Garden Update - Tomato

Once upon a time there was 9 little plants. Now there seems to be one HUGE plant with very large tomatoes on it.

And the plants are now taller than me.

Garden Update - Cucumbers

The new cucumber cage is working very well.

Garden

So...those of you that follow this blog I am sure are shocked, I am finally posting a garden update. Of course I am behind like always but here it is. This should score me some points still!!!

I planted a little differently this year. Instead of straight rows across the garden, I planted in sections.

There are 3 main sections with sub-sections for specific plants within them.

Tomatoes
Peas (lattice for them to grow up - 2 rows that are not up yet to prolong the season)
Cucumbers (Is that a cattle fence - YUP it is! Will show details farther down)

Lettuce (two additional rows not up yet)
3 rows onions (white, yellow, red)
Spinach (two rows not up yet)
3 rows onions (white, yellow, red)
Beans (two additional rows not up yet)

Dill
Broccoli
Kohlrabi
Peppers (Hot Tabasco, Giant Jalapeno, Habanero, Jalapeno, Bell)

Looking into garden from tomato corner

Looking into garden from cucumber corner

Looking into garden from dill corner

Looking into garden from pepper corner

The Cucumber Cage...

Last year Chris helped me a LOT in the garden since I was not living in IA full time yet. And anyone that has had a garden knows that picking cucumbers is not fun. Then throw a horrible year for mosquitoes on top of it and it becomes even less fun. Well I am hoping the cucumber cage makes the picking part easier. On one of the jobs Chris did last year he could see their garden out back and they had taken a cattle fence, cut it a little shorter and welded it in a circle, stuck it in the garden and planted the cucumbers around the outside. The cucumbers grew up the fence making picking easier.

I will keep you posted but so far it seems to be working. They are growing right up the fence, with a little guidance from me every night!

We have had 2 really hot days and this plant is huge now.

More Garden 2011

Tomatoes - Started from seed in basement with Grow Lights and Heat Mats.

Broccoli, Zucchini and Cucumber - Started in basement from seeds.

Broccoli, Zucchini and Cucumber

Tomatoes, Broccoli, Zucchini and Cucumber

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Garden - 2011

Here is the start to the 2011 Garden. I tried to start everything that I could from seed this year again. Not everything turned out but I did have more success then last year and learned a lot for next year.

Tomatoes
Peppers - In the end the peppers did not turn out

Lights on my green house shelves in the basement

Plants ready to grow

Walking the kids to school...

The new office in Iowa is across the screen from a community college. Behind the building that is next to ours is a pond where quite a few geese live. Twice last week I look up from my desk and see the geese have traveled from their pond, along side our building and are crossing the street to the parking lot of the community college. On day 2 I was quick enough with a camera to get a few shots.

Looks like they are walking the kids to school!

St. Thomas Aquinas Ball

Well since it is about time to garden for 2011 I thought I better get some 2010 garden pictures posted...

Just planted

Onions - Beans - Onions - Peas

Lettuce

Beans

Peas

Cucumbers

More Cucumbers

Since I was not in IA during the week last summer Chris took care of the garden during the week. He was great about sending many pictures so I could "keep up" with the gardening!

Green Pepper

Hot Tabasco Pepper - They turn yellow - green - orange - red

Zucchini

Tomato - Pepper

Beans - Onions - Peas

Kitchen - Before and After

Finally painted the kitchen this weekend. I love it. Grandma's Linen (sage green) and Earthy Merlot.

Kitchen - Before and After - Cont...