Our. . . ..................Suburban... . . .....................Garden.....................

Tomato Bed and Potato Bugs

2011-06-02T13:19:00.001-07:00

The mortgage lifter tomato plants are very happy in the raised bed and growing nicely. But what are these insects on the potato leaves? Yuck. Ewwww.

Broccoli Peeking

2011-05-31T05:53:00.000-07:00

Was very happy to see the broccoli forming. Yay! We're having intense heat. Hope these guys grow big fast so we can eat em.

Combo Bin - Potato, Sunflower, Cantaloupe

2011-05-24T11:03:00.000-07:00

Only half of this potato bin seemed to sprout, so I got crazy and and planted sunflowers AND cantaloupe in the 2 foot by 2 foot section. This is a foliage explosion waiting to happen. Stay tuned and see what happens to this in another 2 months. Wow. Can you say overgrown?

Lettuce, Kale and Onion Bed

2011-05-23T13:19:00.000-07:00

The lettuce is starting to grow. Since it is in a raised bed, I like to keep giving plenty of water and so far so good. Keeps right on growing. Looking forward to some salad soon.

Garden Update - Raspberries / Broccoli

2011-05-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

Here is our little raspberry bed. So far 2 of the 4 raspberry plants have sprouted leaves. The broccoli plants are really growing fast now. Hopefully we will get some broccoli to eat soon.

Potato Bin Progress

2011-05-21T18:46:00.000-07:00

Well the potato bin is really going bananas. Got the 3rd level in today. I keep adding soil mix and cover all but the tops of the plants. It would be so great if I could get 100 potatoes out of this bin, but time will tell how it turns out. For now, it sure is fun.

Potatoes Ranch

2011-05-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

Some of the potatoes in containers are starting to bloom. The raised bed potatoes have grown to the second level now. We added a 2 x 8 row, and filled with more soil mix. The 2 other raised beds have tomato plants, although 1 of the tomato plants was eaten by someone so only have 3 tomato plants left in this area.

Potato Growth - Tomato Beds

2011-05-08T12:14:00.000-07:00

Well the one potato bed is growing fast and furious, but the other potato bed barely has 4 plants out of 20 that came up. Not sure why, and now I forget which bed was gold and which bed was russets. I think the bed on the left is russets but not for sure. The 2 new beds that went in today are for tomatoes. Will plant 2 per bed and then use 2x2 lumber to build a cage around the plants for support. More to come on that as they grow. Happy Gardening!!!

Raised Bed Broccoli - 4" of Rain

2011-04-27T18:20:00.000-07:00

Here is the raised bed with 8 broccoli plants and 1 cabbage plant in the center. Dad has the challenge of growing the largest cabbage for an elementary school contest. No pressure, right? The potatoes in containers are lined up next to the raised beds. Last night 4 inches of rain, omg, lol, that's a lot of rain.

We're Back - New Farm - New Potatoes

2011-04-26T17:07:00.001-07:00

Well we have been away from the blog for a long time. Traded in our suburban existence for country living. We're starting over with new gardens, and because of the clay soil, we are using raised beds for now. Here is the new potato ranch.

Cucumbers Today

2009-09-16T22:17:00.000-07:00

Howdy. Well we are just thrilled about gardening. The cucumber plant keeps putting out cukes even though it had a rough spell with the heat wave. Picked these today. That makes about 52 this year from just one plant. The container bush cucumber plants died early, but this straight eight keeps on growing and flowering. Yay!!

Tomatoes Going Bananas

2009-09-09T22:06:00.000-07:00

Just when we think we have seen it all, the day of 9/9/9 hits and our tomato harvest is exactly 100 in a single day!!!!! Wow. It took three bags to haul them in the house. We counted the batch here one time and it turned out to be exactly 100. Some of the tiny ones we do not count, but it is stunning to have so many in one day. We have been sharing, and tomorrow sounds like another good day to share. Happy Gardening from Our Suburban Garden.

Tomato Tuesday

2009-09-01T20:12:00.000-07:00

Today was a big tomato day. 36 picked and 300 year to date all together. Wow!! Mortgage lifters in front of the blogging machine. Japanese black trifle on top of the keyboard. Volunteer tomatoes on the right side in front of one sad looking cucumber. My opinion: mortgage lifters are huge, tasty and shaped weirdly. Black trifles are a little disappointing in the size and low output, but we'll happily take what we get. This is one of those days when the picking basket just isn't big enough. Happy Gardening!!!!!

