Tag: mouse cucamelon

Happy New Year 2020: A Look Back To 2019

Happy New Year’s from my house to yours!

2019 was in “interesting” year at my house.

The Good

It had lots of excitement, like being picked as one of Burpee Home Gardens 2019 Gardeners of the Year!

I tried a bunch of new plants in the garden.

We took some wonderful vacations.

But, most exciting was proudly watching my twin boys graduate from college–Go Hokies and Go Blue!!

I’ll be playing catch up writing about all these experiences this winter as the garden goes into hibernation for a few months!

The Bad

But all things don’t always go smoothly and aren’t all great. I kept up with the blog as best as I could this year, but as I mentioned earlier, I was diagnosed with stage 1 breast cancer in March. That took much longer to deal with than I expected, but I am looking forward to putting this behind me. I feel really lucky that it was caught early, but I still had to endure a lumpectomy, radiation, physical therapy and now hormone therapy (but no chemo, phew). I also feel really lucky to have had my family and so many friends, near and far, around me. All your help, positive messages and meals were invaluable!

I did panic a bit over how I was going to be the July BHG 2019 Gardener of the Month and undergo cancer treatment. But in reality, that push to keep me in the garden proved to be so helpful. Keeping active despite everything else going on really helped keep me distracted and maintain a positive outlook. That peacefulness and excitement I feel working outside in the garden, gave my mind and body some time to heal from the demands of treatment. Maybe things weren’t ideal this year (or less ideal than usual), but with help from my husband and my very trusted landscaper who listened carefully to all my instructions, I was able to keep up with the gardens and enjoy bloom and harvest time.

There’s a lot of evidence that working in a garden, or just enjoying nature, works wonders for the healing process. I have to agree.

We also sadly said goodbye to our Daisy in October at the very old age of 16. She’s been with us since the boys were in 1st grade, so her absence is greatly felt. Miss you, pretty girl ❤️❤️

So after all that, here’s hoping that 2020 will be a wonderful, healthy and happy one for all of us ❤️❤️

Looking forward to getting back to writing!

One more thing–Here’s my PSA–get your yearly mammograms, they save lives! Also, check out the National Air Quality Assessment map to see if unbeknownst to you, you’re sitting under a toxic cloud from nearby industry. My community fought back and we got the ethylene oxide spewing Sterigenics closed! Visit Stop Sterigenics for more information.

Seedlings on the Move

I’ve been anxiously awaiting Mother’s Day, and not just because I get to be the center of attention, but because it signals the official beginning of the outdoor garden season in my area.

Generally once Mother’s Day passes, I can start planting the warm weather plants without too much fear of a cold snap. Some things like zinnias, I will still wait a couple more weeks to make sure the ground is nice and warm. It finally seems like the vegetable seedlings I started in the house are ready to move outside. The flowers will wait a few more days (Finally Planting Season is Beginning).  About 4 weeks ago I started:

 

Squash, cucumbers and zucchini really don’t like to have their roots disturbed, so they can be finicky when you transplant them. It’s recommended to start them outdoors, but I’ve had good luck growing them in peat pots or other biodegradable pots to give them a head start. After they get nice and strong in the house, I move them to my mini greenhouse for a couple of days, then outdoors in the shade for a couple more. Then, when they’re ready to plant I gently tear the bottom off the pot and plant the whole pot.

I’m super excited to try out my new trellis for the zucchini and squash. I had to move the zucchini and squash because of last year’s squash vine borer attack.  The other vegetable beds don’t have the space to let them grow free on the ground so I’m trying the trellis. 

It was pretty easy to put together, but best as a two-person job. Gardener’s Supply Company has a nice video to show how to assemble it. It’s made of plastic, so won’t rust but seems plenty strong enough to hold zucchini and squash. I’ll let you know as the season progresses.

I got the squash, zucchini and cucumbers in the ground, but had a little incident with some of the zucchini. They hadn’t grown as robustly as the others, and I wasn’t as gentle as I should have been.

I broke the main stem, which is really easy to do if you’re not careful. Sometimes it heals, but it’s iffy. I planted it anyway and will hope for the best. So far it seems to be holding its own.

I usually try to have a backup in the same pot and thin them after they’ve become established in there ground, but in this case it didn’t grow. I also usually grow more plants than I need and hold some in reserve in case there’s an “incident”. If they all grow in the first couple of weeks, wonderful, I have plants to share.  

My “spares” in the greenhouse with my microgreens.

So far so good! A few days later and everything is looking good, even after some cool and stormy weather. Btw, for our small family 2-4 zucchini plants and 4 squash plants provides more than enough for us and some to share.

My sugar snap peas are doing great in this cool weather and starting to climb up the rainbow spiral stakes and pea trellis. I originally had the stakes “out of order”, but the science nerd in me couldn’t let that be. 🌈 I reorganized them, but from the front of the bed they were backwards, oh well, close enough.

rainbow gardener's supply company rainbow stakes

Last but not least, my mouse cucamelon plants are off to a very slow start and still in the house under the grow lights. I hope they get going soon, I’m looking forward to one of latest food trends!