My Very First Blog...Like EVER!

Ok..So here I am. In front of my computer looking at other peoples harvests for this week in December and wondering why I can not get off my butt and get out there in the garden and do the much needed work that I need to. I think it is maybe because Since we have moved here to Oahu from Fort Campbell Ky, I have been trying very hard to container garden here with little results. I admit, I am one of those people that will stubbornly try and grow the familiar that I have always grown and expect the same results. HAHA. Because of this.....I am needing to take out 2 of the three cucumber patches i have planted due to a lack of pollination. Yes I KNOW..get a Q-tip right? After finally moping around and coming to the realization that i will basically have to play bee with a q-tip, (which made me a tad uncomfy pollinating a different species), I did the deed. Many times..yet with little or no results. :-(

This was my first pickling cucumber plants.

Then, I instead planted another little group of burpless cucumbers and also qtiped them as well. And this is the result. lol

The cucumbers that have tried to grow end up not making it. UGH.

Then I planted another set of cucumbers. The pickling type, just another brand and I did NOT bring out the Q-tip on them. I have gotten at least 4 cucumbers so far that have somehow been diddled and pollinated without my help. Which is fine with me, like I said, the whole thing makes my uncomfortable. I picture my neighbors looking down on me in my garden while doing it and it just makes me feel dirty..haha. I can definately come up with some hilarious comercials for the Q-Tip brand if they need me though..lol

Have no clue how this happened.

Those are just the cucumbers!! I have prided myself in the past on my pickles and how I never have to buy them. Well this summer I found myself in the kitchen floor bawling in the fetal position holding that very familiar jar of pickles my mother used to buy during childhood for me and screaming, "NOOOOOOO!!!! WHY?? GOD WHY???"(ok, not the fetal position..but still). I felt like a failure!! I will say that I DID..use a coupon though. 

When we lived on post in Ky, I used to dream about blogging and talking about how great my little garden was for us. How I never had to buy pickles, or peppers, (oh god..don't get me started on the peppers and maggots i find here in them..thats for another post), or especially TOMATOES...My three I used to call them. The main three things I grow and preserve. I dreamed of posting on Daphne's Dandilions for Harvest Mondays and doing the calculations on how much we were saving every year. Hmmmm...I have spent literally hundreds of dollars this year just getting my beds up, buying soil because i can not plant in the ground here, and other various expenses with little rewards. 

I have come to the conclusion that I am not lazy..I AM STUBBORN..and don't like change. I am a picky eater!!! But I LOVE TO GROW THINGS! So today I am making a choice. Back in the garden I will go. I will take down the two useless cucumber plants. Re-fill the pots, replant the type of cucumbers that ARE somehow producing on their own, do some research for Hawaii. Probably dig out the garlic that I already read is not going to grow here..haha...and finally come to the conclusion that I will absolutely HAVE to start growing things that work here. I guess I will be trying things like bok choy, chinese cabbages, and all the veggies that i have been terrified to try since childhood.

 If nothing else maybe this blog will help others to know what NOT to do. (be stubborn that is). Wish me luck, I have TONS of reading to do...

OH..btw..check out Daphne's site here. I've been a huge fan of Harvest Monday for years! Thanks Daphne!

http://daphnesdandelions.blogspot.com/