Fertilizer Friday!

Yay - another week comes to an end, and another Fertilizer Friday finds me feeding my plants. Be sure you check out our hostess, Tootsie, for a look at her beautiful garden and the gardens of all her friends!

My veggies are just growing like crazy. My yellow squash has gotten even bigger this week, I think eclipsing my zukes. Nice big bloom ready to open!

Blooms getting ready to come up on my zukes. Should I be concerned about these leaves??

The hanging bell pepper plant had two blooms this week. One doesn't look like it's going to make it, but the other looks good today. This plant has really surprised me - the fertilizer has really done the trick.

That's is for this week. I hope to come poke around in everyone else's FF posts over the weekend. Hope everyone has a great Fertilizer Friday and a great weekend!

Nothing like waiting until the last minute...

I've may have mentioned (maybe I'm thinking of my other blog...) that my husband and I are in the early stages of possibly building a new home. Part of this process will include selling our existing home. It's cute, well kept, and was updated throughout just three years ago. The market is sagging, but I'm hopeful we've got enough to offer here that it will sell.

Hubby and I started discussing a few days ago that we probably ought to spend a little time and money in some landscaping to help with curb appeal. We've done absolutely nothing to the exterior of our home in the three years we've owned the house except replace the roof and dig up two dead trees. We've planted nothing, done no weeding, no trimming of bushes, and no watering to our yard. Remember - I am a very new gardening enthusiast, only very recently taking an interest in my yard. My husband' thumb isn't black, green or otherwise - for him, it's about money. He's tight with it, and hasn't considered the yard a valuable place to spend it. This arrangement worked fine for us until a) I decided I wanted to dabble in gardening and b) we found ourselves in the position of worrying what OTHER people thought about our yard.

So, here we are in the dog-days of summer in Texas - in an especially warm and dry summer at that - thinking of what we need to do to spruce up our space. And I'm so clueless that I don't really know where to start or which plants would have a running chance at surviving transplantation in this weather. I think first we'll need to get a sprinkler and be willing to spend a few dollars a month reviving our grass. Hubby picked up a new weed eater yesterday (his died a while back in the middle of trimming along our fenceline. I wasn't convinced of the coincidence of that at all.) I perused what was left at Wal-Mart's plant selection: not much, and even less that looks healthy. There is one other nursery here in town that I will likely go check later this week.

Okay, here is where I embarass myself with photo confessions of just how neglectful we've been.

Front and center of my house. It's an 80's ranch style. See my dead grass?

Left angle: there are overgrown shrubs flanking the front porch (read: 8x3 concrete slab).

Here is a right angle showing the right-hand corners of the house.

Here is a close up of the overgrown shrubs, or in this case, the absence of one. It was dead when we moved in but we never removed it.

Here is another shot of my gangly rose bush I posted about a couple of weeks ago. This shot was taken then, so it does look slightly less dead now that I've been fertilizing it, but I've learned it's too late to prune it for this summer, so there it sits in all its leggy glory.

Go ahead - you can feel sorry for my yard. I do too. Too bad I didn't take an interest until now.

So my questions for you, oh wise garden gurus: what would you recommend for a fast, inexpensive make-over? Fast because we will likely be putting this house on the market in the next month or so, and inexpensive because we only want to invest as much time and money as necessary to add curb appeal. I don't want to labor or dump a lot of money into something I won't be able to enjoy myself. I'll save that for landscaping my new home!

Fertilizer Friday

Happy Fertilizer Friday everyone! Be sure you drop by Tootsie's blog to admire everyone's well-fed gardens today!!

Okay, last week was my first, and I am a believer!! My veggies LOVED their food so much! By mid-week I could already tell a difference. Wow, wow, WOW! I found that Friday couldn't get here soon enough this week so I could treat my babies to another round of Miracle Gro.

My yellow squash has just about doubled in size over the past week or so! Even the one that had been eaten up is doing so well!

For comparison's sake, this was the squash one week ago! Can you say WOW?

