Epsom salt...never would have thought of that!

I was doing some reading to see if I could figure out why my jalapenos were dropping their flowers (female flowers...with wee peppers behind them...the flower stem and all) and discovered that a shortage of magnesium in the soil (or oversupply of nitrogen) can cause that problem.

Makes sense...my beans are going nuts and they LOVE nitrogen...not more than 6" from my peppers.

Solution? EPSOM SALT! woohoo! Dissolve some in water and give them a foliar feeding (brush it on the leaves) and then pour the rest around the plants. It will help the peppers and tomatoes, potentially the eggplant and even quite possibly the squash plants (zukes and cukes.) I also sprinkled some on the soil around the plant bases and will dissolve that in when I water tomorrow.

If that is the problem (I'm sure it is...it also causes some leaf curl and yellowing leaves...I'm seeing some curl on newer bell pepper leaves and yellowing overall on the jalapenos) I'll see results in 24-48 hours.

How easy is that? I've always got it on hand.



Also...I checked on my fertile cuke when I was out there salting the peppers and tomatoes. The male flower is fully open and happy. The female flower (not visible in the photo below but over the day started to appear and should be open by tomorrow morning) is quickly maturing beside and a little below it! I'll go help them out (hand pollination) when I see them both open since I understand we have a shortage of bees this year.

The first cucumber flower of the season...

I was happy this morning to visit the first cucumber flower of the season. It's on the plant I bought, not the ones I sprouted (but they aren't far behind!) and it's so pretty! Won't be long now until we have fresh cukes in the kitchen!

I've assembled trellises for the beans, peas and cucumbers from found objects in my home and yard. Recycled trellis pieces found in my compost pile (may need to replace or reinforce one on the pea trellis because of rot...but it may be ok for this season), hemp twine and a metal trellis I found in the landscaping of our yard. The metal one has joints so I've zig-zagged it between the lemon cuke mounds and the purchased/vining cuke plant. The rest are bushmaster cukes. I may end up doing a shorter trellis for those to keep them off the ground but I've not decided. As a rule they don't need trellising like vining types do.














I started using a mixture of peppermint castille soap, garlic, canola oil and water to spray the flea beetles on the eggplant. Looks like it is working better with the oil than it did before. Hoping that won't kill the plant. I'm going to let the plant go before I stoop to pesticides...I figure I've gone 11 years of living with my husband of only eating eggplant if we go out to eat so it doesn't make sense to pollute my entire bed over a $2 plant.

I did use miracle gro last night on all the beds. The drought is really hard here so I decided to give them one (early) boost since all the plants are established. I probably won't do it again since I don't want it on there nearing harvest.


Later this afternoon (the camera was put away) I found my first baby bell pepper! The jalapeno plants have had baby peppers but they drop the peppers with the flowers so I'm not sure what that means. All the pepper plants are flowering well now.

Planted pumpkins around the outside edge of the right bed since they didn't sprout in the landscaping. I figured I could lay them over the side as they vine out, so they grow on the grass not in the bed. Two types...jack-o-lanterns and competition-sized. With cross-pollination we should still end up with some sizable gourds! I'm excited.

Probably need to give away some watermelons soon. I think I have too many plants.

I could probably also give away one or two more cucumber plants.


Even though it is late in the season I took 2 big clumps of garlic out and planted the cloves all around the eggplant, zucchini, peppers and tomatoes. It may be too late to get a harvest (usually they are harvested in early July in my zone) due to the heat but maybe not. At the very least, they'll help with the pest problems. Flea beetles and all that ;) I found some interesting red bugs on one zucchini leaf last night...no idea what they were and I squirted them before I thought to grab the camera. There were about 10 of them. Haven't seen them before or since, or anywhere else.

Also planted sunflower seeds all around. Various colors and sizes...all around the tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, zucchini, watermelon and inside the pea trellis. I can't wait until they come up. They'll be all around (but aren't planted thickly...just one here or there around the garden.)

I am perhaps most pleased with my makeshift drip irrigation system...I used inverted 2 liter bottles and drilled several holes into the screw-on lids. Using a saw, I cut off the bottoms of the bottles, effectively making funnels. Digging gently I placed them around the left bed. I still need more (will only use the clear bottles, not green...and I need them WITH lids so it'll be a several-day type project as I get the bottles.)

