New Beginnings

So, it appears that we have some little babies about to be born. :)

Here are some pics of what I think may be some watermelon buds! I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. :) :) :) All I know is that I am going to have to buy or make that trellis SOON!

The picture to the Left shows several buds. If you look closely you will see buds that are coming out of the center of the plant. They look normal right? Well if you look at a couple of the buds, they have lumpy stems before the flower part. Those are female flowers! That lumpy part is going to be the baby squash if that female flower gets fertilized. The picture to the Right is a pic of 2 male flower buds that are actually attached. SIAMESE ZUCCHINIS!

Looks like we are going to be getting some tomatoes soon!! So far I have noticed 2 baby tomatoes. Now, I have no idea how large these guys are supposed to get, but there are TONS of flowers on these plants, so either way we are going to be up to our ears in tomatoes!

Everyday I'm Shuffling!

Day 26

This was a big day! I had a lot to move around. Not much else to say other than please enjoy the garden porn. :)

Here is a picture of the front. You can really tell the difference from when I first started this venture. lol

 Here is a close up of the Right Side. It's not that much of a close up but you can see that I moved the Roses up front. The Zuke Tower to the back, and its got its final top bucket. The herb basket is also towards the front too.

Let's start with the top and work our way down. Shall we?

Here is my happy petunia and strawberry basket! The petunias are blooming wonderfully! I had a bit of free space at the back of the basket so I added 3 little petunia plants. 1 pink, 1 dark purple, and 1 red. They seem to be fitting in just fine and doing great! My strawberries are also doing well too. They are ripening and doing their thing. In fact it looks like there may be some new growth too. :)

My herb basket. From the back and working forward we have Marigolds (those are kind of hidden by the Zuke leaves), Peppermint, Lemon Thyme, Sage, Rosemary, and 3 Lettuce plants (down from 6).I also wanted to point out that my thyme appears to have a little dead spot on it... yeah, we can all thank Colonel my Dachshund for peeing on it. :(

Here is a weird pic. I was trying to capture the Zukes but it looks more like a herb pic. IDK.  

 The top of the Zuke tower is a crown of Pansies and Violas! :) Now, that pot is crammed full of these little beauties but they seem to be relatively happy. I've been dead-heading the crap out of them to stimulate some more growth. Truth be told I may have let a couple days go by without watering and everything sort of got really sad. :( So, just like everything else, these guys are recovering.

My tomatoes are making me quite happy! I planted some marigolds with them and snapped off a few sucker branches and HOLY CRAP! I have so many flowers all over both plants! They are really happy and I couldn't be happier! Hopefully we'll get some red tomatoes here soon and you all can be super jealous! :) BWAHAHA jk. You can also see that my lettuces are doing nicely too. I removed 2 plants out of this pot so the other 4 would have some room. I had to be careful not to disturb the baby carrots too much. I hope they faired okay. I mean, they look happy. :)

My squash is doing pretty well too. It's blocking the sun from the rose, but it might actually be doing my rose a favor. It's been kind of hot out. Inside that pot are a bunch of possible blooms. I am super excited!

With this little pot, it had 3 plants. I removed the peppermint since it wanted full sun and I left the Sweet Mint and the Bee Balm. They both like part sun. Well, I am not really happy with my results so far. The Sweet Mint was learning how to vine so I might find something for it to vine onto. Right now it is sort of slumped over and Bee Balm is just all sorts of leggy. We'll see.  

In the clay pot we have my roses. They have some sort of disease that I need to cure. More on that subject later. In the pink pot I have my remaining pansies and violas. They also kind of got cooked in that little drought I put them through, so they are recovering also. 

And onto the Left Side!

If we start with the top (and we shall) we will start with the top box of my hanging thing. In here we have a bunch of Petunias! We have an older white petunia that was with a bunch of violas. And we also have some clearance petunias in there too. Pink with white stripes, dark purple, and white. Should be exciting! :) I have to be honest though and admit that these little guys also got cooked. :( I am very sad about it but I truly believe they will come back! They have to! Ive been dead heading, watering, and trying everything to stimulate some growth. HANG IN THERE!!

