An Amaryllis Tribute

This Amaryllis bulb was planted as a tribute to my husband's Grandma who passed away.  We found this bulb in her house when it was being cleaned up.  There were actually two, but one wasn't viable.  I planted this and after a week it has come back to life and is growing nicely.  I have no idea what colour the flower will be but this is a tribute to Grandma Flo.  If she's looking down from heaven, I hope she will love the flowers when they come.

The Celery Experiment Still Going

 Here we have a planted celery all rooted and growing nicely (except for the gnats I had to get rid of).

Here we have the hydroponic celery plant all rooted and growing nicely.  I wonder which one will do better?  Care to take a guess.

UPDATE:  Sadly the hydroponic celery plant died last night.  I'm not sure what happened but it looks like some rot set in.

The Celery Experiment Revisited

So the gnat powder and another product called Seven has worked to kill the gnats.  The celery is back inside the house and gnat free.  It's sort of weird that the growth of the celery has slowed down considerably since the infestation.  I wonder why?  The second celery plant that is growing will be hydroponic.  This means it will grow only in a shallow dish of water.  We shall see how well this grows.

Speaking of hydroponic gardening, Neal and I visited the most incredible hydroponic garden located at Epcot Center at Disney World in Florida.  They grow many of the fruit and vegetables that are used in their restaurants in their garden.  It was so cool to see.  We took a boat ride through their garden, but you can also do a behind-the-scenes tour as well for an extra fee.

The Celery Experiment

Yesterday at breakfast I noticed that the celery experiment has a gnat infestation.  So I've put it in quarantine out on the covered porch with my African Violet that is also infected.  I didn't want to infect the rest of the plants in the house.  I had some gnat powder and so far this morning they are gone.  I will bring them back inside when I am completely sure that the bugs are dead.  I am growing a second celery experiment just in cause the first one dies.  I tried to grow an onion as well, but all I got was some roots and a bad onion smell.  It may or may not have grown if I had given it more time.

Oh an the bunny was back in the yard last night.  That cute little guy has a terrible sense of direction.  I opened the gate to give him an escape root and he actually ran the wrong way.  He finally figured out where the open door was and bolted out of the yard, freaking out some folks walking by the house.  It was actually really funny.

An Unexpected Visitor In The Yard

 Last night I was cleaning up after dinner and the back door was open, Neal was outside and our budgie bird suddenly went nuts.  The bird has this emergency chirp when something is wrong.  I new he had food and water and his cage had just been cleaned.  It could only mean one thing.  I quietly went to the door and looked outside.  There was a bunny right there in the middle of the lawn.  I quietly went outside with my camera to take this photo.  The bunny got scared and ran.  I told my neighbour's two boys that a bunny might be heading their way on the other side of the fence.  They said no bunny.  I went to the back of the shed and there was the bunny.  All of the sudden a squirrel runs next to the bunny and up the fence.  The bunny takes off across the lawn just as Neal comes into the back yard and the bunny charges right at him.  It was all too funny.  The bunny charges out of the open gate. 





Here is the strawberry plant that has made a wonderful recovery.  The plant use to be in a hanging basket, but it was root bound so I transplanted it into this much bigger pot.  As you can see, it's doing much better and is even producing berries again.

Here is the other strawberry plant and it's doing amazing as well.  Maybe now we will get the white strawberries.  So far I've only had one and it does indeed taste like pineapple.

The Celery Experiment

I was reading a blog on the internet that talked about re-growing scraps from food.  So last week I made a chicken soup and cut off the bottom of this celery.  I placed the bottom of the celery into a shallow tinfoil container of water and it started to sprout after a few days.  Once it grew some roots and leaves I got this pot and soil and planted the celery and it really is growing.  Let's see if it will grow tall and actually be edible.  Next I will try an onion and garlic.  If this cycle is sustainable, then I won't have to keep buying vegetables for my soup each time.  I still have parsley growing in the garden and some kale.

Aug. 27, 2017 - More Stuff From The Garden

So my gardening season has started to wrap up for the year, but I managed to pick a few things to show you.  First of all I have 4 spaghetti squash.  Then we have two yellow beans and various kinds of tomatoes.  Sadly I don't think we'll be getting any further zucchini as the powdery disease that claimed the cucumbers and squash plants have now attached the zucchini plants.  Oh and the latest casualty is the watermelon plant.  It got the disease as well.  We still have tomatoes, kale, parsley and beans left.  Oh and the marigolds have now grown much bigger.  They mostly did their job of keeping the bugs away without chemicals.  So it is possible to grow a garden that is all natural.

Two Spaghetti Squash

 So after the heavy rain (yes we've had one storm after another roll through all summer) I went into the garden to have a look and see what's ready.  I found these two baby Spaghetti Squash.  They are so tiny still but will grow big really fast.  I also picked another cucumber, numerous cherry tomatoes and yellow plumb tomatoes and way too much kale.  We also have 5 huge zucchinis sitting on our kitchen table.

Just a word about the white strawberries.  The experiment was a bit of a fail.  The plant only produced tiny white strawberries and then sort of went into hibernation.  I got to try one and yes it really did taste like a pineapple instead of a strawberry.  My brain was confused because I knew I was eating a strawberry but it didn't taste like a strawberry at all.  I'm going to transplant the strawberries into a large pot and see if that helps the situation out any.  Maybe it just outgrew the pot.

