WHAT? I HAVE A SECOND BLOG???

OH. MY. GEEZ!! I completely forgot I had this blog spot. LOL!!!! "Neglect" is an understatement. Everything in it's own time I guess. 

Welcome back, me. And hopefully - YOU! 😀 Just, wow.

 This is the Community Garden. A couple of years ago, I considered joining; $15/plot for a year. Very secure with a combination for gardeners only. When it just started out a few years ago, they didn't have water aside from a nearby house willing to share their hose. I'm glad to see today they have several hoses for the sharing.

I love the whole community 'thing.'

The garden is also bigger. There is plenty of room to expand from houses that have been torn down.

 There was word in the beginning of theft - stealing others' veggies. Can you stand it? C'mon folks. Hopefully that's over. But while I looked around, I missed being able to grow my own space. Maybe one day later on...

Pictures by me.

Since the garden failed epically with dry, hot, unforgiving ground, I did herbs in pots. I don't know if I mentioned before, but here's progress:

I have huge bush of Basil. It smells so good - every time I water or rotate the pot, the smell knocks me out. Now it's going crazy - I'm going to harvest & freeze in a Ziploc. I was going to do the whole ice tray thing, but our freezer is small. My Italian bella BFF, Lisa, has promised me seeds of Italian Basil from the old country. Bring. It. On. :-)

I have Sage & Chives in a pot, too. The sage is getting really hardy. The chives are still under control. Since this was all a last minute thing, next year, I'll use much larger pots.

And lo and behold, the red and sweet banana peppers I saved & threw into a pot are sprouting. The pot isn't that big so the peppers will be small. I'm just thrilled to have 'em. The tomatoes, spinach and cukes died an early death. It got so hot so fast this year.

This is all I have to share 'garden' wise. My lettuce was okay, but it bolted early. I ate as much as I could. The cilantro didn't go well, either. It got really huge, but got bare & sprouted pretty little flowers. Hmmm... NOT how it looks in the store.

Live and learn, huh? I think next year I will get those pre-potted tomato plants that come all potted & staked for you. My sun is so limited with the huge trees. It's a blessing and a curse.:-)

Pictures by me.

 Howdy!

Just some random thoughts on the garden end of things:

This is my first Hibiscus tree, braided at that. I am soooo happy with it. I have a huge pot I want to put it in. The nursery said they actually prefer pots, so that way when winter sets in, I can just bring the whole pot inside. I am also limited on sunshine in the back yard, so we'll see how it goes.

I'm feeling a little leery about my garden space this year. The garden is behind my garage where I can't see it and a new family of wild children have moved in. :-( I want the garden, of course, but I always want to continue being a good neighbor. Kids who don't respect property of others make me not a good neighbor (LOL!).

So far for planting, I have spinach, lettuces (for the patio), tomatoes & cilantro. I never

realized how much I loved until I used it over the winter.

Lastly for now - what are the odds that I would find TWO robin's eggs this Spring? Aren't the beautiful? The nest was one that was left behind so I kept in on the patio & put the first egg inside. The second one fell out of a tree @ the office. I was going to get it, but when I came back the next day - it was gone. More than likely, some "woody wild thing" ate it. Scream.

Will continue to post as I progress. I hope you join me. :-)!!

Heller! (Madea Style)

Welcome back! Looks like it's time to dig in the dirt again!! We literally had NO winter in NE Ohio. I was so happy, even though it was rather weird. Just light dustings here & there as opposed to a couple of feet of snow. Everything started budding & blooming in April! This caused huge problems for lots of plants. One day I took a picture of a beautiful Magnolia & 24 hrs. later, it was dead. Three major frosts before it was safe to leave anything out. Even though temps are hgh, I still don't plant the garden before May 10th. It's what the Amish say, too. And they should know.

I've been eating A TON of spinach. I have to have it in the house. I'll cook dinner, but I usually eat spinach salad instead. Mangoes & Kiwi are ranking pretty high on the addiction list, too. The bean sprouts & alfalfa sprouts are always on the spinach.

 I'm going to grow lettuce in a big pot on the patio. I don't want to put it in the garden. It's so delicate, I want it nearby.

