sb158’s Valley Garden

sb158 | September 25, 2009

I updated. I keep meaning to update, but keep getting sidetracked by my kids on FB, playing The Beatles Rockband, or just life.

Totally OT, but The Beatles Rockband is a blast!

Anyway, things are looking up in the garden. We’ve finally gotten some substantial rain and somewhat cooler temps, and the plants are very appreciative (as is the gardener). The fall tomatoes, cukes, and melons are doing quite well so far, except for eaten leaves. I’m thinking snails or slugs, since I can’t find any other bugs. I mixed up a snail and slug bait I found on the Net, consisting of 1/4 cup of sugar and 1 teaspoon of yeast mixed into a quart of water. Put some out today in individual applesauce cups, so we’ll see what happens.

Got lots of flowers growing in all those lovely containers Hubby bought me a while ago, and more babies sprouting in the house under lights. Time to start the wildflowers pretty soon, too, but I need to make some free-draining soil mix for most of them. Plan to go get the ingredients this weekend, but if the stuff I have here doesn’t dry out, it may have to wait till it does. There’s no doubt it’ll stop raining soon; always does here! Found alot of cool containers on clearance at Dollar General, too. Shopping for that sort of stuff is MUCH cheaper this time of year than in the spring.

So here are a couple pics I took of the garden babies:

More later; I’ll try to be better about this…

Category: Square Foot Gardening, Veggies, containers | No Comments »
Tags: containers, flowers, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies

sb158 | July 12, 2009

(insert vile epithet of choice)______________. Fire ants, I mean. Bungled into two separate nests of the little _______ yesterday, with very unpleasant consequences. I’ve mentioned before that the french filet pole beans weren’t doing well, but I don’t think I mentioned the sick zucchini. It’s in one of the containers by the arbor thingy, and it’s only grown a few leaves and two male blossoms since I planted it before I went to Colorado. Whoever heard of a zucchini NOT growing, at least before the squash vine borers get it? So I decided to pull out the french failures and try some scarlet runner beans. I started to move the mulch away to plant the seeds, and was viciously attacked. Got away with only two bites that time; not so bad. I read somewhere that ants don’t like molasses, so I poured about a cup of molasses into a gallon of water and drenched the container with it. I also dumped a bit of Amdro in there. The ants might explain the sickly zucchini and failing beans, at least in part.
(more…)

Category: Seeds/Seed-starting, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies | 8 Comments »
Tags: containers, fire ants, Green Beans, seeds, Square Foot Gardening, WD 40

sb158 | June 23, 2009

We’re finally getting some rain and (slightly) cooler temperatures! Not nearly as much as we need, but, at this point, I’m thankful for whatever we get. I expect my plants will grow a foot overnight!

Here are some pics I took about a week ago that show how much the garden had grown while I was in Colorado. Compare them to these pics.

Pics within (more…)

Category: Experimental, Garden Stuff, Planning, Seeds/Seed-starting, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies, bread-making, containers, herbs | 2 Comments »
Tags: containers, Experimental, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies, weather

sb158 | May 4, 2009

Much better day today, since the guy fixed the AC first thing this morning. Good thing, too, cuz hubby bought this gadget that collects weather information. The gadget said the high today was 101. Felt that hot, for sure.

So I finished my two Monster Pots, as I mentioned. Here’s a pic of the jasmine pot: (more…)

Category: Garden Stuff, Personal Stuff, Planning, Recipes and Cooking, Square Foot Gardening, containers, design/build, flowers, herbs | 12 Comments »
Tags: basil, containers, herbs, shrubs, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies

sb158 | April 22, 2009

Whew! This is really the first chance I’ve had since I last posted to post again. I’ve either been busy doing, instead of writing, or too wiped to even type. That heat out there is gonna kill me yet, I swear.

I’ve been planting babies into the garden, like cukes, stevia, and bee balm, or tomatoes into SWCs. (more…)

Category: Experimental, Seeds/Seed-starting, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies | 2 Comments »
Tags: Experimental, Monster Mud, seeds, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies

sb158 | April 14, 2009

The previous post should have been put up on Saturday night, but I was too exhausted from the miserable heat to finish it. This is a continuation thereof, with all the stuff I should have already posted.

So Saturday evening, I planted a few of the indeterminate tomatoes (more…)

Category: Square Foot Gardening, Veggies, containers | 2 Comments »
Tags: Monster Mud, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies

sb158 | April 13, 2009

I finished my bed Friday, then fertilized and watered it really well today, despite the ugly hot humid nasty weather. There’s a Pacific front coming in, and it’s been “thunderstorm weather” all day today. You know how it gets still and muggy, and you can feel the sky just waiting to explode? (more…)

Category: Square Foot Gardening, Veggies, design/build, flowers | No Comments »
Tags: design/build, digging, Square Foot Gardening

sb158 | April 8, 2009

I finished most of my garden bed today, despite the higher temps and humidity. Surprisingly, I didn’t hurt quite as much as I thought I would. The bath in Icy Hot must have helped. LOL.
I have only about 10 sq ft to finish, but I don’t think I have enough “mixers” to finish. (more…)

Category: Personal Stuff, Square Foot Gardening, containers, design/build, flowers, herbs | 1 Comment »
Tags: containers, design/build, flowers, Square Foot Gardening

sb158 | April 7, 2009

This old lady hasn’t done this much digging in years, and the body is letting me know it doesn’t appreciate the effort at all. Yesterday I finished filling the front 8″ portion of the bed, and made it my goal to finish the back 12″ portion today. I got out there and started digging, and my old body just wanted to curl up and die. I hurt so bad, between muscle aches and arthritis, but I kept telling myself I could do just a bit more. Finally my “bit more” turned into the part I wanted to finish. I was never so glad to see the last bucket of dirt go in!
Tomorrow, I’m going to try to finish it all, or at least part of it. Depends on how badly I’m hurting vs. how determined I am to finish it!
Here’s a pic of what I did the first day. (more…)

Category: Square Foot Gardening, design/build | 4 Comments »
Tags: design/build, digging, Square Foot Gardening

sb158 | April 4, 2009

Hubby finally got a couple hours so we could go get my compost. You can tell he did not come from a gardening family! Rather than appreciate the merits of good compost, all he did was complain about the “aroma.” He didn’t even want to touch it to tie the tarp down. (more…)

Category: Garden Supplies, Square Foot Gardening, Veggies | 6 Comments »
Tags: Square Foot Gardening, supplies, Veggies