To pick or not to pick...

I found this in my garden last week:

My first banana pepper!

But does anyone know how to tell when they are ripe for picking? Oh, funny story...
So, my little tomatoes finally turned yellowish, so I asked mom when to pick them. She said, when they turn red (in her DUH voice). So, I waited. And waited. They finally turned orange, then split open, then turned purple...and that's when mom told me I had planted yellow tomatoes, so I could pick them when they are yellow! For a short time, though, I had some gorgeous tomatoes:

The middle green one is still hanging. I'm determined to get one, good ripe tomato from that plant.
Here's what the cucumber vine is up to now. It begins on the far left and has snaked down and then up, all the way the yellow bloom on the right of the picture. Isn't that amazing?!

The green tomato hanging all alone...


And one more of the pepper, cause it's just so cool to look at!

Thankfully, my family is not dependent upon my ability to grown food for our survival, or we'd be walking zombies right about now. Or, as L.A. refers to them, supermodels. :)

From my garden

Look what I found in my little garden last week:

My very first harvest!!!

I LOVE watching my cucumber plant grow; it's really the most amazing plant. It's little, skinny tenacles are constantly reaching out farther and farther, stretching and pulling the plant along with it, to new territory. What started as a little starter plant has grown into this long, beautiful, vegetable-producing plant:

How cool is that?!
Just a few days later, I found this little guy hiding under a leaf:

He's about the length of my pinky finger here. Yes, HE. Remember my rule switch - ugly, knobby, green things are male; beautiful, elegant flowery things are female. My plants, my pictures, MY rules :)


So, I peeled, sliced, salted, and ate that thing down, after taking pictures, of course. Immediately after, I wondered if I should have offered up my first fruits to God. But then I figured,that was Old Law, we are under grace of the New Law, which, coincidentally I said (grace, that is) before swallowing it down.

Yum!

Then, low and behold, more delicioso vegetabilio (just made that one up!):

Three whole tomatoes! That's more than I eat a year! I hate tomatoes, except for an occasional bite of Chad's juicy cheeseburger, or in ketsup. I grew these just to say I grew 'em. And to make my husband and father happy. Apparently no farmer worth their weight in grain has a garden without tomatoes.

I really enjoy watching little seeds and plants that I put into the ground grow and produce something I can eat. I love watching the circle of life that God put into order those first 6 days of Creation. Something He began so long ago is still feeding me, six thousand years later - how awesome is that?!

Here are a few more pics of my mini garden. I only have the tomato plant, cucumber plant, and pepper plant:

Blooms on the cucumber plant

Pepper plant - still no sign of a pepper, just yet. Also, I think it has a virus, aka, a bug. Should I spray it with some kind of pesticide? Anyone know of a good, all natural - or close to it - one to use? Course, I don't eat peppers either, so if you tell me about a dangerous, unnatural one, it's only Chad & Dad that suffer ;)

Green Thumb, Anyone?

I do NOT like to touch dirt. I especially hate to get dirt under my fingernails. This drives me nuts and I feel so nasty until I can suds up and wash the dirt far, far away from my clean nails. I never liked playing in the dirt as a kid, either. And yet, God thought it would be a great idea to give me THREE boys? Seriously going to ask Him about that one day.

But somehow, I fell in love with gardening.

I love flowers. I love taking pictures of them, watching them grow and, as of last year, planting them. I was really depressed one day, one of those periods of time where I went weeks without any quality *ME* time, and Chad had kicked me out, suggesting I go buy some flowers "or something." I spent about $80 on flowers that I could plant outside our base housing, the whole time wondering how in the world I was going to plant them without touching dirt. Crazy, right?

As soon as I got home, I dove in to my new project - mainly because I know me and I am a procrastinator with a capital P. I had to get started while still high from the pollen of my beautiful flowers. I ended up borrowing a lot of tools from my green neighbor (actually she was black, wahahaha...), Lori. The end result was SO beautiful and rewarding that I wondered why I had never done that before. Oh yeah....DIRT.

Everytime I pulled into my driveway and saw the colorful flowers that *I* had planted myself, I immediately felt my spirit lift. Flowers, I learned, are a mood enhancer. Planting them yourself and watching the rewards of your labor, even more so.

If ever I have needed something to help keep my spirit lifted, it's now. So, starting with my Mother's Day bounty of flowers, I got busy and began planting. Then I decided, Why not try a vegetable garden? Half the fun is seeing something go from a tiny bulb or stem to a blooming flower.

So last week I spent way too much money on some gardening utinsils, seeds, soil, and GLOVES, and got busy planting some veggies in Mom's garden. Yeah, I know. But I'm tired of waiting for my own house, my own land, my own garden. Ugh....pity party coming on!

For now I have just 5 veggie plants in the ground, but the next free evening I get, I will be planting a lot more at Beth's house :) She doesn't have kids or dogs to constantly run out of the garden, plus she has really good soil. Don't I sound like I know what I'm talking about? Like a real gardner?!?

Anyway, here are some pics of what I have now. I'm going to keep you informed as they grow. Maybe it will lift your spirit too or, even better, inspire you to start one of your own. Enjoy!

Remember my lily from Easter? Planted in mom's little flower garden, aka my "Happy Place."

Jessica got a Gerber Daisy, one of my all time fave flowers, on Mother's Day as well, so I planted hers for her (really, so I could take pictures of it anytime I wanted)

And this is how it all looked last week, May 21st, before all the rain hit...

Beautiful, right?

Then it rained. And rained. Rained again. Oh, and rained some more. If it weren't for all the rainbows, I'd think God had forgotten a little promise He'd made a long, long time ago!

Now, I planted some squash right HERE. I know because I put this cute little stake thingy in the ground right next to it so I'd remember that. But there is no squash plant to be found. I think it is there, but buried good. We're going to wait and see :)

I do not like tomatoes, except stewed in vegetable soup, but I seem to be the exception in our family. So, I planted tomatoes. Plus, I hear they're pretty easy to grow and we know how I am all for easy!

No comment, Beth or Louise!

And this next little stub was a veggie of some sort, but I can't remember because it didn't have a stake thingy and I didn't use my brain and make one. So not only it is doubtful that it will even grow, but if it does, I won't know what it is till it sprouts something yummy to eat!

Yeah, same deal again. You'd think I would have came up with a way to know what all of these were, but I only bought 5 plants, 3 of which had stakes, so I thought, how hard can it be to keep track of two without stakes? Apparently, pretty hard. No idea what this one is. If one of you recognizes it, please let me know! But he's green & pretty, right?

*Update: Yes, peppers DO ring a bell, Anonymous...thank you very much...Michelle? Jacklynn?

The rain knocked most of my lily's petals off, till I'm down to one little droopy flower :( I *think* you are supposed to cut the spent flowers, which I did, to encourage new growth. Hmm...sounds like a life lesson in there somewhere ;)

Jessica's gerbers were droopy and needed cut as well, so I did. I do know that they tend to come back real easy after a cut back, but I don't think they bloom much through the summer. Mostly a spring flower, which is a shame. Their many colors are almost decadent ;)

Now, since I started this post, my boys have tried 28,139 different ways to send me over the edge, so I think I'll go lay down in my garden and try to suck in some of that mood enhancer I was just raving about. That or plant one of them in my garden ;)

PS: my sister Louise did all of the shoveling for me when I planted these, so to her I say, "Louise, I am not worthy to breathe the air you exhale."