Thank you for stopping by to see our new blog. My sister and I love to craft, sew, garden, cook, bake and in general, try new things. We know there are a lot of you out there that love these things too. We will be sharing about the things we already do, and share about some new things we will have fun together trying. We love to get ideas from each other, friends, and Pinterest. (Of course!!)
The summer is edging to a close soon and we wanted to share our gardens. I will start by saying we both live along the front range in Colorado. This is the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains. It’s where the great plains intersect with crazy weather.
Jessica will share her garden first.
Hello everyone. I am Jessica. I am currently a stay at home mom to twin girls who are elementary school aged. I have been trying to garden for years and have been tragically unsuccessful. Because of a new allergy medicine regime I am now able to spend a lot more time outside in the summer time. Last year and this year I have had a lot more success. Here is a picture of the main garden.
My husband built me the small wooden raised bed just two months ago. It is on the left. As you can see the plants are doing great. He built it for about $15.00. He used some fencing slats and some scrap wood from our garage. He is super handy. We filled it with compost and some Plant Tone pant food. In this bed I am growing a very tall sunflower, jalapenos, green beans, a pumpkin, dill and basil. There are also some small cucumber plants which aren’t dead, but haven’t changed in size in weeks. I am battling a pesky squirrel, and think he has been stunting the growth of these by peeing, defecating, and digging them up. Ugh! I have tried sprinkling a powdered blood product to scare it away. It works sometimes, and sometimes not. 😦
Here is a better view of this bed. We made it a little smaller that the large retaining wall stone bed so that we can make another one just like the stone one next year. The plan is to build up the stones all around this small wooden bed and then lift the wood frame out and fill with more dirt. Then we will have another bed just he same.
My pumpkin is going crazy as you can see. I have two little babies on the plant right now.
In the larger bed which is right next to our shed I am growing 3 types of tomatoes, an orange bell pepper, marigolds, basil, and lots of lettuce.
This is my first time growing so many tomatoes and any lettuce at all. I have more lettuce seeds started indoors so that I can pull up what is in this bed soon. As you might be able to see the plants are getting quite large and on their way to too old.
Here is a view of the tomato plants. I am growing a Roma tomato, an Heirloom tomato, and a Beefsteak tomato. The plants are having a common problem right now. They need more calcium, so the fruit on some of the limbs is getting bottom drop rot. I am combatting this with more Bone Meal and it seems to be helping. I am impressed with how big they have gotten and how much fruit they are producing this year.
Here is a good one off of the Heirloom plant.
I’m excited about all of these jalapenos.
Next to the shed I have a Clematis, some Morning Glories, Black Eyed Susans, Delphinium, and a shocked Salvia.
Not too great, but I plan on improving this area.
Just off of my deck I have a few pots also. I have some Zinia grown from seed, Parsley, one sad little clematis and some cat grass that one of my kids is growing for a Girl Scout patch.
I also try to compost. When I say I try to, I think that is pretty accurate. My husband and I do our best, but really a tumbling bin is ideal. If I could go back in time I would not choose this tall rectangle bin. It is too hard to toss the stuff around inside and get it mixed up. Mostly I leave the lid off so that if we get an afternoon monsoon rain, it will fill it up with a tiny bit of moisture.
I have been learning quite a lot just from doing. I have to say that the internet is a great tool for me as well though. I learned last year the proper way to trim my Basil and it has made a huge difference in how well those plants produce.
Here is a link I found very helpful for my herb growing.
http://skinnygourmet.blogspot.com/2008/05/ten-mistakes-new-herb-gardeners-make.html
Confession time!! This year I killed a bunch of sunflowers, cilantro, spinach and two tomato plants. The most important thing I learned that I want to share on this post is that you should never give up. NEVER NEVER NEVER! Just keep trying, and you will figure it out. Ask a friend, family member, someone at the garden center, or Google. Google seems to know everything.
Next Marie will share about her garden this year.
Hello everyone! I’m excited about this new blogging adventure with my big sister, and I hope we will learn a lot together and do some fun projects too!
My garden is much smaller than my sister’s this year, I’m afraid. We moved into a new house we are renting this April, about the same time my daughter was celebrating her first birthday. This made for a very busy springtime, and I just didn’t have time to start any seeds this year, or the funds to buy seedlings at the garden center. Next year we have big plans for some raised beds along our fences, and even an herb garden that can be moved from inside to out doors depending on the time of year; but this year we are content with a few small plants in containers on our patio!
I have 3 tomato plants – two smaller ones that I got from my inlaws in June, and a larger one that I got for Mother’s day. I had some problems with bottom drop rot on my larger plant, so I haven’t gotten any useable harvest from it yet, but I have a few ripened tomatoes that I plan to pick this week!
I’m also growing a little Jalapeno plant, which has really been flourishing! My naughty doggy broke off one of the branches while trying to attack my hose one day, but even with that setback it still has produced much more than I expected! I’m planning to save some of the seeds from these peppers for next year since it has given such a good yield – hopefully next year we will have a few plants and I can use the peppers in our homemade salsa!
Since we are renters, we have a little different perspective on gardening – a lot more container planting, and a lot less changes to our landscaping are in our plans. The raised beds we are planning to build next year are freestanding, and can be removed easily. Of course, we will have to get landlord approval for those projects as they come up.
Thanks for taking the time to read our new little blog! We’re looking forward to Making, Learning, and Growing!
-Marie and Jess
Make! Learn! Grow! 