... how does your garden grow?

Well.. they were there...

2011-07-10T20:35:00.001-04:00

so we picked them.

Two big zucchini, that is. We made four loaves of zucchini bread, ate one the second it came out of the oven (might I remind you it's only me and two boys ages 6 and 7 here), ate a little more than half of one for breakfast this morning, gave one to my parents, and half of one to the honey (who's trying to lose weight.. sorry!). If your zucchini math is up to snuff you'll know that we've got just about one left here at home. I don't think it's going to last the day and expect to come home from clinical tomorrow to none.

Since the garden is so sparse this year, I was happy to use SOMETHING. There are tomatoes on the vines, but nothing pickable. The pepper plant is half hidden under the zukes, dunno how that's doing. I tried to do eggplants in a container, it was a nice big, healthy plant until I didn't water it often enough. It's alive, but not producing.

I miss the garden, there's just no time... but enough depressing news, check out this cutie!

and can I just add...

2011-05-29T11:39:00.000-04:00

... that I'm REALLY fuming over this. Almost every single bud is broken off my daylilies! EVERY ONE! The yard already looks like crap this year.. and now I've got bloomless lilies.
Ugh.. seriously just... I want to scream.

disappointment in the garden...

2011-05-29T11:36:00.000-04:00

I was going to take the boys to McDonalds for breakfast this morning.. walked outside and..

and...

Broken lily, and daylily buds all broken off..

... we didn't go to McDonalds.

clean up

2011-05-22T20:52:00.000-04:00

Finally cleaned up the yard. We've had rain much of the last few weeks so everything was very overgrown. The dead ~~nothing lasts for~~evergreen has been sawed off and hauled out the curb leaving a big bare spot out front. The front flower garden which used to look beautiful is now.. well.. not so beautiful. I'm not stressing over too much though. I hope to do the windowboxes over the next few weeks. I'm thinking about moving daylilies around.. they're easy, healthy and come back every year. If i can fill some of the awkward spots around the yard I'll be happy. Again, my goal is 'easy'.

Grass! I actually have some not so bad looking grass out there! I still have some problem areas but everything is at least green.

Veggies. Long gone are the wonderful days of ordering seeds and starting them on the sunporch. I bought 2 tomato plants, 1 bell pepper plant, 2 zukes and and eggplant (which is in a huge container). I picked up some basil and more rosemary but other than that I'm keeping it small this year. My parsley and oregano from last season are still kickin'. I was a little down at first but y'know what? Last year I hated the yard.. I hated being out there, I didn't have any time to take care of it and it was just too much to handle. This year I'm keeping it small. Small and manageable as opposed to huge and overwhelming will keep me happy until I'm finished with school and clinical rotations... even if my tomato plants were purchased at Wal-mart.

Simplicity

2011-03-05T15:57:00.000-05:00

I've decided that this season I'm taking my yard back to simple. Over the past two years I've been too busy to properly tend to the garden. Big ideas + no time = crappy garden and yard.

I have one large raised bed for vegetables, and one about half the size of the larger. The smaller one was supposed to be temporary when I built it nearly 5 years ago. It's always looked awful, and was more of a mound with some bricks and landscaping ties around it more than an actual raised bed. Today, I got ambitious.. cleaned up the backyard and took apart the small bed and redistributed the soil. Down to only one area for vegetables now! I thought I'd be sad, or disappointed but I'm not. I'm actually excited! Since our household consists only of me and the boys now we're using less of the garden veggies. Not because we're eating less fresh vegetables, but lets face it, 4 people eat more than 3 people. I'm taking the vegetables down to bare bones.. tomatoes, eggplants, a few herbs, and sugar snap peas in the spring. Now, I'm not 100% bound to that short list, but I'm not starting 200 seedlings this year either. I'm sticking to one or two tomato plants, same with the eggplant. I'm looking forward to a small, easy veggie garden. :) It'll be much less depressing than that unkept mess we had last season.

Next weekend - front yard clean up. I have an (not so-ever)evergreen that is about 8 feet tall that just decided to turn brown over the winter. Once I figure out how on earth to remove that I'll come up with a replacement plan. I really, really need some tall, colorful things out front. I've lost a few azaleas, now that tree.. everything is the same height.

So... overall goal this year? Healthy and simple. I've never really much had luck with nice grass, now that I've removed one of the beds, I'm going to have to plant some there. Green grass, small vegetable garden, pretty flowers. Simplicity. :)

Winter

2011-01-03T20:21:00.006-05:00

I've never liked winter, other than when I was about 8 years old and enjoyed sledding and building snowmen.

I'm longing for warm weather and green grass and grilled hamburger dinners in the yard.

75 days until the first day of Spring.

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.7is7.com/otto/countdown.html?year=2011&amp;amp;amp;month=3&amp;amp;amp;date=20&amp;amp;amp;hrs=0&amp;amp;amp;ts=24&amp;amp;amp;tz=local&amp;amp;amp;min=0&amp;amp;amp;sec=0&amp;amp;amp;lang=en&amp;amp;amp;show=dhms&amp;amp;amp;mode=r&amp;amp;amp;cdir=down&amp;amp;amp;bgcolor=%23006600&amp;amp;amp;fgcolor=%23000000&amp;amp;amp;title=The%20first%20day%20of%20Spring%20is"&amp;gt;The first day of Spring is&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

neglected

2010-06-21T21:38:00.002-04:00

My garden is a wreck.

I've been so busy(lazy) with life that I haven't had time (the drive) to get in the garden to do anything. My sugar snap peas all died and didn't grow properly, those that did got hacked down by the guys who mow the alley. I've got some vegetables in the beds.. eggplants, zucchini, some herbs, jalapenos, and a few varieties of tomatoes.. one of which i think is dying.

My flowers are wilty because I don't water them, and my lawn thinks it's August and had decided to turn brown.

There are weeds everywhere, I never planted sunflowers around the shed like I planned.

I haven't taken any photos because I'm just not... inspired.

.. so there.

glandular trichomes, er... tomato hair

2010-04-12T17:15:00.013-04:00

Tomato hair.. part sticky, part prickly and apparently what gives tomato plants that wonderful tomato plant smell. It also produces a chemical that deters pests (yay!), and a chemical compound that's thought to have human antibiotic qualities. Cool huh?
So, since my tomato plants (wonderfully pictured above, if you click on the photo you can see it up close.) now have glandular hair does that mean they're entering puberty?