Speaking of the garden, it's time to roto-till. Scream! The tiller we rented last year was a beast. WAY too large for my little space, but the nearby shop doesn't rent small. Yet just a pitchfork was major work. It has to be done.

Lastly, over the winter (or lack of it), I fell in love with fresh cilantro. During a veggie/fruit shopping craze, I added it to chicken soup in the crock pot. Addiction. It's great on the everything if you want a tart, lemony taste. When I use this, there's no need for salt in my book.

I'm not sure what I'm growing this year. Last year, my tomatoes didn't do so well, & neither did my green peppers. They took nearly all summer to finally grow anything & it grew was very small. I will try cabbage again & spinach for a first time. I have to work with the space I have.

Again, thanks for coming back if you're reading this right now. I hope you join me for another season of growing :-)

Good morning folks! I simply cannot believe we're winding down October already!!! Time is flying so quickly. I am sharing some more of the last of our Fall. Even though a lot of the trees are still green, last week's wind/rain took a lot of them down, so we missed our portion of color. There are still things here & there that I try to catch where ever I see them.

This weekend is sposed to only be in the 50's, but I MUST break down the yard & patio. It involves something like this:

• dump all dirt out of pots into the garden
• rinse out, dry & put terra cotta pots in the basement
• maybe use another Shepherd's Hook for another bird feeder for winter
• put patio furniture in the garage
• wrap all porch/patio cushions in giant plastic bags
• put wicker porch furniture in basement
• pull up & throw away all plants (impatients, zennias, choleus)
  
• bring huge porch plant inside for winter. It hates winter heat & goes into shock until spring, when it pops back to life
• pull up & throw away anything left in garden. I got the last of the hot peppers. The harvest has officially ended (weeping). Lol!
• Put "4 'o clock" seeds in the ground; see if they come out in the spring
• Rake, rake and rake some more. With four trees, including the M.W. (mighty willow), raking is mandatory - constantly.

Well, this is all I have for now. I still have more Fall to share, so please check back soon. :-)

Good fresh, cool, cloudless sky, Sunday morning to you all. Thanks for coming back to see what's happening.

Well, Fall is setting in slowly which means the garden has been dismantled :-( It gave all it had to give for this season, so I took in the last of it all & broke it down, with a heavy heart, of course :-)

This is the last of the bounty - as you can see - I DID get a few bell peppers, even though if the weather wasn't changing, I would've gotten more, I know.

If you've been to this spot ever, you KNOW that's not my watermelon (LOL!) I could've lied & said it was, but you know... with it being Sunday and all. But there's no way my melon could've grown to this size - maybe next year when I start super early. This little beauty came from the Farmer's Market, but I thought it made a good 'fill in.' :-)

It's hard to start any earlier than Mother Nature will allow here in the big OH - you may think it's okay, then it may snow overnight while you sleep! It's dicey.

Oh, finally - the cabbages. I got four small heads & 2 freezer bags of leaves. You cannot freeze cabbage (learned that the hard way some years ago), so we will be eating it very soon.

I thought I'd spare you pictures of the grueling process of prepping the cabbage. Umm... who knew there would be so much dirt (duh) leaves, bugs, SLUGS!.... I had to scrub each leaf with a soft toothbrush & wash each batch at least four times each.

Now when I go into the grocery or farmer's markets & see the cabbages 'buy ready' form, I will bow down in respect for whoever prepped them to that point. Well... I guess that's the life of a gardener :-)

Finally, with all of my fresh veggies (and my always present bag of spinach - a mainstay in my diet), I will grace my blessings with this new salad dressing. Doesn't it sound delish? Marc's has a huge selection of all types of dressings - I try to experience them all.

"D" rolls his eyes @ the flavors I bring home. All he wants is Italian and/or "ranch sauce" (Ranch). Sigh... how boring. Those flavors are SO 1970... (LOL!)

Thank you guys for spending the summer in the garden with me. I don't wanna stop posting here, so I think I'll come back & post the Fall leaves' change, if you don't mind. I can't just leave you guys hanging!

Until next time - see you soon. Please come back & check for Fall photos - I'll have more of 'em than you can shake a stick at!

