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Yesterday, I bought some carrot seeds. I've been spending so much time planting seeds for chard, broccoli, lettuce and a few brussel sprouts, so I can have a nice fall garden. 

Hope to get some of the seeds in the ground by tomorrow....well, maybe not tomorrow, I'm trying to attend a concert event tomorrow, so I'll probably shot for the end of this week. 

Quote of the Week

"Gardening is the work of a lifetime: You never finish."


                                                                       --Oscar De La Renta

A Beautiful View

A few pictures around my garden and yard. Here’s a lovely picture 

of Vinca plants that were given to me by one of my kids’ friends,

they really add a nice pop of pretty around the mailbox area.

Thanks again, Izzy for the beautiful gift! 

In another area of my yard, we’ll find some late season growth 

of some other summer favorites.  

Here we have Thai Purple Eggplant. 

This is my

first time growing this variety, I usually grow Black Beauty 

or Slim Jim Variety. Love the taste of both of these varieties,

 however, as an impatient gardener, I prefer growing Slim 

Jim simply because harvest time is a lot faster and longer than 

Black Beauty. Since this is my first time growing Thai Purple, I 

can’t really give an honest review of this variety, yet. 

It was such a struggle just to keep the plants alive---I started a 

numerous amount of seeds indoors 8 weeks before frost, under

 a heating lamp and eventually started hardening them off 

(the process of moving plants outside for portions of the day 

to familiarize plants with outdoor temperatures and weather).

 Everything was working out greatly for three weeks and by 

this time, I was starting to leave the plants outside for overnight,

 and then----it happens. An unusual cold front comes through 

and damaged several plants. It took lots of time and effort to save 

what was left---it probably took two months.As you can see there’s

a flower on the plant, so fruit is not far behind.

This last picture has to be my favorite of the three pictured. 

Yeah, homie that’s a watermelon and I’m so excited! 

This is my first year growing the larger variety of 

watermelon…..oh no, that’s a lie! I almost forgot, I did grow

 the Moon and Stars variety last year, along with my

 usual planting of a smaller variety called Sugar Baby

(they usually weigh between 8 to 10 pounds). 

Moon and Stars grew very well last year, however, I never

 got to bring any to the table because they became a 

feast for the animal kingdom. Never found out what was 

eating the melons, but hey----it must have been delicious,

 just too bad my family and I didn’t get a chance to taste 

the sweetness of the Moon and Stars melon, but I hope to  

experience a few slices of Orange Tendersweet this year. 

So Ready for a Fall Garden

Working hard to get the fall garden together. Been planting loads of lettuce and broccoli seeds for the past week and a bit of chard. 

Have you started your fall garden yet, and if so, what are you planting? 

#fallgarden, #atlgardener, #growfood, #agreenhaven, #broccoli, #lettuce

A Small Harvest

I forgot to post about this two days ago, but here I am.

I finally harvested some tomatillos, I probably should've waited, but I was antsy.

Here's my little harvest. 

Was able to make an 8 oz jar of  

salsa verde, next time I'll try to post the recipe.

And just like that, it's a taco salad type of night!

Quote of the Week

Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years.

                            --Unknown 

Hey Avocado

You probably can't tell this is a photo of an avocado seed that has split. I absolutely forgot about it, even though it's sitting on my kitchen windowsill--you were almost tossed, buddy. 

I've grown an avocado plant in the past and have never had to wait so long to see any progress/growth. Shoot its been so long, I don't exactly remember when I started on this project....I want to say it was late April/early May--I'm going to run with that. 

For probably two months I never saw any progress with the seed, so I thought maybe I was doing something wrong or maybe a change of location was needed. 

Even though I suspected the seed might need a change of location, I never moved the plant, more so out of my frustration with the nonprogression of growth.

I needed some time away from my little indoor experiment. So, I stopped adding fresh water to the jar and just let the seed be...until I was ready to move an olive jar containing water and the top half of a water bottle (top half turned upside down) sitting inside of said, jar. 

Seriously, not a good look to have in a kitchen, but it can still be a great conversation starter. 

Now that the development is so obvious, I think it can stay.

#agreenhaven 

Before and After

Had to do a bit of sprucing up, the weeds were getting out of hand. So, here's the before picture, and.....

here's the after. I still have more work to do, and I hope to clean up a lot more, but this heat is brutal in the Atlanta area right now. I mean seriously, the heat has been brutal in the early morning hours into the evening, so cleaning up the garden will definitely be a series of small steps. 

Quote of the Week

A garden requires patient labor and attention. Plants do not grow merely to satisfy ambitions or to fulfill good intentions. They thrive because someone expended effort on them.

                           --Liberty Hyde Bailey

#gardenquotes, #agreenhaven,#growfood,#LibertyHydeBailey

Beautiful Flowers

The flowers on the potato plants are in bloom. They look so beautiful.

#atlantagardener, #growfood #potatoflowers

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Here's the wood that I spoke about in my previous post, ' A Whirlwind of a Day.'  I'm so happy we found it, now I have to decide which mushrooms to grow. 

#atlantagardener, #growfood, #backyardgardener

Quote of the Week

"I think this is what hooks one to gardening: it is the closest one can come to being present at creation."

                   ---Phyllis Theroux

#gardenquotes, #PhyllisTheroux, #atlgardener,#quoteoftheweek