Moss Phlox looks very pretty as usual. I wish it would keep those pretty little flowers a little longer AND not look so nasty come august.

You got your strawberry grass in my moss phlox... hey, you got your moss phlox in my strawberry grass!

(::sigh:: at least I giggled)

Get close to your screen... the lilac smells divine!

Spoiled by mild winters.

2010-04-11T12:16:00.005-04:00

My giant lavender bush is mostly dead, like Wesley in The Princess Bride. Only I'm no Miracle Max. I think I trimmed it way too short and did some major damage... It just looked so dead and awful over the winter. I cut it very short back in early March (might have even been February). I'm on the fence about digging it up, I have no idea what to put there in its place. Sometimes I wonder if my garden did so well the last few years because of the very mild winters we've had.

I was very pleased with my daffodils this year. I think I'll buy another bag of bulbs this season. More crocus and more daffodil (not to be confused with more cowbell)! I love spring. :) Yesterday I planted some Red Hot Pokers along the front fence, just in front of the daffodils. There are Allium behind them so hopefully they'll look nice. I'm kind of wishing I'd clumped the Allium now though.

Put in some giant elephant's ear next to the shed, at the corner of the patio and the next to the house in front. Taking a chance on this one, I need something tall and leafy.. If I don't like them I'll dig em up. Also planted one in the front corner shade garden, but know they need full sun... shrug, who knows.

Whatever I planted behind the barrel two years ago is starting to finally come up. I remember it's supposed to get pretty tall and have pretty red, feathery flowers but I can't remember what it's called. I figured it just died. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come.

The lilac is huge. Didn't trim it last season so it didn't flower as nicely as last year. Trimmed it up pretty well last night, took all the dead seed husks off and took out a lot of dead branches. This year I HAVE to remember. Brought some inside because they smell awesome.

On to the veggies! Nearly lost my tomato plants! We had a few days with 85-90 degree weather (yes, I know it's April) and I spaced and didn't water them every day. Every one was wilted and lifeless... drowned them yesterday with water and they're all back to normal. I should put them in individual pots soon, they're about 4 inches high. I saved a bunch of plastic pots from last year and plan to use those. It feels odd only having tomato seedlings on my sunporch.

When's last frost again?

2010-03-17T20:46:00.003-04:00

Cleaned up.

Turned the soil in the veggie beds.

Planted snap peas.

Planted corn.

Corn? wtf? I have no room for corn.. this is a Joey and Matthew project with left over seeds from their 100th day of school project. Who am I to stop them? (I seriously doubt they'll even come up).

Spring Flowers

2010-03-17T10:31:00.006-04:00

It's funny. I just posted a few flowers of crocus on facebook (because I know everyone is dying to see my flowers.. what?), and I had two different people ask me what kind of flowers they were.
I thought everybody knew the basic spring flowers... daffodils, crocus and tulips. My mother always had a beautiful rock garden filled with little flowers and I guess I just thought it was common knowledge. Crocus? Daffodils? Really?
BTW.. mom's got some really cute mini daffodils in her rock garden right now. They're perfect.. little.. miniature... daffodils. :)

Hey Sproutlets! (I need a a new title for my sprout photos, I think I used this last year)

2010-03-16T21:46:00.008-04:00

Planted my tomato seeds a about 10 days, or 2 weeks ago.. something like that.
3 Varieties, um... I don't remember which.

Nothing really going on at this point. We've had some really nice weather, I'm hoping it hangs around and we don't get any surprise frosts. I'd like to get our peas in the ground this weekend, although now that I've said (er.. typed) it out loud it probably wont happen.

The daffodils are coming up everywhere! They're my favorite spring flower and I'm so glad I got them all in the ground. Maybe next year I'll add even more.. note to self:

Self:

Plant more daffodil bulbs - Fall 10.

Love,
Self

seeds

2010-02-21T20:20:00.001-05:00

Finally got my seeds. :) Nothing special, 3 varieties of tomatoes and a package of snap peas.

Will start the tomatoes tomorrow, but I think I'm buying eggplant transplants this year instead of starting from seed because I just don't have the energy.

winter!

2009-12-29T22:01:00.002-05:00

Well... at least some people enjoyed the snow:

sigh

2009-12-14T21:20:00.002-05:00

I noticed there were no takers.. er.. givers on the massage. OOOOH, I guess I need readers first.

2009-11-08T23:50:00.009-05:00

If only I could somehow shoot my thoughts direct from my head to this blog while I'm in the garden..

Some funny shit happens out there. Flag drippers popping out and squirting water into my face, I yell when I come across a buried stag beetle or spider, I'm constantly getting caught talking to myself by the neighbors...

Just today I was talking out loud, "ok.. weeded the patio, I'll rake, then WHOOOAAA!' That was supposed to be 'rake and blow', as in use the leaf blower (yooo hooo up here on the curb), but I hopped over the daylilies right onto the rake, which then stood up and hit me square in the face.

(side note: do you know how hard it is to find a picture of Tom (ala Tom and Jerry) getting hit in the face with a rake?)

Work done today? 5 hours of ripping out rose bushes and fighting with the weed wacker (Or is that whacker.. I never know. Not that it matters because I hate that goddamn thing like Tonya Harding hates Nancy Kerrigan). I removed all the dead vegetable plants, cut back the daisies and the goldsturm, trimmed the ivy and the lavender, mowed the lawn, edged, raked.. I even planted my left over daffodil bulbs.

My body hurts. Who's supplying the massage?

Yesterday was Labor Day.. so I labored.

2009-09-08T14:29:00.007-04:00

Just because.

Cleared all of those purple and white spikey things and the Evening Primrose from behind the Japanese Maple (which badly needed trimming), and put the daylilies back where they belong. Less is more, Teri.. less is more. Pulled out a bunch of Strawberry Grass which is pretty and all but GEEZUS that shit spreads, it's worse than an STD.

Planted some Allium along the fence and some daffodils in front of them.. ya, I know the daffodils will come up foist.. what of it? I can't seem to get my shit together out there.. I need about a grand (and a helper).

The bumble bees are ridiculous out there. They're VERY much into those purple spikey flowers.. y'know the ones I tore out. I still have some along the patio and next to the shed, and the bees are hanging out. They're slow... Fall is a comin'... the mums say so.

Harvesting about 10 tomatoes per day now. Coops' salsa recipe is just waiting to be used and abused, I just have to get around to it... Y'know, somewhere between Physics and Anatomy & Physiology, and kids lunches, and homework, and my happenin' social life...

