Garden update - Week 3

Ok so we are technically in Week 4 of gardening but since I didn't get last week's pictures up and haven't taken this week's pictures yet, I thought I'd get caught up.

Since we're in a drought and well on the way to a record 3rd ever hottest year in Austin (by how many days we're over 100 degrees) there is no chance of over watering. I just water every day. Somehow they're still surviving.

Everything is getting bigger! The pumpkin plant (first picture) is nearly taking over it's part in the garden. The edamame (soy bean - 2nd picture) is tall and lanky and looking green. The third picture is our corn which sometimes looks like weeds. We have to be careful what we're pulling out. The fourth is our little cantaloupe plant. I'd almost be worried but I can cheat because it's week 4 and I already know that somehow this week those melon plants have nearly doubled in size!!!

Garden update - Week 2

We've made it through week 1 and some stuff is actually growing! We needed to do some weeding in these shots and we still have a long hot summer to grow...I mean go before we have eatables but when your thumbs are black like ours, we have to celebrate the baby steps!

The picture of the seeded stuff is melons....if you'd like some, let me know. We won't be able to fit all of these in our garden.

Crack's Black Thumb Organics

I can't imagine a better thing for two insanely busy people who kill everything in their yard (grass too!) to do than plant a huge garden in their back yard. We're those people and yes, we just planted a garden.

We've been planning on it for as long as we've been married. Recently we even started composting both to save on waste and to get some rich and FREE compost for our garden we'd have some day.

Well, we should have known that two sets of landscape-minded parents (visiting for the weekend) would take one look at the over grown weed garden and let our "Someday we'll have a veggie garden" dream become today's reality. My Dad and Sally pulled up our black weed blocker plastic. Chris and Dad rolled the boulders to under our Japanese Pear Tree. Then Chris and Sally took turns tiling the soil only to find out we actually had a really ideal soil set up.

So, Sunday it was off to Natural Gardener for some plants and seeds. We choose two healthy pumpkin plants with the hope of free Jack O' Lanterns this Fall, Sweet Corn seed, Melon seed, Cucumber seed, and Soy Bean seed. We got everything planted in the garden except the Cucumber as it can't be too close to the melon or the melon becomes bitter. We are seeding those (I say that like a professional but really am just repeating carefully the instructions from our friendly sales girl at the nursery) in separate containers so if you are in Austin and want a cucumber plant, I can give you one in a few weeks. Or if somethings don't make it in our garden, I can add the cucumbers.

We've heard it's a hot year and the battle with the squirrels is in full action. We had our own battle with them when our beautiful peaches were eaten by the rascals. Not to mention we've got many family to be intimidated by! Chris's Uncle Dave is a REAL Organic Farmer and his beautiful farm, Roots and Fruits, is perfectly kept and provides an amazing harvest each year. Chris's Dad and Ann have a veggie garden with tomatoes and other fresh salad veggies. Sally has a beautiful landscaped yard with flowers and plants. Chris's 93 yr old. Grandma does the flowers for her community. My parents have a Myers Lemon tree and also many plants and flowers. My Grannie Frannie has always grown all kinds of things well. With generations of green thumbs ahead you'd think we'd overcome our killing spree. What gives?

I will attach a few pictures. For those who bleed red and black, I can not even discuss the third picture. It was a gift from Chris's mom and while it makes me want to barf I also love that something longhorn related is scary to birds and squirrels and for now is a deterrent for the food sake. But, I am not happy about the Texas spirit behind that blasted gnome. And, for those worried about our watering, that is not why we have black thumbs. It's a redo of an old pic of me which I will also post. My mom loved that picture so we thought she should have an update...only I am not in a dress or near as cute. Love you, Mom!

Anyway, our first attempt could be a total flop but we're going to give it our best fight. With any luck we can have the long term goal of "Someday opening a neighborhood veggie market" I think I have a name for our "farm" that is all too fitting....Crack's Black Thumb Organics. Then again, if our parents will come to town again, they'll have us selling veggies on the driveway in a snap. I'll be posting updates of the garden from time to time...pray for the Crack Team garden and our black thumbs!