First tomatoes of the season!

It has been a good week to garden! The other day I snapped this photo while I was outside. I love the rippling clouds! You don't find those on the East coast, that's for sure!

On with the garden...

The progression of my first ripening tomato within about a week:

All done! And time to pick!



Blessed is this feast!

 The first tomato was SO good! Since then my tomatoes have continued to ripen. Below are more pictures. I've been harvesting about 4 or 5 a day from all the plants. I've learned that if I want to get more than that I should probably grow twice as many plants next time...unless the tomatoes start to ripen more quickly and all at once.

Here is my largest sunflower, struggling to survive:

Do you see the gummy looking drops on the edges of the leaves? I'm not sure what it was doing, but it was probably stressed out from having it's leaves chewed. Poor thing!

It has finally opened, although a bit haggard looking in this picture. It smells very good, like when you take a handful of fall leaves and crunch them up in your hand, or when you walk into the floral department at Joanns or Michaels.

My other little ones have opened up here. They are very cute as well!

Look at the back of this one! It has little buds popping out the sides of it. Today these little flowers have bloomed, but I haven't taken a picture of them yet. Maybe I will tonight. My largest sunflower has a few of these as well.

Antoher comment I'd like to make is that I don't think that I will use the Sevin again on sunflowers in the future. It just hasn't really worked and I noticed 3 dead ladybugs near them...so I'm probably doing more harm than good with it. I think in the future I will stick to the nettings, even though they are quite cumbersome.

~---~

Here are more pictures of my ripening cherry tomatoes. It has still been difficult finding out exactly how much water they need, but at least I'm getting fruit off of them!

YAY!!!! ZUCCHINI TIME!

I finally got a little fed up with my zucchinis. Nothing was pollinating them and so I finally figured I would just do the job myself. Since I've started to, I've gotten fruit off of them. This is my first one and today I harvested another!

Here is a picture of tomatoes on my regular tomato plant. They appeared so quickly!

Somoe shots of what my garden looks like:

The garden wasn't spaced very well (my fault) and so now the zucchini is overtaking the eggplants. I've been trying to tame back the leaves so the eggplants can get some light, but it's difficult. The zucchini is now thriving and thus acting rather unruly.

Enemies of the Garden

On the whole, my garden has stayed relatively clear of pests. Nothing seems to bother my tomatoes save it for a few aphids here and there- but they don't seem to mind them much. I had a few things chewing on my eggplants, but they are now gone. The peppers are okay as well.

I've started to make a regular habit of looking on the undersides of my zucchini leaves, because twice I have found 2 large fat green caterpillars. When I picked them off, they seemed rather oblivious to their new surroundings in my hand and commenced with trying to eat my hand. They had really strong little jaws and it kind of hurt! They didn't even bother trying to crawl away, they just sat there and tried to eat. Voracious little critters! I thought about keeping them and see if they make any kind of cocoon, but decided that would be kind of strange and gross to keep a jar with a cocoon in it in my room. Plus, what if they didn't even turn out to be a pretty insect? That would be a let down. So instead I decided to dispose of them by the most efficient way possible...yes, to stomp on them. It was really gross! It was also a huge waste of caterpillars. If I'm at my parents house and find a caterpillar, I can simply feed it to their chickens! So it's times like these where I could really use a chicken. Anyway, my zucchinis have too many leaves now to be affected much by their munchings.

As I have discussed before, something evil has been eating my sunflowers and I still haven't found out what the culprit truly is. I've dusted the leaves with Sevin poison, which has sort of stopped it, but not entirely. The mystery bug still eats small holes here and there. I've looked at the undersides of the leaves, gone out with a flashlight and I still can't find the culprit. Then, the other day I was looking at my eggplants, when I found a HUGE grasshopper. Could THIS be the enemy? I just about died when I saw it, it was so scary! Okay I'm not really scared by insects, but because it was so large it really took me aback in horror. I grabbed it with some of my netting and here is the lineup:

Yes, that is indeed a solid 3 inch long grasshopper! It has a huge mouth and good spiny thorny legs for crawling. DID she do it? She acted a little dazed, could it be from poison? After looking on the internet, I believe it is a Grey Bird Grasshopper. According to one website here are the facts:

Natural RangeThe Grey Bird Grasshopper lives in southern North America. This includes Mexico and southwest America from California to Texas. They also live in Central America.
Interesting Facts
The Grey Bird Grasshopper lives in many different habitats. These include deserts, woodlands, and lower elevation mountainous areas. It is a very large grasshopper. It can reach lengths from 4 centimeters to 7 centimeters. It has the ability to fly over the ocean 300 miles. It is usually brown with grey spots. It is considered a pest on many crop plants.