Now, I'll be able to water the plants deeply via drips from the bottles by filling the bottles up and letting them slowly empty into the depths of the beds. I'll supplement that with top watering as well, but this will help me conserve water (given the drought) and will encourage my plants to reach down D.E.E.P. for their water (deep roots = healthy plants and better production!)

I'll take photos in a couple days when I have more. I was talking with XT today and she was telling me about collecting her grey water (from her wash loads) for her plants. That's an idea I like too...I may not use it for my veggie plants since I don't use the eco-sensitive detergents she uses but I don't mind using that for my ornamentals out front! It would (maybe) solve the problem I'm having with my mailbox gardenscape...the sage plants I placed aren't establishing well because I can't water them (out front) very often, due to the restrictions. Grey water isn't restricted for ornamental residential use! ~happy day!~ Now to see my husband's reaction when I start draining the washer water into the cat litter buckets...LOL...

Save yourself $4, the jiffy peats are failures.

Go with used (empty) strawberry containers instead.

NOTHING I planted in the Jiffy Peats took. Almost EVERYTHING I planted in the solo plates and strawberry containers did...and did well, I may add. (except the peppers...)


I'm going to try again to sprout some chamomile seeds. Bugger.

My Painted Garden...oh how it grows!

I thought it would be fun today to let the boys have at my garden. Morgan was helping me weed (not a huge job since I spend part of each day out there...I just nip the wee weed buds as they appear) and I was setting up the trellis stakes.

Initially I was going to use a nylon net I bought at Wal-Mart for my trellis but once I opened it I could see that while it was a great idea, it was totally the wrong thing...so I'll take it back and figure out a trellis asap. Maybe a variety of trellis systems...some for different plants.

So...while I was doing that, I was talking to Charlie and offered up the option of painting the outsides of the beds. He jumped all over it! Soon both of his brothers were all about it...and now I have painted beds :D I love it!

I'm really loving this lasagna gardening deal. It's amazing how well the plants are doing! I'll need to add some more *stuff* soon to the beds but it's just phenomenal how quickly they are growing tall and strong. Won't be long until I have some fresh veggies from my own yard!

I've got flowers on all my pepper plants...this is a jalapeno flower. Not sure how to tell the difference btw male and female flowers (trying to help them pollinate so they don't cross-pollinate with the bells)...if you have any idea please let me know!

My poor eggplant is still struggling with flea beetles...the "tea" helped some but I'm still seeing the bugs. Not sure what I'll end up doing about that problem. It looks bad but is getting taller so maybe it's not as big a problem as it appears?

The zucchini, peas and onions are growing like mad fiends. Most of my onions won't be ready to harvest until next year but I have some that were "sets" that should fruit this year. I probably should go look at the potatoes...but then again they are 2ft tall and were nearly so before I even realized they were there! Maybe that means they're fine?

My left bed is doing great too...scroll down a few posts to see how it was not so long ago...scroll up to see it with Charlie painting it this morning. Here you can see the back side of the left bed...all the beans growing. On the left side of the left bed I have lemon cukes, roma tomatoes and beans front to back. Peppers and bushmaster cukes are on the right side of the bed (with beans across the entire backside.)

left side/left bed

I thinned things out 2 days ago...and ATTACK! Flea beetles...

I gave away lots of cukes, Roma tomatoes, beans and peas to friends in my homeschool group. I simply had too many. I may be callous enough to pull random sprouts from my beds (since I know I've not sown any seeds recently...they HAVE to be WEEDS...so I have no qualm plucking those out) but I am not able to thin my plants and just leave them to die. So...found them new homes! Hopefully they'll produce lovely veggies for my friends ;)

Since doing so I swear the plants have doubled...again! Funny how that works. I thinned out and moved some things so they were better spaced. I've still got plenty of everything.


Here are the cucumbers (bushmaster & lemon...the lemons are on the mounds):










































My beans have nearly tripled:















Tomatoes seem to like having more space...I moved some to the right-side bed since my salad greens are faltering (don't try to grow salad greens in the summer in Georgia...it won't work.)















The peas have runners! How adorable is that? I'm going to have to trellis them today. I'll do it and take pics later this week. I found some old trellis wood in the compost last week so I'll be screwing that into the boxes and stapling/screwing my netting into those, making a tent-like trellis net.



























