It's been a few months since I have posted (and just a few lurks in between!)...but I thought I'd say hello and give a brief update....

We're very slow out of the gate with our small container gardens...but we've had a few batches of grape tomatoes..lots more on the vine, several of our heirloom tomatoes are looking good! Our carrots (first time growing) are looking FABULOUS and we're trying real hard to NOT pull them! Jalepenos are sad...peppers are about right behind sad (although we've got lots of blossoms). All that said, I don't have the gardens that most of you do (green with envy inserted here!!!), we are still happy with our tomatoes and waiting on carrots! Our herbs have been GREAT too! Dad and I are enjoying bringing in the "bounty" a bit at a time. I keep trying to remind myself that it is really about just the joy of planting, dirt, sunshine, dirt.... I'm lucky to have friends with more dirt and that share! The compost is going GREAT!!! (Lisanne...you will appreciate that!) Hope all is well with everyone! I'll check back soon! Love, Di

Hi Diane and welcome back! I will trade you some garlic for your carrot success secret

Hi Diane. Welcome back. I too used to post more and have taken a bit of a break since I've moved three times in the last 4 years but have finally bought my own place and can settle down now and pay more attention to gardening.

I hope you don't mind if I ramble a bit. I miss the old "Monday morning" postings or whatever those were called where people would post the status of their gardens. I'll have to watch for them or start one myself.

I just learned about garlic. I have an old raised bed garden that seemed to have grown mostly weeds the last few yrs and now that I have it 80% weeded and planted and amended with purchased mushroom compost (since I couldn't make enough so fast), and all these funny stalks started appearing everywhere. They have a funny curve to their tops and a single flower bulb that looks like garlic. These are just starting to open. I've always wanted to grow garlic; I hope these are good. I just finished up reading in OG about when to harvest.

I have all sorts of flowers appearing all over the yard. It's very exciting & most of which I haven't a clue as to what they are. This house was obviously owned by a wonderful gardener at one time. I just discovered a cluster of hollyhocks tucked away in a corner that I hadn't noticed. And I accidently planted bearded irises this spring over top of giant coneflowers.

As to what *I've* planted, it's been mostly just veggies in the raised beds since I wanted to see what would magically appear around the yard first. I'm glad I waited. This is the first place I've lived where I seriously think it is fully 'planted out'.

My seedlings this spring all died. Not a one survived. I bought the best buffalo dung pots (hee) and setup a timer w/ my florescent lamp and not one thrived. I have since read that I need to use a new bulb each year; mine is probably 8yrs old. Maybe that was the problem. They were warm and well watered and had 12-14 hours of light each day. Oh well. So I went to the farmers market and had good vibes from these two young women there and bought all my plants from them. These are all doing great. Although I wish the basil would hurry up; they seem stunted, but I got those at the local supermarket (shhhh).

This is the first year where my bell peppers are doing well so early. I'm usually trying to coax the first handful of peppers to ripen before the fall gets too cold. This year I already have a pepper the size of a baseball. I've never had this much time before to actually let a bell pepper turn color. (knock on wood)

My new strawberry bed has enormous plants with giant leaves. Wow they look healthy. Except I've had about 4 stawberries thus far. I've been religiously snipping all runners too. Hmmm. The sorry looking bed on the other side of the garden that is left over from years gone by are producing small berries (nickel size) that are so packed with sugar it takes your breath away.

I thought the snap peas would be done by now so I could steal their trellis for the cukes, but fortunately/unfortunately they keep producing. Not like in mid-June, but they're still tasty and I love to munch away in the garden.

I just picked the first of my pole beans. They were tiny, 2-3 inches in length and the width of a mouse cable on your pc. Tender and tasty. I can't wait for beans (and tomatoes) every night for dinner (remind me what I said in a few wks!).

I tried to get fancy and grow tomatoes from scratch and like I said it didn't work out. So I bought some german striped things and some early girls. Of course the early girls are just wonderful. Big and healthy and full of green fruit already. I bought some attractive metal plant stakes at a fundraiser that have proven not to be as useful as they are beautiful. So I'm taking someone's advice that I just read and am letting them sprawl this year. I have a few stakes up but not nearly enough.

The two wisteria trees and the three honeysuckle bushes are driving me a crazy. I just cannot compost that many clippings. I feel guilty but I had to put some out for yard debris pickup. It's just too much.

I'm pretty happy but have BIG BIG dreams for next year. Like Dahlias.... One funny story is that have a lot of really tall daisy like flowers. I clipped some and put them on the kitchen table. Later, my 10yr old daughter was sitting there and I smelled something rank and accused her of needing a shower. It was the flowers! They got sent outside fast.