Gardening Take Two

Yep, this is what I was waiting for: someone to take my hand and gently lead me into gardening. My neighbor, friend, and fellow blogger Heidi is one of those organic people: works on the community farm, buys her eggs and goat milk from the local homeschool families. I only type this with a little tongue in cheek. I used to be a homeschool Mom, back when our family was a reasonable size. It is amazing what we will do for our kids whether it is homeschool, buy goat milk for those sensative systems or wring every penny out of a deal so we can stay home with them. I've been humbled enough as a Mom to not knock anyone else too hard. I always meant to get around to eating healthier and even gardening. But I'm new to this and needing some help. We used to talk homeschool together, now we talk blogging, and if I can keep my black thums hidden from her, we may have gardening in common. You can find Heidi's blog at 2 Thinks to Share.




So anyway, Heidi offered me some help and new tomatoes that she didn't have room for in her garden. But while she was off blogging, her hubby planted the last of them. So she walked on over with - I'm not kidding you - a garden in a hanging basket complete with 3 herbs, a flower for color and a cherry tomato plant hanging out of the bottom. She has a link about where she got the idea and instructions. I'm pretty sure that the bunnies/squirrels/chipmunks/baby Mite can't get at these. So IF I remember to water, I may meet up with some success! After all, I even got the picture hanging the right way along with the plants : )

Gardening Update

Well, I can't figure out how to right this picture on the ancient lap top I'm working on while the Prof is grading AP exams in FL. He called last night and said the just looked up and noticed the Space Shuttle coming in for a landing. Poor guy. Today I left the house with 4 at 8:45 and didn't get home until 4 pm. That is when the real work begins, as most Mom's know. Dinner, shopping, and 3 play dates were ahead of me. I completely forgot to take Buck and Half Buck to the new night for youth group. Of course, I'm sitting here trying not to beat myself with Mom failures! I did remember the dentist, lunch with a friend, and helped with Field Day at school, made dinner and grocery shopped. Why oh why then do we get mad at ourselves over sideways pictures, forgotten activities, and abysmal vegetable gardens? There finally back on topic. If you bend your left ear to your left shoulder you get a great view of Cent's and my gardening adventure. Can you see the little bit of green left hanging off the white twine? Or if you didn't do the neck bend, it is to the right of the white twine. That is all that is left of the 5 tomato plants. Cents and I watered it practically faithfully. Every other day another plant was just missing out there. Until there were none. So....I'm done until next spring. I will just stick with my perennials. Darn, the Prof left me two patches of grass seed to water in the front yard. We occasionally feel the need to grow grass, while the grubs regularly eat it, and the the weeds rapidly fill in the bald spots. Forget it, I'm not snapping a picture of all my failures.

A New Adventure

Did you ever have something that you were just too intimidated to try? For me it was vegetable gardening. Somehow, as my friends either dug in and grew loads of salsa gardens or tentatively began with an herb garden, I kept buying those tasteless substitutes at the store. Now that they were all up to speed, I felt like I couldn't catch up with everyone else, and so chose to not even try. My mother-in-law has a green thumb, and years ago helped me get started on some perennial gardens. Over the years she has visited enough to help begin, tame, and begin again at new homes. She has saved those same gardens from going to ruin....at three homes. If she didn't get out there and help me, it was the shame of what they look like that had me cleaning even my garden before her spring visit. This year, 5 kids kept her so busy she didn't get to even see the gardens. This was somewhat planned. It's a good thing, because the tree saplings are trying to take over one bed. I need to get on it before I have a forest. But we never tackled veggies together. I think she figured out this is not where my strengths lay. And the longer I didn't try it, the more intimidated by it all I became, so I never tried it on my own.

However, this is my year. For a lot of things: blogging, uploading pictures, and in general bringing my computer skills up to the 21st century (even my 11 year old asked me for help on the computer today!); and now starting a small vegetable garden. Today I picked up 5 tomato plants for a buck at a garage sale. The motivation has finally struck. So Cents and I headed out into the yard where the mosquitoes are thick. Can you see the little bit of blue on my hip? That's my Off clip-on deal in action and it worked pretty well. Cents loves tomatoes, and she is my only hope of remembering to water those puppies. Now I would love some basic, doable advice for growing tomatoes. I staked em, but I don't have chicken wire yet. I did my old trick of putting some hair clipped from Mite tonight on them. I'm hoping that will be enough to keep the bunnies away for awhile. Shoot, I should have taken his picture too. Maybe tomorrow I can add that one.