Garden Tuesday- Garden Update

So in my previous post today I am kinda in  the process of moving from my home in Lockhart to my boyfriends parents house in Buda. My thoughts and plans for a fall garden are no more. I will not be having a fall garden this year maybe next year but for sure not this year. There is just to much going on right now! 

As for my plans for a spring/summer garden in 2015 I have no clue at this point if I will be having a garden next year. If I do decide to have a garden I am unsure as to where it will be. I might still have it at my current location because this years garden took very limited work and effort so I will be able to make it work with going over there once a week.

My Current Garden!

Two weeks ago I said that my tomatoes were dying and that I was going to pull them up and if your follow my Instagram you will know that I did indeed pull up all my tomato plants.

Left is before, right is after. Comment below if you can find the chicken! :D

I still have my basil, jalapenos, banana peppers,  poblanos and tomatillos still going strong. My chocolate mint and strawberries are dead. I did have a chance to pick anything from my garden this past week and I probably wont be able to this week either.

I'm sorry that this post is all over the place. :) I might not be able to blog as often as I should be but I promise I have not forgotten about you guys. Right now the best places to stay up to date with me is through Instagram, Facebook and Twitter.

Garden Tuesday- Bye Bye Tomatoes

Sorry that this is late. The heat has finally finished off my tomato plants. :( The tomatoes are turning brown (even though I water them often) and they have no more flowers and no more fruit. 

I'm planning on ripping some of the tomato plants out later on this week. Be sure to look on my Instagram for pictures. The rest of the plants are doing really well except for my chocolate mint which is still trying to die on me.

Garden Haul

This weeks garden haul is just a handful of banana peppers.

What would you guys like to see on blog? Leave your suggestions below. Follow my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram for updates on my blog and my life. :)

Garden Tuesday- Garden Haul + Chick update!

There is not much going on with my garden. I think that its about finished for the year. My tomatoes are turning brown and starting to die. Here's my garden haul for this week.

One red poblano pepper, a sprig of basil, two tomatillos a tomato and a handful of banana peppers!

This little guy came in on my poblano.

Found this spider in my garden. Took a picture then went to the opposite side of my garden LOL!

Baby chick update!!

I first introduced you guys to these chicks about three weeks ago here. Well now they are so big, just look for yourself!

Do you have any idea how hard it is to take a picture of theses guy! They are super fast.

This guy here is getting red and white strip feathers on its chest along with the black and whites ones everywhere else.

This one started getting black legs a week or so ago! Look at those legs silly chicken! :) I have no clue if they are going to be hens or roosters.

Be sure to follow my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all blog updates or just random things that are going on in my life. :) Follow my blog with Bloglovin.

Garden Tuesday- Fall Planning

So nothing much has happened in the garden this week. I have gotten a few cherry tomatoes and jalapenos. The darn grasshoppers have eaten more of my larger tomatoes! I weed whacked the grass down and trimmed back the tomatillos some.

Before the weed whacking.

After weed whacking.

This fall I want to try to and make some sort of a fall garden. I also want to make some sort of plastic cover to go over top of the garden so I can try to get the plants to go around till next spring. 

A few plants I would love to grow are:

Carrots

Green Onions

Garlic

Spinach

Cauliflower

All of the links above are from Burpee Seeds and Plants. I might buy this from the local plant nursery instead of trying to plant seeds. I am excited to start planning this falls garden and next years spring garden and I can't wait to share this with all of you. :)

Sorry this is short this week nothing really happened like I said. Be sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Garden Tuesday- Heat Kills

Well the temperature here I think is killing my tomatoes already. The leaves are turning brown and falling off. I still water it about every other day so it is still getting plenty of water. I still have tomatoes that are going to get ripe soon though. 

My jalapenos, poblanos and tomatillos are still doing great! haven't gotten much off of them but I should be getting more within a week or two.

Garden Haul:

 This week I didn't get much but I did find 9 EGGS in a corner of my garden! LOL Silly chickens! :)

Weekly Tip:

Provide shade! I have a big tree by my garden that provides some shade and cools the garden some, but being in Texas that only works so much!

How do you garden? Show me by tagging me on Instagram or tweeting me or posting on my Facebook page

Garden Tuesday- Garden Haul + Cuteness

There is not much change in my garden from last week so I will be showing yall my garden haul this week.

