Vegetable Planters Update

 I can say that I am really struggling with the vegetable growing prospect of gardening. I think for next season I will need to begin germinating the seeds in October or November inside. I plan on setting up a few areas in the Gym/Craft Room with some grow lights and seed heating pads in October maybe November. We do go on vacation in late October and do not return until Mid-November, so I might have to wait until we return.

The first picture is of my pitiful tomato plant. This is a Bonnie Plant Cherry Tomato. It was blooming and doing so well until we got a slight cold snap on the 20th of June. I had checked the weather and it didn't look as if it was going to get that cold. I was wrong and so many of my vegetable plants suffered. I had also just bought a bunch of flowers to plant the coming weekend and many of those got frost bit. I was able to salvage pretty much all of the flower plants, but my tomatoes, cucumbers, and eggplants got the brunt of the cold snap.

My other tomato plant has some other plants that sprouted up these past couple of weeks. I have no idea what they are, but I will transplant them into a different container this weekend.

I had 4 cucumber plants that were really thriving in the greenhouse. Once I planted them in this 6 compartment plastic grow container, they went to crap except for one. I plan on transplanting it out of this container and into a felt grow bag instead. I think the plastic grow boxes are just too hot.

My sunflowers are thriving. Keith had built me a raised bed and I filled it with an assortment of sunflower seeds. I do have a small bean sprout in the front of the bed, but I don't think it will make it either. I had planted all my radishes that were pot bound in the front part of the bed too, but they did not survive. I am looking forward to all the sunflowers. There should be 15 different varieties, but we shall see what survives.

One thing I have to do better next year is spacing my seeds at an appropriate distance from one another. I can say that some of the plantings happened right as or right after I caught Covid. I was very low on energy and high on pain during this planting season for sure. I kinda threw all my carrot seeds into one grow bag. I have no idea how they will turn out if they will turn out at all. Lessons Learned!!

This next container is my throw it all into one container and sees if it grows. I know I have some marigolds, painted daisies, and some lettuce in it, but I have no idea what some of these items are that are growing. I won't know until they bloom. 

The next container is full of red peppers and jalapeno peppers. I am surprised anything sprouted in this container. We were moving it out from inside the house to the greenhouse and I had to step over a short dog fence. My leg got caught and I dropped my side of the container. We just scooped up what we could by hand and prayed. Peppers sprouted, but I have no idea which are which until they actually begin to produce.

My okra was transplanted into another one of those 6 compartment plastic growing containers. I think they are doing better than my cucumbers only because they are a little more shaded throughout the day. I plan on transplanting them into new containers this weekend as well. At least all of the plants have survived. Barely surviving though.

The next picture is of a bean sprout I tugged into the corner of the planter that my eggplants are in. I just plopped the seed in and did not even think it would sprout. Hopefully, it grows and can cover the fence behind the planter. We shall see.

Now my poor eggplants....They got so frost bit. One of the plants has a couple of healthy plants growing under it. I will move those into a different container and see how they do on their own.

Of all the plants I thought my eggplants and okra would be the stars. I sure hope I can revive them and they will produce something come harvest time.

I have learned some valuable lessons this season. I have never had a green thumb when it comes to vegetable gardening. I will do more seed starting this fall and hopefully, have some very healthy seedlings come planting season next year.

Life Update!!

 We are now in 2022, and lord, things have changed in my own life and in society and around the world. I completed my Bachelor of Business Administration in late April last year. I began my Master's program in June of last year. Unfortunately, I got really sick in November and could not get back into the groove of taking classes any longer. So I am currently unenrolled in my Master's program. I thought I would feel guilty and regret this decision, but I am actually feeling great about it.

I have not started back to crocheting on any basis. I have collected more yarn, of course but just haven't committed to a project. 

I am currently moving into the vegetable garden project. I have never grown any type of vegetable in my whole existence. I have watched my mom grow beautiful vegetable gardens as a kid and helped her maintain them. But I have not actually attempted to grow vegetables by myself. 

I am trying to learn more about my area for growing vegetables. Due to the long winters and short warm months, we have a very short growing window. I purchased a small portable greenhouse and did begin some seeds inside the early part of March. I can say that attempt failed, and I have a significant learning curve to conquer.

Disregard the dead plant in my greenhouse. It was a plant that was on my back porch from the previous year. I tried to keep the geranium thriving throughout winter, but I could not. We had a few old bricks from our front yard flower beds that I had removed and replaced with a different border. They make for a lovely rustic floor, plus also help retain heat from the day sun to counteract our cold nights. The area next to the greenhouse against the dog fence will end up being my raised container garden once the seedlings are ready to transplant. We still have to build a fence in order to keep the dogs out. 

This is a pic of where I got my bricks from. There were quite a bit of those bricks around all the front yard flower beds. I love the way the beds look now.

This Mother's Day, I worked on planting a lot of seeds and placing them in my greenhouse. I have a few seeds sprouting. The ones that are really flourishing are the radishes that my daughter planted. She pretty much dumped the whole package of seeds into one container. I will have to divide very soon so I can actually have great radishes this harvest season.

I also am working on learning how to regrow produce scraps. I had a lot of organic celery that I bought at the grocery store for my daily celery juicing regiment. I started them off in small mason jars filled with water. I just recently transplanted them into their own container. We shall see how it turns out.

I am also turning my daughter's old cat cage into a vegetable cage for herbs and shade-loving vegetable plants such as lettuces. I am still working on comprising an herb collection. Trying to figure out which ones I will utilize the most so I am not wasting any plants. The wooden slats are from an old flower trellis we had made years ago from an old futon bed frame. The trellis has finally become worthless and too unstable, so we tore it down and I created another shelf inside the cage. It has been working out great when I place my tray of planted lettuce seeds on it during the day to absorb morning sunlight and enjoy the shade during the day.

For now, we are chugging along. We have a lot of projects around the old homestead to complete this season as well as remodeling the inside of our 5th wheel camper. Our future plans are to become full-time RVers, so I am going to enjoy the gardens as much as I can these next couple of years.