Zone 10 Garden

Tomato harvest 2/13/12

2012-02-13T13:00:00.000-08:00

My tomato plants are still hanging in there, about 50 tomatoes harvested last week. I really want to clean the area and prepare for the next season. I will wait till the end of Feb for the green tomatoes to ripen and then start the cleaning process.

Tomatoes in Winter

2012-01-16T11:48:00.000-08:00

I think my tomato plants are still hanging onto summer, look at the harvest I got on Friday. A couple of plants died but the rest are producing new flowers. The weather was warm for the past week in SoCal, I still have about 20-30 tomatoes slowly ripening.

My one and only pumpkin harvest. I cooked it in the oven, removed the pulp and stored in the refrigerator, will be making pumpkin soup soon.

Harvest Monday - Nov 28, 2011

2011-11-28T19:55:00.000-08:00

Last week was great, I harvested about 27 tomatoes. Lost a couple to pests. So far the count is 501 (excluding the ones we lost). The weather is awesome for the past couple of days, the plants are doing a happy dance :)

What is this?

2011-11-17T15:26:00.000-08:00

I have no idea what kind of gourd or pumpkin is this. Any ideas?

453 tomatoes and still counting!

2011-11-09T09:50:00.000-08:00

The temperatures are crazy here in So Cal. It's been windy, cold and raining. The tomato plants are still growing with new flowers. But I think as the cold weather sets in, the plants will slowly stop producing.

Last 2 weeks' harvest:

I removed all the leaves from the basil plant, cleaned and dried them. Added the leaves to the food processor along with some olive oil, made something similar to pesto and froze them. This will come in handy when I make pizza/pasta sauce.

The tomatoes are in abundance, so I have been freezing and also giving them to my neighbors. I haven't bought tomatoes in the past 5 months.

Harvest Monday - 10/24/11

2011-10-24T13:15:00.000-07:00

The tomato plants are still producing, some even with new flowers. The weather has been a bit crazy in So Cal with gloomy and 80F days. So far the tomatoes count is 394 from 8 plants, not bad right? Last week we harvested some tomatoes and purple peppers.

The eggplant plants are producing flowers but not a single eggplant yet, very disappointing :(

The mystery squash finally has a female flower, I am waiting to see what happens.

Tahiti Sunrise Dahlia - What a cutie!

October Updates

2011-10-06T09:49:00.001-07:00

It's been some time since I posted. Life has been busy lately, but it will slow down end of november, I hope! Tomato plants are still going strong with new flowers on them. It's been raining and cloudy for the past couple of days. We have harvested 360 tomatoes so far and we lost about 15-20 to the pests. Next season I will invest in a weighing machine so that I know how many pounds the plants produced. Pepper plants are doing okay, I am behind on the fall planting. I want to try carrots and brocolli. Here are some recent pictures.

Coleus:

Tomatoes and Okra:

Dahlias:

Greens:

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: September 15

2011-09-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

I am joining May Dreams Gardens to show off late summer blooms in my garden.

Semi Cactus Dahlia: This is its 2nd year, the plant has done very well compared to last year. We have had quite some beautiful flowers.

Black eyed susan: One of my favorite flowers, hope it comes back next year.

Gaillardia: Another favorite one.

Potato bush: This plant took off well this summer and it's in the blooming season.

Forget-me-not: I scattered some seeds in Spring and these took some time to grow, I love the light blue color.

Monday Harvest - Sep 5th

2011-09-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

It's raining tomatoes! So far we've got 151, my mother-in-law is actually maintaining a count log. Hahaha!

Harvest of 3 golden dorsett apples, tomatoes and 1 okra:

One of the brinjal plants actually has a flower on it, I cannot wait for it to become an actual brinjal.

Harvest Monday - Aug 22

2011-08-22T14:58:00.001-07:00

We harvested lots of tomatoes last week along with some okra and bell peppers.

A bloom on the mystery gourd plant:

Beautiful Dahlias:

Blue Potato bush in bloom, the deep purple is gorgeous:

Monday Harvest - Aug 15

2011-08-15T10:01:00.001-07:00

Last week was the best! We harvested lots of tomatoes, peppers, some okra and swiss chard. We even shared some with our neighbors.

Harvest Monday - Aug 1

2011-08-01T06:29:00.000-07:00

Our harvest from last week consists of tomatoes, peppers and 1 okra :)

Our tomato plants are being attacked by horn worms. The tops of the plants were chewed up and so far we have killed 4 of them. I am sure that there is plenty more.

