Another useful gardening book

When I was at the library picking up The Bountiful Container, I also checked out another gardening book called
The Midwest Fruit and Vegetable Book (Illinois Edition)
by James Fizzell, copyright 2001
ISBN 1-930604-16-5 (paperback)
It is more geared toward in-the-ground gardening, but does have a few side comments about container gardening. The style is more direct and [...]

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Thankful Thursday

I’m thankful for a wonderful friend who is willing to water my garden while I’m gone on vacation.
I’m thankful for the chance to take a vacation with my husband and visit his best friend.
I’m thankful that my work is still going well… and that I have motivation to keep on going!
I’m thankful for the [...]

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A side note…

I’ve added some pages (in the form of tabs, above) that summarize the research I’ve done on the plants that I’m growing this summer. Most of the information is from The Bountiful Container.  Feel free to add comments if you have experience growing these particular vegetables and have useful advice for me!

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Fast-growing tomatoes

The tomato flowers have started to bloom. I saw the first one opened on Saturday, and I’m interested to see how long it takes for a tomato to form and ripen from the time the flower blooms.
The tomato plants are going crazy. They’ve all reached and exceeded the height of their tomato cages [...]

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Big garden update

Wow, it’s been a long time since I updated about my garden. And so much has happened! So I’ll try and be kind of organized about it.
Last Sunday, I noticed that there were flowers on one of my pepper plants!

Unfortunately, the happiness was overshadowed somewhat by a discovery of bugs on the flower [...]

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Thankful Thursday

This week I am thankful for really good progress at work! Things are really starting to come together, and I have had a couple really good meetings with my advisor. And it looks like my thesis project is starting to take shape– and it looks like I will be able to graduate in [...]

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Thankful Thursday (a tiny bit late)

I’m thankful for a husband who brought in the (very heavy!) pots last night and the night before so that the plants wouldn’t get too cold since the temperature has been really dropping at night lately.

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Storm damage

Yesterday and last night we had some storms come through, bringing some heavy rain, some thunder, and a lot of wind.  I suppose it is inevitable, but one of the branches on one of the tomato plants got beaten against its cage…  This caused a weak spot on the branch, and this morning it looks [...]

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Cucumber flowers!

I noticed last night that there was a bud on one of the cucumber vines:

I don’t think that this will be producing a fruit though, so I’m not getting my hopes up. Apparently, some cucumber plants produce both male and female flowers– the male flowers appear first and then just fall off without [...]

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New addition!

Yesterday we added a new plant to the garden. Friends of ours are going to be in another state for most of the summer, so we’re keeping their oregano plant for them. I’ve never used fresh oregano in any of my cooking, and I look forward to trying it. Thanks, J&C!!

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