My zukes look hardy and healthy! I see a bloom or two starting to come up - I don't know if it's really ready, but I guess we'll find out.

Again, zukes one week ago. [big grin]


My hanging bell pepper really had a good week. It's suddenly got so many new leaves and a small handful of tiny peppers starting. Should I pinch these off too and wait for the next round? The bell peppers in the tub also have new growth, but not as much as the hanging pepper.

My only real disappointment for the week is my tomatoes. The one bloom I had last week never opened up and seems to be turning brown now. And not another bloom in sight. Phooey!

And another beautiful rose! Now that I'm paying so much attention to this poor rose bush, it's all I can do to ignore how badly it needs pruning!

My impatiens sure got leggy this week. I need to read to find out if
that's one I should prune to help it keep its shape.

That's all for this week. I can't wait to see what another week will yield! I'm heading over to Tootsie's place to check out everyone else's gardens!

Peeling Bark

I have two crape myrtles, one at each of the west corners of my house. One is really good sized, and the other is rather diminutive. The smaller always blooms a good month ahead of the larger but both are just gorgeous in full bloom.

I was taking a walk through my yard, as I do now some days to take note of growth and conditions of the various things growing in it, when I noticed something about my larger crape myrtle. What do you make of this?

I have never noticed this in the three years we've lived here, but it's entirely possible I just never paid any attention to it in the past. Do any of you know - is this peeling bark normal for a crape myrtle? Or, is this the sign of a sick tree?

Impatient for impatiens...

About three weeks ago I planted impatiens from seed (see this post) in a large clay pot on my front porch. I had been so thrilled to find seedlings had popped up just days later. Well, those 11 or 12 seedlings turned into 24 or 25. Yes, in case you're wondering, I planted the whole packet of seeds in that pot. I plead ignorance, but in my defense, I didn't expect so many to come up anyway. And, when they did, my plan was to weed out the weakest and smallest so that the the healthiest would have plenty of room to grow.

Well, less than two weeks after my planting, suddenly one morning as I was watering I discovered that something had come along and eaten 80% of my seedlings. This literally happened overnight. I was perturbed and baffled because I couldn't see any obvious offenders. I sprayed and hoped for the sparing of the remaining seedlings.

As of yesterday, I felt sure the bugger who'd been munching hadn't been back, but it also appeared that what meager seedlings were left would not survive the shock of the massacre. They were wilting and starting to shrivel. Maybe I could have continued to nurse them along, but I confess that I am just not patient enough for my impatiens.

So, yesterday being my go-to-town day, I stopped and made a little purchase, and now, in the former resting place of my once-prolific impatiens, you'll now find these:

Welcome, little Red Wax and Olympia White Begonias!!

Disclaimer - it is the end of the planting season here in Texas. Selection is limited, especially in the partial shade varieties, which of course Begonias are. I got these for half-price, and if they make it, YAY, and if they don't, I won't be shocked. I also recycled the potting soil, so if something in the soil is what killed my impatiens, these may suffer the same fate. I guess then I'd know for sure, wouldn't I?

Woohoo! Jackpot!

My husband and I are in the early planning stages of possibly building a home. This project encompasses much time and thought throughout my days (and nights.) Besides browsing countless home plan websites, I have also been collecting interior design and decorating ideas. There are endless offerings on the web, but I have a certain appreciation for hard print in a book or magazine as well.

A friend of mine gave me a stack of some of her Country Home and Southern Living magazines she'd already read, so I started there. Then, I dug out two or three years worth of Better Homes and Gardens that I had already packed up to sell in our next yard sale. In true OCD fashion, I started files for each category: kitchen, bathroom, window treatments, flooring, fixtures, etc., and filed away the pages of the magazines featuring examples of ideas I liked. As I carefully studied each page for details and delicious design, I had an epiphany! I discovered, for the first time, the "Gardens" in Better Homes and Gardens. And I hit the jackpot.

