I LOVE SURPRISES!

 I love surprises!! Well... good surprises!!! I have been away from my computer for a few days and I was sad to miss Monday Harvest,  Oh, How My Garden Grows, and the Tuesday Garden Party. We were out of town for Independence Day and then I needed to make an unplanned trip out of town and left Monday afternoon and returned Wednesday afternoon. Needless to say, I was eager to get to my garden. A very special lady (my precious mother-in-love) arrived at the house for a visit about the same time I arrived home yesterday. Since she loves plants as much as I do and since we both needed to stretch our legs after driving, we eagerly headed out to the garden. I was excited to harvest 29 cherry tomatoes from the Energizer Bunny bush. I also harvested 5 okra pods. But my biggest delight was my find while showing my MIL the cantaloupe growing on the trellis. I showed her the one that I have eagerly been watching and blogging about. I told her that I was surprised to have only 1 "big" melon growing but I was glad to have smaller ones growing, too. As I was moving the leaves around to show her the trellis, I FOUND THIS SURPRISE . . .

And, yes, I shook my head and blinked my eyes a few times to make sure I wasn't seeing things! This guy is bigger than the other one. It is about the size of a softball or grapefruit. Yippee!!! I don't know HOW I missed this one. (It is located on the back side of the trellis on the fence side.) I will definitely be in the store today to get the pantyhose to sling the two cantaloupes. Thanks, EG, for your education on slinging melons on a trellis.


Blessings,


Debbie

         

Refreshed

We had a good rain late yesterday and woke to a soft rain this morning. My garden looks so happy and refreshed.

Below is one bed of okra. I noticed this morning that a few of the plants have flowers and one has a tiny okra growing.

This picture has plants on the left that were planted the same time as the picture above. On the right in the back of the bed is the first okra I planted. It has been producing for about a week and a half and the pace of harvest is picking up. Soon I will harvesting okra every day. In the front of the bed is the cherry tomato plant that is definately an over achiever for which we give thanks. It was labeled as a determinate patio bush plant. WRONG!! I so wish that I had several of these plants. They taste so good and it is producing lots of tomatoes.

More pictures of my favorite tomato plant. I had to improvise with the trellis. (ha!) It wasn't supposed to get this big. I have topped out several of the vines so that it doesn't get any taller. I have rooted about 6 of the suckers I have pruned from it. But it still keeps going and going and going. Since I don't know what variety it is, I have dubbed it the Energizer Bunny!!!

This bed has bell peppers, an eggplant, ornamental peppers, and a few tomato suckers that I rooted and then transplanted.

This bed has Early Girl and Roma tomatoes. Notice Adam the Owl keeping watch over the plants. He is doing a super job of keeping the birds away. I just move him around every time I go to the garden.

Thanks for stopping by to join me on my morning walk in my garden.

Blessings,

Debbie

It's Raining!!!

It's raining! Not just a quick heavy downpour that only lasts a few minutes but a nice soaking rain!! I think I hear my garden giving a sigh of relief. Wait! What's that I see? It's the leaves doing the HAPPY DANCE!!! Or maybe it is me doing the HAPPY DANCE because I don't have to go and water my garden this evening!! (smile)

Things continue to grow. I am so excited about this little guy. When I asked my youngest if she wanted to see the cantaloupe this morning, she asked, "Did it grow overnight?" Hmmm.... Was she excited or sarcastic? Doesn't matter... she smiled, grabbed my hand, and strolled with me to the garden. I love my kids!!!

Yesterday I rooted several suckers from my cherry tomato plant. I love these little tomatoes and I am amazed at all the tomatoes on this one plant. I wish I knew how to save the seeds (if possible) for next year. I also transplanted 3 green bell pepper plants and 1 eggplant that I bought at Lowes. I was also surpised to see that the cucumber, crooked neck squash, and the white scalloped squash seeds that I planted 4 days ago were already peaking up at me from their underground nest. WOW! That was so fast!!

Today I planted 12 squares of bush beans. I hope that the heat will not be too much for them. We shall see. If they do, super. If they don't, nothing lost really. I can replant again for fall.

