My First Cucumber EVER!

We had one of the hottest days of the year this past weekend. Heat index at around 11o degrees. I stayed inside for most it. I did, however, make it out to the garden on Saturday morning to start the soaker hose and to water the flowers. I noticed one of my cucumber plants trying to climb up a nearby tomato cage and I was tugging lightly on the stem but it would not pull through the cage. I walked over to the other side of the tomato plant and tried to see what the cucumber was attached to--and noticed this large cucumber lying in the middle of the cage--happy as can be! :)

Here are a couple of pictures of my very first cucumber ever!


I checked my garden again last night and it appears that many of the tomatoes are starting to turn red! I'm hoping within the next week or so I will have some tomatoes to take to the Farmer's Market in Coralville.

I'm going to start posting some of my craft items as well. They are all coming along slowly but surely. :)

Images from my garden

I am finally up to date on my blog! I went home from work and took some pictures of my garden today--July 14th. I think I am ready to harvest some squash! This picture shows some of the babies growing on there now... the flowers are still coming too!


Here is the first zucchini of the season. He is now about 7.5 inches long.




This is the same zucchini-- measuring in around 2.5 inches in diameter!

Here are some pictures of my tomatoes. I do not have any that are ready yet, but there are more out there than I can count and I'm sure they will probably all come at me at once. :)



Here is a picture of my Yellow Summer Squash! He measures about 1.5 in diameter.
This is the same squash and he measures about 6.5 inches in length.
I find the cucumbers the most fun to watch b/c they do all of their growing underneath of their big--wide leaves. You have to lift up the leaves to really get an idea of what is going on under there! Most of the flowers on my cucumbers have turned--here is a picture of a couple of cucumbers!
Last, but definitely not least, are my Sweet Bell Peppers. Here is a picture of what looks like is going to be a Chocolate Sweet Bell Pepper!~

Here is a picture of a neighboring Sweet Bell Pepper, and he looks like he will be green--but we won't know for sure until he matures! He could very well be a yellow and/or red pepper-- we shall see!

I do have some Jalapeno Peppers, however, they are not in the ground yet. :( They are still in the house being pampered. I'm hoping to get them out into the garden soon. That is where they will do their best growing. They aren't out there yet because the seedlings took a very long time to germinate. My fingers are still crossed... you just never know how things will produce!

Images from my garden (July 1st)

Once the weather started to get good and hot--AND we received TONS of rain-- my garden took off like crazy! The following pictures were taken roughly two weeks ago. (Around July 1st) I had put the Bone Meal around my plants a few weeks prior to these pictures and then we got a lot of rain. The rain (or your watering) is the only way your plants can absorb the nutrients in the soil. I wound a soaker hose into my garden when I planted it because plants prefer to have water come slowly and for a long time, then to have to have it fast and last a short while. They also do not tend to like their leaves getting wet--unless it's very early in the AM. Then they have time to get it evaporated before the heat of the day hits them. A good rule of thumb for tomatoes? Hot Heads and Wet Feet! They love the heat from the sun and they need their water.


Here is a picture of my Yellow Summer Squash Plant! He is VERY happy! :)


Here is a picture of my Basil. I have some on my deck by the house as well. I just checked my Basil in the garden yesterday, and the Japanese Beetles have nearly ruined it :( I'm trying to salvage them, but I may have to cut my losses on them. I was able to harvest the Basil on my deck. I put the fresh Basil leaves between sheets of paper towels and let them sit in a dark location.

For the best tasting Basil, there are a few rules of thumb you should follow. 1) Harvest your Basil often. If you look at the stem of your Basil, there will be a branch coming off of it, and three leaves. One leaf will be quite large and the other two will be smaller and close to the stem. Pick the large leaf. This will encourage the rest of the leaves to grow and branch. 2) Pick your Basil BEFORE it flowers! Once the plant has flowered, you lose most of the wonderful flavor! If it starts to flower (which I made the mistake on one of mine), simply pull the flowering head off. If you don't, the energy will begin to work on the flowers of the plant and not the leaves. 3) If you want to use fresh Basil to cook with, it is best to pick it off of the plant and use it. Do Not put it in the refrigerator unless you have a method to package the Basil with no air. The coolness of the fridge and the dampness is not something that Basil likes. It will tend to turn black, shrivel and will release the oils -- which leaves you with bland tasting Basil!


Here is an up close and personal shot of my cucumbers! Look at all of those flowers!

My cucumber is so happy it's trying to expand into my yard! I have tucked him back inside of the fence so that a friendly rabbit doesn't start to eat it when this flower turns into a cucumber!

Here is a vertical picture of the cucumbers. There are four plants here.

Here is an up close picture of some of the flowers that I am getting on my tomato plants! Flowers = tomatoes and I can't wait!

