Oats, Peas, Beans and Barley Grow! Or at Least Peas and Beans...

Check this out! My pea and bean plants have been blossoming, and are now producing vegetables! They are very small now, like baby veggies. The peas are not growing as I expected. When my grandparents grow peas in their gardens, the plants grow out, whereas my plants are growing up. I kinda thought the pea plants would grow long tendrils that spill over the sides of the baskets, but that is not the case. I wonder if I should put some poles in the baskets so they have something to climb on.

The beans are doing well so far. I thought they might be too crowded, but the seem to be doing fine. they looked like they were falling over, so I put some thin wood rods to hold them up. Remember, these are bush beans, rather than pole beans.

Potted Hibiscus

Hibiscus is one of my very favorite plants. The blooms are simply gorgeous. Since this is a tropical plant, the Arizona heat is not a problem as long as these plats are well watered. I had a pair of these plants last year but failed to water them regularly, so they died. I bought two new plats from Wall-Mart for $5 each. I potted them in some old pots and now they are sitting by my front door to greet visitors and passers-by. Look how beautiful they are! I read that hibiscus can do well in pots, hopefully I can keep these ones alive.

Corn, Beans, and Spinach Update Plus Okra!

The beans and corn plants that I plated 7 weeks ago seem to be doing great. They are getting tall! As I mentioned in a previous post, my dog destroyed one of my bean/corn containers, so I replanted and the new sprouts look very healthy. I'll probably have to thin out these new plants a bit by removing some, so they don't get too crowded. For the new plants, I used Miracle Grow Moisture Control Potting Soil. I think it's working out.

Check out this spinach I planted about 7 weeks ago. I expected it to grow a lot faster. I suspect the slow growth has to do with me using the wrong type of soil. I used "Garden Soil" instead of "Potting Mix" and mixed some of the local dirt in with it. I'm considering getting a second box container and planting new spinach seeds using proper potting mix.

I have given up on the orange seeds. There is no life at all coming from those seeds. I really would like some citrus trees though. This is the time of year when orange trees blossom and smell so wonderful! I want that on my patio! So I'm considering buying some trees from WalMart because they have them for only 15 bucks!

I also planted some okra seeds about a week and a half ago and they are just beginning to sprout. I love okra in gumbo, so I think it would be awesome if I can get some produce out of these plants. It's going to be an interesting experiment.

Compost!

I've decided to try something I've wanted since I've moved into my house: start a compost. I've been worried that I don't have enough space or a good place to put one, but I got over it. I purchased a 20 gallon plastic trash bin from home depot for around 12 bucks, and I started filling it.

It turns out that when creating a compost bin, you have to have the proper ratio of brown to green materials. Brown material is dry stuff like brown leaves, paper, small twigs, etc. Green material is grass clippings, old veggies, weeds, etc. You should have more brown material than green in your compost.

Since I have no dry leaves to compost, I will be getting all my dry material from my mailbox. Yes, I will be composting my junk mail. Some folks say colored ink is bad for composts while others say it's ok. Since I don't have a lot of brown material, I'm going to go ahead and use ads that use colored ink. I am going to avoid glossy paper though, because I read it doesn't compost well.

First, I shredded a bunch of junk mail and put it in the bin, then I gathered all the nasty old fruit and vegetables I had in my fridge, which included some rotting tomatoes, a couple packages of old herbs, and a rapidly blackening banana. All this went into the compost. I also added some egg shells, which will give the mixture some calcium.

After adding all the ingredients, I gave the bin a good shake, sprayed some water (the bin must stay moist, like a wrung out sponge). It's going to go in one of the corners of my patio for now.

Destruction Dog

Arg, so my dog totally destroyed all the plants in one of my big red containers that had beans and corn in it. It took those plants a month to grow as much as they did! I'm going to replant, but instead of starting the seeds in those jiffy pellets, I'm going to plant directly in the container. The weather is much warmer now and there is no chance for frost. I'm going to have to protect my plants more carefully from now on! I'm pretty bummed about the death of my plants.

Patio Tips and Hanging Pea Plants

One of my favorite things about my house is my patio. It's quite large for a townhouse, and I love throwing parties and having everyone chilling outside on the patio. I recently came across this article: 5 Ways to Create a Stunning Patio and I realize that I am already doing most of the things this article recommends.

1. Lighting - I already have some awesome stringed light hanging along the house which really looks great at night.

2. Fire - I totally have a fire pit that becomes the main attraction of my house parties during the colder months.

3. Add some green - Of course, the main subject of this blog is starting a patio garden containing lots of plants, so I have this taken care of too.

4. Water - Ok, I don't have this yet, but as I mentioned in an earlier post, I would really like to get a small fountain.

5. Patio Floor - This part of my patio needs some work. Right now it's just plain concrete, but I really want to stain it to make it look not like concrete. Another thing I could do is get a large patio rug, but the staining idea would be way better.


Anyway, check out what I've done with my pea plants. I bought these 14" baskets from Amazon marketplace, and the cool hanger thing came from home depot. I can't wait till these plants fill out and start spilling over the sides of the basket, it's going to look super cool.