I moved the zucchini farther apart...the poor guys needed room to stretch ;)













My herb garden is happy. I went to Pike's (again) the other day, this time with Christy...they had their veggies and herbs 25% off! Whoa that's a crazy dark photo. That's what happens when I'm talking to my 5yo at the same time as I shoot...doh. (See...I can take really terrible photos too ;) )













~Oh happy day~She kept me from buying too many. Her thought was that if I didn't know what I'd use the herb for I probably shouldn't buy it. Hmm...lol. Dang it she's so logical!

So...I bought some catnip (to fend off the offending FLEA BEETLES...keep reading to learn about those pests), lemon thyme and lemon grass.













I like the idea of lemon grass and catnip serving as mosquito repellants this summer. I intend on turning the area around my pergola/deck into a functional herb garden (with truly functional herbs...not just little kitchen herbs but lovely things like cohosh and TONS of lavender and echinacea...oh and some calendula and...and...and...!)

Now...let's discuss pests. No, not your 5 year old. No, not your dog (although they can be rather pesty...mine keeps insisting that his potty needs to be right near my left garden bed. I apparently offended him when I usurped the yard corner for my garden...he loved to *use* it ;) ) I'm not even talking bunnies. We obviously have them so I spread wormwood clippings around the sides of my beds and thus far it works (while my marigolds are growing bigger...they're getting there.)

I'm talking bugs.

I'm not a big fan of pesticides. I love the idea of organic gardening...really I do. And you know what? Other than a wee bit of Miracle Grow dirt that I used to sprout *some* of my seeds, my garden IS organic. Now...I do realize that the hay the horses who produced the manure I used may not have been organic...and the cow pasture that became a shopping center and gifted me topsoil probably wasn't organic...and I didn't buy "certified organic" seeds...but I have thus far grown and maintained a *mostly* organic garden. I'm happy about that! I'd love to keep it this way all summer. The way I see it, the less chemical CRAP we use the better, right? Well...then there are the FLEA BEETLES.













Now folks...lemme tell ya...they are annoying. They are pernicious. They are TENACIOUS. (I love big words.) They are plain ole' DAMN ANNOYING is what they are. They apparently LOVE my eggplant as much as I do and are less patient than I in terms of waiting for harvest. They seem to believe I planted it JUST FOR THEM. Wrong.

I have tried the soap water (squirted on the plant several times a day to knock the bugs off.) I bought catnip and put it NEXT to the eggplant...nope, didn't work. Then...I sprang for the big guns.
No, silly. I didn't spray it with bug stuff...I brewed a tea. What am I known for? My tea! Of course (anyone who knows me well knows the secret I hide in my cupboards...TONS of tea varieties! I have a veritable PLETHORA of tea! I love love love TEA!) this wasn't your average cup o'chamomile, not even a fruity spring peach tea...this was vile stuff. Catnip, black pepper, chili powder and minced garlic all went into my tea. It steeped for A FULL HOUR. Then, I went out and brushed it on my plant at dusk. I poured the
remaining tea in a circle around my eggplant.

Today, the plant is covered in dried pepper, chili powder and minced garlic (that is what you are seeing in the 3 photos...dried tea *stuff*.) I found ONE flea beetle this morning. Just...ONE! I promptly squished it and left it laying next to the plant on the dirt, as a reminder to those who follow...DO NOT MESS WITH TRACEY'S EGGPLANT!













So far it seems to be working. Of course it's only been 14 hours... ;) Here's to lots of lovely, yummy roasted (fried?!) eggplant later this summer!!

catalogs in the mail yesterday!!

I'm already planning next year's garden...I got these in the mail yesterday. Did you know you can order a 7' tall orchid from a nursery in Raleigh? Crazy.

I did it again today. I have an illness.

Once the sting in the foot subsided...I was out the door to top of the groceries. I got sidetracked though...and ended up getting things for around my mailbox. It was a mess of trying-to-grow morning glory, bermuda and lirope weed-filled MESS. Did I mention MESS?

The former owners had edged it with bricks (sort of...half bricks on wood) but those long since broke as the mail person ran over them (they apparently run up on our curb...grumble grrr grumble). I was done with the mess.

