It's been a month since I planted my experimental gutter gardens, and I gotta say I am pretty pleased.
My first strawberry, yahoo!
My Honeoye plants are doing much better than my Eversweet, I am not sure if it is because they are not as hardy or if it is because they are above my head and may be a little neglected. I lost about 6 of them and have since started to pay better attention to the top row.
If you compare my pictures from my first blog you can really see how much they have grown.
My radishes, carrots, and spinach are doing great also, my little green onions are having some issues, but I realized I had forgotten to drill holes in the bottom of the gutter for draining so I may have over watered, I have a few, but think I will re plant tomorrow.
Spinach
carrots
Radishes
Keeping my fingers crossed, and the warm weather continues, I think I might just have my first successful gutter garden!
This weekend was fantastic, 80 plus degrees. Sean and I spent the entire day outside and we finished the day off with some hamburgers on the grill.
This week I have set some bike riding goals for myself, I am up to a whopping 2 miles now (insert sarcasm here) I know it is pathetic and actually pretty embarrassing, but it feels good to get my blood pumping again, even if my face stays bright red for an hour after the bike ride is over! There are such beautiful bike trials where I live, my goal is to be on those trails by June 1.
The garden is finally rota-tilled, the chickens were so excited to have all that loose dirt to kick around and enjoy their dirt baths. They have a couple more weeks to enjoy before I plant.
I've been trying to do some different types of container gardening and while at the IFA store this weekend I saw these green bags and the instructions said we could grow potato's in them... so of course I had to try. I got 2 bags for about $16, I saw them at Walmart for $8 for one.
We bought some seed potato's (I think you can use any potato) we were told to put about 6 inches of garden soil (not to use potting soil) in the bottom of the bag, then put the seed potato's with shoots going up, then cover but not to deep. Soil is supposed to be moist not wet. Once the green shoots are about 6 inches up you add another 6 inches of dirt and continue this process till you reach the top of the bag. The cool thing if it works is at the bottom of the bag is an opening so I will be able to reach in and grab my potato's as they grow (which I understand takes a long time) patience is a virtue right?
My gutter gardens are doing great, my carrots finally came up...if this works it will be the first time I have ever been able to grow carrots, fingers crossed.
Sean got my hammock out yesterday so I think I will head outside and enjoy the sunshine.
Have a Great Day!
April is a promise that May is bound to keep ~ Hal Borland
First Strawberry blossom of the year!! They say I should pinch the blossoms off till June first, but the thought of doing that makes me want to cry. So this little blossom is safe. The next 4 days are supposed to be rainy and cloudy so no fun out in the yard, this little bloom will have to keep me content.
I missed a photo opportunity today with one of my daughter in laws, dang it! She needed to go the 'Beauty and Belief -Crossing Bridges with the Arts of Islamic Culture' exhibit that is being featured at BYU...for one of her classes, so she invited me to come with.
It was a fantastic display, it has 270 objects, it's basically a walk through of Islamic visual culture from the seventh century onward
Beautiful prayer rugs, jewelry, scrolls of poetry, we were on a tight schedule but got through it all in a couple hours.
Now if I was in my bloggin mind I would have had someone take our picture in front of the Museum of Art, but i wasn't so you'll just have to believe me. If you get a chance it's worth heading down to take a look, added bonus, it's free.
Easter Sunday was great, the only way it would have been better is to have had my oldest son and his family here with us. I thought about them most of the day and missed not being able to do my grandson's first Easter Egg hunt. I know graduate school cannot last forever but right now it sure seems that way. My grand daughter is now pulling herself up and crawling, by the time I see her she just might be walking.
They let me know they will be out for a visit this summer and that can't come soon enough. Let the count down begin!
It was great to be with the rest of the brood, nothing is better for a mom than to see her kids as adults as friends and enjoying each others company.
My gutter gardens are really doing well, my strawberries are getting tall and looking healthy and strong.
My spinach is just starting to poke out of the dirt.
The carrots I was beginning to wonder about, I have never had luck with them in any garden... but I saw 2 little green shoots this morning so I won't give up yet.
I added two more gutters last Thursday and put radishes in one and green onions in the other, nothing so far, but patience is the name of the game.
On a whim, while I was down at the local IFA store getting my chickens some food, I decided to grow my cucumbers and squash from seeds instead of buying existing plants.
I bought some little starter containers. I planted them last Thursday and my cucumbers have already poked through!
I am so enjoying the outdoors and the spring weather. After having worked full time for the last 7 years or so, to be able to enjoy the outdoors again and have all my time to myself is a wonderful thing.
Next adventure... getting our bike's in for a tune up and getting some much needed exercise!
It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain
I saw a clever idea on Pinterest called 'gutter gardening' and decided to give it a try. We have a small garden on the side of our house, I wanted a larger one and this seemed like the perfect solution.
We bought 8 metal gutters attached them to our fence, drilled holes every few inches in the bottom so they would drain well, and added Miracle Grow, and planted 100 strawberry plants in (4) 10 foot long metal gutters.
I ordered 50 Honeyoe June bearing Strawberries and 50 Eversweet Strawberries. I planted the Honeyoye on March 17, they are looking really healthy as of today.
My EverSweet I planted today.
I put them on the fence that gets sunlight most of the day.
I also planted some dwarf carrots and spinach, I will get the radishes, green onions, and some herbs planted this week.
If this works I have really doubled my gardening space.
The cost of this project - the gutters were about $6 a piece, and you need the end pieces, I think they were about a $1.20 each, but it was the brackets that were really pricey about $12 for 4. I put 5 brackets on each gutter this may have been a bit over kill but the weekend we planted the first group of strawberries we had a snow storm and I had about 6 inches of snow sitting on top of my gutter, and they didn't budge. I also bought (2) 50 pound bags of Miracle Grow.
This weekend I am hoping to get my other garden rota-tilled. Hopefully all this work will amount to lots of veggies and fruit this summer.
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