We Have a Chipmunk.

This chipmunk(s) is burrowing under my square foot gardens. I'm losing my expensive soil. We've tried smoking him out, he's still around. He's making a mess of all the gardens around the neighborhood.

Here's an update on our plants:

We are on our second round of strawberries. These everbearing plants have already produced around a hundred strawberries and we still have hundreds more that are ripening. This has definitely been my best gardening investment. My kids love to pick their berries every morning.

I've replanted my peas. I planted four times as many. I've been so happy with the two varieties I've chosen. A sugar snap and a sugar lace, which both claim to be stringless.

My tomoatoes are HUGE. I am so excited to eat these babies. They will go very well with my fresh basil.

My lemon basil is soooo strong. I wasn't expecting that kind of flavor from such a little plant. The lemon variety grows much faster then the regular basil. I need to find some good lemon basil recipes.

My beans were delicious. Even the kids ate them. I will replant them if I can get rid of that pesky chipmunk. He likes to burrow in the beans. I had to pull them.

My beets, onions, and carrots are almost ready for harvest.

My cucumbers are coming along. They look like little pickles.

My zucchini, squash, crooknecks, have grown so much. I had to pull the pumpkin plant as it was suffocating the rest of the plants. That pumpkin plant was HUGE. With it gone, I hope to see more zucchini.

Recipes coming soon.

Tornadoes, Dead Plants, and Peas!!

Just a quick update.

I hate Michigan weather! If I hear one more tornado siren, I think I may die of heart failure! The weather changes so quickly. It can be nice and gray (cause it's never sunny) and then a huge, high wind storm can blow in - in less than 5 minutes. We've had several of those. One toppled my peonies....which I had to stake.

They bloomed, and they were lovely. All is well.

My raspberry plants.....DEAD. Dead, dead, dead!
I thought Jus fertilized them, but now I'm thinking thrips. Poor raspberries :(


Now, I've had critters dropping my blossoms on my tomatoes and my squash, and causing my strawberries to die. Every time I had blossoms, they would be in the dirt the next day. I told myself I wasn't gonna use pesticides/insecticides, but dangit, I used Sevin. All is well.

Here are my tomatoes


My strawberries....yum

Notice the cattail in the corner? Funny kids!



My squash (zucchini, pumpkins, crookneck, hybrids)


My beans, cucumbers, carrots, beets, and onions...and various other things




And then....my peas. YUMMY! My favorite so far.





And last, but not least....
Check out our lawn! It looks awesome. Jus has done a nice job.

Progress....Finally!

I've started seeds, I've planted, and I've lost. Kids can make gardening difficult. I lost another large start tray, compliments of my 1 year old :)

All of my zuchinni and squash have died, I lost a lot of my tomatoes, and my cucumbers never sprouted. Off to the nursery for replacements.

So what has grown? Let me show you.

My bare root raspberry plants are finally starting to blossom.


My peas are doing really well.



Here are my gorgeous Brandywine tomato plants.


Spinach.


Beets and carrots...I planted both red and golden beets as well as purple and orange sweet carrots.



and then....the strawberries.


My husband and I are fighting over this baby. He thinks it's his, but I will snag it as soon as it turns red.



As for my garden up front, my plants are coming in nicely. I don't know what any of it is except for the Hostas....which I LOVE. The crazy wind storm that hit us a week ago, blew over my tall plants. I will need to stake them this week.



If anyone knows what any of these plants are....let me know.



.....and the most exciting news of all? We were able to breathe life back into our terrible lawn! We still have a long way to go, but it looks SOOOOOOOOOO much better.

Car accidents, dead cucumbers, and blossoms...oh my!

Since moving into our home in January, I've been paranoid about the fast moving traffic on the road behind our house. Our backyard meets up with a curve in the road, making our home a potential target for runaway cars. It's been something I think about several times a week.

While working on the computer a week and a half ago, I heard the fence snap and knew that a car had come off the road. My babies were all downstairs watching a movie...I was terrified that a car was going to come through the living room. When there was no impact, I threw myself out the back door to see a car with it's front end in the neighbors house! I won't get into the details of their attempted drive away, my screaming at them, or the attempt to switch drivers, but it was an experience. I'm glad that my house and family were unharmed, sad for the neighbors, and hope the unlicensed driver learned her lesson.

Here's the aftermath:





On a sad note: My cucumbers died....all of them :(
I replanted this week.

Now for my blossoms...we have strawberry blossoms! This is very exciting. The Gurney's strawberry bare root plants are really taking off. I'm quite impressed.



As for my front yard, I got rid of that hideous red mulch and replaced it with black, and evened out the brick enclosure. I'm not sure what is growing, but it's looking pretty fantastic.





I've planted all of my seeds, either indoors or out, except my beans. I'm giving it another week and a half before I take it all outside.

Brandywine Tomatoes

My tomatoes arrived today. They look and smell delightful!

Here are my tomatoes and my starts, well what is left of the starts after my kids dumped them over this week.



There are a few plants that never came to be....the peppermint, spearmint, lemon basil, and some cucumbers. I will start them again and hope for the best.

So here we are. I hope to start some early planting...I can't wait to see purple carrots!

Strawberries, Raspberries, and finished boxes!

My lovely family helped me put the rest of the boxes together, then filled them with Mel's Mix and planted the strawberries and raspberries. It was a lot of fun work. The kids enjoy playing around in the dirt.



I received my bare root strawberries and raspberries from Gurneys.com last week and needed to get them in. We completed the first grow box and have dedicated it entirely to everbearing strawberries. I did 1 strawberry plant per square foot instead of 3 plants for every 4 squares. I'm sure it will come back to bite me but I had 25 bare root plants and I didn't want to waste them.



I planted the 2 heritage raspberry plants in gorgeous pots. I hope they thrive.




I was so lucky to find vermiculite in Ann Arbor. I called all over and was convinced I would have to drive all the way to Detroit and spend $40 per bag. Luckily, I came across Lodi Farms and scored 3 bags for $14.88 a piece. That's right, 3 bags of 4 cubic feet of vermiculite for $14.88 a piece!!

Anywho....I have a lot of planting to do in the next few weeks, as well as try and revive this terrible lawn. Wish us luck! The previous owners weren't very kind to their yard.

I will leave you with a picture of my youngest, wanting to help me in the garden, but having a hard time opening the door.

My Seeds Have Sprouted!

I am so excited!

About half of my starts are up.