It's a BOY!

Garden update: August

The zukes are prolific, though I planted only 1. Thank goodness I didn't plant more - I'm perfectly happy with the production of this single plant, especially considering I haven't been really successful with zukes the past few years. The plant grows, and is happy, but the zukes themselves usually start off well and then peter out and shrivel up before they reach an edible size. Really bizarre, but I'm happy this year.

Gophers - we typically get 3 gophers a year. I trap/kill each one and then I'm done - no more til winter. Well this year, we have 4. And since this last one has left my plants alone, I've been too lazy to try and catch him. Not to mention that because his mounds are very small, that means he is very small and it would be a major pain to dig out the hole to insert my trap. Lazy, remember? Oddly enough, the first 3 gophers this year ate half of my bean plants and left the other half alone. What is so odd about that? Well, what's odd is that the half they ate were my Bluelake bush beans, and the half they left were the Tendercrop. Both types planted right next to each other, side by side, only the BL were wiped out and the Tendercrops spared. Methinks I'll be saving seed from the Tendercrops and planting them next year since the gophers don't seem to like them.

In other bean news, the plants are not producing very much (or maybe I just haven't ventured out far enough to lift up leaves and find beans) but the plants look fabulous, dahling! I promise to make my way over/across/past the zuke bush to see what the beans are doing. It's been a lesson learned not to put large plants on the outside of the garden because I don't make it over them to see what the smaller plants are doing. Next time.....

The volunteer pumpkins are doing well, but they are still that light orange sherbert color. Who knows what kind of mixed inbreeding happened there.

I had my first ripe Sheyenne tomato this past weekend, and it was really delicious! I was pleasantly surprised that the flavor was mild yet quite fulfilling. The plant itself is small with a thick stem, almost like a little tree. It only grew about knee high, and has more fruit to harvest tonight when I get home. The Campbell's 1943 that grows next to it also produced fruit 2 weeks ago and surprisingly, the tomato in this case is little more than golfball size with a dark pink skin. It's very much like my Odoriko's that I've been growing the past two years. Just when I thought I may have gotten the tags mixed up (I swear, I was SO careful and even kept the plants in separate growing areas of the yard when they were seedlings) someone posted to my Tomato forum and said that they had also rec'd these Campbell seeds from the seed bank and were small and pink. Whew! It's not just me... Boxcar Willie has yet to provide me with a taste test, and Aker's West Virginia just barely ripened and will be available for harvest this evening. The Odoriko's are doing well, though some of the toms were scalded by the sun, and I will be saving seeds from some of the larger fruits that grow. They range from a small baseball to a small golfball variety - not very consistent.

After finally providing them with enough water, the canna's that JW gave me bloomed. While the ones at both friends, all divided from the same plants, bloomed 2+ months ago, mine just bloomed 2 weeks ago. Better late than never, eh?

Garden update

Since the gophers got most of my bean plants, I'm allowing the remaining to grow out so that I can collect seed from them. Meanwhile, my Sungolds are still giving me daily candy, my blackberry bush has gone totally gangbusters and supplied me with enough for snacking but not enough to make a pie or anything. My Odoriko's are producing as the Campbell 1943, the volunteer paste, the Blood Butcher and the Boxcar Willie. I have yet to see fruit on the Sheyenne and no one has developed ripened fruit except Sungold {sigh}

The volunteer pumpkin is a strange sherbert color; a pumpkin colored like a *very* light butternut squash. In checking websites, it just may be a a Baby Boo pumpkin, but the outcome has yet to be seen. And until then, my summer squash has brought me 4 edible fruits and my zucchini is the winner for production this year. I cannot tell you how that thrills me as the previous 3-4 years my zukes have been less than stellar producers. In fact, nearly all of my zuke fruits turn yellow, shrivel and die shortly after formation, even when the plant is doing beautifully. Go figure.

Tomato harvest

I've had several Sungolds since the week before 4th of July. Now I just need a way to contain the plant as I never did cage it... I wanted to do the pvc cages but in the end, really don't like the way they look. I need something a bit more creative - I'm thinking of using my old wooden ladder and then some string around the edges to try and reel it in a bit. We'll see...