These disgusting creatures can defoliate a plant in a few days.

End of July report

2011-07-29T10:07:00.000-07:00

The tomato plants are loaded with heavy fruits. Even though they are caged and staked, a couple of them are ready to fall over. They are growing vigorously and are spread out. This season I decided not to prune them like I did last year.

We call this a tomato jungle :)

Pepper plants from last year are yielding. I also bought some new plants.

This year I sowed Okra and Eggplants. Okra plants have started flowering even though the plants are too small. Eggplants are too small, they are growing real slow.

1st Okra:

The apple tree has 3 apples and they are of a decent size.

Canna 'Stuttgart'

2011-07-26T08:49:00.000-07:00

These plants has spread quite a bit since last year. They grow up to 9 feet and humming birds love them. I managed to capture a humming bird's visit. I would love to have another variety which has white patterns in the leaves.

Harvest Monday - July 25

2011-07-18T02:03:00.000-07:00

First an update on tomato plants, they are growing tall and spreading out too. I can see lots of fruits in each plant.

1st harvest of the season:

2nd harvest: tomatoes and peppers

Cosmos

2011-07-15T01:49:00.000-07:00

I sowed the seeds in a pot in April and they started coming up in a few days. I transplanted them later and they grew so tall. These plants require full sun and they are a great addition to a garden with a splash of bright colors. So far in my cosmos bed, I see only purple and white flowers. I read that comos flowers attracts butterflies but so far none to be seen :)

Gladiolus

2011-07-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

The Gladiolus plants are putting up a nice show. I planted the corms in intervals and because of that there is a continuous bloom. These plants are so easy to grow and they make lovely cut flowers. Here are some pictures.

Harvest Monday and some blooms

2011-06-27T10:41:00.001-07:00

The swiss chard plants that were planted in the ground were being eaten by some pests, so I decided to grow them in a container. They actually did well and this is what I harvested over the weekend.

Petunias with Coleus in a container:

A lonely african daisy:

Daylillies:

Tomato Progress

2011-06-14T11:51:00.000-07:00

All of the tomato plants I bought are doing well inspite of the chilly CA weather. I have about 7 tomatoes on the plants and also some flowers. Hopefully the sun will be out soon but not too hot though :) The white stuff you see on the leaves is the diatomaceous earth powder. I sprinkled them everywhere to control the ear wigs, they were eating most of the plants. Marigolds and Swiss Chard are growing well now.

Gourd seedlings

2011-06-10T10:45:00.000-07:00

I do not know what type of gourd seedlings are these but I am guessing bottle gourd. I sowed about 30-40 seeds from a combo packet that I bought from India and a few seedlings emerged. Will have to wait and see what they produce.

Have a lovely weekend!

My garlic experiment

2011-06-06T11:35:00.001-07:00

I read in a few blogs on how easy garlic grows, so I planted some supermarket garlic in the fall around October. There are 2 varities of garlic, the supermarket garlic falls into soft neck variety. These can be kept for months. I harvested them on Saturday, the tops turned yellow and I thought it was time to harvest. In the hind sight, I think I should have waited till July :) One bulb was completely formed whereas the others were small. Anyway lesson learned. This fall I will buy the right variety from the nursery and try it out. Overall I am happy with my experiment and the kids had fun watching the process from planting the cloves to harvesting the bulbs. Here are some pictures.

Earlier harvest of Indian garlic:

More blooms

2011-05-27T01:27:00.000-07:00

My favorite rose plant, has been with me for more than 10 years. I transplanted it in the ground a year ago.

I took a cutting from the plant above and stuck it in the ground. It took a long time to sprout and so far it has bloomed 3 roses. This plant is 1.5 years old.

Hibiscus plant:

White roses, not a big fan of this

Blue potato bush:

Coreopsis and Blue birds Nemesia:

House Plants - Container Gardening - Part II

2011-05-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

I came across this blog post from Urban Gardens and was instantly hooked.

http://www.urbangardensweb.com/2010/12/27/plants-as-indoor-natural-air-purifiers/

I researched on plants, went to my local garden center and bought Peace Lily. I picked it because of the lovely flowers it produced. I want to buy a few more (different plants) to keep in the different areas of the house. It was a tiny plant when I bought it and it has done well. This is a recent picture with it's first flower.

