My Gardening Pal

I love taking my cockatiel out into the garden with me. His wings are clipped so he can't fly away and our fenced backyard is a safe place for him to ride around on my shoulder. He enjoys playing in the sunshine and listening to the wild birds that stop by the feeders.

His name switches back and forth between Arrr Matey and Captain; whichever Caleb is feeling like that day. Officially I would have to say that his name is Captain and that he is probably going to learn how to say Arrr Matey.

Captain sits on my shoulder while I weed and water the plants. He also hangs out with me while I sit in the garden at sunset. I like the way he tweets and whistles while he's outside. It's easy to tell that he loves being in the garden as much as I do.

Tomatoes!

I see that several of you have been feasting on your tomatoes for a while. Some other avid gardeners in my particular area are feeling the pains of a late growing season and are just now seeing the beginnings of tomatoes. I think I am just a little bit behind everyone as usual. Here is a picture of a little green patio tomato. I am quite excited about this little guy and have decided to name him Yummy.


I first noticed Yummy about two days ago. He still had crumpled yellow petals stuck to his rear end. He was very small, but he is growing steadily and I plan to put him in my tummy before too long. I have to decide on something special for Yummy, since he is the first tomato to show his face around here.



This is a beefsteak! Hr fist appeared today. I'm very excited about the beefsteaks because I am going to wait until they get big and huge and then I am going to fry them green!! This was my first motivator to get my garden started! I wanted fried green tomatoes, but if you want green tomatoes in the PNW then you have to grow them yourself. I can taste the bacon and fried green tomato sandwiches now... Mmmm!

Excellent news about my banana pepper. This plant was damaged in the 2010 Pitbull Garden Massacre. My dog, Chopper, had eaten off all of the blossoms, leaving only one misshapen banana pepper. I didn't think that anything was going to come of it, but I kept watering it and....



It's difficult to see because I took the picture with my cell phone, but there are little buds on there! Very exciting stuff going on in the garden these days, folks! Very exciting indeed!

Weeding: Sector One

Hello Gardening Mentors!
I've taken your advice and have sectioned off my yard for weeding purposes. Today I weeded around the garden as it is my favorite part of the yard. It took me about an hour, but it went by pretty quickly and I did a very thorough job. Everything is now pristine and not tainted by unwanted weeds.

I did happen to see something glorious in the garden while I was weeding... Ladybugs! Hooray! For some reason they were crawling around on some yucky weeds, but they didn't seem perturbed at all when I gently moved them to the tomato plants. There were a few of them, so I let Caleb "catch" one and put it in his bug keeper for a little while. He is very good about letting his little critters go so she was released back into the tomatoes shortly after.





They were such good tempered little ladybugs. I hope I get to see them tomorrow.

P.S. Took this ladybug picture from the web. I wasn't quick enough to think of snapping a picture of our little guests. Trust me though, they looked just like this one.

I Hate Weeding

I know that a lot of you gardeners find it somewhat therapeutic, but I hate weeding.  I wish I could just wave a magic wand ala Harry Potter and make them all instantly disappear.  I find it to be back breaking work.  It leads to mounds of yard debris which I have no idea with what to do. I also firmly believe that weeds are like grey hairs; if you pull one, two will come back in its place.

I very nearly always put it off. Sometimes I get ready to pull weeds, I walk outside, I look at the task before me, and then I turn around and go back inside.  I procrastinate pulling weeds so much that they start to get out of hand and it makes me hate it that much more.  You've seen the pictures. You know what I mean.

Sunday is my weed pulling day.  I have Saturday off of work, but I have obligations so I have to wait until Sunday.  I am dedicating myself to pulling weeds.  I'm gonna do it.  I am.  Sunday is the day.
.... no
I'm still not convinced.   Okay, fine. I'll do.

I have to do it. I owe it to my plants.  Everything is trying SO hard to grow.  I feel as if I should be harvesting so much more than I am.  I have been reading other blogs on the web (see my blog roll) and it seems as if everyone is eating up their garden.  It also seems like everyone is much better at it than I am.  I hope that the Summer runs long since it took so long to get here, but something tells me I won't be that lucky.