End of June garden update

My tomato plants have gone gangbusters! My volunteer is indeed a paste tomato. It's not Amish paste but I don't recall exactly what it is - but it has full size tom's on it, just ready to ripen. I have many many Sungolds and a few Odorikos. The rest of the plants are doing well and have blooms, but no fruit yet. My zukes are producing enough for 2-3 meals a week. I have to remember to harvest today and pick my pattypans as well or else they'll get away from me. I've been meaning to pick them on Sunday and am now 4 days late! I'm scared to look. I harvested a big bowl of beans the other day and we had them for dinner with some freshly cooked bacon chunks - delicious! I need to remember to let a few go to see so I can save them for next year.

Daturas

Two weeks ago at D's house for Women's Work Day, we (meaning J) did a MAJOR pruning of D's datura tree. The frangrance of these flowers is awesome and the flowers are large and beautiful. I'm told they could be a member of the tomato family so I took home several cuttings and stuck them in water to root. Granted, I was supposed to start them in a bucket of wet sand but I got busy and never got the bucket or sand setup. So far, the roots are developing in the water and I change the water every few days.

The one thing that I didn't expect was the flower that was still stuck to one of the cuttings - it bloomed! And it smells fabulous! It took me some time to figure out what was making my kitchen smell so sweet and lovely but when I saw the flower peeking out from behind the blinds, I remembered - and it made me smile. I'll check the roots and change the water again today, and hopefully they will ready to be planted soon.

&%$^#*

Friday I was thinking that I needed to harvest my last 2 cabbages. I went out and checked; everyone was happy and copascetic. Saturday morning I went out again only to find this:

These last two pictures show my BlueLake bush beans. I was pleasantly surprised, right after I was totally pissed off about my cabbage, to find that I have a whole lotta beans coming in. I need to watch them least they get away from me and grow too big to harvest. Yippee!!

(If anyone can tell me how to get my text out from beside my pictures, I'd appreciate it... this is not a WYSIWYG editor and it's frustrating as it doesn't really accept returns or line breaks - thanks!)

It's June already...

Last week, when it was still May, we had Ladies Work Day at my place. D had provided me with 2 bags of tubing and connectors for a drip system that she no longer needed as well as a faucet timer. When J and I took the tubing out of the bag, I noticed that most of them were still strung together and... wait... can it be? Why, yes, it's exactly the same length as my garden! We laid out the little spider web of tubing and started to modify it slightly to match my garden perfectly. By lunchtime we were as done as we could be without heading to the hardware store, so off we went to OSH.
We picked up the pieces we needed to finish the drip system and grabbed lunch at our favorite El Salvadorian place. Pupusas = yummy! Within an hour of returning home, the drip system was in place, tested, and complete - and it was only 2:30. Um, we've never been done so early before. We usually work each other like slaves until we either 1) can't move or 2) it's too dark to see. So, now what? It was too early for our typical celebratory wine, so we just had water and sat out back under the apple tree talking until we were ready to fall asleep, which only took about 45 minutes.
Tomorrow, drip systems at D's house!

Garden update

Two days ago I was outside walking through the garden as I do a few times a day when I'm home. I haven't quite decided what I'm looking for or what I think might happen between now and when I last looked at the garden 30 minutes ago, but I digress. This time I was watering as I haven't watered in about a week. The weather has been cool, I have a ton of mulch laid down and not much moisture has been lost so I don't water as often as I normally would this time of year. As I watered I noticed that a few of the BlueLake bean bushes are starting to produce flowers - FINALLY! It seems like I've been waiting a lifetime for something to come out of the garden! Which reminds me - that first zuke that I was due to eat last week shriveled and didn't make it. The plant is still alive and happy and producing two more zukes, but that first one.. yeah, not so happy.

Did I ever mention...

...that my volunteer unidentified seedlings that sprouted from seeds which I had tossed out and then not remembered what I planted, were all arugula? Every morning I walk outside, go around to the side of the house and snitch a few leaves from each plant. There is something satisfying about starting my day by plucking and tasting those wonderfully nutty leaves!

