Gardening 101

A couple of years ago, Hubby got his wild hair to plant a vegetable garden...out here in the desert. Uh huh. That's right.

He spent a rather large amount of money on things like a pre-emergent to cut down on the weeds, soil treatments to buff up the dirt, top soil, chicken wire to keep out the critters, ran irrigation tubing out there, and an emmense amount of time to get it prepared and planted.

That was okay because it kept Mr. Type A occupied and excited. That always makes me happy. It did fairly well, but we decided we had too many things planted & they over ran each other. The tomatoes kept splitting, which drove him crazy. Too much water? I don't know. We talked to as many people as we could to try to figure it out.

There are people that live a couple of blocks away that have a "garden tour" every year at the end of the summer because their back yard is so lush and pregnant with all sorts of veggies, trees, and flowers. We actually knocked on their door the next spring so we could pick their brains about what we may have done wrong. It's true, I have no pride!

The next spring, "Mr. A" was more determined than ever! Of course he was. He reworked the garden plot, used wire caging that is meant for pouring concrete pillars, and expecting that the tomato plants would be gargantuan, just like the garden tour people, and planted less in the same space.

I don't have pictures from last year, but the tomatoes did start to get really big, and he was thrilled. Until one morning, we walked out to the garden and the tomato plants were stripped. They were so well camouflaged, we almost didn't see the, the, I don't know what they were! About 5 inches long, exactly the color of the plant, and about an inch around. Disgusting, I tell you! I hear some people eat them. They were almost big enough to rope and ride!

So guess what we're doing this year???

SEVEN BUCKS!!! It comes with everything you need! A hanging pot, seedling tray, two types of seeds, coconut fiber pith as soil, and an instruction booklet that is less than instructional. The coconut fiber comes in a 4" x 2" block, but when you add water, it becomes a bucket full of soil. That was fun.

So we planted the seeds and waited a few days, and look what happened!!!

I'm seein' tomatoes in our future!

So here's the deal. When they get to be about 4 or 5 inches you push the larger tomato roots from the bottom of the pot through the hole in the bottom of the hanging pot, put some soil inside the pot to hold the roots in place, then plant the grape tomatoes in the top of the inside of the pot. We'll see. And he is still busy moving them around from room to room, wherever there is sun! So he's happy, which, in turn, makes me happy.

Hmmm. Let's see. These look alot like salad sprouts, or, or, coconut palm trees! Heeeeyyy!