First red tomato!!!

I ate my first red cherry tomato! It was so beautiful and delicious. Unfortunately it ended up in my mouth before I could get a picture of it. Just going to have to take my word!

My Bad?

O.K. I haven't posted in a while. I've been so freakin crazy I can't think straight. The garden is doing good, but I feel bad talking about it without photos to back it up. But the latest is this. I have 5 tomato plants produce beaucoup tomatoes, green peppers are finally fruiting, blackberries growing, cucumbers flowering like crazy, but no fruit. What else? Oh yeah, peas are the best I've ever had. We can pick a couple handfuls each day. Lettuce suck this year, definately going with a more traditional variety this fall. I had one bloom on my eggplants, but nothing since. I've got volunteer blackberry shoots everywhere, but that's O.K., they are thornless. The newest raspberry transplants are suffering, and one got broken, probably from the newest puppy.

The coolest things is that I've made the decision to go with the chickens, and it is going to be super simple with what we have. We already have the walls (fence and garage wall), all we need is the roof, nest boxes, and perches. And then I'm going to build a frame with chicken wire and a door, so that they can eat in the lawn once and a while, outside of the coop. It's going to be great. Now I just have to ask the neighbor if they want to go in on it. I want to go with a small breed, maybe sexlings (that's what a coworker called them). They are a small black breed. Trouble is they like to roam, and I want a breed that will be happy in a somewhat confined space. The space will be about 3 feet by 20 feet.

Can't wait - I can already taste the first fresh eggs!

Back From The Desert

New Mexico was beautiful, but it is nice to back where there is water. Well O.K. it is irrigation water taken from the Yakima river... I gotta work on that - next year!

Did I miss some incredible event in Yakima or something? I've only been gone a week - and my veggies have been doing incredible things! I have peas (I don't remember ever seeing flowers!), peppers, tomatoes (still green), zucchini, lettuce, blackberries (also green), and cucumber and eggplant flowers. It's so exciting!

I have to admit I got suspicious and called my dad accusing him of Miracle Growing my garden while I was gone. He swears he didn't! I'm still not sure...

Deligation?

Well I'm off today for Albuquerque for work and pleasure related activities. I'll be gone for 8 days! My husband and kids will join me on Thursday, so we have lots of relatives/friends watching the house, pets, garden, etc. I'm a little nervous about the state of my garden on my return!!! It could be either wonderful (veggies much bigger, lots of bowls of lettuce to eat) or disastrous (1/2 plants dead from no water and the other half sickly and taking a month to recover). Man - it ain't easy being a farmer!

Worm Farming

O.K. I now have three goals for this summer: 1) best garden ever, 2) chicken coop (sans chickens), 3) worm farm (avec worms).

I have a shady part of a raised bed that I built that doesn't get enough sun to grow veggies. So I figured I could use it for slow composting. But my neighbor (yes I know any readers I might have are soon going to want to know where to find HIS blog) suggested putting worms in there to speed up the composting process. My yard is amazingly worm free. I rarely find any worms when digging around, even earthworms. So I figure I'll start them (red worms) in this composting bed, and then start transporting them around the yard.

There are some links at the bottom I found on vermicomposting (the official term for worm composting).

The Story of Stuff

Why is self sustainability so important? Listen to this story:

http://www.storyofstuff.com/

First Zucchini!

My first zucchini! The easiest veggie to grow? Hah!! My zucchini plant only produced 3 tiny ones last year! This year is going to be different - I can feel it!

Organic Gardening Will Give You Cancer!!!

Check out this in depth investigative reporting on the dangers of organic gardening! It's the White House organic garden of death!!!

http://www.stuffedandstarved.org/drupal/taxonomy/term/66

Our Backyard Garden

Our garden... part of it at least. Pictured (on the right side of the fence) is our two small raised beds and in between, a squash, cantaloupe, and watermelon bed. This has several fence posts in it connected by fence wire, because somewhere I read that in Japan farmers grow much of their crops vertically because of limited space. My yard is the perfect example of limited space (as most gets too much shade from huge conifers on the south side of the yard) that I thought I would try this with the vining plants. It works pretty good!

The crop circle looking garden on the left side of the fence is my neighbors. They have much more sunny space so they find that a circular garden gets them more plants in less space.

Finally something to brag about (at least just a little...)

I finally picked my first bowl of lettuce. I think it is quite beautiful... and very tasty with poppy and caramelized onion dressing. I counted five blooming blackberries, one tiny yellow squash, five red strawberries, one green tomato, blooming zucchini, lots of yummy lettuce!

Here's some photos of our first veggies getting ready to be eaten...

Rain water

It never fails to amaze me that no matter how much I water or fertilize (this is my first year at using fertilizer EVER - organic stuff), nothing helps my plants more than rainwater. It is dry where I live, desert like, so we get these infrequent but torrential downpours! I love them because everything smells so good, and the next day my veggie plants are twice as big.

I thought about installing a rain barrel but not sure how helpful it would be in this dry climate. Might be worth trying though to catch a little of that rain magic.

My neighbor is going to start making compost tea, and said I could use it. He is also recommending I start a small worm farm. I could be a worm and chicken farmer!

I am going to be able to harvest my first green salad this weekend. I could cry.

Lettuce

My lettuce is finally big enough to make a salad (my mom made one 2 weeks ago!). Alright now I know those west side wet climate super gardeners have been eating home grown lettuce for over a month, but I'm still happy.
I need to get my digital camera working so I can document all this!
I have my first tomato - small and green.
One blackberry flower, one green bell pepper flower. Miracles in small places.

Our yard is currently a maze of trenches, dirt, and flags. Our neighbor is this organic landscaper and is redoing our irrigation. He's giving us a great deal. No more dragging the hose around the yard. I get so mad every time it kinks and I have to walk back and straighten it out, then I take it to a different part of the yard and it does it again. Hmmm. I'm sure my neighbors are sick of hearing random cussing coming from my yard. I'm sure they think me a mad woman. Cussing one minute and the next giving our new puppy baby talk. It's pitiful.

I love summer!

Why do I love summer? Because the moment I see those first lettuce sprigs come up, that first green tomato...I know I will have happy times for the next 5 months. The problem?

I don't know what the #&@(& I'm doing! Last year my 5 tomato plants gave me about 10 tomatoes. My 6 egg plants - 3 eggplants? Maybe 2 butternut squash, you get the idea.

This is the year that I will have the most awesome garden in town!!! Damn, my parent's tomato plants are already twice as big as mine. They use miracle gro, I use organic fertilizer. I put in new soil with steer manure, I kiss my plants every night before bed, what do they want from me!!! I'd like to say it was my first garden, it wasn't.

Everyone I know has a better garden than I do! But this is the year...

I planted tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant, basil, lettuce, carrots, peas, bell pepper, watermelon, cantelope, yellow squash, zucchini, raspberry, blackberry, and hot banana peppers. All this in about 2, 20x4' spaces.

Next year I want an urban chicken coop. They are all the rage! Fresh eggs! My husband said he is putting his foot down on that one. He is so funny.

I'm just kidding about kissing my plants, but I do look at them lovingly...