Potato Ranch Update - 29 Plants

2009-08-29T11:52:00.000-07:00

Here's the latest with the potato ranch. We have 3 rows. In front are the youngest plants. In the back are the oldest, and hopefully soonest to harvest. In the middle are the halfway grown plants. After taking the photo, we were motivated and planted 2 more containers of spuds. Happy Gardening!!! Stay Cool.

Onions Out, Potatoes Blooming, Ahhhh

2009-08-16T14:52:00.000-07:00

Back at Our Suburban Garden it is onion picking day. The onions completely wilted so we thought we would clear the area. Wah Bam, now we have onions a plenty. For now anyway. In the background are our flowering potatoes. In all our months of potato gardening, these are the first flowers we have gotten. These days of plentiful fresh home grown veggies are so rewarding. Have a happy gardening day.

Fantasy Garden

2009-08-11T02:01:00.000-07:00

We had to travel to the Garden Island this week and today came upon a fantasy garden. A land of fertile soil, rain, sunshine and mild temperatures. More than 100 years ago, manual labor developed fields and irrigation systems. The gardens are still tended today. Another dream for us.

Another Tomato Cage Design

2009-08-08T17:47:00.000-07:00

We started with those little wire cages from the store. But then the plants grew taller so we added the wide leaning wooden cage. Just recently we added the supports up high so the plant has something to lean on. This is our first Mortgage Lifter tomato. Looking forward to tasting these soon. Enjoy your garden!!

Tomato Thursday

2009-08-06T04:53:00.000-07:00

Here is our second Mortgage lifter tomato which has climbed above the 6 foot fence. There's a sidewalk along the fence, so our suburban walkers will have easy pickins without stepping a foot on our land. Have not been posting much due to more out of state travel. It's a shame to be away from Our Suburban Garden when so many veggies are coming in. We'll get a look tomorrow at our harvest. Yay!!

Tomato Thursday

2009-07-30T22:07:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful sight. Yum.

Potato Ranch Round 2

2009-07-28T18:26:00.000-07:00

We have been pretty busy with the potato ranch for the past couple of months. We try to plant 1 potato every 3 days. The idea is to have the harvest to stretch out over a longer period of time. If we can harvest 1 container each week it would be awesome. There's another 40 seed potatoes so we'll run out of containers before long I hope.

Tons of Tomatoes

2009-07-27T17:59:00.000-07:00

Each of the 5 tomato plants in Our Suburban Garden is full sized and ready to bear fruit. Here is a photo from the Early Girl plant. I wonder what is going to happen in August. So far 98 percent of our tomatoes have come from the volunteer plant. The volunteer plant must have at least 80 more green tomatoes right now. Pretty soon the other plants will begin to produce. We already picked 80 tomatoes. Once August hits, how many tomatoes will we get? Can not imagine having so many tomatoes. Can anyone say tomato juice?

Watermelon Spotted

2009-07-23T21:21:00.000-07:00

Today Lil Bro and Dad spotted the first watermelon. It is so tiny. We look forward to watching it grow "as big as a Magna Guard star fighter." Maybe it will grow as big as R2D2. Who knows?The vines have begun their sprawl. It is very exciting to see what happens to some little watermelon seeds when you add water, soil and sunshine. Pretty cool huh?

Happy Gardening from Our Suburban Garden.

Volunteer Tomato Covers Window

2009-07-20T19:30:00.000-07:00

Back in May we put in the bigger better tomato cage. Turns out it was not big enough after all. The 7 foot tall tomato plant here is the same one shown on the top of the blog growing amongst the carrots. A photo from May is below. Wow!!! You can also see the rapid growth of the straight 8 cucumber plant to the right. Pretty soon we will get the first taste of those cukes!!!Below is the same plant from May 9th. Wow, it actually covered the window. And it is producing great tomatoes. Yum!!! And the cucumber plant is so tiny compared to now.

Failed Overheated Cucumbers

2009-07-19T08:21:00.000-07:00

Imagine the excitement when returning from a trip. Each mile closer to home made us more eager to see Our Suburban Garden. Finally we surveyed the plants. Seems it was a bit hotter than expected and the irrigation system did not quite keep up with the heat. Our bush cucumbers were the hardest hit. Look at those brown leaves. Let's try to baby these guys back to life. It's good to be back in the garden!!!

