My 1st Garden: Monster Tomato Plants!

I haven't given my readers a garden update in quite a while. My entire "crop" so far has been two hot peppers. They're weren't all that hot because apparently it has rained too much. But they were still tasty and there are more coming as you can see here.


I'm hoping to get tomatoes soon. I have some tiny green ones showing up. But I can't believe these tomato plants! They've grown far taller than the stakes I put in for them. My thought is that because I planted them in the shade by accident they're trying to rival the trees around them to get more sun! They stand over 5 feet tall now. It's a little hard to see it in the picture, but maybe you'll get the idea.

Next year I'll be putting my tomatoes in a different spot in containers where there's more sun. Hopefully they won't grow as crazy tall as they did this year.

As for the rest of my plants ... There is one sweet pepper plant left, which may or may not produce. I didn't support my snap peas well enough and they are no more. But they started out great, and I think they'd have done a lot better if I looked after them. I have some carrots growing, so we'll see how they come out.

I'll let you know how my tomatoes turn out. I am pretty excited about them. I tried to take a picture but it didn't work out. So just imagine green tomatoes just a bit larger than peas! lol

My 1st Garden: Trouble with Squirrels

Green pepper plants
This is just a quick update on my garden. My peppers are still inside, but I think I can plant them soon. Here they are in their makeshift pots. I learned that I need to upgrade them from the starter pots (toilet paper rolls), so they went into tea boxes. I'm determined to spend as little as possible on this project.

Cherry tomato plants
The tomatoes I started inside are now in the ground. I planted five but only four remain. Some critter (I imagine a squirrel) dug up one of the tomato plants the same day I planted it. When I checked on them the next day the poor plant had been dug up and then tossed aside and left to die. I guess I'm going to have to get used to this, but as my first "casualty" it was kind of sad.

Since then, however, the rest of the plants are doing fine. My husband is looking into making cages for them.

Snap pea plant
As well as the plants I started inside, I also planted snap/snow peas and carrots. The carrots are coming up well so far but don't look great in pictures yet. I'll show you those as they get bigger.

This picture is of a snap pea plant. I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to need a pole for these. I'll look it up at some point.

And that's it for this update. I'm hoping the squirrels don't cause more issues. I really have no idea what I would do if they become a problem. I'd appreciate any advice from readers!

My First Garden: Planting!

Well here it is! The plot is hand-dug and about 10x20 feet. I decided to go for wide beds that would hold two rows of most of my veggies. (If this plan doesn't work this year I can try something different next year.) Then I used leaves as a mulch between beds and around the border. I'm expecting to have some issues with grass coming up in my garden so I wanted to at least keep the border and paths free of it.

I didn't add any compost or fertilizer or extra topsoil. But the earth in this area has been mostly covered by leaves for about two years. So I'm taking a chance that it's rich enough to give me a good season of growing. I'm planning on starting composting bin but it's a little further down on the To Do list.

I planted two rows of snow peas in one of the beds and two rows of carrots in another. I'm also planning tomatoes and peppers. The tomatoes I started inside are coming along nicely but I don't think they're sturdy enough for planting yet. Of all the peppers I started inside only two are coming up. I may have to break down and buy seedlings.

I'll keep you all posted about how things grow (or don't grow). You get to share in my triumph and disappointments!

My 1st Garden: Baby Steps

I'm going to swallow my pride and share my gardening experiences with you this year. This will be the first garden I've had since I was a kid living on a small farm. I've wanted to start one for many years now, but there was always one thing or other in the way.

One of the biggest factors holding me back was my own fear and sense of intimidation. There is so much involved in gardening that I don't know. But as with most things in my life I'm just going to plunge in. I'll find resources and get help from friends along the way. :) So this may be a learning-from-my-mistakes year, but that is still forward progress so I'll try to stay positive.

So I'm now in a house with ample yard space to start a veggie garden. The space I'm going to use has been neglected for a couple years. So this first picture is after a day of work trying to find the ground under all the leaves.

The second thing I've done is to start a few plants inside. I'm trying to do this garden on the cheap, so I loved this idea of using toilet paper rolls for starting seeds. Check out Nature Moms Blog for that and more great tips.

I've got two containers like this going. I started cherry tomatoes and green peppers and catnip. I'm crossing my fingers hoping they'll work out.

So that's it for this update. I have a feeling the next update might involve some cursing over my sore back after digging out the garden plot...