Ambers Garden

    I've had a great time this season being extra observant with my planting and having to write about it, I've enjoyed it a lot. Something I recently learned was how easy it can be sometimes to overly plant seeds in one area and how sometimes when you plant too much, the roots are crowded therefore, die because they have nowhere to spread out. I noticed this happening with my sunflowers and my Zinnias. I planted way too many in each area, it's so easy to accidently do that due to being excited and wanting your garden to produce as many plants/flowers as possible.      I also realized the importance of once you see a pest on your plants, you need to act immediately as those things can cause significant damage and can do so very quickly! I lost some of my zucchini plants due to me noticing the pest, not acting on them and then being away from home for a few days and coming home to my plants completely dead. It is a sad feeling coming home to dead plants after all...

    My Zinnias have doubled up in quantity and are happy. I have not noticed very much destruction of the flowers from the Japanese munching on them. the soap method I tried must have worked. I have another new pest that is invading starting to invade my zucchini squash plant, its literally called a squash bug and they love squash and eat the leaves causing damage to the whole plant. To get rid of them you can handpick them out of your garden or spray plants with plant repellant.      One of my classmates from high school posted on Facebook that she had some strawberry plants and was wanting to find them not homes as she didn't have adequate time to tend to them. She had 13 plants and gave me two plants that were already producing strawberries and then one that would produce next year! I quickly planted the big one and little one in my garden and I have already eaten 5 berries off of the big one, they were very small but very sweet with great flavor! The other b...

           Wow! The changes in my garden from this week to two weeks ago, are noticeably dramatic! All of the flowers I have planted are in full bloom, my vegetable plants have gotten so big, and now there are some hungry little pests attempting to take over some of my plants, but they won't win, I fight back!     My Zinnias are thriving, two weeks ago I only had two small blooms whereas this week, I have an estimated fifty blooms and was able to make 3 small bouquets. Zinnias are also a flower that you can deadhead, and they'll continue producing new blooms. I recently found out that in 2016, Zinnia seeds were brought up to space where astronauts planted them, watered them, kept them under grow lights for ten hours a day and observed them very closely. They mentioned how isolating and how lack of sensory stimulation was a big problem for them. Having something to take care of, smell and touch was a very stimulating activity for many astronauts an...