How your mind goes, AKA Why You Get Nothing Done All Day

As I sit studying for one of the hardest tests I've ever had to take, I hear the dryer buzzer go off. I walk in to remove the dry clothes and notice that the laundry basket is by the back door, where I was previously hanging other clothes to dry. As I walk over to pick up the basket to empty the dryer, I look out the back door and notice that the sun has moved and my sun tea container is now.... in the shade. I walk outside and move the sun tea container to the sun. And as I walk back to the door to get the laundry basket to empty the dryer, I notice that the hole I had set my gopher trap in was full of fresh dirt. CURSES! He'd filled up the whole with dirt and most likely completely avoided my trap, even though I had dug a hole the size of a basketball in order to set the trap and catch him. I pulled on the trap and the ease with which it was coming out confirmed that my trap was indeed empty. Imagine my surprise when the end of the trap finally emerged and there, killed not too long before, was the gopher that had eaten my tomato plant, pulling it down down down to the depths and leaving nothing but a tiny bit of green leaves popping out of the earth to remind me of what I had so lovingly planted there just the day before. Oh JOY! Another gopher dead! Whoopee! (I love this feeling!) Now I had to mush down the gopher tunnels which were threatening to collapse and swallow me into "the place below the yard" and then fill in the pit with dirt from around the yard. I was amazed by how many shovel fulls it took to actually fill that in. Once done, I watered the area well so as to be able to tell tomorrow if any of the dirt is new dirt pushed up by yet another gopher. Afterwards, I headed back into the house to wash my hands before remembering that I was supposed to get the laundry basket, empty the dryer and fold the clothes. Then I had to sit down and write this all up so I can remember later why it took me 20 minutes to empty the dryer!

Baby Red comes to visit

Earlier this week, my SO told me that we had a new hummingbird at our feeder they other day. It's a male but a very young one. He was a little unsure of how to use the feeder and looked as if he still had some of his baby feathers. His colors weren't very bright and even when he wasn't eating, his tongue would pop in and out repeatedly. This morning I noticed a little hummingbird near the feeder but he sat opposite of where I was and he was small, so I couldn't see him. Once he was finished, he flew to the nearby vine and had a seat, to watch the world go by. I went to get my SO, he confirmed this was the hummer he saw the other day, which I have now named Baby Red for his youthful ways and his barely Red head (our hummingbirds here are almost all Anna's Hummingbirds). I got my camera and took some pictures from inside the house but they didn't take so well, so I went outside and Baby Red watched me walk all the way around and snap at least 10 different pictures of him. I left the last picture as-is so you can see how hard he is to pick out from the foliage he's sittin in. He's really quite cute, dontcha think? : )

Saturday night visitor

It was hot - smokin' hot! Most of Saturday was spent inside with the windows and curtains closed to keep the heat out. I did go out once and saw my next door neighbor with a crowbar, pulling the wooden edges off of the columns outside his front door. He looked busy, so I didn't ask. Later in the evening, J & I were watching a movie and by then, had opened all the windows as things were cooling off. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and when I looked, I saw the neighbors striped cat outside the window, about 3-4 feet away. When I sat up to get a better view, since we never see him anymore, he stopped and looked at me and that's when I realized it... that masked face was not the neighbors cat, but a raccoon! J & I looked at him for a split second, then he ducked and headed for the front lawn. Unfortunately, that was right by the garage where the door was cracked to let the heat out. We went outside, couldn't find the raccoon anywhere. Our neighbors were still out so we went to ask if they had seen anything. They calmly said yes, the mother raccoon had had her babies in their front column and with the record heat, they had heard them crying in there. Hence, them pulling it apart with the crowbar. They were able to capture all the babies but not the mother. Our raccoon was most likely a she, and she had run across our lawn and then across the street to the neighbors house. Raccoons in residential areas are not unheard of, but we haven't seen any in the 2.5 years we'd been there and she was so close, it was surprisingly. I was so glad that the neighbors were able to free all of the babies.





Garden pictures! Including..... ta da! our first zuchhini of the year!! Hurray! Note: Object in picture may be smaller than it appears... this zuke is only about 2 inches long. ;) I don't plan on eating it until Wednesday. The full garden picture shows the teepee's I put up this weekend to go along with the 12 cucumber plants that I put in the ground. Beyond the cukes is a row of roughly 8+ basil plants. Beyond the basil, across the sidewalk, I planted 2 Bloody Butchers and 2 Akers West Virginia in the bed up against the house. Tomatoes seem to do well there. Also planted in that bed are 2 sunflowers, 6 spinach, a rosebush, some calendula, and a few cabbage plants. Oh, btw, I used my first cabbage in cole slaw over the weekend. Can you say delicious? I knew you could....

What's blooming nowadays?

Everything is blooming!

The volunteer tomato

The Red Beauty sweet red bell pepper...

the Pattypan summer squash ....

the Odoriko Tomato .......

the Nasturtiums

the Calendulas...

the Blackberries.......

the Bird of Paradise.....

