Attack of the vines

 The vine bed has shown a lot of growth over the past month.  This picture to the left was taken just over a month ago.  Small spots of green plants in a freshly built garden bed.

 Taken 10 days later this picture shows growth as well as flowers.

 Taken 10 days after the last this one too shows a lot more growth and more flowers popping up everywhere.  The small green spots are much bigger and now the new bed shows a lot of yellow as well.

Again 10 days after the last picture this is what I came home from vacation too.  No longer can the canvas be seen nor can flowers be seen.  In-fact the the garden frame it's self is almost hard to see.

This picture was actually taken the same day as the last one but after I fenced in the garden.  See if I hadn't then when the hubby goes to mow the lawn he may end up mowing pumpkin or cucumber vines.  Since that would be bad I contained them.  It's amazing how each picture (except the last 2) was taken about 10 days apart and each clearly shows growth.  Some more than others.

Another surprise when we came home from vacation besides the lawn attacking vines was this......

Just look how pretty it is.  My first cucumber ever.  And it was impressive in size considering when we left 5 days before there were no cucumbers that showed any sign that they had been pollinated.  Lots of cucumber's with buds just none bigger than they began.

Stay tuned new installments of Attack of the.._______ will be coming soon, tomatoes, marigolds, Rose of Sharon, just to name a few.

Beans - The life cycle

The fragile begining of the Bean's life. Starting them inside in a mini Greenhouse.  Seeing the little green stems come to life and rise from the dirt.  A very cool begining.  This is just 4 days after sowing.

The Beans are quick to germinate and very quick to show true leaves.  This is 11 days after sowing.  Just a short week after the first sprouts were seen.










Here we have them in the ground in the Greenhouse.  They are doing very well.  This is 2 weeks after sprouting started.  Just one week after true leaves were shown. Day 19 over all.








Nearly 5 weeks have gone by and now there are little white flowers all over the place.  The begining of the fruiting has begun.  Over all this is happening on day 53.








The flowers are still blooming and forming.  Some like this one is being pushed off by the Bean.  Such a tiny little pod.  Very skinny as well.  This is just a mear 5 days after the first flowers started to appear.  Over all we are looking at day 57.







They are starting to fatten up.  This is actually almost 3 weeks after they started to appear.  The coloring is starting to change as well.  Hard to tell at first but you can see that the fatter pods apear to be darker as well. At day 76 they are ready to Harvest....or at least the fat ones are. 







The first harvest.  May not look like much but there is plenty more that will be ready soon.  In fact so that we could have them for a meal I took the harvest each day in immediatly froze them.  Once there was enough for my family I cooked them.  They still tasted fresh and good. 








Signs that the beans are nearing the end of their life.  The leaves started to turn yellow brown like this about a week after my first harvest.  Day 83 over all.  As the next 2 weeks went on I harvested what I could when it was ready.  Eventually though the leaves all started turning and it was time to put the plants to rest.





They gave me a great run.  I got enough for 2 good meals (even some left over still frozen)  Tips for following years is to plant less at one time but plant at multiple times.  The average time from sow to harvest is 55 days.  I was a little over that but hey...I still got to harvest.

Growth Over time - The Pea

Given that I had to search the internet to find pictures of what each of my plants would look like at different stages I thought I would add a section here for each plant that I grow....from seed-harvest and beyond if possible. Growth Over time will be part of the Title and the lable.

So to the life of the Pea:

In the begining there is a seed. Either saved from previous years, given by a friend, or in my case bought from a store. The important part about this is chosing the kind of Pea you want. There are many and some will do better in your zone than others. Sometimes experimenting isn't a bad idea either though. The variety that I got on the package said 2' tall vines that need no support. Well that was wrong...they did....but besides that there is a lot of information on the back of seed packets so be sure to look. For this kind it said 63 days to harvest. This number is suppost to be from sowing to harvest not transplant to harvest...Mine? 66 day..not too bad if you ask me. Pretty darn close. So here are pictures of the plants at different stages/times. Hope this helps


Day 4Day 7Day 12Day 13 After transplanted into GreenhouseDay 24Day 28 Showing signs of needing supportDay 49Day 58 Buds have started to appearDay 66. Harvesting ready podsDay 69. After a few days of harvesting a few pods a day it looks as though they are starting to die off.

There are still flowers forming and a few pods still growing so I may get more out of them yet.

I hope that this is helpful to others

The Tales of Bob and Bobbet Tomato

Welcome to the Tales of Bob and Bobbet Tomato. You have met them before but here they are again to show you the effects of Greenhouse vs deck and the importance of a support system. These two started their lives at a store. A sad and crowded begining to life. But seeing these two cute little plants I just had to take em home and give them some special loving. As time went on I realized that the pots I put them in may not be big enough for them as they got bigger. But for now it was fine.

Once my Greenhouse was finished I wanted to see how a Greenhouse would effect the growth of the tomato plant. So Bobbet being the soldier that she is decided to move in to the Greenhouse first. While Bob...comfortable and Strong in his pot on the deck chose to stay.

At first she weakend a little but with some tender love and water she perked right up. While trooper Bob stayed strong on the deck. Up till the move both were for the most part the same height. Very little difference between them.


Some time has past and both are doing very well. Both have blooms and both have small tomato's started. After reading I found out that having red mulch or weed guard around tomato plants enhances the flavor and production. So I found these nifty things at the local store....specific for tomatoes. So they both got one.



As time moved on Bob seemed to wilt far faster than Bobbet. That along with his size I felt it was time to move him to the Greenhouse. So they were reunited once again. First thing I noticed once together was that Bobbet was almost twice the size of Bob....thought about changing their names but too much paper work. At this point no support is needed as of yet. The hoop over Bob was there just till he got over the shock of the transplant. Bobbet of course stayed strong and ignored Bob.

A tragic accident almost killed Bobbet. The rainy days kept me away..thinking the cooler weather would mean the Greenhouse wouldn't need to be watered along with her height Bobbet fell over onto the Broccoli. A very sad few days of watching her to make sure she was ok. As luck would have it because of her height she did indeed make it thru. Her main stem was bent in the fall but not broken...a few supports later and she was back to her old tall self. Bob was completly uneffected by her fall. The tomato's on both also uneffected. To my relief all she needed was a little more support. Turns out she was jealous that Bob moved in next to her...so she fell to get my attention.....

Unfortunatly as a result of her tantrum I noticed that Bob hasn't really grown all that much since his move. Infact Bobbet has pretty much tried to crowd him out. So.........

.....a few transplants later Bob has moved to a new place within the Greenhouse. He went thru a little shock but not as bad as before. Bobbet was so happy that she had more room she grew a few more inches. Bob soon grew to love his new space. And after some confusion on shading he is now growing taller. Bobbet on the other hand has had to be cut back quite a bit as she started to grow taller than the misters.

So what can we learn from these two crazy plants? Well for one the Greenhouse is much better for growing than the deck. Full sun is better than shade. Supports are important expecially once they get over 2' tall.

Some other pointers about the stems of these guys and gals is that they can be cut back. Some plants don't like pruning but Bobbet has taken well too it. Course in doing so she is able to grow stronger so that could be why. Water is also important with in the Greenhouse setting. Although it was mostly her height the lack of water for a day was just enough to also weaken her root system. Outside watering everyday is not nessesary but in a Greenhouse it is. Even on a rainy cloudy day it can get quite warm inside there. Usually at least 10 degrees more than the outside temp...sometimes more.

Stay Tuned Bob and Bobbet will be back for harvest very soon...