How my garden grows, lol

Since JP was born I've become a morning person... well more of one anyway, lol. My favorite way to start my mornings for the last month or so has been to get up by 6am, grab a cup of coffee and go out and work in my little gardens. I use a cultivator to hack out the weeds, thin any seedlings, prune anything thats needs cutting back, etc.

For the last week it seems that it takes so little time that I just go out and do a little work and thats about it and it didn't dawn on me why until I looked at the pics I posted shortly after planting, lol...

This is my front garden as of this week, lol....

 

these are my beets, lettuce, carrots and radishes from seeds

 

my  HUGE and still growing pumpkin plant.. silly me thought I'd get one to two pumpkins off one plant. I have tons of blossoms about to open. In front of it is my watermelon plant that is a slow starter

 

my zucchini already has 3 baby zucchini growing and I've had to prune a couple of huge leaves off to make sure the yellow squash behind it gets enough light. The cucumbers are to the right of the zucchini and in back of the cucumbers is my butternut squash. just on the right edge of the photo is my white eggplant which has a tiny eggplant starting, on the edge of the left of my photo are my peppers with green peppers beginning to grow as of this morning

white eggplant just starting to grow

baby zucchini

 

we just had a very heavy rain go through so my pumpkin leaves are beated down a bit, this is one of the areas with lots of pumpkin blossoms

After I looked at the pics I previously posted I realized how much everything has grown and why it takes me no time at all to do the mundane little daily things, lol

Gardens and health.. silly happy things.

With all the stress over the winter, I was looking forward to a calmer summer. Joe's health is fairly stable. The pacemaker had a loose screw the first week so back in for surgery he went. It was a simple procedure and he was home the next day... and as I remind him I now have it medically documented that he has had a loose screw. He's currently undergoing eye surgeries for retina bleeding.. but the dr feels a full recovery is a sure thing.. and this is the tail end of a long time of issues from the original foot ulcers just about 3 years ago.


We are enjoying a sometimes hotter then average, but mostly seasonal spring. I wanted to try growing veggies in the new place since there are less deer and wildlife to eat my tender young green growing things.

Joe has now banned me from walking into greenhouses or gardening centers, lol.

As of this morning I think I have completed all my plantings with the exception of quick grow things such as lettuce and spinach ( spinach will be a late summer to fall crop.. I have no more room at the moment). My front garden bed, which is about 3 feet wide and 10 feet long, is being used for the most of the veggies.  I have planted it using a square foot gardening plan.

In those 30 square feet or so I have:

1 - Zucchini
1- Yellow squash
1- Watermelon
1- Pumpkin
1- Butternut squash
1- heavy producing (or so it says) cucumber
2- bell peppers ( one red and one green)
1- White eggplant
1- Pineapple sage
1- onion chives
9- Beets
12 Carrots
8 - Lettuce

 
 
the upside down tomato cage is for the cucumbers to grow on. Not pictured is my hanging strawberry plant. I just moved this to the front fro more sun as I'm not getting many blossoms, but it is nice and lush

now thats just the front..... in the back I have more, lol....all in containers

1- hanging cherry tomato - purchased it with tomatoes already growing so it had a nice start
1- huge beefsteak style tomato plant in a container with Parsley
1- long planter with another eggplant and lettuce - should get 3-4 large heads of lettuce.. and lots of leaves while thinning
1- long planter with cilantro and shorter growing carrots - hoping to get about 16 out of that
1- container with sweet peas - need to pick up another tomato cage for them to grow on
1- stacked planter with basil, german thyme, sage, tarragon, cilantro, dill

Joe wants to ask the landlords if we can dig up part of the lawn for a bigger garden next year. I've already looked into potatoes and onions and more fun things. If I can't then my containers are working fine. Joe is  on a mission to find some kind of obscure  italian zucchini variety. We thought we had found it but its a round squash, not a long variety. The greenhouse that I went to knew exactly what I was looking for and is planning on getting some seeds next year.. so Joe will have to wait, lol. For now I'm just enjoying the process of maintaining my little garden.. and looking forward to saving some money once I can harvest. My veggie bill at the grocery store is slightly (not too bad) painful some days, lol.