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!

more...snow.

After a beautiful week- four days in the high 70's and low 80s - We've got a predicted 4 inches of snow... so now this:

is already covered with two inches of the white stuff.

People have lost their minds whilst driving.

I'm ready for Spring to make up its mind.

We found this:

when we went to check how hot our compost was the other day.  It's not that hot right now, but at least it's nice and toasty for the turtles, since we woke some of them up.



We had snow yesterday, and it melted by the afternoon.  All of my plants looked fine.  I've got loads of seedlings that have just sprouted out there, and I'm hoping that I won't have to replant, but if I do, it'll only set me back by a week or so.   We only had a half an inch on them yesterday, I'm thinking they won't like 4.  I was able to cover half of the garden with some plastic, but I don't really trust it.  Only time will tell.

 I planted some more lettuce seeds today, and cleaned out the Aerogarden for a fresh start. Some of the roots are amazing!  That is obviously JUST roots, because there was no dirt!  This was the basil plant that I've been using. It was growing way too fast, so I decided to try to get some cuttings from it to root.  They're close!

Accomplished

That would be the best way to describe how I feel about the past four days.  I already wrote about how I spent Thursday.

Friday: We got a load of mulch for the front yard, and a load of compost for the garden brought by my brother in law.  We worked incredibly quickly trying to move the yard of mulch to the bed and get it cut in to make room for the compost that was coming, and also to avoid the incoming rain.  It was much cooler, and we were able to get most of the mulch moved before the compost came.  Our next goal was to move ALL of the compost to the garden, because we didn't want a muddy mess on the driveway with the rain coming.  We were able to transfer it all just in time, and after the storm I couldn't help but plant some lettuce, spinach, and radishes.  So I've got 16 square feet planted outside now.  I think I'll be putting in my broccoli tomorrow.  The garden looks extraordinarily neat for my normal standards because the compost makes the bed look just beautiful!

Saturday: I was able to garden vicariously through my friend Mandi.  We made a trip to buy all of the things she would need for two 4 x 8 beds, with one trellis.  We got quite a few heads shakings and feeble wishes of "Good luck" from some guys there. Two blonde twenty somethings carting around lumber is probably not the norm, but the beds turned out beautifully, and we did it all by ourselves!  We brought it all home, painted the boards, built them, and installed the trellis!  All that's left is for her to get soil/compost, and we can start planting in it!

Today, we tackled a new project of painting her shed next to her garden.  We got two coats done before I decided it would be nice to be home for my last day of Spring break, though she did a beautiful job finishing it.

We had another absolutely beautiful day today, and it appears we'll be getting that for the next three.  All of my plants spent the day outside.  It's been nice to have my tomatoes and peppers outside at this stage.  They are as "hardened" off to the sunlight as they could be, which is nice because I seem to burn them when it comes to transplanting time.  My hubby got the rest of the mulch straightened out in the front today. We just checked the compost pile, and it is piping hot in just the three days since it's been moved!

I'm looking forward to seeing some things germinating outside this week! It'll be nice to see some green!

It was so beautiful today, that this was my dinner.  I think I've worked hard enough for it this weekend anyway...

Compost Competition!

Among other gardening things done today, (water, weeding, feeding, etc) when I got home from my nanny gig, my husband and I went out to look at the compost pile. He was commenting on how hot it was when he got home, so I went over to check it myself. I told him we could check it with our meat thermometer, and he said do you want to take a picture of it and put it on your blog? I immediately said that EG does that sometimes. He looked at me kind of funny and said 'EG'? He said that it was funny that I said it so nonchalantly, as if he knew who I was talking about. In reality, he would have known exactly who I was talking about if I would have said "Engineered Garden Guy" which is the nickname I've used this past year and a half when talking to my husband when referring to EG's blog. That I slipped and used the common blogger nickname made the situation funny. ANYWAY, I ran into the house and got the thermometer, and checked the part of the pile we were looking at, and it sat right at 134 degrees Fahrenheit. My husband was pretty impressed, as was I, since we had never actually checked how hot it was getting. I then said, "EG's sometimes gets his compost pile up in the 150's-160's range" and my husband said, "Oh yeah? I'll find 150!" This time he made ME laugh. So there's the compost competition. Here it is: Just under 150 degrees. Kind of hard to see.

My husband said he'd probably find hotter, and that we just needed a longer thermometer. He's normally not the competitive type, but that just made me smile!