My corn is as high as an elephant's eye....

Wow, the corn is 6 feet tall!!  And the cucuzzi vines have reached the top of the trellis and I've started "training" them to climb around the top.  It's funny, to look at the garden, it is growing on a diagonal.  The right side is tall, the left side is short... no idea why.  My pepper plants all have babies, which I am excited about too!!


I've been playing match maker for the corn and cucuzzi.  The corn gets these sprouts on top, and they have these weird brown fuzzy things come off - which you take and sprinkle on your other corn plans to ensure that the pollination happens.  And for my cucuzzi plants, I've been rubbing the blooms together (blush blush) to make sure that they pollinate.  Here's hoping.  

Several pictures for your viewing enjoyment:

This is the whole back garden - I think it looks cute!

The cucuzzi fines have made it all the way to the top of the trellis!

One of the pepper plants - you can spy several peppers if you look close.

The corn sisters - the ones on the right side of the garden are 6 feet tall.  The parts at the top have  these fuzzy brown things that come off and pollinate the other corn plants.  Neat!

Not sure why the corn silk is coming out already - have to do my homework on this one...

April Showers....

My, how the garden is growing! Here are some pictures of both the front herb/tomato garden and the back garden. I'll put a brief description under each so you know what I'm growing :o)

Here is the whole front garden. The far side is the left of the walkway and the near side is the right of the walkway. Our front door is to the right.

Here are my "Tommy Toe" heirloom cherry tomato plants. If you look reeeeaaaal close, you can see yellow flowers! They are anywhere from a foot to three feet tall.

This is the left of the walkway - parsley up front, then basil, then the oregano "bush". Mint is hiding behind the oregano, so he gets his own picture (next)...

Here is the mint plant - it is starting to grow up between the cracks in the sidewalk!!!

To the right of the walkway - lavendar, dill, thyme, the rosemary bush (which I am constantly cutting back), chives, and in the back, the tomatoes.

Here is the whole back garden! 16 feet in length, 4 feet deep.

My first pepper flower :o) I have green, red and yellow bells in.

The cucuzzi are really coming up! They are 8-12" tall and reaching for the trellis! I can't wait for them to start climbing!

Some of the corn is waist high already!!! Holy smokes! I don't think I realized how tall it was going to get...

My cabbage patch! I have 9 cabbage plants in, in all. YUM!!

The Trellis Goes In!

My back garden now has a trellis! His name is Trellisimo, on account of the fact that he will be used to grow my Cucuzzi (I know how silly it is to name a trellis, but let's just go with it for now). My very good friend Julie came over on March 18th to help me build this great trellis! I had been drawing plans for some time (yes, I know how dorky this is) to ensure that I got it right. The basic plan was a 2 foot wide by 6 foot tall by 16 foot long trellis made of PVC. I did my homework on the Lowes website and figured out what types of joining pieces I would need in order to make everything fit together. I went there a few days prior and talked to a love gentlement who helped me get everything I needed (and a few things I didn't know I needed), and also told me (which Julie had already) that I really needed to paint the PVC to ensure that it would last in the Florida sun.

I had been going back and forth over the type of fencing/wire to put on the trellis once it was up. I wanted something a bit bigger than chicken wire, as that has very small openings (1") and I want the sun to be able to filter through so that I can still grow plants under my trellis. I found something called goat fencing, which has 4"x4" squares, and actually did manage to find someone who would sell be about 30' of it, but she never did get back to me... So, I ended up going with a plastic coated wire at Lowes that has 2"x3" openings. It was 2' wide, which was perfect, and we fixed it to the trellis with UV rated cable ties.

So, here we are laying out the two halves of the trellis, and gluing the pieces together. We didn't dry fit anything, so we were nervous about that...

Miraculously, when we put the two halves together, all of our measurements worked out, and they fit together!!!

Julie is checking both sides and they are actually the same measurement! We really could not believe that we did it! I mean, we measured and all, but because we different fittings for the different parts, we had to make different cuts... We were so relieved!

