Brown Thumb Turns Cucumber Green

I admit it.  I have a brown thumb.  In fact, it is so brown that I managed to kill a cactus. Seriously.  How difficult can it be to keep a cactus alive?!  Apparently, difficult enough for me. 


Well, I've been bound and determined to turn my thumb green.  For the past couple of years, Chad and I have thought it would be cool to have our own vegetable/fruit garden.  We would love to be able to grow enough produce to feed our family.  Maybe we would have to supplement with produce from the store as well. 

Last year I got the kids excited and involved with starting a garden from seeds.  I should mention that the orchids are fake. :)  We planted cherry and roma tomatoes, jalapenos, green chiles, sunflowers, and cucumbers.  They were off to a good start... I watered them daily.  Occasionally the kids would water them.  And then, oh, about a month into it, the watering came less and less until well, I think you can guess the ending of this story.  Why do I always start something and can't follow through to the end?


After about another month, I finally cleaned out the pots and put them back in the garage.  Darn!  I failed again! 


My dream of having a garden is still there.  I just need to quit being lazy with it and follow the Nike motto: Just Do It! 


During one of my trips to the grocery store I saw some seedlings for sale.  This time I'm going to do it right!  I bought a 6 pack of Anaheim chile peppers, a 6 pack of pickling cucumbers, and 4 packs of strawberries.  I brought them home, transplanted them, watered them, talked to them, etc.  :) 


I honestly don't remember how long ago I bought those seedlings... Maybe that's something I need to know?  However, I have managed to keep them alive!!  Not only are they alive, they are producing fruit!!  That's right.  Infact, there are 23 Anaheim chiles and 2 cucumbers.  I managed to keep the strawberry plant alive enough to produce a small handful, but let's face it, strawberries don't grow to well in the desert. 


I also decided that I wanted to try growing some plants from the leftover seeds from the last attempt.  Even those are doing well!  You know what my trick is?  I put all the pots under our big mesquite tree to get some shade and they are in the perfect spot to get water from the sprinklers every night.  Honestly, why didn't I think of that before?


Just today I picked the very first cucumber, which I didn't even know existed for the longest time.  It was growing behind the pot.  I had no idea it was there!  I researched online to see when cucumbers are ready to be picked.  Apparently, you should pick them when they are smaller as opposed to larger as they will lose flavor the bigger they get.  I also wondered why the cucumber was yellow.  Well, apparently, I didn't pick it soon enough.  OK.  I can handle that.  I still managed to grow a cucumber.  And I think that's pretty cool!  There's one more growing in the pot and now I know to pick it sooner.

As for the Anaheim's... they are beautiful.  As I wrote above, there are 23 chiles!  Oh, how I LOVE roasted green chiles.  Actually, I need to pick a couple of them because they are starting to turn red.  Maybe I should research a little more, but I'm fairly sure I should pick them before they turn colors.