April vegetable garden update

We've harvested some delicious swiss chard and tomatoes and used the herbs for some soup (recipe tomorrow) already!  Can't wait for the tomatoes and cucumbers to grown!

Spring 2013 DIY: Vegetable garden

It's that time of the year again!  This year, BK added more fertilizer to the existing soil in our garden bed and we started planting!

On the menu: swiss chard and spinach (for smoothies), tomatoes, cucumbers, basil, parsley and mint

Link inspects our final work

The last of our summer vegetable garden

Any ideas on fall/winter vegetables to plant?

Around the garden: Early May

We potted new flowers and succulents for the patio this past weekend

The vegetable garden is doing well.  We had to get rid of the spaghetti squash--it kind of outgrew the space I think, then suddenly died.  Now I think the cherry tomatoes will take over.

Cucumbers

My mother in law gave us flower bulbs from her garden and we were so excited to see the first one bloom--a calla lily!

Around the garden {late April}

These pictures of the vegetable garden are from last week--the plants have grown even more this week and I can't wait to harvest soon!

New cucumbers

Baby tomatoes

And spaghetti squash!

How's your garden doing?

Around the garden: early April edition

Our first rose has bloomed!  La Reine Victoria

The vegetable garden is going well--first signs of cherry tomatoes

And our newest member for the salsa garden: a lime tree!

How's your garden doing this week?

Around the garden...

Spring is here! (and spring showers as well!) We've been potting little succulents for the patio.

Planting new roses, peonies and ranunculus

And started our vegetable garden! It's going to mainly be a 'salsa' garden this year with Roma tomatoes, Serrano peppers and cilantro.  We added some cucumbers and spaghetti squash for good measure as well.  Can't wait to see how they grow!  Are you doing any planting this spring?

Final summer harvest

This was our last harvest before the vegetable garden succumbed to the heat and some sort of fungus.  B has cleared out the garden bed and we're plotting our fall/winter crop now!

Wishlist Wednesday: Fresh produce!

Our first cherry tomato harvest from our garden--hope to have some every week!

Around the garden this May

Our hydrangeas are doing well!

 Snap peas in the garden

The cucumbers have some catching up to do

Cherry tomatoes almost ripe enough to pick!

Around the garden (late April edition)

It was fun to come back home and see how our garden fared while we were gone.  Even though it's already 90 degrees, the bright side (ha!) is that there is a lot of sunshine for our plants.

Our first strawberry!!

And we've counted 43 little tomatoes growing in our garden--hopefully the squirrels will leave us some!

Wishlist Wednesday: A garden that grows

Our raised bed garden adventure began a year ago.  You can check out its evolution and how we made the raised bed here, our giddiness at the first signs of prosperity,  and enjoying the fruits of our labor here and here. 

We've learned a lot of lessons last season, namely to water more frequently and in the mornings, build trellises sooner,  and plant more realistic vegetables that we can and will actually consume (remember my sole green bean harvest?)

So this year, B cleaned out the garden bed, added a few bags of organic cotton compost and we were ready to plant!

The garden bed always looks so neat and tidy in the beginning... 

This year, we've chosen cherry tomatoes 

(we figured this might give us a slight advantage 

over beating the squirrels to harvest first)

Seedless Japanese cucumbers and Persian cucumbers

(same seeds from last year)

And just to break it up a bit, I chose a Thai hot pepper 

(perfect to spice up Vietnamese spring rolls this summer)

 

And B chose a Habanero Pepper (on the far right)  

to spite the squirrels I think

DIY: Vegetable garden July update

While we were gone for 9 days on vacation, our garden saw lots of sun and rain which the cucumbers took full advantage of and began their march towards total domination.

Here's what the garden looked like when we got back:

Before we left, we made sure to harvest everything and give them to friends.  However when we got back, B went out and came back with...

15 cucumbers!

Unfortunately they were gigantic and too old with many seeds.  Here's a side by side comparison with a ball point pen.

I believe our garden adventures are about over for the season.  We've had some triumphs and some losses (mostly to those pesky squirrels).  We're thinking about what we might plant for the fall now and are planning in advance for next spring!

DIY: Vegetable garden tomatoes

Our harvest this week from the garden.  I was a bit alarmed at the two headed tomato but they sure did taste delicious!  And it was much easier to incorporate into our meals than our first harvest here. 

It's the magical weekend of the Citywide Garage Sale again and I'll be dragging B along this afternoon.  Wish us luck!

DIY: Vegetable garden - order has been restored

We finally put up trellises for the tomatoes and cucumber plants.  Now we have to train them to keep growing up, up, up, instead of all over the other plants in the garden bed!

And not only is it a space saver, but we are able to spot the fruits (ha!) of our labor more clearly now.

Cucumbers:

Tomatoes:

DIY: Vegetable garden June update

I am proud to present our first harvested vegetable...a green bean.  While this is very exciting, I am stumped on what to do with one single green bean.  We should've thought this over a bit more when deciding what to plant...

Anyways, here are some "before" pictures from my April post about the garden.  Starting out:

This is about a month in:

And here we have it about 3 months in:

The cucumbers are really taking over.  This was taken just a week or two ago when the cucumbers had suddenly expanded from 3 squares to 6.  Now they're on their way to dominating 9 squares!

And on the bright side of things, I know what I'll make with just a single cucumber

DIY: Vegetable garden late May update

Several happenings in the garden while I was gone last week.  Mainly good and exciting things though my poor squash did get nabbed by a critter.  Here are the April and beginning of May updates for comparison.  It's exciting to see all the new growth and vegetables starting to take form!

By the way, the cucumber plant has tripled in size in the past week!  It went from being in one square to now nearly covering six squares!  I think the poor holey swiss chard is not going to make it in this vegetable death match.

Tiny cucumbers starting to grow

The squash is making a comeback!

Tomatoes are getting bigger (we're going to have to build a trellis soon)

A jalapeno pepper! (B is very excited about this little guy)

And I thought they were a lost cause but the green beans rallied and are looking great!

Side note: Does anyone have any recommendations for a natural bug pesticide?