Let it Rain

There was a lot of rain last week.  I don't mean it rained a couple of hours.   It rained inches and there was hail.  Luckily none of my plants were terrible damaged (perhaps traumatized ).  The picture below is from my bedroom window and I was trying to capture the rivers that were flowing in, through and around my garden. For those of you that are wondering, I am not keeping trash in the garden, it has potting soil in it.

The other excitement this week is that some creature has discovered my lettuce.  It is delicious so I understand.  Next year or this fall I will need to protect it better and also learn to thin it out.  My philosophy this year was survival of the fittest but I 'm not sure that applies in this situation. 

The two newest editions to the beds near the house are dill and basil.  I didn't grow these from seed myself.  I have learned that lesson.  Allow the professionals to start them for me.

Th rest of these pictures are just updates on progress. Speaking of progress, I have moved into week two of the Couch to 5k program and I'm still alive.  Sorry no pictures of that, it's still really scary looking.

Squash and Zucchini 

Tomatoes 

Green Bean

Sweet Potato

Lemon Cucumber 

Cantaloupe

Ready, Set, Go!

Yippee!

Not that you can tell from the pictures above but the garden is planted.  The only thing not in the ground are the watermelon and acorn squash.  Not for any particular reason other than the urban farmer ran out of steam on Sunday afternoon and life has gotten in the way since then.  

then there were two

They will be planted by the end of the week. 

One of the things that has gotten in the way is that I've decided as part of my plan to get healthy (hence the home grown vegetables) I am also going to attempt Couch to 5K.  I'm not sure that I will actually register for an event but I enjoy the goal based aspect of the program.  I will keep you all updated, I've only survived one day so far, we'll see how it goes.

I digress....Here are some more photos of the progress.  Hopefully the torrential rainfall we received this week didn't wash all of my seeds away.

don't miss the bamboo creeping in the background

I don't claim to be creative enough to come up with this.  Credit goes to another  urban farmer/blogger

Last but not least, the progress on the things that have already been planted.

carrot

Potatoes (wow!)

You win some you lose some

I'm sure some of you think that I have already given up.  Why hasn't she planted her garden yet you ask?  Well I am going to trust the sage advice of those that have gone before me and not plant before Mother's Day.  I think this is mostly to avoid frost but part of this journey is to rely on the integrity of other farmers (urban or otherwise) .  As most of you know Mother's day  is a week from tomorrow (depending on when you read this) and to ensure I plant on time, Burpee has sent my first plants.    It looked like a package from the future.

This is what was inside.

There are specific instructions to water and allow the plants to rest for at least 48 hours and that they will survive up to 10 days.  

Good thing as this brings me to the loses part of this post.  I don't have the heart to post pictures but there have been some minor setbacks.  First, I have mold on eggplant and green peppers seedlings (which are no where near as large as the ones from Burpee?).    I have tried all the internet suggestions to no avail.  Hopefully they will survive until next week.  Secondly there have been two fatalities in the last week or so....the onions and the cauliflower.  I'm not too upset about the cauliflower but the onions were important.  Perhaps I will take the loss and buy an onion set from another farmer.    Finally the garden soil is still not ready.  This is not for lack of trying.  Dad and I have spent many hours out there but it seems every time we get going either Mother Nature in the form of weather stops us or the infernal bamboo.   If anyone has any suggestions (other than setting it all on fire) I would be open to them.  Next spring it will be action item number one......