First Plantings

Quick update....

Well, we finally got a few plants in the ground. We went to Lowes and bought actual plants of peppers (and one for a watermelon) in case our seedlings didn't turn out that great. So we planted those in the garden, and also planted some of the cucumber plants and pole beans. So far the last two haven't done a lot, and the cucumbers didn't last. We just replaced those with some other seedlings, which will hopefully do better.









Our blackberry plant has a flower on it! It's pretty and pink, and just bloomed today. It has grown a lot over the past week. We are ready for the fruit to start developing on it.




My dahlias and peonies are coming up too. I'm excited about these because I am ready for a little more color to get into the yard.




Ciao,
Kath

Getting it started

It's planting time! Kinda... Not willing to trust our luck with growing our garden from seeds, I bought a tray of peat pellets to start our seeds. The tray has 72 peat pellets, each about the size of a tea light candle. Once you add water, each pellet soaks it up and expands about 3-4 times their original size. Then we put 2-3 seeds in each pellet and covered them over.



Knowing my wife, I also picked up some labels for our budding garden...



Now we wait for them to sprout and transplant them to the real garden! Which needs to be broken up again....

*sigh*

Settled Dirt

OK, so for those of you that may or may not know, you can't let the ground settle after it has been tilled. That is why the hoe was invented. Now, I decided since I had some time that I would use the hoe to break up some of the dirt in our little garden. Dan has already done this once, and then the rain set in and it needs to be worked over again. After about 15 minutes of stabbing the ground with the hoe, all I can show for my efforts is about 1/5 of the garden with turned up soil and two very sore hands! The upside: there is only 4/5 of the plot left to work, and if I keep this up then I might actually develop some arm muscles!!! I'll admit, that is an exciting thought. Who needs a gym membership when you can just have a garden in your back yard? I don't think I have a future in landscaping, but I'll take the benefits when I can. :)

While we have not planted anything in the garden yet, we did plant the blackberry bush. It doesn't seem to have grown that much, but maybe after the next good rain that we get it will show improvement. Hopefully we will be able to plant our vegetables soon, but Dan's schedule makes that a little difficult. Plus, my class is coming to an end and the next two weekends are kind of claimed with school. I suppose if all else fails then we can plant it piece by piece whenever we get time.

The good thing is that the days are getting longer, and they are also getting warmer. Summer days will be here soon! Hurray!

Kath