Okay, I'll see you guys on Sunday.

Giant Snow Pea

Check out this snow pea that my plant grew!  I accidentally broke the top off of it while removing it from the plant.  The peas inside of it were huge as well.  Caleb wanted to eat it, but he said it tasted yucky.  This has got to be a prize  pea!

Broccoli is For Peoples!

Hey! Mr. Slug and Mr. Snail, this is your final warning. I will not tolerate you slimy-ing up my porch with your disgusting squishy body. I will also no longer allow you to come near my broccoli. I planted that broccoli and it is specifically being grown for consumption by humans! So take your nasty little mucus-covered behind somewhere else for lunch!

Sincerely,
Kimmi
Keeper of the Vampire Broccoli

Indoor Gardening

100 degree day = broccoli comes inside. I sent a text to my gardening mentor and he definitely advised me to bring my beloved broccoli indoors. Apparently I have a slow growing broccoli because I think he's already eaten his!!

Rooftop Gardening

Have you folks ever heard of rooftop gardening? There are a lot of people who love to garden, but they don't have a lot of room. Sometimes they live in apartments or condos and don't have much of a yard, if any. Many of these gardeners have turned their rooftops into flourishing planting areas.

It appears that my mom has created her own brand of rooftop gardening. I was walking up to her front door a few evenings ago and saw the funniest thing. A weed is growing in her gutter!




It might look like the top of a tree from behind the house, but I assure you, it's not! I will definitely try to get a better picture at a different angle so that you can see for yourself, but it's a weed in the gutter! I am trying to convince her to plant her herbs up there. Wouldn't that be funny to see! An herb garden growing along the eave of a house! So far she isn't taking to the idea.

She finds her gutter weed pretty embarrassing, so I am going to have to work quickly to get more pictures before she convinces my dad to climb up there and remove it!

Cursed Gastropods!

Something has been eating my broccoli, and it isn't me!  Something has been nibbling holes in the leaves of my broccoli plant. So far they have only eaten two of the leaves, but those leaves have turned yellow and I had to pull them off of the plant!  I don't like the looks of this!

Forgive me if I don't know what I am doing, but I am under the impression that if a leaf starts to die, you pluck it off right away.  My mom used to say that the plant would focus all of its energy in trying to revive the dying part of the plant and that removing it will remove the immediate problem.  I'm not sure if that is correct or not, but one this is for sure, it doesn't remove the root of my problem.

It looks to me, and again - I'm no expert, that some kind of snail or slug has been munching away at my broccoli leaves.  Not only does this anger me, but it also sickens me because snails and slugs are ugly and slimy and yucky.  I don't want one crawling (or slithering or slinking or whatever their mode of locomotion) any where near anything I am going to be eating!  Keep your nasty mucus off of my veggies, thank you very much!

I have yet to identify the culprit.  I have made several late night trips out to the garden to see if I can catch any of these little slime balls in the act, but nothing yet.  My mom has been sprinkling her veggies with snail and slug bait.  I don't have any on hand, so I will have to wait until tomorrow to borrow some of hers.  I thought about leaving out a pie tin full of beer.  I have heard that works.  Problem is that the only beer I have is a six pack of Widmer Sunburn and I am just as likely to share that with a slug as I am to willingly share my vegetables. ... not likely!

Broc a Lot!

This Summer weather has been doing wonders for my garden! My broccoli is not only confirmed at broccoli, but it's getter bigger and bigger every day! I have to say that so far, the broccoli is my biggest success.

This gardening season has been full of ups an downs for me. A few time in the last couple of months, I've wondered what the heck I was even trying to accomplish. Yesterday, Caleb ate snow peas fresh off the plant. He didn't even have to drown them in dressing. For dinner he picked up a piece of cauliflower and said, "Oh! Broccoli!" and gobbled it up. Close enough for me!

What I wanted from this garden was a way for Caleb and I to spend time together outside. It was supposed to be a little project we could do together. I was also hoping that it would get him to eat more veggies. At the very least, my green has accomplished those things. It's also taught me a lot about perseverance and patience.

This is really something... And I love it, good, bad, and wilty.