Recently in Back Garden Category
Well sorry for being awol but as always life happens, stuff gets in the way and I forget I have a garden let alone a gardening blog! Anyway just a quick update on the happenings here at WOY. Firstly I made a life changing decision in June, I am headed back into a career in fitness!!! I used to be a fitness instructor and personal trainer, but when we moved to the US I couldn't work, my certificates expired etc, but now I have my greencard and have had a long think about what I want to achieve I've decided to go back into fitness. I did my CPR certification in June and will retake my fitness exams this month, so needless to say I've been busy!
I haven't been out in the garden much but after finally finding my cable to charge my camera battery I got out in the garden and started snapping some photo's. First up some flowers. I think this is Agapanthus.
Then a pic of some seedlings! After the critter attacks I got busy replanting despite feeling like throwing in the towel and calling it a day with growing anything at all! 2 trays of seedlings including" tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, okra, chard and nasturtiums...
Hopefully I'll be updating more often once I get into a proper schedule again! Happy Gardening!
This month I am celebrating 1 year of vegetable gardening! 1 year ago today I decided to take back my garden, and grow my own food. We'd never had an ornamental garden persay so it's not like a lot of change was required, just a lot of hard work and time! Ironically this month is also one I have spent the least amount of time in the garden I think (aside from when we had the rains).
The reason is I've been pretty fed up with the squirrels eating the rewards of my hard work :( I've been slowly getting back out in the garden and have noticed not one, not two but three squirrels in the garden. They are small but wreaking havoc! I had my little rant about them already but when you see a sight like this greeting you when you check your plants it's pretty disheartening.
Those were beets :( Seriously this is no joke anymore so I pulled myself up by my bootstraps and instead of being defeatist I am being proactive. I've been out in the garden this recently and sown more plants (which I promptly killed - more on that later), moved some things around, done some maintenance, and generally tidied up. I cleaned down the patio table and chairs and hope to get outside more in the hopes of scaring the damn squirrels to death. I plan on eating breakfast, lunch and dinner outside on the patio now when possible and letting the dogs out with me more.
So speaking of the seeds I planted recently, well they shot up in 3 days, then when I went out to clean up the table and chairs I placed the tray ontop of the wheelie bin, in full sun, and promptly forgot about them. Left them there all day and needless to say the young seedlings fried! Time to get replanting I think!!!
Earlier this year I was at the local Lowes store picking up some supplies when I spotted asparagus bare root plants, naturally I snagged a bag. I planted 3 of them in a raised cinder block bed next to the orange tree. This weekend I noticed this:
Yay Asparagus stalk! They must have been busy in a short period of time cos in the space of the other two plants stands these.
Bit spindly the other two are but then as I understand they take a couple of years to get established before you can harvest so no great loss this year. Anyway just wanted to say YAY Asparagus is up and YAY I didn't kill it, unlike the rhubarb which hasn't done a damn thing. Ah well....
Last year we had a critter problem in the garden. Darn things ran off with whole cucumber plants (yes the WHOLE thing), decimated the melon plants, and chewed leaves on just about everything else. I thought we'd got off to a good start this year. But I looked out the window of my office yesterday and saw this...
What? You don't see it? Well let me crop and enlarge that for ya:
and what is it eating? MY CARROTS! Darn little &$%#@!!! It's had some chard, spinach and a pepper plant too! I sprinkled some chili pepper down it's burrow and around the beds so fingers crossed it'll get the message that the veggie garden is off limits. If not I unleash the hounds for game of "lets see what squirrel guts look like". I mean I am a vegetarian and I get that animals have to eat too, but bugger off somewhere else and eat! Grrrrrrrrrrrr
What? You don't see it? Well let me crop and enlarge that for ya:
and what is it eating? MY CARROTS! Darn little &$%#@!!! It's had some chard, spinach and a pepper plant too! I sprinkled some chili pepper down it's burrow and around the beds so fingers crossed it'll get the message that the veggie garden is off limits. If not I unleash the hounds for game of "lets see what squirrel guts look like". I mean I am a vegetarian and I get that animals have to eat too, but bugger off somewhere else and eat! Grrrrrrrrrrrr
One Saturday late last month I kidnapped DH and made him do some gardening chores :) Namely putting up a trellis. As you can see from the pic it's some 2x4 timber with the wire mesh a HUGE improvement that before. The mesh covers a height of 5ft but I want to add another piece on the top to go to the top of the wood.
If you're curious as to why we chose the height, I basically held my hand up above my head and declared that the height of the trellis. No point in going higher if I can't harvest from it! As much as I dearly love the stepladder out in the garden (not!) I don't plan on going up it regularly to harvest beans and tomatoes every day!
Now to get DH to Home Depot for more 2x4's and whisk him into the garden again for the other beds!
It's been harvest time here for the winter crops. I've shared some pics recently of the harvests and thought it'd be interesting to show you this monster turnip I harvested from the garden recently. DH snapped this pic with his iphone.
Lest the pic not do the size justice, let me tell ya that weight of this monster was just a smidgen under 2lbs!!! To say that we ate turnips almost daily would be an understatement. I am still trying to find a cooking method that I really like for these since they were an experiment this year. They certainly grew well though huh?
Harvest figures for April are as follows:
- 4oz Chard @ $3.99 lb = 99c
- 5oz Orange (Valencia) @ 59c lb = $2.95
- 4lb 6oz Peas @ $4 lb = $17.50
- 1oz Spring Onion @ 99c lb = 6c
- 1oz Tomato @ $2.99 lb = 18c
- 2lb 2oz Turnip @ 79c lb = $1.68
Just a little update on what's flowering in the garden right now. I posted about the poppies already this month, but I managed to get out one day this week and snap them in their full open stage soaking up the Southern California sunshine!
Of course not all things flowering in the garden right now are things I want. There is a weed flowering which although a weed is still quite pretty. I'll take a photo of pretty much anything in the garden :)
And of course my favorites - Tomato flowers! Gotta love em right? I am so looking forward to 'mata season this year! Finally got a decent trellis up (more on that with pics soon!) and I have plants in the raised beds and growing :)
What's blooming in your neck of the woods? I still have a few pea blooms, squash blooms , citrus and a few other things. I need to get busy in the garden though and get planting! Hopefully this weekend!!!
I say name that flower cos basically I have no clue really about the flowers side of gardening. I mean I know a lily when I see it, or a daffodil etc but pretty much clueless when it comes to the pretty side of gardening. Probably because I consider it a waste of space, lol. Anyway we have these flowers in the back garden that I am considering relocating to the front. My hunch is geraniums... anyone?
One thing I know, they sure do smell strong! As you can see they are bright red, but I've seen them in other colors whilst on my walks in the neighborhood.
Any identification appreciated!
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