The apple tree is stil blooming. This is a sucker I need to take off, growing
off the main trunk, but I need to get the last of the apple blossom scent before
I remove this... ;)

Ok, the strawberries have already bloomed, obviously, but they were buried under
another bush that simply took off and got away from me. When I pruned the bush
the other day, this is what I found underneath, clean without a big bite removed
- yippee!

Garden photo updates

My Odoriko before and after planting. I'm testing out planting them in a circle to see if I can grow them closer, without putting them into rows.

This is how I laid out my other tomatoes. I don't have labels in the ground so I took this picture as a digital reminder of who is where.

My first cabbage. A few holes on the outside leaves but the inside is pristine. Oh, and delicious!

Layout of my 3 big slicers and 2 Sungolds on the left.

I have a few apple blossoms left and didn't get a picture of any this year except this one. Also, a picture of one of the many baby apples. Come December, they will be juicy, sweet and made into applesauce!

Tis a bittersweet day..

My babies that I have so lovingly grown found new homes today. I packed 12 Sungolds, 12 Odorikos and 2 Bloody Butcher tomato plants into a garden tray with 2 dill plants and headed out. I stopped at Shannon's to drop off 2 SGs and 2 BBs on the front porch while she slept. I also dropped off some geraniums and a dill for Patty as she visits Shannon often and I don't have time to drive cross town to Patty's house.

The rest of the babies came into work with me. Three went to the front office and then I sent out a note to a select few. Within an hour all of the babies had been taken to desks throughout my building, happy new moms ready to plant out their tomatoes this weekend. We had lively discussions about planting deep, the pot size one needs to plant in and a reminder to be kind to our local predator insects least we get stuck with veggie eating caterpillars. Once the topic turned to chemical sprays, I nixed the idea and stuck my fingers in my ears "la la la la la - NO chemicals!"

I have a number of mater babies at home ready to plant out this weekend in my own garden. Two days ago I had to transplant the Akers West Virginia as they grew too big for their 4 inch pots. I'm trying to come up with creative ways to plant all these maters in my garden plot and I'm toying with planting them in patches or circles. We'll see what my brain comes up with.

Til then, ttfn

Monday update

Here are the latest pictures around my suburban homestead. The completed garden expansion with the old wooden ladder I use as a cucumber trellis. Then the beans before and after putting them in the ground (count, there are 47 plants, with 4 plants in each 1 square foot). I spent about an hour transplanting all of the beans, with the Blue Lake closest to the fence and the Tendercrop closest to the center. And last, but not least, stupid kitties in their new cathouse.

Beans are in

Yesterday I planted all of the bean plants. Blue Lakes are up against the fence and Tendercrops are closer to the center of the garden. I'll have to plant the tomatoes at the opposite side, so they do not overshade the beans. Something of medium height will go in between - perhaps squash or the basil. We shall see chickie...

I'll post pictures an a bean plant count tomorrow.

just pictures

Greenbeans (minus 1 that some soon-to-be-dead-slug ate), my Sungold and Bloody Butchers transplanted, my Odoriko transplanted, and my volunteer mater (remember from February 1st?)

mo 'maters

My mater seedlings from the seed bank were not sprouting in two weeks like they should have. I brought them in the house to sit in the windowsill, which worked quite well for my Sungold seedlings. After a few days of regular water and afternoon sunshine, plus a bit more warmth during the night, I finally got a sprout on Saturday. It was the West Virginia Aker's that came up first. The next day, I had sprouts in all 4 of the pots, so I was now blessed with Boxcar Willie, Campbell's 1943 and Sheyenne. I put them outside where it promised to be sunny and hot all day, and warm all night. I left them on the sidewalk all night to absorb it's heat and left them outside again today, and provided a little water to make it through the heat today. They are quite small and don't look very hardy to begin with, so I don't want to fry them on their 2nd day outside.

My Sungolds, Bloody Butchers, and Odorikos were all planted out into plastic cups and experienced no transplant shock. They are all quite happy and I took 1 of each to Gilroy, to their new home for the season. Hopefully I will have a few to give away for Earth Day later this week.

Beans beans beans

Here are the bean pictures I took yesterday (current count: 50). Within each 4 inch pot, I planted 4 bean seeds (1 in each corner). Now, keep in mind that I haven't planted a bean seed since kindergarten or first grade. I was the kid that always killed mine with kindness, so bean plants and I.. well, we haven't gotten along so well. Some 30+ years later, I'm trying again. This time, in hopes of 1) keeping the bean plants alive (they look pretty happy, yes?) and 2) actually getting some beans to eat. :)

Also below are my tomato seedlings - Bloody Butchers on the left (from 2003 seeds, thank you very much) and Odoriko's on the right. Yes, they are squished and yes, they need transplanting. For lack of anything to transplant them into, it hasn't been done. However, this morning I stopped at the grocery store and picked up 30 plastic cups in which to transplant my tomato seeds. I'm hoping they recover and grow enough in the next week to bring them into work and give them away for Earth Day. Happy Gardening!!

