7/18/10

Greetings all!
The seedlings are doing fine. Tomorrow afternoon we will be planting more, in preparation for the coming fall season. (I have read you can start planting near the end of August/early September. We also picked up a small raised bed kit on clearance at walmart last time we were there, so I will be dedicating that to onions. Since it would be hard to grow those in buckets anyway, with the addition of the raised beds we will actually have a onion patch!

Also, this week I will officially start a new gardening blog, since this one was originally intended to just be about family happenings.

Hope everyone has a great week!

7/1/10 Another Garden Update

Well,
it seems that every single time we walk by the seedling tray, something is a little taller. There are only 3-4 peat pots out of the 36 that still have no growth. How exciting! In a few months those trips to the produce department will be a thing of the past! I would say by the end of next week it will be time to plant some buckets!!!!

Here are some updated pictures:


Cherry Tomato (left)
Broccoli (right)












Red Onions


















Cucumbers













The monster
Pumpkin

















broccoli



















Oregano













watermelon

















And here is a shot of the whole tray. Looks much different than under a week ago.

Checkup 6/30/10

It has now been a week since we started the first seedlings. (Some of those still aren't showing signs of life yet.) However, some of the seedlings we planted on Saturday, are already breaking through the surface. This has surely taught us that quality seeds do indeed make a difference.

Here are some pics from today:


(cherry Tomatoes)
















































Brocoli














Pumpkin










Red Onion





















Swiss Chard

It's ALIVE!!

Today, Monday 6/28/10 I took some pictures of the first seedlings to poke through the soil. Pumpkin, Cherry Tomato, Simpson Lettuce and Parsley are all the front runners. here are some pictures.





















































Then, as I was working on this post, there was a knock at the door and BAM! Let there be BUCKETS!

































Its on like Donkey Kong!

The Whitehouse Garden

Last week, on 6/22/10 we officially started our "bucket garden". Since we are renters, and the cost of raised beds is fairly high, not to mention they become permanent fixtures here at the property, we started looking for ways to grow vegetables and herbs without having to leave our investment behind. The answer we found, was delightfully simple and quite economical. A five gallon bucket garden!

Although the buckets have not yet arrived, last week we started some seedlings, and this past Saturday, we planted even more. We just bought some cheap little peat pots, and some potting soil and started the seeds. I even found a growing light at our local hardware store, enabling us to provide all the sunlight needed for the seedlings right in the kitchen.

Here are some of the pictures.

Here you can see I just bought some chain, a couple of hooks and floated the light down over the seedling tray.










The twelve pots on the left, were planted last Tuesday 6/22/10. The rest were planted on Saturday 6/26/10.











Here is a better angle of the tray. The first three rows on the left were from Tuesday. The remainder are all from Saturday.









We are looking forward to finally growing our own veggies again. Being down in Florida, should make it to where we can have something growing/harvesting all year long.

Update 4/8/10

Well here we are in Florida. Shanon is due to be here today. I really can't wait for our family to all be here together. It has been great seeing everyone again. The kids are so excited to have friends. They have been having a blast with the Colemans and the Smoaks. I definitely went back to work way too soon. I still find myself tripping over the same boxes in here. But with the kids and work, its just impossible to go through boxes of miscellaneous stuff without making a bigger mess, then of course usually not being able to clean it up, because its time to cook/fold/clean/or bathe someone or something.

It was nice spending some time with my Dad also. He is currently on his way back to Michigan. I'll miss having him show up at random times. The kids already miss him. Jaylen and Cameron keep asking when he is coming back over.

Things at the new store seem to be going well. The group of people that work here seem to be far more diverse, and in all different places on their journey through life. Its been fun getting to know each of them. At least on a minuscule "new guy" level.

Time to get some daily cleaning done. Laundry to fold.....ect.