The Garden: Day Four-Finally!

Cherry tomatoes, complete with paint stirrer marker.
A long shot of the whole garden: Herb Garden to the left and in-ground section to the right.
The Hibiscus on the day after I transplanted it. It has a beautiful flowers!
A close-up of the in-ground part. Green onions, cucumbers, summer squash, red delicious tomatoes, cherry tomatoes. Back row: Swiss Chard and yellow rose in the reddish pot.
The herb section. Lots of mints and other herbs.

The Garden: Day Two and Three in Pictures

Pop sweeping up the carport while I worked on the "de-grassing" the garden.
the garden half-done at the end of Day Two.
The Garden totally de-grassed after Day Three. It sure seemed to take forever to get this garden ready for planting. Can ya see the lines made by the tiller?
Here I am celebrating finishing with an action shot! The garden is ready for planting!
Transplanted Hibiscus at the head of the garden. This was done at the end of Day Three.

The Garden:Day One in Pictures

This is what the garden space looked like before I touched anything. I picked this spot because it has a dappled sunlight in the afternoon--which is the harshest sun of the day.
Pop holding a pitchfork, ready to help. Before we did any work, he and I went back and searched through the all the sheds and workspaces to find whatever tools we might need to accomplish this project.
So, here is what we found! From left to right, a hand tiller, the pitchfork, a broken shovel, a post hole digger and an oddly shaped shovel. We used all of them at one point or another, excepting the broken shovel.
I dug a border so I could see what I was doing as I continued working on this project. It is probably about 4 feet by 6 feet. I knew that I couldn't do all that digging in one day, so I took pictures to show y'all how it all came to be. This is how it looked at the end of Day One.

Progress

So, I managed to finish almost all of the garden today!! All that is left is to plant the hibiscus seeds that Paul--from Hwy 92 coc--gave me on Sunday a.m. and three other plants. I have the seed packets somewhere in my room; however, everything I own is stacked and piled in there and I haven't had time to unpack it. I have NO CLUE where my seed packets are. When I find them--hopefully no later than bedtime Saturday--I will endeavor to plant them ASAP.
What I DID do today was this:
-re-potted the new mint, sage, and Rosemary that I bought Saturday.
-de-legged (dunno what else to call it) the Polka Dot plant I bought Saturday. Basically, what that means is that I cut the five long stems of the polka dot plant at roughly the same low point on their stems. The purpose of this action is to allow the plant to become more bushy. So, I cut the original Polka Dot plant at about 6 inches from the dirt. When new branches start growing from those cut spots, they'll grow more sideways--kinda--allowing the plant to grow more sideways; thus allowing it to be more bushy (like a bush) than leggy (think that model Twiggy--tall and think with no shape or curves or anything).
When I finished that particular part of the task, I got two larger pots, filled them with dirt and began a process which could be considered monotonous. I took each of the cut stems. At each section where new leaves were growing, I cut the plant at the seam. I stripped the leaves from the bottom of the old seam and stuck them in the dirt of one of the aforementioned pots. Basically, I did this same thing--over and over again--until each of the originally cut, leggy stems was "planted" into the bigger pots. After some regular watering, those cut "parts" of the Polka Dot plant will grow up and become big Polka Dot Plants. I will then have to do the same process over and over again until each little plant is sufficiently bushy. Y'all, I wouldn't be surprised if Polka Dot Plants were something you should expect as a gift from me--sometime in your future. I have this terrible feeling that those green leaves with Fuchsia dots which grabbed my attention at Betty's Blooms in Silsbee may become pervasive, omnipresent, ubiquitous--EVERYWHERE in my garden sometime soon.
After all the re-potting was done, Pop went to get his wheelbarrow and we hauled all the plants I've bought and grown in the last two months to the garden area. They'll stay contained plants, but I wanted them to get sun on a regular basis. They've been on the carport since their "births" and probably aren't as fabulous as they could be because of it. Who knows what I'll have in a week? They'll be getting direct morning sun, dappled afternoon sun, and direct evening sun. Should be okay, I hope. I did notice that the two transplanted fuschia bloomed today--LOVELY blooms--but they were a bit wilty looking. Hmmmmmmmm. I wonder if the dappled afternoon sun doesn't provide them enough direct sunlight. Those things sure do like their sun I'm told. In Jamaica, they climb all the walls and fences along the highway and are always large and beautiful and right, directly in the Jamaican sun. I'll wait, I suppose to transplant them again. I don't want to subject them to another shock of transplantation so soon after the original one.
I know that I said this next statement in an indirect and subtle way earlier, but I'll restate boldly: I DROVE A WHEELBARROW TODAY. YAY! I know it may seem very dorky of me to be excited about that fact. However, I will make two more statements of importance:
A) Yes, I am a dork; however, I like myself, so it is all good. Bring on the dorkiness, and
B) I really think the key to staying young and alive and healthy is finding joy and fulfillment and happiness in the little things, like--say--driving a wheelbarrow full of plants which YOU helped make, yeah? I say "GO DRIVE THAT WHEELBARROW, Y'ALL!!!" ;-)

Okay, I also planted the tomato seedlings in the hanging basket. Originally, I planted all of them in the hanging basket. As I re-read the directions (have no clue why I did that) I noticed that each section of the hanging basket (top and bottom) was really only supposed to have three or four seedlings. so, I took all of them out, laid them carefully on the dirt and then proceeded to pack up that hanging basket properly with only a few seedlings in each section. Aftewards, I planted all the remaining tomato seedlings in my actual garden. Ya know, the part I dug grass out of with a post hole digger? They were the VERY FIRST plants I planted in my real-in-the-ground-garden. YAY! I'm still driving a wheelbarrow! I also transplanted my green onions and seeded my cucumbers and summer squash. I know it may be too late for everything, but I look at this endeavor as practice or experience or whatever. At the very least, it is FUN!

