Is it Summer Yet?
Lol I live in Hawaii so I’ve never been good with seasons.
Here are some random pictures from the beach, because while it may not be officially summer; it’s definitely getting hot in here.
She LOVES the Beach
Haleiwa
building castles
Look Mommy I Can Walk
Ko'Olina
He only goes in up to his ankles
the baby doesn't like sandy toes
He likes the beach too it's just really sunny
I never thought I’d grow anything from seed. The task seemed too daunting for such an inexperienced gardener as myself. My very first plants in my urban garden were two seedling, one basil and one tomato.
I quickly transplanted them from their starter pots, and was left with two empty started pots and some potting soil. Since I had caught the gardening bug really bad I filled up the old seedling pot and threw in seeds from one store bought lemon. Then I waited. . .
and waited. . .
and waited. . .
and finally. . .
. . . nothing
So I gave up on the lemons seeds and planted an old garlic clove instead.
Garlic Sprout
One morning I went out to my garden and to my surprise there was something else growing in my garlic pot. At first I thought a bird had pooped some kind of weed or something, but then I remembered the lemon seeds.
Surprise Lemon Sprouts
One by one more and more sprouts started popping up until there were 7 in all.
Lemon and Garlic
It looked cramped in that tiny pot so I decided to transplant them each into their own little home. The soil was very loose and fell apart into a big dirt pile.
Oops
I worked as quickly as I could, but I did stop and take a few photos along the way.
lemons seedling roots
Here’s the biggest little sprout in it’s new home.
Lemon seedling
They seemed like happy hardy little seedlings so I didn’t check on them the next day. When I finally did check on them the day after that they were pretty sad looking.
Wilted 
from transplant shock and possible root damage
It’s not unusual for plants to wilt after transplanting so I moved them out of direct sunlight onto the middle shelf of an old bookcase.
When I went to check on them the following day, much to my dismay my little seedlings were burnt to a crisp. While the bookshelf was a shady place it wasn’t exactly cool. It sits right next to a concrete wall that gets intense direct sunlight for most of the day, and the bookshelf is all black. Instead of making it better I probably just made it worse.
I didn’t expect all of the little seedlings to survive, but I had already envisioned tiny potted lemon trees on my front porch.
Oh well it was fun while it lasted, but I’m sad our adventure ended so soon.
It took me a few attempts but some of my Yellow Bell Pepper seeds finally sprouted. My first try I got nothing. The second time around it took 3 weeks and I only one seed sprouted.
First Pepper Sprout
But once it sprouted it grew really quickly.
true leaves
I already transplanted it to a bigger container.
For my final attempt I tried the paper towel method, where you lay your seeds on a damp paper towel in a plastic bag until they start to sprout. As soon as I noticed the sprouting seeds I put them in soil. Even though they were pre-sprouted they took 1-2 weeks before breaking through the surface, but 3 out of the 4 seeds sprouted.
Final Batch of Pepper Sprouts
They have a lot of catching up to do.
My monster tomato plant was growing horizontal. It’s poor branches were stretching out really wide and practically dragging on the ground ;( So we took a trip to home depot and bought some support.
It’s still looks pretty crazy but seems more manageable.
We also got to eat our first tomato. Yay
The seeds are in my cupboard fermenting for later.
One of my little munchkins decided to help me out in the garden and pick a whole bunch of little tomatoes ;/ But even though they were pick way too early one of them is starting to ripen. I wonder if they will a turn red eventually.
Oh well there are still a few left on the plant.
Look how much my Kailan has grown. So funny how they were all planted at the same time but two are considerably large than the others. The smallest one was really stunted but after repotting it seems to be doing much better.
How they looked at my last post
Here they are Today!
Remember the sick little stunted Kailan Plant I mentioned from last time. Well he got repotted and has grown 2 new leaves since then.
before
Now
Orange Julius at home is easier than you might think. I’m not gonna lie growing up I didn’t really get what all the fuss was about. But I finally gave it another go and surprisingly I liked it a lot more than I remember.
After pinning Mel’s Kitchen Cafe’s Classic Orange Julius recipe more than 1 year ago I finally made it.
This recipe is amazing!!!! So Yummy Dare I say BETTER than Orange Julius. It tastes just like a creamsicle.
Next I want to try this with pineapple juice or some frozen pineapple chucks!
Yum.
Check out the Recipe at Mel’s Kitchen Cafe >>>HERE<<<
Meow!
Growing cat grass! This must be the easiest thing to grow. I saw a packet of seeds at walmart labeled cat grass and decided to grow some as a gift for our sweet neighbors. We don’t own any cats but my daughter just adores the friendly little black cat from next door who occasionally ends up on our balcony.
Cat grass is not really any special type of grass it refers to a type of cereal grass such as oat or wheat that can be grown indoors and fed to your cat or other pet. I thought is was something like cat nip that attracts cats, but it’s just a safe edible grass that nice to have around for your cat if he or she fancies a bit of grass every now and then.
Now onto the growing. Take your packet of seed and dump it into a 3-4 inch diameter pot filled with potting soil. Yep I would use the whole packet the more seeds the denser and more full the grass looks. Then top it off with a thin layer of soil if the seeds are still peaking through that’s fine. When I look at the cat grass grown at home depot it appears to be fully exposed with no top soil so I would not recommend burying the seeds but layering they on top of the soil. Water and cover with plastic wrap place in a warm place and a few days later you’ll have something like this.
Here comes the cat grass 
Once the seeds sprout remove the plastic. Sprouts need plenty of sunlight and good air flow to grow.
It was still a little sparse so maybe two packets of seeds would have been better.
After a few days it will look like this.
Cat Grass
Cat grass grows really really fast!
When it was about 3-4 inches tall I gave it to our neighbor so hopefully her cats can do the trimming.
This was a fun grow project and super easy too no fertilizer needed. What a simple easy gift for anyone with cats.
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