Suburban Container Garden

2009-07-14T21:02:00.000-07:00

The double decker green bean patch at the end is flanked by the bush cucumbers and the potato ranch is beginning to take shape again. We got the containers hooked up to the drip sprinkler system. Originally we put the sprinkler pipes in for flowers, but guess what? No flowers, just veggies. Pretty soon we'll plant more and expand the garden. Gardening is good!!!

Watermelon Sprouts

2009-07-06T18:52:00.000-07:00

Lil Bro is thrilled that his watermelon plants have sprouted and are growing well. To quote Lil Bro he says, "It's epic. When it grows watermelons the watermelons might be as big as the Magna Guard star fighter." Dad thinks that is a Star Wars ship. We expect the vines to overrun that corner of the yard pretty soon. Happy Gardening!! The original watermelon post is here: http://vegetable123.blogspot.com/2009/05/watermelin-seeds-today.html

Green Bean Containers

2009-07-05T20:20:00.000-07:00

Yay! We are back in the garden!!! The green beans are starting to grow a lot after some warm weather here. Still have not picked any beans yet, but soon we will get to. In the foreground are the bush cucumber plants. Sure enough they stopped growing at about exactly 2 feet tall. There is one big cuke in the bottom center of the photo. Just waiting for him to get a little bit bigger. Pretty soon the whole garden will be in full production mode. Happy Gardening!!

Long Horn Steer Decoration

2009-07-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

Finally heading home after a week in this land. Ran into 2 final giant fiberglass animals, a steer and a bear. Here's the steer staring at my granny-car. Had to get in this dangerous location for the best angle. Luckily now it is time to leave these animals behind and get back to gardening. Yay!

Elephant in the Garden

2009-07-01T19:11:00.001-07:00

Ah ha. Tricked you. There's no garden here. But there are plenty of giant fiberglass animals. This is the big eared elephant in pink next to granny-mobile. Not sure why this elephant is here, but now that he's been here so long, everyone expects him to stick around. Hope your gardening is going as well as my hunting for giant fiberglass animals.

Cow on Steroids

2009-06-30T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well I am away from the garden this week, but can't seem to get away from the farm. I have discovered a land of giant fiberglass animals. I want to take a series of giant animal photos. Hey if I can't be there to take photos of the garden, I might as well have some fun taking giant animal pics. BTW the rental car people gave me the champagne Granny-car. What's up with that? And yes, you are right. The cow is wearing pink sunglasses. Happy Gardening!!!

R2 Climbs the Bean Stalk

2009-06-29T20:32:00.000-07:00

When the bean stalk stops growing, Jack the droid will climb to the world above the clouds. Today Garden Guy flew above the clouds. By the time R2 gets above the clouds, Garden Guy will be back on earth. We're away from the garden for 4 days. Boo hoo. So sad. Hope your gardens are blossoming!!!

Today's Goodies From the Garden

2009-06-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

What started as a quick peek in Our Suburban Garden soon became a pick-fest. We have been enjoying homemade strawberry lemonade this week. The zucchini, lettuce, spinach and kale are making great salad. The green peppers and onion are great in our home fried potatoes. Yum yum. Happy Gardening!!

Cukes in Containers

2009-06-20T07:16:00.000-07:00

Our bush cucumbers are starting to really fill in. They are supposed to only get a couple feet tall. We'll see... If each flower makes a cucumber, then we are in for a truckload. Happy Gardening!

First Zucchini of the Year

2009-06-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

It seems like just last week we had so many zucchini's growing. But alas, it was last year. This photo shows the first ones for this year. Hopefully this is the start of another bumper crop and lots of tasty treats. These guys grow so fast we have to try to pick them before they become 2 feet long. Eventually we need to post another photo to show how the plant is working inside the tomato cage. The stems are very cramped right now inside the cage but we're hoping the cage idea works out so we avoid the overwhelming sprawl of the zucchini plant. Happy Gardening from Our Suburban Garden to yours!

Crowded Cucumber and Carrots

2009-06-15T22:13:00.000-07:00

The cucumbers are growing like crazy. And the carrots have become too big for this small space so we had a carrot harvest. Yay! The Spring carrots turned out better than the Winter carrots. Probably due to the massive amount of rocks that were removed in the Spring. Lil Bro helped pull out the carrots. Now we have some space for the cukes to spread out a little bit. Keep your plants happy and they will be happy and tasty!

