Summer Seedlings

I carved out some time to sow herbs and summer vegetables! I didn't go crazy since I'm  the only person in the household who has any time to tend to the garden right now. I am sure in June when I'm 9 months pregnant, I will have little desire to anything outside! Here's what's growing:

I buy loads of cilantro, and since many recipes don't call for a whole bunch I end up throwing so much of it in the compost bin. The plant bolts and goes to seed really fast which changes the flavor, so I'm going to plant it every 2-3 weeks to keep a constant supply.

These are sugar babies. They are so easy to grow! Last year when I gave up on my garden, these still produced 3 melons with basically minimal water and attention. They are perfect for the Square Foot Garden because they are small and you can train them up a trellis.

One of my favorite memories is eating pickled okra that my Aunt Angie canned. I am going to plant 8 more plants so I can have her show me how! The only way I would eat it as a kid was pickled, but now I love it cooked any way, so I want to make sure we have plenty!

This is another herb I buy often and end up throwing out at least a 1/4 of the bunch. Happens with almost every herb I buy. Cilantro & Parsley are the only two I ever see for less than a dollar a bunch at the grocery store, so this will save SO MUCH MONEY! I'm waiting on the Italian Parsley to germinate. I might soak some seed overnight and then plant it to see if that helps speed things up - it's been over 2 weeks!

These are bush beans.  They grow in the form of a bush, so I don't have to worry about trellis. 

There is also a cucumber peeking in the bottom left of the picture. Only one plant germinated and that's fine for now, I'll plant more in July for the late summer garden.

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I am most excited about these! They are jack-o-lantern  & pie making type! I only planted two because that will be plenty for our family. I am not going to trellis these, but just let them run over the side of the bed into the yard since we have plenty of space right now.

By the way, these last two pictures show a little soil block action. My soil mix is not ideal. I just used what I had on hand and they didn't stay into a "block" very well. The watermelon blocks completely fell apart which is why they are in little gelato cups. This summer I am going to work on buying the ingredients for the soil block recipe I have that people all over the web use with great success. Oh, and some trays. I am currently using the tops to storage tubs!

Stella and I are off to the garden to get these transplanted! The herbs are staying on the back deck for easy access. I don't plan on doing much more planting besides more okra and cilantro until July to get ready for the late season/fall garden. 

I'm also going to start a YouTube channel and do video updates on the garden inspired by the Donna's Square Foot Vegetable Garden videos I love so much. I've already taken the first one, I just hate uploading and editing pictures and videos on this computer! I'm so ready for an iMac. I'll update as soon as I get the video loaded!

Garden Update: The Sad Reality

I'm not going to bother with excuses. There's nothing growing, and that is that. Excluding the weeds, of course. Since taking these pictures I've cleaned all of them out and in the process we found a few surprises.

(I'm so bummed about it that I didn't bother trying to get any "good shots." I didn't even have the urge to try to salvage them by editing, so I apologize for the lackluster pictures.)
The first one I cleaned out.

Weeds everywhere!

I rooted this lemon grass( and stuck it in the existing sandy soil  last year. It instantly flourished and grew into a beautiful mess. Over the winter I thought it died, but it has already sprung back to life. It's hard to make it amidst all of the weeds, so in case you don't know what lemon grass looks like, it's the two tall clusters of leaves.

Here is a mint plant I bought from Lowe's last year. I planted it in the beds despite warnings of it taking over the whole garden. Once it started to spread, I transplanted it into this pot where it was neglected. I thought it died in the summer heat. It was completely shriveled up. The little gnome worked some magic and brought life back to it for me.

 

Here is kale I planted last fall for my Winter Garden that never happened. I planted kale, lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots late last summer and was planning on succession plantings  and starting other vegetables and herbs to get us through the winter, but my pregnancy nausea set it, and I didn't accomplish a darn thing! Somehow, this kale pushed through the winter without any tending to at all.

When I was digging up the bed that I planted the tomatoes and carrots in, I found these 4 beauties. I assumed the seedlings never made it (I wouldn't water for days) I wonder how they would have turned out with consistent waterning and fertilizing

Stella and I  planted a few herbs last week: basil, thai basil, cilantro, parsley, and a thai pepper plant. I'm contemplating doing pumpkins, watermelon and okra. I still have time to get them started. Come August I plan on will go all out. In Florida we are so blessed with a year round growing season. You just have to stay on top of planting at the right times. Late summer is like spring all over again for us and I am going to take full advantage of it. If I want to be a homesteader, I can't let a few silly mishaps  hinder my desire and passion to grow my family food. (120 strong seedlings that I started from seed were all ruined throughout February and March  by various circumstances if you missed my Facebook posts.)

I was amazed that despite months of neglect, nature still brought us a few treats in our garden. I'm constantly in awe of this beautiful system God designed. Gardening is full of miracles. It was just the inspiration I needed to start "gardening as if my life depended on it."

What's growing in your garden/patio?