Archives for April 2013

Let me start by saying that I do not have a green thumb.  I never have.  I kill plants as soon as I get them.  I do well with pets and kids but I just can’t seem to keep plants alive.  My girls have been asking me for a while if we could start a garden and honestly I was afraid that I would just waste money and kill everything I touched.  Then I saw the blueberry plant offer for $10 and figured I’d give it a try.  While I was ordering the blueberry plants I went all in and also bought strawberry plants, cherry plants, raspberry plants, and banana plants.  When the plants arrived I went to Home Depot to get the soil and other supplies I would need.  As soon as I walked in the door there was a display of potted herbs for $2 each.  It’s like they put that rack right there to welcome me!  I ended up getting 2 types of basil, mint, rosemary, sage, cilantro, and parsley.

I had only planned on getting soil on this trip but my daughter asked if we could pick out some other vegetable and fruits.  We made our way to the fruit and vegetable section and picked out cucumber, cherry tomato, cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon,  yellow pepper, and orange pepper plants.  I knew that the plants that I ordered from the blueberry plant offer would take a while to sprout actual fruit because there were all dormant sprouts so I grabbed a blueberry plant and a few strawberry plants that were already starting to sprout so my children could see the literal and figurative “fruits of our labor”.  It’s going to be fun to see which blueberry plant and strawberry plant grows better.  Of course that is only if I don’t kill everything first!
Really I don’t know what I was thinking getting everything at once and not just trying to grow a little something first.  But the ride has begin and I can’t get off now so follow me on my gardening journey.

We planted the herbs, strawberries, and tomato plant in 2 plastic containers and the blueberry plant in the front of our house since it was the biggest plant that we bought.

Above are the rest of the fruits and vegetables that we planted.  I know it doesn’t look like much but in the few days that it has taken me to get this posted I’ve started to see some growth.  Since these photos were taken we’ve added a plastic fence type border to try to deter animals and keep our plants protected.  The herbs and plants in the plastic planters are doing well.  So are the peppers, cucumbers, cantaloupe, honey dew, and watermelon.  It’s too soon to tell how well the once dormant fruits are doing but I am hoping that they are taking root and starting to “wake up”.  Unfortunately the 2 banana plants disappeared.  One looked like it was starting to turn brown and die a few days ago and when I checked tonight both were gone.  I think they both either turned brown, dried up, and died or were washed away during one of the 2 heavy rains we just had.  So no bananas for us.   I’ll update soon so please check back.

If you have any gardening tips, please share them.  Right now I feel like I am flying by the seat of my pants.  Luckily my next door neighbor has 2 green thumbs and has given us great tips.

Do you have a garden?
What do you grow?
Have any gardening tips to share?

APRIL 14th UPDATE-  I checked everything out today and everything in the planter boxes look great.  The big blueberry plant looks ok.  A few leaves are a little brown but I think the plant is still hanging in there.  I hope!  The strawberries, cucumbers, and peppers in the ground seem to be doing well, too.  The blueberry and cherry plants look like they are starting to sprout a few leaves.  The cherry plants still look like bare sticks.  LOL  We had to move the cantaloupe, honey dew, and watermelon because I put them in the way of where the landscaping service will have to drive their lawnmower to get to the other side of my house and my backyard. DOH!

APRIL 16th UPDATE

APRIL 22nd UPDATE