Slow Rollin'

I am off to a seriously slow start this season. I think I've been more focused on giving my garden a facelift instead of focusing on the plants. Still hoping to get to the facelift, but I think the crazy weeds still randomly looming throughout the garden lessen my motivation. I do have quite a few watermelon vines coming up; along with corn, basil, sweet peas, tomato, and kale. I need to devote some time next week... for sure. 

As far as my worms go... they're just eating the junk I gave them.... doing what worms do. Still not sure if I am doing 100% correct, but kind of cool none the less... and Sydney likes having worms under the sink :)

Also, a big "thank you" to Matt Jensen for my beautiful heading he created for me!

I Got Worms...

I'm going to attempt vermicomposting under my sink. Vermicomposting is throwing your old veggie & fruit peels and scraps in a box with worms and letting them go to town. After they are done there is super wonderful plant food left behind. I'm a little nervous getting started because I don't know if it will smell or attract unwanted pests, but from what I'm reading, if I do this correctly I won't have those problems. I'm getting it all set up today, so I'll report back and let you know how it's going.

Wilted

Being the genius that I am, I planted my baby sprouting plants right before our mini heat wave last weekend. It doesn't really look like anything made it through, except for the watermelon. Speaking of watermelon, I have watermelon coming up all over the place in the box it was growing in last year. I'm assuming that since I didn't clear out the old watermelon vines until recently, that the old vine dropped seeds in the box and planted for me this season. So thoughtful! 

Well, hopefully something is salvageable out there, or I may need to replant all me seeds. I do see a little hint of cilantro that might make it and one baby corn that may pull through. Our trees are looking pretty good... apricots, figs, and apples are starting to show up. So stoked for apricots!!

P.S. My mixture of sugar and borax to get rid of ants worked really well!!! 

I Love Hoes!

I spent a little time this weekend getting down and dirty with my ho. The garden is on it's way to looking better than last year. It's some serious work though getting the big think weeds out of the hard ground. I'm trying to get these out so I can plant clover between my stepping stones and hopefully keeps new weeds at bay. I was able to get my watermelon and corn in their box this weekend, but was brought to a stand still when I found that one of the other boxes has an ant problem. So bummed on that, trying a combination of sugar and borax sprinkled around to get them outta here. If you have a tried and true method, please let me know. Other than that I have a ton of ladybugs... on a ladybug side note... last season I kept throwing out some gross little red and black bugs only to find out the other day they are ladybug larvae! Like I stated in the beginning, this is a learning process for me :)

Ladybug Larvae

Here is what the garden is looking like currently. It still looks ghetto and crazy, but you should have seen it Friday... weeds shoulder high- no joke! I'm hoping to add a few more boxes soon.

Start Your Engines!!!!

Sydney helped me start some vegetable seeds a few days ago. We started them in toilet paper rolls and then will plant them when they start sprouting. That is what we did last year and it worked pretty well. You can plant the toilet paper roll with it, it just composts in the soil. Hopefully I can beautify the rest of my garden soon and we'll be rolling. Here's what seeds we started... cilantro, lettuce, beets, corn, peppers, watermelon, broccoli, and carrots. I need to start the rest of my herbs, but since I use cilantro so much, I got that started right away.

Spring has sprung!!! Viva la garden!!!

Here I come...

So I actually got out there for a short period of time last week. I pulled some weeds out and left over remnants of past vegetable plants... random onions, shriveled tomatoes, half-eaten carrots. The boxes are ready, but there were a few bugs hanging out waiting for the new crop. I need to figure out how to clear them out. The rest of the garden area is a total jungle though. I'm dreading clearing it out, but am hoping I can enlist Damin's help as part of my birthday present :)

I've also been saving toilet paper rolls so I can start my seeds soon. Sydney loved this last year... helping me fill the rolls with soil, seeds, and water. 

I'm getting back into it... I'll keep you posted.

Getting the Itch...

Hopefully sometime in the near future I will get around to cleaning out the old remnants of the past garden and get down to business. I think I've only been in a close proximity to my garden maybe 3 times since Ginger has been born... but from the looks of it my tomato plant is living on. We'll see what happens.