Green for Now
That’s a photo of our Roma Tomato plant as of the weekend before last. There’s no way you can see all the blooms and tomatoes on this one plant. It’s absolute madness!!!
A close up of some of them:
Again, that’s one plant with dozens of tomatoes and dozens more blooms… Did I mention we have like 2 full rows of tomatoes????? LOL!
Pretty Sunny Beginning
Charles signed up for a test package of Sunflower seeds this past winter. We received them earlier this year and planted them when the time was right. In return for receiving this gift, all we have to do is report bee activity back to the company who sent us the seeds. Such a little experiment. It has actually been so much fun that we plan on having more next year. It’s so exciting to watch them grow and now one of them has a beautiful bloom:
(Please note the watermark on these is for protection of the photo as these are available as cards and prints in my shop The Cozy Loft on etsy.)
These flowers are ones that just make you happy. They are so pretty and delicate yet strong and handsome. Perhaps they should be called smileflowers…
Lettuce Broccoli Carrots Oh My!
Lately, my life has been a whirlwind of work, gardening, spending time with Charles and then we run out of time. Where does it all go so quickly? Especially the weekends – they are gone in the blink of an eye and then good ole Monday rolls around again.
This weekend, Charles and I worked in our garden, doing some much needed weeding and a little bit of harvesting. We had a large strawberry ready on our one strawberry plant. I should say the reason we only have one plant is that we bought it at a little country seed store here where we live and when we went back for more, they were sold out. We couldn’t find more of this same variety so we are going to be patient and hold out until next year and purchase more of this same variety so we know we love them! That one strawberry we did have was better than having a dozen so-so strawberries though. It was the best flavor and texture! Soooooo good!
We have also harvested an onion and a carrot just to see if they were ready. Lettuce and greens are ready like crazy and we’ve even shared some of our harvest with friends and family. That’s always nice when someone does that for us and now that we are gardening, we are happy to return the favor.
Back to the carrot for a sec…I had read online they are ready to harvest after 60-80 days. Realizing it had been 80 days, we harvested one which ended up being really small, so they have more time to go before they are ready. Still, we are definitely having it on our salads tonight. Here’s the carrot in the middle of our harvest:
And a close up of our Bibb Lettuce, really dark in color and so tasty:
And here’s some of the Black Seeded Simpson lettuce:
Our broccoli that we started indoors from seed is really starting to show some excitement. Check this out:
How exciting is all this? We weren’t sure how things would grow here since this is our first attempt. So far, so good. This year is sort of a work in progress and hopefully we’ll learn some things that will help us in our next garden next year 
All I know is this…I love love love eating lettuce from our garden. I really want to do whatever it takes to have it year round. There are ways to grow lettuce indoors during cold months. We just have to figure out a good place as well as what we’ll need and we just might do it…
Garden Harvest
Hey Everyone! I couldn’t wait to show you a couple things!
Charles and I have been working so hard on our garden and it’s been paying off greatly. We have been harvesting lettuce for over a week now – almost daily! Not only that but we were able to share some with our next door neighbors as well as my parents who came by to visit us yesterday afternoon. It’s such a great feeling to be able to give people things we’ve grown ourselves!
It dawned on me that I should definitely take a picture of this gorgeous salad for you to see:
That’s Charles’ salad as he loves tomatoes and I have never developed a taste for them. This is what he had instead of the what I had, which leads me to this…
Here’s a photo of the mustard greens from our garden that I ate this evening:
Charles hasn’t ever liked mustard greens and bless his heart, he tried a bite and just could not like them even though he wanted to. On the other hand, I love them because I grew up having them every gardening season. I guess it’s an acquired taste? At any rate, they were sooooo good!
I hope you are trying some gardening this year. It’s such a great feeling to be eating something you grew yourself. Not only is it healthy, but it’s also a money saver!
Signs of Life
Earlier this year, we purchased a Seedless Grapevine from Lowe’s and had planted it according to the instructions. We had given up on it and had already discussed digging it back up and exchanging it this past weekend.
When we walked outside Saturday morning, lo and behold there was life! Beautiful foilage has shown itself just when we had completely given up hope. Here’s a little shot of our special surprise:
Now Charles has told me I have to figure out what kind of trellis I would like for this little creature. No problem!! YAY!!
Rubbermaid Garden?
We have planted potatoes for the first time ever this year. When researching, we discovered that a great idea is plant potatoes in a rubbermaid storage container. It’s supposedly a great way to keep pests away from them since they are not in the ground. We took an old container we had and Charles drilled a few holes in the bottom and lower sides to allow drainage. We planted two seed potatoes (Russet White) inside IT last month and look at this photo we took on April 26th:
And another look at them, taken today:
I can hardly wait to pour that dirt out of that container and harvest all those delicious potatoes!! Or at least the hope of all those delicious potatoes in there!!
