I Have GREEN!

I know that this is just bragging, so everyone go on your merry way and ignore this if you want. *grin*

I planted some corn, cukes, radishes, and tomatoes in some little peat pots four days ago, as a start for a fall harvest Bale-Garden. Yesterday, I went out to make sure they were damp (we got some rain - yay!), and to play with the dog, and there was GREEN!

I have the cutest little radishes in a sweet little row in their box, and cups with the nicest little corn shoots, and two leaves per shoot on the cukes. They were so cool that I dragged my husband out to look at them when he got home from work (and he was duly enthused for my happiness, although his first comment after grinning at me was "Isn't this what you were wanting?"), and some friends that came over, and the neighbor across the street who introduced herself, and the dog (who couldn't understand because there was all that green stuff that she ran around on), and the cats, and..... well, you understand.

The tomatoes have not yet burst forth, but I know that they are a little slower to germinate than the rest, so I'm just going to keep on making sure they get water and giving them good vibes. Maybe the other veggies will tell them how nice it is out there! (Can you tell that I read way too much speculative fiction?)

Anyway, I have not had a chance to grow anything in about 12 years, so this is a VERY exciting thing. I know that you guys are probably laughing yourselves silly, but ...

I HAVE GREEN! *Runs off cheering until the nice young men in the clean white coats give me that really tight jacket to wear*

I can't wait to see the final results!

Just FYI, the ideal time to start seeds for tomatoes in Houston is mid-June and plant large, mature plants the last week of July or first week of August. And radishes generally do not like to have their roots disturbed by being transplanted.

I do hope you have a successful fall garden.

The radishes are in some long rectangular planters, so they won't be transplanted. That was intentional because I had never heard of anyone transplanting radishes before in my entire life. And this is why. *grin*

The tomatoes are as much of an experiment as anything else. I got some pretty fast growing ones, and am mostly just wanting to see what happens with them. By the time we moved into the house it was already way too late for tomatoes, but I wanted to see how far they would go with a really late planting - knowing that it probably won't work. Heck, if can get some green ones by October/November I will be ecstatic. Even that is probably pushing it, but you never know until you try, right?

There is definitely going to be a mid-June planting when it rolls round again. Come spring, I'll be following the book precisely. This round is just a for fun to see how far I can push while putting in a bunch of hay to help build a nice bed to work in.

I'm right there with ya, Hastur. I can't get over the amount of pleasure my garden is giving me (I even posted photos of my "baby", I was so proud.) I've done some gardenign before, and enjoyed it, but this year is my most ambitious, well planned garden ever, so every little bit of green has me unspeakably excited. I work from home, and after putting seeds in the ground, I was probably checking them 4 times a day. Just 'cause. and now that there's veggies, I'm even more of a freak. So brag away. It does my heart good to know I'm not the only one who can't contain my excitement over this stuff. Good luck with your experiment!

Welcome back to gardening! I love hearing your enthusiasm. I'm the same way, and I'm pretty much a first-time vegetable gardener. My friends have been very polite, but I'm sure they must be getting tired of hearing about my tiny little cucumber sprouts and my bolting lettuce and my flowering bell peppers and . . . hee, hee!

The first ripe produce I got was a two-inch yellow crookneck squash, and I carried it around in my pocket showing it to anyone who would look. Got lots of laughs!

I take a gazillion pictures and love checking each plant, making sure it's ok, and just watching them develop. The people whose yard I garden in didn't know me prior to my pleas for a plot, so it's likely that they refer to me as the crazy garden lady. I'd kind of enjoy being called that, actually. :o)

I did everything backwards this year, as it was all a last-minute thrown together thing. Nice because I usually overplan just about everything, so I figured I'd do something more spontaneous. It's wonderful how resilient plants and seeds can be. They've survived not-so-perfect soil, wind and rain storms, late planting, lack of extra fertilizer and mulch, . . . I'm not winning any state fair ribbons, but then that's not what I'm after.

Enjoy! I hope you have a great experience.

Hey.. I'm not laughing! I do the same thing! I got a huge thrill eating the tiny radish when they had to be thinned.. Just wash em off and munch! Everyone made fun of me too.
I am learning to can too.. I was also real proud of my mushy pickled jalapeños! LOL
My first handful of green beans made me squeak..

