Category: Gardeningwithjules

Life lately according to my celly

As I was looking back on photos from the past two months, it occurred to me how much has happened and how busy we’ve been!

In only good ways too!

And these don’t nearly show all of our shenanigans. Loads of hubby and family time and I’m loving it. 

The next two months don’t show any signs of slowing down and I’m looking forward to it all. 

I’ve been putting my phone down more often to soak up more memories and be in the moments. I’ve noticed positive differences and don’t plan on stopping any of that either.

It is Fa Fa FALL y’all!

My most faaaaavorite time of the year!

Spring Magic

If you were following along from the start of Spring then you know all about my little greenies getting started in peat pots.

The day their little leaves sprouted, I was elated with joy and pride.

I know I know…wait till Khang and I start having children. Ha.

Left to right: bush beans, Chinese cabbage, and bok choi.

Here’s a time-lapse of how the garden has been growing over the span of 5 weeks:

Day One-Transplant Day!

Week 1Week 2week 3Week 4
Week 5-I came back from a weekend camping trip and couldn’t believe my eyes! Look how huge my zucchini are-front right. 

Here’s a close up of my growing bush beans: we harvested them yesterday!

All 7 of them haha

They have small lavender flowers!

I got so excited when I saw flowers because that meant fruit was coming 🙂 

I think the way the cucumber vines curl and twirl are so adorable. 

The wire-support system is call “trellises”. And boy did they start climbing quickly…Baby cucumber! Our first one. Now we have so many! Hope they reach full-growth. 
Same zucchini leaf-taken only 10 days apart! 

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Every morning since April 24, I’ve been greeted with new zucchini bloosoms.

You can’t help but smile when looking at them. Shortly after a few days, I found some that fell to the ground. I was so sad until I did more research on it. 

I’ll explain more later when I blog about cooking with these beautiful and apparently delicious blossoms. 

And we finally have baby zucchini!!!My first (literally) handful of Spring crop: lettuce, chives, and beans. 
It’s magic y’all.

And I feel so lucky and proud that I get to witness it all in my backyard. 
Thanks for reading and following along

with me,

Jules.

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Spring is making me wet my plants!

Spring is here my darlings!!!

So preparation has begun.

I finally found some time this past weekend to “soak my seeds”. There might be a correct gardening term for this technique but I have no idea. Hah.

The sweet girl at Clegg’s Nursery suggested doing this when I started my fall garden. Since fall worked out well for me…I’m continuing on with the tradition except this time, I made sure to take pictures of it!

I gathered up all the small vessels we have and yes they are mostly shot glasses (judge all you want) and my measuring cups.

Here’s what I’m hoping to harvest this season:

Red bell peppers (but not really, they gave me 5 free seeds, so why not?)

Same with the tomatoes. I’ve always wished we ate more eggplant…and it just seems like a fun and pretty veggie to grow!
My favorite kind of squash: Zucchini. We eat a lot of cucumbers!Bok choi and Chinese cabbage for those stir-fry meals.
I only eat one type of “bean” and it’s green. We’re always in need of lettuce.
And of course spinach. My boys love their spinach. I let the seeds soak for about two days.

It speeds up the process of germination. It’s still so cool to see! 

Instead of planting them directly into the garden, my wonderful coworker Ms. Debbie recommended I start them in peat pots.

They are really inexpensive: 8 cents for the smaller pots and 20 cents for the larger pots.

The weather is still a little too cold especially at night, so I’ll be bringing out the peat pots every morning and bringing them back into the house at night.

I probably won’t transfer them to the garden bed till their tiny leaves start showing.

*Fingers crossed. Hard.
Check out my Instagram or Facebook for regular updates on the garden.

Thanks for reading and following along,

with me

Jules.

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Gardeningwithjules: What’s growing?

Har·vest /ˈhärvəst/
noun
the process or period of gathering in crops
 “Julie had a bountiful harvest of collard greens, swiss chards, and kale”
 
verb
gather (a crop) as a harvest
“after harvesting, we ate our hearts out”

I remember planting seeds and instead of placing 1-3 seeds as recommended by the girl at Clegg’s Nursery, I eagerly planted 5-10 seeds into each hole. ‘Ya know to increase my chances at harvest.
 
Honestly, I didn’t think we would ever make it to harvest with any of them. Gosh am I happy how wrong I was!
 
The garden has easily become my “happy place”. On my birthday this past November, I asked Khang to take a few photos of me working in the garden. You’ll learn quickly that I love having photos documenting different stages of my life. “Julie’s First Garden” is definitely getting its own album.
Every past Sunday or Monday, I would have a mini photo shoot with my little “greenies”. I’ve continued the photo-ops throughout this whole experience and I’m so glad because it allows me to see their significant growth over the weeks.
Here’s a closer look at what’s growing in the garden:
Left: Kale
Right: Lettuce
Left: Broccoli
Right: Collard greens
And you can’t see because of the large leaves, but there’s also bay leaves and sage growing in-between.
Snap peas!
Bunches of parsley and cilantro
Bottom: Swiss chards
Top right of swiss chards: Rosemary
Top of rosemary: Green onions, shallots, yellow onions, and red onions
We’ve pretty much have harvest all of the crops mentioned above.
 
The two crops remaining that I’m been patiently waiting on are my brussels sprout and cauliflower. Just waiting on them to get bigger. They both need cooler weather for better growth. We just recently started to get some good cold and sunny weather so fingers crossed*
I had to squint my eyes when the buds first came!
Like baby cabbages.
I like to call them “white gold”.
Fun fact: When the heads (curds) start growing, you need to tie the leaves together to provide shade (process called “blanching”) to preserve the white color and tenderness of the cauliflower.
 
I’m super nervous about leaving my garden unattended for a week when we go home for the holidays. I’m considering coming back briefly just to water and check up on them. Seriously.
 
So whether you’re staying in town or traveling for the holidays, I hope everyone has a merry Christmas filled with love, laughter, and delicious food. And don’t forget the reason for this season, Christ Is Coming y’all 🙂
 
Thanks for following along,
with me
Jules.

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Gardeningwithjules: Just keep growing

Some people dream about owning a dog or a designer handbag.

Me?

“Garden” has been at the top of my list for the longest time along with a sewing machine and chicken coop.

I’ve been living my “garden dreams” for over 2 months now and being a total amateur hasn’t slowed me down. A great amount of time and effort goes into it(more on that later) but having the pleasure of seeing my greenies grow from seedlings to full grown edible vegetables is and has been one of the most rewarding experiences.

My goal is simple: Garden-to-Table. The idea of eating a prepared meal that includes freshly picked greens from our personal garden is something I’m proud to do and hope to continue when we start growing our family. For now, Khang, my brother-in-law Nam and cousin-in-law Phuong get to be my guinea pigs. Hah!

Here are weekly growth photos from the Southside. Accidentally forgot Week 4. I blame Ngoc and Greg’s wedding.

Week 1

img_4275-800x600

Week 2

Week 3

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Views from the Northside. If you look closely front and center, you’ll see my swiss chards. At one point they started to wilt (I thought they were deaddeaddead) but I kept faith, continued to nurse them, and with some garden magic they came back to life!

Week 6 

Week 9

Look how fresh and green they were the other night for spring rolls! Khang can testify that I was bouncing off the walls with excitement!

And with that I’d like to thank our good friend Francis for offering his truck to transport our truckload of soil and to Nam for being super cool with me basically taking over his backyard for my ambitious “garden dreams”.  I hope to make your tummies full and happy when we harvest.

Are you growing any fall veggies? Please share!

Thanks for reading along

with me,

Jules

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