Here it is in the garden! We sunk it about 1 1/2' in the ground, so hopefully it will stay in! Daniel hammered it down for me too a little, so it should stay.

And here it is after we added the fencing to it! I love it! I planted the seeds for my Cucuzzi the same night!

PS - One week after planting the seeds, my cucuzzi started to pop up! I'll get pictures of my garden up soon. I have cabbage, silver queen corn, black beauty eggplant, and bell peppers! YUM! The front garden looks great too - more pictures to come next time!

The Front Garden

The front garden is done :o)

I've added all my herbs along the front walk. Already existing are a huge rosemary bush and oregano bush, and also chives, along with ordinary thyme. My mint was finally starting to come back as well.

On the left, we have the mint (which I supplemented), the oregano bush, basil, and flat leaf parsley. On the right, is my rosemary bush and chives, and the ordinary thyme, to which I've added German thyme, lavender, and dill. I'll be added the Tommy Toe Heirloom tomato plants when they get a bit bigger up at the front (closest to the house, near the pillar), as they always seem to thrive in that spot!! They are about 4-6 inches tall right now. I want to get about 8" and then I'll transplant.

Pictures below are the front left, front right and the mint.

Mulched & Ready to go!

Well, the garden beds have been turned, peat moss has been added, as well as lots of Starbucks "Grounds for your Garden" - Not only does my garden smell lovely, but it is ready for spring!

I always hate weeding, but I know it needs to be done. What is really ironic, and my father finds the humor, is that, as a kid, I always hated weeding. And now, as an adult, I have a garden, which I love, and self impose weeding.

As I was turning my soil, I was so pleased to find lots of big, FAT worms!! Yay!! Healthy soil!!! I am so glad that I added lots of yummy peat moss for them to eat :o) I hope they will tell all of their friends to come to the feast!!

Next weekend, my good friend Julie is going to come over and help me build an arbor that will live permanently in my garden. My cucuzzi will grow on it in spring, and who knows what will grow for the rest of the year, but at least I'll have a structure that will support my squash better than the trellis I've been using (or at least, that's the plan). Pictures will follow!

Other than cucuzzi, I'm not completely sure what will be growing in my garden this spring. I know I'll have cherry tomatoes in the front yard, along with the herbs, but I really am not sure what is going in the back. I'm thinking carrots, as my "new" item, but other than that, I'm not sure!

More to come!!

Starting the Garden!

Welcome to my Gardening Blog! I am an avid backyard veggie gardener :o) I have a 4 foot by 16 foot plot of land devoted to my veggies. I have been at it for about 2 years now, and have grown a variety of veggies. I have been trying to introduce a new veggie each season - something either unusual to me, or just something that I love and have never grown. I am going to try and chronicle my gardening adventures here, for anyone who might be interetested!

So, it's time to start thinking about planting for spring! I know that I'll be planting cucuzzi, which is a long Italian snake squash. My grandfather loves it, and so I grow it for him each year. He used to grow it in his garden years ago. It can get to be almost a meter long!! Here is a picture from my 2010 growning season - my grandparents were very proud of this squash!!

I have a new tomato to plant this year - called a tommy toe heirloom tomato. I got this seed, as well as my cucuzzi seeds from http://www.onaleeseeds.com/, which is, in my opinion, one of the best places around here to get seeds. Onalee is super nice, and she'll answer any questions you have. Her seeds perform great!

Here's a quick shot of my peat pots so far (not too exciting yet):

I haven't quite figured out what else is going in yet, but I have a bit of time to figure it out!

My winter garden is finishing up. I had a great yield this past winter. I had a few new crops that I had never planted before - cauliflower, sweet potatoes, and rutabegas - super yum! Plus, a few repeats from last winter - cabbage, broccoli and kohlrabi, which did great again this year. I love winter hardy veggie plants, as I don't need to cover them for our mild Florida winters. They do great with our light frosts, and actually, my rutabegas were a bit sweeter, thanks to the frost that we received.