 

So since I didn't actually catch it in the act, I don't know for certain that it's the culprit. However, I still disposed of it. I had no idea that some insect out there was so crazy about sunflower leaves.

One of my small sunflowers bloomed and I cut it and brought it inside to enjoy it. It looks kind of like a daisy, it is so small:

Pardon the blurry pic!

Another sunflower has blossomed as well:

Their leaves have been kind of left alone...maybe because they are so small and the bugs head for the tallest one on the garden? Who knows why, it remains a mystery!

How everything is coming along, plus PICTURES!

Since I planted my bed, Most of what I've been growing has been doing great, so I'll go down the list and talk about each one.

1. Lavender- I don't know if I talked about my lavender, but it never materialized- and I’m sure you figured since I haven’t mentioned it since planting it. I'm not very surprised since I've heard that it is hard to grow here, and especially hard to grow from seeds. So, I've nixed lavender for now.

2. Tomatoes- My tomatoes are all doing pretty good although they’ve had a lot of yellowing leaves on them lately. At first I thought it was normal and I trimmed them off. But now I realize that I think I’m overwatering them all and so I’m going to cut back on that. I bought some fertilizer for them as well, so I hope that helps my yield. The tomato in the clay pot is quite yellow but otherwise doing okay. I added some more soil to it as well, because I thought maybe it needed a tad more. The ones in buckets are doing great as well. The third (last one on the right) is making a comeback. As you can see, its growth is far behind the others. That’s because I discovered it was having some drainage problems and once I fixed that, it started catching up by leaps and bounds. One thing I didn't realize being the newbie that I am, is that I have to prune my tomatoes. Whoops! I was talking to my mom on the phone and she mentioned this and I was like.....hold the phone!! You have to PRUNE them?? I thought you just plant them and they grow into bushes and take care of themselves. After she told me this, I watched some instructional videos and indeed, I was supposed to prune off the "suckers" (lol) which are little offshoot branches. (Although I’m not entirely sure if you prune both indeterminate AND determinate types of tomatoes.) So now my plants are a little out of control and their fruit may not be all that big because the energy is going into the stalks. But it's okay, because this is my first time.

Since being planted in the bed, my two seed-grown tomatoes are doing fantastic, and the regular tomatoes that I bought are doing good as well even though I think I had burnt their leaves a little with insecticide spray.

My bucket tomatoes all have fruit! So exciting and I can’t wait for them to ripen!

3. My decorative plants- My potted flowers are definitely dying off. The Pansies are dying off as well as the English Daisies, but the hardy Marigolds are still going. They were all worth the little money that I paid for them. I think the sun is getting a little strong as well, so I've put them in a shadier area.

4. Sunflowers- My pygmy sunflowers are doing great, and one has blossomed and now a second is as well. I've transplanted them into the bed and they seem to like it so far. However, since planting them in the bed, caterpillars or some kind of locust has been eating their leaves. And at a very fast rate! Not good. It seems like every time I go outside, another leaf has been chomped on. I sprayed my insecticide poison on them, but whatever it is- it seems to not even mind. So I kind a slightly ingenious idea and made these tulle coverings for them. The tulle has holes that are too small for things to crawl through, and I’ve draped them over them and tied them at the bottom so that nothing can get inside. So far they have worked!! However, I took the covering off of my tallest sunflower and within 2 days it had huge holes in the leaves once again. Pictures below document the carnage. Soooo…..back on with the coverings!!
**update**
I bought some powder Sevin poison that I've sprinkled on the leaves. The bugs have come back, but left smaller holes. I hope they die!! I'll have to keep an eye on it and see if the Sevin works daily.

