attempted urban gardening, take 3:

THINGS!
yesterday, i moved my green beans into the RealAndActual ground, because they were begging for more dirt and room to grow. yesterday, they looked like this:



today, it looks like THIS!



that's my little shining glory on the end. it is Taking Over. in capital letters. :)



friday morning i got up at 6:30am and took my mom to the airport to visit my father for their 30th wedding anniversary. i got back around 7:30am and really should've gone back to bed, but instead i got a little manic, went to lowe's and bought pots and potting soil and repotted all of my plants. black seeded simpson lettuce and mixed greens.



well, almost all of my plants. i am trying to not overdraw my checking account by purchasing flower pots, so some of these guys will have to wait. the left three big peat pots are zinnias for my mom, the small one is spinach, then black seeded simpson and another thing of mixed greens on the right.



repotted spinach and arugula. i'm hoping that they will flourish and spread when given more room...but considering i'm making all this up as i go along, we'll see. :)



aaallllllllll thooooooooooose plaaaaaaaaaaaants. welcome to my backyard garden spread all over my table.



update on the shoe hanger: i added spearmint to the top right pocket. i also changed out all the dirt for both of the bell peppers and they seem to be growing better now. i also added some better soil to the tomato.

i've had one ripe strawberry which gavin and i split...it was excellent. and i think now i want to make a little compact garden box and fill it with strawberries, because my two little plants aren't producing quick enough for me.

i've also been working on a baby blanket for my new little girlcousin...i don't have any photos of it yet, because i'm teaching myself the stitch as i go along.

okay, actually it's because i'm lazy and it's always downstairs. anyway...the garden is coming along nicely. and i am a little obsessed. *shrug* it happens.

j.me

attempted suburban gardening, take 2:

MAN. i can grow things. who knew this? certainly not me. i've added basil to my hanging planter, started arugula and spinach [for the second time, thanks kansas wind], zinnia's [for my mom], mixed greens and green beans [which are to be transplanted into the actual ground. yayfreshgreenbeans!]



my little tomato plant. i speak kindness and joy to it daily. and strawberries! not big, but hopefully tasty. and my basil plant. it's a little cranky right now, but is still growing. just to spite me. :)



update on the plant hanger. it's still working okay...my green bell peppers are growing, but all the leaves look gnarly. but it's growing. i may switch out some of the soil and see if that helps.



black seeded simpson explosion! to the point where i've already transplanted them into bigger peat pots. the smaller pots are my restart of spinach and arugula. it's been crazy cool weather here in kansas, so this stuff is growing like mad.



lemon balm...and the no-longer-living aloe vera plants. sad story, i've had these plants since high school and have transplanted them several times. they've come with me to college (back and forth, back and forth), post-college and kansas city...and now, the suburbs killed them. bastard suburbs. or maybe it was because i can no longer grow plants that require hardly any care at all. the lemon balm is already acting like it wants a bigger pot, which is fine by me. yay! the first picture is the day i purchased it, the second is from a week later - explodoplant.



the left three are zinnias for my mom, the next three are mixed greens and the five on the right are greeeeeeeeeeeeen beans.



aaaaaaaaand, part of my mother's day gift to my mom. petunias and some kind of vine. i hate petunias. i know it was her gift, but the compromise i made was that she couldn't get any more pink ones that she already had. so they're [mostly] purple.

i've managed to not scorch my little plants in the wicked kansas sun so far. truly, the weather has been a little ridiculous here and i'm lucky that the tornado-like conditions haven't eaten everything i've grown so far. but it's all thriving for now.

j.me

attempted suburban gardening - take 1:

a friend recently moved in with me - an aspiring hippy, currently caught by the man. we have great conversations about living in communes and growing all our own food. with my current employed status, i find i have the funds to actually attempt this whole "growing" "things" of which people speak.

idea found here.



it's exactly what it looks like! a shoe hanger used as a planter...i went the cheap route and bought one with a fabric backing, but the front is plastic. this will probably end with two important results: 1) it won't work as well as an all-fabric one for the dripping of water from the top to the bottom and 2) it will fall apart much quicker. however, the price difference was such that i found it necessary to purchase the cheaper of my two options at the store. :)



i'm having to start all of my salad leaf plants off from seeds, so i've not been able to transplant them into the pockets yet. i would've provided photos of those, but how much does anyone want to look at pictures of peat pots with mud in them?



so far i have rosemary and tomatoes, yellow and green bell pepper [i expect these to fail], and a strawberry plant that i broke into two bits because it was already too large for one pocket.



mmm...strawberries! oh, and my helper. my incredibly helpful helper and the newest addition to my increasingly strange family.