Container Gardening - Part I

2011-05-13T15:57:00.000-07:00

I have a few plants in pots and succulents are one of them. I had posted last year about the succulent centerpiece here:
http://zone10newbiegardener.blogspot.com/2010/10/succulents.html

They did well and this is what they are up to. Aren't they cute? They have filled up the pot and look at the stem that is protruding from the hens and chicks plant.

Progress

2011-05-11T10:39:00.000-07:00

My tomato plants are doing well. They have grown a few inches and some has flowers too.

My garlic plants, love how they are standing tall like soldiers.

My eggplant and Okra seeds sowed in the ground sprouted but some pest is eating them up :( I have sowed some seeds in pots too, hopefully once they are big enough I will transplant them to the ground.

Happy Friday!

2011-05-06T09:47:00.001-07:00

Some blooms from our garden... Have a great weekend.

Planting Tomatoes

2011-04-24T03:42:00.000-07:00

I planted about 8 tomato seedlings last week. A couple of them were Rutgers (heirloom) and the rest were Celebrity (hybrid) variety. Both are determinate varieties meaning that they will grow to a fixed mature size and ripen all their fruit in a short period. I am sure they will require cages or stalking soon. I also planted Marigolds next to tomatoes to deter the bugs away. They really help. I love the deep orange color of the marigolds. Hopefully my tomato plants will do well this summer like last year.

Good things come in little packages!

2011-04-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

I planted Sugar Ann sweet peas more than a month ago. This is a cool season crop. Looks like the plant doesn't like hot weather. Hm.. makes me wonder what'll happen to the plant when it hit upper 80s last week which is yet to be seen. The peas can be used as as snap peas if harvested before the pods fill out or let the peas inside get big and then shell them.

There are about 15 pods on the plant right now and I harvested some last week. Very cute green peas :)

Garden update

2011-04-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted. I sowed some Tomato, Brinjal, Bitter melon and Methi seeds. Brinjal and Bitter melon never germinated. Tomato and Methi seedlings came up but were burned by the sun last week. It was too hot here in the upper 80s. Too bad, I got very frustrated. I went to home depot and got some tomato seedlings. Will have to put them in the ground today. Will do another update soon.

Nemesia Blue Bird plant

2011-04-01T10:11:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite perennial. It blooms all year long. The plant is in a shaded spot and I also read that it's a great container plant. Love it!

My 2nd methi harvest. Next time I should mark the calendar when I sow the seeds just to see how long it takes to harvest. Very easy to grow.

Swiss Chard

2011-03-23T12:59:00.000-07:00

I sowed seeds in fall and for some reason they never grew well. Also some pests were eating the leaves. Very frustrating. I sowed some lettuce seeds too but only 2 sprouted. I am planning to grow these in pots and see how they do.

I managed to harvest a few leaves and sauteed them with Spinach. Yummy!

Pink Jasmine

2011-03-14T13:43:00.000-07:00

I bought this plant a few weeks ago. It came with a few flower buds and it is supposed to be a vigorous vine. The homemade support I have provided is not enough in a long run, I must replace it with a sturdy trellis soon. The flowers are so aromatic and they smell divine.

Getting ready for Spring

2011-03-14T13:28:00.001-07:00

Spring is almost here! I love the different bursts of color the plants have to offer. Saturday, I cleaned our front yard by removing the weeds and adding compost to the soil. It looks much better. On Sunday, I planted some Gladiolus corms. I dug them up in fall and stored in the garage. It's not necessary to dig them up in SoCal but I did it because I want to plant them in a different spot. I will plant some more this weekend.

I dug a 4-6 inch hole, placed the corm root side down, added some compost and filled up the hole with soil. Can't wait to see some blooms at the end of spring or during summer.

Some more blooms

2011-02-21T09:58:00.001-08:00

It's been raining here in SoCal. We've really had ping pong weather this winter. A week ago the temperature was in the lower 80s, followed by spring like weather and right now it's too cold. I cannot imagine being in the east coast with all that snow.

'Lady Jane' Amaryllis:

'Picotee' Amaryllis:

'Charisma' Amaryllis:

Happy Friday!

2011-02-11T11:29:00.000-08:00

More Amaryllis blooms in the past 2 weeks.

Here is 'La Paz' Amaryllis:

'Lady Jane' Amaryllis: so beautiful!

