This just in: Garden Update!

To catch you up as quickly as possible, I'll post several pictures displaying the progression of the garden. Then I can talk about it later :):)






































As you can see, it's thriving!!!!! Well, the cukes and tomatoes are. The strawberries weren't in season anymore. It grew really well but it just didn't give us any strawberries :(:( The spinach died completely. No thanks to our newest monster, Walker (chocolate labs are mischievous!!!!). It was just in the shade too much :(:( The gerbera daisies died quickly as well (Walker) and the azaleas have been reduced to one (Walker). Needless to say, we needed to come up with a better way to keep our new big guy (pictured below) out of the garden!



















So, we decided to change the fencing around the garden a little bit. TO THIS (pictured below): we're excited about it :-D Gardening tip #9: Before getting a new, taller, dog- check the sturdiness of the current fence you have around your garden. There are tasty veggies and cool dirt in there making it oh so tempting for your new best friend. So, if the fence isn't tall or sturdy enough, consider getting something better!




















Hopefully this will prove to be more dog proof than the previous. Anyways, that's about all of the news I have. Not much has gone on in the past few months but we are extremely happy with the results. The cucumber plant- the smallest, cheapest one we bought several months ago is providing us with the most fruit and just look at it, it's HUGE!!!!

Well, that's it for now! Catch ya on the flip-side.

¡Adiós!
--Gardener in Training

TO Compost or NOT TO Compost?

That is indeed the question!

When we started the garden, we decided it would be a good idea to start a compost pile. It would be great to get the stinky stuff out of the kitchen trash can and also give nutrients to our garden! Currently, this is what we have:














Yes, we are using an empty cat litter container to store our compost. We truly thought it would work, up until we came upon these tiiiiny, little, itsy-bitsy (huge) problems:

1. No lid.
2. Koop eating it.
3. Maggots.
4. Too close to house.
5. Koop eating it.

I (sort of) fixed problem #1 by placing a lid on top that wasn't securely fastened to it. Well, that isn't stopping problem #2, so neither are ultimately resolved. And #3 is just intolerable. Sure, they might be necessary for the decaying process or something, but I don't care. They are disgusting. Have you ever seen one? *Shivers* They're awful. So #3 poses a threat because of #4 and yet we can't really move it to another place in the yard because of #5. Therein lies my problem. [Insert blog post title here].

After seeing the maggots, I was 100% positive that I was throwing the container out with the trash Monday morning. However, Ryan still really wanted to keep our compost going. And since he pretty much dug out all of the dirt for our garden, I guess I should take into account what he had to say about the way we treat it. Right? Haha! So, I started asking around, as I always do, and got a few pointers as to how I should approach it. Mainly, it was the issue with what it was stored in and where. I swear if any of those nasties somehow end up in my living room, I will get very, very violent with them.

Anyway, it's been pretty recurrent through this gardening process that we really didn't think anything completely through. Thus, I took the time to research home composting to gather some ideas about how to do it right. Gardening tip #8: First of all, I sound like a broken record, but - Plan before you garden! And second, composting is a lot more difficult than it seems. You can't store meat or anything that's very fatty, it's just not organic enough I suppose and doesn't decompose properly or maybe the meat is so steroid-filled that it would just choke your garden to death. Haha! It's best to store organic things like banana peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, grass clippings and leaves. Now that you know what to store, you've got to find something to store it in. Preferably not in an empty cat litter container, close to the house and easily accessible to your dog... :) If you don't have the space (or have animals) and can't place your compost in a pile in your backyard, get something to store it in. In something like this:

Apparently it's good to grind up the compost, so this has a nice mixing handle at the bottom that spits out the nicely decayed compost.

And look - it's taller than Koop!! Also, it's not that expensive, around 40 bucks. The other reeeeeally nice ones are more like 100-200 bucks, but I think I can settle for this one. It's the next item on my purchase list for the garden. Then it will have nutrient rich dirt whenever it pleases! I think, after looking at better ways to store it, that I am pretty sure about keeping a compost pile. At least until I see more maggots. *Shivers*

Well, I'll leave you with that. If you don't hear from me for a while, you'll know I'm destroying all of the maggots in the world. Until next time...

¡Adiós!
--Gardener in Training

Oh, Happy Day!

We've grown something!!!! [Insert blog post title here]. Our spinach seeds, (pictured below), have sprouted. Aren't they cute?! Now, what I'm supposed to do with them from here is a mystery, but we're super excited about them in the meantime. The package says something about moving them one inch from each other, but what am I supposed to do with the ones in between? Throw them away? I don't think I have the heart to :( Haha! I guess I'll just see how it goes from here. If they all get suffocated and die out, I'll plant more, knowing full and well that I can actually grow something.

