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Mixed results for my veggie growing efforts this year

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Do you grow any vegetables in your garden? I do …

Yeah, I know, I’m always talking about my flowers and other plants and I barely ever mention the fact that I also try to grow vegetables in my garden, amid all of the flowers.

Each year without fail I grow tomatoes (I experiment with different kinds each year this year it was Early Girl, Glam and Tiny Toms), cucumbers, beans, peas, romaine and a variety of lettuces or mescalin mix.

My tomatoes did quite well this year, much better than the last few years anyway. Perhaps that was because I grew varieties that matured earlier. I just love home grown tomatoes. Yum.

tiny tom tomatoes

Tiny Tom Tomatoes

Unfortunately though, my Tiny Tom Tomatoes, Cucumbers and beans didn’t do as well. I grow them in containers on the patio close to the back of the house. I guess I thought that with all of the rain this year that the plants were getting enough water … guess again … they grew very slowly and I think it was because they were too dry overall.

My cucumbers did the worst! They only just started producing tiny cucumbers about two weeks ago! Here’s a tiny one as proof:

tiny cucumber

Tiny Cucumber

If I’d paid more attention and didn’t just assume that the all of the areas of the garden were getting enough water thanks to all the rain we had this summer then I think my cucumbers and beans would have done a lot better.

I guess I learned a lesson this year. Even if it’s rained, always go out and check the soil to see if it really is moist. Plants growing near the house or under the eaves just might not be getting any water at all!

I hope your veggies did better than mine did this summer.

We are going to get the remnants of Hurricane Ike all day today. We are expecting a lot of rain. I mean the kind that causes flooding … and flooded basements! Our basements always been dry, but this might be the test! Hope my home and garden survive all the water we’re about to have dumped on us!

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information. GTS participants remember to check in at As the Garden Grows each week so that we’ll know you made a new post!






Organic gardening

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Whether you are already an organic gardener or perhaps you are looking to get started I’m sure you’d find it helpful to find out what other organic gardeners are doing and perhaps incorporate some of their tips into your own gardening routine.

I practice organic gardening and my big secret is that I use Alfalfa tea (or compost tea) on all of my plants at least twice during the growing season. It’s like organic miracle grow. Honest. My roses absolutely love it and you guys have seen pictures of my plants, don’t they look happy?

Here’s what a few other Organic Gardeners are talking about this week:

Five Cheats For The Lazy Gardener: How To Hack A Garden

The crunch of carrots, snap of snow peas and ripe juicy tomatoes are all appetizing images. However, unlike many gardeners you may not have the time or energy to devote to growing. Don’t worry! If you have just one day to […]

Pests in Organic Gardening? No need to worry

If you’re into organic gardening, there are a number of things that you need to consider and one of them is a very interesting one: if you see a bug, it’s not the end of the world, or in this case your garden, as you know it. …

Partial Shade: Its Vital Role in Organic Vegetable Gardening

For gardeners, they know that shade plays an important role in what they are doing as much as the sun. This is especially true if one is into organic gardening of vegetables. The exposure to sun and its need to be in shade still depends …

The Truth About Organic Gardening

I just finished a great book about organic vs. conventional gardening. It is called “The Truth About Organic Gardening” by Jeff Gillman. Why did I like it? Well, for one it was an easy read. I’m a plant geek, not a bookworm. …

I hope that you get a chance to read one or all of these posts as there’s some good information there about organic gardening! Enjoy.

Healthy drinks with a new juicer

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I’m sure that many of you made New Years Resolutions that began on January first. If you did make a resolution have you managed to stick to it?

I kept saying that I didn’t make any resolutions this year, but now that I think about it I believe that I did. The only reason I didn’t realize it is because I made my resolution way back in November. Remember when we got our Lab puppy? Well we got her for a few reasons, the main one being that I wanted a companion at home, but the other big reason was that I knew having a dog would force me to get outside several times a day for a walk.

As many of you know I’ve got Crohn’s disease and it’s been real bad for the last few years, so I’ve basically been living in chronic pain day in and day out. Remember last year I had long gaps where I’d say I hadn’t even been in my garden? That’s so unlike me! My lack of gardening and garden related visits last year was purely related to how bad I was feeling.

Getting a puppy, especially an active one like a Labrador Retriever, that needs to be exercised several times daily would surely force me to get outside and get active no matter how I was feeling right? Well it worked. Plus, getting outside and walking around sort of makes me feel better. It doesn’t help the pain I’m in much, but it takes my mind off of it.

I’ve also lost a little bit of the weight I’d gained last year due to my increasing activity.

Now I’m wondering what else can I do to improve my health? I have trouble eating a lot of foods because I don’t digest food well or some foods just don’t agree with my system, but I’ve been considering getting a juicer again. I was looking at the juicers at Wize.com and I’m pretty sure we’ll get one before the month is over.

We used to have a juicer, but we gave it away to one of my husbands aunts a few years ago as we weren’t using it. However now I’m thinking about all the fresh juices that I can make with a juicer and it sounds good to me. I can also juice carrots and other veggies, some of which are hard for me to eat raw or cooked because of the crohns. I’m sure that my body would appreciate the juiced form!

If you’ve been thinking of looking at juicers visit Wize.com. They have five pages of juicers on their site and each one is rated by consumers. The juicers, and other products on the site, are listed by highest rating. The ratings are made by those who have used the various products so it’s a consumer satisfaction rating.

You can read consumer reviews of each juicer (or other products) in order to see what features other people liked best, view product details and see the price range for each juicer as well as a listing of several online stores where you might purchase the juicer of your choosing.

Take a look at the whole site to find other products that you’ve been thinking about buying and read reviews before you buy.

As for me? I think I’ll take a look at their juicer listings and try to find one that’s been well rated and that fits my budget. I’m really going to work on getting healthy this year and I think a juicer will help as much as those walks with our dog will!

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