'Picotee' Amaryllis:

'Paris' Amaryllis: Love the bright color!

'Lemon Star' Amaryllis

Have a great weekend!

Garlic

2011-02-01T10:42:00.000-08:00

I planted about 15 cloves of garlic at the end of fall. These are just super market garlic. I am curious to see how they fare. I am pulling out the weeds often, I must mulch the area soon. I will be harvesting them in June. They will be ready to harvest when the leaves turn brown. I can't wait!

Methi harvest and apples

2011-01-10T11:40:00.001-08:00

I harvested the methi leaves yesterday and made Methi Pulav.

Methi Pulav, Brussel Sprouts and Raita :)

I bought the Golden Dorsett Apple tree at the end of Jan 2010 as bare root. It was on sale at Home Depot for $8.50. It started sprouting leaves in Spring and started blossoming in October. It had set lots of apples at the end of fall. Being a small tree I do not know whether to remove the small apples to let the tree grow further because all the tree's energy will be spent on apples now. I would rather have the tree grow bigger and establish itself and then have apples. Anyway I will do more research on this topic.

How cute are these tiny apples?

Happy New Year!!!

2011-01-05T10:15:00.000-08:00

Wishing you a fantastic new year filled with lots of love, happiness and good health!

More Amaryllis and Methi

2010-12-27T10:09:00.001-08:00

There was non-stop rain in Southern CA for 6 days last week which is very unusual. It was referred as the storm of the decade. I was worried about my Amaryllis bulbs because if they sit in too much water, they will rot. So far out of 10 bulbs, 5 have sprouted. Hoping that the rest will grow soon.

My methi plants are growing well, I will be harvesting soon.

'Neon Rose' Amaryllis: This is in a pot.

Exotic Star Amaryllis: This one is in the ground, I wanted to experiment how it fares in the ground.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-18T01:58:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a safe and joyous holiday season!!!

First Amaryllis in bloom!

2010-12-16T10:40:00.000-08:00

I am excited to report that my first Amaryllis bloomed a couple of days ago. More to follow soon. The variety is called Pasadena. Look at the scarlet red blooms with white flashes on each petal, Isn't it beautiful?

End of November report

2010-11-29T11:20:00.000-08:00

I am glad to report that the tasks listed on my previous post have been completed. We had been to Yosemite for Thanksgiving and it was stunning. What a beautiful place! On the garden front, my amaryllis continue to grow, my methi is looking good, my swiss chard looks okay. It's been very cold here since last week, also rained a few times. My new experiment is to grow garlic. I planted a few cloves and they have sprouted. Will have to see how they do.

I hope you all had a good thanksgiving!

To do list for this weekend

2010-11-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

1. Plant some more Amaryllis.
2. Clean up the Gladiolus bulbs I dug out last week and store them.
3. Plant the Swiss chard seedlings in the ground.
4. Plant the tulip bulbs. (I got a couple from my neighbor)
4. Clean the backyard.

I'll update on how much I accomplished.

Methi and Pepper harvest

2010-11-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

I sowed some fenugreek seeds a couple of weeks ago and they are growing fast.

Here is the pepper harvest from last weekend.

Amaryllis

2010-11-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

I bought 10 Amaryllis bulbs from a gardening co-op and they arrived last week. I planted 2 of them last weekend. I will plant 2 each week so that I have continuous blooms from end of Dec to Feb. It will take approximately 7-10 weeks to bloom. Based on my research they do well in pots but I am planning to put some on the ground to see how they do. They do not even need any soil, all the nutrients are contained within the bulb itself. My co-worker has one in a jar with glass stones.

Peppers

2010-11-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

I am very surprised to see the pepper plants producing in fall. We have about 12-15 peppers growing in 5 different plants. There is nothing better than picking them and making sambhar :) So fresh and it's very cute to see my kids checking on them every now and then.

Flower bouquet from my backyard

2010-10-25T10:39:00.000-07:00

We had some friends over for dinner on Saturday and I always like to have flowers in the house when people come over. I didn't have time to go to the store to buy flowers, so I ended up making a bouquet. Dahlias, Zinnias and Roses are in bloom right now. I made the flower arrangement using Coleus and a dinner plate Dahlia. How does it look?

Happy bloom day!