New Green Bean Patch

2009-06-04T21:34:00.000-07:00

We noticed that the sun has shifted and we have another south-facing wall to grow vertically against. We made this little stand from scrap wood. Below is an 8 port drip sprinkler head and each pot has its own tube for automatic irrigation. Takes the daily TLC out of the picture, but we will just have to hand water something else.

We have 3 older green bean containers, the larger plants. Then we planted 2 more containers (top row) about 2 weeks later to space out the harvest. Soon we'll have 5 more green bean containers here for a total of 10. Then we'll see how tall they get. The bottom row has 3 kale containers for right now, but soon we'll move those into a location away from the direct sunlight.

We're so thrilled. Yay!!!!

Cute Cucumber

2009-06-03T21:41:00.001-07:00

Some teeny tiny cucumbers are forming under the flowers. My salad bowl is ready for these little guys to grow grow grow. This plant is a Straight 8 cucumber and is planted in the ground. We also have 2 Bush cucumber plants in containers, but the Straight 8 was planted about 2 months earlier and is approaching 24" in height. We're training the Straight 8 to grow vertically up a tomato cage. The training requires a little TLC, but if we don't go vertically, we will have a sprawling jungle.

Web Wetted by Weather

2009-05-31T12:28:00.000-07:00

Wet drizzle has kept us from digging very much this weekend. Along the coast the low clouds have been parked right on top of us for 2 days. The moisture highlights the spider webs in the avocado and lemon tree. Hopefully the sun will return next week and the veggies will be happy and burst forth with new growth. Happy Gardening!!

Potato Ranch Update

2009-05-28T19:23:00.000-07:00

The tater ranch is in a state of renewal. It's soon going to be out with phase 1 and in with the new spuds. So far we have 5 containers started for phase 2 and looking forward to starting more soon. Our harvest now stands at 76 potatoes. And each and every one was yummy. If anyone has ideas on starting potatoes fast, please let me know. We've got 10 potatoes sitting out on the counter just waiting for their eyes to sprout. Wish they would sprout faster..... Happy Gardening from Our Suburban Garden to Yours.

Strawberry Patch Gets Ceramic Tile

2009-05-27T18:05:00.000-07:00

Thanks to a suggestion from Ruth at http://diaryofamadgardener.blogspot.com/ we decided to tile our strawberry patch. So far it is so much neater to have the berries on the tiles rather than on the soil. We are so glad she made this suggestion. Thanks! Happy Gardening from Our Suburban Garden.

Wate melin Seeds Today

2009-05-26T19:46:00.001-07:00

Lil Bro went with Dad to get some irrigation supplies at the store. The seed display got his attention and we stared at the packets until he decided he wanted to grow parsley and watermelon. He had to choose just one, and Dad suggested that he would not enjoy parsley as much as he would enjoy watermelon. Meanwhile, Dad's thinking the garden is already full, what will we do?

We decided to try growing watermelon in a 15 gallon container in an empty corner next to the citrus & avocado trees. Lil Bro made a good choice with watermelon. When he asked how to spell watermelon, Dad said it is spelled just like it sounds. Now we have a cool sign for the wate melin patch.

20 Yukon Gold Potatoes

2009-05-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

While we're on this potato harvesting kick, here are the first Yukon gold potatoes grown in Our Suburban Garden. Seems like all the potato plants are dying off for the harvest even though we stretched the planting out over a 4 month period. Perhaps the Yukon golds have a longer growing season and the Reds have a shorter season so they all meet in the middle. The Dark red norlands made excellent mashed potatoes and home fries. We are looking forward to enjoying these new spuds soon.

18 Potatoes

2009-05-21T22:46:00.000-07:00

Yesterday and today we emptied out a potato container plant each day. The containers had 9 taters each. That brings our total to 44 potatoes. Home fries were a wonderful treat yesterday with salt, pepper, and chicken tikka masala sauce. Planning for some nice smooth mashed potatoes on Friday from these babies.. Happy Gardening!!!

Strawberry Nirvana

2009-05-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

Today we all trekked over to the California Strawberry Festival held in Ventura County. The drive is spectacular when you get north of Malibu. PCH is carved between mountain bluffs and ancient rock formations and the ocean. Suddenly the mountains end and there are miles of strawberry fields. After the festival we took a wrong turn (I usually get lost) and stumbled upon a U-Pick farm. The kids' enthusiasm kicked in and we picked half a flat of super sweet strawberries. It's nice to visit this beautiful region, have some fun, and dream a little...