Knock Out Roses
Last year, we came across a coupon for Buy One, Get One Plants at Home Depot. Needless to say, we did some shopping! Among the things we purchased were two beautiful rose bushes called “The Knock Out Rose”. Right now, there are buds and blooms galore on them and I just had to share a few photos:
and another:
These literally have DOZENS of buds on them and I’m completely amazed by them. According to the tag, this variety is tough and hardy, as well as excellently disease resistant. It boasts that it blooms from early spring until hard frost and needs no special care. Now, I don’t know about you, but this is my kind of plant!
Spring Snowballs?
We inherited lots of lovely things with our home. On the side of our house are four gorgeous snowball bushes. These snowballs are like the size of softballs! They are huge and so beautiful that I just had to share some photos:
The only problem? These are on the side of our home, the opposite side of where we park, have our deck, etc. I rarely see these beauties. However, I AM making more special trips to that side of the house now…
Berries – Yummy!
We had the first fruit of our labor yesterday! HOW EXCITING!! We ate our first strawberry from our Cardinal Strawberry plant. Oh why oh why didn’t I take a picture of it for you to see? I did take one a few days ago, though and you can see that here:
It is the one on the right. That photo was taken several days ago, so imagine it the most beautiful red color ever and so very, very good. I brought it in and washed it, then cut it in half so Charles and I could both share in our very first edible from our garden.
This particular strawberry plant, at the time of this photo:
had 14 berries on it! Well, now that we have eaten one, it has 13 currently.
Amazing, isn’t it? How nice it will be to feel a little hungry and then be able to walk outside to our back yard and gather some things to eat. I am so loving this and highly recommend it to everyone!
Thank You + Garden Beginnings
Thank you all so very much for the wonderfully kind comments and private emails. My heart is touched by your concern and your prayers for my mother. I’ve shed many a tear by your words – overwhelmingly happy tears. She’s doing ok so far and really just waiting for her appointments. In the meantime, she has a positive outlook and is in really good spirits. Her first visit regarding her back is coming up soon. I’ll keep you posted and thank you so much my dear and wonderful friends.
Before all of the issues with Mama’s health came to be, Charles and I had been working diligently on our very first garden. Last weekend, he tilled the area (and ended up with some horrible blisters!) and I had taken some pictures of the before and after.
Here’s the area in our back yard before:
and after:
I’m not sure if this looks large to you or not but this garden has 19 rows! Already planted in it are onions, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, lettuce, and pole beans (green beans). Still to be planted are cucumbers, corn, peanuts, peas, tomatoes and okra. WHEW!
Plus we have this little second garden:
Inside this are strawberries and I think I’ll also have some herbs there. It’s just off our patio so things would be easy to harvest from there.
We can hardly wait not only to grow things but to share them with our neighbors, friends and family. I can’t wait until I want a salad and I just go to the back yard to make one!
Starting a Garden
In light of our newly adopted cottage style of living, you may remember (if you have been reading my blog for several months) that we reinstalled our clothesline this past summer. We used it a little bit until the line broke and just had not restrung the line until last summer. I’m thrilled at how that has turned out though we haven’t been able to use it through the winter. (I can hardly wait until spring!)
We are doing something else, as well. The past couple years, we have attempted to have a garden. I say attempted because we had very little out there and what we did have was not properly cared for. While we did harvest a few tomatoes, that was pretty much it.
This year, we’ve gone all out. Or, at least in our plans we have! We have bought several packets of seeds. Some have been 20 cents, some $1 and some $2. The last day of January, I planted some chives. Guess what? They are starting to come up already!! I’m so excited!
Then, on 2/3 we planted onions and carrots and on 2/9 we planted a couple tomato plants. We have little onions and carrots coming up already, also!!
Ok, now those of you who have been gardening longer than us please don’t laugh at our attempts. I hope we aren’t being too terribly silly but we are so excited. I imagine I have looked in those little pots at least a dozen times today!! Seriously!
Now, you will probably really laugh because here’s some little photos I thought I’d share…
The carrots:
Onions:
Chives (I think this is 3 plants, though it could be 2….):
All we did was purchase a bag of potting soil and a few packages of seeds. By the way, we do have more seeds but it is too early to start them right now. We have been saving 2 liter coke bottles, plastic bowls and containers. This makes me happier still because that means they just don’t get tossed…they actually are being used and we aren’t paying additional money to purchase pots. It’s definitely a win-win situation!
Anyone else gardening this year? If so, have you started yet?
