Picking Green Beans

I took the girls to pick green beans on a farm in a little town south of here. The farmer was not able to sell it so she gave it away to the community. The girls spent most of the time walking around with their friends but we had fun anyways. We got about 3 grocery bags full of green beans. I froze some and gave some away to friends and neighbors.

By the way, Emily took all these pictures. She did a fabulous job. Too bad we didn't get any pictures of fabulous photographer.

Late June Update

The garden has been expanding. The chili peppers are here but not quite red yet. The zucchinis and squash are growing bigger and taking over the left side of the large bed. Unfortunately, we have not seen any carrots or green onions come up yet.

Mint

Lao Herb

Lao Herb









Pak Caw Thong.










Thai Basil














Jasmine's pretty zinnias.















Baby Zucchinis.


















Blueberries- About 2 feet tall and already producing some fruit.












Cucumbers

















Watermelon




















Long beans












Chili peppers

Low-Maintenance Gardening

I read another book titled, Step by Step: Low-Maintenance Gardening by Peter McHoy, it gave some good ideas. Just a few random things I thought would be useful.

• Make a mowing edge: If the edge is set at the same level as the grass, the mower can cut the grass instead of using the edger. It also separates the plants from the grass so it's easier to mow.
• Mixing materials (2-3) breaks up a large area of the garden and prevents it from looking dull.
• Shrubs are the best plants for borders. Choose plants that are easy to care for and mix with herbaceous plants and perennials to create variety.
• Always water the pots before planting otherwise the root-ball may remain dry if the water runs off after planting.
• Spring or autumn are the best times to plant pot-grown herbaceous.
• Dwarf conifers require little attention and provide year- round color. Group different conifers together with contrasting shapes, sizes and colors. Combine with heathers to add colorful flowers.
• Select self-sufficient flowering shrubs and self-sowing perrentials to reduce re-planting and maintenance each year.
• Adding fertilizer to your garden will make it look lush and healthy.
• Plant bulbs under the grass and watch it come up in the spring.
  

Radishes Anyone?

We harvested more veggies from our garden on July 23. I had lots of radishes, lettuce, and chili peppers. We picked our first cucumber today. The whole family loves cucumbers. We eat them like it's candy.




Cucumber, our fist pick.









Hot and even hotter!








Radishes and lettuce. The girls also wanted to display their work of art.

Our First Harvest

We tried radishes for the first time this year and it has been very rewarding. I didn't realize how fast it grew. Note: Don't let them grow so big or it will be too tough.







Dianthus and marigolds.







Pink Carnations. Hopefully, they'll come back next year.

Container Gardening

I checked out a book from the library called Step By Step: Container Gardening by Stephanie Donaldson. It has been really helpful because I have not been very successful at keeping my plants alive in a container. Here are some things that I learned:

• Terracotta Pots require some form of drainage material. Put broken pieces of pot, aka crocks, or gravel in the bottom of the container before adding potting soil. Styrofoam works really well for larger pots.
• When planting in hanging baskets, add slow-release plant food granules into the soil mix to ensure adequate nutrients.
• Most potting soil only feed the plant for about 6 weeks, add slow-release plant food, composted manure or liquid feeds.
• If you have a large pot but your plants don't need all that space; put a smaller plastic pot inside the large pot to fill some of the space. Saves on soil.
• Mix evergreen plants with annuals to have a year-round container.
• Don't over water, it's as bad as not getting enough.

Garden Update

I'm playing catch up so the pictures are not exactly in order but close enough. As you can, some of these pictures were taken in our old garden spot. Can you see all the weeds? I thought it would be fun for the girls to see the progression of the plants.



Sunflowers- After 2 years of trying to grow sunflowers, we finally got 3 to come up. The girls were so excited.







Watermelon- We had 3 hills of watermelon but only 1 came up but that's good enough for us.






The lemongrass that my mom planted. It goes great on grilled chicken. Yum!








Radishes- So easy and fast to grow. I'm the only one in the family that will
eat them but the girls enjoy planting and harvesting it.











Thai Chili Peppers- We have about 6 of these plants because we love them! I don't remember the last time we bought peppers from the store. We freeze it and use it in our Lao cooking.









Zucchinis- Baby zucchini coming in nicely for now.








Squash- Growing rapidly, considering that I had to plant it twice because Jimmy pulled them out. He thought they were weeds.

Asian Long Beans- Good in soups and salads. Have always had good luck with these although they will take over the garden if you let them.






