MyGarden Pics

I started the season very early this year, I noticed the weather was very nice a litter bit warmer than expected so I started early. This month you will basically see the few small tomatoes plants I bought and some or the beds are going to be just empty because they are just seeds on it. This first month I will let everything settle and by the next month I will posting updates the 1st and 15th of each month so we can track the progress and the mistakes I will be making. Thank you and Let's Get Dirty!

 

• Watermelons

Here are my two watermelon plants that I took from my compose bin, you heard right they were growing in my compose bin so I just pull them out and transplant them to my grow beds I grew watermelons cantaloupe last year in the same bed.

• Tomatoes

  I plant 4 different varieties of tomatoes plants from:

Cherry Tomato Plants:
• Porter
• Roma
• Black Cherry
• Early Girl

 

• Mix Peppers

I planted 3 different type of pepers:

• Green (Back)
• Red (Center)
• Jalapeño Pepper (Front)

Green and red peppers are the same kind the only difference is that they ripe early (Red) or late (Green).    

• Cilantro

My family love cilantro, we use it for everything from soup and salads to meat and snacks. Cilantro grow very fast in the summer and need to be pick up frequently to avoid flowering.  

• Onion

This is my first time growing onions, I bought the onion in a bundle of 50 to 60 small onion and just plant then in the grow beds and also in the Aquaponics system. They do good in the Aquaponics at least in the winter time that is when I grew then last year.  

• Beans

Green beans are a favorite of mine. They grow very fast and grow plentiful. You must pick them up constantly so the plant keep yielding if you don't pick them up the plant will stagnate.  

• Pumkins

I am trying pumpkins for the first time this year too. I have a set of 6 months old twins and I want the girls to start solid food with organics home grown pumpkins and other vegetables as well. I grew cantaloupes, cucumbers, and watermelons before so I know is not that hard and they grow very large during the summer months. I just need to be vigilant with the bugs like cucumber beetles, squash beetles and others.  

• Lime

I come from the Caribbean so we love lime and lemons. I love to have a source of citrus juice available for when the summer heat arrives you will be ready for it. This plant was planted last year but I wrongly plant it on the wrong container with no drainage and the plant lost all the foliage and almost dies. This time I use a clay pot with drainage and I put loose gravel inside the pot to increase drainage. This time the tree is doing fine and looking good let’s hope for some limes this year.  

• Mandarin

Last year fall, I planted a mandarin tree but the cold of the winter kill it before it was established. This year I decide to plant the tree early in the spring so the tree has time to grow and be ready for the winter. This tree already have small mandarins and is blooming already, I think I will have some mandarins this summer, looking forward to it.  

• Tomatoes Aquaponics

Tomatoes do not do well in the Aquaponics during winter time; well they are summer crop so I do not expect them to be happy at all. This spring they are looking a lot better and I know they will do OK. I have cherry black tomatoes and another variety that I can’t remember but we will know when they ripe.  

• Beans Aquaponics

Beans in the Aquaponics did OK during the winter but they blossom during early spring. They also like heat, we all do, and we have pick a few green beans already but nothing like what we want. I have more beans in the grow beds in the soil and those should complements the ones in the Aquaponics but this is more of an experimental phase right now.  

• Garden

The garden has change a lot since last July when I started to build the Aquaponics system. The grow beds have been around for a year or two so this is just building in top of what I already had. I am sure there will be more changes to come so keep tune for new improvements. I want to apologize for night pictures but the night come early on February just around the time I got home from work, I am glad summer is approaching and we will have longer days and shorter nights.

Welcome back, this is our second month. This month I have a very nice growth due to the warm weather. The tomatoes and the melons are all looking good, I also added up corn into my garden. I am a bit scare about the corn I am not sure what to expect from corn like I never try to grow before, lets see what happens. Right now the Acuaponics is moving much faster than the soil and plants look more healthier too. I have not added anything to the Aquaponics and the plants seen to be getting all the nutrients they need. The pictures are mix from the 1st and the 15th but I am very please with the progress so far. Thank you for visiting and Let's Get Dirty.  

