My First Tomatoes!!

Yesterday I picked my very first Cherry Tomato! This is the very first tomato I have ever grown too!

After finding it ripe, it didn't last long!

Yum!

Juicy!

Wonderful tomato!!

The tomato was wonderful and I think even more delicious than other garden tomatoes because I grew it!!

The Garden

Our garden is growing really well! I am learning as I go, I may have a degree in Agriculture but basic gardening is not taught! This is my first time to have my own garden! It is far from perfect and many of my plants are a little behind but I am learning so much and we have vegetables growing (the most important thing about the garden!!)

We haven't used any chemicals in the garden but we do use liquid Miracle Grow once a week. Surprisingly we haven't had many problems with bugs...I hope they stay away as our vegetables grow!

The Garden

My largest Bell Pepper

Tiny Bell Pepper

Green Beans...they were planted late but hopefully they will produce!

Pinto Bean plant

Pinto Beans...I started these from dry beans from the grocery store, I'm anxious to see how they turn out!

Tomatoes...the Tomato plants are small but they are producing!

Red Beans...these were also started from dry beans from the grocery store!

Cantaloupe plant

My biggest Cantaloupe!

Tiny Cantaloupe!

Corn...it's a little behind but hopefully it will produce!

My huge Cherry Tomato plant in the front flowerbed!!

The beautiful Cherry Tomatoes!

I am so excited about salads with Cherry Tomatoes, canning Tomatoes, eating fresh Cantaloupe, making fajitas with the Bell Peppers....

Past Garden Posts:
May 21 All seedlings planted!
March 26 Starting the seeds!

Homegrown Lettuce

Last night we had our first salad with lettuce from our garden!!

A bowl of beautiful home-grown, chemical-free lettuce!

The delicious salads:

2 bowls with lettuce

Add grilled chicken and salad dressing! (John David took this photo... I am really concentrating on pouring the dressing!)

John David's salad-blue cheese dressing with blue cheese crumbles

My salad- ranch dressing

They were both delicious and I must admit I loved the fact that I grew the lettuce!!!

The Garden's Growing

I am one happy girl because my tomatoes are beginning to fruit!! Yay!! Several of my cherry tomatoes & beefsteak tomatoes have tiny little green tomatoes on them which means very soon I will be eating garden fresh tomatoes!! I cannot wait!!

Beautiful tiny green cherry tomatoes!

My lettuce...I'm ready for a big salad!

Here are the tomatoes & lettuce on both sides of my front entrance!! I used up all available ground to plant all of my seedlings!!

My Garden

I declared Thursday my gardening day and it really was! I spent around 5 hours working in the garden, planting my vegetables, weeding, and working in the flower bed. I came in very tired (& a little sunburned on my arms) but it felt wonderful to get outside and work!

The big garden task that I have had is reworking my garden plots. We are trying Lasagna Gardening which involves layering organic matter. We read an article about no-till gardening before we read the Lasagna Gardening book and put our mulch down without putting cardboard/newspaper on the grass. Needless to say we have had grass grow through the mulch. So for the past week I have been reworking our 7 plots (so far I have completely reworked 4!) The reworking involves raking up all the mulch in that area, putting down cardboard, wetting it, and covering it back up with mulch. Very hard work but its been worth it and I have enjoyed it (minus the blister on my hand and the stiff muscles the next day!!)

I was also able to plant my Red Bell Peppers, Broccoli, Cabbage, and Cherry Tomatoes (all of which I started from seed!) I am anxious to watch them grow and produce vegetables for us to eat!!

The Red Bell Peppers. You can see the mulch in the plot and the lighter brown is grass clippings...the more organic matter the better!!

Up close of a cabbage plant!

The garden. You can see the 4 plots that have been reworked with cardboard/newspaper laid down. The other three are beyond them...but you can't tell because of all the grass!

Starting the Garden

We have started our seeds that need to be started 6-8 weeks before the last frost! I was very excited to get these seeds started & I just can't wait until they start growing!!

My trays filled with soil and waiting for seeds!!

The seeds I am starting: Broccoli, Cabbage, Pepper, Cherry Tomatoes, & Beefsteak Tomatoes!

