Quite Contrary

Garden, Interrupted

2008-06-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

Well, today I dismantled my container garden and brought it all over to my parents' house; from there, it'll go to several new homes among my family. We moved to a great new place, the only downside being complete lack of access to space for containers. So for now, I'm sending my lush little plants out into the cruel, cruel world.

Actually, I'm sure they'll get lots of love. Maybe they'll thrive better than when I had them!

Just an update on the state of things:

- The sugar snaps are just about done, yielding a total of about 10 pods. *sigh* I found evidence of something digging, despite the pot being up on the porch near our door. I guess sugar snap peas are just that irresistible.
- The purple beans look outstanding! I have two crops going, and the older one's got lovely little purple flowers all over. They've both gotten big and bushy and look really healthy.
- The spring onions, not so much. I'll be suprised if they continue to survive long enough to mature. Maybe they don't like being in the container. (Also, our neighbors killed off one container.)
- Yellow grape tomato is looking a little leggy, but has sent up a second main plant. I saw two little flowers on it today. Huzzah!
- Roma tomato looks much less leggy. I have high hopes.
- The greens seem to be...inconsistent. I'm curious to see how those will turn out.
- The radishes never happened. They all started flowering, and I never got an actual radish root. It may be that I didn't use a deep enough container, as they're tap root veggies.
- The carrots were mostly overwhelmed by the too-big radish greens, but a few survived. The carrots that were not planted with radishes are doing well.

I'm hoping to get some pictures of at least the beans when I visit them next. I would definitely grow Romano Purpiat again, so long as the yield is good. I've never had a happier plant in the garden.

May Flowers

2008-06-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

There are delicate white blossoms popping up all over my sugar snap pea plants. I cannot tell you how excited I was to glance sleepily out my kitchen window Friday morning and realize what I was looking at.

Really, everything's going pretty well out there. And what I love best about today is this: I rubbed my hand over the tomato plants to encourage leaf growth, and I can still smell the dark earthiness of tomatoes on my hands.

(Also pictured: Violet pac choi growing with wild kale, radishes and teeny tiny frilly carrot greens, and the Romano purpiat string(less) beans, which are growing like gangbusters.)

Punk'd

2008-05-29T04:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-25T04:38:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-21T05:31:00.001-07:00

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

Inventory

2008-05-19T06:18:00.001-07:00

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

2008-05-14T04:38:00.001-07:00

- 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

2008-05-09T05:04:00.000-07:00

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.

2008-05-08T05:10:00.001-07:00

- 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.

2008-04-29T05:36:00.001-07:00

There is a critter digging in my containers. Die critter, die!

I am normally not prone to violence against wildlife, but the stupid squirrels ate my peas and some carrots, too, last year. I made the right call in putting the peas up on the porch rail. Little pests are much less likely to come that close to the house.

In less cranky news, we've gotten lots of rain yesterday and today, so hopefully I'll see some green in those containers soon. You know, if the squirrels don't get to them first.

Let's Get This Garden Started

2008-04-26T16:30:00.000-07:00

I was out this morning, finally planting outdoors. Our containers were never brought in last year, so I had a bit of work to do with them. Only 1 immediate casualty, a small terra cotta pot that fell apart during winter's extreme temperature changes. A larger terra cotta container is also showing signs of stress, so I probably won't use it for a whole lot this year.

Everything that I'd ordered has now been planted. The outdoor containers are now home to carrots, beets, radishes, bush beans, kale, chard, and a whole lot of green onions. Indoors, I think the seedlings are taking a bit longer than they ought, but there are still six weeks before they go in the ground. I unfortunately lost one or two by leaving the cover of the seed started on too long...it wilted the seed leaves, and the seedlings didn't last long after that. But that's why you plant multiples!

My peas are doing beautifully. There's a patch of 3 or 4 that never came up, but the rest have really taken off. I think next weekend I'm going to start a second batch to see if I can't get some later ones. I don't think it'll work, but it can't hurt to try. The rest of the seeds will be saved for a late season planting.

Next weekend will also be for more pictures.

Our house has gone under agreement, so we're hoping to be moving soon. Mid-season of course, but I planned for that possibility. I'm so clever.

2008-04-19T05:56:00.000-07:00

I'm off the waiting list - there's a half plot with my name on it in the community garden nearby. So all my seedlings will have homes, even if it's not in my own backyard.