Oh - and a special shout-out to my new reader, Gail - thank you for squeaking in here @ the end of the season - it was good having you and I'm so glad you enjoyed this spot. Please come back & check for Fall photos so we can stay in touch :-)

Late summer

Welcome back!

I've been regularly getting lots of cucumbers. In fact, more than I know what to do with. I've been eating them plain, with onion in Italian dressing, over spinach salads, putting slices on my puffy eyelids... they're growing still as I speak. Some grow in heavily marked with lines - i don't know what that is, but they're still good.

This is a freak of nature for sure! The cuke started small, then grew thru the hole in the wire & continued to grow. I can't remove it from either side. Of course, the bad-girl gardener in me thinks it looks like a penis! (LOL!) "The Garden Penis." Hmm... could be a book... :-)

The peppers are still growing steadily. Since they're for the most part hot, I don't use them. Dwayne chops them very finely and adds them to different things, but no matter how small he chops, I can still feel the fire. They're beautiful, but deadly (LOL!)

As you can see, the cabbages are looking great! Seems the closer it gets to Fall, the better they do. I read that you should try to leave them out as long as possible. Hey, I've seen old-school gardens that had greens and cabbages with snow on them. The colder the better. I am glad to see the center finally form into a ball. A friend of mine told me they would never get to that stage.

FINALLY... the green bell pepper plants have small fruit on it. They plants are nearly at my shoulder & I'm 5'5"! I have never seen them grow so tall without producing anything, but I'm glad they growing.

The tomatoes didn't do near as well as I thought they should. For two mighty plants, I've gotten a total of MAYBE 6 tomatoes all summer! They're are delicious, but small & very few. They have lots of sun - I don't know what happened.

The watermelon plants were a flop. They're still growing long vines w/tiny yellow flowers, but I don't expect anything. An older lady told me Ohio's hot season isn't long enough for the melons to grow - from seed. Next year, I spose I should start with small plants. Trial & error, indeed.

The pack of sunflowers seeds I put out never did anything. The beetles ate them down to the ground. No big deal on that one. On the outside of the garden fence where I transplanted lots of Moonplant, it is growing wild & crazy which is what I wanted. It lines the fence & hides the garden from the street. Score!! Moonplants comes back each year w/a mighty vengence, so I cannot wait to see what next year brings!

PS: the rosemary is still hearty & delicious. I use it quite often when cooking. The smell is like perfume :-) That's all for now - stop back again soon!

Progression & growth

As you can see - the cabbages are really taking off! I can't believe how great they look!




Welcome back!!! Thanks for stopping in. I've got lots o'growth going on.


The power of the vine. It needs to climb & will wrap around anything!



Everything is pretty much doing all the work itself; my job is to keep it watered & try to maintain it. The melons - I ended up staking them w/cute little stakes - again. Don't think it's going to work - the vines are powerful! Do you stake melons, or let them run? The feelers on them have already wrapped around the little fencing I have.

The sweet yellow peppers are really bursting out. I have 2 that I think are big enuff to eat, but I'll let them grow more. In on picture, the green bell peppers are also tiny, tiny little buds, but the picture may be blurry. I was in hurry this morning :-)

See all the yellow blooms on the cucumbers? That means lots of fruit. Again, will they get too heavy for the stakes? I don't to leave them on the ground cause I know that causes rot. We'll see - this is all trial/error & there are no mistakes. Only lessons for next year :-)

I know the rosemary always looks the same, but it truly is really hearty & bushy. I love the smell. And with all the wild mint that was already there, I love smelling it whenever i step on some or water it. The smell is fantastic!! :-)

Thoughts for next year, thus far:

• experiment with more of everything. I have the space
• start off w/staking tomatoes when they're small
• try collard greens to accompany the cabbage
• do a couple more tomato plants
• if using seed - start inside before spring in peat moss pots. i laughed @ that idea when we had late snow - now it's not so funny (LOL!)
• add in flowers for color. love the garden, but it's so.... green. splashes of red petunias or geraniums will perk everything up.

Well, that's all i have for now. If I think of anything else until the next visit, I'll be sure to put it here. Sunshine & growth to you! :-)

Pictures by: me :-)