attire

Originally uploaded by seejanebe

I like to blame part of my lack of blogging on the fact that I won’t do it from work. I really don’t want anyone to see network traffic to my blog, even if I am doing it over lunchtime.
In an effort to blog more, I’m going to try two new things: blogging from the iPhone and composing (but not publishing) over lunch. This is attempt número uno from the iPhone.

So, here are our wedding outfits! Patrick had a long shopping experience on Saturday with Gregg with no luck. Last night, we found this magic Jones New York suit on sale for $149! Doh!

My dress is tea length and is actually a bridesmaid dress that the company (Siri out of San Fran) smartly produces in offwhite for casual weddings. I googled time and time again to find pictures of this dress in this colour with NO luck. Here it is people! More photos to follow! I also had difficulties finding photos of ANY real people wearing this dress. And, of course, no stores in Houston carry this label.

Luckily, I had to go to a conference in Austin in the middle of May. I visited the awesome Unbridaled boutique which not only carried Siri, but was smart enough to stock the above pictured Vivien Leigh in offwhite. They were really great and even shipped the dress to me for twenty dollars. Thank you Unbridaled!

 

‘mater

Originally uploaded by seejanebe

Yesterday, I noticed that we had our first tomato poking through. This is from the extra tomato plant that I added later on. The first two plants have grown quite large, but not flowered. We also have three jalapenos now! How’s your garden going?

  

peppers

Originally uploaded by seejanebe

It’s been a while between posts - and we’ve had some ups and downs!  I’ve still been putting pictures up on flickr, but haven’t blogged.  I also made a set of the photos on flickr which when watched in slideshow mode is mildly entertaining!

All of a sudden a few weeks back, everything thinned out terribly! I think we underwatered for a bit, but then we got some really heavy rains and started to water for 10 - 15 minutes at night and we are back in business!

About two weeks ago, the cukes and zukes both flowered and started to flourish. Also, after the heavy rains, the tomatoes suddenly came to life - I’ve only seen one flower to date, but the are very green and have doubled in size.

By far, the most successful item so far are the peppers. Well, 2/3 of them anyway - the habenaros are a bit of a dud. The other two varieties (one jalapeno hybrid and another salsa pepper) are out of control with many flowers and mini peppers waiting to happen.

  

day 10

Originally uploaded by seejanebe

There’s noticeable growth everyday…so much so that it’s become the neighbourhood entertainment. Neighbour Rick comes over and checks it out everyday, usually twice.

I’m now working on the irrigation system. I read somewhere that you can use 2L pop bottles to water throughout the day. You just put a pinhole in the bottom and lay the bottle in the garden and it slowly drips out. Of course, we only had one bottle left over from our Christmas party to experiment with. Being the airhead that I am, I didn’t put an airhole in the top for air to get in so that water could drip out. I didn’t understand why no water was dripping and got up to 6 holes on the bottom before Patrick got home and pointed this out to me. As soon as I put a hole in the top, the whole bottle drained in about 5 minutes. Oops.

Now I need to find a source for emptly 2L bottles so I can try again.

  

day 8

Originally uploaded by seejanebe

This garden is sprouting so quickly, that I just can’t keep up with blogging the progress. There is now activity in every square foot.

What really amazes me is how quickly things come up. One day, there will be what looks like one blade of grass in an area and the next day, there’s an entire row of sprouts an inch high. Last night, the cukes and green beans really broke through, so I’ll type about them.

The Cukes are Burpee Orient Express II Hybrids and are advertised as “Huge and Burpless”. Good to know there won’t be any strange noises coming from the garden. The seeds were purchased at Home Depot for $2.79 and I used almost the whole package.

The green beans are Burpee Fordhook Collection Kitchen King, purchased at Target for $1.49. We just walked into Target one day and found a whole rack of seeds hidden away. It was an odd experience and we bought a lot of our seeds there. I became paranoid that the Target seeds “wouldn’t work”, but they seem to be doing fine. I used less than half of the pack of green beans. Note: They are garden, not pole beans so they don’t have to grow up.

Patrick noticed that some peas are poking through!  Certainly not as crazy as the radishes, but they are definitely breaking through…the pea seeds are Dark Seeded Early Perfection from Burpee, also purchased at Home Depot for $1.07.  I used 65-75% of the pack.  They are supposed to take 7-14 days, but they are a little early.

I also discovered that a cat has been using the cuke section as a litter box.  This both grosses me out and makes me sad because cukes are my favourite.  The damage was limited to one area and I hadn’t noticed that particular lump of soil changing over the past few days, so I’m hoping it’s over and done with.  Our gardening soil mix has lots of bark and sticks in it and has seemed to become more ”stickish” with time (I assume as the smaller particles have settled to the bottom!).  Apparently cats don’t like digging in soil with sticks, so I’m thinking the activity happened late last week and then stopped.  I haven’t seen any freshly turned dirt lately.  I also sprinkled red paper flakes in the area where it happened.  This is known to repel cats, but has to be replenished every few days because it loses its zing.

So now, I watch for more sprouts and poop mounds and then develop Plan B to battle the kitties if the latter appear.  They’ve already ruined one cucumber mound for me, I don’t want to lose any more!

 

sprouts

Originally uploaded by seejanebe

Wow - that was super fast!  Yesterday afternoon, I noticed that the radishes were coming up.  I was going to take a picture yesterday and was SHOCKED when I looked out this morning and they had doubled in size.  No suprise that they have germinated first as they are some of the shallowest seeds.  The carrots are very shallow too, but no sign of them yet.

The radishes are Burpee’s German Giants and were purchased at Home Depot for $1.69.  I only used about half the pack.  According to the package, seedlings emerge in 4-6 days, so I guess they were right on schedule.  Now, I am supposed to thin them to 2″ apart, but I’m not totally sure I can do that.  I suspect that some will be lost to the local fauna - does that count as thinning?

According to the packets, the next to emerge should be watermelons in 7-10 days.  And I was totally wrong about the carrots - they are 14-21 days!  Also, a whole swack of the other seeds are 7-14 days.

I also haven’t written about the types of tomatoes and peppers that I planted, but intend to do so.  One of my pepper plants in particular is thriving, doubling the number of leaves on the plant since last Sunday and spitting out flowers like nobody’s business.  I had to rescue it from some 50 mph gusting winds this week in a MacGyver-esque fashion which involved a bamboo skewer and twist ties, and I think it is happy for that.

OMG!!

Originally uploaded by seejanebe

Tis true. Happened today around 6:30 pm Central and I am over the moon! The ring is the ultimate in recycling - a 1920s art deco antique. I love you baby!

Ok, so after research on companion planting over the past few days, here is my basic plot for my square foot garden.  I know, I know, North is at the bottom of the page, but right now I am looking at the garden from the north, so it just seemed easier!  Some info is repeated, but I was cutting and pasting from several sources.

This is no means a comprehensive companion gardening listing - I only considered seeds which I have and want to plant.  My goal was to find a layout which was beneficial to all!  I am also going to intersperse marigolds and basil throughout as they are apparently natural pest repellents!  And, apparently, we can add the marigold leaves to salads for colour.

I bought 4″ tomato and pepper plants on Sunday, as well as some marigolds.  I was supposed to plant the other seeds this evening, but it got dark before I got to it - so that’s a chore for tomorrow night!  I have also set up my camera on a tripod so that I can take the same picture every few days and eventually put them all together in a super cool sequence.