Hibiscus Plant and RaisedGarden Pictures

As I had told you all before my daughter and I really kept a close eye on the plants as they went on clearance at three local stores. Those were Wal Mart, Lowes and Ace Hardware. We found the best deals at Lowes and Ace Hardware.

One of those deals was a Hibiscus, I watched them closely as my mother was wanting one. Imagine my surprise when they went on sale from near twenty dollars to something like nine dollars. Mother had been looking for a peach colored one and I found it. So as a surprise to her we got it for her and were quite pleased with the savings we got as well. Turns out it was a light pink in color not peach, but she just loves it.

Several days after we got hers we went back looking for something else and they were down to three dollars each. Well, even though I had no idea what it really was I wasn't going to pass up that deal. I'm happier about that than you could ever imagine.

I have worked and worked with mine and finally got it to a point where all leaves were green and it is now used to being watered every Saturday.

I got up the other morning to he most beautiful surprise and I just had to share it with you.

Isn't that the most beautiful bloom you have ever seen? Mom said her's has never opened up that flat before, her petals stayed more upright than these did. I was so awe struck at how large and beautiful the bloom was I hadn't taken notice of the fact that it didn't look like other blooms or....maybe that is what drew me to it so much.

I was afraid that in a picture people would not realize how large this bloom was which is why I placed my hand next to it. In fact the bloom is so large that it is bigger than a saucer plate you would get with a set of dishes.

The red center of this bloom amazes me as well. I told my husband that it looked like plastic. I carefully felt  it, the petals are so very soft and the red part not only look like plastic but it looks like it as well.

The smaller of the two Loofah plants has started putting out blooms. I didn't get a picture of it but there were three blooms yesterday. I was thrilled to see them in all their splendor, these are the female blooms and sadly enough not the male blooms. I haven't seen any male blooms either and if that continues to be factual then there will be no Loofah sponges, seeds or anything for next year.

Several months ago I allowed several of the asparagus plants to get very tall and produce seeds. The normal course of action would be that they would dry on the limbs and drop to the dirt. In the past several years that we have had the patch I have seen no new ones drop so this year I picked them by hand there were hundred upon hundred of them. I let them dry in the house, removed the seeds and assured they were dry and put them back in the raised bed myself. We added some perilite to the compost mixture,  sprinkled the seeds out and then put a layer of top soil on it. The taller plant you see in the background is the one coming from seed. The smaller one is an asparagus and it will be ready to pick and eat probably today.

This is our once beautiful strawberry patch. The heat has done a real number on it. I'm hoping that it will come out of it again before winter gets here.

This is another bed of vined green bean plants. I much prefer the bush but will take what I can for now. Some years are much better than others and this one has been tough.

Look at my beautiful Rose! I know its  a bit blurry, I had a bad case of shaky hands today. But all the same this is the second bush that has bloomed. All these plants were one dollar each in Wal Mart, I just can't get over how good they all are doing.

I saw this flower bed at the Mo State Fair. Next summer I'm going to have tat going arond my house

Tomato's in a Raised Bed Garden

It may seem like there wouldn't be much to catch you up on since the summer has really just begun, however, in the world of a garden a lot has happened so far.

It may take a couple of days but I want to get pictures on here to show you what all we have planted and how they are doing so far.

My intention is not to talk down to anyone but to give all the information that I have or things I have discovered in regards to my garden, therefore I will write this based on the thought that the person reading it may have little to no garden experience.


Several weeks before summer got here I started some tomato seeds, wanting to have them going in the house and to a nice size when it came time to put them outside. All together I had a total of 62 seeds started. They were all coming up and doing just great and then WHAM something went wrong. I'm not sure what it was or how it happened but I lost every single plant.

Shortly after that happened my mom called and told me the college in our town was having their annual garden plant sale. I didn't think much of it but agreed to go with her to check it out. To our surprise when we got there the prices were so low and the plants were so big and beautiful that we went a little bonkers. 

I ended up coming home with several plants and showed them to my husband. He was so impressed by them that we went back and got more. It put us at a total of 21 plants.

Our next action was to figure out where we wanted to plant them, that choice was made as were plans to plant them the next day. Then our area got hit by rain that seemed like it would never stop. It was several weeks before we were able to get the plants out, I feared I was going to lose them as well.

I have to say these are the most amazing plants I have ever seen. Some of the plants have stalks so large they look like a small tree. They are also some mad  producers, we tried to count how many tomatoes were on the vines about a week ago, we lost count at over one hundred of them.

I'll put a series of photos here so you can see what they are looking like and as they continue to grow, change and produce.

This first set of pictures were taken in May. We had to hurry and get them out because they were getting in such bad shape. As you can see although they are tall there isn't much to them. They are unlike any tomato plant we have ever had.

If you are new to gardening I would also recommend that you do not plant them as close together as you see these are. They need the space to grow. Under different circumstances we never would have but we had a time issue and had to get them out. The plans for next years plants are amazing and can't wait to share those with you as we start working on that this summer.

So in the above photos there are 15 tomato plants. I'll add some pictures now showing you what they look like in the month of June. You will understand why I'm saying this planting method is not a good idea. Had they been regular tomato plants it might have worked but I would still suggest more space between them.

As you can see, they have really taken off and it would hav been better had they had a bit more room. Now to contradict what I've just said, this planting method is working in our area due to the very hot summer days we are having and the fact that the outer sides of the plants are giving some shade to the inner areas. I wouldn't plan to plant that way on purpose as tomato plants love their water and the hot hot days of sun and summer.

Raised Bed Gardens

I have a sincere love for flowers, plants and vegetable gardening. I am working on putting this blog together with updates, information and things I learn along the way.

I would like to state that I am by no means a master gardener or anything of that nature. I'm a wife, mother and Nana who wants to provide good food for her family and to save money where I can. Along with that I just dearly love watching the process of seed planting to picking produce or seeing flowers bloom.

We had thought that all my gardening days were over, three years ago I was in a work related accident and now have a total disability because of it. The damage to my body is my lower back and both legs. This makes bending, lifting, leaning ....difficult if not impossible tasks. My loving husband along with the help of our sons and daughter have been working hard to adjust our garden so that I can do as much as possible. While there is still much I need help with I can now at least do some of it, and wow what a blessing that is.

We have gone the route of raised garden beds. This is amazing for many reasons, one no more getting down on the ground. Hubby no longer has to be shaken to death by a tiller, roots are nearly non existent and if they do show up its so simple to pull them out.

I will work on putting together how to set up a raised garden bed and will also point you in the direction of other locations where you can read about them as well. I would like to say that we have read a lot of stuff, we have taken some from here and some from there and have our own system going. As you will see in the pictures and updated pictures I will be posting it is working out very well for us.

I hope you enjoy this blog, please at any time feel free to ask me questions, if I don't have an answer I'll do my best to find one, or just let me know what you think of the site.

One last disclaimer again is that I by no means have all the answers or know how, so if you have a suggestion or something that has worked out very well for you please share it so we can all benefit from your knowledge and experience.

Cynthia