I truly believe before my recent interest in gardening, those pages of lush green and vibrant colors had been completely blocked out. The breathtaking yards full of life had gone unnoticed as I flippantly turned past in search of a good recipe or photos of a majestic restored farm house. How thrilled I am to suddenly have dozens of magazines full of garden eye candy to scour over and enjoy. I get to love my magazines all over again! **blissful sigh**

Two weeks since planting my veggies...

... and I have some good news and some bad news. Let's start with the good news, shall we? How about a little before and after?

The pictures above are from the day my gardening assistant (my mom) and I planted. This is my zucchini (I see lots of gardeners call them zukes - who knew!?) There were two seedlings and I planted them in one of three large round tubs I purchased from the flea market. Did I mention I only paid FIVE DOLLARS for all three? I brought those babies home, drilled some drainage holes in the bottom, and voila! Containers for my veggies! Here's a garden-dummy moment for all you gurus to laugh about: when I bought the seedlings, I deliberately chose some with blooms. In all of my excitement to grow vegetables, I assumed having blooms meant the plants were in some way closer to bearing fruit. Of course, as it was pointed out to me by a friend's very garden-savvy father, that in summertime in Texas, if you're foolish enough to plant this late, you've got to at least make your plants THINK it's not late. That meant I needed to pinch off those blooms so the plants would focus their energy on growing rather than blooming, because as small as they were, they weren't really ready to put out any fruit. I've also put my container in a spot where it will only get partial sun and will be in the shade during the very hottest time of the day. This, again, is to try to fake more spring-like conditions.

And now, two weeks later, here are the 'after' pictures.

So, have I convinced my zukes to grow?? You betcha!! They have not bloomed again since about the fourth or fifth day after planting but instead have really filled out nicely with lots of new leaves.

On to the less-good news. Below you'll see planting day for yellow squash. My squash has had a tough go of it thanks to The Very Hungry Caterpillar I discovered last week (see this post.) Before I figured it out, the little critter completely stripped one of the two plants bare.


So, two weeks later:

Either because of, or despite this set-back (the caterpillar), these plants haven't had the growth that the zukes have. They're not in bad shape, just not growing at the same rate. I am encouraged though to see that the squash that was eaten has started to put out new leaves again, so maybe it didn't suffer too much shock. Time will tell if it makes it afterall.

And now the bad news. I planted in the third round tub two green bell pepper seedlings. My mom also donated her empty Topsy-Turvy planter for a third bell pepper seedling. Here they were two weeks ago on the day they were planted:


Here they are today.

I need to research about bell peppers to see if I can glean any clues as to why they've not done well. I can't see any detectable growth on the two in the round container, and have only just found one or two new leaves on the hanging planter in the past day or two. If anything, it seems like the hanging pepper plant has just kind of drawn itself up, which makes it look thicker, but really I don't think it is. There is clearly something amiss, but in the end this is all a big learning experience for me, so my objective is now to figure out what is wrong. By next year, I'll be a little more experienced and a lot more in-the-know.

My first Fertilizer Friday!

It's Fertilizer Friday! What's that, you ask? You can visit Tootsie here (or by clicking on the picture below) to see all the happy flowers and plants who are well-fed every Friday.

I'm excited to be joining in the fun this week for the first time. This morning I added a little Miracle Gro to my watering can and fed my plants. I don't have many flowers to flaunt because my garden is so new and because most of what I'm growing are vegetables, but I can see lots of growth so I'll flaunt what I got.

Here is the tiny emerging bloom on my tomato plant. Color me clueless: does this mean it's about to begin bearing fruit??

Here is my zucchini - I will post (eventually) from the planting of it so you can see before and after, but trust me, this baby is growing. I planted so late and it's been so warm here, so I pinched off several blooms it had in the first week, but now, since doing so, it seems to have really taken off with growth.

This is the poor rose bush I posted about a couple of weeks ago. Look at this beauty! It know it's leggy, but it's too late to do anything about that for this year. I've been feeding it, and it really seems to be revived!

