March 30, 2007

The cucumbers have started sprouting and the parsley is finally doing something. We've been eating a lot of spinach and lettuce and it just keep growing!

March 24 2007

The spinach and lettuce have exploded! My office mates will be getting fresh greens Monday. I'm not sure Greg and I can eat all of this before it goes bad but maybe we can. I'll know for next time to seed in phases.


I picked up some herbs and okra plants at the local nursery. They only had one very sad looking cucumber plant left, that I passed on. I have 4 tomatoes in the upper left corner, 5 okra plants right center and decided to try and grow cucs from seeds. According to my gardening "bible" Dan Gill's Month-by-month Gardening In Louisiana it may be too early for okra but what the heck. I found a nifty black metal trellis for the cucumbers to climb. It's hard to see in the photos, but you can click on the photo below to see a bigger photo.


I finished off with wood edging and pine straw mulch. The wood beams used to make the plot are all falling apart. The edging helps keep the mulch and everything in. I'm thinking about replacing the wood beams with cinder blocks. Next year...

March 18 2007

Even I am surprised I made it out to the garden the day after St. Patty's Day. But I had tomato plants I needed to get into the ground. The weekend before me and 4 others gardeners came in and cleaned up the garden of all the overgrown, weed choked plots and trimmed back trees and shrubs. Someone had left over FEMA blue tarp we used to cover the empty plots.




In the photo above you can see my wheelbarrel full of compost and my tomato plants. Composting is ridiculously easy here since it so hot and wet.


You can see my seeded stuff is coming along nicely except for the parsley (front left). It's odd that the cilantro is doing well (front right) because it never does well. Here you see my freshly tilled and composted plot. I forgot take a photo after I planted the tomatoes. I was probably so tired I just wanted to go home and shower and forgot.

March 3 2007

I learned my lesson last year - you must start your garden before Mardi Gras. So that's what I did. I took over a different plot in the community garden. I cleared the weeds, tilled the soil and worked compost into half the garden. I planted spinich, lettuce, parsley and cilatro seeds in that half, and covered the other half in plastic to keep the weeds at bay. This may not sound like it was a lot of work, but trust me, it was. This picture was taken after Mardi Gras on March 3rd and my seeds have sprouted.