• Cucumbers

I decided to add three cucumber plants on a place I use to have my turtle pond a few months ago. I just added some more dirt to it and plat cucumber seeds. I always plant 2 to 3 seeds in 5 different parts of the area and then just cut the weak one and leave the 3 strongest of them all. Cucumbers usually do very good and grow extremely well in Texas hot humid weather. Last year I got about 10 from a small plant but I harvest them to late and they were to yellow and did not taste that good, this year I am going to harvest them as soon as they get big enough for consumption.

• Early Girl

The Early Girls are the biggest one so far and they probably will be ready to eat by mid-May. The plant is very healthy and robust but also has a few brown spots on some of the leaves. I use liquid fertilizer every 2 weeks and some pellets for slow absorption once a month, they seem to love this way.  

• Roma

The Roma tomatoes are good for sauces, pastes and salads or just plain out of the plants. Most of the tomatoes plants are having the leave turning brown in the edges. I think this came as a result of watering them late in the evening and watering the leave, they don't like wet leave. I tried to water only the base but regardless you will get water splatter into the leave. Try to keep the leave dry and you should be ok.  

• Porter

I never seen a Porter tomato before or maybe I don’t remember then. They look to be small to medium in size and round like the cherry. They look a bit bigger than the cherry tomatoes but not as the Early Girls. The plant is of a medium size but is very robust and large stems, very firm and steady.  

• Corn (Maize)

Well, here is a first to me and I have no clue how Corn work. I like corn I heard it grows very fast and take very litter time from seed to harvest. I am growing a sweet small plant I forgot the name but I promise to post the variety soon; I know it is a hybrid. I will put a comment section in each picture for people that have question and or suggestion to be able to contribute to the experience.

 

• Mandarin

I love fruits tree and been always looking for ways to grow any kind of fruit trees. I have passion fruit, tomatoes (Yes, tomatoes are fruits) and had a Barbados cherry tree (Acerola) but it did not survive the winter. So far it is doing OK and already started to flower and have many small fruits as you can see in the picture. I bought the tree for about $30.00 and it was about 6 inches shorter of what it is now.

 

• Peppermint

I decide to try herbs this year and what better than mint. I was shooting for Spearmint but end up buying a small Peppermint plant. It taste a bit different but I am already using it for tea, juice and even for training my daughters to eat carrots and pumpkins by flavoring then with Mint. We have to be careful with this one because it is an invasive plant and it will take over if you leave it uncheck. I plant it in my Aquaponics bed so I have more control over it and I can pull it out of the bed when ever necessary.  

• Watermelons

Like you can notice I did some changes to the bed and added a homemade cage/trellis for the watermelon plant to climb into and to keep Oreo and Sebastian away from the beds, they love to play in the dirt like any other dog do. Last year I had the watermelons in the ground and is hard to keep them from spoiling, this way I use now I will try to hang them from the trellis and keep them from the ground I added another one to the Pumpkin plant too, you will see later.  

• Watermelons Aquaponics

The watermelon plants in the Aquaponics are growing twice as big as the one in the dirt. I like that because I don’t have to water or fertilize the Aquaponics beds but just feed the fish and see the plants grow. I am looking to see what can be built in order to get the watermelons a place to rest and keep them from falling to the ground, maybe a base to sit them around the bed.  

• Bean Rows

I decided to add beans to my grow beds because I do love beans and because of the special ability of the beans of adding nitrogen to the soil by way of nitrogen sequestration. All Beans (Legumes) host bacteria in their roots within structures called root nodules. These bacteria, known as rhizobia, have the ability to take nitrogen gas (N2) out of the air and convert it to a form of nitrogen that is usable to the host plant ( NO3- or NH3 ). This process is called nitrogen fixation. The legume, acting as a host, and rhizobia, acting as a provider of usable nitrate, form a symbiotic relationship.  

• Strawberries

Strawberries are the fastest to grow a produce fruits we have taken about 5 strawberries from this plant and I have 8 more plants I plated last week. They grow well on the Aquaponics bed and we are looking forward to harvest more strawberries. Strawberries are very easy to grow and take minimum care, that’s why many people love them.  