Lil Bro Demonstrates Potato Harvest

2009-05-15T21:17:00.000-07:00

Even a kid can do it. He harvested 4 taters today! Just click the play button to watch how he did it. Happy Gardening from Our Suburban Garden.

Strawberries on Steroids ?

2009-05-14T22:23:00.000-07:00

The strawberries plants and leaves are huge!!! Not sure what has them so excited except the warm weather. The fruit is just starting to form and it looks very promising. Last year we had some weeks when we could harvest one collander of berries each day. Oh Yea!!! (That's the bottom of our dwarf Washington navel orange tree in the back of the photo)

Any advice for dealing with strawberries that touch the ground and rot or get eaten by insects? Would straw stop it? Please leave a comment if you know. Thanks!!

Future Salad Ingredients

2009-05-13T20:31:00.000-07:00

Oh my.. The veggies are growing so big and we planted so close together. The green ice lettuce has been wonderful and keeps growing back. The carrots are filling in. The cucumber is starting to spread out and we are training him to climb the wire cage. When the cucumber gets to the top of the cage, we'll fabricate a homemade trellis so it leaves the ground clear for some other veggies. The kale, onion and tomato are visible on the left. Eventually we will get an entire salad from this little section of Our Suburban Garden. Yum.

Pretty Potted Pepper Plant

2009-05-12T20:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a close up view of our first sweet green bell pepper. She's still smaller than an olive. Looks like we have a dozen flowers on each of the 2 potted pepper plants. At this rate, we'll have lots of peppers in June and July. Today we had a quick visit in the garden. Enough time to water the container garden, put a wire tomato cage around the baby Japanese black trifele plant, and then sow a new batch of Italian kale seeds in a five gallon container .

Also had fresh salad for lunch and dinner. And cooked up some home grown potato & onion home fries. Potatoes harvested yesterday. Umm Umm Good. Happy Gardening to Everyone!!!

Lil Bro Makes Mothers Day Gift

2009-05-10T09:06:00.000-07:00

While Big Bro and Dad were mowing in front, Lil Bro secretly picked up plant clippings that were destined for the mulching mower. Lil Bro decided to use potting soil and re-plant the clippings for Mom. What a nice kid!!!! Happy Mothers Day !!!!!!

Bigger Better Tomato Cage

2009-05-09T22:19:00.000-07:00

The tomatoes that grew by themselves this year are almost up to the top of the 3 stakes we've been tying them to. So what do we do next? Well we decided to go big. The bigger better tomato cage is obviously a quick creation. And we hope it is strong and holds up the tomatoes and allows easy access for the harvest. It's hard to believe these 2 plants grew by themselves. It's hard to believe the one on the left survived the move in March. Let's see if we can grow these plants all the way to the top of this big cage. The little wire cage next to this is guiding the cucumber plant up. Soon we'll need a bigger better cage there also. Happy Gardening from Our Suburban Garden.

Green Beans Beginning to Sprout

2009-05-06T21:58:00.000-07:00

The green beans are beginning to grow in that small patch of the garden that we recently planted with onions, spinach, leaf lettuce, tomato, cantelope, and green beans. We are expecting Our Suburban Garden to become quite a jungle this summer when all the veggies grow up. For now though we have some room for these young plants. We are expecting a few hot days here and the green beans and tomatoes should love that.

Also, not pictured, the boys helped harvest one potato container this afternoon. It was exciting to hear all our glee when spotting the red potatoes one by one. The prize today was 8 potatoes from that one container. They were mostly the size of extra large eggs and some were like medium sized store bought potatoes. Everyone, keep digging in the dirt and have fun!

Potato Ranch Update

2009-05-03T10:47:00.000-07:00

Here is the latest on the potato container ranch. The ones in the middle seem to be dying off and will be the next harvested once they loose all their green foliage. The remainder of them are doing pretty well. One of these days we will get around to planting the next set. The last time we planted potatoes was March 1st. Happy gardening from Our Suburban Garden to yours.

4 Potatoes Today

2009-04-30T20:49:00.000-07:00

Since the potatoes grow underground it is a mystery what we will get until the end. We thought that the plants were suffering from too much water when a few of the container plants wilted and died. So today we took the most dried up plant and dumped him out. What a joy to find some beautiful, we might say perfect potatoes. We knew that you harvest them after they dry out, but the containers were mixed up and we don't know which was which. Great surprise for our Thursday afternoon. Yay for a Suburban Garden success!!