Got the landscape fabric out of the shed, laid it down. Edged with concrete edgers (I actually need to do those better but a storm was coming...I'll sink them later this week or next but they work for now) I then added grass clippings, leaf mold, compost and topsoil...mixed it all up.

To that I added 3 salvias (love love love sage!) and a tickweed coreopsis (all perennial here.) Scattered my remaining marigold seeds, patted it down and headed in. It was nearly dark. The boys helped me tidy up and that was that. Took me under an hour and under $30.

Not bad. ;) And now (once I sink the edgers) I *should* be weed-free, or at least mostly so. It'll look much nicer now. In a few days the boys and I will take our empty bags (compost and such) to the county mulch pile and load up so we can mulch my front beds for free, including around the mailbox.


If only my foot didn't complain so much I'd feel quite accomplished today.

Just talked with my husband. I really don't like this traveling husband thing so much. :( Ah well.

I'm sore. Poison ivy, the compost hell pit and my husband is traveling.

This is the first time he's ever done that. It's weird for me. He got up at 3a today to leave (had to be in Duluth by 5 to get on the company bus...they bussed them to some god-forsaken place in SC for a team-building/training at some state park.) I was still up from last night so that was interesting.

It's going to rain today. Sometime late I suppose...it's been sprinkling on and off all morning but it's cool, so I took the opportunity of the cooler air to dress head to toe and go work on the yard. I can manage ok with crocs if i go slow, but after what I did I'm sure in hindsight I'll regret some of it later (my foot) I cut back the wormwood. ruthlessly. That's out front.

I also did round-up on the wood sorrel that is determined to bolt and take over my front bed. Only half the bed has the problem...the other half has enough root structure to fight that off. I don't do a LOT of chemicals but the wood sorrel needs it...that stuff spreads by shooting out pods under the dirt that POP when you pull it out, so pulling it causes it to spread. Lovely evolutionary thing, that.

I then pulled up a ton of weed maples and some weed blackberries that wanted to take over. Cut back 4 shrubs in the deck area out back. Got the strong rake and headed to the compost.

Gloved up and went for it. Over the last 2 1/2 years Charles has dumped a ton of cut trees and limbs on top of what i intended to be our compost. We've then added some grass clippings and kitchen compost to that...and it had started to spread out into the sodded part of my yard (as opposed to back by the fence where it was mostly unseen and therefore ok IMO.)

I literally threw every piece of tree back against the fence. Pieces as big around as my leg or bigger. Pieces as long as almost 2 stories tall (literally) although thankfully pretty slim so I could pick them up and heave them. The pile of wood is now almost as tall as me.

I found 4 potato plants in the grass clippings, so I raked more clippings around the leaves and left those. Pointed them out to the kids so they'll not dump stuff on them. Raked all the rose bush clippings (I had to clip back an English rose on Monday...clippings 7 feet long or more...it was bad) back into the wood so it wouldn't hurt us when we were working the pile. I have about 7 pallets I'll be using to craft into compost squares eventually (can't move them myself with my foot...what I did today was more than enough.)

Showed the kids where to put kitchen refuse. Where to put NEW grass clippings. Where to NOT go (wood and poison ivy) and where to put bigger cuttings of *stuff*. It's mostly organized now (as much as a HUGE composting area could be) and actually already has a fair bit of yummy dirt stuff I can use in the garden.

I found several old trellis stakes under all that wood that the boys drug over to the garden for me to use to fashion a trellis for my beans and peas.Then I went around the yard and sprayed the various patches of poison ivy with round up. Again...I reserve that stuff for the big bad boys. I consider wood sorrel and poison ivy to be just that. (Bboth are invasive in my yard...one causes my kids a ton of issues and the other kills my plants.)

I'm tired! Thinking it'll be naptime later today.

companion planting?

Does anyone have any suggestions about companion planting?

I'm considering planting some sunflowers in with my veggies. I am also thinking of moving some things from the left to the right bed, since my greens (salad/spinach) are wilty and not growing well. I knew that was a risk to planting so late...no big deal there.

The right bed is not quite as much full sun as the left though...so what to move? Not sure.

But...I'm thinking of adding sunflowers to help some things trellis up. I'll also be putting out some marigolds I sprouted in April and then sowing some more marigold seeds amongst the veggies to repel the bunnies and other pests.

