New Gardening Potential {Try New Adventures Thursday!}

Last year we grew our first-ever vegetable garden and had moderate success. It was all in containers, since we lived in an apartment. We got our feet wet and learned about things like aphids, blossom end rot, and weird zucchini fungi. Our bell peppers and herbs thrived the most.

Now that we've moved, I'm so excited that we can actually plant things in the ground or in raised beds!

Here's the front yard potential....

This huge bed is pretty much empty and ready for...something. It has a lone rose bush (yay!) and some random plants here and there. Come fall, I'm thinking of planting vegetables farther back towards the window (this area gets the best sun) and then flowers towards the front of the bed.

I already planted a few flowers (zinnias and marigolds) in another front yard bed, and some impatiens in the back yard, which is more shaded. I've never done flower gardening before (for any length of time with any measure of success), so I'm excited about this! I think I'm sort of between planting seasons, since full-blown scalding summer is right around the corner for us Floridians. So I'm not sure what to plant right now...need to do some research!

Do any of you grow flowers in Florida? Any advice for me?

The rose bush is a tall, scraggly affair that has given us one beautiful rose at a time since we moved in. This is rose #2 in her loveliness.

Which brings me around to the fact that I know nothing about rose gardening except that rose bushes have to be pruned.

The front of our house also boasts two large fig trees and four (four!) tangerine trees. Homemade fig newtons, anyone?

The tangerine trees seem to have a black mold and some white eggs (?) on the leaves. We've treated all the trees with neem oil once, but I need to figure out what else we should do to keep them healthy....because I'm SO excited at the prospect of a good citrus harvest in December!!!

I've planted some staple herbs (basil, oregano, rosemary) in a pot by the front door and they are already taking off. The herbs I planted last year grew like weeks and were such a lovely addition to many of our meals. I'm hoping to add an additional pot with thyme, parsley, and dill. I'll plant cilantro in the fall.

Another cool gardening thing? We have a compost barrel in the back yard!!!!

Who knew rotting vegetables could be so exciting, right?

Did you plant a garden this year? Flowers, vegetables...or both?
_________________________________

It's Thursday--time to link up your new adventures! It's easy-peasy: Link up your blog post, link back to Alicia's Homemaking, and then leave a few sweet comments on other participant's posts! You can also tweet your post or others with the hashtag #TryNewAdventures. I look forward to seeing what you've had up your sleeve. :)



  

New Gardening Potential {Try New Adventures Thursday!}

Top Ten Riveting Garden Happenings (3 Month Garden Update)

There are both exciting and tragic things happening in my back yard lately. Remember how at month 2 everything was pretty much hunky dory? Well, there have been a few developments, both of good and bad nature.We'll start with the casualties.

1) Florida storms are not very nice to container gardens. After several rainstorms pots have been upset, sometimes causing fruit and/or branches to fall off. As a result...

2) Three out of our four zucchini plants up and died. A storm flattened them and messed up their roots and they promptly expired. We did get two lovely zucchini fruits before they died! There is one plant left, and it looks rather ill. There is some sort of fungus growing on the leaves, I think.

Can you doctor my last zucchini plant?

3) The next issue was aphids. My pepper plants were going along beautifully, but I was neglecting to look under the leaves. Newbie gardener mistake! However, I triumphed over the horrid white bugs. The solution? Water and dishsoap! I sprayed all those pesky bugs off using a spraybottle filled with those two ingredients...and the aphids were never to be seen again! My husband knew I was officially attached to our garden when I spent 45 minutes in the heat spraying each pepper leaf devotedly.

4) Well, of course the tomatoes had to have their share of drama. Hello Blossom End Rot. We have still not been able to find a solution to this problem. Supposedly it's due to some sort of calcium deficiency in the soil. We water regularly, but I have not been able to find any sort of calcium spray to possibly abate the issue.

Thankfully, the ugly black spots are not affecting all of our plants. Look at these beauties:

5) Ok, I promise I'm getting towards the end of our gardening trials and moving on to the successes soon. But the parsley (which I planted last fall!) and the cilantro have gone to seed. But that's ok, because I haven't been cooking much lately...and we'll have seeds for replanting!

6) One of my neighbors gave me some cucumber plants! They are a comfort in light of our zucchini loss. We repotted them yesterday, and I'm curious to see if we'll get some cucumbers this late into the season. 

7) Speaking of neighbors, our other neighbor tended our garden for us for an entire week while we were out of town! So sweet.

8) The most glorious success so far? Look at this lovely bell pepper...almost ready for picking! There are more like it on the horizon. Sooo exciting!

9) Here's hoping that the next month produces lots of bell peppers, tomatoes, and maybe even some cucumbers.

10) What's happening in your garden lately?



Linked to Top Ten Tuesday, Tuesday Garden Party, and Frugal Gardening 101.

Top Ten Riveting Garden Happenings (3 Month Garden Update)

The Garden 2 Months In

Can you believe the growing our garden has accomplished in just over a month? We're just over 2 months in, and everything has taken off since day 21 (when I last updated you on the garden):

Aw, look...everything was just a baby then!

We have not harvested any vegetables yet (although I'm using the fresh herbs like crazy)...but there are positive signs of soon arrival! Buds on the bell pepper plants:

And finally, our first baby tomatoes!! I definitely did some squealing when these beauties appeared. There are about ten of them now!