2010-10-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

It's been gray and dreary in Southern California, raining on and off. We haven't seen sun in days now. These beautiful blooms cheer me up.

flowers in my apple tree

ready to open

humongous dinner plate Dahlia

Zinnias

This is how it was this morning around 7.30am

Succulents

2010-10-07T12:24:00.000-07:00

It's been raining/drizzling for the past 3 days, very unusual in CA. Normally we do not get as much rain as we would like to. That brings us to the topic of Succulent plants. These are water retaining plants, they store water in their leaves, stems and also in roots. They do not need much water and they are a fantastic addition to any garden. Even people with black thumb can grow them easily. California is facing severe water challenges for the past few years and succulents are gaining popularity here.

Here is my succulent centerpiece on a patch of land at the side of our house. It is surrounded by heat loving Vincas. I have Jade, Hens and Chicks, and some others.

Here is another one, I do not know the name of this, but I love the lush green color.

Random Stuff

2010-09-29T09:18:00.000-07:00

The temperature in Southern CA has shot up crazy. We were in 100s for straight 4 days, it's slowly getting better. Some of the flowers got burned because of the heat.

Sowed seeds for Lettuce, Swiss Chard, Onion and Indian greens last week.

Also planted 10 Iris tubers.

My Golden Dorsett apple tree has its first flower in bloom.

Watching the humming birds visit my Canna flowers make me happy. Before I run to get my camera they are gone.

Coleus

2010-09-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Coleus plants are eye-catching and so easy to grow. I love them for their colorful foliage, they add a splash of color to the garden. Bees visit the flowers often. I learned that the flower spikes should be nipped to keep them growing as a perennial. I am planning to grow them in a couple of containers.

Look what happened...

2010-09-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

I do not know the name of this plant, but a terrible thing happened to it. Some creature chewed up all the leaves in a day! I was so shocked to see the leaves gone when I checked out the plants one fine evening. I found the culprit the next morning. A hornworm was wandering in the pot, they are notorious for eating tomato and pepper plants. It was looking for more leaves. Hornworms are these disgusting creatures who can devour plants in a very short time. You know that they exist on your plants by the trail they leave behind (black poo on the ground). Anyway I killed it. I thought I had taken take of them when I removed my tomato plants. Here is the poor plant :( All that's remaining are the stems.

Semi Cactus Dahlias

2010-09-13T14:03:00.000-07:00

I Love these Dahlias.

This one is huge, bigger than my palm.

This one is called 'Western Spanish Dancer', so cute.

Here is my other beauty I posted earlier:
http://zone10newbiegardener.blogspot.com/2010/07/dahlias.html

'stuttgart' Canna

2010-09-10T10:31:00.000-07:00

I got two Canna rhizomes and they sprouted as two plants but now I have 10 plants. They multiplied so quickly. The tallest one is over 7 feet and I love the huge banana like foliage, it gives a tropical feeling. The flowers are in apricot color. I accidently planted them in part shade, looks like that's perfect for them because of the leaves getting scorched if it's very hot. I also read that it's tolerant of wet conditions which is where it is right now. Don't you love when the accidental stuff you do turns out perfect?

Gladiolus

2010-09-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

My generous co-worker shared gladiolus corms with me. I planted these in Apr/May I guess. I love the flowers and very happy that the humming birds visit them.

Roses

2010-09-03T09:40:00.000-07:00

I have 4 rose plants in my backyard, 2 red, 1 peach and 1 white color. What's happening for the past couple of months is, something is eating my rose plants. I sprayed a solution containing chili powder, garlic and salt which is supposed to be one of the non-chemical ways to protect a plant but alas! it didn't work. Just look at this plant, you cannot even see the plant, it's completely gone.

This plant bearing red roses has been with me for the past 10 years. It was in a pot all these years, I transplanted it on the ground few months ago. Beautiful red roses, huh?

You can see clearly that the leaves have tons of holes in them. What could be eating the plants?

Tomatoes

2010-09-02T11:49:00.000-07:00

So when I got back from 4 weeks vacation, I was shocked to see my tomato plants. They were so big, grew out of control even with the cages and had huge hornworms. Yuck! Hornworms are large green caterpillars, luckliy none of my tomatoes were affected. I trimmed the plants a couple of days ago but still more work needs to be done in the backyard. Here are some pics:

Hi There!

2010-08-30T11:06:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

We went on a 4 week vacation to India and got back on Thursday. Still jetlagged and terribly miss everyone back home. My neighbor took care of my garden while I was gone. Some plants are dead mostly seasonal ones. My tomato plants have grown out of control, will post pictures soon.

