Go Eleanor! There will at least be some eggs in our near future.  If not tonight, soon. She normally digs a few tests sites beforehand. Hers have never been fertile to our knowledge, and I'm REALLY hoping the compost isn't hot where she's digging, as that MAY be an issue with them in the past (overheating will spoil the eggs, even a few hours) This is nearly 3 weeks earlier than last year, or the year before that. I am thinking the warm March sped everything up. I'm hoping this means early babies, because we may be moving come late July/August, and I would be pretty devastated to miss the hatching!

EDIT- As of 8:00 pm, Eleanor has now abandoned the digging, that she worked for several hours on. Just a test site, but it looks like we'll be watching her the next week!

In gardening news, tomatoes were planted yesterday. Pictures to come, dinner is still in progress. The night time temp last night was 48, but I bit the bullet, and stuck them in the ground, as the rest of the week looks to be in the mid to upper 70s, lows in the 50s. I think my plants will be happier with the space and the occasional lowish temp than they were about the lack of root space and ability to fertilize.


Lastly, if you ever decide to go into cardiac arrest, I am now capable in an "advanced" way to take care of you. I got my advanced cardiac life support class finished up and tested out.  Feels good to add another thing to the resume!

100th post and a Garden Update

It is officially my 100th post! I absolutely intended to get to this post before the start of 2012. Quite a bit late on that one... A lot of people do exciting giveaways and things like that when they hit these milestones. If I had something worth giving away, I would.  If I think of something, maybe I'll do one on a random day.

It was getting dark out when I ran outside to snag these photos. Sorry for the low quality.

Here are my scallions, red onions in the back right, Burgundy bush beans, radishes and lettuce that have come up. I planted a few more rows to the left of this area yesterday with cilantro, more lettuce, more radishes, and more beans, to try to stagger some of the harvest.

Tomatoes and peppers, yearning to be in the ground with more space.  After this weekend, they'll be planted. Tomorrow night's low is in the 40s, but I should be safe after that, and the plants are ready to be in the ground. I've got some blossoms on some of the tomatoes starting to form, and that's never happened before I put them in the ground before. I've been pinching off the ones I see.

My dwarf tophat blueberry bush getting acclimated to it's first of what will probably be several pots.

The lettuce and spinach growing down the center of the garden. I seeded several more feet of this yesterday as well. I love blending the red and green lettuces.  The red lettuce really doesn't get touched the way that the spinach does right next to it. 

Mammoth broccoli plants for April.  I did some clean up of most of the maple seeds since the last picture that was taken. They are just about 1.5 to 2 ft tall now. They're about a month and a half ahead, if not more, of what they were last year. I'm certainly not complaining. I love broccoli, and I'll love getting to use that space for pole beans when they're through!

 The broccoli has begun to shade the red lettuces planted around it. It's hard to even see the plants from this picture, but they're there!

My zucchini and yellow squash are growing so slowly, I decided to put some new seed in these pots to see if they do better. The seeds that are growing (slowly) are from a old packets.  The squash did so well last year in these pots, so I want to give it a second try. The last pot in that row is my garlic chives with some cilantro growing around the edges.

The peas growing up the fence behind the pots are doing well. Neither these peas, nor the snow peas have any blossoms yet, but it shouldn't be long!

Documentation Post.

 I took all these pictures several days ago (save a few at the end from today), and never got the chance to upload them. So here they finally are.  Completely random, but I know I'll want to look back next year, and see where the garden was this time of year, so this is more of a "documentation" post. It's incredible to me because I know how much growth I've seen even since these were taken!  We had had some "normal" temperatures this week, which shows me just how spoiled I've been. I've had to bring IN plants, something I haven't had to do for about a month!  Plants are back outside tonight though, with a low of 50, I think they're alright.

I had my first problem with rollie-pollies as we grew up calling them, pill bugs, sow bugs to others. I have never had a problem with them, but they absolutely destroyed my pepper plants! I may have about enough to not have to buy them from the store, but I may not even get off that lucky, and I planted over double of what I wanted to plant for myself!

This particular container I used to carry the plants did not have a full bottom to it, so one day I moved it when I saw several chewed up plants and they were swarming. Literally, swarming.  This container has stayed on the patio table after that incident, and they haven't seemed to sustain any additional damage, though I'm not sure many will recover. The other containers for my plants had a lip to them, and I think that's what kept them away from my others. 

