Our New Pets or...

How we have been overtaken by the hummingbirds.
Mom decided to try hanging the ole' feeder up to see if any were around.

I don't think any of us expected the turnout.

Due to the size and speediness of the little buggers we have only gotten a real count when they are all near the feeder. So far we know there are at least 4.

And this one here thinks he's the ringleader. Boy is he bossy. He's quite territorial over the feeder which is quite funny when it's empty and we're trying to refill it. I've never really wanted to wear my glasses except when you see one of those coming at your head.

I'll post more pictures and possibly a video after I do a little more research to see if we can't find out exactly what species these are.

They're Growing!!

As Mom pointed out to me I don't actually have any dates on here for when we planted, oops!

Our tomatoes were planted on March 19, all the seedlings went in the ground on March 20 and the seeds were planted on the 21st.

Everything is now moving along great, the only thing we haven't seen yet is the cilantro, if it does not show up this week I'm going to try again.

Here are the beans on the 31st of March, we spotted it coming out that morning and by the early evening it had made it this far.

Here they are on April 6, a week later. I figure they'll be up the trellis by next week. The strawberries are doing well, we've been collecting a few every 2 or 3 days since they went in.

These are the cute baby tomatoes, my daughter Sydni has been diligently checking them everyday to look for changes.

This is the onion set 10 days after planting. I have to say I only wanted to plant them as more of an experiment than anything so I am pleasantly surprised they are doing so well.

I don't plan on buying green onions all summer, these will definitely be on the list for next year.

Itty bitty heads of lettuce are now popping up. They really are tiny and quite easy to look over.

This is box 2 with the onions, carrots, peppers and cucumbers. On the larger image you can just see the tops of the carrots starting. We looked today and it appears that a couple of jalapenos may be starting as well. Everything else is just putting out new leaves and getting bigger.

I also finally got a packet of chives and they have been planted with the cherry tomato, hopefully they will spring up soon too.

Planting Time!

All of the seedlings are now in the ground and looking pretty good. Most of the seeds and the onion set are in, so far the only growth we can see there are the onions sprouting.

In the first box we have 8 Quinalt strawberries and 8 Sequoia, both everbearing. The Kentucky Wonder pole beans have been started behind them, we're staggering those so hopefully it will spread out the harvest.

Left to right we have 2 Straight Eight cucumbers, 2 Burpless Hybrid cucumbers, a California Wonder Bell Pepper and a Sweet Red Bell Pepper. In the front row we have a Jalapeno our onion set which was just some generic yellow onion we got at HD to try for fun and our carrot seed which I can't remember the variety of right now. Like I said the onions are the only seeds sprouting right now, the 2 burpless cukes don't seem to be doing as well as the straight 8s but that may be because their peat pots were much drier than the others.

Here are the squash, a yellow crook neck and a green zucchini. These were planted mostly for Mom well cause she's the only one who'll eat them. But I do plan to try some zucchini bread and carrot cake cookie recipes to sneak more veggies into the kids with.

This is our slicing tomato we went with an Early Girl 50 this year, turns out the Celebrity we grew 2 summers ago and loved so much wasn't a Celebrity so instead of trying to guess what it was we went with the highly recommended Early Girl, who has 2 tiny little tomatoes starting a week after transplant. Surrounding the stalk we've planted Parsley seed, they're good companion plants and it keeps us from finding another spot for it.

Our picking tomato is a Sweet 100 Cherry tomato. We love cherry tomatoes around here, it's what I use in salads and Joe will eat the entire plants' worth if we let him. This one is blooming after just a week in the pot.

The other box, which I don't have a pic of because it would be a pic of dirt, has had Oregano, Cilantro and Vivian Romaine Lettuce planted in it, all seeds which none have decided to show up yet. I'm not worried this is our first year trying seed and if it doesn't work oh well, try a different route next year.