5. Peppers. I bought some green Bell Peppers and they were doing great- BEFORE I put them in the bed. Since putting them in the bed, the leaves have started to curl upwards slightly and so I also sprayed insecticide on them as well in case aphids were eating them. So far, only one looks okay, but the others seem to be the same size as when I first planted them and look rather pitiful. Maybe it could also be that the previous nights weren’t very warm? I'm not sure, but I really don't want them to die.
**update**
I asked my mom about why my peppers weren’t doing well and she said that they like very fine rich soil. My bed doesn’t really have the best soil since I had to mix it with our regular backyard soil. I guess that I’ll have to plant my peppers in buckets in the future because they have hardly grown at all.

6. Eggplants. I only have half of my bed in the sun, so I had to put my eggplants in the shade. When it gets closer to summer, they will have less of it, so maybe they will hold out until then. At first I thought that maybe something was eating their leaves, but whatever it was is now gone and they have remained rather untouched. They appear to be larger than when I first planted them and quite happy. They even have started to bloom! I'm very excited for eggplants, and they cost 3.50 each at the store, so I'm hoping for some good fruit!

7. Zucchini- Woe to my poor zucchinis. I planted them in the shadiest part of the garden and I'm sure they don't like me for that. I thought maybe they would be able to survive the shade a bit more than my sunflowers. Plus I transplanted them 2 times. However, they do seem to be doing okay so far considering. They have grown much leafier than when I first transplanted them. However, I’m having some major problems with them. The flowers bloom quickly and then die the same day. I wonder if they aren’t being pollinated. I’ve had several zucchini’s appear, only to die off. I’m starting to wonder if they will bear any fruit at all. =(

I guess really my only pest problems so far have been aphids and caterpillars and whatever else might be chomping on the sunflowers. Where do these bugs come from? How do they get past the high walls? Especially the caterpillars…how did they crawl all the way to my garden? Overall I think that I've had a relatively easy time growing everything else. Tomatoes are the EASIEST vegetable I've grown now by far. They really love it here! I have a new roommate who is interested in gardening now too. She said her sister has a garden, so maybe I can find out what kinds of things she grows.

I haven’t had to do much weeding either. My only enemy is Bermuda grass, but I’ve been able to pull it up quickly.

Now for PICS!!!!!1

Garden after directly after Planting:

Garden after a few weeks after planting:

Tomatoes looking good! they are growing beyond the height of the cages.

You can see a lot of yellow leaves. I must be watering it too much.

My potted tomato. It has the most yellow leaves of all.

A closer look at those leaves. =(



My Eggplants! I can see a purple bloom coming!



The eggplants are doing well.



My squash flowers. Do you see the one on the bottom drooping? Thats what they've been doing lately. Hopefully I'll get something out of these plants.

A zucchini is growing! But will it make it?

3 cute little mini sunflowers, and relatively let alone by the bugs.

My biggest sunflower and the target of evil insects!

Here you can see the damage done by mystery bugs. They did this damage in a little more than a day when I took off the protective net covering.

Pointing the camera up from the ground to the sky you can really see the damage. Some locust-type insect is REALLY hungry and LOVES sunflowers in Arizona!!

All the tomato shots! I love how the tomatoes all grow along a little vine in order.

Tiny sunflower about to open up.

The tops of the tomatoes in the bed are soooo fuzzy!

Little tomato buds and flowers.

Eggplant bud about to open.

Another eggplant bud!

Thanks for looking!

New Garden Bed!

The title says it all; I have a new garden bed that I'm very excited about. And I'll have to do a few posts on it to break it up into sections since I type so much. Unfortunately I don't have many pictures that I took while making it because I deleted them thinking that I would need the space on my card for something else. Well, on with the story!

To start with, I was unable to make a raised bed because honestly I don't have the money for it (raised bed frames at Lowes were like 100 dollars) plus I'd have to buy a ton of dirt to fill it with, and that would be very difficult, especially since I don't have a truck. Sooo I decided to go it pioneer style and hollow out a section of the ground and then fill it. I mainly made the garden for Zucchini, squash and sunflowers- plants that are difficult to grow in buckets.

To test the soil, I initially went to one section of our backyard where I wanted to plant the garden in the first place because it gets great sun and it's next to a wall so I can easily use the wall to support the sunflowers. However, upon digging in this spot a few times with the shovel, I quickly realized that digging would be difficult here since the soil was chock full of rocks and large chunks of concrete left over from the old inground pool that my landlady had filled in. I was a little disappointed because this area seemed like a perfect place for my future garden.