April 14th

A Tuesday. I must say that I'm quite surprised that the weather is not warmer than it is. We are still getting typical low 60's during the days, and low to mid 40's at night. The way the rest of the seasons were coming in 3-4 weeks early for the past year, I thought for sure warm weather would come in with the very beginnings of Spring if not sooner. Granted, I like cool weather and I am a *big* fan of rain, but my summer crops are not so happy with lower temperatures and therefore, I'd like a little more warmth please, Mother Nature. K? Thanks!

Meanwhile, my green beans are sprouting like crazy! Some of them have not broken ground, but they are under there as my pots have little dirt tents in them where the sprouts are vigorously pushing up from below. I haven't counted how many there are since last week when I counted 35-ish, but there are more now and they are happy with real leaves. I'll try to remember to take pictures tomorrow.

Something is eating my plants - and I'm not happy. My rosebush finally bloomed and it's brought along too many aphids. I found my pepper seedling from the plant sale looked a bit peaked the other day and when I checked - aphids. There was one lone ladybug in my grass - I left her be since she was near the rosebush and probably full from feeding. I need to figure a way to attract more and help eat them all that aren't effected by the Neem oil I sprayed. And as much as I hate snail bait, I may need to pick some up for my slugs. My backyard has been bare of slugs & snails for the past 2+ years but with the vegetation picking up slowly but surely, slugs have increased and snails moved into my geraniums out front. I have a mad hatred for snails, and slugs are just sneaky no-shell wearing versions of snails.

Exhaustion does *really* weird stuff to your brain

Example: tiny, short, itty bitty online chat I had with my BFF today:

her: im a rebel... without a clue

me: i'll buy you one. a clue, that is.
me: course, in actuality, i just may find a leftover clue lying in the street, pick it up, spit on it and wipe it on my pants to clean it up a bit - then send it to you and TELL you that I bought it for you, but, you know....

(I need some quality sleep - and a few days to enjoy life instead of considering deadlines, midterms, class projects, due dates, work to-do lists...)

TGIF

I mean, really, TGIF. This week has gone by SO slowly and mere words cannot express how happy I am that it is almost over. My studying for chemistry is done (pray I did well on my midterm last night, would ya, please?) and I can breathe. I got the tarp full of weeds to the street before the compost/garbage man came along to scoop it up so I don't have to look at that sitting in my backyard another week (yay!) My Honey is off work today so hopefully he will relax and enjoy a quiet house all to himself, and maybe he'll even vacuum and wash those dishes in the sink. hmmmmm....

I may have neglected to mention that my nasturtiams are LOVELY this year! They are hardy and blooming - mostly a vibrant red but there a few that are less than stellar that catch my eye. I have a few baby nasturtiams growing here and there closeby and would love if that area just filled in with them, but I don't think that will happen soon. We have a pretty good bird population close to that side of the house and I'm sure they pick out those big seeds, but that's okay too. I just wish they'd even things out and eat the ants that are torturing my Bird of Paradise.

This weekend I plan on planting the squash *in* the garden. I have a few plastic 1 gallon milk jugs to place over them at night, but they are just *too* big for their seedling pots and growing too fast to bother transplanting them into something bigger. So, into the ground you go! I may do the cucumbers this weekend also, or let them chill in their 4" pots I put them in 2 weeks ago. They could probably use more 'establishing' time. The basil is doing well. I'd like the stems to firm up a bit and grow a bit faster, but there's only so much I can do since I'm at work all day. No beans sighted yet. My tomatoes are starting to reach for the sky and do you remember my volunteer tomato that I found growing on February 2nd? Well, you'd barely recognize her anymore! I'll post an updated picture of her tomorrow.

Happy Good Friday!
Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. Luke 23:46

go go gopher killlller

It's that time of year again - me vs the gopher. They come during the winter but they're too small to catch - the tunnels they did are not wide enough for my trap. So I wait til the mounds are bigger, meaning the tunnels are bigger, and not long before I plant my veggies seedlings in the ground.

