{in the dirt}

There is nothing in my pots.
My celery died because I watered it too much.
My green onion, I didn't tell you about because of the celery, is wilting and I think I didn't water it enough.

My gardening skills are going south. Not in a good way.


However, I did rescue a poinsettia and a green, piney thing from work and they seem to be doing well.

What's important here, is that I have not started to plan to turn the weird plot of back yard you see into a haven. {I find it comical that you can see where Tom Mater & friends sat beside the fence. My sweetheart does not find this funny, at all.}

Things to keep in mind, is I can't dig & I shouldn't kill the grass. We use this odd splat of cement to grill sometimes, so it is nice to be able to pull out chairs. Oh, and we don't know if we will be here til the end of summer. So, I shouldn't get excited and go all out.

This year I need to keep my plants more miniature than last year. I'm hoping for tomatoes, lettuce, & cucumbers at least. I'm hoping for something new too, as well as hopefully a cute pot and some non-expensive dirt. Not too much to ask right?

Wish me luck!!

{indoor apartment garden}

fresh celery!

That's right! I have found a way to keep a garden going, even during the winter. Gardening is one of my favorite stress relievers. Plucking Tom Mater {the 7 foot tall infamous tomato plant} and my two cucumber plants out of their pots this past weekend was so sad. I even left them there for a week or so {or two} after the frost had come, hoping that maybe they would spring back to life.

Believe it or not, Tom Mater had a giant 1/2-3/4 inch root that snuck through the drain holes my sweetheart and I had drilled. The root went deep into the ground, and I struggled to pull it out! It's incredible how resourceful plants can be. & sometimes I feel like I have to sit there and breathe one them just to get them to sprout. I can't wait until next spring!

In the meantime, I'm growing my own celery. It's really easy! Cut the celery so that an inch or so is left at the bottom of your celery stalk, and place it in water with the cut side up. Be sure to not cut the celery too short; you should be able to see some leaves in the middle. After a few days, leaves will start to sprout up. Like in the picture, except placed in water.

After the leaves have sprouted, place the whole thing in the dirt. Cover up the cut pieces, so that only the leaves show. {The picture was taken before I covered up the cut pieces. Also, the dirt was recycled, so there is a leaf in there. Woops!} The celery should grow, and I've read that I should be able to repeat the process with the same plant!

Inside apartment garden, here I come!!

{garden update}

It's starting to get colder here in NC! But the garden is still doing well. {by the way, so is the little aloe plant in the corner. apparently he doesn't like the outside world.}

 The watermelon was actually ripe, by the way! Super delicious. It probably could have been picked a little earlier, but anyone I've ever talked to always tells me their watermelons never turn out well.Well, guess my thumb just got a little greener!

So now that my cucumbers are doing well, I can tell you how it works. Unless you have bees {which I don't think visit my garden} you don't have to worry about pollinating the flowers. Since I do, I'll tell you how it's done. The picture below is a female cucumber flower. The male flowers are identical, except for the little cucumber before the flower. You remove the male flower's petals {sorry, poor guy} and stick the rest of the male stamen on the female stigma. {The stamen/stigma being the middle part that holds the pollen. Hope I got that right...} It is basically the same thing you have to do with watermelons.

Tada! Cucumbers! I've harvested two cucumbers so far, and have at least three more on the way. By the way, it's fine to pollinate the female and male flowers from the same plant. The only time it's not is if you're trying to save seeds. I planted two plants, and only one is doing very well, but I like the security of having two. & my dear sweetheart said the cucumbers were extra tasty.

female cucumber flower

Can you believe I actually grew a watermelon? I wonder if one day I'll actually be able to have a big garden and start a little bit of homesteading. I'm trying to grow some lettuce now, and it's obviously not going to work. Oh well!

I know, so excited!!

{Apartment Jungle}

pre-pollinated

Gardening is one of my favorite stress relievers. & watching everything grow has been amazing.

I have a 6+ foot tomato plant I'm growing in a 48" or so pot. We've enjoyed 14 tomatoes so far, and should have another 13 in a few weeks! See, you can grow some of your own food on an apartment patio!

 

So I'm also trying to grow a watermelon plant. I read online you can train them to grow up a trellis. I think you're supposed to do that with 8-10 pound watermelons. Mine should grow to be 25. I can only hope!!

The trick to growing watermelons in an apartment/town house, is that you have to hand pollinate the flowers. Really? it's not difficult, as long as you can catch a female flower blossoming. I had two, and they blossomed on a perfect sunday morning. The very next day-there's a melon growing! 

One of the watermelons is still thriving. The other shriveled up. Maybe because of lack of water, I'm not sure. Either way, I would expect to be able to have my first summer watermelon by mid October. Hope it doesn't frost before then.

An {Apartment} Watermelon's Life

July 21

July 30-Hand pollinated the day before

August 3

August 7

The Other One August 7

August 18

Well, I'll have to find a new hobby for Autumn...