First Post of the 2018 Growing Season

This is my first post of the 2018 growing season.

A number of things have already been planted. Thus, I am a bit late in detailing all the events.

Today is the first time I watered all the young plants with Miracle-Gro fertilizer. In about a week I should do it again.

The recent warm spell has caused the many corn, bean, squash, white cucumber & okra seeds I planted to emerge as seedlings.

I must purchase soil in order to make use of the many empty containers in the yard. The string bean seeds I bought this year are ideal for container planting so I want to make full use of them.

At the moment I have about 16 salad plants that I purchased at Walmart and Lowe's. Some are ready to be picked. They were planted earlier in May. I would like to have a steady supply of lettuce in the garden this year in order to avoid buying them at grocery stores. They taste so much better from the yard!

I have yet to plant some more corn, zucchini, beans and perhaps some sweet peas. I am excited about what the garden will produce this year. Will try to have photos on a daily basis.

Transplanting Seedlings

Yesterday and today I transplanted seedlings I started indoors because it finally has gotten warm enough to do so and due to seedlings really shooting up tall. I don't know how to prevent them from sprouting out like this. I have had this problem in all the years I have tried starting seeds indoors.

Yesterday, I transplanted green beans, cucumbers and mini-pumpkin plants that I started indoors. I also transplanted some lettuce varieties I purchased from Lowe's. Today I transplanted zucchini seedlings and I put some protection around them to keep the cats and squirrels from damaging them. I also took the remaining lettuce plants I had and planted them in a huge container along with a cherry tomato plant in the center.

I planted corn indoors today along with some yellow organic string beans and a couple of small white gourd plants. I just love the gourd & squash type plants. Always have ever since I was a child.

2017 Gardening Season Nearing!

After a year (plus) hiatus from posting on this gardening blog I have returned. It is May 1 and nearing the planting season in these parts. Today I planted the seeds of tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans and zucchini in paper cups indoors. I probably should have started earlier because you never know if you will get seedlings or not. But in the next few days I will prepare additional seeds indoors.

We have outdoor cats here so this year I vowed to close off the edible-plant garden beds to them. Feline waste is not a good fertilizer for fruits and vegetables so I want to make sure they stay away. My intent is to close off the sides of the beds with either plexi-glass or some sort of wire mesh and the top with an easily removable cover which allows air, water and light to get through.

I have to go through my packs of old seeds. I just found out that tomato seeds may be good for up to 8 years! Will prepare more tomorrow.

Cold & Wet Again!

Rainy and a 67° high temperature today. How awful! Is this keeps up there won't be much of a growing season. Don't mind the rain so much but the cool weather just won't go away. It is all Lake Michigan's fault as its water temp is in the 40's. Not good!

The good news is that there is new corn I just planted a few days ago is popping out of the container it's in. And some of the lettuce is ready to be harvested and eaten.

Another Chilly Day

It was supposed to be warm today with a chance of severe weather. But it never really got all that warm here and as a result there was no severe weather. Nevertheless it was a bit too cool for the growing season. All I did today was transplant a bean plant from a seed starter container into the ground. The pea plants I replanted the other day are doing fine.

Day 1 - Miracle Gro

Today was the first official 90° day here. It did not last very long as a lake breeze developed and brought temperatures down.

Today also was the first time I watered the garden with Miracle Gro. I used both the vegetable/fruit and fruit/flowers varieties.

I'm hoping this post will be the first of daily posts that I will be disciplined to create.

Past Growing Seasons

I will try to get hyped for this year's growing season by posting some photos of past years' wonderful growth.

This was the Wisteria in 2013.