Digs, the guy I talked to about the pot size at Home Depot said that the only influence it would have would be that it may not grow as tall or produce quite as much as if it were in a bigger pot. I really can't afford anything larger than what I bought and the only place to plant anything in the backyard is in the shade or right in the path of the lawn mower where there is no possible way to get around it. That area also spends 80% of the day in shade.

So we shall see what happens.

Yeah wolfloversk, I have a tomato plant that I suspect got decapitated due to a tail wag. I probably should have put it in water longer, but I put it in water overnight and replanted it the next day. It's now growing again and producing new leaves. I think it had sprouted a few short roots just overnight. Or at least washed the dirt off what was left.

Digs, thank-you for that! There's a pretty little Garden store not far so I suppose I'll check with them.

Aravanna, from seeing the vegetables, most were kind of instant. (except for the cilantro, which took ages to sprout a tiny greenling.) So, they're the ones that have instant gratification or are they more wait and watch to grow?

After reading that tomato plants need bigger plants, it suddenly explains my faliure with one last summer. I cared for it for two or three months and it grew nearly 3 ft, but had a thin stalk and the leaves browned quickly despite the plant food I put in it: the biggest tub it was in was one of those family-pack ice cream tubs, which doesn't seem very big since we're talking 25 gallon pots... I'll try them again since I can transplant them out of doors safely, and with more valid seeds than the Buzzy's...

Got home yesterday to discover blooms on my two roma tomato plants.

Congratulations, Kat! That's awesome!!!! Got any new pictures?

I was finally able to spend some time gardening this weekend, and if felt SO good to get my hands in the soil again! Friday when I got home from school, Mom, Dad and I went to a huge local greenhouse to by some flowers. We bought 32 Impatiens plant (8 white, 8 pink, 8 red, and 8 purple). Six red wave petunias, six red and yellow pansies, and a Pam's choice Foxglove

This greenhouse was much larger than the one that we usually frequent. So I decided to go out on a limb and ask them if they carried any Monkshood. The clerks had no idea what I was talking about, and couldn't find it in their directory. I told them to check under the scientific name Aconitum, and bam, there it was! I got the last one in stock!!!!!!!

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I have been looking for this plant for YEARS, but people don't like to carry it because it is so highly toxic! Absolutely gorgeous though!

I'm so thrilled that I've finally got one of these beauties!

Any ways, after that, we went to the greenhouse we usually visit. We got some white, pink, and purple cosmos, some pink and white begonias, some red salvia, some victory blue salvia, and some red verbena.

Later that weekend, I also went up and bought my mom a miniature pink rosebush for Mother's day.

Most of this stuff is still in our garage (most of the annuals at least). But the cosmos, begonias, one of the verbena, the monkshood, the foxglove, some dahlia bulbs we'd been storing, and the rosebush all got planted and mulched! I was happy, and the flower bed looks GREAT!

Cool Digs!

Here ya go!

This is the plant that was damaged and I ended up getting it replanted after a night in water.

Digs, the foxgloves are sooo pretty! So's the Monkshood.

*admires starkat's tomato bloom pictures*

Yesterday I got the opportunity to go visit the Garden House nearby fully. The greenhouse was lovely and so were the trees. I officially want a Weeping Cherry tree. It's so pretty and pink.
I felt a thrill of happiness reading the scientific names and being able to know some.
The gift shop had scores and scores of seeds! I'm trying to decide what to get.
To those who plant and have cats--what kind of plants/flowers are not harmful to cats? I remember ramagut gave a link to all the ones that aren't, but I lost the link... :"}
Preferably, I mean the perennials and stuff that are more for beginning gardeners, unless flowers are child's play in gardening or something.

As a vet student, I should probably know more of the poisonous plants, but I don't.

The two I listed above (Monkshood and Foxglove) are both highly poisonous. Monkshood contains a neurotoxin that causes paralysis and death if ingested. Foxglove is actually harvested and used to make the heart medication digitalis. It's poisonous if ingested, and causes cardiac arrest. All varieties of lillies are also toxic to cats, so steer clear of those.

Echniacea (also known as Purple Cone Flower) is non toxic. It's a perennial, and it's quite easy to grow (just make sure it gets PLENTY of water). It comes in a variety of colours (purple, white, yellow, orange), and can even attract birds such as goldfinches, chickadees, and other small seed eaters.

Here's a really good website, Aslanisthebest, that covers which animals are toxic to which plants....
http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/poison-control/plants/
I'm sure that doesn't cover every single plant in the universe, but it should be a good start.
I know that as far as vegetables are concerned, onions, garlic, and tomato plants (though tomatoes can be ok if only one or two are eaten) are toxic to dogs. Interestingly enough, my dog avoids them. Makes me wonder if she ate one at some point and it made her sick....

