Punk'd

I got very excited yesterday at the prospect of digging up a couple of radishes to go with last night's dinner. Pulled up the biggest bunch of greens in the container, only to discover - no radish! The greens are there, and looking healthy, but the radish hasn't fluffed out yet.

I looked around to be sure no one was looking, and tucked it back into the dirt. :P

Stopped by the local garden center yesterday to pick up a few things. I'll get herbs later, maybe at the plant sale in our city next weekend. For now, I wanted to get a couple of tomato plants and a pepper into the garden, since those need plenty of time to grow.

Our selections: Sun Sugar, an indeterminate yellow/orange grape tomato that promises to be sweet and prolific.

Golden Bell yellow bell pepper.

And a plain ol' Roma tomato. The center didn't have San Marzano, sadly. They did have a few heirloom varieties, but they already looked leggy.

Those have all been planted, so the count is on.

I took a peek at everything else while I was outside. The radishes are racing toward maturity, and I think the carrots aren't far behind. The spring onions still look small...I wonder if they need more light than they're getting. The beans seem to be doing well, and I planted another batch today. The greens seem to be doing well. The beets are teeny! Potentially not enough sun there, either, but they're in a cracked pot that I'm not moving.

Hmm. Those radishes are supposed to mature in 28 days. It should be any day now.

Sugar Snap

These babies are about a foot tall now, which should be about it for them. Now they ought to make with the peas!!

Inventory

Snap peas: Gorgeous!

Radishes: thinned!

Carrots: Sprouting!

Beans: Sprouting!

Spring onions: Sprouting!

Beets: Sprouting! Or not actually beets!

Indoor seedlings: Need to be replaced! Whoops.

Garden Check

- The snap peas look gorgeous. They should start producing soon, I think.

- Lots of radishes have come up. I need to thin this weekend.

- Also, a good number of greens.

- My neighbors, who I'm starting to think of as the Destroyer of Worlds, may or may not have killed several other containers last weekend.

- I will need to get some nursery seedlings. Mine are just not going to make it.

- If all goes well, our next house already has a raised bed garden.

NYT Article on Urban Garderning

Pretty interesting!

(PS: Forgot to mention, I got to pet Charlie, a 3 month old pig who lives at the farm we buy our meat from. Charlie was very cute, and very big, and I am sure he will make a lovely slab of bacon someday.)

The News From Here is Mostly Disappointing. Mostly.

- I gave up my Community Farm plot. We are in the midst of finding a new home, and then we will be in the midst of moving. There just isn't time. Plus, we could potentially end up living an hour from the plot.

- My seedlings have remained pathetic. I'm resigned to the fact that I'm going to have to buy some bigger ones at the nursery. There is no space in our house for a grow light, but I'm getting one next year, that's for darned sure.

- Critters. Digging in my outside containers. I'm going to try cayenne pepper and see if that works to discourage them. The containers need some attention this week, as they're covered in a blanket of neon green maple tree buds.

Here's the good news, though: PEAS! Beautiful, gorgeous 7" tall sugar snap peas. Keeping them on my porch seems to have dissuaded the marauding squirrels. (You'd probably be dissuaded too, if you say our neighbors' great dane using the porch.) They apparently like the warmth, and the rain, and the little hit of slightly soured milk I gave them instead of dumping it down the drain. I'm hoping they'll actually bear fruit soon. I can hardly stand the wait.