Its all planted!

Laura visited this weekend and brought with her more tomatoes and peppers thant we ahve room fro in our garden.  We ended up planting 4 tomatoes - I only saved room for 3 in the garden and the other one went in the 1/2 barel with the herbs.  The herbs have not come up very well yet. 

• Tomato 1 - Grape - half barrel, thin cage
• Tomato 2 - heirloom - garden, tall cage
• Tomato 3 - heirloom ? - garden, regular cage
• Tomato 4 - roma - garden, regular cage

She also brought with her 4 varaiteys of hostas that joined the east side of the house and some Iris that are now on the west side of the house. The plants last from Laura's greenhouse treasures are 2 yellow peppers, they joined the other sweet pepper.

We visited Pecks to finish my plant shopping on Saturday.  Here is what I got & did with it...

• Jeepers Creepers - Whitley's Speedwell (Veronica whitleyi) - landscaped area near the lavender that I can't decide if its growing our not
• Jeepers Creepers - Creeping Thyme (Thymus praecox 'Elfin"
• 2 Jalapeno pepers - south edge of garden with the peppers
• 1 habenero pepper- in the middle of the spinach patch...hope the tomatoes don't over grow it like they have in the past, but did not want it on the edge of the garden in case an unsuspecting child were to have a sample of the peppers.
• Salmon pink geranium vine hanging plant for the hook on the north side of the house

We have been enjoying radishes out of the garden this week!  Its amazing to see the difference in maturity of  the kholrabi that I got from the greenhouse vs the ones that I got on Mother's Day weekend  and planted 3 weeks later!

The peas have been enjoying the summerlike temps this week and have taken off growing on the trellis, and pea gates. (Found the fencing under the deck decided to make some happy peas and gave it to them last weekend, too) The beans have all sprouted in the last 2 days as-well as lots of weeds!

Beans are in

Planted the bean seeds this morning.  Pole beans are around the pole and bush beans are in 2 short rows between the poles and peas. Peas are coming along nicely, too.  Added a 2nd tomato cage to the peas, because I found it in the shed when straightening up this morning.

Over the weekend we planted all the stuff from Laura's greenhouse including "Laura's Special" - all her extra seedlings that she stuck in a pot, we spread out a bit and stuck it in the ground just to see what happens. Still need a jalapeno pepper, habenaro pepper and 1 more sweet pepper, along with 3 tomatoes.

On the east side of the house we finally planted something - 2 varieties of hostas from the church on C ave, I can't recall its name, that had a plant sale on Saturday.  Two ice cream buckets worth of plants for $9 - I can handle that.  The backyard landscaping area looks much better this year.  The plants are fuller, and adding the smaller plants has helped too.  Now if only we could get the  lavender to grow.  The 2nd batch I got still did not grow.

Waiting for the sunshine.  The plants that are inside need WATER - so I put them on the deck hoping for a rain shower to feed them.  The garden looks like its growing well - can't wait to see what is does with some SUNSHINE! Just got an email from my sister about what she planted...

Hi,
Karla the peppers I gave you are Ferry Morse California Wonder 300 TMR Pepper.

The cabbage I planted are Copenhagen Market. The package shows green Cabbage but its from Dollar General. So maybe that's why they are purple cabbage.

I have 4 Yellow Belle peppers.
4 Rutgers Tomato
4 Roma Tomato
4 Hungarian Heart Tomato from Seed Savers Exchange.
What ever Keith planted for Tomatoes
Purple Vienna Kohlrabi.

What do you want for your Garden? 

Mom, Dad said your tomatoes go in the raised bed.

Laura 

Mother's Day bonus

Mother's Day weekend was COLD!  We were in north central Iowa near the Ia/Mn border and they had frost on the ground.  We only ate asparagus 1 time - and there was no extra to bring home. *bummer*

I knew my sister had started some seeds in the greenhouse where she works.  She used Dad's old seed - and had great success. I came home with a flat full of plants.  Now to wait for the rain to stop and things to dry out a bit.

Here is what is on the flat of plants:

• 6 kohlrabi
• 2 peppers (sweet?)
• 2 red cabbage
• 1 mixed pot - the pot my sister threw all of her "extra" seedlings in when she transplanted into larger cells...and they are all alive
• 2 brussle sprouts
• 6 marigolds
• 1 coral bell - from Mom's flower garden...from my Aunt...from her Aunt...the best kind of plant!
• 1 pansy - given to all the mom's at church.

So I just need tomatoes, a jalapeno pepper or two, some sunshine to get the beans in the garden, and some creative space planning to figure out where I am going to put all of these wonderful plants. Oh and some hastas for the east side of the house - I hope to pick these up this weekend at a church on C Ave's plant sale.

Peas are up

Last weekends rain helpd the peas, radishes and spinach to emerge!  Yay!  I was digging in the garden yestarday and we could use more rain.  The top 3-4" are dry.  Might have to use the hose after today's sunny, warm and windy conditions. 

Sunday I decided I needed a trellis for my peas and beas...well I knew I needed one but didn't know how to build it.

To build the "pea gate" replacement I used stuff we already had - an extra tomato cage, some plastic fencing leftover from another project and zip ties.  I did purchase some twine string.

The bean pole trellis was built from bamboo - not sure I"m done playing  with it.  Wish I could recall the site I saw my inspriation on.  I used 4 bamboo poles and twine string.  I need one more pole across the top and then need to figure out how to plant the bean seeds around it...hopefully that will be done early next week.

I'll try and take pics one of these afternoons when things are quiet.

I did plant herb seeds with the kids help - refilled the 1/2 barrel with 2 bags of dirt and they put in the seeds and then took a piece of plastic fence - think squared off chicken wire - to cover the planter to keep the critters out.  What critters? The 2 legged variety that roam my backyard daily and removed the 2 bags of dirt that were previously located in this barrel.  I still need to attach the fence but figure the herbs will grow up through the holes and that they will actually have a chance at life that way!