This is my first real veggie garden.. and first ever heirloom tomatoes.. I can't believe I was so dedicated to flowers and never grew veggies!!

I have 18 cantaloupes ripening right now.. LOL

I planted late for a fall crop too.. oh well, nothing can teach like a self induced lesson! My garden has taught me so much.. and so has DG.

Loved your story Hastur!

I'm glad I'm not the only one that is a bit crazy about it. It has been far too long since I've done anything like this.

I went and checked the pots last night to make sure that they had not been blown over or anything and could see a MARKED difference in the radishes (to be expected, but dang that felt good!). The cukes were a lot larger than the day before and the corn shoot now had what is going to be honest to god leaves. Best of all though, the tomatoes apparently decided to come out and see what all the commotion was about and had little teeny leaves on them. I think I actually made a "squee" noise.

This weekend I am putting the peas and beans into planters, now that the water bulbs have come round. This is another one of those "Why not?" things, where I'm planting snap peas and string beans in planters, hanging them round the house and using the water bulbs to make sure that they are happy, while making sure that I'm not on a ladder every single day, watering them.

I think that this fall thing is going to be FULL of experiments. I've been reading up on some of the things that you can do for a fall planting (and am suddenly very happy that tomato seeds are not too expensive *grin*), not to mention trying to absorb as much as possible for over the winter. It's amazing how much you forget over the years.

Thank you for not laughing too hard. I'll raise a toast to all of you in the form of some killer veggies in a couple of months, if I can!

This is only my third year and like you I just jumped in with both feet. I just tried different things and learned a lot in the first year. Just moving into a house has a tendency to set your schedule for you. My tomato plants didn't get as much attention as they should have when they were seedlings due to a kitchen remodel that dragged into April. :( Still did ok, but it was quite stressful for a couple of weeks there.

If you want some cucumber seeds for a variety that does really well here, send me a DMail.

Only your third year? But you have so much knowledge that I thought you had been doing this stuff for about the last 10 at least!

I'm a sponge. I read everything I can get my hands on, and have asked a million question from people who have a lot more experience than I do. ;)

I think one of the main issues is there are so many myths that just keep going around that really sabotage people's chances at an excellent garden. Myths about soil, watering, nutrients, heirlooms vs. hybrids.

Also, I focused almost all my energy on learning how to grow tomatoes, at the expense of learning other things. I'm growing beans, cukes, melons, and peppers as well, but probably not as well as I could if I read more about them.

This message was edited Jul 25, 2008 1:15 PM

Congrats on your "sprouts"! I am a first year veggie gardner this year - Just today I picked off my 1st veggie - a 13'' cucumber!!
It is very exciting - keep us posted on how its going!
I think your veggie plants will do good - despite the late planting, esp if it stays as warm this fall as it did last.
bre

Barhea: I don't think that warmth is going to be as much of a problem in Houston - unless it's too much of it. :D Thank you! I'm looking forward to my first cuke - although 13" might be beyond me. Who knows?

Feldon: I understand. Basically, I am trying to do a little of everything, read everything and generally try as much as I can.

Now to keep the dog away from my pots.....

Your enthusiasm is wonderful and will keep you gardening. If you ever decide to make a garden plot a really good person to get to know is your county agricultural extension agent. They have a wealth of information at hand and will test your soil for you. The soil test will determine what additives you need for whatever you're growing, flowers, veggies. They can also determine what problems you have with digital images you send them.

Thank you! I'm dearly hoping that it never goes away, and I don't think it will.

I can see major growth on the plants in the pots, and got my straw this weekend. I've started watering the bales and getting them ready for planting (that strawbale gardening forum has really piqued my interest. I still need to build a bed around the straw, but I plan to do that soon.

The only issue is that apparently my dog thinks that peat pots are tasty. She ate five of my ten tomatoes, pots, sprouts, dirt, and everything. I could have sworn that it was out of her way.... It is now, anyway. I moved the table of seedlings out to the front of the house where she is not living.

The radishes are nearly ready to thin, and I'm thinking that adding the baby sprouts to a salad will be a great way to add a bit of bite to it, while not wasting the thinnings. Radish sprouts are almost peppery and why let anything go to waste?