I got a bunch of Black Cherry tomatoes this week. Also this week I have noticed that my Chocolate Mint has started to die from the top of the plant to the bottom. I have no clue why but if anyone has an idea as to why comment below or on Facebook please.

Garden tip of the week:

Do your research when you start thinking about purchasing vegetable plants. Make sure that they can grow in your area/zone. Like for me I live in Texas zone 8-9 and summers here can reach 100+* F so I have to find plants that can tolerate the heat and not die. So do your research.

Prepare for cuteness!

They were about a week old here.

About 3 weeks ago now we had baby chicks hatch out at our house. Unfortunately 4 died and now we have 7 little baby chicks with two mamma hens. They are so cute! 

They were about a week old here.

These two mamas co-parent these little babies

We only have one dark baby left :/

These little one rap up this weeks Garden Tuesday. Follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Also don't forget to like our new Facebook page.

Garden Tuesday- Wind!

Killer wind!

Hi everyone! How are your gardens doing this year?

This past week or so has been super windy where I live. Earlier this year the wind was coming from the north and now from the south. I have staked up my poblano and jalapenos early this year to protect them from the wind from the north. Since the wind is now from the south its snapping the stakes or just pushing the plant over.

Another issue I still have is grasshoppers. These little guys are killing me. They eat my tomatoes, banana peppers, poblanos, basil, mint and even my jalapenos. I'm at a lost with what to do with them. I have chickens and I do let them in the garden to eat them but the grasshoppers won't go away! Any ideas or suggestions would be great folks.

Last week's post I told you guys that I got two different types of tomatoes out of my garden and I have finally tried them. The Pierce's Pride tomato taste so good! I love it. It's juicy and a little sweet. It make my mouth water it's so good! I will be planting this next year for sure.

Pierce's Pride

The Rouge D' Irak Tomato to me doesn't have much flavor and is full of seeds. If you have grown tomatoes at home you know that they have a different flavor then the store bought ones. These taste like store bought tomatoes they have very little flavor! I was not impressed with these. I will probably not plant these next year.

Rouge D' Irak

Garden tip of the week:

Purchase good soil! I use to just plant directly into the ground until this year I splurged and went to a place that sold soil and gravel by the truck load and it was the best purchase I every could make! I recommend going to your local plant nursery and ask what they use or finding a place that sells soil by the truck load and ask what their garden quality soil is. Buy soil like this if you can is the best thing you can do for your garden.

My tomato salad with a dash of salt

That's it for this weeks Garden Tuesday! Don't forget you can follow me on Instagram for more pictures. Take care everyone!

Garden Tuesday-Oops Wrong Ones!

Welcome back to garden Tuesday! If you guys remember in my Garden Tuesday post I had mentioned  that I had two Large Red Tomato plants....well they aren't those tomatoes! When I first started the seeds I had a little greenhouse that my mom got for Christmas and the seeds did great in there BUT, it was sitting outside one day and the wind knocked it over and all the seedlings got mixed up! I tried to put them back where I thought they belonged...well looks like I didn't succeed at that LOL.

So the plants that I thought were Large Red Tomato plants were actually one Pierce's Pride tomato which I bought on Heirloom Seeds, but I can't find it on there anymore. The second one is Rouge D' Irak Tomato.

I have not actually tasted either tomato yet, but I will let you guys know how they taste in next weeks blog.

I have gotten quite a few tomatoes that grasshoppers have eaten almost all the way. The grasshoppers have eaten some leaves off of my jalapenos, poblanos, basil and even my tomatillos. I use no pesticide what so ever but if any of you guys know of a inexpensive organic type of pesticide please let me know.

Once again this week I got quite a few jalapenos and tomatillos. I also got a handful of Black Cherry tomatoes (not pictured)

Garden tip of the week:

When planning your garden give your plants plenty of room from each other. If you don't do that you will have to climb and search for the produce.

That's all for now folks. I would love to see what your gardens look like tag/follow me on Instagram.

xoxo
Rita!

Garden Tuesday- Wish I Had A Storm Warning

So this past weekend we had a storm blow in and my garden took a good hit from it. Luckily just a few weeks ago I staked up my tomato plant really well so the wind won't blow them over. My tomatillos got beaten up some but they perked back up quick. I had a few of my poblano plants and jalapeno plants  blow over some, luckily the didn't break off so I just re-staked them.

Garden Haul: 

Poblano peppers are in the top right corner.

From Friday to yesterday I got a TON of things from my garden! I got 3 poblano peppers for the first time ever!! 