A few of the tomato plants are really ready to fruit... here is a picture of some very small, green tomatoes... they have a ways to go until they will be ready to pick. But at least we are heading in the right direction!
Here is a picture of my Sweet Bell Pepper plants. There are roughly 20 plants in my garden and they are a mixture of colors. I'm excited to learn what colored peppers we will have!


Here is a picture of some of my yellow onions. I have a few spots in the garden where I planted the onions--again I thought I was being strategic in keeping rabbits out!

Here is a full length picture of my garden. On the far end there are two planters. The one on the left is my Yellow Summer Squash and the one on the right is a pot full of Basil!

Next there are some tomato plants that a friend gave me...(I know, I had enough..I didn't need to take his too... but I was curious to see what they were, how they tasted etc. and I had some room.)

Next are my Cucumbers, then my Roma Tomatoes, my Sweet Bell Peppers and then my Beefsteak Tomatoes! It's a race to see which plant will fruit first! But it was a close tie with the tomatoes and the Summer Squash!
Look at this big bloom on my Summer Squash!

Here is a picture of my Zucchini.


My garden changes every day it seems! I plan to take some more pictures tonight so that you can see how much it's changed in just a couple of weeks!

Images from my garden shortly after being planted!

Here is a picture of the garden--about a month ago (June). I put up a fence around the garden after a rabbit helped himself to one of my sweet bell pepper plants!


Here is a picture of my yellow onions. I was VERY excited to see them pop up! :)


Shortly after these pictures were taken, I put down some black mulch around all of the plants. The mulch will hopefully help keep some of the weeds down and will help retain moisture.

I added some Preen to the garden after that--once I conceded that I was Not going to be putting any seeds into the garden directly. I started some watermelon seeds in the house--and learned very quickly that watermelon seeds are actually a bit fickle!! Who knew?! They don't like to be too dry and they don't like to be too wet and they most certainly do not like to be indoors! I should have read up on them before I watched them wilt away-- but it was too late. There was Preen in the garden, so I couldn't plant the seeds and apparently watermelon resent being transplanted as a seedling! Lesson learned!

No watermelon for me this year! But that's ok because I'm going to be swimming in vegetables!

Creating my garden plot

Here are some pictures of the sod cutter I used and the garden plot afterward!


To give you an idea of size, the green marker on the edge measures 5' in length.

Here is my trusty wagon! No more back-breaking lifts! (And it also worked as a resting bench ;) This was a lot of work!)



The garden ended up being around 6' x 17'.
A friend came over and tilled this garden area along with some landscaping that I was working on. Once that was done, I added bags of garden soil and time to put the plants in! I was told by a friend of mine that if you plant marigolds all around your garden that it will keep the rabbits out. So, I purchased a flat of them and planted them around the perimeter.

These pictures were taken around Memorial Day Weekend.

I added some Peat Moss to the garden soil to help hold in moisture and improve texture.

I thought if I added these pinwheels to the garden corners that the movement would also help keep the rabbits out! But I think they are more cute than they are effective! :)


I planted the tomatoes (right) and four cucumber plants (left).



The marigolds are very pretty--however--they did Not keep the rabbits out! I check on my garden daily and a rabbit had hopped into the center of the garden and had eaten ALL of the leaves off of a sweet bell pepper plant! So, the very next day I was forced to put up a fence around the garden!

My very first garden!

I am very excited to have my own garden this year! I grew up on a farm and my mother grew every vegetable you can imagine. My sisters have both had gardens before but this is my very first one. Better late than never, I suppose.

Around February, I started planting seeds in my house. (I'll post some pictures from that progress.) I read that you should put more than one seed per pot as most seeds won't germinate. I did that, however, there were so many seeds in the pack that I ended up with a lot of pots. When the plants started to germinate--I separated them and put them into their own pots. By the time I was done re-potting the plants, I ended up with close to 100 tomato plants and 80 sweet bell pepper plants. All of which were viable, healthy plants. Now what?!!

I called my sisters, brothers and my mother and asked them if they would forgo buying any plants in the store and to please take some of my plants! And they did. They all took as many as their gardens could hold, but I was still left with close to 40 tomato plants and 30 Sweet Bell Peppers. I filled my garden up and started contacting my friends... I was able to give away a few more plants and ended with around 20 tomato plants left--but all of my sweet bell peppers found a home.

I rented a "manual" sod cutter from Ace Hardware and spent an evening pulling up the grass I worked so hard to grow...that took me a while to get over. The man at Ace Hardware told me that the manual sod cutter isn't "easy" but not so hard that he'd recommend the gas powered sod cutter over this one. So, I said I would take that one. (only $7.50) He said that women are the only ones who actually rent this one! The men want the gas powered one :) He was right--it was Not easy--it was work--but I don't mind a little bit of work when I reap the benefits of it. I ended up with a garden plot around 6' x 17' -- so a fairly large garden.

Next.... put the plants in the ground!