My neighbors are coming over to see what is going on, friendly like. The woman across the street was smiling at me growing things, and even the kids down the way thought it was kind of cool that I was growing stuff. Another person that came round saw me starting to set up to grow peas and beans from hanging planters and asked where I got the idea, as she was thinking it would be a great way to keep some plants that were useful as well as pretty.

I am so very much loving this.

*checks the clock to see if it's time to go home yet to play in the dirt*

I read an article in our local paper that said interest in gardening, whether at home or in community rent-a-lots, is exploding. I've never considered myself one of the crowd, but there really seams to be a (sorry) grass-roots movement going on. I know many, many of the people at Dave's Garden have been doing this for years, but there seems to be a serious increase lately, too. I just started my garden this year, and it feels like much more than a hobby-it's like I'm driven! I get up early so I have the time to get out there and water before work, and I rush through my dinner and household chores so I can get out there again before dark. It just feels good to watch the little sprouts pop up, and plan and hope for what I will be able to harvest one day.

You're right about the gardening interest and let us hope it won't stop, especially passing it on to our children...........they are the planet's future. The excitement of a seed sprouting is still fascinating to me and I'm a long-time gardener. Knowing you can grow your own food gives one such a feeling of accomplishment and a life lesson in penny-pinching. Small town farmers were such a prevalent sight decades ago and they've almost been lost, forced out for one reason or another and we've all become so dependent on the grocery store that some children in the cities have no clue how it is grown. The Victory gardens after WWII started this grass roots movement and I don't think it will ever die out as long as we have a lot we can grow on. Keep it up gardenza!

My green is getting big.

I have transplanted the corn into the pots and have them lined up on the drive way. They are a smidge yellow, but since I used the peat pots and cut the posts so that they could grow out easily, they should clear up in no time. The cukes are not happy, since I have not transplanted them yet, but they will just have to live with it. The snap peas are showing their faces and starting to have "pea shaped" leaves as opposed to little tiny shoots and nothing else. The radishes have been thinned and are much happier with the world for having been done so.

And then there are the beans. Are beans supposed to have VISIBLE growth from morning to evening? Seriously, I'm not sure what they are doing, but the beans are thriving in their pots, growing at mach 200, and are already gorgeous bushes. They are the climbing variety, so they should be all over the hanging planters soon, but yow! I've never seen growth like this. I thought radishes were fast growing!

Seriously, I'm not the only one seeing visible growth. My husband came out while I was "puttering" and looked at the beans and asked me "Weren't these a lot smaller this morning?" I definitely need to figure out what i did, as they are happy to the point of a little silly here.

Beans are so vigorous! They just pop right up and grrrrooowww!

I put a few extra green bean seeds in the ground not long ago (it's a little late, but we'll see what they do) and the rate of growth is amazing. As you're saying, I'm noticing quite a difference in growth from one day to another. Maybe next year I'll do a photo essay on one plant from seed to harvest - daily pics. They're incredible.

Speaking of gardening enthusiasm, I did some work in my garden yesterday and came back to my apartment with some squash and herbs in hand. There was a group of preteen girls playing and they stopped me to look at what I had. They were so excited! I had them smell the different herbs and tell me what they thought they smelled like. They were even passing around the yellow crookneck squash and smelling it! One girl said Thank you for the zucchini bread; it was delicious. (I'd given her aunt a half loaf to share with her family.) And another girl wanted to know what zucchini looked like. So I got one off the counter and brought it out, more passing around and smelling - it looks like a giant pickle! And I had some green beans, so they passed those around. One girl, petting the green beans lightly: I didn't know they were fuzzy!

So much fun! I don't spend much time around kids, but I kind of feel like I want to do more of that type of thing because kids should know where their food comes from and experience how amazing the natural world is.

IndyV you keep up it up for those kids. You're right they need to know where it REALLY comes from, not the grocery store!! My grands love going into the garden with all those tall plants (corn) and want to pick, pick, pick so they go for the beans. What a treat to see their eyes!!