Considering propagating some of my other herbs (sweet basil, chamomile, lemon balm?) to place in the veggies too...basil with the tomatoes for sure.

I'm also strongly considering rooting some lavender, wormwood and rosemary to plant around the garden (they are elsewhere in the yards.)

Ideas? Suggestions?

FOUND! Jalapeno peppers...and some more fun stuff :)

What is it with the Jalapeno Pepper that makes it SOOO hard to find here in Cumming? I swear...I searched Lowes, Home Depot, two Wal-Marts AND Pike's. I very nearly gave up at Pike's when I found them. Up waaaaay high on a rolling cart...and by high I mean high enough my husband would have had to reach up...I found a few 2-packs of wee bitty Jalapeno peppers. Only .99 for 2 plants! I of course bought 4. MUST.HAVE.JALAPENO.PEPPERS. You really have no idea the obsession this has become for me...or maybe you do?

This is the left bed, showing beans in the rear, tomatoes on the middle left, lemon cukes on the left front, bush cukes on the right front, various peppers on the right middle...lots of plants. I'll be thinning this weekend.

I was also in search of calendula...which I did not find, not even in seed form. Just can't find that one anywhere either...and yes, you can bet I've searched all the above places for it.

I did find Valerian, Chamomile in bloom (I have some sprouting but I'm impatient at this point) and a particularly YUMMY smelling Chocolate Peppermint Mint plant. It claims to be invasive, which of course all mints are...but omg that plant had me at whiff #1.

So of course all this playing in the dirt has given me ideas. I've got all sorts of ideas of how

I can mulch that entire part of our yard...it's sort of a little off-shoot to the side in back. Not a part we've used much (until now) and it lends itself nicely to needing a lit archway, over which I could train a variety of yummy things, leading into the main part of the garden. I plan on removing some pretty fugly shrubs in a raised bed we have in th corner, and then laying waste to the vast growth of English Ivy I have back there. Next year that corner will grow my peas, beans and melons...or at least that's the plan right now. We'll see how motivated I can get my husband in terms of helping me remove huge (giant really) shrubs that are long-since leggy and a ton of ivy. He hates ivy. I'm starting to agree.

More on Mother's Day...

Here you see my 5 zucchini plants, which sprouted from seeds I planted on April 19:

We had a lot of rain last night...overnight my cucumber plants sprouted! I planted them directly in the beds on May 6. I am also sharing my "cheat" cuke plant that I bought this week...after my peppers didn't sprout I was sort of doubting my sprout-ability LOL.

Just since I visited my plants this morning with Mom before she left, my beans have sprouted! Here you see one wee bitty one in between two of my pepper plants (I gave up and bought 4...I have a red bell, a yellow bell, a mexibell and a sweet chili...still holding hope that at least one jalepeno will sprout in my jiffy peats since I can't find jalapeno plants anywhere...)

I also have some lemon cucumber plants that sprouted today! I'm excited about these since I've never had a lemon cuke before but LOVE LOVE LOVE cucumbers.

Not pictured are my peas (sprouted today!), sweet onions, spinach, & salad greens.

Um, think I have enough Roma tomatoes? I sprouted these on April 19...I am not fond of tomatoes but use these for salsa and tomato sauce. I recognize I'll need to thin these soon...

I also planted some competition pumpkin seeds in with the yard beds...hope they come up! Our family watermelon plot is against the fence near our gate...the boys are probably most excited about that more than anything else.

Happy Mother's Day!

The second round of plants seems to have sprouted! I planted them to sprout from seed on May 6. Today is May 13 (Mother's Day) and I have zinnia, bachelor's buttons and a few others.

I have established an herb garden too...it's small for now but we'll see...I've got lots of room if I pull out some English Ivy (no small task!) since I'd much prefer a fragrant (and useful!) herb garden to the veritable plethora of ivy we have all over.

It is right outside the living room, by my seat on the sofa. I have a birdfeeder in the same bed. So far I have Lemon Balm, Sweet Basil, Echinacea (transplanted from my front perennial garden, planted over the last 2 years), Citronella and Cilantro. I am sprouting Chamomile and hope to also have some Calendula...perhaps some Lemon Verbena if I can find it.

Sweet Basil:

Citronella:

Lemon Balm:

Echinacea transplated from the front perennial bed: