Adventures in Gardening: 6 weeks later

One of the things I was most nervous about when leaving on our big trip to Texas in early June was… my garden. The garden that the girls and I had just spent hours working on. With my husband traveling to Bolivia at around the same time (and too busy to worry about my “little projects” anyway), I knew I couldn’t depend on him to help. I set up the automatic timer to water every morning, but would that be enough? What if everything was brown and wilted when I got back home? Maya was devastated when she found her little pea-plant-in-a-cup all dried up the last time we traveled – a sudden outburst of crying and screaming, “Why does everything have to die? Not fair, NOT FAIR!!” – so I could just imagine how crushed she’d be if she found the garden in the same condition. Especially with my grandma’s impending death upon us.

My solution was to ask a wonderful neighbor to help. A rising 7th-grader, B loves writing and my girls absolutely love her! Not only has she stopped by and checked over the garden for the past month, giving it a little extra water during a 100-degree hot spell, but she also took down some good notes. Reading over them makes me so anxious to see my garden again next week!

_______________________________________

Hey everybody, it’s B here! I’m so excited to be subbing for Mariana and so happy that I’m out of school! I’m doing a whole bunch of fun things this summer! Here are my notes on the garden:

• The chamomile is not looking too good, unfortunately. It’s yellow and isn’t getting any bigger.
• The chives are getting really long. Tall, 13 inches. They look very healthy.
• The parsley is looking really good. Very thick, it’s about 7 inches tall, and smells really good! It’s starting to get tangled with the other parsley plants; they’ll need to be sectioned off.
• The cilantro is huge! It’s around two times the size it was last time.
• The onions are shooting upward (at least, the tops are). They aren’t doing too well, though. They’re thin and scraggly, and the tallest shoot is barely 5 inches.
• The basil (pictured to the right) is looking gorgeous, and it’s flowering. It will need to be propped up, though, with one of the plants clearing 17 inches and the other very wide, but only 13 inches tall.
• The strawberries are getting big; new shoots are poking through. The leaf tips are a little yellow.
• The carrots are very small, peeping up from the ground at about 2 inches. I would have thought they’d be bigger by now.
• The beets are pretty small, only 2 inches.
• The zucchini is looking really good. It’s starting to flower.
• The cucumber is spreading rapidly, stretching out a lot, and getting tangled with the zucchini. They’re 1 foot long.
• The eggplant (pictured to the right) is Thanksgiving dinner for the bugs. It is getting destroyed.
• The bell pepper is looking really good! The plant is ginormous, if you want it in scientific terms. It’s 13 inches tall, and the pepper itself is 6 inches around… ready to pick pretty soon.
• The jalapeños have three new peppers! The plants themselves are 12-14 inches tall. The first signs of flowers are appearing.
• The tomatoes are looking very good, glossy leaves, very tall – 14 in, 16 in, 12 in, 13 in, 12 in, 11 in (from left to right).
• The gerbera (pictured to the right) is flowering! It looks very pretty! It almost seemed to glow in the half light I took the pictures.
• Please note that the hose is leaking a little where it connects to the pipe.

_______________________________________

Thanks, B! How exciting to think that I’ll actually be able to pick some herbs and veggies pretty soon. The gerber daisies weren’t originally in the garden, but my sister sent me a plant for my birthday in early June and I couldn’t bear to just abandon it, so I decided to plant it in a small corner of the garden and see what happened. How amazing does that daisy look?! In regards to the hose leaking… I kind of expected that. The connection was dripping a little when I set it up the night before we left, but I couldn’t figure it out and honestly had no time! I’m so glad to see that the garden is flourishing, though, and can’t wait to post another update when we’re back home next week.

Past updates:

• Our Backyard Botanical Oasis Garden
• Adventures in Gardening – Week 1

The Backyard Botanical Oasis Garden pictured above can be purchased on the Backyard Discovery website for $549, including shipping. The company provided me with the garden at no charge, but all other supplies I bought myself, and all opinions are my own.