Our first tomatoes...just waiting for them to ripen...

I'm so excited to see our first baby tomatoes growing on the vine. Several plants have tomatoes. We will be able to harvest them soon.

All is not well...

As happy as I am about all of the rest of our garden, I am not happy about my kale. There are little green worms eating holes in the leaves. LOTS of little green worms... Why is this happening? Last year I had amazingly healthy and prolific kale plants. I did some research and discovered what I think is the answer. In the box with the kale, I planted some rosemary. It was an afterthought since my husband does not really love rosemary and relegated it to the "kale box". But, I didn't have any worms or any problems at all with my kale last year. I can not have worms on my kale! I harvest it to add to my smoothies. I do not want the extra green protein in my smoothies! ;) I just bought a rosemary plant last night at Lowes (because I LOVE the smell of rosemary). Today, after I read about rosemary loving kale, I plopped it into the kale box. Hopefully, this will do the trick. I will have to get out my companion planting book again and see what else I need to plant with what. So...just because these are "garden anywhere" boxes does not mean that they do not have to be tended a little. But...there are ways to outsmart the pests. Companion planting is one of those ways. There are also homemade sprays that will prevent pesky pests from invading your garden. Hopefully, with a little planning, your plants will thrive and survive the summer and the pests.

This is huge!

I took a picture of this plant last week...the cucumber/tomato plants sharing one spot in the GA box. Wow! It got huge in just a week. We are doing something right so far...

Not Pretty, but Functional...

This is a picture of rows and rows of Earth boxes. This is from the website: Global Institute Blog. These are boxes that are set up in Haiti to help the people grow their own food.
Just imagine if we could do our part to share Earthbox/Garden Anywhere boxes around the world. Imagine if all of those boxes were connected by tubes to an automatic watering system. It would save water and time in watering all of the boxes. The boxes are not pretty like in a manicured garden, but they are functional. Once you make the initial investment, the boxes should last a long time and provide lots of food for a family or community.
One thing I noticed in the picture is that they do not have the black covering over the boxes. This is an important part of the box system, imho. It keeps weeds out and moisture and a strip of fertilizer in.

Squash Pasta...

Here's one of my favorite ways to cook zucchini or yellow squash...

Wash your squash and use a veggie peeler to peel strips off of your squash. Add strips to a skillet with a little EVOO and stir around gently until softened. Add some jarred Alfredo sauce or make your own. Serve over your choice of pasta. Yum! I like to add a pinch of white pepper. It blends in with the alfredo sauce and adds a little kick at the same time.

Squash Babies or Squash, Baby!

Here's a first picture of some yellow squash. Squash, Baby! Can't wait!

One of My Favorite Gardening Books...

Tomatoes Love Carrots: Companion Planting for Better Tomatoes

It should come a no shock that tomatoes have natural allies in the plant world.

These allies help protect the tomato from pests and predators, leave nutrients in the soil that help the plants and fruit to grow, improve flavor, and in turn benefit from the tomato plant properties.

Friends of the Tomato
As a rule of thumb, consider planting your tomatoes near: carrots, beans, celery, cucumbers, lettuces, mint, garlic, chives, parsley, borage, bee balm, oregano, sage, or marigolds.

Basil and onions are also especially friendly, and can easily be planted between rows.

Roses, peppers, and asparagus really love tomatoes, too; and though they don’t offer tomatoes much in return, they get along well.

Enemies of the Tomato

Keep in mind, too, that tomatoes have natural enemies.

Avoid planting tomatoes near: corn, cruciferous vegetables (cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, brussel sprouts, kohlrabi), potatoes, rosemary, peas, fennel, kale, mature dill (young dill can help tomato plant growth but mature dill stunts it), or walnut trees.

Interested in more?

Check out Louise Riotte’s beautifully narrative Carrots Love Tomatoes, one of my favorite gardening books.

Tomatoes love Cucumbers...

Not sure how this happened, but we have a tomato and cucumber sharing a spot. Thank goodness tomatoes and cucumbers are friends in the growing world.

The tomatoes a couple of weeks later...

They look beautiful and healthy. We have about 30 tomato plants, a few cucumber plants and a couple of squash plants. It's about time to cage these bad boys.

Our First Zucchini of 2012

Here's a picture of our first zucchini of the season. I've actually picked three so far. There are two plants growing in this box. You can't really tell, but this is a demo box. There is a cutaway with some plastic down the side that allows you to see inside and see the root system. It's pretty cool.

Zucchini Crisps...Or What Do I Do With an Abundance of Zucchini

Preheat the oven to 400. Slice zucchini into rounds. Put into a ziploc bag. Add a little olive oil to coat. Add some bread crumbs or Panko. Add grated parmesan cheese. Shake bag to coat. Place on Silpat on jellyroll pan. Bake until golden brown.

Another Garden Spot

Here is another garden/watering system. This has tomatoes, cucumbers and I don't know what else my husband has growing out there. We have blooms on some of the tomatoes! The plants are thriving. All of the boxes are connected by tubing. They are watered by a water barrel and hooked up to the outdoor faucet so the barrel will never run dry. There will be no weeds and not washing away if it rains.I don't even have to water! We've already had a lot of rain and no washing away of the garden. This is such a great gardening system. I am so excited for this growing season!

Watering system

Here is a picture of our watering system. One blue barrel is hooked up to the rain spout which will funnel rain water in.Both barrels are full of water. The barrels are linked together with tubing which is also linked to the Garden Anywhere boxes. If it is dry for a while and we run out of rain water, the outside faucet will automatically kick into gear and water the plants. This is a box of kale that you see. Notice the dog dish. With this watering system, even the dog is not forgotten. Fresh water everytime they drink.

I thought it was about time to update our gardening progress. My husband has been busily tending to his plants. He started some seeds indoors in January. We had some left over from last year, so he thought he'd see if they would sprout. Here is a picture of the two squash seeds that sprouted. This plant is doing great. It's very hardy. There are three small squash plants almost ready to harvest...and it's only April!