Zucchini

2010-07-30T01:59:00.000-07:00

I have 2 Zucchini and 1 yellow squash plants. Only one Zucchini plant is doing good. It flowers well but because of non-pollination, not a good amount of zucchinis. I have got 4 so far that too hand pillinated ones. And moreover both the male and female flowers are not opening at the same time. The plant is huge with lovely bright yellow flowers. I am not going to plant these next year, time for experimenting with some other veggies.

Brandywine heirloom tomato plant

2010-07-28T01:50:00.000-07:00

Oh Boy! This plant is about 4 feet tall and has lot of flowers but has only one fruit. The beautiful flowers are dropping :( I like how this plant is so much different from the hybrid ones. Thanks to my boss, he gave me the sapling.

Apple and Citrus Trees

2010-07-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

We have a Golden Dorsett Semi Dwarf Apple tree and a Dwarf Velencia Orange tree. We bought the apple tree as a bare root from Home Depot in January. That's the good time for purchasing bare root trees on sale. We planted it and it started sprouting leaves. That's about, didn't do anything at all. I am convincing myself that it is establishing roots. Here is a pic:

We bought the Orange tree on Mothers day. We transplanted it on the ground and for a couple of months nothing happened. Even the small fruits dropped due to shock I guess. Now I see some new leaves sprouting.

Tomato Harvest and more Dahlias

2010-07-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

Kids were very excited to pick the tomatoes and take pics. This Dahlia plant has 3 flowers so far and more buds coming up. Rest of the plants are still small.

Note: Those of you who check my blog, please leave comments. I would appreciate it and as a newbie your comments would provide me inspiration. Thanks.

Zinnias and Snapdragons

2010-07-19T09:56:00.000-07:00

These have grown well since I planted them on the ground. Love the colors, especially Zinnias. The layers of petals that make up the flower, it's nature's magic. Makes me so happy.

Tomatoes

2010-07-13T15:31:00.000-07:00

I have about 8 tomato plants, only one is heirloom variety. I am yet to see fruit on this. Most of the tomatoes are pretty small. Roma tomato plant is not doing that well. The heirloom tomato plant is growing well and it has such distinct large leaves. I planted marigolds in front of tomato plants to deter aphids. I also sprayed chili pepper, garlic spray and there is no more aphid problem. Hoping to get some harvest soon.

Dahlias

2010-07-09T11:22:00.000-07:00

I planted some Dahlia tubers back in March and it took a long time for them to grow. A couple of them rotted due to over watering. Look at the Dinner Plate Dahlia that started blooming 3 days ago. It's so beautiful. It is a surprise variety because I had thrown away the package and I didn't know what it was. I googled and found out that it's 'Mystery Day'.

Honey Suckle Vine

2010-07-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

I bought this vine a month ago from a local nursery, transplanted it in the ground, it looked like it was in a shock. A few days ago, I noticed some new sprouts, Hooray!!! Hopefully it will survive and grow well.

Black Eyed Susan - Rudbeckia

2010-07-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite flowers! I got a couple of them from Home Depot, they seemed to be slow in the beginning. They even looked like they had leaf rot due to over watering. Now they seem to be thriving well. I absolutely love them. I also bought a purple coneflower plant, yet to put it in the ground.

These are the dwarf variety.

Pepper and Corn

2010-07-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

One of my bell pepper plants has some flowers finally! The tassels and silks are out on my corn plants and hopefully we will get some good corn. Here are some pictures.

First Zucchini!

2010-06-29T10:32:00.000-07:00

I hand pollinated the flowers last week and now I have a Zucchini! How exciting! It grew so fast. We can't wait to taste.

Zucchini

2010-06-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

I have 2 Zucchini plants given to me by a co-worker. They started slow, we don't have any zucchini yet but there have been some flowers. All we need now is some bees/insects to pollinate. May be I will try hand pollination to see if it works. I also saw a cutworm when the plants were small so I surrounded the plants with foil. I read that in one of the blogs that it confuses them and they leave the plant alone. Hopefully we'll get some Zucchinis soon.

Hi there!

2010-06-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

I created my garden blog today. Have a bunch of plants in our small backyard. I will be posting updates on how they are doing. It should be interesting to look back in the coming years. Happy Gardening!

Leaving with some picture we took at the LA Arboretum a few weeks ago.