Progress: Some Success So Far

Well our garden has really started to take off! I am really surprised at some of our success. There are a few things that are doing really well that I did not expect to do well. However, we do have some seeds which have failed dismally to sprout. Mainly, the peppers and the marigolds. I am quite surprised that the four packs of marigold seeds I planted in various places have not sprouted, others in this area seem to be able to grow them easily. The peppers not coming up is not as surprising to me, they were some of the window box plants that got too dry and died. If we need to, we will get more seeds or pick up some more plants. I really do want to have peppers in the garden, if they grow they are supposed to do very well in this area. 

Here are some pictures of our little seedlings, I love going outside each day and seeing new ones. It makes me feel like I am not a total failure after all! 

By the door we have cilantro (mixed with a lot of weeds) and a LOT of zinnias! 

Cilantro (transplant on bottom, seedlings above) and weeds

Zinnia sprouts

Day lilies

The transplanted day lilies are doing better every day. Once they got over the shock of being transplanted and started getting a little more water, they started looking much more healthy. 

The transplanted amaryllis is doing well, we had several blooms which are now starting to die. 

Amaryllis

The rosebush is just thriving and producing a lot of blooms. I am so happy that it is doing well. Seeing those flowers every day is great.

The spinach is taking off as well... 

American spinach

I think the radishes are doing the best. 

Radishes

These are my pinto bush beans that I planted less about a week ago that are already sprouting! I will have to get that trellis up soon!

Pinto beans sprouting! 

This picture of by beet sprouts makes it a little hard to see them. The beet seeds I planted are a mix. Detroit dark red, Burpee's golden, Chioggia, Bull's Blood, Albino, and Clylindras. 

Beet sprouts

The squash I am SO excited about - I LOVE love love to eat squash. I hope these plants do really well! 

Squash, YAY! 

The carrots are doing well, this was another mixture. There are Scarlet Nantes, Jaune du Daubs, Lunar White, and Dragon carrots. 

Carrots

The sunflowers are growing well, I am really excited to have these in the garden because they will be so cheery! 

Sunflower sprouts. I planted these next to cucumber seed so that the cucumbers can grow up the stalks. 

I planted some wildflowers next to the bean plants and they are growing. I hope all the flowers that I planted do well. It will attract bees and butterflies. 

The tomato and pepper transplants are doing very well. I think the tomatoes are what I am most excited about in this whole garden because I love tomatoes even more than I love squash! My husband doesn't, but I am going to feed some to my daughter and hopefully she will like them! :-) These precious kittens love to be outside. 

Kaante and Mr. Mistoffelees next to the tomatoes

 So there it is! My garden :-) I hope that everything continues to thrive. We should have some compost ready soon to spread onto the garden. The sand is not the best for growing vegetables. But they are growing nevertheless!

Spring Fever: Planting after the last frost

I am so very excited about my garden now that I can plant everything! 

First of all, I would like to say that growing plants in our windows was a complete failure :-(. We did have some plants come up, but then they got too dry. I watered them every day, but they just died on me anyway! But - we did transfer the potting soil and the remaining seeds into the ground. So hopefully, we will be able to keep the ground wet enough with soaker and sprinkler hoses to keep things alive.

The first thing we have had bloom is our rosebush! The roses are kind of a fuchsia/lipstick pink.We didn't plant this bush, but I did prune it a few months ago and I am so very glad I did! I am not sure what kind of rosebush it is, but I will do some research and then I will know how to take care of it throughout the summer. 

The chile plants

The South Garden

The "South Garden" area has the following things planted in it from left to right: Sunflowers, cucumbers, okra, basil and tomatoes, squash, cayenne peppers (with a New Mexico chile pepper plant at the end of the row), Jalapeno peppers (with a Sandia chile pepper plant at the end of the row), Romanian peppers, and banana peppers.  

The tomato plants

The tomato plants are all heirloom plants we got at Home Depot because our lovely cats spilled the planter that the tomatoes were growing in. (Those were actually our only successful window plants!) 

We have Mortgage Lifter, German Johnson, Red Beefsteak, Purple Cherokee, and Marion tomatoes (all are heirloom tomatoes).

The New Mexico and Sandia Chile pepper plants were also from Home Depot because I was worried that the other pepper plants would not do very well. 

Lily and bee balm transplants, marigolds are to the right of the Bee Balm, kale is to the right of the lilies. 

I planted beans here in front of our steps

In front of our sidewalk, we have a nice little area with a variety of things. From left to right, we have bee balm, marigolds, and lilies, then in the middle there are nasturiums and below them are kale. Then to the right I planted wildflowers and pinto bush beans. Then furthest right (close to the pepper plants) I planted anasazi beans and a few nasturtium seeds. I am planning to put some trellises in the garden for the beans.

Bee balm 

In front of our window, I planted cilantro and Zinnias. There are no plants here yet, but we are watering faithfully every day! 

I put up a "Welcome" sign near the corner of our house and I love it!

The "East Garden" area is by far the biggest area we have and we are still figuring out how to arrange the hoses so that we will get enough water to everything. From left to right (or south to north) we planted marigolds, beets, carrots, spinach, chives, radishes, onions, marigolds, oregano, echinacea, sweet peas, parsley, and cosmos. We still have room for three more rows, so I am going to ask Daniel what vegetable we left out that he wants to plant. I am thinking zucchini and maybe green beans. 

Anyway, this has been so fun and exciting. We actually have some beets coming up already, I hope the other things come up as well. It is all a grand experiment.

Oh, and we have not added any compost yet because I keep adding stuff to the bin. I am thinking about getting a separate bucket to put scraps in for a few weeks so that we can get all the compost in the bin ready to spread on the garden. We have quite a bit and I think it will really help our plants!