Celery Processing Factory - 4th Celery Plant

2009-04-28T20:48:00.000-07:00

Since the celery has been doing so well, we developed a bagging factory of sorts. We clean and dice the stalks. The veggie drawer in the fridge has a fresh baggie of celery. And that gives us a constant supply of fresh celery to mix in salads or whatever we want. We have only 2 more celery plants to harvest, then we will replant that section of the Suburban Garden. BTW, the lettuce, spinach, and kale have been harvested every single day for the last week or more and we have been blessed with salads galore. Yay for gardening!!

Playing and Planting in the Garden

2009-04-27T21:50:00.001-07:00

That space that we began double digging a month ago after the broccoli was harvested is finally done. First we set up Gretsh and some warriors to fight over a lemon. Later we planted a Japanese black trifele tomato, and an Ambrosia muskmelon cantelope. To fill in the gaps, we also planted more onions, more spinach, and more leaf lettuce. All in that small area. No that's not all. We also put in a row of Blue lake bush beans. We are so glad that we got this section cleaned up and re-planted.We want to stay on top of the harvesting schedules and have as much of a continuous harverst as we can.

The next photo is further off to the right of the first area. It shows the attack on the Mortgage lifter tomato that we planted as a baby transplant in March. It is growing nicely. The Mortgage lifter is flanked by the celery farm on the left and the onion ranch on the right.

3 Limes, R2-D2, and a Pomelo

2009-04-24T21:18:00.000-07:00

It is another beautiful day in our suburban garden. Our kale doubled in size almost overnight, and we had a giant salad with our veggies from the fridge. Today we harvested 3 itty bitty Mexican limes from our mini citrus grove. Also a co-worker brought us a giant pomelo fruit today. She has a tree in her back yard in Orange County, CA and the tree produces an endless supply of these gigantic grapefruit-like fruits. We are looking forward to getting out in the garden before the end of the weekend! Yay!

5 Veggies 6 Weeks Later

2009-04-19T20:17:00.000-07:00

It was just 6 weeks ago that we planted the green ice lettuce, carrots, cucumber, italian kale, and yellow onion sets. These guys are very tightly packed together in our suburban garden. The lettuce has been producing and been eaten for at least 3 weeks. The carrots were very slow to emerge. The cucumber has been slow, but soon we will have a trellis and hopefully dozens of cukes. The kale is new for us, we'll have to figure out how to eat it. The onions are behind the kale. We are glad to have this much growth in just 6 weeks.

Beautiful Basil Bounty

2009-04-17T21:59:00.001-07:00

Here is my first ever herb garden. Super-Awesome blogger Jane at http://www.flaxhill.blogspot.com/ had a blog giveaway and I was the lucky winner. Yay! Turned out to be the perfect way to fit some gardening in my day. Suburban Gardener had about 45 minutes home alone in the afternoon in between life's motions. Cleared some space in the kitchen, and put the CD up real loud starting with Mendelssohn's Nocturne. Great tune.

Opened the basil kit and found I had to mix the soil with 2 cups of water before beginning. Hmmm. How to do this? Got a big measuring cup and began. Was not as easy as it looks, but got it mixed. All-in-all it took about the whole 45 minutes to follow the instructions, mess up the kitchen, and clean up afterwards. Also got cool soaps made with lettuce and another made with tomato. When the basil grows, we'll post more photos.

Jane, Thank you for the gift and for adding some gardening to my day!!! I suggest everyone check out the awesome blogging at http://www.flaxhill.blogspot.com/

First Taste of Celery

2009-04-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

Today was the day. The celery has become so beautiful and enormous in the Suburban Garden. Grabbed ahold and yanked it from the ground. Roots and soil are visible in the upper right corner of the photo. Also picked spinach, leaf lettuce and romaine lettuce and made an awesome salad. After months of TLC the moment arrived and we had the first taste of our first home grown celery. Let me be clear- this stuff had a strong taste, different than store celery. We made the salad with just the ingredients shown plus some avocado and dressing.
Now we have five more plants to harvest and they should all be ready within the next 10 days. So us Suburban Gardeners will be eating lots of celery.

Harvesting Broccoli From Container Garden

2009-04-13T21:58:00.000-07:00

Well we had a nice steamy hot plate of broccoli from our Suburban Garden today. Lil Bro tried it, loved it, and ate a lot of broccoli. It's always fun to see the joy on the kids' faces about gardening. We also picked one of the onions to use in smashed potatoes, but did not get around to cooking the Oregon potatoes tonight. Success from the container garden at the Suburban Garden. Yay!!!!!!