New strawberry plants have taken. The old ones have fruit set already.

I looked through last year's blog, and my earliest FLOWER was April 11, this year they are already covered with growing berries!

Tomato and pepper seedlings, broccoli and peas

My broccoli is as big now as it was at the end of May last year (I got a pretty nasty freeze/snow just after planting last year)

Radishes and peas (the radishes have been incredibly mild flavored this year, and have really filled out nicely)

Alright, Granny-- you were right! Here's a carrot seedling!

Broccoli and lettuce -- I'll need to take an updated picture, broccoli plants are touching now, and we've had a full container worth of lettuce harvested since this photo. It made for two delicious salads, but I definitely forgot how long it takes to clean each individual leaf!

Tomato seedlings getting bigger! I've had some issues with what I think is nitrogen deficiency and have tried to keep them fed-- the new growth is really LIGHT green, almost yellow.

This picture shows how much my broccoli has grown since I planted it. This is an extra seedling that didn't get planted, and has pretty much stayed the same size as the plants were when I transplanted them. 

Zucchini seedling popping up in my buckets!

Radishes popping over the soil.

 One of my favorite things about early spring-- pea tendrils. I absolutely love how delicate they are, but are still intensely strong.

 Happy Birthday Heidi! She's 9 today!

Quick and easy way to gain the title "Messy Garden"-- Maple seeds  Sometimes it sounds like it's raining when the wind blows. They're almost finished falling, so it'll be time to clean them up soon!

Gardening in the Dark - Updated with Photos

This is probably a first for me. No pictures, not tonight anyway. Photos added 3/27. I did garden most of the day as well as in the dark tonight. I was hoping my dwarf Tophat blueberry bush would arrive today, and was sort of waiting on it to finish up my work, and it won't come until tomorrow now, so that meant I left a bunch of stuff out and just a bit more work that needed finished. I could have waited until tomorrow, but I got started on finishing up my newspaper pots and just went ahead and filled them by my back porch light.

Things accomplished today:

• Potting up of 81 tomato/pepper plants in newspaper pots
• Run to Walmart/Dollar Tree for more seeds, potting soil, fertilizer, and hanging baskets (I couldn't pass up a few packets of $0.20 seeds at Walmart... and I think I was short on pepper seeds anyway...
• Mixed potting soil with fertilizer
• Filled and planted summer squash and zucchini in my Dollar tree buckets from last year 
• Made remaining 25 newspaper pots
• Potted up remaining 24 tomato plants and 1 lone basil plant in the dark on the patio

I've been dreading the potting up stage. Partly because I do so many at a time, but also because, once again, I was late in making my newspaper pots so all of that had to be done at once.  My hubby helped out tons with the newspaper pot making last night, which was a welcomed first.

I know it's early to get those zucchini and summer squash started, but they worked so well in the buckets last year, and it's been so consistently warm. I noticed a few volunteer watermelon plants growing in the compost pile the other day, and found a squash of some sort (probably zucchini) that already has its first true leaves back in the turtle pen. I figured if they grew in nature on their own I could risk a few seeds now. The pots are portable too, so that means a trip to the garage or even the dining room if we get a temperature drop. I just about wrote "late" temp drop, but Spring has come so early, that I feel thrown off, it wouldn't be "late" it'd be normal.

Squash volunteer in turtle pen

Spinach seedling (excited with how much growth I have so far, spinach is not one I've had much success with)

Lolla Rossa lettuce seedling

Valerie lettuce seedling

Broccoli and lettuce

Snap peas, radishes, and the non-existent carrots

I feel like my tomatoes and peppers are "behind" because they are so small in this potting up stage (they do have a phosphorus deficiency at the moment, but that will clear up with the fertilizer and fresh soil...). Realistically they are way ahead, they are completely hardened off, seeing as how they have spent MAYBE two days inside at the very beginning. IT'S STILL MARCH. I have to keep telling myself that. 

Solomon on the compost pile

The turtles think Spring is in the air. There shouldn't be any shortage of fertile eggs (at least next year..), I'll just leave it at that. I'm wondering if there will be early egg laying... May 18th is the earliest Eleanor has ever laid. We'll see... 

I can't get going...

I just can't get myself going this season. I have gotten some garden work done, but not much. The "non-winter" we have been having this year has not kept me inside, especially since I've continued to run all winter. That inside time is what makes me long for outside time.

