Monkling's Blog

Does anyone know that Keith Urban song called, “Stupid Boy?” Well let’s just change the lyrics a wee bit.

My tomato plants are well over 6′. This is a first. Usually the only thing that I can ever grow that high are weeds. I did wonder why none of those little green tomatoes ever seemed to ripen. I didn’t think too much of it, though. Just figured they’d all suddenly turn ripe all at the same time.

Tonight Frank was out back grilling us some burgers & hot dogs for dinner. I went into my garden to get some mint, an important ingredient for what I planned on making for us to drink: mojitos. As I walk towards my little garden, there is the big, black, furry beast, among my tomatoes.

Let me tell ya, the old dog is getting a bit deaf but he sure heard me yelling at him. Neighbors probably heard me yelling at him from 3 blocks away. Stupid dog! It’s bad enough I have to battle bugs and stuff but I shouldn’t have to compete with my dog for my own damn tomatoes.

There is now a barricade blocking the spot where he managed to squeeze in. Let me catch him in there again & this dog is going home to Jesus way earlier that he plans on.

This is the newest photo of my garden. That fence is about 6′ high, just to give you an idea of how tall my tomato plants are.

The tomatoes & cucumbers aren’t ready yet but the broccoli is, as are the green beans & snow peas.

I had a great meal planned for tonight. It was going to be spaghetti with vegetables from the garden. I picked all the green beans, snow peas, broccoli and loaded up on the basil, parsley & oregano. I washed everything, cut everything up and threw it into a pan to stir fry them with a whole bunch of garlic & olive oil. It smelled like heaven. You were all going to be treated to a gorgeous photo of the finished meal.

Then I saw it. (Dramatic music inserted here.) There was something wiggling in the pan. Apparently I didn’t do too good a job washing off my vegetables. I freaked out. I despise bugs of any kind. I am certain he had lots of friends in there along with him. The entire pan was dumped into the garbage. The kitchen garbage was immediately put outside because no way was I going to chance anything climbing out. Lucky thing I still have a freezer full of leftovers.

Subtitled: For Kim. This is in answer to the question about whether you can have a vegetable garden in containers. The answer is yes. This is one of the raised beds I spent all day yesterday on:

You see those 2 green, square planters? One has mint growing in it, the strategy being that it will be contained and not take over the entire yard. The other one is empty right now but won’t be by next week.

These containers are about 18″ x 18″ & are just the right size for one tomato plant. A couple of years ago, that is exactly what I used those containers for – a couple of tomato plants, basil, and I forget what else.

I only took a photo of 1 of the beds but there’s one right next to it with another 2 containers. In the bed in the photo, there are 2 tomato plants (which is more than enough for our family) with a basil plant in between them. In front of both tomato plants is broccoli and in front of the basil is parsley. I plan on putting cilantro in that other planter. The red weed barrier is supposed to make the tomatoes grow better. We’ll see how that works.

On the other side there will be cucumber, green beans & snow peas. I never grew snow peas before so this should be interesting.

If I think up anything funny to blog about, I’ll be back with a second post but today’s looking to be a pretty boring day. My biggest excitement was driving over to the university to pick up Theresa’s Rx, get it filled, and drop it back to her because she may have strep.

** Editing to add…
I used Miracle grow soil for vegetables but they also have something called Moisture Control that’s supposed to be for containers.

I bet that caught your attention, eh? I was talking about my plants. So far, they have survived the hardening off process without dying on me. Of course I haven’t yet put them into the ground so we’ll see what happens after that.

I haven’t gotten to my blog until now because I have been doing manual labor. There are now 2 – 3′ x 3′ raised vegetable beds all ready for planting:

Yeah, sure they look good now, after I spent hours clearing those areas. You wouldn’t think grass and weeds would be so difficult to cut through. My hands are sore, my back is sore and I’m ready for bed. It seems I am not used to manual labor. And it’s not over yet. Who would think that 2 50 lb bags of dirt wouldn’t be enough?? I will need at least 6 more bags and it’s supposed to rain tomorrow and Friday. Guess who will be going out to the store in a few minutes.

Oh, and here’s a handy little tip for you gardeners – don’t wear a clean pair of jeans when you’re out there. I was careful. I didn’t get a single drop of dirt on myself as I dug up those beds. It wasn’t until I lifted one of those bags of dirt; the bags that had been sitting out there in the rain for 40 days and 40 nights. It was quite a shock to me to discover the bags were muddy. And now so are my jeans.

For most of the years that we’ve lived in this house, I’ve had a little vegetable garden. Last year I was still mad that we weren’t able to move so I didn’t bother with one. “Yeah, I’ll show them all for not wanting to buy my house! Just for that, I’m not growing any tomatoes!” Well it made sense at the time.

This year, I’m back to my gardening and all my very lucky blog readers will get to hear all about my dirty adventures. Now since our area doesn’t have enough warm days, most things have to be started indoors. Here are this year’s tomato plants:

This looks more like something I’m about to stick in the oven than plant outside, eh?

Every single year that I’ve had a garden, I always attempt to start my own seedlings and then transplant them. 99% of the time, they don’t make the transition and I end up buying plants. Being stubborn, I keep on trying. This year is no different. There are now a dozen baby tomato seeds just waiting to burst out of their shell. If just 1 of them actually makes it into the garden, I will consider that a success.

While these little pots sit in my house, I will be checking on them every single day for signs of life. (I can be obsessive like that.) I’ll turn into a mother of newborns. Each day I will be making sure they are warm enough but not too warm, that they have enough water, that they are getting sunlight. Then, at the first sign of failure, I will be whining. “Where did I go wrong? I tried to raise you right. I did everything for you and this is how you treat me??”

You’re all in for some very exciting times around here as Farmer Monkling gets to work.