Mrs. C Does Stuff

I planted this garden a little over a month ago.  Since planting, I've been tracking the progress of my plants.  The picture above shows how all the plants look now.  We are experiencing a little growth here, folks. I try to keep the plants watered well.  It has been raining fairly regularly here, so I haven't had to water everyday to keep the soil moist.  Lately, I have started to notice that some of the leaves are yellowing.  This happened before with my tomato plant a few years ago.  Either the sun is burning the leaves or my plant is having water issues.  I'm still trying to figure this one out. My first attempt at a solution will be to address the water issues.  Although we have had almost daily rain, I will try keeping it more watered and see if that helps.  I've also been considering installing a drip irrigation system to assist with keeping the soil moist enough.  We will see how this works out.  Of course, if I ...

Let me start by saying, I do not have a green thumb.  My main problem is my lack of attention to plants once I have planted them.  However, it is a personal goal of mine to improve my gardening skills.  I love plants and flowers.  And, I have always wanted a garden.  The idea of growing my own food seems so rewarding. This is a great activity that can be done with a toddler.  My plan is to learn while I teach my two year old how to garden.  Together, I think we can do this and have some fun too. We wanted to create a raised bed garden using cinder blocks.  We leveled out the ground as best we could and created a rectangle with the cinder blocks.  We placed cinder block caps on each of the blocks to finish off the look.  Doing this will also help block light from getting through in the holes of the cinder blocks and keep grass from growing within the holes. We actually built and prepped the garden bed a few weeks prior to plantin...

Considering my Early Girl tomatoes were doing so well at the beginning of the season , they have now died.  Well, I think they would have still been thriving had we not gone on vacation.  We went out of town for about six days earlier this summer.  It seems when we returned, they were goners.  I tried to think of what could have gone wrong.  Here are a few ideas that could have been factors: It was at least 100 degrees everyday while we were out of town.  The plant most likely needed additional watering to accommodate for the dryness of the soil. I never got around to purchasing a cage, which might have helped support the vines as they grew.  I am not sure if this was truly a factor in my failure to keep the plant alive as the plant never got really tall.  I also, never put any additional plant food after the initial soil.  I should have provided more nutrients for the plant.  I'm pretty sure this was a big contributing fac...

The first fruit from my Early Girl plants I first told you about back in April , had ripened.  I pulled it and inspected it.  It was a nice size.  This is a medium sized fruit, a little smaller than my palm and plump.  It was it had a true red color to it. The taste was great.  It wasn't too bitter or sweet.  It was good enough to eat like an apple, if you are into that sort of thing.  I'm into that sort of thing. So far, this is the first of only two fruit on my plant.  I don't plan to grow anymore than the two tomato plants I have for now because I don't need a lot of tomatoes.  Currently, the plants are still in that medium sized round plant.  I have noticed they have gotten taller, so I may need to add a cage so they don't droop.  However, I don't think the plants have yet outgrown the pot.  That may change as the summer continues and the plants progress. I'm so excited about growing my first tomato!...

I am working on growing tomatoes.  We don't need a lot, so I started a couple of tomato plants in a medium sized pot.  There are a large variety of tomato plants out there.  I chose the Early Girl tomato. It is round in size, described as a globe type.  One of my favorite features is that it is considered an early and late bloomer.  I believe from the information I have read on it, that it happens to be one of the tomato varieties that blooms the longest. This is a picture of my first tomato blooming.  I do not have much success with gardening, but am actively trying to get better.  I will update you on the progress of my Early Girls later. In other gardening news, the Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree still has green buds on the tree.  None of them have turned yellow yet.  I am considering adding some type of fertilizer to the soil, that might help them progress.

This is a Dwarf Meyer Lemon Tree, it is supposed to get between 4 - 6 feet tall at full maturity.  Even though it is smaller in stature, it bears a great deal of lemons.  I found out about this tree while searching for easy to care for items for a  garden.   I am no gardener, I attempt, but often fail to grow plants, flowers, fruits, vegetables and spices successfully.  Source: Pernell Gerver's Online Store I received this tree as a gift. So far, I have been keeping it up nicely. Several lemons are growing on the tree, looks to be about fourteen or so for now.  I find it works great in a pot on the patio.  My tree is progressing quite well, it looks like this right now. Here is a closer view of the fruit. I will keep you posted on the progress.