Ladybug update

At least 50 ladybugs were still hanging around this morning. YAY!

Here are the tips that I used to keep them from taking off to the neighbor's yard.

1. Put them in the fridge for at least an hour. Mine were in for 3 hours. They go dormant in the fridge.

2. Water your garden first, then spray sugar water in your garden. The ladybugs will eat the sugar water until they find the aphids.

3. Release the ladybugs at dusk or when the sun is not out. I released my ladybugs around 6pm, it was cloudy and set to rain.

I can't wait until next year to do it again!

The impatient and annoyed gardener

The title says it all. I'm impatiently waiting for my veggies to produce. :) So I found other ways to entertain myself in the garden. I'm also annoyed at the aphids that are eating my beans to bits. Today I released 1800 ladybugs into the garden. That was fun! My little natural born killers. Go eat aphids! I found my ladybugs at Hastings for $9.99.



In other news we planted two heirloom brandywine tomatoes. These tomatoes average 1lb each! Excited! Any advice about growing heirloom tomatoes welcome!




Cucumber week 2



Tomatillos!



Homemade topsy turvy version 1.0



Then I did a little research and found out I would probably need a bigger container. Here is topsy turvy 2.0. I love it and can't wait to see if it produces fruit. :)

Whatcha doing?

Idea from the gardenpunks.com

This weekend I'm looking forward to: organizing my basement, ladybugs, oakhurst plant sale, grilling out, fire pits, hanging with friends, decatur arts festival, takeout.

What are you doing?

Watching my garden grow

Today Jeff and I made this trellis and I planted cucumbers. I hope they get enough sun. I planted the cucumbers straight into the ground as the soil look really good in this area. I plan on planting lettuce and peas here in the fall (I think). I left the daylilies and cannas, I'm hoping their flowers will attract pollinators.

I planted zinnias in the veggie garden for two reasons. 1. to attract pollinators 2. in hopes that the bugs will eat the zinnias and not my vegetables! *Fingers crossed*

Green beans 1 week, I planted these seeds last Sunday. I think it is so cool to watch them grow!

Jeff made a really cool birdhouse out of a cedar fence post.

First Veggie Garden

Last weekend Jeff and I put in our first veggie garden. It measures 5 ft wide by 8 feet long. It's a raised bed. We planted beans, sweet yellow peppers, basil, tomatoes, two kinds of oregano, and a bunch of zucchini. I'm excited about it and check it everyday to see if anything is growing. The image above is our zucchini week one. I'll post images of the construction of the garden soon. Enjoy!

Free Seeds!

Check out this site…it Campbell’s soup…They are giving away tomato seeds to people and donating seeds to FFA groups across America. It’s a good cause and you get free seeds…you can’t go wrong!
http://www.helpgrowyoursoup.com HelpGrowYourSoup

Click on the little packet that says “Seeds”. The info will slide out from the side. Complete using the information below.
Use the following codes:
Code 1: P5
Code 2: 25
Select Chicken Noodle soup from the drop down menu

EDIT: to add this is a repost from http://howmygardengrows.wordpress.com/ It's a great site check it out!