Celery Growth Continues

2009-04-12T09:54:00.001-07:00

Nature took good care of the garden while we were at the beach. The celery continues to grow and it has lots of stalks growing upright in the center like the store celery. Here is a close up photo. We are at the 3 and 1 half month point since we transplanted these guys. Pretty soon we can harvest the celery and start over again with another veggie.

Nature is In Charge

2009-04-06T10:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of photos from the ocean front hotel balcony. We have beautiful weather on the coast. The Suburban Garden is on its own this week. We have the irrigation system programmed to keep the veggies happy, but it is a difficult for me to imagine the garden getting along without me tending to it. But nature is in charge this week and we are hoping for the best. We miss our garden......

Orange and Lemon Blossoms

2009-03-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

Today could only spare a few minutes for the garden. Boo... Watered the 23 vegetable containers in the morning. In the afternoon snapped some quick photos of the Washington navel blossoms and the Improved meyer lemon blossoms. Both trees are dwarf grafts. The lemon tree keeps us stocked with a lemon a day. It is useful to add to H2O for a refreshing drink. The Navel tree produced just one fruit last year which was very tasty. It's only been planted here for a year and a half, but now the Washington navel has around 24 blossoms. That is my brief moment of gardening today. So glad the trees are happy.

2 Potted Peppers

2009-03-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

The original potted pepper has been joined by another. Now we have a big bertha bell pepper and a sweet green bell. They both are slowly growing and trying to sprout little buds.

In the regular garden, somebody completely munched the new zuchinni plant. Could have been snails. They took off one leaf per day, and then finally the whole stem. Gotta find a way to protect the next zuchinni from becoming snail food....

For the Little Gardener

2009-03-27T18:25:00.000-07:00

While Dad was working the soil, removing rocks and roots, Lil Bro was out helping in the suburban garden. Next to the Early girl tomato and spinach seedlings, Lil Bro planted a rocket, a lego space dude's head, and various pots. When you have help like this, what can you say?

Here is a close up of one spinach seedling. And of course the lego space dude's head in the pot and his rocket. The best part was the glee and excitement he expressed for gardening. Thanks son!!!

Patch Work In Progress

2009-03-22T17:21:00.001-07:00

We made some progress in the garden which is always a treat. The broccoli and carrots were delicious. Steamed broccoli and carrot juice. Um Umm. The plant material was cut in small pieces with the hand pruner and is now in the active compost bin.

Next step is to turn the soil, sift out the rocks and grubs, and ammend with compost. You can see our tools here. In the suburban garden, we are slowly turning the awful rocky soil into awesome fertile soil. But it takes a lot of time.

With such a small garden space it's no wonder that we've taken up container gardening too.

Hope your weekend was happy!!

Next Patch To Work

2009-03-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

The broccoli and carrots in this section of the garden are coming out this weekend. The new early girl tomato (baby) is visible on the right side of the picture with tiny spinach sprouts between the tomato and the brick. This patch will soon be home to some green beans. You can see how crowded the garden gets. Suburban Gardener wants to make the most of every inch.

Celery in the Garden

2009-03-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

The celery is starting to gain size with our recent sunny weather. When we saw celery at the nusery, we had to have it. But then we read that it is hard to grow. It had a very slow growth at first, but we try to give it plenty of water, and right now it is looking happy. Hope it tastes yummy too!

6 Broccoli Containers

2009-03-15T12:51:00.000-07:00

The broccoli is growing more and more each day. They have come a long way since we planted the tiny baby plants a month ago. We harvested some of the broccoli from the plants in the ground and boy was it tasty. Looking forward to eating these too.

The Potato Ranch Update

2009-03-12T21:44:00.001-07:00

Very nice progress at the potato ranch as you can see. We are planting one row of containers per month. Hoping the harvest will stretch out over several months also. Everyone can do this.

Plants Planted in the Spring Garden

2009-03-07T17:03:00.000-08:00

Just a note for future reference:

March 7th
Green ice lettuce seeds
Italian kale - Nero Toscana seeds
Yellow onion sets
Misc. carrot seeds
Nantes half long carrot seeds
Straight eight cucumber baby transplant

March 8th
Spinach seeds
Early girl tomato baby transplant

March 12th
Mortgage lifter heirloom tomato transplant

March 14th
Dark green zucchini squash baby transplant

Tomato Move Update

2009-03-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

Well, the little tomato that unexpectedly emerged in the carrot patch this winter seems to have survived the move. He is standing tall next to the much larger tomato plant which also grew all by himself. As you can see, the carrot patch now has 6 little romaine lettuce plants and there are 2 rows of miscellaneous carrot seeds in the wet section in front of the tomatoes. Isnt' gardening rewarding?