I've got broccoli planted. Twice actually. The first batch that I planted died. It took too long for me to get the shelves and lights upstairs, and they literally died.  The new stuff is happy, with second leaves, and is ready to be potted up. They've even been fertilized (I know, right?!). I'll need potting soil to pot them up though, and I haven't made so much as ONE newspaper pot yet, so where they're going, I don't know yet.

I've got all of my peppers and tomatoes planted. I took it down a notch this season. I doubled what I wanted for myself, just to be safe, and plan to give extras to my mom and my neighbor ladies, but otherwise this "nursery" did not take orders this year. That still means I have 40 some peppers and 60 some tomatoes that I will need tending.

We're still getting a steady supply of lettuce from my Aerogarden. Tender lettuce knocks the socks off of any store bought lettuce we get, so it is a nice treat.  I know not to plant any more "red" lettuce in it though, it starts out trying to be red, but then goes green and stays that way. I'm not sure if there is a nutrient deficiency from the liquid components that we use, but it's not something that concerns me enough to try to fix it.

Yesterday, it was 72 and beautiful (though very windy) and I got the first "Spring" glimpse of Eleanor! She was "out" before I stuck my phone in her face to send this picture to the hubby. She is never shy once she's out and about for a while, I very rarely see her shell close this much.  We've never let our turtles come out of hibernation naturally because I always want the compost that they are hibernating in. This year we moved the finished compost to the garden, and have done all of our composting on a pile in the garden, so we're going to let them do their own thing this year. Eleanor is from Pennsylvania, so we know she's used to a bit colder weather. I'm anxious to see when the others will emerge.

The only gardening I've done was to stir the compost in the garden, and move some of the finished compost we'd piled in so I could build a new trellis and plant my snow peas.  I haven't used a pitchfork or those muscles in months apparently, because I was SORE after even that little amount of work!  At least something is in the ground, even with my lack of planning. I have really good luck with peas in the location I've used in the past, and I know they SHOULD be rotated, but something keeps them doing really well there, so I'm not changing that up this year, but I did have to rebuild the trellis.

I'm a part of a group getting ready to start a community garden in my area, so some of that planning took place yesterday.  Night shift has really taken the life out of me I guess, but I'm hoping some motivation blows my way soon!

I'm glad to catch up on blog reading when I get the chance... Happy Gardening to all!

What a Mess.

At least it's my mess. Thankful to have it this year, come this time next year we may be relocating due to hubby's schooling...

The garden was a big disappointment this year with just insurmountable heat slowing everything down. Biggest disappointment was my tomatoes, and the of the small amount that were there, the amount of theft by squirrel made it even more frustrating. I've begged the hubby for more garden space in the side yard, but we'll need to take a tree down (which desperately needs to come down anyway), and that's just not in the budget right now.

Here's the mess I've got right now, as well as a few things I'm still picking.

Here's the normal garden shot. Yup, Megan's Messy Garden is right. It started out tidy... oh well, there's always next year.

This is a fun little treat for me. I threw this into next to no space turtle/compost area when I pulled it out when it just wasn't growing quick enough. I got a few spare plants from friends, and it looks like this may still give me a harvest... nearly 11 months after I planted it from seed. Look at the little head forming! It's gotten more sunlight as the seasons have changed. Here's hoping. I loved the fresh broccoli we got!

Here are the green tomatoes ripening on the counter. I'll have more to add to this, since we still haven't had any frost yet. It'll come soon, I'm sure, but I'm not going to complain about the 60ish degree weather that we've got.

First jalapenos from the "extra" plants I stuck in the compost area. The plants got next to no sunlight, but have still somehow started producing fruit

Sad looking tomato plants, and peas that never grew.

More sad tomato plants, tumbling all over the place. Several of my plants didn't give me a single tomato. I'm hoping I may get a few green ones from them to save. The deep brown at the end was about a 1/2 cubic yard of compost we moved about a month or two ago, and it's already broken down to next to nothing still. That's going to be a nice and fertile area for next year!

 Of the 27-28 strawberry plants I planted last year, only about 3 or 4 survived the heat and my lack of watering this summer. Looks like I'll be adding that to my garden order this winter...

Almost finished for the season. At least the colors are pretty!  

(We DID clean up the leaves, including blowing off the patio just this past Friday... looks like we'll be doing that job a few more times before it's all cleaned up!)

Happy Fall!