10 hours at 150 degrees...

2009-08-24T23:46:00.003-04:00

OK, now what do I do with all this stuff?

2009-08-24T14:07:00.007-04:00

I don't know why it never dawned on me to make zucchini bread. I had two gigantic zukes.. why not? I made two humongous loaves in honor of the size of the squash themselves. They were carby, cinnamony, heavy bricks of goodness. This fat girl will be making more.

I've decided to try and sun dry... er... oven dry some tomatoes. They've been in the over for about two hours, if they're awesome they'll be another update. If this post gets deleted, well...

On to the photos:

Mater Mess

2009-08-16T23:35:00.002-04:00

Ok.. so the tomatoes are doing very well and I'm pleased. I'm also a lazy gardener and never properly built a cage so they're falling all over each other now that they have fruit. Let me set the scene...

There I was, armed with blue yarn, scissors and just enough bravery to dive right in without fear of hornworms or any other critter that makes me shudder. 8am and 90 degrees...

I tied a large piece of bamboo to the fence post, cause uh.. ya that'll hold it. I tied blue yarn around another piece of bamboo that was leaning over from the weight of the plants across the entire bed to the lilac. I tied that damn blue yard to a few more pieces and wrapped it around the front landscaping tie.. blue.. yarn.. everywhere...

ok so i switched to twine because that blue yarn? ya.. not as strong as I'd hoped. TWINE EVERYWHERE.. with plants tied to it with the uh... blue yarn. Anyway, they're much less cluttered and on top of each other, because on top of each other is fine and dandy unless you're a tomato plant susceptible to blight (even in the tomato world the fun stuff gives you cooties).

The zucchini doesn't look so hot. They're kind of rotting very early and I wonder if the borers are back. Eggplants are going strong.. Peppers too but very slowly.
The herbs are insanely weedy and bushy and bolting and allthefuckovertheplace.

In flower news the goldstrum look amazing and I think I'll buy some more of those next year. Only one of my mums are blooming and I'm afraid I trimmed the buds last time I trimmed the plants. The daisies and daylilies are finished.

Bought a huge bag of daffodils today, now I just need to get them in the ground come Sept. Did I mention I'm lazy?

photo update

2009-08-10T10:54:00.002-04:00

now... hold them out so they look even bigger :)

Green shoulders anyone?

Had a visitor today...

2009-07-28T11:35:00.001-04:00

July

2009-07-26T09:40:00.006-04:00

Here we are at the end of July and the garden looks exactly like it did at the end of LAST July. Crappy. It's overgrown and unruly because I haven't had a chance to really get out there, although this week looks promising on the weeding and grass cutting front.

I've harvested a few zucchini, one pepper, and two eggplants. Am I behind? Everything seems to be growing very well, just not producing much. There are a lot of tomatoes on the vines but non ripe. Bring on the August bruschetta!

I've got 3 female cucumber flowers, but they're growing so slowly. I never have luck with cukes. I've noticed a few yellow leaves on the plant too, so typical for this stage (for me anyway.. a real gardener, perhaps not)

s

Where's the tomato cage fairy?

2009-07-07T21:52:00.007-04:00

Someone.. please.. anyone? Come do something about my tomatoes. They're big.. they're burly.. they're toppling over because I'm a lazy good for nothing tomato grower. I don't have enough bamboo or drive to properly build a cage. I didn't buy the ugly round ones when the plants were small. There are sticks in the ground, twine everywhere, it's not pretty, people (I mean mom).

Eggplant - one
Zukes - several flowers!
Cukes - well.. the vine is growing
Peppers - a few!
Herbs - weeds

Sunflowers... SUNFLOWERS? Ya! I said..er.. typed sunflowers! First time ever and y'know.. i'm not a sunflower girl. They remind me of my old college roommate who had that big, disgusting dried thing in the living room that 'accidentally' got knocked from the desk. I've got them next to the shed and have realized the whole shabby chic thing doesn't work when things are legimately shabby. However.. I think next year I'm going to plant then along the fence behind the shed where the trash cans are. That way they'll hid the trash and look nice from the alley. :)

photos!

Rain, Rain.. wtf go away!

2009-06-22T14:48:00.004-04:00

I love me some shabby daisies. They're just so big and unruly and... i dig em. Just a few photos of the flowers before I get into the veggie talk...

The flea beetles are back, but the eggplant are still doing OK. I have a nice big blossom, but didn't grab a photo. The peppers are still small (all but two). I bought a cuke and a zucchini plant and threw them between the peppers and eggplants. They're still really small but we'll see how they go.

I finally got out there and weeded the veggie beds a little bit. I noticed some yellowish leaves with dark spots on one tomato plant. Early blight again? I seriously hope not... I installed the soaker hoses to avoid this, but with all this rain it's been a mess out there.

The peas look GREAT! I'm so suprised at how many we're getting. We've been picking them every time we're out there and crunching on them. The herbs look wonderful, but the cilantro bolted already. :(

um... ya that's all.. photo time.

helper in the garden today :)

2009-06-08T14:06:00.002-04:00

A friend dropped off some pretty pink flowers from her mom's garden today. Found a nice spot for em.. next year they'll come back really nicely.

Nothing to report, Matthew helped (aka, got wet) in the garden today.

What big thorns you have!

2009-06-07T19:24:00.003-04:00

Does this seem overly thorny to you? I had no idea.

peas please

2009-06-07T19:04:00.006-04:00

My Peas were growing about 18 inches above the chain link fence... I knew it was only a matter of time before they flopped. Used some bamboo and twine to make a new place for them to climb.

Staked a few tomato plants today, but that's about it. The herbs are growing like weeds, and the weeds are growing like.. well.. weeds.

Joey made this 'hairy caterpillar' at Duffield's Farm. It looks so adorable among the herbs.. and he really digs watching it grow there :)

2009-06-02T17:26:00.000-04:00

Yellow flowers - Evening Primrose :)

ok, it WAS funny

2009-06-01T22:36:00.005-04:00

Last season a friend picked up a soaker hose kit on sale for me. There was no way I could hook it all up last year as my plants were huge and i just couldn't set it up.
Fast forward to tonight. I think I'm going to get out there and hook those hoses up in 20 minutes... get to watering and that's that. Well.. that was Teri's thumbs getting sore from pushing little stoppers and couplings and flag drippers into the hoses. That was Teri getting hit the the face with said flag drippers, followed by a steady stream of water. That was.. well... that was an adventure.

