Garden Girl

Make Your Own Garden Journal

2011-12-21T16:35:00.001-06:00

In addition to gardening, one of my hobbies is card making. I know, it’s all the fad right now. You can find one hundred and one (thousand!) blogs on card making. I know this because I follow at least five of them. And my aunt who got me into this follows another 25 or so. Seriously. Well, I received my first seed catalogs of 2012 on December 7. Thank you Baker Creek Heirloom Seed and Southern

2011 Review

2011-12-19T16:35:00.000-06:00

It’s almost Christmas which means the end of another gardening year. I have great guilt over my garden this year. In some ways, it was the best garden yet. But then, I suspect that every gardening year is a little better than the last. In other ways though, it was my worst garden. I say this because while it produced more and had a variety of things to offer, most of them were store bought.

Pepper Update

2011-10-16T14:36:00.000-05:00

So my uncle was able to shed some light on my pepper question. He loves hot things and his garden didn't produce anything this year. I keep telling him that year after year of tomatoes and peppers has probably sucked the ground dry of nutrients and he needs to add lye to the ground. A soil test would confirm or disprove this. At the moment though he's pouting and claiming he's done gardening. We

Curious Little Peppers

2011-09-27T10:27:00.000-05:00

I was just doing a web search, hoping to find an answer to my question, what kind of peppers are these growing in my garden? This last spring, I'd bought a six pack of assorted peppers from Home Depot. When they finally started to produce peppers, two of the plants put out what looked like bell peppers. "Cool!" I thought. I love bell peppers. But the plant produced about twenty of them and

Summer Dinner

2011-09-12T21:02:00.001-05:00

Had tacos tonight. The lettuce was from my fall planting, the tomatoes are nice and ripe, the chives were fresh cut and the taco seasoning was homemade. So tasty! It's such a joy to walk outside and pick your ingredients for dinner. There is an immense feeling of pleasure and fulfillment to know that I'm eating what my hard work created. The lettuce was planted about 3 weeks ago. We've had

Potato Harvest!!!

2011-09-05T17:22:00.000-05:00

The temperatures have been quite cool for August and September isn't looking much warmer. As a result my potato plants started to brown and wilt. The hubby and I were looking at them today. "Do you think we can dig them up soon?" he asked? "I don't think there is any potatoes in there." I tend toward pessimism anyways, but I'd dug down a little the other day and didn't see any. I

Strawberry Protection

2011-08-10T20:56:00.000-05:00

So I just realized that I never shared my strawberry cage that I made. Hmmm. Cage. Makes it sound like I'm trying to protect us from the strawberries rather than protecting them from from ravenous rabbits and squirrels. Anyway, I ended up building a tee-pee type structure as this was the easiest to construct with the materials I had on hand. It worked spectacularly! We got many, many tiny

Gardening on the Run Continues

2011-08-06T23:01:00.000-05:00

I've been continuing to "garden on the run". I fill my milk jugs at night in the bath-tub, get up at 5:30 in the morning, throw on some shorts and water the garden before getting ready for work. That's about all I have the time or inclination for considering the nasty weather! I HATE HUMIDITY!!! Needless to say, the weeds are running amok. Amok! Amok! Amok!Amok! But, the tomatoes are apparently

Potatoes - Part 1

2011-07-16T21:07:00.000-05:00

I've been thinking for a long time that I needed to get potato photos posted to show you all my progress. We planted the seed potatoes in a storage tote. It's not a huge one, but I thought it would be the equivalent in height to 1/2 a garbage can. Why a garbage can? I'd read somewhere to cut a 64 gallon can in half and use it as a planter. We have city issued trash containers. I'm pretty sure

Destruction

2011-07-11T19:28:00.000-05:00

We had a freak storm manifest itself this morning over most of Northern Illinois. It swept in very quickly, blew a lot of stuff around with 80 mile per hour winds and dissipated quickly. My garden took a beating. My potato stems where blown over. My tomato plants were blown over. Many of my cosmos were broken and now lay sideways. My bleeding heart took the biggest hit. I had some board propped

Thieves and Butterflies

2011-07-01T18:43:00.000-05:00

This is what happens when you put together an adjustable bird feeder and don't think things through. I briefly considered leaving it and letting him have the sunflower seeds, but then I realized that is one FAT squirrel and he doesn't need another human feeding him. What he needs is to have to work a little for his food. So I readjusted things and now I actually get birds on my feeder. The tiny

A Container Garden and it's Water

2011-06-09T19:30:00.001-05:00

A container garden is a stressful thing. Especially when you don't have an outdoor faucet. Because containers dry out so fast (like every single day) it takes a lot of water to keep your plants alive (like every single day!). Last night I used 17 gallons of water to water my plants. I know it was this much because I save milk jugs during the summer and refill them as I use them. And last night

