Zucchinni

Check out this zucchini from the garden!  It is huge!!

Read more...

Garden Update

 We planted a new plant (I think it was a sunflower that Connor planted & brought home from school) in place of our cantelope plant didn't quite make it.  BUT good news is almost everything else looks pretty good.  Here is the proof...

And the boys were adorable playing in the yard tonight...

Read more...

First Strawberry in the garden...

We had our first strawberry in the garden!!!  Well, our first of anything edible. 

The boys were excited, Connor picked the strawberry...

But Dylan had to join in on the fun too...go figure!  So he picked a not ripe one, yuck!

Connor said his was super tasty.  But then again, so did Dylan...

Here are some pictures of how the garden is looking...we have some peppers growing and the zucchini plant is really growing.  And the basil plants and chocolate mint look tasty!

And this is what I got when trying to take a picture of the other garden box.  Good thing he is cute!

And then this face!  Where does he get this from?!?  :-)

Read more...

Garden/Yardwork Day Two

 We picked out a new Hibiscus this weekend...love it!  Let's hope our others did okay over the winter and start to bloom quickly.

 Filled lots of hanging baskets and containers with an assortment of flowers this weekend.  Let's hope they do well.

 Tomato cages are in place, now GROW tomatoes GROW!

 Containers in the front.

Read more...

Garden 2011

 Those are the colorful flowers the boys helped me plant in the planters in front of the house.  They picked them our and they are beautiful!

I decided to put some sand in the water table so I could get some gardening done.  Oh my!  It was a hit with them.  Or was it?  The patio is more like a beach...but they had a blast and I got the garden planted.  Win-Win.  Maybe.  Maybe not.

We got both the 4 X 4 boxes planted and ready to start growing!

My favorite find was this adorable little basil plants.  I just love how cute they are.

Connor insisted on planting a whole bunch of strawberries in this box, and rarely do I say no to fruits & veggies, so he got his way.  We planted 16 strawberry plants.  Hope they produce a few strawberries!

Read more...

Newest garden addition...

I just love me some Hibiscus!  Our yellow one has done so well in a container, I let Connor pick our another one.  Here it is...

Isn't it just beautiful?!?  Reminds me of Hawaii.  Then I realize there is no beach and no pretty little umbrella in my drink (or no drink for that matter!), but the flowers sure are pretty!

Read more...

Garden Tour!

It has been awhile since I updated about our garden.  Some vegetables are doing great while some are suffering.  Any advice, words of wisdom, help, or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.  This is our first gardening experience in Dallas and only our second year of gardening all together.  Our garden in St. Louis did just okay.  But I have high expectations for this year.  Dallas weather has proven to be a little tricky--not sure how that will affect what we have planted.  I have heard that you can grow anything in Texas.  We will put that to the test!

We decided to go with a variety of vegetable plant purchases this year.  Some we planted from seeds, some we got from a local plant shops (Covington Nursery and Well's Brother), some from the big box stores (Lowe's and Home Depot), and some from mail order (Burpee.com). 

Our peas are doing great.  As the boys ate the first ones straight out of the garden...

And Connor keeps asking for more. I can not stress how important it is for kids to see how our food grows.  It is amazing what they will eat and try straight out of the garden.  Or even from the Farmer's Market. 

So, like I have said previously, we are doing the whole Square Food Gardening method again.  This is using a special mix of vermiculite, peat moss, and compost.  We used this mixture in both of the garden boxes as well as in our containers, inside house plants, and hanging baskets.  It is so easy to work with.  My concern is that a lot of our plants leaves have turned a light green and/or brown color.  Could the soil be missing an important nutrient?  And it seems that some are now growing very well, but still look healthy otherwise.  Any ideas?  Take a look...

Here is the first garden box:

The green leaf lettuce we just ate this week.  It was quite tasty.  We started some from seed in the same square and it sprouted and that was it.  It hasn't grown since.  Oh well.  And another question, do you have to keep re-planting lettuce once you harvest it?

Onions look like they could be doing better.  Is there something wrong with them?  Or is this how onions are supposed to look?

Here are these sad looking carrots.  (Sorry for the bad picture too).  Why aren't they growing?  Wrong season? 

And in the first box, we have beets and radishes that I planted from seed.  Only a few of the seeds sprouted, but haven't grown since they sprouted.  Last years garden, the beets and radishes did amazing!  Any ideas why they have not grown? 

Box two is doing much better than box one!  It has much more vertical growth and just more overall growth. 

Garlic looks like it is doing good.  Especially since this was one of the most recent things I planted.  However, is this what garlic should look like?  This is the first time I have grown garlic!  Help!!!

The peas are doing great.  They are getting bushy and climbing.  And these are the ones we planted from seeds.  The pea plants we purchased have died and gone to plant heaven.

These are the green beans.  They seem to be doing okay and already have a few beans we could problably eat.  Yah!  But the plant looks a little weak and is just starting to climb.

And the pepper plants (everyting from jalepenos to bell peppers have not done well in previous years and this year they are not looking that good either.  What gives?  I am at  a loss!

And there are MORE tomatoes.  I may have gone a little overboard on the tomatoe plants.  Oops.  But they don't like like they are thriving.  Any ideas???

This container of herbs has seen better days.  For some reason, everything in this pot tunred this yellowy color.  Too much water?  Not sure.  Any suggestions?

*I will post some pictures of some of our indoor plants within the next few days.  I have some questions about those as well :)  Again, any help is welcome!

Read more...