In the Middle Box we have some HERBS! YAY! We have my CRAZY chives! They are doing great! Then we have my 2 different kinds of Basil! The Green kind is Sweet Basil. The other is called Purple Basil. Duh! lol

And, the Lower Box is full of Lettuce! In this box there are 5 plants. They really experienced some heat. But, I've cut them back and they are perking up. With some water and love they should be back to normal.

We move onto the Hydrangea. I'm pretty sure it has Powdery Mildew. :( We got some milk, so I am going to go spray some on the plant and see what happens. I need to do a little bit more research before I go out there and start spraying my hydrangea down.

In this pot I have both of my Lavenders. They are loving it! They seem really happy.

 Here is one of my Zukes. It seems to be pretty happy as well.

So, I have these left over Marigolds. I have 2 yellow ones and 1 orange one. I was going to put them all back in the same pot, but I don't know how long it'll be before they find a permanent home. So I separated them. Oh Yeah, My carrots are doing great too!

Not much change from yesterday as far as the Gardenia goes. It smells good and makes me happy and only cost me $7! Supposedly gardenias like to bloom in the spring when the daytime temperatures are in the 70's and the nighttime temps are in the 50's. It's starting to get warmer so I am wondering if anymore blooming is going to happen.

My Watermelon is starting to lose its mind! I am going to buy a wire trellis soon and place it up against the wall and teach my sweet little watermelons to vine. They are starting to bud and get happy and I am just over the moon with them!! :)

And last but not least, my Yellow Pot Zukes! They are super happy and doing their thing!

All and all, everything is super happy and doing well. Things are starting to bloom and progress further. I am pleased. Until next time... :)

Day 25: The New Additions

So while I was out making my purchases for the vertical hanging planter thing, I may have picked up a couple Clearance items. :)

 This is my new Gardenia Bush! YAY! The pot is from my moms house. I have another one just like it in the trunk of my car.

This is a Pink Hibiscus. It's a little sick right now, but it was 2 dollars. I think it might have gotten too cold during that last frost. Either that or it has root rot. I put it in a new bigger pot and brought it in side. I'm in the process of doing more research to figure out the best plan for this little guy. :(

Oh yeah, and here is the New Home of the Yellow Potted Zukes. :) It's balanced in the bush. lol But it really is in there pretty good and it is quite sturdy. :)

My next post will show all of the changes that are going to happen! Everything is getting shuffled and moved around. I have plants that need to be thinned, and grouped and over all just moved around. Exciting!!

Moving on UP!

So, I mentioned in a previous post that I was running out of room. Well, I have been thinking and thinking and thinking of what I could do to fix this. I mean, I have plants that are spreading... with the absolute quickness! Not to mention the series of plants that are just sitting around after I bought them and had no where to plant them. I seriously have been wracking my brain to figure out what to do.

Then, one day, I was staring at my garden and VIOLA! I figured it out! I needed to build a structure that went straight up. It couldn't be expensive and it had to hold a whole lot. It also had to be really sturdy. But the biggest concern was that it couldn't do any damage to the building and it couldn't be permanent! I had to be able to take it down at a moments notice and not have to worry about patching any holes up or explaining anything to my landlord. I decided on a series of hanging baskets that were suspended from one another. I measured the area I wanted to work with and figured I could get about 3 baskets that were rectangular in shape. I also couldn't just hang them randomly, they needed to hang next to the wall.

Well, I found my baskets at Wal-mart and they are PERFECT!! 3 18" wire baskets with coco liners. They are window box baskets and not hanging baskets so I needed to buy a chain. I bought 20' of 10lbs chain and it worked PERFECTLY! And, I didn't think I would use anywhere near 20' but sure enough I got really close! I also bought 12 S hooks to make it easier to attach and unattached as needed.

Anyway, here is my result! :)

View of the finished product from the front.

Here is sort of a side view

The chain is hanging on that bracket that holds the awning on. See, totally not a permanent fixture!

Here are some pics of the finished product filled with goodies!!