Over the weekend, I planted these flowers! They seemed perfect to celebrate Independence Day!

This post is linked to the An Oregon Cottage's TUESDAY GARDEN PARTY

and Oh, How My Garden Grows.

Blessings,

Debbie

Bees, Blossoms, and Babies!

The days continue to be very hot and dry! My husband put on his facebook status last night that he tried to water the yard but the water kept evaporating before it hit the ground!! Really, I did water the yard yesterday but the ground was so dry that you couldn't tell what area the sprinkler had covered. Needless to say, it has been tough on my garden.

I wanted to share the exciting news of bees, blossoms, and babies!! This little guy has been doing his job!

And I now have these!!!

My cantaloupe vines are full of baby cantaloupe. My family is tired of me dragging them out to the garden to celebrate the big event!! But... I knew that all of you would want to celebrate the occasion with me!! To enjoy more wonderful garden events, check out An Oregon Cottage's Tuesday Garden Party!

Have a blessed day!



Debbie

A Tour through My Garden

I wanted to share what is happening in my garden. It has been so hot for the last few days with temps in the upper 90s and the heat index pushing 100+. Thankfully, my garden did receive a small shower yesterday. It looked so "refreshed" after the rain.

I am trying several new adventures in my square foot garden. Below is a picture of my cantaloupes. I am attempting to grow them on a trellis. I will create a NEST for the cantaloupe either out of netting or by using pantyhose for a sling. It is taking some work to train the vine to grow up the trellis but so far I am pleased.

I am learning so much as I watch my garden grow. I have had male blossoms on my cantaloupe vines for a couple of weeks but finally I found a couple of female blossoms today. Now I am hoping that the bee that I see every morning in my garden did his job and pollinated the female blossoms. I am sure this is more than most of you wanted to know. (smile)

I also have okra, strawberries, tomatoes, green beans (bush and pole), zucchini, corn, and bell peppers growing in my garden.

I also have a new friend in my garden. I have been losing my tomatoes to birds. This does not make me happy!! So far Adam (named by my children for the singer in Owl City) seems to be doing his job!!

Thanks for touring my garden with me today.

Check out other gardens on Tuesday Garden Party. I hope I did this link right!

Tuesday Garden Party

What do you have in your garden? Please share with me by leaving a comment.

Debbie

Taking the Plunge!

My daughters, Heather @ Snapshots of My Life and Ashley @ Ashley's Spoonfuls of Sugar, have been telling me for a long time that I need to blog. But where do I start? LIFE, homeschooling, my garden,...????


I decided to take the plunge and write about my garden. I started a square foot garden last May (2009). I have wanted to use this method for a long time. My precious husband Larry told me to just tell him what I wanted and he would build it. (So thankful for this man God has given me!)


We started with a small box last year that was 2 x 8. I grew tomatoes, okra, carrots (fail!), and green beans. We were very pleased with the outcome, added more boxes and currently I have 120 sq feet. I currently have tomatoes, okra, cantelope, bell peppers, bush beans, pole beans, zucchini, strawberries, and corn growing in my raised beds.

Earlier this week I harvested a little over 2 pounds of bush beans (left) from the original 8 squares that I planted. I also planted 3 more squares of bush beans about 2 weeks after the first bunch.

I have 4 squares of Kentucky Wonder Pole Beans. Larry and I built a trellis for them earlier this week. We should have gotten the trellis built earlier but we spent a week with our high school youth choir Chi Alpha in New Orleans, LA. While we were gone, we had several good rain showers and the garden (and weeds) grew like crazy. I think I have all the weeds from my garden now and almost all of the garden tasks are caught up.

I also harvested elephant garlic earlier this week and I think I will do a seperate post on them.

I have enjoyed reading other blogs about square foot gardens/container gardening such as Our Engineered Garden and Annie's Kitchen Garden. I also recently discovered Daphne's Dandelions.

I hope this blog will be a place where I can share what I am learning on this journey.

Debbie