At any rate, the farm garden is coming along swimmingly. (Not literally... we need rain badly.) I think the only things left to plant are the green beans, slicer cucumbers, okra, and the rest of the corn. So I am HOPING that I can finish up this next weekend. *crosses fingers*

Here is one picture of the big weekend project... building fences and planting tomatoes and cucumbers....

We decided this year that instead of round tomato cages or stakes, we'd try an angled wall. So there are all but two of my tomatoes (forgot to take the Roma tomatoes with me) and where you don't see tomatoes on that second set of fencing, we planted pickling cucumbers.

I'm contemplating at making another shot at an aqua-terrarium this summer. My last attempt resulted in a nematode infestation before I even got any plants in... and not knowing whether or not they were the harmful kind I had to ditch the project... and my compost pile I also had a problem with the soil from the dry compartment leaking into the water, and the water flooding into the soil, so this time I'd like to try with a few different soil/gravel types, and a larger container...the container possibly being a bit of a problem to get...

Anyway any of you guys have any ideas as to how to design in so I don't have the same water/soil problem... I'm thinking some sort of barrier, maybe slate, would work.

What's a aqua terrarium?

I noticed today, that two small green bulbs have begun to grow on my two roma tomato plants.

Essentially its a mixture of a terrarium and an aquarium in that it has both a water and a land compartment... there's probably some other name for it... but this is the one I tend to use

I finally managed to do some gardening on Friday. It was the first day when in which the ground had had a chance to dry out for more than a month! (We've broken April's rain record, and are WELL on our way to breaking May's too). With some help from my Mom and my Grandma we were able to plant four rows (approx. 20 ft rows) of blue lake bush beans.

We also planted one row of onion sets, and one row of spinach.

This was all after planting/weeding my mom's flower bed with a bunch of things we'd bought the weekend before. I got a bunch of other things to plant, but was too tired (I gardened for six hours straight on Friday!) Any ways, needless to say. . . Saturday was pouring with rain . This means that my eight tomato plants (4 Early Girl and 4 Roma), my 12 cabbage plants (Early Flat Dutch), my peas (Oregon Sugar Snap) my 6 Broccoli plants (Pac-Man), my cucumbers (Burpless Beauties), my green peppers (Goliath I think. . . ) and my banana peppers (Super Sweet) did not make it into the ground. I also didn't get to plant my Okra (which I'm trying this year for the first time) because the lady at the garden store said that they need a lot of heat before they can be planted. . . and as tomorrow's high is rainy with temps in the 40's. . . . . that's not a good idea.

In flower news, my foxglove is really outdoing itself. Mom and I seriously watched it grow throughout the day. From morning to evening the plant probably grew 4 inches total!!!!!! Flowers opened up and they are GORGEOUS! Everything that got planted last week is doing well, and our roses are getting ready to bloom (always exciting to see that first one!).

Any ways, that's my gardening journal entry for the week

Cool DiGs

I also didn't get to plant my Okra (which I'm trying this year for the first time) because the lady at the garden store said that they need a lot of heat before they can be planted.

We don't plant our Okra til June at the earliest... and that's here in Kansas, where I can't seem to grow Broccoli cause it's too hot.

Well, I didn't get nearly as much gardening done this weekend as I had hoped (I was busy!). But a few things I did get done... I got my green beans planted finally, three seed packets of them in anticipation of canning. We did a lot of weeding around the spinach and green onions which were more than a little out of control in the weed department. And last but not least we put blood meal down EVERYWHERE.

Much to my dismay, the rabbits had done a lot of damage, particularly to my tomatoes where two or three of them had been completely snipped off at the base. I revived one of them in a jar of water, but the others were a lost cause and unless the roots are able to put up another shoot, they're done. Hopefully my dog Fiona put the fear of God in them as she kept finding them in the garden area and chasing them off. Probably not, but one can always hope.

There are already lots of goodies to eat. The lettuce is ready, as is the first round of radishes and asparagus.

The current to-do list on the farm....
Plant the slicing cucumbers
Plant the remaining tomatoes and bell peppers (was going to do this but due to a sudden crazy cold snap, we decided to hold off)
Plant the last two rows of corn
Plant pumpkins and watermelons
Plant the next round of radishes
Weed and water
Plant okra in June

Unfortunately I forgot my camera this weekend and didn't get any pictures, but that's ok. Maybe in the next couple weekends.

FK, since you've planted it before, how does okra grow?

I would compare it the most to corn. Fairly tall and straight and it puts on Okra kind of like Corn puts on Ears. Mine don't get quite this tall, but it'll give you a good idea on how it grows.