Lemons, Lime + Tangerine

2009-03-05T18:14:00.000-08:00

Today's harvest is a wee bit of fruit. Itty bitty Mexican Lime, a tiny Page Tangerine, and two Improved Meyer Lemons. These all came from the mini citrus grove situated next to the veggie garden. Isn't growing your own fruit and veggies great??

Nice Veggies

2009-03-03T18:11:00.000-08:00

Today we got our first broccoli. It's hiding on top of the carrots. Very exciting!!!

Picked enough veggies for a nice little salad and will juice the carrots later.

Tomato Plant Move Project

2009-03-02T17:45:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend we harvested a whole section of carrots. Yum. Then had to deal with the 2 tomato plants that grew by themselves among the carrots. The tomato plant in the front corner was way too close to the edge for comfort so we took a chance and moved it back near the other natural plant. Planning to build a cage around both plants and have them merge into one gigantic mega plant. The transplant was hard on the plant, but after one day the plant sprung back to life and is looking ready to grow! Yay!

Avocado Buds Galore

2009-02-21T17:37:00.000-08:00

We transplanted 2 Holiday Avocado trees about 20 months ago. A few months ago, the trees sprouted tons of these "buds" like the one directly in the center of this photo. I wonder if those are fruits forming? Or are they something else? I was advised by my local nusery to remove any fruit for the first 2 years at least to strengthen the tree. Does anyone know what these little buds are? Please leave a comment with your advice. Thanks so much in advance!!

Winter Garden Before n' After

2009-02-21T17:15:00.000-08:00

These 2 photos show our winter garden this year. First photo is from the end of November and second is from end of February. It's amazing the progress the garden made in just 3 months -and- during the winter. We started our winter garden as an experiment, since we never gardened outside of the normal season. Started with carrots. Soon we had a thriving garden with lots of veggies. Never knew we could do this and we were both surprised and blessed to have such success. We are beginning to clear the winter crops and by the end of March we will have moved on to the spring garden with new plants and new hope for a delicious and nutritious suburban garden

Strawberry Blossoms in February

2009-02-21T16:44:00.000-08:00

After the winter rains the strawberries blossomed and are looking great. We also bought a 10 pack root stock of Sequoia strawberry plants. If you look closely you can see one of them in the top right corner of this photo. We're filling in some of the empty spaces in the strawberry patch with the new plants. Lil Bro helped plant the new root stock. Can't wait until harvest time.

Potted Pepper Plant

2009-02-20T14:23:00.001-08:00

The newest member of our happy garden is this beautiful green bell pepper. We had a warm sunny day and transplanted her to a nice 5 gallon pot. Isn't she pretty?

6 Broccoli Containers

2009-02-14T15:40:00.000-08:00

Big Bro helped transplant the broccoli dudes to their own containers. We have 4 broccoli plants already in the ground from last month and they are thriving. We are slowly getting our spring garden ready.

6 Pack of Broccoli

2009-02-11T12:52:00.000-08:00

Here is the next Suburban Gardener project. These little broccoli dudes are going to get their own containers. Stay tuned for the next photo.

10 Potato Containers

2009-02-08T11:37:00.000-08:00

Here is the entire potato ranch so far. I add a new row each month. As the plants grow, I add layers of compost and potting soil until we reach the top of the pot. We have about 10 more seed potatoes to go, so by late spring we will have quite a potato patch. You should try this. It's easy and rewarding.

Flooding in the Garden

2009-02-07T10:38:00.000-08:00

Lots of rain in So. Cal and the garden is flooded. When the sun comes out again we should have some very happy veggies.

First Potato Pic

2009-02-02T22:15:00.001-08:00

We are growing potatoes in containers. This is a russet. The kids also planted dark red norlands and yukon golds. So far we planted 2 in Dec., 4 in Jan. and 4 in Feb. Lots of freedom fries, home fries, and mashed (kids' fave) someday.

The Winter garden in Nov, Dec, & Jan

2009-02-02T13:54:00.000-08:00