Exploding Garden!

There's been much growth in the garden! Here's a tour for you and some things I learned:

• I'm having trouble with bugs eating holes in the leaves. I heard that putting ladybugs in the garden would help because they would eat the bad bugs. I bought a can of lady bugs at Star Nursery. There were TONS of bugs in that can, and I let them out at night. One lady bug is cute; 500 is fear factor! Unfortunately, there were massive winds that week, and I think it blew all my ladybugs away. Oh well. If anyone know a good way to keep the bugs under control, please comment!! I need help with that.

• The huge hay bale we got for mulch came with a mouse! We discovered this in the shed, and quickly removed all the bags and blankets out. Shaun had fun setting a trap, and we caught the stinker quick. The dogs could not stop sniffing around in there for that mouse.

Looking for blossoms in the jungle, a.k.a, the garden, is like going on an easter egg hunt!

I decided to grow seeds again next year. I thought these seeds that I grew in my washer room were going to die, but planted them anyways, and they have grown well. When I was hardening them off, I didn't water them enough, so I thought they were goners. You gotta water them alot when they are hardening off outside (getting used to the outdoor air before you plant them in garden) because they are in little containers that dry out quickly.

                                  Here is the Pignot pepper plant
                                 (never heard of this plant till the Tomato Lady)

                                        The Juliet tomato plant, a grape tomato.

Out of the 6 green bean plants I grew from seedlings, here's the one that survived, and its doing great! Its a "Fortex" green bean plant. I planted more beans from Star Nursery next to it, just waiting for them to start climbing.

The lovely herb bed.

Sometimes, you never know what you get when you buy a plant from Star Nursery. In the picture below, that's a chive plant, but with something else growing in it! It looks like an onion to me, who knows.

Basil, oregano, and Italian parley.

Dill, that can grow quite tall.

Rosemary with purple allyssum.

These are some of the cherry tomato plants in the medium bed, before the got huge. There is silver mulch in the veggie beds, from the tomato lady. The light bounces up from beneath the plant, to help increase yield and size of your veggies. We'll see!

You can 'collar' your plants with some plastic to keep cutworms from eating your new plants. I used the plant boxes they came in, and lots of sour cream containers.

Ok, here's the big bed about three weeks ago:

Here it is now, and man, has it gotten bigger!

From what I learned from Leslie, tomato lady, is to not stake the tomatoes, leave them to sprawl on the ground. Its cooler on the ground, and will help with setting fruit. You could totally stake your tomatoes in CA, UT, since its not desert heat out there. There are 10 tomato plants in these beds, spaced a foot apart. Its called 'intensive planting'. They can shade each other by their closeness.

Here's some yellow bell peppers I got from the tomato lady's plant sale. (I forgot the name, forgive me:) I planted three plants in one hole, so they can shade each other also.

Here come the green beans!

Lots of green tomatoes waiting to ripen, wee!

We planted a grape vine! This is what grapes look like in the early stages.

The medium bed, with the cherry tomatoes that took off. Half of these plants are from Star Nursery, the others are my seedlings. The SN plants took forever to do anything, and then they started growing like crazy. So if you're plants don't seem to grow bigger for awhile, just hang in there. I've read that they are growing roots to get a good start.

These cuties are Heartland tomatoes, a small, bushy plant, from tomato lady. I grew these from seed. They stay in one spot....

...while the cherry tomatoes sprawl and go everywhere!

My sweetheart slaving away for me, digging a hole for the grapevine, as Lady investigates.

This shirt of his cracks me up. Shaun's a paramedic.

Our future gardener:)

I got a good smile, yea!

So there you have it! The garden is doing great now, but the true test will be in August, when the temps are 110 degree, ugh! If the plants are giving food during that time, then we succeeded this year, woo-hoo! 4th year's a charm, right? :)