Good news, everyone!

A coworker of mine is an accomplished container gardener. At a recent work party, I talked to her about my predicament. She had all kinds of useful advice ("Ditch the carrots, replant the cukes!") and followed up by sending me lettuce seeds that have worked really well for her. She also sent along two planting calendars for this area. So helpful!

So, this weekend I suppose I'll take some time to tend the garden. DH and I talked about extending our drip system to reach the containers. Sounds like it'll cost around $20 to do that ourselves. Now we just need to decide where to put them!

Also, my sister is moving out of the state and has agreed to leave their gardening stuff with us! Yay! They have a bunch of seeds and maybe some still-growing plants we can transplant. We'll see what we end up with there.

And, the cosmos keep growing beautifully. They need to be thinned out a bit so they don't choke themselves, but I'm looking forward to seeing them blossom one day!

Tense times in the garden!

We just got back from a trip to see the 'rents back East and, of course, the sprouts are doing poorly. We doused them before we left, but I don't think they'll bounce back now. Too dry for too long! Sad.

On the other hand, the cosmos sprouts are doing really well! I can tell they'll be my favorite since they require so little attention. ;)

I'll get pictures as I try to nurse the dry ones back to health!

Meanwhile... part II

Too many pictures! More from Hawaii after the jump.

Meanwhile... in the past

As I was trying to get the computer to bring up the sprouts pictures, I happened across a disk with some of our favorite Hawaii pictures on it. I found myself reminiscing and wondering if it's too early to be doing that-- I mean, it hasn't even been a year since our honeymoon!

Sprouts everywhere!

A few days ago, the cucumber was just starting to sprout but when I watered it, the sprout got buried again. Well, yesterday, after Darling Husband repeatedly encouraging me to take care of my green things, I went out to water the little ones. Lo and behold! Sprouts!

First sprouts!

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present my first gardening success! Behold, the epic beauty of the cosmos! No, seriously-- this is a cosmos flower just starting to sprout!

Read more of my rantings after the jump!

Frost delay

Well, our winter has been very strange this year-- warm then cold, warm then cold. We had another cold snap this weekend, so I brought the plants in. I probably didn't really need to, but I'm protective right now! I just started this whole thing, so I really don't want my efforts to be wasted just yet.

Bringing them in reminded me that I hadn't labeled my little seed pots, and I probably will want to know which one to plant by the trellis and which one will be a bush! I came up with this solution with plastic knives we have sitting around.

Deadheading

So, my marigolds were looking kind of sad and I read that you can try to see if they'll reflower by deadheading them. This basically means cutting off the flowers. I did that, but not being very experienced with gardening, I didn't know how far down to cut. So I did an experiment and on some of them I cut just below the flower and others I cut further down.

The outcome? So far, all stems are perking up. The leaves were looking wilty and soggy, but now they are all vigorous. At least that's how they look.So, maybe it doesn't matter for the vitality of the plant how much you cut off. But we'll see if any of the stems reflower.

Next question: Am I going to have to move these things into a bigger pot if I want them to keep growing? I'll let you know what I find out!

A nice little kitchen garden

I was so excited about the amaryllis, that Darling Husband bought me seeds for a kitchen garden for Valentine's Day. How thoughtful! We have talked about starting a little garden for a while and it seems that I don't have a black thumb after all. The "miracle of the amaryllis" inspired me. If I can accidentally make that thing grow, surely I can learn to make other things grow as well.

Of course, living in Phoenix means that gardening can be a challenge. I was intimidated, but since my sister's family grows squash and some other things, I know it's possible. After doing some research, I learned some very interesting things.

What color is my thumb?

Well, if I don't try too hard, it's GREEN!