My lavender was almost dead when I planted it. The grower just gave it to me in fact because it was on it's way out. I've just watered, fed, and given it plenty of warm sun -which it loves - and there's new growth for it too!

Lots of brand new leaves on my impatiens. The flowers are mostly gone right now, but they bloom again every few days so I'm not worried about that.

Yay! Thanks for visiting my first Fertilizer Friday! And thanks Tootsie for getting me regimented about it!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

If you have had young children in the past 40 years, you may be familiar with Eric Carle. Before I was a SAHM, I taught both the second and third grade. I am overly fond of good children's literature and I would consider Carle among the best of the best.

So, should I be flattered that Mr. Carle's very own leading larva from his best known book made an appearance in my garden this week? So flattered that I'd overlook his near annihilation of one of my squash plants? I think not.

Over the course of about two or three days, Mr. Hungry Caterpillar cleaned off every last leaf on one of my plants. Of course, I blame myself because, after deduction and speculation, I spent those couple of days assuming I was being visited by something much larger. I had even cast blame on that cute little bunny I met a week ago. I'm so clueless that I never thought a BUG could do that kind of damage in so short a time. Finally, on the third morning, to my horror, I went out to find the plant completely stripped of every last leaf. I then noticed the second squash plant showing the same signs of destruction on it's biggest leaf. It suddenly occurred to me to turn that leaf over and WHOM DID I FIND?? Mister Hungry Caterpillar himself, munching and wondering why I'd bothered him.

In case you're wondering, this doesn't end well for our loathsome larva. If only he'd decided that would be a good day to build a cocoon. But, alas, he made a smorgasbord out of my squash plant, and I was done catering. He had officially had his Last Supper.

After a day or two of intensive care and recovery, I'm happy to report that the demolished squash plant has already put out three new leaves. I may not have killed it yet! *Whew!*

OT: My baby turns ONE today!

I know this isn't gardening related, but I can't resist posting to share with you all that my baby boy is turning one today. It's been both the shortest and longest year of my life, depending on whether I'm counting smiles, hugs and kisses or sleepless nights. He's absolutely brought joy and happiness to our lives that we never realized was missing. I am so thankful to God for allowing me this ultimate privilege and blessing of being his mama.

In case any of you are interested, you can check out my other blog that's mostly about him. And, here are a few pictures from the past year.

Okay, thanks for idulging my mommy-moment. I now return you to your regularly scheduled garden talk.

Keeping neighbors out of my compost pile is a full time job.

And by neighbors, I mean the four-legged variety. My poor pile of fresh and dried grass clippings and organic kitchen scraps may never graduate to compost if I can't keep the neighborhood dogs and cats out of it.

I live in a rural Texas town where fences and dog-leash laws are more like suggestions. And really, until now, it has never been a problem for us. The perpetrators - a pair of brown and white beagles - are quite likable dogs, and my husband and I usually stop to play with and love on them when they're passing through.

However, as an emerging gardener, I've also just started my fledgling (binless) compost pile, one that I found myself being rather protective of yesterday when I caught one of the beagles red-pawed. I ran over, shoo-ing and waving my arms to scare him away. He wasn't the least bit intimidated. I had just added suitable compost materials from my dinner preparation and clean-up: eggshells, potato skins, squash rinds and green beans. In his mind, I'd just laid out the buffet. I am really actually surprised they were interested - there were onions in that pile.

I came back in the house grumbling, to which my dear husband responded by heading outdoors to do his best to run off the dogs (notice the 's' because by now, this canine crook had been joined by his accomplice. Did I mention these dogs' names are Bonnie and Clyde? No, seriously.) I watched my knight-in-shining-armor make several attempts before I started waving my white flag. Now that they know where to look for it, I'm afraid my pile will be vulnerable. Maybe next year I'll try to use bins, but like everything else, I'm trying to start out modestly. Good news is, all their rooting around will take care of aerating the pile!