So then I went to the other side of our backyard, which seemed relatively free of as many rocks as the other side. The area that I chose is partially covered by shade (kind of a good thing, kind of bad) and when I tried digging with the shovel, it was much easier than I thought it would be. So I got started! I just began digging and digging. I dug through a few inches of dirt and rock, then hit a black plastic sheeting barrier, then went deeper into what seemed like a much richer sandy/clay mix. I still encountered quite a few rocks, but overall it was much easier than the other side would have been.



Rocks in the soil on the side of the yard I wanted to plant on.



Other side of the yard- looks much more promising!

Planning the garden wasn't a lot of work. I knew that I just needed enough space for my sunflowers, zucc's and the plants I had bought. Here is my plan:

My compass is wrong. Top part should be South. I'm tired!!

I put the sunflowers out in full sun, because I figured they would need it the most, as well as my peppers. My Zucc's are now in the shade mostly, and I'm not sure how that will affect their yield.

Digging was SUCH grueling work. I didn't measure out the garden, but I planned a general small rectangle that wouldn't overwhelm me and cause too much havoc in the backyard. I had asked my landlady once before if I could do stuff back there and she had said yes, but I never asked her a second time just to make sure it would be okay....so yeah....if she had gone back there and seen half the yard dug out I'm sure she would have done a back flip. Plus, I didn't want to overwhelm myself. So it's kind of small, but the area is big enough for me to actually lie down in.

I dug a little more than a foot deep. The very spot I had chosen used to be where some kind of palm plant used to be, so I hit upon old roots that made work even harder. I pulled up all kinds of strange dead roots that looked like underground hornet nests. It was a real excavation! I also encountered an old piece of poured concrete that must have been where someone had put a metal post in the ground. So it kind of takes up space, but not too badly.

Unfortunately I only have pictures now of filling it in with dirt, but you get the idea.

Different dirts and mixing. I'm adding lots of peat moss, regular vegetable soil mix and some of the dirt I took from the ground.

You can see the strong shadow cast by the wall.

Can you see it? It's way over there by the wall! I spread the dirt out around it.

FINALLY all filled.



Here is another shot of the soil raked away.



The whole process was very tiring. I would work on it after work, but after a few days I became completely worn out and needed rest. It took a week longer than I thought it would, so I had to emergency transplant my sunflowers and zucchini. NOT good. Eventually after much hard labor, I finally hollowed out the entire area and then began filling it with dirt. I filled it with roughly 2 bags of peat moss which my mom had recommended, some of the natural clay sand soil, and many bags of good vegetable growing soil from Lowes. Putting the natural soil back in was difficult because it was (and still is) full of small and big rocks and clumps of old Bermuda grass. I had to do a lot of sifting. And it took FOREVER just to fill the entire bed completely. Finally one evening at sundown I finished it. I then once again repotted my sunflowers and zucchini for a SECOND time to their new home. I wouldn't be surprised if those plants struggle because I put them through tons of stress.



The day after. You can see how the area near the wall is still moist, even after a full day of sun.



My bed looked great. Such a terrific payoff to backbreaking labor and a slight sunburn!

Everything dug and planted. The End!!

New Additions!

I'm back tracking a little bit, but because I've been busy, I haven't had a moment to blog about some of the new plants I've acquired. (Or anything else for that matter!) I'll talk about these and then every things else that has been going on.

So of course you guys already knew about the squashes. Well as I was going to Lowes for dirt for my bed, I picked up some more plants that were only 4 for two dollars. A steal! Here they are:

Eggplants:

I bought 4 eggplants. I'm so excited because eggplants are "different." They are big strange purple fruits and I've been craving Eggplant Parm for a while now. Now I can have an excuse to make my own! One eggplant at the grocery store costs $3.00, so why not grow my own?

MORE Tomatoes, but REGULAR ones:

These are regular tomatoes. So far all of my tomatoes that I've been growing are cherry- just because I love popping them in my mouth. I'm not really a whole-tomato-kind of person, but why not? I need more veggies in my diet.

                                                   Peppers:

Peppers are a must! And I heard that they do GREAT in this hot environment. These are basic bell peppers. There's NO way you'll ever see me growing jalepenos. (I don't like hot stuff usually!)