Green Beans and Cucumbers

This weekend the green bean plants were still full of purple flowers.

We had a crazy rainstorm all day and night yesterday so I didn’t get to check the garden. When I got home from work tonight lots of the purple flowers had been replaced with little green beans. 

Then I noticed that the cucumber plants I bought and planted this weekend had tiny cucumbers.  I was so excited.

I am constantly impressed by mother nature.

Garden Expansion

It’s only the first week of spring and I’ve already outgrown my first garden box, the new second box and still plan to add lettuce and another tomato plant or two.

The second box looks empty but I learned last year how big squash, zucchini and tomatoes can grow.

Last spring with my first garden I tried not to buy too many plants and over plant the box. This weekend I might have gone a little overboard at the annul Greenfest garden show at Plant Park at the University of Tampa.

I bought tons of herbs. Basil, mint, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary, cilantro and parsley.

Three more cucumber plants.

A free cherry tomato plant that I’m not sure I’m going to keep - I like grape tomatoes better.

And although its not part of the vegetable garden I also bought a Meyer lemon patio tree.

When I got home with all the herbs I played with a few different layouts in the vegetable boxes to figure out where to plant them and decided to group most of them in larger pots.

Then, after planting the cucumbers and cherry tomato, it was time to thin out the fast growing one week old squash and zucchini seedlings. 

Boyfriend suggested trying to transplant the extra seedlings to a spot along the side of the house.  I used a shovel to break up the old roots and hard packed dirt then very carefully dug them out of the box and planted them.

There’s not water near that part of the house anymore so its going to take a little more effort to water them but if they get establish and grow it will be worth it. 

Spring

Around Valentines Day I planted green bean seeds for the first time.  Many of my friends with gardens told me they were easy and fast to grow. This week, during the first week of spring little buds appeared.

I wasn't really sure if they were tiny beans or flower buds but I had my answer the next day when little purple flowers bloomed.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

And because any post this week wouldn’t be complete with out an update on my zucchini and squash seedlings.  Here they are on Day 6.

Squash Seedlings Day 2

My excitement over my zucchini & squash seedlings might be a little crazy.  I was so excited to come home from work to see if all 12 had popped up.

Not only are all 12 of them there but the zucchini seedlings have grown larger during the last 10 hours.

Now that they all made it past the squirrel hole digging stage I’m looking forward to lots of pretty yellow squash blossoms in a few weeks. And I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this year I can keep the bugs and mildew away and actually get to eat some of the squash.

Before My Eyes

I’ve heard the joke that squash grow so fast you can see it grow.  This weekend I feel like that actually happened.  When I checked my garden Sunday morning three of the four zucchini seeds had sprouted.

Throughout the day the fourth zucchini and half of the yellow squash seeds popped out of the ground.

Every few hours there was another set of leaves sprouting and I was a big dork excited every time another seedling popped out of the dirt.

I almost wish I had a time elapse camera to capture Mother Nature doing her thing.

I also noticed small flower buds in the “Big Early” Bonnie Hybrid pepper plant.

This weekend I planted cucumber plant #2. 

Boyfriend would like to have a regular cucumber this year in addition to the small cucs that I was successfully able to grow last spring.  The first cucumber plant never seemed to adapt to the garden so I picked up a replacement at Lowes today, followed the directions on the peat container unlike last time, and planted it. Hopefully this plant will transplant better then the first one.

My spring garden is starting to take shape.

25 cents

Last weekend I stopped by the Chiseler’s annual flee market which supports the Henry B. Plant Hall/Tampa Bay Hotel at the University of Tampa. 

I usually take $15 and end up coming home with a bag full fun old cookbooks.  This year I also came home with four 25 cent seedlings.

I just couldn’t help myself when I saw the tiny bok choy and tomato plants for only 4 for a dollar.  

Last year at the Chiseler's flee I bought a fun Chinese cookbook for $1.  Looks like this year I might get to try out the recipes with my Chiseler's flee bok choy.

Spring Garden 2011 Second Planting

I decided a few weeks ago to take advantage of the early spring weather and transitioned my first fall garden box to spring/summer vegetable plants.

The green beans in the first box are growing well.  One of them is tipped over - I think from the squirrels but its still growing.

The peppers and new collard green plants seem to have adapted to the box.

The cucumber transplant didn’t do as well.  It never gained any strength so we pulled it out this weekend.

To prepare the second box it meant that it was time to take out the collard greens.  They were growing back in pretty quickly after being trimmed back last week.

That was a sad decision for me. Since my cucumbers and grape tomatoes last summer the collards were the most successful plant I’d grown.   I was ready to get the squash seeds in the ground though so that meant out the collards had to come.

After I had pulled out the collards, I used my hand trowel to rake through any old roots in the box.  Then I added two more bags of garden soil and smoothed it out so that the drip hoses were covered.  Leaves of squash are very susceptible to mildew so it is important to keep them dry when watering.

Then came seed planting time.

One seed packed said to plant 3 seeds and another said 5 so I compromised at 4.  One packet said the pants will need to be thinned out so if figure this gives me the option to thin them if they all sprout but it also give me a back up incase the squirrels find them or, like in the case of the green beans and carrots, some of the seeds don’t sprout. 

As for the 2 healthy looking carrot tops

I dug around the tops but all I found were very long roots and no carrots.  I’m not really sure what went wrong with the carrots but I’ll give them a try again next fall.