• Tomatoes Aquaponics

In my opinion tomatoes are made for Aquaponics . The two plants I added to the Aquaponics are growing very fast and the leaves are disease free, no brown spots or yellowing. The reason why is because there is no water spraying into the plants at all, the water the plants use come from below straight to the roots. Take a look at the different pictures and you will notice the different in the leave condition right away, also the main carrier of diseases and bugs is the dirt itself so this method of growing eliminate mostly every possible disease.  

• Passion Fruit

I started this passion fruit plant from seed in the winter and was looking forward for warm weather so I could take the plant out side and watch it grow. The passionfruit vine is a shallow-rooted, woody, perennial, climbing by means of tendrils. The yellow passion fruit is tropical or near-tropical needs protection from wind. Generally, annual rainfall should be at least 35 in (90 cm), but in the Northern Transvaal, in South Africa, there is reduced transpiration because of high atmospheric humidity and commercial culture is carried on with precipitation of only 24 in (60 cm). Passion fruit vines are grown on many soil types but light to heavy sandy loams, of medium texture are most suitable. Good drainage is essential to minimize the incidence of collar rot.

• Pumpkins

I started this pumpkins from seeds too. They all germinated and starting to grow right away, very easy to start. Like I had said before I don't eat pumpkins but want to grow pumpkins in order to make baby food for my twins 6 months old daughters. It is cheaper and healthier than buying it from the super markets. I heard they are easy to grow and they should be ready by October, lets see.

• Garden

This is how my garden looks from the outside. I have an Aquaponics system inside the garden and 4 soil growbeds around the frame. I also added the litter corn field in the right side of the garden, corn needs a lot of sun. I am not planning to do any more changes to the garden but who knows we will see what happen. April brought the first strawberries of the year we already got a few strawberries and the watermelons are ready for pollination, still the male flowers are not ready yet. I need to invite some bees to my garden to help me with the pollination, with out bees there is no pollination see my page on backyard beekeeping for information related to this subject. The beans had also sprout and are very large for the time, I been using some liquid fertilizer just to make sure I keep the plants happy. See the pictures below for more details and Let's Get Dirty.

 

• Cucumbers

Here are my two watermelon plants that I took from my compose bin, you heard right they were growing in my compose bin so I just pull them out and transplant them to my grow beds. They are ready for the bees so lets the party begins.

• Oreo and Sebastian

This two mini Schnauzer are the reason why I had to wire my whole garden. To be fair is not Oreo (Black) But Sebastian (White) that is causing all the problems, he is a 10 weeks old puppy. They also helps me keep the birds and rodents away from my grow beds so I can't complain about them.

• Tomatoes

The tomato plants always grow well in this grow beds, I should rotate the crops year after year. Last year I plant them in the same grow bed, next year I will rotate just because is good for the prevention of diseases and pests. Again they do very well and I always give them all the nitrogen, phosphorus and Potassium they need.

• Mix Peppers

I planted 3 different varieties of peppers this years, most of the time I just do green peppers. In reality red peppers are green peppers but they rip early in the season and turn red that is all the difference. I also have some cilantro and it is going bananas like you can tell. We are going to start to cut it before it start to die, cilantro only take a month or so to be ready to eat from seeds.  

• Corn (Maize)

I love corn, I never grown corn but I am going to do it this year. Corn look just like the weeds I pulled out of my yard a week ago, well they are a weed. Maize is the domesticated variant of grass.The two plants have dissimilar appearance, maize having a single tall stalk with multiple leaves and grass being a short, bushy plant. The difference between the two is largely controlled by differences in just two genes.

• Grow bed

This messy looking bed is my Aquaponics grow bed. Like you can tell I have a lot in that small bed and that is because plants in an Aquaponics system don't have to compete for food. The food is deliver straight to the roots and in abundance for everyone, for this reason the plants density tends to be grater that in soil. Take a look at my Aquaponics page for details on how to set up this system as well as other very good information.  

• Watermelons

Here is where I plant my watermelons year after year. Last year I had about 10 cantaloupe watermelons and the y were of a pretty decent side.  This plants are not as large as the one in the Aquaponics but that's OK they will do just fine in a few months. I planted only two plants because they like to grow all over the place and in a few months there will be no grow bed visible and a lot of water melons around ( I Hope).