The past 2 months s/he has been focused on destroying our front lawn, to the point of collapsing the yard when we go out to stomp down the mounds. Sometime last night or this morning, they moved to the backyard, signaling that it was time to get out the trap! It's a little rusty since last season, so I cleaned it off with some steel wool and oiled it up with a little olive oil so as to not yuck it up. I think of the gophers suspect something, they bury the trap instead of trying to push it out, and pushing it out is what sets it off and kills them. I got my hand trowel, my super long screwdriver and tested each new mound in the backyard til I found that that seemed properly connected to a tunnel. Dig out that mound, get a good length down in the ground, and set my trap inside. Now it's wait, and watch.... wait n watch... Either later today or tomorrow morning, my trap should be wrapped around the neck of one sorry gopher. Then we will water down the old mounds and wait to see if new ones pop up, signifying more gophers to bait and trap. punx...

TGIF

No, really - even though I only worked in the office 2 days this week (I was on vaca the first 3 days) I'm so ready for the weekend already. Tomorrow is the Master Gardeners tomato and pepper sale and I'll be there early. I need to recheck their list of peppers so I know what I'm getting when I go in. Looking for bell pepper type plants so I'm not paying $3 a pepper at the store. I realized that they can be precut and frozen fo ruse throughout the year (duh!) so that's my plan and that's my goal.

Last night I planted, in 4 inch pots, 4 of the 6 types of tomato seeds I received from my forum's seed bank (thank you, J, Seed Goddess!) Aker's West Virginia, Box Car Willie, Campbell's 1943 and a special tomato that needs growing out so we can re-establish the seed bank. I'll keep posting updates as they come. Oh, and my dill needs a place to live - though the seedlings are small, their true leaves are popping out and I need to lookup what conditions they like so I can determine where in my backyard to plant them. hmmmmm...

PS

Did I mention that while visiting family up north, my Auntie got me hooked on homegrown beans? After taking one bite, I'm thinking, "What am I thinking? Buying canned beans? These are deLICious!" She says she grows Blue Lake, which would make sense because the little beans inside are blue-ish. I asked the hows and whys of her planting, harvesting, cooking, freezing methods and the next day at breakfast (yes, she cooked me breakfast every morning, I LOVE her!) she gave me a bag of beans and said that is what she planted. But.... these aren't Blue Lake beans.. ?? I found my way to the local garden store and picked up 5 bags of Blue Lake bean seeds. One bag I gave to Auntie and the other 4 I brought home, with her 1 bag of Tendercrop. I planted them on Tuesday, in 4 in pots, 4 beans per pot. I wondered if I would be able to tell the difference and the seeds informed me I would. While the Tendecrop seeds were brown and mottled/striped, the Blue Lake seeds were.. white! So, we shall see which come up first, any differences between the two, and see how they harvest and taste. I'm sure by the time harvest comes around, I'll be able to tell if the blue beans were Blue Lake, or Tendercrop. I'm SO excited!

It's been a while, eh?

Yea, I took a vacation, and a trip north to visit family and take care of some business. I came back to find that my other half did not care for my seedlings quite as I would have, and I lost a tomato seedling or two. Here's what I have going on: The garden expansion is expanding. I turned as much as I could and then couldn't turn no more! I covered the area with manure and tonight, I will cover with wet newspaper to limit weed growth and then cover those with bark mulch. The difference between the earth of the expansion and the earth of the garden right next to it is like night and day. The expansion is hard, packed, dead - nothing lives in that section except some weeds a a few bermuda grass, plus a grub or two. The original garden plot is FULL of life - worms, rolly polly potato bugs, and the ground is soft soft soft! The soil is black, the beneficial bugs are happy. There are no grubs in the original garden plot. I have done well, and am satisfied with that portion. Hopefully, this new section will pep up quickly and take notice, producing me some fine foods this summer.

I took two days to work on the garden expansion and transplant some of the seedlings. I got the basil and cukes moved to 4 inch pots. The squash are plenty big enough to go directly in the ground so I'll do that this weekend. No point in transplanting them twice, I just need to plan out my garden and pick a good spot for them. Plus, I need some cans to place around them in the garden, so I can put copper tape to keep the slugs from devouring them while they are too small to fight back. haha!

The spinach is doing well, and the tomato seeds are still quite small so I left them be in their seedling pots. The 2nd to the last image is my mystery sprouts. I thought they might be arugula but in looking at other arugula seeds online, they don't look the same. I continue to play the waiting game to determine what they are.