As I was coming back from my walk later in the evening, I found a big long-haired cat sniffing and nosing around the pile, or what was left of it. Just great.

I don't have any before pictures, but here are some after pictures I took this morning when I went out to assess the damage.

Garden Friends

So, plants aren't the only living things around here these days. I wouldn't call my home a nature-sanctuary, but there are some critters who've decided to make their stead (or at least their regular presence) here, and I've managed to get pictures of a few of them.

We have a shed out behind our home that we use for storage. My husband noticed that something was digging under one side of it several months ago. He assumed the worst (skunks) and tried to block the hole with bricks and rocks. Those were eventually moved - the critters weren't deterred. Turns out they weren't skunks - they were a family of rabbits. On early mornings, when I was still leaving for work at or before the break of dawn most days, I would sometimes find a bunny in the yard. Yesterday, for the first time in a long while, my husband found this little guy along the foundation of the house, hiding near the air conditioning unit.

For the past two years, we've had mud swallows make their home on our front porch. Not because we invited them; rather because they're too persistent to notice or concern themselves with the repeated number of times my husband knocked the nest down as it was being constructed. We finally decided if they built again after the last time he tore down a partial nest, we'd just leave them be. They were back within a couple of days. And so, two years later, we're still host to these migratory birds. My son (12mo) loves to watch them swoop and soar around our front lawn. If you say 'bird' he immediately turns his head to the window and he scouts. So cute.

Just this week I hung a hummingbird feeder from an overhang outside the window of our family room. Today is the first day I noticed a customer, and now that we've been discovered, the feeder has been a hot spot all day. I don't know if it's just the same bird I'm seeing or multiple, as there is never more than one at a time, but in any event, the buffet has been busy. I don't have any pictures yet, and frankly I don't know if my photography skills are up to par for catching a hummingbird. But, if I get anything that's recognizable, I'll share.

My roses need help!

Is there anything I can do to help this rose bush (and can you tell what kind it is?)? It was here - and in much the same condition - when we moved into our home three years ago. I've certainly done nothing to help it - I've not had any interest until now. Pruning? Fertilizer? I know it's looking sickly, but it does actually put out roses all spring and summer - sparingly. I think it just needs some TLC - tell me how to do it!!


And yes, I know, it sure is 'neked' under that bush... a flower bed will be a project for next year. For now I'm sticking to containers and improving the quality of life for the plants I've already got.

Tomato Timeline: Days 1 - 16

On May 27th I planted my tomato seedling in a Topsy-Turvy upside-down planter bag. The following is a photo time line.

Day 2: (Because I didn't have the good sense to photograph the planting process on Day 1...) Planting was awkward into the hanging container, but I managed, even as clueless as I am. Used an S-hook to hang from a bolt hole in one of the rafters of our carport. This spot gets great sun from about 7am until 3pm so I think it will like it here.


Day 5: You can see some growth, especially in the stem.


Day 8: Growth is obvious. I'm feeling pretty good about it at this point.


Day 10: Looking good!


Day 14: Uh-oh... some not so good signs. Leaf curl and white spotting. My hopes are dimming slightly.


Day 16: And now an uninvited guest. I'm still researching trying to verify that this is in fact a pest (aphid??) and not just a flashy, innocuous passerby, but from the looks of the damage to the stem and leaves where he's sitting, I'm not inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. Leaf curling and now one brown and shriveling. I think I've been over-watering.

New Life

About a week and a half ago I planted some impatiens from seed in a large clay pot on my front porch. This pot was given to me by the students in the second grade class I student taught six years ago. Of course I killed the original plant they potted - but that was before I turned over my new leaf, pun intended. Forgive its faded and chipped paint - sentimentally, it's beautiful.

I've blindly gone about watering, not really knowing if I was drowning it, washing out the seeds, or if I had even planted the seeds correctly, with too little or too much dirt covering. Did I mention yet that I'm winging this stuff?

