The last of the Greenhouse

I took these Sept 6 about a wake ago before the first frost, which was way late this year,.. there was ice on my car this morning and today is the 16th... way late. I have seen the first frost on the 1 of September so we got an extra 15 % time on our growing season this year. this cucumber i picked and already eaten.

The tomatoes have been a bit slower this year , i think i have a different variety, so it was slower. I wasn't so good this year and shaking the branches and pruning so I didn't get as much fruit as last year,... but the size was much better. they are all now sitting on the table hoping to ripen. which means they are a bit sluggish.

Then we have the second round of the celery. this is second growth of the ones I cut. the last of the basil. but you should see how much I gave away and behind that the parsley.

i puled most of the tomatoes yesterday. but the weather has been so nice all week. it's just hard to think that it will get cold.( sigh) but it will and it will be fast and dramatic is my guess.

Welcome to the jungle

The garden grows apace, this is cucumber number 4 I think, I took the first 3 camping last weekend. I tried celery this year and it has done way better than I thought it would. these photos were all taken last weekend, so there is actually a weeks growth on top of this.
The basil beside it is just amazing, tomorrow I start giving it away. so i need a recipe for pesto something, and the tomatoes are trying to climb out the roof. But currently there are only a couple of tomatoes, not as many flowers as i had last year, but that is ok. Maybe I will have bigger fruit.

My peppers that i tried again I had to pull (again ) as the aphids just came and got them. It was later than last year i managed to keep the aphids away for 2 weeks extra and actually got 2 peppers , but when i went to cut into it i discovered they were the hot variety, that i don't like, so I was less sad at having to pull them out.

Work this week has been crazy.-waiting tables just as busy as hell , an unusual week to make lots of money, 3/4 of it is in the bank. but I have had to have 3 cups of coffee this week to see me through the day job.
somehow i managed to find time to water the greenhouse and pull the peppers this week.
Now to find time to mow the lawn when its dry.

The Garden

I cheated this year- Risse greenhouse was planting the garden at work, and since I was helping I noticed they had the largest bean plants that were nice and healthy. So rather than trying stuff from seed, that i should have started 2 weeks ago. i went out to Risse Greenhouse on Saturday and just spent money.- sometimes money is handy for that -- it saves you time.

Today I borrowed the neighbors Rotor-tiller and spent an hour doing that, watered, then I went to wait tables. when I came home I planted the seedlings that i had got, lettuce, broccoli, peas and beans all done. I even got to run the weed eater around to clean the edge next to the fence, it will be a sunshine issue, and it looks better.

The green house is off to good start, the cucumbers have sorted out their roots and look like they are about to take off. I found some dwarf basil this year out at Risse. so it wont grew as high as it did last year. With any luck i am just growing this for someone else.

now all i did to do is weed... any volunteers?

the Greenhouse

may 23, Guess what I did today?
I got to make mud puddles in the greenhouse, I did have some seedlings started, but then i decided that I was going to cheat, so I went to Freds and bought some plants, 3 Tomatoes, 3 Cucumber, 6 celery, 2 peppers, Rosemary and Parsley. and got them all in today. Imight be a week early. but the growing season is short, and it is a greenhouse. I got some ash from a friend to sprinkel arund as i was planting. I will try to keep you informed about how this all goes.
How much of this I will get to eat remains to be seen. maybe I am just feeding someone else. Whatever it takes to sell my house.
in the mean time I am going to sit in the sun.

Potash and Aphids

My garden grows apace as one would expect. I have lemon basil, parsley and mint. i picked some mint the other day. and the lemon basil is probably ready as well. not quite sure what to do with lemon basil, so maybe I'll give it away.

My sad story is that I found some aphids on the peppers. then I went out to the garden and saw a lady bug so picked him/ her up and pet her in the greenhouse. i actually found 2 , but what are the chances that I have a boy and a girl of breading age. not sure what i am going to do other wise.

I have a strawberry tucked in there too and i friend said to day that it looked OK , i thought it was a little sad looking.

my lawn is full of Dandelions!