First, to Hastur: Beans are unbelievable. When mine were first sprouting, I checked them as I was bringing the kids to the bus stop; we had little green arcs coming out of the soil. A few hours later, the arcs had fully popped out of the soil and become little stalks. A few hours after that, they were little bean plants with leaves. My pole beans would grow about 4-6" a day! They really are amazing.
Second, to the kids and gardening conversation:
My husband and I have 2 sons with trauma histories, and I think the garden has been a great thing for them. First of all, they can only dislike a vegetable for so long when it's coming out of our garden; after awhile, they've just got to try it...and have it again...and then it's really not so bad after all...And how many 6 and 7 year olds ask to eat basil leaves out of the garden?! Then, there's the "forced patience" they have to develop with a garden, and delaying gratification is an incredibly difficult thing for kids with trauma histories. Being able to see a tomato turning red, or a bean or cuke growing, and having to wait another day or two to pick it is a great exercise for them. and then there's just the thrill of putting a seed in the ground and eating the results of it several weeks later that is so grounding. My boys have started to really take an active interest in the garden this year, and it's been a great bonding and learning experience. And it's been so nice to see kids who couldn't even seem to slow down to focus on their surroundings shift to kids who call me excitedly because they've seen a butterfly, hummingbird, or ripening tomato!

heidi, that's a cool bean-close-up! i'm starting beans next week from seeds (asian). i'm excited!

You guys have such great stories....

I have to counter them with my sad story.

I live in a neighborhood where almost everyone has lovely, large, sunny lawns...and no one has a garden. Not even flowers. Not even shrubbery. Just grass that they grudgingly mow whenever the city inspector gets on their cases.

I look around and I think, "Look at how much food we could produce if we all pulled together and turned just a portion of our lawns into a garden." My entire backyard is garden, minus grassy patches left for walking. At any rate, I started WAY too many tomato and melon seeds in March (the first batch keeled, so I got paranoid the second time around). With about 50 plants to get rid of, I decided to put out a table of free heirloom 'maters & melons on the front lawn. The little kids who live across the street came running over and read my sign:

"Mom! Mom look! Heirloom tomatoes and watermelons...and they're FREE!!!"

Mom (spraying Round-Up on EVERYTHING): "Yeah yeah...whatever. Get back over here NOW."

:/

For some reason, the adults in that family always give me a dirty look when I'm out tending my front yard tomatoes or mowing my lawn (with an old-fashioned reel mower). The other neighbors say, "Here comes the Adams Family!" whenever my boyfriend and I go outside.

I know there are people here in Paducah with lovely, large veggie gardens....they just don't live on my street. :(

Moonpye, some folks just have to be ignored!! Sounds like you have your fair share of them around you too. I would say go ahead and do what moves you and ignore the rest. It is too bad they don't realize how thrilling it is to children to grow something, even one bean plant, just to see it do it's thing.
Check your area for food banks you could contribute to.
Check for area Master Gardeners who are always doing something, maybe you could volunteer.

Round-Up is the spawn of the debbil ( I have a thing against Monsanto at times). *shudder*

I read an essay a long time ago, about how lawns were considered a sign of success - specifically because you had the time and/or money to waste on caring for grass instead of food. It was a sign of affluence that you could have a large lawn, uncluttered by anything else, like flowers or food. This, of course, grew into the mess we have now.

If your neighborhood has a Yard-Of-the-Month thing, you might garner some positive attention, Moonpye, by keeping up your garden and making 'pretty' items out of it (like me and my beans - I have the beans and peas hanging from a really cool planter set up and they are gorgeous). It might not do a lot to discourage the weirdo across the street that would rather poision her environment than enjoy the fruits of yours, but it might do something to show that a garden is a multi-tasking thing - even if one of the tasks is just the apeasement of ego....

I think that one of my neighbors thinks I'm a little crazy, but in a good way. She commented to my husband that she loved the stuff that I was starting to grow, and laughed when he told her it was corn, peas, and beans (the cukes had finally been put into the hay bales in the back and the radishes were also in back). She commented that I must really like fresh stuff, but for her, if it could not be found in the store, she just didn't want to grow it. And people think I'm a loony!

I think too many have lost their childlike "sense of wonder" and that is a sad commentary on society in general.

Oh Moonpye, that's so sad. So sad that you've got such ridiculous neighbors, and that their kids were excited by your produce, but discouraged by their mom. How unhappy and afraid does someone have to be to have an attitude like that? But you know, just seeing you garden may be enough to plant a seed (so to speak!) in the kids that will eventually grow into them wanting to garden themselves. You never know what little thing can make a big impression on a child. Try not to let your neighbors get you down...
How are your co-workers? Long before I could have my own garden, I LOVED it when co-workers brought in overflow from their gardens.