Ketchup, Catch-up!

You maybe wondering, what's going on now everything is planted? Weeelll, here's some pictures! It's crazy everything is growing so fast everyday the garden looks different. I love it! I've been thinning out the beans and corn plants. It's hard for me to kill some of the seedlings, I hope the ones that are still planted will thrive, grow, and be happy. :) As an experiment, I saved most of the bean seedlings and replanted them in pots for presents. :)So far, the bean plants in their new little potted homes look happy and healthy, thanks to the awesome rain we've had the past few days. I decided corn would not work very well, considering there are so many plants necessary and particular spacing rules for proper development.

Pictures!!! OK.... GO!

I found a freshly brand new molted magicicada.. :) I am really excited about them swarming the southeast this year.. I hope they do..


the beans have begun climbing up the headboard. It's awesome!The incredible hulk ivyyyyyyyyyy.... How angry you make me..

I found a new kind of mushroom growing in the garden. The cup fungus is now growing in the middle of the bed instead of just the straw bales. I also caught the ink mushrooms one morning after a heavy downpour. I love them.. Well... the cup fungus grosses me out... I still poke my finger in the cups every time I see them, even if they do gross me out..

Also, I took a video of the termites, pretty awesome!

By the way those are not bags of trash, they're bags of spent coffee grounds.. :)

P.S. Amanda and I installed some new super fancy pest deterrents... Old CDs on string. They work very well, when the wind is blowing. So well, they even startle Paul and me sometimes when we are hanging out in the yard.

Thanks for reading! :)

My adventure with compost

Firstly look at my happy tree! :) My tree survived the winter! I think it needs a name... any ideas?

I woke up this morning and decided to go on an adventure. This morning I had no idea it was going to be an adventure, this morning it was all planned. I left the house around 11 am to go to the Bordeaux Mulch Facility to get another truck load of compost. So, I find directions and set out on my adventure. When I arrive to the area where this mulching facility is, I could not find it! I drove through the ghetto where all the houses and food markets have metal bars over their windows and doors and the drivers are really aggressively bad. I found a safe public place and parked the truck. I was a little freaked out because I was lost and did not want to venture any further, especially alone. So, I called my sleepy brother and he told me I had gone too far and to turn where the hospital was. Easy enough, I thought, I checked my maps again and what my brother said and what the maps said matched. I arrive at the hospital and like 3 of the roads around the hospital were for walkers. I ended up going the wrong way down a one way street on the back side of the hospital. Then like a glowing treasure were the big mounds of mulch! The only road I found leading to the mulch facility was a gravely half covered in grass bumpy road. I was a little scared. So I had to leave the hospital and turn down a different road. I was ssoooo confused! I did finally find the Bordeaux mulch facility and I got the truck load of compost! It was soo cool! A big yellow tractor with a huge bucket on the front dumped a load onto my truck bed. I was really excited!

Driving home was a little tricky because I didn't want to drive on the interstate and all my compost fly out. So, I drove back roads.

When I got home and started unloading the compost it was only leaves!!! Once again, I freaked out a little. I thought, "Oh no?! What am I going to do! This won't work, will it?!" So, to the corn bed I added a layer of spent coffee grounds, thanks Nick! Then I started piling on the mulched leaves. After finishing that I thought, "crap this won't work... what should I do?! OH YEAH I HAVE MANURE!" :) I think it's going to be awesome... Nick and Amanda helped me add the mulched leaves to the remaining straw bale bed. We mixed the manure and leaves all together and filled the bed to the top. :) Finally, Nick and I propped up the headboard trellis for the beans. The construction is finally complete... Time for planting!!

After finishing all of that ridiculousness that took 3 hours, ugh. Nick and I planted corn seeds together. Then, I planted the bush beans between one of the corn rows and cucumbers between the other corn row. I planted the sunflowers and pumpkins on the eastern border of the bed aka the right side. Later I moved onto planting the watermelons and pole beans in the remaining straw bale bed. Then just to make sure that possibly some of the cauliflower and collard greens might grow I sprinkled some more seeds around in their bed as well. I covered everything with a nice layer of mulched leaves including the round flower bed to help retain water.

Now that the garden is mostly complete, Paul and I love our backyard... I am so excited! I can't wait to see everything growing! Sweet delicious fresh corn with raw tomatoes.... aaaahhhhhh!!! Paradise!

So, I have a question... is it bad that I did not really keep track of how many seeds I planted?! I mean... I followed the spacing rules I'll thin the plants out later. I have no idea how many beans/corn/cauliflower/collard green/okra/carrot/etc seeds are in my garden. Whatever, it's going to be cool.

I hope Amanda will post soon about the many transformations of the brick encased flower bed and the cutey things we found in the bed! :) :)

Gotta keep going!

I'm going to start off by saying I was in a horrible, no good, very bad mood today. All freakin' day! I wanted to destroy things. So, when I got off work I came home and I decided I'm going to plant these seedlings. I think we're safe now I do not think there is going to be another freeze. If there is another freeze now that I have transplanted, I might explode. You see, the seedlings had totally out grown their little peat moss pellets. The seedlings were starting to die so I knew I had to do something quick.

While I was turning up the only bed I can plant in, I desperately need more compost or manure or top soil something. Anyway, I found SO MANY FAT HEALTHY WORMS! Oh how happy they make me, I love those little guys!

Also I found this really cool fungus

growing in the garden! I know that this fungus is breaking down the straw bales, but it still makes me sooo happy!

I am pretty sure this is cup fungus from Phylum Ascomycota.

There's actually two different kinds of mushrooms growing. The other kind is called an ink cap mushroom.

I'm a little crazy about mushrooms and I really want to grow some shiitakes, portabellas, or oyster or

morels. I don't even really care to eat mushrooms very often, I just think they are so interesting and cool! I probably think they're so cool because they're so trendy now. Kinda crazy about owls too.. :)

Thanks Wikipedia! Sometimes these are hard mushrooms to catch.

I finished everything around 8 pm. I'm glad the sun took so long to finally go down. Sometimes it's hard for me to find free time, I'm thankful for the longer daylight hours.

Oh, I almost forgot!

I planted the cauliflower seeds, carrot, and green onion seeds this past Sunday. I hope they germinate. :) I transplanted the collard greens a couple weeks ago as well.