teddebayer's Blog

Well, the veggies are growing like crazy! Well...some of them are. I looks like the cherry tomato seeds and broccoli seeds are not showing up this year. Hubby's boss said it may have been too late for broccoli when we put it in. Also, the cabbage and caulilower aren't as thick as the other stuff, but it appears there are some plants coming up there. I hope I'm not mistaking weeds for plants...it wouldn't be the first time. *blushes* Anyway, the pumpkins, cukes, and string beans seem to be thriving. Not to mention the other tomato plants I put in, I've already had to stake them. I do need to get a few more stakes, tho.

We've been getting some nice rain of late, so I'm sure the garden is loving that! I need to water my fairy garden a bit, tho, as its under an eave and doesn't always get the rain. Does anyone know if its ok to poke a few holes in the rain gutter to let the rain drip thru to the flowerbed underneath? Once the fairy garden looks a little more established, I'll take some pics. The front flowerbed is taking a bit longer to get where I want it to be, but I'm thinking somewhere around the end of June, it may be ready for pics.

Hope ya'll are having lovely gardening days! We're expecting more rain...I guess tonite...as a cool front comes in. I hope it doesn't change direction. I'm not one who enjoys the heat.

Yours till Niagara Falls, Lori

Well, the planting's all done...I think. I finished the fairy garden this morning, after going to My Achin' Back (a local garden center) to pick up some alyssum and some other new yellow flower that's small, as I wanted some bright yellow and they were small flowers. I'm quite pleased with how it turned out! Now all I need is some mulch or something for the two flowerbeds.

On the veggie front, I'm terribly excited! We've got TONS of sprouts coming up. So far there's cucumbers, string beans and pumpkins, but I think I've seen a few cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower coming up too. It amazes me how many new ones we see each day. Guess its time to thin them out. The seed packet said to thin them out when they get several inches tall. As I've never done this before, I've been trying to follow the directions. I just hate to pull any out. Geo (the hubby) found my corn seeds over the weekend, so I'm still debating having him till a bit more and puttin them in, as well as the other packet of string beans he found. Is it too late for that?

I also have a question about watering. I tend to water in the evening, after the sun goes down a bit, to keep the sun from burning off all the water before it has a chance for the plants to actually drink it, but that's always been for flower gardens and its always worked great. Geo found a website that says you shouldn't water your garden (I'm assuming meaning veggie garden, tho it could be garden in general) in the evening. You should water it in the morinng, so the leaves have a chance to dry off to help keep disease away. Now, I've always done the gardening at our house and did a lot when I lived at home with mum, before I got married. Geo has done no gardening that I'm aware of. But it cracks me up that he's tilled the veggie garden, picked out a few seed packets and found a website and now he thinks he's the garden guru. Anyway, any watering tips would be greatly appreciated. Oh, and we live in zone 6 in southeastern Pa, aobut an hour west of Philly, just to give ya an idea of what kind of weather we get.

Once the plants get established I'll take a post some pics.

Yours till the Veggies Ripen, Lori

I've invited mum over for a cookout Saturay nite. Last week, we had the inlaws (hubby's parents and sis and hubby) over for steaks on the grill, but it was too chilly out to eat outside or even sit in the sunroom. So it looks like my first garden picnic will be Saturday. I'm hoping to have all my planting done by then, so I can show mum. She's a bit of a gardener too, so she's anxious to see what I've put in. We're gonna have marinated steak again, Geo found a yummo steak marinade last weekend. And I'll probably make packet potatoes for the grill again. I'm hoping to get tired of grilled food this summer...if that's possible. I'm looking forward to enjoying our backyard and sunroom before it starts to get too hot to sit out there. I do have to admit that I often hibernate in the ac in the summer. Guess I'll have to get used to the heat so I can pay more attention to my gardens.

divaqs, hadn't really thought about making sauce, but we'll see. I had actually planned to share tomatoes with family. I'm the only one growing veggies this year, as the hubby's grandparents didn't put in their garden this year. I figure, if the veggies do well, on harvest days, I'd go around and give bags to several family members who live nearby. Most of them enjoy the veggies we're trying. I do hope I'm not overwhelmed...tee hee.

Buttercup, you can read about the fairy garden above, in my response to divaqs. I'll get pics as soon as its done.

Sabeleme, in addition to the already-started tomato plants, I've planted cherry tomatoes, cukes, string beans, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage and pumpkins. Those are all from seeds, which I've never done before, so we'll see how successful we are. *crosses her fingers* The hubby, Geo, has really gotten into the garden this year. He tilled it, and did a pretty good job, tho I'm not sure he tilled deep enough. But we went to Lowes for seeds and plants afterwards and he was picking out all kinds of veggies, even ones he doesnt' eat I found it amusing! I'll make sure and take some pics of everything this weekend. I'm hoping to have all the planting done by then.

Here's hoping ya'll have a lovely day!

Yours till the Veggies Ripen, Lori

Well I've just planted the last of my veggie garden, which I started on Monday.  The hubby tilled the area Sunday. We went, that evening, to Lowes and picked up a bunch of seeds to try. I put them in Monday morning. I hope I did it right. I've never planted seeds before, so we'll see what happens. Then, yesterday, I bought a bunch of already-started tomato plants and put them in this morning. I'm not sure how well they're gonna do. The first several I put in went in pretty well. But the last row, I felt like I was hitting an awful lot of rocks and stones. I still planted them, so we'll see how they do too. I'm think, next year, I'll either make it a raised garden, or move the boundaries up a bit, away from the stone.

