Harvest Time!

This is an exciting morning for me because it has been an interesting journey starting my garden, making adjustments along the way in terms of wheter or not to use organic or store bought pesticides, making the decision to take some of my plants out of the ground and place them into pots and even having to move them around for optimal sun exposure during the May gray and June gloom days. Well, after all of the trials, I was so excited to pick my first two zucchinis and a couple more tomatoes. I know that I posted pictures of some of my tomatoes about a month or two ago, those tomatoes were already on the plant when I purchased it. These are more special to me because I watched them from the first yellow blooms until this point of perfection. :) Also, these zucchinis come from the plants that I grew from seeds. I have another zucchini plant that I purchased and the veggies on it are actually a lot smaller than these. I think that I'm going to slice these zucchinis and tomatoes, toss them with some olive oil and season with some herbs and grill them on my indoor grill for dinner this evening.

A tour of my garden space

Today I am taking you on a short tour of my backyard so that you can better understand some of the challenges I am having with growing my garden. I thought that it was something good to share with you in case you have become inspired and are thinking about starting your own urban garden. Although it is true you don't need a lot of space, the space that you have must provide ample direct sunlight if your plants are going to really thrive and produce a bountiful crop.

In the video I mentioned that I moved some of the plants for more shade, which I did not mean to say. I moved them for more sunlight. Also I forgot to video a close up of my zucchini so here is a picture of my first zucchini. So, soon I'll be grilling my own zucchini and making zucchini bread. yum yum!

A visitor to my garden

For the past 4-5 days I've been seeing a pair of beautiful brown butterflies in my garden. I was able to get a close up of one today. He enjoyed posing for the camera.

The Power of the Sun

About 3 months ago I went to a local nursery and purchased this awesome peach tree. Why is it so awesome you ask? It will produce 3 to 4 different varieties of peaches on one tree! I was floored when the guy told me that and ran home to tell Keith about this amazing tree. Well, naturally because he's always looking at history channels, how is this made channels and discovery channels this was not news to him at all. :(  Oh well, I was pretty excited. Anyway, when I purchased it, here in SoCali we were in the May Gray weather pattern, which turns into the June Gloom pattern. This is when (if you live somewhat close to the ocean) the sun most days does not come out until early afternoon. I mentioned that because I followed the nursery guys instructions when he delivered the tree, keep it in the planter the first year until after all of the fruit is gone. After that time put it in the ground. Okay, so my problem was that no fruit was growing and I wanted fruit! I went back to visit, he told me to give it fertilizer and wait for the sun. I did that and a few weeks later I stopped by to visit to tell him that the leaves looked a little brown and still no fruit blossoms. His response was, more water and wait for the sun! Well, for the last couple of weeks the sun has been breaking through earlier in the morning and I must say those leaves are looking perkier.

Today when I was in the garden I noticed that one of my eggplants has two blooms! Naturally I am very excited but also very concerned because it is in an area where it gets limited sun. I also noticed that the tomatoes, the zucchini plants and the strawberry plant that sits on the edge of the patio just don't seem to be really thriving. Either that's the case or I'm just impatient. :)

Even with moving to open area of yard, you can see the shadow  from the house starting to cover the  plants at  4:30 p.m.

I went online this afternoon and looked at a few videos on growing vegetables and time and time again they kept mentioning the need for these plants to received 8 - 12 hours of direct sun in order for their fruit to fully develop. My thought was that too much intense direct sun and heat would not be good for the plants, but boy was I wrong. So, I have adjusted my garden's configuration once again because most of my plants are shaded by our house and patio starting from the early afternoon. It's a good thing that they are in pots. We will see what happens now that the sun is out more and they are in a sunnier location.

Fresh Lemonade with Mint

Lemonade with fresh mint

So, it's another sizzling day in SoCal and I've decided to refresh myself with a nice cold glass of fresh lemonade. I remembered when I was in Texas a month ago, my niece Kelli told me how good mint is in lemonade so I think I'll go pick some from my garden.  I also know that there are some really good health benefits from eating mint. Some of those benefits of concern to me are: 1) it's good for the digestion, 2) helps burn fat, 3) refreshes the breath and
4) helps with headaches. 

Spearmint Leaves

I've also picked some fresh green onions to go in the egg salad I am making for lunch. 
After reading about the health benefits of mint, I decided to research the health benefits of green onion and was quite frankly amazed with all of its benefits. Did you know that green onions can help with the common cold? How about help normalize your blood pressure? Well along with these benefits they also help expel phlegm, inhibits cancer growth especially colon cancer, it helps reduce stress and tiredness, absorbs vitamin B1 and speeds up blood circulation. It contains vitamins A & C; the white portion also contains calcium.
For me the most I ever really used green onions for was to garnish baked potatoes and top a good ole tray of chicken enchiladas! Now that I have them growing in my garden and understand what they can do for my health and the health of my family, green onions will be used on a regular basis. 

Going Organic

 One of the reasons I decided that I wanted to create a vegetable garden is because I wanted to be able to control the amount of harmful pesticides my family is exposed to. About 2 months ago when I was at a local garden center I was assisted by an older guy who gave me a lot of good information from using organic fertilizers such as the use of earthworms to making your own pesticide which is really mild and no harmful chemicals. To be honest I did not immediately go home and create a batch of the pesticide. I went back to what I was familiar with, Ortho Home and Garden Insect Spray .. Well, at least I did buy some earthworms and placed them in my garden. Well today I finally did it and it was so easy!!


If you are thinking about going organic too here are the instructions on making organic pesticide.

• Get a spray container; it can be a handheld one or the type you attach to your water hose. 
• Fill the container about 2/3 with tap water.
• Fill the other 1/3 with vegetable oil. (Oh I used Wesson this time but I will be buying a bottle of store brand to use in the future.)
• Add about 3-4 drops of dishwashing liquid.
• Before each use make sure to shake really good because as you know, oil and water don't mix very well.

The oil makes it impossible for the insect to flap their wings, it makes the leaves to oily for them to crawl on and the soap suffocates them. I know that's a little sad, but I just wanted to let you know how it works.

Bye, bye for now.

I'm Back!!

Hey guys I know it's been awhile since my last post but a lot of things have been going on for me. Thank God all very good things. From going to Texas for a week to celebrate Memorial Day with my sisters and their families, to my Leslie graduating with her MBA ( I threw a grad party for her in our home) and then two weeks later I threw a large Father's Day dinner for 13 people! whew!! Oh yeah, I have also been involved with learning to do mosaic art and I'm loving it. I've made 4 projects and will be starting a new one this Sunday. 
Well, it's finally getting to a point to where the June gloom isn't so prevalent everyday here in SoCal, so I think this is going to really help my garden to thrive. With the sun staying covered most of the day during the June gloom days, my plants were not receiving enough sun to really flourish. I am very happy to see some of my fruit starting to grow. Here are a few examples of what's developing.

Tomatoes

Cilantro w/small white flowers 

zucchini blossom