Here is tomato 001. Not a secret agent tomato, just the first one.

The garden is coming around, I've added tomato cages. The beans are starting to come up strong and the squash are doing well. I learned that bugs don't like oregano or thyme, but they do like bell peppers and basil. Working on a solution to fight them organically. I have an little ants that have made their home around the roots of the eggplant. Not sure if this is some sort of natural partnership but they dont seem to be doing anything bad to the plant. Anyone knows, please let me know.


This is Sara, she is my garden pal. She keeps a look out for bugs, frogs, lizards and pretty much anthing that will fit in her mouth and not bite back.

Am I the only one interested in fixing this?

We, as people with hands and fingers, have used them for eons to serve us in a variety of ways, scratching, grabbing, holding and communicating.

With so many people on the earth communicating with our hands there are just not enough signs to go around and so we have been doubling up creating lots of confusion as to what people really mean with their sign.

In the US, at least if someone gives us a hand sign and we don't understand it we can ask what they mean. But in some foreign countries, not only do our signs not necessarily mean the same thing, they can mean something completely different and not in a good way. Talk about making new friends in new places.

Here it is especially problematic. Groups compete for ownership of the same sign. For example, is this a photo of rockers at a concert or University of Texas fans at a night game? Who knows. Look at their faces, it's clear they are as frustrated as I am about not having their sign understood.

I suggest we ease everyones confusion by creating a national registry of hand signs. Sort of like the Registry of Astronomical Stars where you can name a star and it will be hansomly bound in paper form in the Library of Congress for a small fee. This would end the confusion and I could create a small side business.

"To forget how to dig the earth & tend the soil is to forget ourselves."

- Gandhi

I read these words in a gardening magazine. At the time when I read it I thought about how I could relate to that statement. Sort of like wearing a pro team jersey for gardening, go team.

Later I considered the person it came from and how he could have meant it in a very different context, possibly political or relating to indian society. I have been inspired to learn more about Gandhi. I'll let you know.

Why Gardening Blogs are boring

Today I visited a friend of mine who will remain nameless. I encouraged him to visit my gardening blog while I was there. Politely he did, instantly I realized that my blog was only going to be interesting to me.

Look gardening is just not that action-packed. There are no villians, maybe aphids, but definately no plots to take over the garden. Things move slowly, very slowly. I thought that I might post a webcam of the garden, but only post a photo calling it a webcam. Of course I would never do something like that.

Here's your webcam of the garden, enjoy. I'll be out there later to water, so dont go away.

Let the pollinating begin

I saw the first bloom of the garden peeking through the leaves this evening. The squash are looking very good. The four tomato plants that were damaged by frost now have new growth coming in.

The big news is that I planted my germinated bush beans. I must have a greener thumb than I thought I did. Almost every bean I germinated sprouted. I could only use one of the three germination baggies worth of beans. So I gave the other two bags to neighbors. These were the Blue Lake variety bush beans. I also had a package of purple bush beans but I thought I would wait to plant them until fall because the package said good for milder weather.

Also, I planted two sweet basils in the back bed. The other two I planted look really stunted from the frost damage, so I figured I would hedge my bet.

Hail Helmets

It's a weather war and my veggies are prepared with their hail helmets. There's a storm front coming in tomorrow morning with a good chance of hail. After the beating the plants took with the frost, we're taking no chances.

Spoon goggles

Spoon goggles Bubba Gump Style.

The Germinator

I decided to germinate my bush bean seeds instead of planting them. I put them in zip lock baggies with a soaked paper towel and the beans. They have already sprouted after a couple of days and some are already show the beginnings of their first leaves. I should be ready to plant them mid week next week.

It's a good thing that I did not plant them directly in the ground. We caught a light freeze that would have surely killed off any already sprouted seeds being so close to the surface. I covered all the veggies, but some still got damage. The interesting part is which ones suffered damage. Out of the tomatoes, the Hybrids lost leaves and the heirlooms were fine. The green bell pepper was fine, a hybrid, but the red and orange had some damage. Oddly the red and orange were further along pushing blooms out already. The basil lost their tops but the oregano did fine. Go figure.

They're alive!

Will little work on my part the veggies have managed to survive two weeks. The plants in the back bed only need six hours of full sun, the afternoon sun is brutal. So the late afternoon shade works out. Nothing major to announce except that the red and orange bell peppers are starting to bloom. I tried oak leaf mulch but it blew away as my wife predicted. So I went with three inches of organic cypress mulch. It seems to be working out and helping to keep the soil moist underneth.

I almost tossed these white salvias because they were not doing well in the front bed. But moved them where they had more shade and fed them some new dirt and fish juice. They are doing much better now.

I got up early this morning to gather field stones to build dry stack walls for some of our flower beds. It's something I have been wanting to do since we moved in. The best part is that the stones were free!

Greetings!

This is the daily greeting when I get home from work. If only she could hold a beer...

The Beginning

If you are reading this it means I must have twisted your arm to visit the site. Probably my wife or one of my children or you went to the wrong blog.

The majority of my blog posts will be a journal about the vegetable garden I am growing. It's a major expansion from a couple of tomato plants last year. My goal is to grow the garden measuring individual plan growth, condition and yield so I can learn about what works best. Most of the harvest will go to a local food pantry. It's not a new concept, but new for this pantry.

My criteria for plant selection was what costs the most at grocery stores, tomatoes, bell peppers, squash and herbs were high on the list. These are also fruits that don't require much preparation at all to be eaten.

Other than the joy it brings me to garden, I hope to use this experience as a spark for new ideas about how to help others in need through similar projects.

I welcome your posts, ideas and comments.