Signs of life

I’m not a superstitious person but there are times that I wonder…. With yesterday being Friday the 13th, I had hope I would not see any more grasshoppers.  Sure enough I did not.  BUT, I did pick off a stinkbug, hiding way at the bottom of my tomato plant and a white fuzzy Caterpillar on the side of the container.    Other than that, it was a good day.

On weekends I spend more time in the garden with a cup of coffee in the morning.  Today I was pleasantly surprised to see many vegetables that are showing life.  This gives me hope that as long as I can keep the birds, squirrels  and insects away I will have something good to eat from my garden.

I have several cherry tomatoes getting plumb, green beans are taking form, cucumber’s are producing many flowers, banana pepper has started it’s formation and the radishes ‘s little rears are starting to protrude out of the ground.  And the ladybugs have arrived.   I can’t wait to release them tonight.  I know that I will probably never see them again.  But, someone else may benefit from this.   It would be nice to see a few from time to time.  Knowing that a few will stick around to assist me.

We have  not had the time to work on placing the rain barrel that I purashed a few weeks ago.  And he went out yesterday and bought 5 more.  We will have 3 for the garden and 3 for his projects…   I also found out that my city offers water conservation classes.   I signed up for one just knowing that I would get another rain barrel and compost bin for free.    Our plans (hahaha) is to work on our watering system with these barrel tomorrow.   We’re gonna make our list so we can hit the big box store when they open tomorrow.    I can’t wait to see this!

Well, I have more digging to do. I’m trying to dig up some old stumps in hopes to expand the garden area for the fall planting.   I say fall because all of this, I need assistance to make it happen.   Other peoples time is not on my time…so I have to wait till they are available.  We should be able to have it all done by then.  If not, then we’re in trouble.

Have a great day and enjoy the slide show.

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Update on the Veggies

Yesterday  we planted 10 new green bean seedling, and 10 pickling cucumber.  We where able to place them next to the established ones, which should protect them to a point.   Both the green beans and the pickling cucumber all have blooms on them..  The bell pepper is still just sitting there..  I don’t think it has grown much and the other one that just bloomed, it’s not moving,    The cherry tomato are growing, I have several tomatoes on there, but waiting for them to turn red now.    Our regular cucumber also a has started to bloom  and the radishes are looking very good!

 

Now whats waiting in the wings to come out…..  Walla Wally Onions, a Hybrid Onion, Lettuce, leeks and a salad mix which all will take a little longer to get outside…. we have to keep them in a bit longer to make sure they are strong enough to survive outside.

And today we received our onions.   I have already cut them up and allowing the cut part to dry before we plant, which should be ready by Saturday.   I still need to start summer squash, and some eggplant.   Maybe even an asparagus, for next year.

Romalea guttata (Latreille), and Schistocera americana (Drury),

Love these big words….  they mean GRASSHOPPERS!

I had forgotten that here in central Florida that we have a infestation of eastern lubber grasshopper every spring.    Today we found two and one was sitting on our green bean plant.

Typically they will tear apart my walking Iris and like always, it bounces back after I put 7-dust on it.   But since I now have vegetables everywhere….I am gonna fight them NOW before they get big (or bigger) and more of them.

I am unsure if a product I came across will work, but will take 4-6 weeks to maybe get some killing done.

I need to do some more research very soon…and place an order for what ever I am buying……

It WORKS!

When I started this blog I wanted to test a container gardening progress.   Part of me had doubt that this would work, but the other part of me had high hopes that I would actually be able to produce vegetable that I could serve at my dinner table.

I’m sure many that had read my posts about the buckets thought the same.  So, I tried the same process with a 2-liter bottle and straw.  Using the same process as making the buckets other than a shelf, everything is identical.

In my kitchen window today, I had a 2-liter bottle doing it’s thing… NOTHING coming from the dirt.   This evening, while washing Easter dinner dishes I looked over and saw a 2 inch seedling coming out of the dirt.  This process WORKS!   The roots are growing towards the water!  I’m amazed and glad…. I hope my big buckets works just as good as this little guy.    I’ve added 5 pictures in the below slideshow.    Enjoy and happy Gardening!

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Container Gardening Project 2012

Since groceries prices are going up and up, I thought I would try gardening in buckets.  I’ve seen a few youtube videos and since I have done a garden in the past, why not now?

There are two types of buckets I will be trying.   One is a self watering (that will be made this weekend) and the others (are smaller buckets too) have 2 holes drilled in the bottom and a water bottle (cut at the top and one hole drilled in the cap)  placed in the soil for a slow release watering system.