And Finally! the garden

I borrowed a tiller from my wife's grandfather. It didn't run, I broke the pull string, and one of the weels fell off. So the garden was not tilled that day. However my skull is pretty thick so I loaded it up and took it back to him borrowing his other tiller. Haha! Success, and the following day I put some plants in the ground. I think I should have waited a while after tilling to do my actual planting..? Does it matter?

Anyway I had some plants started inside that I purchased as seeds. They were doing well inside they were about 2" tall and had two little leaves on each one. I had tomatos, bell peppers, and jalepino peppers all at this stage. I was in a hurry to put them out, because I had family coming in and needed the extra room for my guests. The weather had been nice the last couple weeks (70's) so I thought they would be safe from freeze and what not. After my little plants had been in the ground nearly a week, we had a big storm that I am sure was hard on them, and it got down to freezing! Yak! I was unable to cover them until after the damage was done because I was working that night. Also I think they may have been more likely to survive better if they were farther along in their lives. I'm pretty sure I lost about 80% of my tomatos and 60% of my peppers. I am not happy about this, but I'm crossing my fingers for the plants that survived. I planted onions, carrots, and lettuce as well. So far not seeing much, but my lettuce is coming up nicely.

Just to see what would happen I stuck a clove of garlic in the ground next to my onions. It has exploded. I only wish I new that you are supposed to plant them in the fall.

Well, it took me a couple days, but I got the pictures.

Take a look at the two pictures that I have from last year. We took these pictures when we were looking at the house, before we bought it. So the quality is no so hot and the shadows are aweful. However take a look at the front walk way. It looks a lot different now and if we can get the fower bed of death to play nice it will be really inviting.

So that was Summer 2008, and here it is now Spring 2009

With a closer look at that difficult flower bed:

Now we'll just walk right through the house and look out the back door.
Summer 2008:

And Spring 2009

It was a lot of work getting all the trees and brush out of that fence line. You can easily see the difference in these two pictures if you look closely 2008 you could barely see the neighbors and the street, now in 2009 it's quite obvious. The plan is to plant bamboo all the way around the yard to creat some privacy. We have also looked at a shrub or hedge idea. Hopefully it will all work it's self out, and look pretty.

So you can see the basic foundation of the changes that I've made. It will be interesting to see how it looks at the end of the summer if the grass will take off and grow.

Tuesday, March 26, 2009.

It's a yucky day outside so I decided to start a blog. Please don't hold it against me but this blog is really more for myself to keep track of my own progress, and maybe gain knowledge from those that are able to correct me.

I live in North Texas, about 5 minutes from Oklahoma. I believe that this puts me in the plant hardiness/whatever zone of 7b by one of the standards I can't remember which. With that being said you now know the degree that I'm willing to go to research and study on a subject before diving into a new project. This has also been my preparation tactics to begin my blog. So I will not be able to add pictures and what else for the time being, I've lost my camera.

The basic background of my garden to this point: My Wife and I purchased our home in Oct '08. It had been sitting empty for nearly a year and had the grass mowed about 3 times. So at the first signs of spring I started working on the lawn, cutting trees and brush from around the fence. (I wish I had before pictures) And I sowed some grass seed. I decided that I had enough room in the back yard to put in a small vegetable garden. {Ok so now you know my goal, grow veggies} There was also a flower bed in front of the house that seems almost toxic! I'll get to that some other time. In the backyard I borrowed a tiller from my wife's grandfather and turned a spot over. In my impatience I planted the next day the seeds that I had started inside which I don't think were ready to come outside. But we can discuss that later.

So I sorta had grass now, but mostly I have dirt, with some tiny little sprouts of various vegetables coming up, but I have no idea how to tend to any of it. I read a couple of forums often http://www.helpfulgardener.com & http://www.theeasygarden.com. I also spend a lot of time looking at BYC but my wife says absolutely NO CHICKENS!

Well Check back soon I'll get some more details on what I've done and how I've messed up, what I learned to save you some time effort and perhaps money.