Yay!! I am just so over the moon with this basket! I mean, it's perfect and I made it MYSELF! Can't get any better than that!!

Tomorrow I will post pics of my other purchases that I made. :)

Just Another Day In The Garden!

This is what my garden looked like on Day 20:

The next day (Day 21) I decided that I needed to assess the garden and decide exactly what I wanted to do with it after finals. 

The Right Side

This is the Right Side. The Pansies are freaking out as well as the lettuce! Those pansies are going to be removed and put into their own container and the lettuce needs to be thinned out. There are 12 lettuce plants total. Right now there are 6 with the carrots and 6 with the herbs. I think I am going to take 3 out of the herbs and 2 or 3 out of the carrots. 

I also need to remove the Purple Basil from this herb bed and move it away from the Sage and Rosemary. I am not sure where I am going to move it to but I have another new Basil plant, so I at least know they will live together.

You will also notice the little green plants randomly in the bed.. Yeah those were tomato sucker branches that I pinched off the plants, but they are dying so those will be gone too. (We'll hear more about those in a moment) Oh yeah and my lavenders are getting kind of big, so I am going to take them out of the bed too... 

 This is just a quick shot of the carrots! I am so proud of them!!

Here are the tomatoes! They are quite bushy and happy! I read somewhere that tomato plants like it when you snap off (with your hands, don't use scissors!) the branches below the first flowers. I guess those branches are called "Sucker Branches". The idea behind this notion is that those lower branches do nothing but suck the energy needed from those flowers and use it. The goal is, while the plants need the leaves to absorb sunlight and such, the leaves also use a lot of energy staying healthy. If you keep the top leaves (where the sun hits) the plant will still absorb light, however getting rid of those bottom branches leaves more energy to be used up by the flowers (which will hopefully be turned into fruit). 

That being said, I snapped a few off. I figured I would give it a try. The advice (though scary because I am snapping limbs off my tomatoes) seemed logical. I have a few flowers on here now, but only a couple. We'll see how my plants react the coming days.

You can see where I snapped off some branches.

It's been kind of windy out the past couple of day. Thats why my Petunias are looking a bit funky. They are happy though. :) And so are the Strawberries. I have noticed a good bit of foliage growth! That makes me happy!! Maybe they will get bushier and produce more than one berry at a time!

Here is the lower half of the Right side. The 2 pots that I have in the white thing are just going NUTS! The Sweet Mint is vining and I have it climbing up the white thing. The Peppermint is putting off new shoots! And the Bee Balm is getting really leggy.

The Violas and Petunias are going crazy too. I think I am going to put all of the Pansies and Violas together and put the Petunias together.

My Rose is doing great too! Although, it's doing something weird. It's older leaves are getting black spots on them, turning yellow, and then falling off. It's weird. But in the place of those old leaves, it seems 2 leaves sprout. Which those 2 leaves get black spots, turn yellow and die too... So IDK. The Rose is becoming exceptionally bushy though. :) Must be all that Epsom Salt! Oh yeah, and on the soil I place some cut up pieces of my banana peal. Gives the soil a little extra calcium and such. Fun huh?

My squash plant is looking kind of sad in this pic. :( It's kind of going through a weird time. On one hand, it's experiencing some great growth! But on the other hand, it's leaves keep getting bent! I don't think the leaf thing is going to hurt it too bad, but it makes me sad. Especially since the vines are hollow and really crisp. So, when I have to pull a leaf off or one of the vines snaps, you hear it!

 The leaves in the squash plant are mixing with the leaves of the Zucchini plant in the pic above. But here is a better pic of the Zukes:

That stand is kind of cool but not very stable! Currently its being supported by bricks. I do like it though, and here soon there will be another pot on top. Perhaps a yellow pot. Anywho... The zukes are doing well. I think the bottom zukes are kind of sad. I'm not sure how that plant is going to work out. I guess its not getting enough sun? 

Oh yeah! I moved this from its original spot on the Left Side next to the door. The Hydrangea used to be here, but it was getting fried by the sun so I switched this two around. I hope this proves beneficial to both. But, we'll see. 