• Watermelons Aquaponics

Well, like I said if you look at the two watermelons plants this one look like 6 months old compare to the other one and they were planted about the same time I will said the Aquaponics one are younger than the soil bed ones. This are the advantages of this new Aquaponics system I used no fertilizer no water over the plants and very litter maintenance time and don't forget no weeding. Hey, what you have to loose give it a try, check my page on Aquaponics and help how to build it, if you have any question contact me and I will help as much as I can.

• Beans

Here they use to be just seeds a few weeks ago now they are pretty healthy and large plants. This one are pinto beans and some Pigeon Peas (Gandules) in front of it. You can also see the pumpkin plant starting to spread this way.

• Strawberries

Strawberries grow very fast this one was the first crop I harvest this year and they are still growing. They are of a very nice size not as sweet as the commercial one but I love them very high in vitamin C. I planted 8 more plants in the center block holes just to use the space for something. The one in the Aquaponics come from the winter crops they grow all year round.

• Tomatoes Aquaponics

This used to be my tomatoes in the Aquaponics. Use to be becouse 30 MPH winds cutted the plant in halfe last week, it was full of cherry black tomatoes, what it waist. Wait, no waist I fed the plant to my worms so that was a full

• Pigeon Peas

• Pumpkins

      Yes, I just find out that most of my pumpkins plants have Powdery Mildew.  I also find some black and yellow bus I though they were yellow lady bugs but just discover they are cucumber beetles and they need to go. I am going to the garden every afternoon and just picking up cucumber beatles at will. For the mildew I bought something to spray the leaves to see if I can fix the problem, any sugestion will be welcome. Today I just got my first basket of fruits and vegetables from the garden. Not bad for late May.         I have an early crop during this early season. Believe or not by May 1 I had a lot of cilantro, huge onions, tomatoes, strawberries, Peppermint and beans, nice! great start this season. See the pictures below for the early season vegetables and herbs. I also have a comparison between the onions I buy at the supermarket and the one that came from the garden, mine is the bigger one by the way.                       Like you can see above, I do have a few watermelon waiting to be pollinate. I am not sure if it is already pollinate or not but I think is not, we will see. I built a wood edge around the Aquaponics  grow-bed to rest the melons while they develop, I don't want to have them hanging there in the air.               Here is the flower that contain the pollen needed for the fruit to start to grow. Where are the bees when you need them. Please visit the page on Backyard beekeeping for great info on this subject. The flower only open completely during the morning and afternoon and after that it close for the rest of the day just like the Government DMC.                 For some reason this tomato plant in the Acuaponics have only one tomato. The tomato look pretty good and the plant is one of the healthiest one in the grow bed so I don't know why. I had a huge plant with over 10 tomatoes on it but the wind broke it in half you will see pictures later.               Here is my pumpkin plant. The leaves are huge but the powdery mold still alive in the leaves, I am trying to avoid watering the plant in the afternoon and I am only doing early in the morning now. I am not sure if that will make any difference but I want to try that for now if not I do have a plan B.               Again, this leaves do not see to be that bad but they are a lot smaller that the other ones. There you can also see the pumpkins flower coming alone and some pumpkins also I think. The only problem I have with this plant is the cucumber beetles that come every day and try to eat the plant, beside that everything seen perfect.               The tomatoes in one of the plants in the soil are almost ready to be pick up, I am probably going to pick them up tomorrow or the day after. I don't want to give birds and other animals chance to sneak in a eat them like last year.               This is one that I am eager to see it grow. The passion fruit is probably going to take a season or two to start to yield fruit but the passion fruits are one of my favorites fruits. You can't find this fruit here in Texas, maybe in the super market but not in anyone backyard well maybe one, mine. Let see how long it take for it to grow.               Here is Oreo on duty, he is on bird watch to make sure birds don't eat my corn, beans or peas. Birds love to eat what ever they can, that's why I hang a bird feeder and I feed them seeds and bird food so they stay away from the veggies. He like it outside so is not just work is also fun in the sun.               I was so happy when I notice a litter friend visiting my garden this afternoon. It is my friend Ladybug. This bugs love to eat other pest like aphids or scale insects, which are pests in gardens, agricultural fields, orchards, and similar places. I found some more next to beans and they were eating some green larva like insects so that's good, welcome ladybug.                 