I did both beds, but have to purchase a hose hook up for one of them. This will REALLY cut down on my watering time outside, and more importantly keep the water off the leaves. Last year I really think the tomatoes ended up with blight because they were too crowded and too wet.

In other news... I love these.. anyone know wtf they are? (cellphone shot)

The Shasta Daisies look amazing and are getting really tall, The Goldstrum as well. The echinacea I put in is supposed to be a variety that gets pretty tall. They're have orange flowers instead of pink.. I've got ONE flower and a few buds but they're really only about 14 inches high, I was hoping for much more. Maybe they're not getting enough sun.. but I don't see how that's possible. Perhaps next year they'll come back nice and big.

Still have lots of moving and separating to do. I think I'll move a few hosta and ferns, but I'm not going to split up anything until the fall. The Strawberry Grass is just about out of control and needs to be put in it's place (I'll show you.. you invasive grassy phalaris arundinacea.. err.. whatever you are).

cheater!

2009-06-01T01:14:00.003-04:00

I bought a Mr. Stripey, red bell pepper and green bell pepper plants on Saturday and put them in today. I planned to buy at least one pepper plant because mine are so teeny. They're in the ground (the ones i started from seed) but damn.. I'm anxious!
I couldn't resist the Mr. Stripey plant. I think they're just awesome tomatoes. I love them on sandwiches and in cuke salads... sooo sweet.

I've got room for maybe one or two more plants. I haven't decided if i want to do another kind of eggplant or try the zuchinni or cukes one last shot (who the hell am I kidding?).

In other news, the herbs look wonderful, and I'm able to use the sweet basil, parsley and cilantro already.

veggies in :)

2009-05-20T10:17:00.002-04:00

Planted five Rutgers plants and three Jubilee Yellow plants on Friday. As usual, I didn't harden them off, but figure if they survived my sunporch and neglect they'd be just fine. It's been five days and they seem to be doing well.

Yesterday I put two California-something-or-other peppers plants in, and two black beauty eggplants. I have room for maybe two to four more plants but not sure I want to overload with too much of the same thing. I'm tempted to put in a cuke or zucchini plant but they never do well. Granted, it would be in a different spot than I've tried in the past, but still think it's a bad idea (mmm hmmm... check back in a few weeks when I confess to buying plants at the HD).

Still searching for that quick growing, shade loving, tall, flowering perennial for the front yard behind the barrel. I also have a spot behing the goldstrum that needs the same. Help!

photographic update (and something munched on the tarragon)

2009-05-12T23:40:00.011-04:00

progress...

2009-05-11T23:01:00.004-04:00

Herbs are in:

sweet basil
thai basil
spicy basil
cilantro
parsley
tarragon
dill
oregano
thyme
common sage
(i think that's it)

I bought two japanese eggplant plants and put them in the ground as well. My black beauties (from seed) are still really small and not ready yet. The tomatoes are looking great, I've got 19 rutgers plants and 5 jubilee yellow plants. I'd like to harden them off and get them in the ground memorial day weekend.. we'll see. The peppers, like the eggplants are still really small.

Planted the window boxes, they look OK.. but need to grow in a bit for me to post any photos... hmm... what else...

nothing, my camera is being a lil bitch and i can't figure out how to get the settings back to normal. Cellphone shots for now :)

Finally...

2009-04-13T19:46:00.018-04:00

I think I'm finally getting the bug. I did another major clean up on Easter Sunday... raked, mowed, weeded, edged, blew.

Really nothing to report. Snapped a few photos.

... because they're my favorite.

Litte purple ground cover thingies (how's that for technical?)
I've learned these are moss phlox :) Thanks Lisa!

cant.wait.to.harvest.

Hosta forrest

Now don't laugh. I'm very proud that I was able to get grass to grow. Sure, my lawn is green... but that's about as far as it goes. There are many bare patches, and I finally got grass to grow in most of them. Look at it! Sure, it's crinkled from the kids stomping on it.. but isn't it cute? and GREEN? :) I seeded again yesterday, I might win this fight yet.

The gardening gods must be looking out for me.

2009-04-07T16:13:00.002-04:00

The last two seasons, I planted.. cared for.. nurtured my seeds.. my lil babies.

This year, not so much.

I planted them a few weeks ago, set them out on the sunporch and coverd them with plastic wrap. I never looked at them again. I never watered them or even aknowldged their existance. Imagine my suprise when I came home from class yesterday to find them well on their way!

Tomatoes, eggplant, the peppers are coming up slowly but I expected that. I immediately felt guilty and gave them a nice watering and suddently I'm partly motivated again!

Last Saturday the boys and I planted some sugar snap peas along the fence in the back of the bed where I'll plant the tomatoes this year. I'd like to get some more in the ground.. maybe behind the asparagus.

Speaking of asparagus.. there were some showing around this time last year.. so far only one teeny, tiny, skinny one. I hope I didn't lose them, I've been waiting two years for them!

In other gardening news, the front yard doesn't look to bad. The lambs ear is coming back nicely.. a few other things here and there. The daylilies I planted around the tree out front have come up as well. The rosemary survived as did the lavender...

Maybe over Easter break it will be nice and warm and I'll get the bug.

It's that time again...

2009-03-09T15:52:00.004-04:00

I bought some seeds on Saturday. That's right, marched my arse to Home Depot and bought seeds... I didn't order them from anywhere cool like seedsavers.. I pulled them right off the rack at the HD.

Nothing special started today:

Jubilee Tomatoes (yellow)
Rutgers Tomatoes
Black Beauty Eggplant
California Bell Peppers

I also bought sugar snap peas. Once I get the yard cleaned up, I'll take the boys outside and we'll get those started in a few weeks. The asparagus should be ready to harvest this year. 3rd season in the ground.. I can't wait.

I'm trying to keep it simple this season... rotating the beds, using soaker hoses and going to do my best to avoid the pests and blight.

The dead... has arisen.

2008-08-25T13:46:00.002-04:00

Um... Sandi?

Update with photos to come very soon. Over the next day or two... I've been busy. :)

So I don't forget...

2008-08-22T22:06:00.002-04:00

I planted daylilies along the fence, Planted 4 O'Clocks to their left and on the little corner where the dracaena used to be, Planted some smal... hmm.. things? in front of the dayliies. I'll have to look at the bag to see what they are.

