A Midsummer Night's Scream

The Summer has been hot, and I am very proud of my accomplishments in the Backyard Garden so far.

I was however going to boast about a beautiful Zebra Tomato that I was about to harvest, took a picture of it yesterday!

I was also very impressed that my Eggplant had started to push out of the flower bud, took a picture of that as well.

Alas, a creature of the night needed some nurishment, and decided that my garden was available to his eating pleasure!  AHHHHHHHH!!!!  Both gone!!!!!!

I have harvested many pickles, hot peppers ( chilis, cherry bombs, cayenne) which I grew from seeds!

The Blackberries are doing REALLY WELL this year!!!

Here are some great pictures of some of the flowers from the Backyard Garden:

Eggplant flower!

Nasturtium Flower!

Dill Seeds!          

I have a plan to protect the rest of my Eggplants and Tomatoes!  Wish me luck and keep an eye on my blog post for more news!

I'm back gardening in 2012!

Welcome back faithful followers!

I am hoping to ramp up steam on this blog stuff, I would rather start slow, and build up my blogging skills than try it once and drop it! So here is my attempt to break last year's blog record of 4 blogs!

The winter months haven't killed my spirit for good gardening and I have attempted to start some plants from seed again this year.
I should let you know that I unsuccessfully attempted seedlings last year, but I have a feeling my heart wasn't completely into it and it failed miserably.

So I set up a table, 5 starting trays with 50 pods in each, a fluorescent light hanging a few inches above, and a small heater to keep the area a bit warmer than the garage. The heater was a deal because it was listed at 20$, when I got to the cash they wanted to charge me 25$, and I challenged them on the price policy, which got me 10$ off the original price. With my 10$ in hand I splurged on a remote temperature sensor for significantly more than the 10$ which I can keep the display of garage temp and room temp in my bedroom...it is quite convenient!

I planted a variety of Basil, of course, some pickle cucumbers, some chili peppers, Habaneros, jalapenos, parsley, dill, patience! I got really excited and fetched some seeds I had kept from the garden last year, some fennel seeds right off the flowers, and some chili seeds!

Patience was really the hardest thing to plant! Germination took about 7 to 10 days and lots of my little seeds started to grow!

With a little love and attention, some help from the kids, I have actually gotten to a point whre the plants have been transplanted once and are doing well.

I am experimenting with different kinds of pots, some plastic ones I had from last year's garden, some new paper Jiffy pots that can go right into the ground.

I am also planting some beans this year! First time beaner! Some friends Iris and Steven passed me some special beans from France which I hope I can grow successfully, thanks guys!

I will try to get on in a few days as I have a few more things itching at my fingertips, but seeing as it is 3:01 AM, I better leave it at this! Some hints to future posts include my goal of taking out all the gardening books in the local library, and a review of my new Herb guide and cook book!

Until then, Happy Gardening!

Michael