We've done some experimenting/tweeking with our garden in the last month. Around month 1, our peppers and tomatoes seemed to have hit a growth stunt, so we pulled them out to get a tad more sun and added some fertilizer. BAM--that seemed to do the trick. Everyone says tomatoes should get full sun (6+ hours), but we only have at most 3 1/2 hours in our "backyard." At first I was a bit concerned about that, but the tomatoes seem to be flourishing nonetheless. Maybe because we're in hot Florida?

Also, in the last week we've been adding compost to the top of our soil, so hopefully that will benefit the plants. :) Our apartment complex has a community compost bin!


And the red bugs that I was worried about at day 21? They've all disappeared and did no harm to the plants. Whew! We have started using some Neem Oil (given to us by a friend) on the plants to keep other bugs away (an organic method).

I've loved reading some of the garden updates that have been shared for Try New Adventures Thursday. I'm falling in love and want to do a garden every year now! Here's hoping we get lots of tomatoes/peppers/zucchinis in the days to come...



Linked to Tuesday Garden Party at An Oregon Cottage and Frugal Gardening 101 at Amy's Finer Things.

The Garden 2 Months In

The Tomato and Pepper State of Affairs

Ya'll, I'm a proud mama. I have been dutifully caring for our little Spring container garden for 3 weeks now.

If you missed my container gardening intro post, let me put it out there again that I am completely new to growing things, so this is an experiment of sorts. But we're hoping for wild success!

Here's how it's going so far:

Can you tell how much my tomato plants have grown since the 1st picture? Everything has grown. :)

The zucchini, which we planted from seed, has sprouted! Yay! We have 4 zucchini plants.

The herbs are doing quite well, aside from the little red bugs that seem to be EVERYWHERE in our area right now. I can't remember what they're called. Does anyone have a solution for little red bugs?

I'm thinking it's time to get some fertilizer...something I haven't tackled yet. Someone recommended powdered milk for our tomato plants. Have you ever tried that?

I thought I would have trouble remembering to water our garden, but quite the opposite. Instead, I feel somewhat like Toad when he waited daily beside his seeds....singing and reading to them to encourage them to show their little green faces (you have read about Frog and Toad, haven't you?)! I haven't actually taken to singing to them, but I do watch them like a hawk...

If you're growing any sort of garden this year, where are you in the process? 

The Tomato and Pepper State of Affairs

A Spring Container Garden! {Try New Adventures Thursday}

Parsley is a champ. 

In other words, it's the only plant still alive from my Fall container garden. Oh, and one scraggly looking mum. Everything did ok for awhile, but then I occasionally frequently forgot to water the plants and the weather turned really cold.

But it was so nice while it lasted! Fresh basil, cilantro, or parsley can really perk up a dish!

So I'm happy to report that our first ever Spring container garden is planted and busily growing. And I have watered it faithfully for 4 days now. I'm really on a roll, ya'll.

We have 6 Roma tomato plants, 6 bell pepper plants, cilantro, oregano, parsley, and some zucchini (still waiting to sprout). Oh, and the scraggly mum. :) I'm planning on adding some basil again soon. Fresh pesto this summer would be divine.

I am very eager to see the fruit of our labor. Here's our little garden in it's entirety:

Squishy and I have added "Water the garden" into our morning routine, and it makes living in an apartment feel more homey.

Do pass on any gardening tips that you have--especially for very hot climates! Have you planted a garden this year or have a plan in the works?

It's Try New Adventures Thursday, so link on up, ya'll! Any big or little adventure will suit. :) Be sure to link back to Alicia's Homemaking and visit the other participants if you can! The twitter hashtag is #TryNewAdventures.







Linked to Spring Fling.

A Spring Container Garden! {Try New Adventures Thursday}

Try New Adventures Thursday: A Fall Container Garden

Maybe you remember how I have a brown (black?) thumb. I planted flowers this past Spring with gusto and inspiration to actually water them every day. It was going great...until we moved and left the flowers behind.

When we arrived to our new town, I found out that our apartment complex does not allow gardening. Major bummer. But recently I found out that they do indeed allow some container gardening! Hip, hip, hooray!

So this past Saturday, we took a family trip to buy what we would need for a small container garden. Since we do not have 1) much time or 2) much money, we went with the cheap round plastic pots. Also, we bought small plants instead of seeds (even though seeds are cheaper). I don't want to bite off more than I can chew (or remember to care for!) just yet. Seeds are my challenge for the spring!

My beloved basil (very excited about this!)

We're starting off super super simple with some parsley, basil, cilantro, and lettuce. Along with two marigolds and pot of mums (because I heart flowers!).

Marigolds

Mums

And so far, I've remembered to water everything!! I'm wondering, however, if I need to move the pots to a place where they can get more sun...I think they are currently getting around 3-4 hours of sun.

Any container gardeners out there who want to share any tips for my lettuce and herbs (or the flowers)?

I already used some of the parsley in cream of mushroom soup! How awesome is that!? 

So now it's your turn! I love reading about people's new experiences/experiments each week. Have you stretched yourself lately? Tried something new? Link up your blog post about it, link back here, and visit around at the other participant's blogs! If you don't have a blog, feel free to share with us in the comments. :) Our twitter hashtag (if you're into that!) is #TryNewAdventures.

Try New Adventures Thursday: A Fall Container Garden