Dug up a TON of daffodil bulbs. I'll get those around in the next week or so. I hate having the bug with no fundage. I spent $10 on mums today and put them out front. I hope they'll get enough sun.

The front garden looked great for a few years, now there's just too much shade. The whiskey barrel finally rotted so much I had to take it out. There is a big empty spot in the garden now. Everything just looks... blah. All the same height.. etc. I need a perennial that is tall and colorful that will last the entire season and thrive in shade to part sun. I'm dreaming right?

Back to business

2008-08-20T20:15:00.006-04:00

What a beautiful day... 75 degrees and sunny! Perfect for gardening.

I was neglecting the garden a bit over the last month. The pests, the heat, my empty weed whacker were all depressing me. I helped a friend move some things around his new garden (ok, so I pulled weeds and watched him do the hard work), that in combination with the nice weather I had the itch to get out in my own.

I cut the grass, did some weeding and moved a few things around along the patio. I pulled out the tall, purple, spiky things (how's that for technical?) and moved the canna from the front yard to a spot next to the strawberry grass and moved the ones already along the patio between the roses and the daylilies. Finally moved that calla lily and those other leafy things (again, technical?) into their own spots next to the canna. I also moved the Asian lilies into a clump near the strawberry grass in hopes of having some color there all season. Once the lilies are done the canna should be coming up and flowering in late summer. Hopefully it wasn't too early to move everything, my plan was to wait for fall. I dug up some dayliies, cut the fans and put them bare root in a flower pot with damp newspaper.. dropped them in the shed. Hopefully I'll get them in the ground along the side fence (front yard) by Friday. I've a huge box of bulbs that have to go in the ground... I hope the weather stays nice.

I mulched along the patio where I planted the new stuff. I had one bag in the shed. Damn... now I've got the itch and no supplies and no spare dough. Maybe next week I'll buy a few bags of mulch and some mums and daffodil bulbs... maybe.

Vegetable wise, The diamond eggplant look great but last time we picked those they had black, mushy spots inside and a little worm. I've seen squash borers on the flowers so I guess that's what happened to that plant. The others seem to be OK though. We cooked the white, the black beauty and the japanese for dinner a few nights ago just to compare tastes. The white were nice and firm and not bitter, but the Japanese were our favorite.

I'm getting lots of peppers, no complaints there. If you've read before (or chatted with me, or passed me on the street and made eye contact) you know the story with my tomatoes. We're getting an OK yield, but not like last year. We can pretty much eat what we pick but there's not a huge surplus that we're freezing or giving away by the bagful like last year.

We've picked about 5 cucumbers total and the plants look like they're dying. They have lots of yellow leaves and vines and a few of the cucumbers out there are yellow and deformed. Bummer.

My poor, poor tomato plants.

2008-08-12T18:40:00.006-04:00

Here's my after vacation harvest. Unfortunately my tomato plants look like they looked in late Sept last year. I don't think I'll be getting many tomatoes after this.

The plants are dry.. they're yellow... my tomatoes are rotting. I really think blight is killing them. I'll have to move them to the other bed next year and I don't think I'm planting nearly as many. It's just too depressing to see them like this! I was gone five days visiting with friends. I told Joe to water everything every night, to pick anything that was ripe.. etc etc, so they weren't negelected. It HAS to be blight.

The cucumbers are doing OK. I've got two ready to pick and one that is a little retarded looking. Lots of flowers but not many females. They're still doing better than last year so I shouldn't complain.

On the other hand, my eggplants and peppers are doing wonderfully. Nothing pickable just yet (other than ONE chocolate beauty), but they're coming along and look healthy unlike the tomatoes that seem to be rotting before they're ready to pick. I had an awesome suprise waiting for me when I came home... one of my white eggplants DID survive! I picked it tonight! I can't wait to cook it up for dinner tomorrow!

Today's (not so bountiful) harvest

2008-07-24T19:39:00.007-04:00

Four little diamond eggplant... They're about 7 inches long. We fried them for dinner and the boys ate them up. They were nice and small, firm and not bitter. I may have picked them a little early but they're small anyway.

One retarded black krim tomato... it was stuck between vines, hence the retardedness. It was our first of that variety, it was nice and sweeet. Of course the boys ate the majority of it after J and I had only a taste.

One Silvery Tree Fir tomato.

J and the boys did a pretty good check of the tomato plants for more hornworms. Looks like our little parasite infected friend is the only one out there at this point and he's not looking so hot. Lets hope there aren't any more. My neighbor lost a tomato plant.. it died within a few days. No clue what happened to it. I hope whatever killed it stays on her side of the fence. I told her about the hornworm... she didn't seem phased. She grew up on a farm and always gives me little tips about growing veggies. I'm convinced she can grow anything, which is why her dead tomato plant concerns me a bit.

Tomato Horn Worm

2008-07-23T12:53:00.004-04:00

organicgardensite.com/bugs

Apparently these giant things can kill a plant within days once they're moths. They also can over winter in the soil! The one I have on my plants is parasitized (which is a good thing). The white thigns are eggs from a kind of wasp. The website says to save it in a jar and feed it till they hatch.. but what do I do then? Leave the lil wasps go in the garden?

I also read they can attack peppers and eggplants... if this gets out of hand I'm screwed.

For Sandi

2008-07-23T12:36:00.000-04:00

Death comes to us all...

Well, it's July alright.

2008-07-23T12:16:00.008-04:00

July and August are hard on my garden. My flowers are always droopy despite watering every day... the pests seem to be in full force... It's too hot to get out there and do any major work so the grass is over grown and the beds are full of weeds.

Today while I was tying up the tomatoes I spotted this not-so-lil caterpillar.

I'm not sure:

A. What it is
B. What is on it
C. If I should worry it's on my tomato plants

It was very cool to look at though. I guess I'll have to do some googling and asking around. The white things look like eggs, not sure how one would lay eggs on oneself but I guess that's possible right?

I think my tomatoes have early blight. I'm really on the fence about using a fungicide but I might have to. All that work only to be lost to a fungus! Not really what I was hoping for. I've started watering specifically at the ground level (in order to keep the leaves dry) and I think I may purchase a soaker hose in the next week. I've also tried to clip off most of the infected leaves in hopes it wont spread too much. I read that this fungus can stay in the soil for about 3 years so I guess I'll have to rotate the beds next year. A lot of those black spots all over the place makes for an unhealthy plant.

