Hot House Tomatoes Anyone?

Our tomatoes didn’t grow very well this year. They were mushy on the outside, but not ripe on the inside. I cannot figure out why the crop did so badly this year. It’s hard enough planting the tomatoes having a chronic illness without the tomatoes tasting like hot house. It’s something I really enjoy so it was a huge disappointment. I need to figure out what I can do to have better success with my tomatoes in the pot. I did notice a lot of spider webs on the plants all the time.  When I found them I would knock them off, but the spider didn’t quite spinning their webs. I did get bit by a spider so it made me gun shy.

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Gardening Progress Report

My garden is doing pretty well so far. One of the tomatoes has a lot of small green tomatoes on it. The smaller tomato plants just started showing some buds. I can not wait until the flowers fall off and the tomatoes start growing. My green peppers are growing slowly, but I’m only hoping that they produce more buds. A one dollar green pepper plant can produce at least a dozen nice size green peppers. It’s disappointing when the prices of green peppers are one dollar a pepper. It doesn’t make much sense how expensive the tomatoes and green peppers cost. I was going to plant some beans this year, but we started growing late. So my garden will come in later. I love the taste of home grown produce. I love to grow naturally. I’d love to have a full garden, but I’m happy with my small, but cheery garden. I’ll take some pictures soon to share them.

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Too Many Green Tomatoes

My garden has been good to me, but we have all sorts of green tomatoes. I like fried green tomatoes, but not that muchWe are trying to ripen the tomatoes in brown paper bags. Some of the tomatoes are coming along, but some are taking forever to ripen. I did get to try some of my cucumbers proably about 10 of them. The brussel sprouts did not wear so well. If I plant them again, I will make sure they are in a bigger pot.
Does any one have any suggestions to how to either use green tomatoes or how to ripen tomatoes? Does anyone have a recipe for something other then fried green tomatoes for green tomatoes? I want to freeze some of them.

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Bachelor Buttons Teach Me Patience

These two flower picture are bachelor buttons, my daughter took them using her hand to show them upclose. They took forever to bloom and at one point I thought about pulling them out because they looked more like grass, then a flower. They remind me a lot like carnations. I guess the long wait was worth it after all. It shows a lot that patience does pay off in many instances. Patience is not something I’m very good at in many ways. Somewhere I read that patience is a virtue- It seems to be so true. Having a child whose got ADHD teaches you patience in many ways, Its something I’m thankful for each day.

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Pictures of my Garden

Here is some pictures of my garden, that my daughter took. The tomatoes are outgrowing the green peppers. The cucumbers have just started to grow. Its pretty amazing how each one of  these grow at their own pace. Its something I enjoy doing even while I live with lupus. I may not be able to physcially do all the work to make the beautiful container garden, but I’m blessed to have the help I do have. I’ve got some more pictures I will show later of the world’s slowest growing flower. , atleast in my garden.

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A little Bit of An Update

This week has been interesting for many ways. My daughter starts a new tae kwon do class on Thursday; the new place seems to have more to offer her. They have a patch program a lot like girl scouts and more girls her age. She’s been doing tae kwon do for a little over 1 year. She’s still an orange belt and will be able to test out in 8 weeks. She’s got a new tae kwon do uniform that ties like a chef outfit, instead of pulling over her head. It’s hard to believe that summer is half way through.

My garden is coming along. I keep forgetting to get some pictures- (reminder to self get pictures). We had to transplant the tomatoes to a bigger pot because they were root bound. They now look a lot better in their new beautiful pots. My cucumber is busy climbing up the railing of the porch and looks good with its beautiful yellow flowers and creeping out like crazy. The green peppers are producing some beautiful big peppers. The red ones haven’t turned red yet. The tomatoes are still small and green, can’t wait to taste one.

I seem to be in a lupus flare, again! It seems to knock me on my butt real well. I can be feeling pretty good and wham it knocks me out. I’m trying to conserve my energy. I hate feeling this way… I want my “normal” life back

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Gardening, Flares, and Life in General

Last few days, have been ruffs. I’ve been have an awful pain in my extremities. My muscles felt like they were rocks. It was unreal because it was a struggle just to stand up. I thought I was going to lose my mind. When the lupus knocks me on my behind, it’s a struggle to get back up. Slowly, I’m regaining my strength. I always worry that I won’t regain my strength. I updated my message board because I was getting some horrible spam videos. I managed to discontinue it. I have a couple of polls on my message board; one is for a name of a cook book and another is  a chronic illness poll. Please stop by and register and leave me a line. It looks inactive, but it’s just starting to wake up- a work in progress. My container garden is coming along well. I have one pepper about the size of a small pearl onion. I added a few more things; strawberries (my favorite), cucumber and brussel sprouts. I know what a lot of you are probably saying Yuck!! Brussel sprouts. I read somewhere they taste better out of your own garden, then store bought.

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