I seems like two of the gold fishes from the Aquaponics fish tank came up to the surface to said hi. They don't do that very often and try to avoid the surface most of the time. I think the summer have warm the water enough that they want to take some sun because I had seen them more and more as the weather warm.                 I have a second pumpkin plant for insurance in the other one, I just want to make sure I have a few pumpkins in October for the homemade baby food for my daughters and of course for Halloween. The pineapple is my wife project I tried last season and it was doing OK until the winter, merciless, destroy the plant in a few days.               Here I have one of 10 strawberries plants I bough online in Amazon. They are doing beautifully and yes I know that is the wrong side of the "Topsy Turvy" but I am kind of weird like that. They are doing just find that way, the tomatoes never grew at all when I was using it the right way.               This is my wife Marcela's flower bed. I had to put the wire because of "Sebastian the Menace", he love to dig hole in the freshly lay soil, who wouldn't?                           Here we have my corn field. I know it look like a weed or grass but is corn believe me, well corn is actually a domesticated weed that the Indians developer am very please and surprise at same time with the way this corn had been growing. I never planted corn before but I just planted this less than a month ago or so. I think they will be ready for harvest before the melons and pumpkins do. So far so go.               I am having some issues with the citrus, specially the mandarins. The small fruits are been drooped and some of the leave have some discoloration obviously a nitrogen deficiency. I did added some cow manure and fertilizer so let's see how that works. I read that the tree will eventually drop 80% of all the fruits in the early stage and that only 20% of the fruits actually make it to the last dance, interesting. My other citrus tree, the lime tree, is doing good. This one actually lost all the leaves and almost die last year. I was watering way to much and the pot where it was planted did not have a drain on the bottom so it was soaked on water all the time. I fix that and now he is doing well I water it every two to tree days or when ever it looks a bit dry. Let's hop it flowers this fall and maybe I can get a few limes out of it.   Here is the update for today May 13, happy mother’s days for all mothers.   Here we have our first ever Ancho (Poblano) Peppers, I never tasted this king before, they are very good for stews and soup. Passion fruit plant is doing very well, especially since I change the plastic pot for a clay pot. Clay is much better do to the fact that they are not solid and do have tiny holes that allow the roots to breath more easy than plastic. Here is the biggest of the squash in the rise bed. These puppies grow very fast and balloon to incredible sizes so keep tune for updates. The pumpkin plant outside the garden is falling behind a litter bit but still doing OK. It has flowers already not the many fruits but indeed a lot of flowers.   Here is the other pumpkin plant inside the garden and as you can see this one is a bit more robust and more flowery to. This one also has more fruits than the one outside. Here is the other side of the same plant. Some of the tomatoes are ready to be pick-up. We have already harvested about 4 or 5 tomatoes. Another Early Girl tomato is ready. These are the two I just picked. Some Jalapeno peppers still need a few more weeks before they are ready but they are looking good so far. This is hot jalapenos and the plant is very healthy and robust, looking forward to taste this peppers. There still a bunch more of those Ancho (Poblano) Peppers still in the plant, I will give them some more time to taste the difference between the early and late harvest.    

This is how the Squash bed look like today, it is growing very fast specially after last week raining special. We did have a few days of raining; we got maybe a couple of inches of rain not bad.

    The strawberries are coming along well they should be ready to be pick-up next month. My corn is growing so fast that I thought maybe something was wrong but I guess that corns are. The first pumpkin of the season is showing up, they will not be ready until October but that's OK just in time for Halloween. Here are the pinto beans tingle with some cucumbers and the pumpkins they are all fighting for space, lets the ready to rumble!! Some or the onions can be pick-up now but I will wait a bit more to get bigger ones, I hope the extra water do not affect the onions. Onions don't like a lot of water so I am not going to water this one for a while. Pigeon Peas are looking beautiful I am looking forward to eat these peas they are very flavor full and good for rice or stews. Legumes are also good for the soil due to the nitrogen fixation properties of the legume family so next years you will see my tomatoes growing in this bed. I also used a clay pot for the citrus (Lime) they hate wet feet so this seem to make a different so far, let’s see what happen when the heat pick-up.