We've harvested 3 lil Silvery Tree Fir tomatoes and they were SO yummy! We've got lots of green ones all around, but none ready to pick. Hmmm.. come to think of it, when will I know when the Green Zebras are ready to pick if they're green when they're ripe? I guess I'll know when I see it.

Everything seems to be chugging along pretty well otherwise. The eggplants are producing regardless of the flea beatles. These are Diamond Eggplants. They stay thin and grow to be abuot 6-9 inches long. I've got a few around that size I may cut for dinner one night this week. I have a Black Beauty plant out there (the big eggplants) and another variety I'm not sure of. The vines are purple and the fruits are long and thin and a little pointy looking. I can't even remember WHERE I bought it let alone what variety it is.
No white eggplant this year, but mom has one that's doing well so I might be able to sample hers.

The cucumbers have blossoms and are growing like crazy, peppers are everywhere.. so far I'd say everything is doing very well despite the heat and leaf spot (damn those tomatoes!). I think it'll be only a few weeks before we're really harvesting good bunches of veggies! I can't wait!

one last try

2008-07-02T20:56:00.003-04:00

I was browsing the garden center at 'big box mart' today (shhh I don't usually admit to that) and I bought one lil pot of cucumber plants that looked pretty healthy. One last shot. They're in the ground, watered... I know it's late but the plants are pretty big... we'll see.

The 13 year old boy in me couldn't resist.

2008-07-01T10:32:00.003-04:00

Tomato cages Gilligan style.

2008-06-30T01:13:00.017-04:00

Mr Primitive Archer himself came over today to help me build some support for my very rapidly growing tomatoes. We used bamboo and twine... simple and it does the trick. I did less tying up than I thought I'd have to. I'm just going to keep an eye on them and tie as needed. If I need to add another tier to the structure later I will. Last year my plants were taller than me so it's a possibility.

We have blossoms... and tomatoes! They're burried deep in the mess but they're in there. It always amazes me how quickly they grow... hell it amazes me that these plants were once teeny lil sprouts in my bedroom... and now they have fruit. So far I've only spotted Silvery Tree Fur tomatoes but all the other plants are loaded with blossoms. The Rutgers plants look especially wonderful, very strong and healthy. They're the tallest of the bunch.

I've also spotted eggplants. They're small. Real small. Smaller than peanuts. Come to think of it, they're about kidney bean sized. But, I'm very happy. For a while there I thought I was going to lose them all together. The new leaves look much better and I'm seeing fewer pin holes. I guess that whole healthy plant thing holds true. I did lose all the whites though (I think, I guess time will tell).

Here's a little insignificant-in-the-grand-scheme- of-the-world success story for ya. See that little, lone clamatis? I've been trying for two years now to get that thing to climb my mailbox. Notice it has CLIMED THE MAILBOX (ignore the broken fence behind it). Sigh.. it's the little things that make me happy (unless we're talking about that fence). Now only if I could really get it going next year... move that one by the front fence being smothered by ivy and they'll be two of them. Imagine the vinage! Ok, I'll stop.

And just a few more shots from in and around the garden over the last week or so... some lilies, lavender and the Gilligan tomato structure. I'm not entirely happy with my recent photos as my computer... the one with all the cool photo editing stuff, is down and I've been using my husband's.

weed = herb = something else I didn't know

2008-06-30T00:52:00.004-04:00

A few weeks ago my oldest son had a little sore on the corner of his mouth. He and my dad go for a little walk, come back and tell me they "put special medicine on his boo boo". My dad is famous for picking something random from the wild and knowing WAY more about it than the average dude out for a walk. I was a little freaked out about what 'medicine' was applied so closely to my son's mouth until my dad shoved a Primitive Archer magazine at me with an article on this very abundant weed.. er... herb. Now that I've read about it I notice it everywhere (one day I'll post my uphill battle to grow grass).

I just grabbed this lil tidbit from the web:
Read the whole thing here

"Medical evidence exists to confirm uses as an alternative medicine for asthma, emphysema, bladder problems, bronchitis, fever, hypertension, rheumatism and blood sugar control. A decoction of the roots is used in the treatment of a wide range of complaints including diarrhoea, dysentery, gastritis, peptic ulcers, irritable bowel syndrome, haemorrhage, haemorrhoids, cystitis, bronchitis, catarrh, sinusitis, coughs, asthma and hay fever. It also causes a natural aversion to tobacco and is currently being used in stop smoking preparations. Extracts of the plant have antibacterial activity, it is a safe and effective treatment for bleeding, it quickly stops blood flow and encourages the repair of damaged tissue. The heated leaves are used as a wet dressing for wounds, skin inflammations, malignant ulcers, cuts, stings and swellings and said to promote healing without scars. Poultice of hot leaves is bound onto cuts and wounds to draw out thorns, splinters and inflammation. The root is said to be used as an anti-venom for rattlesnakes bites. Plantain seeds contain up to 30% mucilage which swells in the gut, acting as a bulk laxative and soothing irritated membranes. The seeds are used in the treatment of parasitic worms. A distilled water made from the plant makes an excellent eye lotion. "

Amazing right?

... what exactly is eye lotion?

Who knew?

2008-06-23T21:24:00.006-04:00

Dusty miller bloomed?
Neither did I but I'm sure glad it did.

I've been slacking off a bit in the garden since the swim season started. For instance, I should be out there watering right now but I'm inside finishing up entering meet results.

The flowers beds actually look just fine. A few weeds here and there but nothing to clutch your pearls about. The window boxes are alive so I must not be slacking off too badly.

Speaking of window boxes... I don't just overcrowd tomato plants. Look at that thing! I would have liked to put some purple queen in the middle and the bright green sweet potato vine on the outsides but I had to work with what I could find. Next year I'm sticking to purple on the inside regardless of what plants are available.

One more shot of part of the front flower bed. I love this lambs ear. It comes back nicely every year and I've been able to separate and plant it all over the place. Soft, fuzzy leaves. :)
The petunias I bought were %75 off because every one in the flat looked just about dead... Not one bright bloom. I dead headed them, kept watering them and viola! Teri gets a steal from the giant home improvement store!

Vegetable wise, the cucumbers died. I'm not even going to speculate what happened there (ahem... water). The tomato plants look absolutely wonderful and are starting to get tall and bushy. I've got two tiny tomatoes on a silvery fir tree plant already! The rest all have blooms. I'll take pictures soon enough. I've staked most of the peppers. For some reason my peppers and tomatoes grew a lil crooked this year. No matter I guess, they seem to be doing well.