War Returns to a Garden

2011-06-08T19:30:00.000-05:00

I am once again rallying the troops and plotting strategies against the enemy. Not the whirly gig. This one is furry and has a bushy tail. Enemy, thy name is Squirrel. The offense? Stolen strawberries. Yesterday, on this plant... were many (at least 5) nearly ripe alpine strawberries. Tonight, there were none. I can not stand by and allow this offense to take place. Alpine strawberries,

Butterfly Success Story

2011-06-07T06:02:00.000-05:00

One of my goals in the garden this year was to attract butterflies. Last year I surpassed my own expectations by attracting countless bumblebees. I do love a fat little bumblebee. But this year, I also wanted to attract butterflies, so I added plants butterflies love to my garden. Because I'm always working, and don't have the time spend sitting in the early morning garden, I haven't seen much

This Would Have Been a Good Year...

2011-06-04T19:10:00.000-05:00

I am a mushroom fanatic. I've always wanted to try growing mushrooms, and while my basement probably has ideal conditions, the spiders and I have worked out an agreement. They get the basement, I get the rest of the house. But in general, when you think of mushroom growing states, Illinois does not immediately spring to mind. Places like Oregon and Washington, perhaps anywhere in the south. You

My "New" Box

2011-06-03T20:39:00.000-05:00

I hope everyone had a great Memorial Day weekend. At least, here in the states. I confess to being ignorant of National holidays in any other country than my own. Sorry. I know, I suck. Anyway, I went to a family reunion in southwest Missouri. My parents live about an hour east of poor Joplin, but despite all the horrible weather leading up to that weekend, Saturday and Sunday were beautiful.

Photos from the Garden

2011-05-24T06:15:00.000-05:00

The Indespensable Garden Tool

2011-05-22T08:00:00.006-05:00

There is one tool that I highly recommend for gardening. It's not a spade, or a fork, or any of the usual tools. It's an electric drill. Yes, I said a drill. I got mine for $7 at a thrift store. I was very lucky. The drill bits cost more and I bought those on clearance. But even if I'd had to pay $50 for it (I don't know what new drills go for, but I do know you can buy used tools at pawn shops

Apple Update

2011-05-20T06:28:00.000-05:00

I just realized that I never told you all what happened to my apple tree. Ta-Da! It should be much bigger because it survived last summer and was outside all summer long. But, at the end of the summer last year, I found a gigantic green grasshopper perched in the pot, gnawing through it's stalk. I was devastated, but I refused to throw it away figuring that the roots were still good. And sure

Busy Bee

2011-05-18T20:35:00.000-05:00

Spring has stopped and started so many times this year. It's a little insane and a lot annoying. It also makes me wonder what this weather will mean for the plants and the crops. My gut tells me it won't be good. This is probably only prejudice though because all the freeze and thaws this winter demolished most of my bulbs. I had exactly 2 tulips come up and zero crocus. When I dug in the pot to

My Sworn Enemy

2011-04-28T06:24:00.000-05:00

I know in the past, I have claimed that my sworn enemy is B-squirrel. And please don't misunderstand me. He and his progeny are still a major annoyance in my life. But, if I were being one hundred percent honest with you, I'd have to say that my REAL sworn enemy is the whirly-gig. What's a whirly gig? Their those seed pods that fall over abundently from Maple and Oak trees. They are the

Scientific Data

2011-04-21T21:15:00.000-05:00

Of all the methods I tested this spring for starting seeds, I still don't have a favorite. As for nurturing seedlings though, I have to give it to the mass marketers. My store bought seed tray has been about 60% successful. I have one corner that all my Lobelia transplants keep dying in. But otherwise, the majority of my Lobelia's are still alive and the ones in the middle are really coming

My Pride and Joy

2011-04-20T21:15:00.000-05:00

That, my friends, is a Pansy grown from seed! It's coming along so well! Yes, this is actually one of the ones I started back in January or February or whenever it was. Two survived and are thriving. There's another pot, or there was, of 5 gangly ones. They need to be transplanted if their still alive. At any rate, two are alive and thriving in it's yogurt cup. It's probably about time to let my

Rain, Rain...

2011-04-20T06:23:00.000-05:00

Rain, rain, go away, I want to plant on Easter Day! Here in the Midwest, all plans have been put on hold for the great outdoors. It's rainy and cold. In fact, I'm considering pulling my Christmas decorations back out because it feels like fall out there. I know, I know. April showers blah blah blah. But seriously, if it's going to rain, could it not snow as well? I drove my 35 miles north to

Ready or Not...

2011-04-13T21:52:00.000-05:00

NOT would be the answer. Spring has come without preamble I am NOT ready. After all these months of waiting, longing and praying for warmer days, suddenly, I'm stuck at work and in the car traveling to and from work for 11+ hours a day. When I get home, I collapse. I no energy, and I have no light left to work in the garden. This year I will have to be a weekend garden warrior. In the meantime,