The Left Side

Here is the left side of my little urban garden. (and my finger.)

I think it's important to mention this Zuke First! Look at it! It's truly going crazy! Well, actually it's 2 zukes in one container, but they are doing great considering they half the amount of room and food. The leaves are nice and green! The vines are nice and crisp feeling. Everything just seems to be rocking in this pot! Keep up the awesome work Zuke!!

Here is my fabulous litter watermelons. Again, this is a container with 2 plants, but just like their Yellow Pot Zuke Brothers, they are doing awesome! I will say that I have noticed some weird little growths coming off of each branch. The growths are like weird antenna-like wire-looking string things. IDK. These things are on just about each branch. I don't see any buds yet so IDK what they are! If anyone knows what these things are please HELP!

What is that?!?!

My hydrangea didn't feel up to being photographed this day. It's pretty sick. After some research, I think my sweet hydrangea has powdery mildew. :( When my baby is feeling a little more up to it, I'll take some pics of what I am talking about and post them on here. :(

My Baby Carrots in my make-shift pots are doing pretty well! They also high-five me as I walk by! :) I did notice that they are growing a little unevenly, but I attribute that to the way I was watering. It was kind of an "all-at-once" method. Not really good for seeds. :(

I am sad to say that The Sugermeyer/Morton garden of Epic-ness has experienced its first death. :( My dear Rosemary plant has officially bit the dust. You will remember that I started out with 2. It could have been several things that did this baby in. First, I had the 2 rosemary's in a space that was really only able to hold 1rosemary plant. Second, that space was right next to a basil plant. After some investigation and some really fun reading on Companion Planting, I have realized that you NEVER want to plant Basil next to Rosemary (or sage). I haven't figured out why they don't like each other, I just know that it isn't a good idea. I am confused as to why this rosemary died, and the other one hasn't. IDK... Maybe this particular Rosemary just wasn't very strong to begin with. Who knows? :( Anyway... RIP Rosemary.

New Additions

In this pic you will see some very pretty flowers! YAY!! Who doesn't just LOVE flowers?! 

More specifically, the pink and white flowers are Petunias. (I am pretty sure my favorite flowers are petunias!) I saw them at Wal-mart and just couldn't resist! They are SO fun!! 

The yellow and orange flowers are Marigolds. Now, anyone who knows the basics of tomato farming will know that you are better off with a few Marigolds in your garden. Wanna know why??? Well, marigold ward off bugs that will otherwise devour your garden! Thats right! They are natures bug repellent! Fun huh?? (I may have to do a whole spiel on the effects of certain plants in the garden) I also need to point out that these marigolds were on clearance! YAY! Gotta love the clearance isle. 

The Purple flowers are Petunias. YAY! The rule of thumb I am figuring out, is the darker the color of the flower, the better it smells! These dark purple beauties smell AWESOME!

The Red flower is a pansy. This little guy was also on clearance. I think I paid .45! Can't beat that! I am really starting to love pansies and violas! They are so fun. They come in many different colors and I am really hoping that they make it FAR into the summer. :)

These little beauties were... you guessed it! ON CLEARANCE!! There is another red pansy! :) And, some really interesting looking violas! These little guys are fuchsia and lavender with a yellow center. How pretty?!

While my fiancé and I were at Wal-mart, we saw the Thyme. It's actually Lemon Thyme. It smells AWESOME! We had to grab some. We also grabbed some Sweet Basil. When I bought the Purple Basil, I only bought it because it was 1/2 off and they were out of regular Basil. I mean, the Purple Basil is awesome and I totally love it, but it's rather small and I wanted to get another ..."regular" Basil Plant. Plus we use a lot of Basil in the kitchen, so I figured another plant would be fun. :)

So there you have it! This is my garden 21 days in. Mostly successes, although 1 of my Rosemaries was a fail. :( I need to move everything around again. I guess I didn't anticipate the majority of my plants doing this well! I need to find some more room. I am thinking of going up. I mean why not, right?