Yesterday, while out inspecting my recently planted assorted containers, I casually glanced at my pink pot to find this:

Life! It lives! All together I counted 11 sprouts. Let's see if I can manage not to kill them.

~The Kinder-Gardener

Name That Plant

I was planning to do a post today called "Name That Plant", mostly because I bought an unidentified plant earlier this week. I did lots of searching, found things that were close to this plant, but were not exact matches. So, I was going to implore you, my (possibly non-existent) readers, to help me put a name to this foliage.

But thanks to Flickr, I did finally find it just moments ago. It is a Hypoestes, commonly known as the Polka Dot Plant. I think it is traditionally an indoor plant that also sometimes doubles as flower-bed cover or border. For now, mine is potted outside, but if I get to reading and realize that will be its death sentence, I might relocate it to my kitchen window. The leaves are so striking with their dappling of hot pink against the dark green. It is natively a tropical plant, and it definitely has that look about it.

~The Kinder-Gardener

The curse of my black thumb...

Even optimism may not be enough to save my tomato plant from certain death. {Okay, so I'm dramatizing a little, but it probably isn't far from the truth.}

I planted a Topsy-Turvy Tomato two weeks ago. I conceived the idea for this blog, at least as it appears, during this process, but unfortunately too late to archive the planting in pictures as I've done with subsequent plants. I have, though, been taking pictures every few days to show progress, and I'll share those (as well as my latest plantings) in another post.

As if I haven't already provided sufficient disclaimers about my minimal knowledge and experience as a gardener, I'll remind you again - I have no idea what I'm doing. I'm totally winging it.

I noticed today as I was out watering that my tomato plant is starting to look sickly. This inspired me to do two things. First, I began trying to research on the web about sick tomato plants. Second, I am now thinking about a way to incorporate a plant-diagnosis element to my blog. I envision being able to post a picture of my sick plants and having readers offer their diagnoses and opinions about what I should do to heal or save the poor plant who had the misfortune of being adopted by me and my black thumb. Likewise, I'd invite you to post your sick-plant pics. Imagine a little plant infirmary.

Well, for now, I don't have that kind of thing up and running officially, but I'll throw my sick mater plant pics out there and if anyone's lurking, I welcome {read:beg} your advice. From my initial research, I'm thinking it's over-watering, or viral/fungal, or a combination of the two. And, please try to refrain from calling Plant Welfare Services to report me. It's my first (documented) offense.

~ The Kinder-Gardener

What's that buzzing sound?

Ah yes, it's all my thoughts, ideas and plans for this blog swirling and swarming, yet never getting planted. This is one way that my personality type really gets in my way. I can almost always come up with good ideas, but I get hung up on the organization and execution. I realize I launched my blog five days ago and activity since then appears to be non-existent. In actuality, I have made a couple of minor aesthetic changes, but that "new post" button is just too scary. My alias is Anal-Annie, and I demand order - linear, neat, methodical order. What if I start going in one direction and decide two weeks later I should have done it another way? {Normal people would answer this with an effective "so what?" Note: I am not normal.}

Basically, what I'm trying to say is I really am blogging about my gardening. So far, though, it's all in my head.

~ The Kinder-Gardener

Hello - Is There Anyone Out There?

Well, I've been tossing around the idea of blogging about my gardening (mis)adventures for several weeks. I have a few ideas, but will have to see how it pans out.

Is there a 12-step program for people with black-thumbs? I suppose the first step is admitting my problem(s). I have never been able to maintain the life of a plant. I actually have very little experience with gardening of any kind (indoor or out) but I'm afraid you won't have needed me to establish that - it will be quite obvious. I HATE most bugs, but specifically those bugs which I (affectionately) call "buzzy things." Bees, wasps, hornets, and anything else that makes a buzzing sound as it passes near my head. I'm the grown woman you see running and shrieking when one enters my personal space... or sometimes just my peripheral vision.

But, despite these handicaps, I'm determined to be a gardener.
~ The Kinder-Gardener