This 'n' that Thursday

Pretty as a Pansy

Gee! we didn't really eat very much.

I feel sure the veggie garden will produce well this year

The weather has been fabulous and I have finally found the time to get out and get some more done in the vegetable garden. I pulled more weeds, added some good all purpose fertilizer to the raised beds and bought a few more veggie starts.

The four tomatoes planted within the 'walls of water' earlier this month, are coming along very nicely. I also decided to try growing a couple of sweet peppers within the 'walls of water' as they need plenty of heat to do much good.

Yes indeed, those are flowers on the tomato plant.

There is one tiny bud on the sweet pepper. I hope to have many more delicious peppers.

 

In this bed, is Swiss chard, teggia bush beans, blue lake pole beans, a couple of crookneck summer squash, a zucchini, and one stray strawberry plant.

The peas, lettuce and spinach planted within a recycled car tire, are all growing extremely well. In fact I will plucking a few lettuce and spinach leaves for a salad tomorrow.

It looks as though this year I will have a very good crop of strawberries. I can hardly wait to taste a sweet juicy strawberry. I should know better than to buy strawberries as I know they are usually tasteless, and once again I was proved right when I tasted some store bought berries last week. When will I ever learn? *chuckle*

 One more recycled car tire is home to red and golden beets with a few basil seeds tossed in the center.
I think I am going to rest for a day, then decide what else to plant.

Pretty in pink

Spring on Whidbey Island

Meerkirk Rhododendron gardens, Greeenbank, Whidbey Island WA

Today the rain showers went away, the sun came out, so it was perfect weather to get the tomatoes in the ground. This year I chose to grow my favorite snacking tomato,'Sun Sugar' and three new to me, varieties, which are, Brandywine, Bloody Butcher, and Siletz

I first amended the soil with a good all round fertilizer,leveled off the bed, then dug four holes. Into each hole I placed a handful of bone meal, two aspirin, some crushed eggshells then about 2 inches of soil.  

Before planting the tomatoes, I removed all but the top few leaves, then planted them so the top of the soil was about 3 inches below the leaves. A 'wall of water' was placed around each plant, a tomato cage pushed inside, and to finish, the cells in all of the 'walls of water' were topped off with water.

The 'wall of water' keep the plants warm, but to add a little more heat around the plants, I constructed a temporary 'house' over the four plants. I have a feeling we are going to have a short summer, so I figure the tomatoes need all the help they can get.  

 

As I worked on planting the tomatoes, I glanced up and saw this grey kitty, which hangs around our place and is usually very nervous around us, nonchalantly cleaning his paws. It probably figures it was quite safe considering I was fenced within my garden enclosure. I like to have the cat hang around, as it keeps the vermin population under control.