I'm confident the eggplant are going to survive the flea beatles. I've got a few plants that look wonderful, a few that look so so. I'm sure most of my failures this year are because I'm not tending the garden like I should. It's just so hard to find the time to get out there during the swim season.

empty nest

2008-06-09T14:26:00.003-04:00

The robins flew the coop last week. I was able to snap a photo of one in an azalea. One hung out in the ivy on the fence, and the other in the lilac.

Free Tomato Plants!

2008-06-09T13:12:00.016-04:00

Ok, so they don't look so hot, but they're free nonetheless. I posted a freecycle for my left over tomato plants. I have about 30 out there just waiting for love. They look horrid I'll admit, but if they're transplanted and staked they'll do just fine. I gave 4 of them to my neighbor, I'm sure she'll plant them but lets face it.. she's a widowed 81 year old woman and really how will she be able to eat all those tomatoes? She's already got two in the ground! Not to mention, she's the first person I think of when I've got a surplus. The plants themselves don't look too bad they're just all crooked. You can see from the photo they're just kinda... well.. crooked!

It's ridiciously hot in NJ for June, 99 degrees for three days in a row so far. A lot of the veggies are wilted even though I watered around 10pm last night. I'll do my best to get out there again tonight and give them a good soaking. The weather is another reason I've got to get rid of those extra tomato plants as soon as possible. The left over peppers I had all died from the heat and lack of water... they looked wonderful too. Bad Teri... Bad.
My eggplants are fighting flea beatles. I read that most healthy, strong plants will be able to fight them off but sheesh.. look at them! I've just about lost my Rosa Blancas. I only had two left and they're just pathetic. I'll have to read a bit more on what to do about them, I'm not a fan of pesticides since I've got two little ones playing in the yard. I didn't have this problem last year and my eggplants did very well. They're a big staple for us and we were looking forward to a few different variety this year. I'm keeping my fingers crossed they make it.

The snow peas are doing very well and I'm kicking myself for not planting them all along the chain link fence like I'd planned. There aren't really enough to bring in for anything substantial. I could take them ALL and throw them in a salad but I don't really want to do that. Matthew grabs one for himself (and one for grandmom) every time he passes by and eats them right off the vine. I guess they're just a fun mini-crop for now. I don't really mind too much, but they sure are delicious and I wish I had more. Hopefully I'll read this next year and take action.

Lets talk (or view, rather) overcrowding shall we? 5 varieteies of tomatoes... I'm sort of looking forward to untangling the mess come July/Aug. I'll build some bamboo cages... cages, who am I kidding.. they're more like something you'd see on Gilligan's Island.
Since I'm posting my failures... check out my broccoli. Note, broccoli doesn't do well in containers. Not sure if I'll try this again next year or not, even directly in the soil.

The lettuce is still doing OK. I took an entire head of redleaf to my parents house yesterday for burgers and I thought it was a little tough. I'm not sure when to harvest them (hellooooo ever hear of google?). The romaine is still kind of tiny and I haven't even pulled a leaf yet. I planted a windowbox of romaine for my mom and it really took off. They looked wonderful but had a little white, fuzzy insect on them (aphid?). Needless to say they're not doing very well now. She did take one and said it wasn't up to par. I'm drenching mine with water at this point because it's so hot out there.. I really hope they can hold on a bit longer. If they start to go south, it looks like a salad of baby romaine for dinner in the next few days!

I broke down and bought a few cucumber plants from home depot. I have some room next to the tomato bed that I'm considering turning into a lil cuke haven. More to come.

Lastly... here's a success (ok, two). I moved all these daylilies from various places in the yard last year and planted them along the patio to make a little garden room. Ok, so it's not a real garden room bit it's as close as I can get in my little teeny yard. They looked really sad last year, this year they're taller than Joey! He's standing right up against them believe it or not. I threw some other lilies in there and I think I'll clump them together in the fall.

This sounds like a pity party I know, but overall I'm very pleased, just annoyed with the heat and the pests.

Little Vermont Family Garden

2008-05-29T21:47:00.004-04:00

If you're going to read a real gardening blog, it's this one. She's an environmentalist, a mom, she grows her own vegetables... she's a REAL person with no frills or fuzzy lenses. I'm always stalking her site and I get impatient when she hasn't updated in a few days.

Little Vermont Family Garden

Now go read.

End of May

2008-05-29T21:00:00.000-04:00

May and June are my favorite months for the flower gardens. Everything is blooming and green and there are no wilted leaves from the heat. Snapped a few photos over the past two weeks, not all gardening but outdoors in the garden.. nothing really to report.

Something is eating my roses. I asked around and was told to look for aphids, but didn't see any. I really have no desire to get lost in the depths of rose gardening (I DO have other plants to take care of), so unless it gets really bad I'll leave it alone. The rose photo was taken on May 16th, and I realized that doesn't look any worse today so maybe I'm in luck.

And a few just for fun. :)

They're in the ground!

2008-05-29T20:43:00.001-04:00

All veggies in the ground as of Saturday the 24th. They're not much to look at so no photos just yet. I woke up on Sunday to find that something had eaten a Rutgers plant down to the soil, and munched heavily on my Mr. Stripey. Oh! I had tomatoes coming up in the bed from all the rotted ones falling off at the end of last season. I bought the Mr. Stripey tomatoes at the produce stand last year for $1.50. Talk about a great investment! They were big, yellow and orange streaked and very low in acid. So beautiful and very delicious. I put them in many a cucumber salad last year. I replaced the Rutgers plant and put a Black Krim in place of the Mr. Stripey. The Black Krim plants seemed to look the healthiest, which is why I chose to use that in place of the rabbits lunch.

The Chocolate Beauty peppers look better than the Garden Sunshine ones and he Diamond Eggplant look better than the Rosa Blanca. I didn't harden them off, which is probably why. Secretely I'm hoping I lose one of each plant so I can go buy some from the nursery. I saw some pretty neat stuff out there... shhhh. ;)

If only I had more room

2008-05-29T20:19:00.001-04:00

More room would mean I wouldn't have to grow things in containers on the patio. Right now I've got Romaine and Red Leaf lettuces, Broccoli, and Snow Peas in various containers. Everything is doing very well except for the broccoli. A friend told me it was hard to grow and apparently it's next to impossible to grow in containers. I may try to pop them in the ground between the eggplant and peppers... I'm a fan of over crowding the garden but I think that might be pushing it. I learned how large eggplant plants get last year and the poor broccoli will be smothered. I have to keep reminding myself why I left space between them and the peppers.