So, now, excepting the seed packets hidden in my room, my garden is DONE! Yay! Now all I need to do is show it a little TLC and we'll see what happens.

As I get pictures processed (or eventually get a phone with a camera) I'll post pictures I've taken of this process. I hope y'all are enjoying it as much as I am.

Love,
Loralee Fabulous ;-P

P.S. I went to the Ace Hardware right here in beautiful downtown Buna to see if they had something for me to mark the rows. The nice lady in the garden department gave me 12 paint stir sticks just for marking the rows. How cool is she? So, now my vegetable rows are marked--with permanent black marker--by partly submerged paint stirrers sticks!

Garden Work

I want to apologize at the beginning. I don't have a digital camera, so I can't give you actual pictures of what I'm doing as I go along. For now, I'm going to use photos from the internet. I DO have a one-use camera and I'm taking pictures as I go along, so in a week or two when the camera is full, I'll be able to process it and put them online. Soon as I can, I'll get a camera, i.e. when I get the money.

So, what am I doing that requires pictures? I'm starting a garden! Yesterday, Pop and I began preparing the bed for my little garden. I used a post hole digger--yes, I did!--to tear the grass away from the dirt. I put a "border" of just dirt around a rectangle of grass. I plan to dig out a portion of my rectangle garden every day. It is hard work and I'm not used to using those tools, so I don't usually last very long. I imagine that it may take 4 to 5 days to get the grass free from dirt and till it.

Yesterday, I was "post hole" digging the grass out when Pop came over to ask if he could help. One of the things about Pop is that he wants to feel useful. I always try to find something for him to do if he asks. When I'm cooking dinner, I get him to put plates and silverware on the table, etc. He always wants to help carry things or fold clothes or whatever. Yesterday was no exception. He asked if he could help, so I told him that he could start taking the grass away from the rectangle on the opposite side from me. He did so in a very practiced way; and, then he kept going! Soon, he had dug a 12-inch hole at the other end of my garden. I didn't really need any kind of 12-inch hole in my garden, so I guided him over to the side of the garden where I had already taken the grass away to make the border. He began loosening the dirt with a little hand-held tiller, but he soon tired of that way of accomplishing his task. He walked over to the fence where all the tools were leaning. He picked up the oddly shaped shovel and headed back over to the border where he was supposed to be tilling. And--be began tillin...errr...digging again. Soon, my border was a 6-inch ditch around my garden. I guess those spots won't have any plants. I suppose I can always buy some bricks or other border material to surround the garden.

Pretty soon, I was tired, so we quit trying to take the grass off of the surface of my garden area. We were sitting nicely on his rocker lawn chairs when I noticed that all my seedling plants were getting too big for their little starter pots. I spent the next hour singing ( I made up some of the songs myself: o/' come out gently, Basil. Please, come out gently, Basil o/' and o/' Oh Tipper, pretty doggie, this cilantro ain't for you. Doggies don't eat cilantro, but their humans do. So, stay away from the cilantro, puppy--stay, stay away! o/' o/' weird songs, I know, but we are talking about me, aren't we?) and re-potting the basil, parsley, thyme, rosemary, cilantro, mint and dill. I also planted three or four pots full of Gerber Daisy seeds. I can't wait 'til they bloom in late August!

So, now I'm tired and have, not only a bunch of sore muscles, but also some pretty kitchen herbs who'll have more room to grow.

OH! I also bought a Hibiscus plant and was given an almost dying Swiss Chard Plant on Tuesday. The hibiscus dropped the two blooms it had, but Thursday another bloom came around. It was a perfect red and so beautiful. I'm thinking I may have to get a few more Hibiscus plants the next time I run across some. The Swiss chard was a different story. I like that stuff, by the way. It is good to add it to other lettuce leaves in a salad. It adds a unique taste and texture. Worse comes to worse, I can add to to my breakfast shake, yeah? So, Tuesday when I was at the nursery, the adorable young man with one of those very charming Southeast Texas boy accents told me he was going to throw it out and that I could have it for free. I was stoked! When I got it home, I cut off all the holey and droopy and dying leaves. To be honest, I was left with about 6 leaves by the time I was done trimming. I watered it generously and set it out in the constant light rain yesterday (thank you, Hurricane Alex!) By the end of the day yesterday, those six remaining leaves were standing up straight and tall and proud and I'm certain that it is possible I may have some swiss chard to add to my salads very soon.

I'm wondering if I should plant it in the ground. Any suggestions?

So, that was a fabulous part of my yesterday. I'm so excited about this gardening thing. I think I'll be learning a lot. Actually, I've learned a bit from the book my little sis gave me for Christmas on container gardening. (thank you, Vicky!) If you live nearby--well then maybe I'll have some veggies for ya!

So, I'll see ya tomorrow!

Lolly Fabulous!