Cucumbers- My favorite vegetable of all time. I remember sneaking into my parents garden and eating baby cucumbers before it was ready to be picked. I like the "baby dill" cucumbers better than the large ones at the grocery store. It taste so much better.




Lettuce/Spinach- I tried spinach for the first time this year. It turned out nice but the harvest was meek. Lettuce however are growing really well.

Details of the New Garden

In the large bed, we planted hot peppers, lemon grass, long beans, cucumbers, zucchini, squash, lettuce, green onions, spinach, radishes, and carrots. I planted marigolds in the front of the bed, hoping to deter pests. So far, it has been doing really well. The cucumbers, lettuce and hot peppers are coming in nicely.

In the medium bed. The girls got 4 squares each to plant whatever they wanted. We took them to a local nursery and had them pick out flowers for 2 of their squares and then saved 2 squares for vegetables. Emily picked carrots and radishes and Jasmine picked sugar snap peas and carrots. I planted some cucumbers, green onions and watermelon. The cucumbers plants eventually died because they had been transplanted too many times. The green onions are surviving so far and the watermelon is doing really well.

As you can see, the smallest raised bed has not been built, yet. It's going to be a flower bed. I wanted something to attract butterflies and ladybugs. My girls love to pick flowers so this will be a good place for them to grow whatever flowers they want.


I just have to give special thanks to our friend Ben of 1st Green Lawn for donating most of the materials used for this project as well as his time and expertise. We could not have done it without his generosity. And to Jimmy for putting up with me all these years even through all my crazy ideas.

Our New Garden

I had to do some convincing to get Jimmy excited or at least accept my ideas for the new garden. He always says it’s a LOT of work, time and money. Our old garden was somewhat neglected last year so there were tons of weeds this year. We began the yearly task of tilling and weeding it. Then the weather turned on us and it snowed and iced for about a week. I was desperate to get started.

During my wait for the weather to warm up, I came across the concept of “Square Foot Gardening” on the net. I was skeptical about the idea because my experience with gardening in a “container” has not always been good. Generally, I have not been able to grow anything except for flowers and herbs in a container. A couple of weeks later, the Relief Society at my church had a class on Square Foot Gardening. I didn’t go to the class but I got the handout and did some more research. I found tons of people who used raised garden beds. Basically, the benefits of raised garden beds are virtually no weeds and you don’t use the soil in your yard thus eliminating the need to figure out if anything will grow in it. On the Square Foot Gardening website, they recommended a special mix for the soil but it is very expensive to buy all the materials. If you would like to find out more about it, just check out their website.

The only affordable option for us was to use a mix of topsoil and compost. We are very fortunately to have a friend who owns a landscaping business that can help get the materials. At first, we built the 8’X8’, then added the 5’X8’ and 4’X5’. Here’s what the new garden looked like in mid-June. As you can see, we didn't put down the edging yet and the small bed was not built yet.

Our First Garden

It's amazing how a little seed can develop into something as big as a Giant Redwood. I have always been fascinated with gardening. I guess it runs in my blood. Most of my ancestors were farmers. They farmed mostly rice and vegetables; basically everything they needed to feed their family. Growing up, we always had a family garden even when we lived in tiny apartments with a little backyard.





When Jimmy and I bought our house, I was so excited to start our family garden. We had a large backyard with nothing but grass. At first, Jimmy was really hesitant to start one because it meant he would have to do most of the prep work for the garden. We rented a powered tiller and sure enough, it dragged me across the yard without making a dent in the ground. So Jimmy and our friend Ben did most of the hard work. The garden was not very big probably 6'X20' but it was sufficient for our family.


Over the past several years, we grew a lot of vegetables and herbs in that little space. We harvested lots of hot peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and long green beans. We even tried corn one year but it was not very successful. Jasmine and Emily had a lot of fun helping with the garden. They enjoyed watering it and picking the vegetables.

As you can see, it was chaotic, we called it the "jungle". These pictures were taken in 2006 but it was typical for all the years that we had this garden.

We definitely had to make some changes.

Joining the bandwagon...

I've broken down and finally decided to start a blog. I have resisted for so long because I didn't want it to be another thing to take up my time away from my family. After starting a fairly large garden (large in our standards anyways), I have decided that I should find a way to document the progress of the garden. Also, my kids love to take pictures and most, if not all, are just stored in the computer. I wanted to find a place to "show-off" their pictures. I also want to include ideas and tips I've learned about gardening to use for future reference. Of course, the highlights of our family's life will also be included. So here we go...