Labeling...so we can remember what is what!!

I was amazed at how small the seeds were!! The only seeds I remember helping Mom & Dad with were beans & bean seeds are huge compared to all these tiny seeds!!

Intense concentration planting each seed 1/4 inch deep!!

Be sure to check back & watch the progress as my seeds turn into plants & later into vegetables!!

My Future Garden

We have been talking about our garden for a few weeks now. We still aren't exactly sure where it is going to be but we knew we wanted to raise sweet corn, tomatoes, green beans, and lettuce! I am so excited about getting outside and working in the garden and growing our own food!!

This past weekend we went to the Tennessee FFA Alumni Convention and they had garden seeds for sale and seeds/gardening supplies in the silent auction!

My father-in-law bought me 4 of these tomato pails! They include the potting soil, tomato seeds, tomato labels, and tiny gardening tools! I am so excited about these tomatoes!!

These are the seeds we purchased! We are going to grow:
Onions
Pepper
Cabbage
Lettuce
Broccoli
Green Beans
Sweet Corn
Cantaloupe
Sunflowers

I cannot wait to start growing our garden plants and I will post when we start the seeds!!

My Week

This past week has been a pretty good one and pretty productive! I spent Monday and Tuesday trying to study for my upcoming CLEP Biology test but all I did pretty much was sulk because I was "bored"...a word just a month ago I said I would never use because I longed for a day when I had nothing to do!! Well I turned my "boredness" into productivity...sort of! I decided to take up reading to occupy some of my "bored" time. I began reading Ann of Green Gables again since I haven't read any of those since 7th grade! I must admit I am enjoying myself!

Tuesday night John David and I went out so I could get out of the house! We ended up going to Wal-Mart, where we bought nothing, J.C. Penney where he bought a shirt for work, Ross where he bought 2 shirts for work, and Goodwill! I found The Power of a Praying Wife there for $1.49! I had been looking for this book for awhile now and I was so excited that I found it! John David found a little mini TV that he is planning to use for video playback so he was happy with his purchase too and he now has plenty of short sleeve shirts to wear to work!

Yesterday I was incredibly productive! I studied Biology 4 hours, which is a praise that I was disciplined enough to do that! And today I have already studied an hour and a half and have been to CVS where I got some really great deals: 4 12-packs of Dr. Pepper, 2 bottles of Listerine Mouth Wash, 4-pack of Ivory Soap, and Aquafresh toothpaste for $13.98 and I got $10.98 in ECB's back!! YAY!!

I also have been taking care of my garden! We just had a nice rain and I had to take pictures of my plants! I had a bloom on my Cherry tomato plant earlier in the week but I was so excited that I touched it and it fell off! I now know not to touch the blooms!



The bloomless Cherry tomato!



The Red Bell pepper and tomato..they have reallly grown!

John David's Career & My Garden

Today John David started his first day of work at Farm Credit Services of Mid America. He is a Financial Services Officer Trainee. We woke up this morning at 6:30 and he showered while I ironed his pants and shirt! He had a healthy breakfast of Pumpkin Roll (at least he ate breakfast!) He left home at 7:50 and I teared up a little bit! It is sad because our life is changing since we won't be together most of the day anymore like we were in school!



My handsome hubby who takes such good care of me!

Okay since my career aspiration is to be a farmer I must admit that I was bummed about living in another apartment and not being able to have a farm, raise a garden and animals. Well I decided that I may not be living on a farm but I do have a porch and I can raise a few vegetables! So this weekend I planted my veggies! I planted a Better Boy Tomato plant, a Cherry Tomato plant, and a Red Bell Pepper plant! I can't wait to see them grow and have yummy tomatoes and peppers later this summer!



My Red Bell Pepper!



My Cherry Tomato Plant!



My garden!

Another cute thing I have to mention, yesterday when I saw Kara she gave John David and me a gift! She saw these cute little boots at a yard sale and just had to buy them for the future little Boreings that will be born! So Kara bought our little one (who is not on the way anytime soon!) his or her first pair of boots so they can be just like Daddy!