Garden tip of the week:

Purchase those plastic things that kill the weeds and grass. In my garden the grass grows SO FAST! Next year we are planning to cover around the cinder blocks with that plastic and add river rock type gravel and maybe another small raised bed!

That's all for this week everybody. Happy Gardening!!

xoxo

Rita!

Garden Tuesday- Weeds!

The bottom  right black cherry tomatoes.

Last week I introduced yall to my garden, and I said that I haven't gotten any ripe tomatoes. Well this week I got some!! YAY! I got 2 large red pink tomatoes that I don't know what they are and I got 7 black cherry tomatoes. I also have a few more large tomatoes that will be getting ripe soon.

Yesterday I spent a good 30 minutes to an hour weeding. I absolutely HATE weeding but it's something that if you have a garden you will have to face. Most of the weeds that were in the garden was grass so it wasn't to bad, but still I don't like weeding.

As I was weeding I found my cats foot prints going through my garden LOL.

Garden tip of the week is:

Purchase soaker hoses for your garden. That's what I use and it make watering so much easier. I'll turn them on just enough so just a trickle is coming out and leave it for about 10-15 minutes and my garden is nicely soaked.

That's all for this week folks! Happy Gardening!

xoxo

Rita!

Garden Tuesday- Welcome to my garden!

Hi everyone and welcome to Garden Tuesday! My garden is a cinder block raised bed garden with a mixture of sandy loam topsoil and mushroom compost. I really like this soil because it holds the moister in and i can go longer between watering's. The plants seem to be doing excellent in this type of soil and growing crazy! It seems like I am out there pruning the plants every 3-4 days LOL!

 I have six tomato plants in this years garden. Two of them are Black Cherry tomatoes that I got from a local green house. They aren't really black they're more of a purplish reddish color. I haven't gotten any of them off them plants yet although i did last year and they were amazing. I also have two plants I started from seeds called Large Red Tomato...I'm not kidding that's what they are called. I got them from here at Heirloom Gardner. The last pair are just beefsteak tomatoes that I also got from the same local green house. 

Jalapenos almost ready to pick.

I also have like 10 jalapeno plants and six poblano pepper plants that I got from the green house. The jalapenos are doing really well I've already gotten a bunch of peppers off of the plants. The poblanos are doing well it takes them longer to produce peppers then the jalapenos, so I'm just now getting  peppers on the plants. 

Some people would advise you not to plant anything that's spicy near tomatoes, mint, watermelon or anything else like that because they will have a spicy taste. I have never had ANY issue with this happening but never say never. You can try it one year and if you get other things that become spicy just arrange things differently next year.

Tomaillo jungle of the right lol.

I have only two banana pepper plants that I also got from the green house. They are doing really well last week I got like 10 peppers of each of the plants and I wish I took a picture of the plants covered in them. In the holes of the cinder blocks in front of the banana peppers I have one basil plant, one strawberry plant, and a chocolate mint. The basil is HUGE and it just bloomed so it has these pretty white flowers on it. I've cut a few leaves from the basil and used them in spaghetti and chicken parmesan and, it gives them a extra amazing taste!I've gotten a handful of strawberries of my plant. I did have like three other plants but they randomly died over a two week period and I have no clue why. If any of y'all have a possible reason why let me know because I love strawberries and I want to plant more but I don't want them to all die.

Top left is Banana pepper, top right is Chocolate Mint and bottom is Basil.

Now on to favorite plant this year...the chocolate mint! This is probably my favorite mint I have ever grown. It was a faint smell and taste of chocolate but it's a sweet mint and I add a sprig or two to my pitcher of ice tea and it adds a little bit of sweetness but not a whole lot. It still tastes really really good!

The last type of plants I have are six tomatillos. If you aren't to familiar with them I know that they are used in some sauces and salsas used in Mexican cooking other than that I don't know what they are used for. Tomatillos are a cousin of tomatoes and are grown the same way (which I didn't know till a few weeks ago :/ oops). That's why they look like a baby jungle lol because I didn't use tomato cages to grow them in. Also they are suppose to be grown 3ft apart which i planted them like maybe a foot apart oops, but I learned for my mistake and they will be done differently next year.

Left are tomaillo and right are jalapenos

I'm also going to include a little tip for any of y'all to use.

• Get a lot of tomato cages. They come in handy for tomatoes, tomaillos, heck you can probably grow cucumbers and beans on them.