The tomatoes still haven't got flowers but i did prune them the other and they are growing well. today i went o the local greenhouse and got some Potassium and put that around , hopefully this will help the tomatoes do a bit better this year. and maybe some more in august. the Ru barb round the other side is all looking good and i could probably pick some. and the wild raspberry's are flowering as is there want.
the cucumbers are doing really well with lots of flowers, since i didn't quite get the last of the clear stuff up their is lots of sports for the birds and bees to get in and do their thing. work still apace. but I only have 5 nights this week. more time for projects on Monday. ( or I could go dancing)

Cucumbers

 Today is the 14 of May, what is the purpose of having a greenhouse if you cant plant earlier than normal.   I had played mud  with water last night, its kind a fun you know.

 so today I finished replacing the bits of plastic PVC stuff that i didn't replace last year.   

   this evening I  put 5 cucumbers in the greenhouse,  plugged in the heat lamp, and 

 now we get to cross our fingers for no frost  for the next 10 days or so. (and double the power bill)

 A 2 week head start on the growing season  i will go shopping on Saturday  for other stuff. Not sure what herbs i will try this year. definitely mint and parsley, cause they did so well last year.

 About 2 weeks ago i got a soil sample and the local water and soil guys are going to analyse the nutrients for me. i should get the results any day now. Hopefully i can put whatever necessary in without disturbing the  cucumbers.

 of other useless stuff , i now have direct sunlight shining in my north facing bedroom.

 heaven forbid i want to sleep in summer.

Frost

We had a really good frost last night the car said 28 this morning, just as well i picked what i could of the peppers yesterday. I picked 3 of those baby peppers.
So today in the greenhouse they were looking rather sad. so i pulled the tomatoes, and picked everything.

I got 6 lbs of green tomatoes, that should ripen inside. the first person who gets to come visit gets to share them.

Rolled up the hoses and turned off the heat lamp that i had on for a good week.
( No i don't want to see my next power bill) for some strange reason i left the mint. i 'll look at that in a day or 2 . i have so much dried mint around it s not funny. if you look in my oven what will you find ... drying mint.

Today I had 2 comments at work about my screen saver. so thought I would share it with you. this was taken with mothers camera from the Deck of Catherine's place.(Auckland New Zealand ) just leaning over the edge. Tea tree, or Manuka is the tree and just run of the mill ferns that grow. People at work thought it was some amazing rain forest.

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My Long lost Garden

These were taken on august 24 , I know along time ago. I have had the most wonderful tomatoes crop i have ever grown. ( last year it was 4 tomato plants and 4 tomatoes) My parsley the tall stuff is going to see and i have so much of it dried and mint well i have been giving it away to everyone at work till they are sick of it. rosemary was OK, enough, but i only gave a little away

the cucumbers must have got cold some were along along the line but i had a wonderful crop , i lost count at 25. i have 2 pepper plants ( on the right beside the mint)and this week they seem to have fruit , not sure if they are going to be large enough to eat, there maybe more photos next week on that. as of today we still haven't had a frost.

Garden Salad

i had a salad for lunch today, cucumber number 3 from the garden and lettuce no 1. the last of the bought tomatoes, i hope. It s been really hot this week, we've hit 90 3 days in a row nice for the 4 July weekend. (Yes mother i got sunburned) this should be good for all the growing after all the rain we had earlier in the week.

My peppers have no aphids on the this year, so i' m way ahead of where i was last year.

and yes i always take any volunteers to weed the garden

I had this wonderful plan to go camping this weekend overnight but that went to hell as friends just aren't as reliable as i would want.

Brockoli

Do you like broccoli, I hope someone does.

i was somewhat slow in planting this year , got all my lettuce last weekend I think, but i couldn't find any broccoli, Lowe's , Home depot and Fred's were all out. and I really like broccoli, so i got drastic and bought some seeds on Thursday, and got them planted today. its warm enough and we have had wonderful growing rain. but i have 2 rows of broccoli, from seeds so there will be LOTS of broccoli, stand by when it s time to start giving all this stuff away.

i should also have my first cucumber in about a 1 week.

Also today i just finished running around and mowing the lawn, then my new roommate decided to help and now I will have less weed eating to do , and all the edges are all looking nice. and out the front i can now just mow, YEAH!!

Garden stuff

One of the things that you are going to here about is my garden. got the greenhouse planted about 2 weeks ago. well maybe 3 and now i have flowers on my tomatoes. last year they took sooo long to flower i swear it was august, so I am kinda excited , and my cucumbers have baby ones already.

this is my tree that i decided is pretty cool, i like to photograph it just to show people just fast stuff grows up her is the spring, the new growth you see is barely 3 weeks worth.

i planted my Peas and beans sunday, 31. and i will have freash peas to eat in 6 weeks on july 16. the lettuce i bought today, that i was going to put in the ground were kinda large so they will be even quicker. No body round town seams to have any brockoli left. heaven help me if i have no brockoli for the summer.

anyway i planted Peas ansd beans Carrotts Artic chard and spring onions, and thought I d try a row of beets.

hopefully i will get a good weekend and a finish geting the lettuce in.

more another time.

Janet