As for the other plants, they've gotten so tall!! Listen to me, I sound like a mother talking about how big her kids are...creepy. Haha! They all look really great. So far, so good.

It's pretty addicting, actually. Now that I have these, I want to grow more. There are roses in my front yard, from the previous owner, and I just marveled at how pretty they were and kept thinking, "I can't wait to grow my own roses!" I'm also in love with sunflowers, I want to try them as well. I want more spices, too. I've used the basil and rosemary in just about every dish so far. I hope Ryan doesn't get sick of them... It would be great to be able to use fresh thyme, parsley, oregano, etc, etc in my dishes. It's made me want to cook at home more often. I need more. More! More!

Another thing is that I feel more connected with my house. Corny-sounding, yeah, but seriously. I feel proud every time I open my back door. It looks so great, for one. And for two, it was our hard work that made it look that way. And for three, it's giving back to us. Sure, I may have put in 150 smackers to build the darn thing (nope, still don't wanna talk about it) but soon enough I'll have fresh produce right in my backyard. Pesticide-free, even! Oh yeah, did I mention that before? We're going organic. We haven't seen any of the nasty creatures yet *crosses fingers* but we know we don't want to use any pesticides. Gardening tip #7: Do some research on harmful and beneficial (yes, some are good for your garden) bugs. Then, come up with or research ways to ward off the harmful bugs other than using pesticides. A few things I've learned is that slugs hate salt. Thus, sprinkling salt in your garden or hell, directly on the nasties works well. Cayenne pepper powder or pepper oil are also good to use to get rid of other pests. I'm most certainly not a pro at this (check out my bio), but its what I plan to try and research so hopefully it works!

Well, I'll leave you with that. I'm excited and I hope you are to see what the next few weeks hold for our glorious garden! Until next time...

¡Adiós!
--Gardener in Training

P.S. Funny quote I found: Unemployment is capitalism's way of getting you to plant a garden. - Orson Scott Card

Patience is a Virtue.

Since the other version of this post randomly deleted itself, I will give the shorter version here. We bought the remaining supplies and got to work on finished out glorious garden. I'll start with the pictures this time, because I'm that excited about it!!

































Up top, there's the garden before the fencing and on the bottom is the final product with its safe protection from Koopie.

Now, we just have to sit and wait. [Insert blog post title here]. Which, if you know me, is something I lack. Definitely seems silly now since my mom almost named me Patience Paige-haha! ...I'm not kidding about that name, by the way... It's something I will have to come to terms with, however, because if I don't I'm going to go crazy. Thank goodness we planted some basil and rosemary plants that I can pick right off of (I've made some great dinners with that stuff). I'll just sit here (im)patiently and kiss my (non)green thumb for good luck. I can only hope for the best. I HAVE TO BE ABLE TO GROW SOMETHING, RIGHT? :):)

So, we'll be looking for the following results:
1. Spinach - Sprouts? Leaves? Can I have something, please?
2. Cukes - I was unwise as to how these would even grow until today. Apparently they're a vine veggie. Interesting!
3. Strawberries - They're BO-GO at the grocery store right now and it's killing me not buying any because I know that any day now I'll be able to sink my teeth into my very own steroid-free/non-genetically engineered ones. Yum.
4. Carrots - They have green sprouts when they're ready, right? Hopefully. That way, I'll know when to pull them out of the ground!!
5. Tomatoes - See #3.

Other than sitting and waiting, we're watering and pruning the garden daily. Let me tell ya, those two things sound easy, but they're not. A few times when we first started the garden, we forgot to water it. Not good. We had to come up with a better system. Gardening tip #6: Pick a time at night, (as we learned is the best time to water your garden to avoid boiling the roots), and set an alarm on your phone. Make it go off daily, and you'll always remember to water the garden! It'll make it easier to schedule it into your nightly routine and maybe the consistency will even help your little buggers grow better.

As for pruning, that comes a bit easier since you can do it during the day, maybe after breakfast or when you let the dog out to pee. I've been told it's very good to pick the dead leaves or flowers off of your plants so they can continue to flourish. If they keep sending the nutrients to the dead leaves, they can't get to the living leaves. So it's best to keep them pruned and healthy looking.

Well, I'll leave you with that. Of course, I'll keep ya posted on the growth of the garden. Until next time...

¡Adiós!
--Gardener in Training