W8 Garden

These were taking last week but I haven't taken any this week and probably won't. In fact, I may just stop taking pictures for this year. Reasons at the bottom of the post.

NW Garden.

Right now, there actually are two zucchinis in my garden. Almost ready to pick! And sometime early next week, I'll be picking my pak choy.

SW Garden. This was after I had been gone for 1 1/2 weeks and my garden didn't get much water. It looked sad.

My poor strawberry plants.

 This is ... um.... oh! one of my bean plants. There are beans on them now so that is why I didn't recognize it at first.

SE Garden.

The pepper is bigger now.

This tomato was eaten already.

And here are some pretty flowers on some tree in our backyard!

So this was all about the experience of a first year garden, right? Here is what I have learned.

• For my backyard, putting the garden boxes on the asphalt was the best choice and I really like them there.
• I knew the dirt would settle, but I didn't expect it to go from 6 to 3 or 2 inches. As a consequence, my plants growth is stunted.
• The hot weather stunts growth too.
• I haven't eaten a lot of produce from the garden (with the growth stunted and all) but I absolutely love it.
• Next year, I think I will build 12 inch boxes with lots of soil. If Jared agrees.
• Best way to garden ever! The first 3 or 4 weeks, I had a lot of weeds--mostly those seeds from the tree that was falling into the garden. Lately, it has been weed-free.

W7 Garden--as promised!

The majority of my day was spent washing clothes and packing for our vacation. And taking plenty of breaks to be with Kaelyn who has figured out that if I'm in the kitchen, I'm probably not going to hold her. She is a pro at steering me away from the kitchen sink or stove.

I am going to miss my daily visits to my garden while I'm gone! See the lone tear make its way down my cheek.

NW Garden.

Zucchini flower!

NE Garden.

Something likes this broccoli plant.

SE Garden.

The strawberries are doing so much better now than they were a month ago!

W6 Garden

If I remember, I'll be taking W7 pictures on Thursday and then W8 a few days late. What's new? :)

NW Garden. I pulled the spinach and planted.... um, something there. I'm pretty certain I put beans there.

I love how this pak choy looks more and more like the final project every day.

SW Garden. Don't look at the tomato still sprawling on the asphalt. It's too late for that tomato to be staked up.

Beans! Some of the few out of several seeds that I've planted.

SE Garden. Growing beautifully!

One pepper plant with no leaves on the bottom stem.

Another pepper plant just as tall as the last but with leaves on the bottom.

Some beautiful tomatoes.

I kept forgetting to take a picture of this, but there's these greenery things out front. A few weeks after I put the fence up around the garden out back, I noticed some of these leaves disappearing. In a matter of five days, all the leaves of that particular type of plant was gone. It looks like this now.

See? Gone. I don't really care because they came with the house and in my long-term plan, those aren't remaining. Revenge of the Rabbits?

W5 Garden

I already made my excuses for why this is nearly a week late in the W4 post. So straight onto pictures.

NW Garden. Look how big those zucchini plants are!!! The spinach plants are still growing well too.

Some carrots.

My mouth drools just looking at the pak choy. I can't wait to harvest it. I need to plant more. And I definitely need a bigger garden next year!

My chest puffs up with pride every time I look at these tomato plants. I only purchased two from a nursery and the rest I started from seed. This is one that I started.

SW Garden. Oh look. That tomato plant is still not staked. But hey, some beans actually sprouted!

Lettuce. Yum.

More beautiful little tomatoes.

SE Garden. Everything is growing so well. Except the beans that keep not sprouting.

The yellow (I think) pepper plant. It's tall along with the red (I think) pepper plant.

The green pepper plant still is having trouble. The leaves keep going brown in spots and then dropping. The growth is also super stunted. It is barely half the height of the others.

The watermelon plant.

My cherry tree is weird this year. It barely bloomed and it barely had any cherries on it. There were five within reach and not many more besides. :(

I don't know what was going on with our back step this day, but there were TONS of ants crawling all over it. The next day, they were gone.

And for a very last picture, this was the first harvest several weeks ago. Since then we've enjoyed lettuce and spinach as salad and on sandwiches. I love eating what we've grown!!

Week 4 Garden

So much for weekly posts. I have excuses. Wanna hear them? If not, just skip to the pictures. The Friday of W4 was taken up with a family trip to the zoo and then a Chinese buffet afterwards (which Jared rated barely above average but I think he was rating it against Chinese restaurants as a whole and not just buffets). I got these pictures taken on Saturday but then was busy with prepping for my ward's camp for our young women (just on a ward level, not a stake level) that was on W5. W5 pictures were taken on Sunday (Father's Day) and this week has been the beginning of the summer whirlwind. BUT HEY. Pictures of W4 coming up.

NW Garden. I'm so glad I'm taking weekly pictures because this garden really amazes me now!!

The pak choy.

The zucchini.

SW Garden. Guess who hasn't staked her tomato plants yet. (Look in the NW corner of this picture.)

Little tomatoes have appeared!!

See? It needs to be staked.

SE Garden.

The leaves of my green pepper plant keep turning like this and then dropping off.

The cucumbers.

The watermelon.