I'm anxious to see how they do, but I'm not quite as enthusiastic as I was yesterday.

After planting the tomatoes, I started to work on my pots out back. I planted red geraniums in two big pots on Monday. Then I put red petunias in the window boxes on our shed and in my pot genie next to the shed. I plan to put some red petunias in the chair pot on the other side of the shed. I have several other types of red flowers, but decided to put only petunias out back, around the shed. I think it'll look a bit more cottage-y. But I'm putting the other red flowers, and what's left of the petunias, out in the front flowerbed. This afternoon, I'm hoping to finish around the shed, then weed the back flowerbed. I'm still looking for a teeny azalea bush for out there. That's where I'm putting my fairy garden. I plan to take some pics, once the flowers are well-established, and then I'll post them.

Wish me luck with the garden!

Yours till the Veggies Ripen, Lori

Well, the back's just about all better. I'm hoping to get to do some pottering around the garden later on in the week...if the weather cooperates.

You know, I have no idea what the groundcover is. I'll have to take a pic and post it to find out.

Not much else is going on in the garden at this point. It has been hot the past few days, but we're looking for some rain tomorrow and a bit of a cool down. Could make it nice for digging on the weekend.

Well, I'm still here. I haven't forgotten  my blog. I just haven't been able to be out working on my gardens cause the weather has not been cooperating. It has been looking better, however, on our first nice day, Friday, whilst walking around the yard, making assessments of where things stood, out of nowhere, something flew into my lower back and I've been laid up every since. I am seeing some improvement, so I'm hoping to be able to do some work by the end of the week, but we'll see how things go. I can't wait to get out there and then get back in here and let you know what my progress is.

I will note this, we have a rather fast-growing ground cover out front, well, a bit out front and on the side. Its kind of burst out of the side of the flower garden and wrapped around the house. I don't want it out there, but I may try and transplant some of it to our back hill, which is quite bare at the moment, except for some roots. I considered putting grass, but thought of maybe groundcover, so as to not to have to mow it, but then I remembered that I do want the kids to be able to run up there and play if they want to, so I'm not sure how groundcover will work. But this stuff is free, so I may give it a try and see what happens. Our 4 year old doesnt' go up there a whole bunch yet, just to get the Easter eggs the bunny hid up there, so it may have a few years to get established. Any thoughts?

Welcome to my garden! I can't believe how many blogs have been started already.I've never had a blog before, but have been told I need an LJ, so here I am. I'll try and keep this mostly to gardening, but be forewarned that I can go on a bit, so pick and chose what you read. And now to introduce myself. (gee, I hope I'm truly going about this the right way...is there a wrong way to go about this?)

My name is Lori and I'm a stay-at-home mum of one 4 1/2 year old, precious little boy. We moved into our house one year ago this past October. Before that, we lived in a condo complex where the lawns and grass were taken care of for us. We has 2 small flowerbeds and I enjoyed them. Before getting married, mum and I lived in a different condo complex with the same set up. Our land isn't extensive, less then 1 acre, but I do want to make it nice. There's a small flowerbed out front. The only perrenial in it, when we moved in, was a holly stick. I'll have to take  a pic and post why I call it a holly stick. Its really rather pathetic looking. I've added a rose bush, several mums and a few other perrenials in that bed. Last year, I took out some grass and started a teeny butterfly/hummingbird flowerbed along the back of the sunroom. I did it all manually and taking out the grass was really hard. But the flowers flourished, especially my butterfly bush, and we were treated to several butterflies last summer.

I have a few goals this year. Last summer, we bought a spreader at a yard sale. I don't think the hubby will be using it, so I think its up to me. I'll be looking, on the forum, for some tips on product to use on grass and the best seed to plan on a hill that's in the shade.  I'm also looking to start my first veggie garden! YEAH! My in-laws have a tilling machine that we can use. I don't know if we'll be doing it, or if my fil (father-in-law) will offer to do it. I also want to till a flowerbed in the front. Neither of the areas are big, so he just might. And if he does, I'm gonna let him. One less thing I have to worry about doing right.

For the veggie garden, I scoped out an area last summer that appears to get sun most of the day. It'll be a rectangular area, a bit longer then wide. I'll share the measurements when I make them. I'd like to start out with corn, tomatoes, stringbeans, I think cukes and pumpkins this year. I've been forewarned that the pumpkins will take a lot of room. Unfortunately, I bought the seeds before I got that warning, so I'll do my best.

Our front lawn is a hill, a rather steep on. Its a bear for the hubby to mow, as he uses a push mower, but he's found some ways to make it not so bad. I'd love to make the whole hill a flowerbed, but we can't afford to do it all at one time. We have steps that come up to the front door (obviously). Our existing flowerbed is on one side of the steps. There's a strip of grass on the other side of the steps and then we have a carport. This year, I'd like to till the upper part of that strip and start a flowerbed over there. I want to transplant some of my mums from the other bed and get a flowering, weeping cherry tree (I think that's what it is) and put some plox under it. The neighbor on the corner, has on in their yard with the phlox and it looks really nice.

So those are my plans for this year. I look forward to using the forum for lots of info and tips. I know I'll need it. I like to garden and have done well in the past, but I don't really have much experience or knowledge.