Update

Apparently...I don't blog enough to call myself a true blogger. And lots has happened since the vacation. I don't like to post without pictures, and Lee is in charge of downloading all our pictures...so I blame him.
On to the garden.
Overall...I give myself a C. Maybe a C+. Can I pass blame again? Its the shade's fault. Not enough sun!! I had huge, beautiful plants - lush and green, with lots and lots of blooms (those are flowers for you non-gardeners). But when it came time for the fruit to grow into something edible, there just wasn't enough sun to make anything grow.
I did learn a lot, though! Here's a sampling of garden lessons by Suz:
1. Vegetables need lots of sunlight.
2. Vegetables need lots of water. And sunlight.
3. Blooms do not necessarily mean veggies.
4. Tomatoes can have "bottom rot."
5. Bottom rot can be healed by eggshells.
6. Cucumbers can grow without as much sunlight.
7. Corn and watermelon do not grow without sunlight.
8. Neither do squash or tomatoes.

Pictures to follow. Pictures, but no veggies. So sad...

Distraction

My reason for such a break in posts (thanks to anyone who noticed!) was a much-needed vacation with my sweet hubby. We took a 5-day cruise to Cozumel and Calica. We ate a ton and got some good sun. Lots of just lying around and rest, before work gets too crazy and he starts his THIRD year of medical school. I can't believe he's in his third year. Here's are some pics from the vaca!

Lee picking his hot sauce - our single souvenier from the trip.

Cozumel - it was SOO HOT. I think we walked maybe a mile and I practically ran back to the air conditioned ship. Considered swimming, but I had that hot sauce...
All that good sun.

We had such a wonderful time! And don't worry - my sweet friend Lacy watered the garden in my absence. Don't think that this wonderful break kept me from thinking about my garden.

Blooms

This is a liiiiitle late, but I took pictures a while back and got sidetracked (see post yet to come), and never put them up. When a veggie plant bears fruit, there's a flower bloom first. Here's the flower on green beans (look closely):
And here's what cucumbers look like when they bloom:
And while we're discussing cucumbers, I wasn't prepared for this aspect. Apparently, the plants have these little vine things that grow and cling to anything they can reach - mostly other plants. They wrap around really tightly, and its a little weird. I have no idea why.

Beans

I have green beans! There are only about 7 beans, but they are there! They are long, green, and nutritious. I haven't picked yet because I'm not sure how big they should get before I pick. I also was advised that I'm not supposed to "pick" the vine, or no more beans will grow. Pics to come soon. Yay for actual edible things!

Problems

So, all this hard work DOES cause some problems. I try to use gloves, but they make my hands really hot. This happened after I spent about two hours in the garden with the hoe: It very much looked like a blister - and I was pretty proud of it. I even showed EVERYONE at work the next day. I was so excited...until Dwight asked if I was SURE it wasn't just a slinter. Look close - the white? That's a splinter. It came out. And my blister that I was so proud of healed in like, a day. Oh well.


I am having another REAL problem, though. Its called SLUGS. Ugh. I HATE a slug. They're disgusting. And I found about 6 on my plants yesterday. Pure anger came. I've already applied slug bait twice, but apparently I need it more often. Here's what I'm using: And here's one that would be what the snail sees: I'll buy the Walsmart out of this stuff if that's what it takes.

Construction Project

I have several pots of flowers, herbs, and tomatos on my deck, with not enough room to put them. We also haven't built hand rails, so some shelves sounded like a good idea. For those of you who don't know, I have an awesome job at a manufacturing plant, and there are occasionally scraps. I was allowed some scrap, and built some shelves for all our wonderful flowers and plants. It only took an afternoon!

Staking Tomatos

I got some great advice from a very dear, experienced friend (shout out to Lester Bellah!) on my tomato plants. He suggested I tie the plants to the stakes with pantyhose so they had room to grow. They're grown enough to stake now(I'm guessing they need that the plants are so tall they start bending over...). Stakes are courtesy of Sheldon Labs.