The Snow Peas have flowers on them, not many came up.. (could it be the container?) about 4 plants out of maybe a dozen planted. I didn't plan to actually grow them in a barrel, but it made for a fun project for the kids. I meant to plant some along a chain link fence in the yard but never got around to it and since they need to be in the ground in April.. I guess that will wait till next year.

Finally out of the bedroom

2008-05-29T19:18:00.001-04:00

...and on to the sunporch!Sometime in April I moved the vegetables to the sun porch. They got a lot more sun and I didn't have to worry about them tangled up in my bedroom. Late april I transplanted the tomatoes into peat pots. My photo says this was taken on May 18th, but I can't be sure.

The Rutgers sprouts were by far the hardest of all the tomatoes. They also grew a little (ok a lot) crooked, I'll have to look into that for next year if I can find the seeds. A friend of my dad's, ordered theses heriloom seeds for us online (thanks Mary!), I'll have to get dad to ask just where she ordered them from as I haven't seen them anywhere. From what I understand, Rutgers tomatoes aren't very disease resistant... lets keep our fingers crossed that the four I put in the ground survive. I planted a full tray of 36 and another half tray for a full 54 plants. By the time I transplanted to peat pots there were about half of them worthy of keeping (more likely that I didn't kill).

Look what we found in the garden..

2008-05-29T12:42:00.001-04:00

We spotted this on May 6th. I've been sneaking out there and trying to snap some photos whlie the mommy bird is gone, so far (thankfully) I haven't been attacked. The nest is only about 4.5 feet off the ground and I worry that a cat will get them, they're doing great so far.

They hatched on March 17th, the same day as Matthew's 3rd birthday party. There are only two hatched at this point, but the 3rd survived just fine. The boys have been really good about staying away from the nest. They watch from the window and can point out the mommy and daddy robins easily. What I always thought was really cool (really cool?) about robins is that they keep their nests very clean. They remove feces, the eggshells.. anything that isn't supposed to be there.

As of today (May 29th) they're doing well and getting very big. I snuck this photo yesterday. Pretty soon I'll have to start to take them from the window so I don't scare them out of the nest before they're able to fly. I really wanted to try to catch one of the parents feeding them but I don't think it's going to happen without a giant lens.

Finally...

2008-05-29T12:19:00.000-04:00

Finally things are starting to come together. Over the past two years I've been freecycling, ordering, and sharing perennials. Moving them around, seperating them and creating new flower beds. I'm still stuck on a few places. There's a spot by the front door that is half shade/half sun and I can't seem to get the right combination of things there. I'll see what I can do there this fall. There's also a place under the window box by the front door that gets full sun but I've just got it crowded with junk. I even threw some herbs in there (parsely, and basil). There is some purple and white Aster there and I think I'm going to take it out. They're not that pretty, they don't stand up well and they sure don't last long. Not to mention their mess just takes up space after May.

There is some sage there that came back from last year (rightwith purple flowers). I didn't realize sage came back but I guess it's because we've had such a mild winter. My lavender is back as well, although I don't know if that's naturally a perennial or not. The strawberry grass looks wonderful as do the hosta. I seem to get more and more shade every year. My guess is the previous owners of the house would cut back the front tree every year or few years. Since that isn't in my budget, I'll just learn to love shade plants. :)

I put purple, green, and varigated sweet potato vine, dusty miller (oh! which also survived the winter in the flower beds), and petunias in the window boxes. No photos of those just yet, I'd like to wait for them to really grow in and start to hang before I show them off.

Hey Sproutlets :)

2008-05-29T11:38:00.000-04:00

I'll have to check out the photos and see if I dated them properly.. my green zebra tomatoes were the first to sprout. I get really excited when they come up, like I've succeeded in something (ok, obviously my life isn't that exciting). Once they're up I panic a little, worried that I'll somehow kill them.

From my photos, looks like the Chocolate Beauty peppers started to show themselves on March 13th. I'm sure the tomatoes sprouted first, followed by the peppers, followed by the eggplant. I was actually a lil worried the eggplant wouldn't come up.

The photo above shows tomato sprouts, not sure which variety though. For some reason I'm leaning toward Black Krim or Green Zebra. Next year I'll post everything as it happens and I wont have to rely on my poor memory. To the right, is a Chocolate Beauty pepper sprout.

Overall I'm happy with them, I just wish I had more room for vegetable beds. I considered getting a spot at Barkley Farms, but when I factored in gas, time and the rental fee I concluded it just wouldn't make much sense. I'll just have to keep my nose to the grindstone and push Joe to keep at it so we can afford to sell and buy a new house, with a bigger, better yard. :)

in the beginning there was peat moss

2008-05-29T10:37:00.000-04:00

I started my vegetables from seed again this year. Last spring I started them on March 30th, this year I started them on February 27th. I really wanted to get a jump on things as last year, I thought my plants were a lil small to put in the ground last time.

From seed:

Black Krim tomatoes
Green Zebra tomatoes
Silvery Fur Tree tomatoes
Rutgers tomatoes
Chocolate Beauty peppers

Sunshine Garden peppers

Diamond eggplant

Rosa Blanca eggplant

Outhouse Hollyhock (ok, not a veggie)

Snow Peas

Not from seed:

Romaine Lettuce

Red Leaf Lettuce

Broccoli

The kids helped and had a great time. They planted some of their own in little plastic cups with holes cracked in the bottom. Sure, it made a mess of the dining room but they dug it (no pun intended). Matthew decided to eat dirt and Joey, in true Joey form was 100% completely organized and VERY careful to place one seed in each hole.

All the peat pellets and cups went upstairs into my bedroom next to a sunny, east facing window. I don't remember how many cups, but there were six trays of 36 pellets.

Why?

2008-05-29T10:01:00.000-04:00

I'd been toying with the idea of starting a gardening blog for some time. I read several, enjoy reading them... and I'm envious that the owners of those blogs can look back and see how their gardens have progessed and what changes have been made from year to year, which is really why I wanted to do this. I'll have to do a few posts over the next few days just to get caught up on what I've done so far, have to start somewhere right?