Garden Update

 

7/7/2013

 

My delightful little garden has started producing!

 

I have been getting 1 or 2 zucchini's here and there,

and a few Roma Cherry Tomatoes here and there,

But nothing too serious.

 

Over the past week my little plant babies have really started to flourish!

 

 

I'm just waiting on these babies to start turning yellow and red/orange!

 

 

A few of my tomato plants looks like they are starting to get Blight again,

So I sprayed them down with the baking soda mix last night

(1 T Baking Soda, 2 1/2 T. Coconut Oil (or any kind), 1 gallon of water)

Baking Soda is a natural antifungal,

The Oil helps the baking soda stick to the leaves,

Plus I feel like Coconut Oil is going to do miracles for the plants anyway!

and the water is the carrier!

 

My Pickle Plants are looking a little rough,

The stems have started turning yellow,

and the leaves are turning pale green and then yellow.

After putting my mad google skills to work,

I found out that they are one of the following:

 

 1. Over watered (highly unlikely)

 

2. Under watered (That's a potential, but not likely)

 

3. Need Fertilizer (that's a serious potential since I am container gardening)

 

4. Have a fungus

 

or....

 

5. Have some kind of  Microscopic insect that is eating the life out of them.

 

So I decided to conquer them all.

I fertilized the soil,

Sprayed them down with my baking soda mix for the fungus,

and then sprinkled them with 7 dust for the bugs.

 

We'll see if they start to perk up!

 

 

 

I've already gotten a small batch of pickles out of them.

Today is the 9th and final day of the process.

When I get home tonight I am going to stuff those babies in jars

& Process them!

 

(Day 1)

 

(Day 8)

 

The recipe makes sweet pickles,

But I'm throwing in some jalapenos to hopefully end up with Sweet & Spicy!

 

 

I just need a few more to be able to get another small batch started!

 

 Here's the Best part of this garden thing...

 

I got the MR. to admit that my tomatoes "weren't that bad"

And He HATES tomatoes.

 

BUT,

When I prepared them like my Dad always eats them in the summer time...

 

Sliced with Mayo, Salt and Pepper,

 

He LOVES them.

He even asked me to cut him up with own tomato after I let him have a bite of mine!

 

 

Once I get a few more I am going to juice & can them!

 

 

 

 



They Grew! They Actually Grew!

 

Apparently what we thought was a black thumb,

may not be so black after all!

 

 

 

 

Excuse the white powder.  Some tiny bugs decided my leaves would taste wonderful for their dinner...

So I had to get all unorganic on their butts with some 7 dust.

Note:  DO NOT TRY DAWN DETERGENT DILUTED IN WATER.

YOU'RE PLANTS WILL ALMOST DIE.

 

 

My little plant babies are actually growing.

I actually am A LOT surprised by this.

I know that the season has barely begun,

and a lot can still go wrong,

but people.

I ate the first tomato that I have Ever  grown today.

It was delish.

 

I don't really even like tomatoes by themselves.

I love to cook with them,

put them in a salad,

on a sandwich.

 

But I'm not the kind of girl to just pop a tomato in her mouth and go

NUM NUM NUM.

 

That Red tomato that you see up there.

I popped that baby off the step,

Rinsed it off with my hose,

and popped that thing in my mouth.

 

Ok.

 

Maybe I didn't pop it in my mouth.

 

It may have been a nibble.

But after my nibble I popped the rest of it in my mouth.

 

Then when I realized how good it was,

I found a found the other red tomato, 3 crates back.

 

Before I devoured that 'lil guy,

I went inside to grab my camera,

and documented that I, Hillary Fay N grew a tomato.

 

 

Ok, I grew 4 tomatoes.  The 3 you see, plus the 1 in my belly. 

 

The other 2 I accidentally knocked off a week ago and had to wait for them to get ripe!

 

NUM! NUM!  NUM!

 

I learned a very important lesson today.

Tomatoes that are allowed to riped to their peak are WAY better than tomatos that ripen on the counter.

Their flavor is deeper & Richer,

and they don't have that sour twang to them!

 

So listen here little bunny foo-foo that I could eyeing out my plants the other night...

There is a bee-bee gun waiting for you if you try to come snatch away my tomatoes before they can fully ripen!

 

 

PS.  Those Grape tomatoes that you see up there are really suppose to be Roma tomatoes.  But somehow I let the MR. convince me that Roma GRAPE tomatoe were really Roma tomatoes.

Sheesh. 

Oh well.  I'm sure I'll find a good use for them!

 

I'm not convinced I have a green thumb yet.

This may just be beginers luck,

I may have just painted my thumb green just to see what happens....

But maybe,

Just maybe,

Some of the J's Farming Genes were passed to me!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



Once upon a time....

Once upon a time there was a girl that grew up on a farm...

 

 

 

Every summer her amazing Father would get on his tractor and plant her a row of Pickling cucumbers,

(And eventually He would begin to plant her several rows of Gladiolas.)

 

It would then be her job to hoe them,

Pick them,

Wash them,

Sort them,

And sell them.

And it seemed like a lot of work.

 

Well,

This little girl grew up,

moved to a very distant land,

got married,

and decided that since she had grown up on a farm,

And had "grown" her very own pickles,

that it wouldn't be TOO hard to grow her own vegetables.

That Silly Little girl,

She had so much to learn!

 

 

The dirt where she lived was not the deep, rich, black dirt of her homeland.

She actually had to go BUY dirt!

 

 

 

 

The seeds that her Dad would plant for her now had to be bought as plants,

(because she started to late to plant her own...silly girl!)

And she learned the hard way that Lowe's plants are Triple the price of a Co-op!

 

 

 

 

So, she bought her plants and Her Prince Charming brought her home some crates from work.

And without knowing a thing about farming,

She planted her little plants in her crates.

 She planted,

Pickling Cucumbers,

Tomatos,

Bell Peppers

Cherry Peppers,

and Zucchinni!

 

 

And she had her guard watching over them.

 

 

And she borrowed some little helpers to help make them grow.

 

 

 

And the plants grew.

 

And they got Blight

 

And they got bugs.

 

And then when she moved they got wind burnt from the trip.

 

But Alas,

The young girl called her Father about the bugs,

And he told her to get 7 dust,

which isn't organic,

but when she tried dawn dish soap it tried to kill her precious plants.

So she learned, again, that her Father is usually right.

 

And she googled blight,

And she found that baking soda and oil mixed with water would cure them,

 

And she picked off the dead leaves from the wind

And her little baby plants are somehow still miraculously growing.

 

 

 

To Be continued.....