Some Stuff From The Garden - July 24th, 2017

 We have had one of the wettest summers I can ever remember.  Even though it's not ideal for doing things, the garden is loving it.

Here you can see a little zucchini just starting to grow.

 Here is a cucumber.

 Here are all different kinds of tomatoes.  Below is the chocolate tomato that I've cut open.  It looks like any other tomato and it doesn't taste like chocolate either.  It is a little bit more sweet than your run of the mill tomato and it's purplish in colour.

Here are three zucchini that I picked this evening, a cucumber, some tomatoes and kale that went into my salad this evening.

I think the garden is enjoying the humidity and all of the rain.  The last few days have felt like a tropical rain forest.  It's been hot, hazy and very very humid.

Early Girl Cherry Tomatoes Lived Up To Their Name

We planted a few different kinds of tomatoes this year just in case one kind didn't do well we have a few other different kinds.  These cherry tomatoes are called Early Girl.  Yup they were the first to mature so they lived up to their name.  We both had one to try and they were nice.  Not as sweet as I would have liked but still not bad.

Beans, Kale And A Strawberry

Last night while I was cooking dinner on the BBQ I went to have a look at the garden.  I had done some reading about knowing when to pick the yellow beans.  It says that you have to be careful to pick them at just the right time so that they don't get overripe/hard.  So I went out to have a look and they were yellow so I picked them.  I also picked some kale, which when boiled for a few minutes was really good and not bitter.  That strange red thing is actually a strawberry.  So far no white strawberries yet but lots of flowers on the plant.

June 29th, 2017 - We Have Beans

 Hello and welcome back to my garden.  Since we've had a ton of rain (I've only had to water it twice since I planted at the end of May) the plants have really grown big very fast.  Here you can see we already have some yellow beans.  I have to do a little research to find out exactly how yellow and how long they will be so that I know when to pick them.

 Here you can see that the kale is ready to start picking it.  I will try some in my salad tonight.  The zucchini already has flowers so the zucchini will come soon.

 Here you can see the hanging basket full of strawberries.  The partially ripe berry you can see here was ripe this morning and I ate it.  The taste is like nothing you can ever buy in the store.  It's really sweet and full of flavour.

 Here we have the white strawberry plant.  I can't wait for one of them to ripen to be able to give it a try.  I'm curious to see if the berry will actually taste like pineapple or not.

 Here you can see the cucumber plants are also flowering.  The plants themselves really haven't gotten all that big.

 Here are the squash plants.  No flowers just yet but spaghetti squash are more of a fall plant. 

The last plant is the sugar baby watermelon plant.  It's still very small.  I'm not exactly sure of the timeline or what to expect with this plant.  It's the first time I have ever grown on.  Fingers crossed that we at least will get one watermelon.

An Update And Lots Of Growth

 I thought it would be a good time to show you some exciting stuff that's happening in my garden.  Here we see that the yellow beans have grown a lot and are starting to flower.  These look like they will be bush beans.

 I was surprised to see that our cherry tomato plant actually has some tiny tomatoes already.

 The Super Marzanio tomato, which will be long instead of a round tomato is already producing.  I may have to get some more next year.

The kale is almost ready to eat.  Just use a scissor and cut off some leaves and it will keep on growing.  By the end of the summer we probably won't want to eat kale again until next summer.  Also the zucchini plants are growing nicely.  No flowers just yet but soon.

The Garden Is In For 2017

 My garden has been planted and Mother Nature is watering it today really well.  So this year I've planted a few different types of tomatoes (Roma, Yellow Cherry, A Speckled Chocolate Tomato and one other that looks like a finger).  I had to plant the chocolate tomato out of curiosity.  Does it really taste like chocolate or even look brown?  Only time will tell.  I've also planted parsley, kale, butternut squash, zucchini, cucumbers, yellow beans and watermelon.  I'm not sure if we'll actually get a watermelon or not, but it's worth a try.

Here you will see the strawberry basket that Neal bought me for our anniversary.  So far it looks really healthy and has some flowers on it.

Tulips Have Awoken From Their Winter Sleep

Here are my beautiful tulips.  They have finally opened up and they look beautiful.  They haven't looked this good in a really long time.  I guess it's all of the rain we've been getting.  If they like the rain then they will be really happy with what's about come in the next few days.  The weather folks are calling for flooding rains for the next four days.



  Here are my Hyacinths.  They small amazing!!!

Aaaahhhh Spring!

Just a brief post to let you know that the planning phase of the garden has once again begun.  I started seeing some of my Hyacinths have just started to poke their heads out of the soil.  Those little flowers are so brave coming up before we know if winter has truly gone for sure.

The other day I was reading about different uses of tea bags in the garden.  Once you make your tea, remove the string and paper tab and you can put the tea bag into the garden.  It's good for the soil and it will help to keep the bugs away.  The article also said that cats and other animals do not like the smell of tea and will keep them from your garden.  Hmmmm I wonder if raccoons like tea or not.  I think this tea bag thing is worth a try.