The Final Homeschool Village Garden Challenge Update

Well, here we are, the last Garden Challenge update. That doesn't mean I won't be updating about the progress of our "garden", but I will be doing so on my own.

So, as I mentioned previously, we really had to scale down our garden plans this year so we can have a spot in our roof repaired. We ended up with just the hanging basket for cherry tomatoes, one pot with basil (that isn't looking so good), and we started some pumpkin seeds. The lettuce didn't make it once we took it outside. We keep the planters on a old, small kids table so we can move it around our half of the yard as need be.

So, being in NY, I'm not surprised that our tomatoes are looking a further behind other garden pictures I've seen online. We are JUST finishing up strawberry season here in Western NY (took the kids to a u-pick farm yesterday), where as southern states were done a month ago. So the tomatoes are looking GOOD and i have HIGH hopes of getting SOME produce from them!

Here's a photo of what's growing now!

Pumpkins

Tomatoes

Basil

This is such a big change from where we were when we started!

tomato seedlings

It has been wonderful to do this challenge, and I likely wouldn't have thought to grow ANYTHING this year. Both the kids and I have learned a lot starting just the few plants that we have, and it's something I know I'll be doing again next year (with hopefully more then what we are growing this year!)

last minute edit add-in: The website just announced that there will be ONE more link up in July! So look for us again at the end of July!

Our Garden Challenge Update

Another Garden Challenge post!

Too bad NYS spring weather hasn't been as cooperative :( But, that's just 1 thing I've learned, it's no joke to say that in western NY don't really plan on planting outside until AFTER Memorial Day (today). But considering I'm generally a black thumb, the fact I have anything surviving 2 months after I started seeds, is amazing! We are learning so much about growing this year!

So here are the tomato plants we have left. I gave 1/2 to my in-laws, and some are growing stronger then others, so this week we'll be planting the 3 strongest tomato plants in a planter outside. I'm not sure what we'll do about the basil and parsley (the smaller containers in the upper right). The small container in the upper left is my oldest tomato plants.

I know my husband is looking forward to these cherry tomatoes, they'll be in a nice pasta salad no doubt once we have some to pick!

We also planted a lilac bush outside this weekend. It wont be ready for another year or 2, but for now, we have it in the dirt at least!

I need to mulch around the lilac, but for now the kids have started a stone surround it (from rocks we mostly found digging up the spot we planted the bush). this is right outback next to our door, so it will be lovely to smell in and out (and in the kitchen), when it finally blooms.

We are also going to start some pumpkin seeds this week for the fall. A friend has invited us to start and grow pumpkins at her mother's. The kids are going to have a blast growing their own pumpkins this year!

So there is what we have growing! It's not as much as we had hoped for this year. Because of needing to do some roof repairs later this summer, we can't build our garden box, as debris from the roof would ruin it in a micro second. But, if we have some success with what we grow next year, we can look forward to growing more next year!

The "trying to become" a garden, Garden Update

Continuing with the Homeschool Garden Challenge, we spent Tuesday working on our plants and doing some outside clean up to get ready to plant. We've had 13 straight days of rain here in the Finger Lakes region of New York, and it's not even May yet, so we haven't even thought about planting anything outside yet. It's been unseasonably warm the last couple of days, but we've had snow on Mother's Day in the past, so we won't attempt outdoor planting until after then.

We have, however, started more seeds inside!

Our cherry tomato plants. In my first garden post, these were started in an egg carton, which worked out really, really well! I wish I had taken a picture before transplanting them to these bigger start containers. We thinned out some of the weaker looking seedlings, and gave some to our neighbor as well. With all the rain we have had, the upper right corner of this pic is where water was streaming in through our kitchen ceiling just an hour after we finished transplanting these. So far, they are ok, but I'm not expecting them to make it either. We're going to finish growing these out in hanging baskets, since they are the small variety, rather then in the ground and staking them up.




Lettuce! We started some seeds inside so we're not wasting time waiting for mother nature in NY to figure herself out :) We've learned that we can actually sow these twice! Though best to start they seeds indoors as well, as they may not seed well in a hot/dry summer heat. If nothing else, we'll have 2 attempts to grow lettuce!



And here is everything in front of the kitchen window. ON the left is my oldest pot with some cherry tomatoes (they hadn't even popped up when we posted last!) and on the right is the kids herb starter. That has parsley and basil in it.

So in the next couple of weeks we'll be building our raised garden bed, and considering getting some containers and strawberry plants as well. We still have cucumbers, green beans and cantaloupe to sow, but I'm not sure as we'll do it all, as that would mean everything but the lettuce and herbs are climbers!

Mostly, the kids are I are SUPER excited about this, and hope it's a successful garden!

Our Garden

Gardening will be a new thing for us this year! I've been waiting to plant one for a few years now, and events, happenings, etc just kept us from attempting to do so.

But not THIS year.

Now, let' me explain. I'm a black thumb. I easily kill the most hardy of household plants (like my husband's spider plant), though I had a good run with some impatiens a few years ago.

SO, we're determined to try! And then I found out about The Homeschool Village Garden Challenge. Perfect!

Our Plan: To try and do a square-foot garden (SFG) for fruits/veggies and some flowers in front of our front porch (impatiens), and some herbs (basil and parsley) to grow indoors. The seeds for the SFG the kids choose were: cherry tomatoes, cantaloupe, beans and cucumbers. All climbers, so I'm not sure how we're going to do all of them.... yet.

Resources: I've been reading The All New Square Foot Gardening and reading anything I can find online. I also plan on talking to my father-in-law (who is the biggest green thumb I know).

Involvement: About a week ago the kids and I started the cherry tomatoes in a egg carton. I didn't want to spend much time or money if I couldn't get them to seed, but to our amazement, they are doing well! We'll need to thin them out and move them to something bigger then their egg cartoon soon! Just even the difference from yesterday to today has been amazing.

April 18th

April 19th
(noticing they are leaning towards the window, I flipped the carton around to help them grow straight!)

So there it is, the start to our garden. I hope you come back and watch as we (hopefully) have some great success this year!