The proof is, in fact, in the pudding

2008-04-03T15:42:00.001-07:00

Seedlings, Day 3.

Seedlings, Day 5.

More Day 5.

I wrote down what everything was, but now I'm a bit suspicious that I've made a mistake somewhere. If not, we're looking at Cayenne pepper, both tomato varieties (San Marzano and Principe Borghese), eggplant, and some oregano. There are a few others just starting to break through to the surface.

Who ever would have thought tiny green things held so much excitement?

Finally

2008-03-30T04:38:00.000-07:00

I started seeds yesterday!

In my mini greenhouse from Territorial Seed, I planted seeds for anything that wants to be started indoors. Cayenne peppers, mini bell peppers, two varieties of tomato, two varieties of basil, chives, eggplant, and oregano. I also did a couple of experiments to see what the difference really is between indoor-started and direct sown with kale, pac choi, and green onions. With the greens, I figure at the very least I can use the snippets as micro greens. The onions should grow fine, there was just a note on the packet that said direct sown seeds would be "more uniform." Whatever that means. Anyway, who can't use more baby onions? Also started a couple of sunflowers. They came free with my seed order, so why the heck not? My garden could certainly use a little color.

I used up the rest of my first bag of potting soil by starting my sugar snap peas outside. I can't wait for those babies to mature. I tried growing them last year too, but it was like they were suicidal. First, they swelled up in a rainstorm and floated out of the dirt and got eaten by wild critters. Then when I pushed them back down, they sprouted and got eaten by wild critters. This time around I tried to be smarter, and put them on the railing right outside my door. Hopefully this will discourage wild critters.

Next weekend I will start the other outdoor starters. Going to need more potting soil before then!

I definitely have too many seedlings for the garden right now....I planted 50 peat pots. I should hear early next month if I'm going to get a plot in the community garden nearby, so I'll have some things to start there. If not, I'll send some extras to my grandparents and parents and in-laws in small containers. They all enjoy the vegetables I bring them, so this would mean no waiting!

I feel very clever about using water leftover from hard boiling eggs to water the seeds. Conservationist, that's me!

Now they sit for a day undisturbed before I try watering them again.

I would also like to point out that Sinfest has started its gardening for the season, too.

Hopefully, we'll see some green popping out from the soil too, so there'll be pictures again.

What early spring looks like

2008-03-10T04:47:00.001-07:00

Got my seeds! Spread 'em all out nice and fancy to take pictures!

That's about as far as I got.

We are STILL mired in The Big Move, so this weekend was spent getting the house decluttered so our realtor could come snap pictures of our humble abode.

Next weekend, though. I promise.

At least, I hope. But heck, I didn't start last year until July, so I'm still ahead of the game, right? Right??

Tonight, we dance

2008-03-05T04:57:00.000-08:00

Or more aptly...this weekend, we garden.

I spoke to my gardening consultant (aka "Dad") yesterday, who informed me that I can start my seeds "last week." This weekend, then, will be a project. I really need to get my pots indoors and scrubbed, I need to get my potting soil topped up, and I need to start planting! My planting chart will be consulted, but right now, I'm thinking....peas outdoors, lettuce and greens outdoors, tomatoes indoors, eggplant indoors, hot peppers indoors. Actually, I can probably get my carrots and radishes sown outside as well now that I think about it. The weather's been warm enough that I could probably take care of those and the peas tonight after work.

I also got on the waiting list for a Community Garden just a few minutes away from our current home. I won't hear until April whether I get a plot, so I can't do much planning ahead as far as starting more varieties. But since I'll start multiple seedlings of the same plants, the excess could go into the community spot. And I can always pick up plants next month.

So yes. This week will officially kick off my gardening season, after a long long winter.

I held a lamb!

2008-03-03T05:28:00.002-08:00

Last year, I made a conscious decision to start getting more of our food from local sources. I considered a vegetable CSA share, but to be honest, I really didn't want to be all tied up in one farm when there are a whole variety of Massachusetts producers to explore. I did, however, seek out a farm that sells meat shares - enter Chestnut Farms and farmers Kim and Rich. We started off with a 10lb share, split with my parents, and when our 6 months was up, we increased to a 25lb share. Kim does drop-offs once a month around the MetroWest, which makes this a pretty convenient thing to do. (I will not lie or pretend that it isn't challenging to have someone else selecting a month's worth of meat for me, but I plan our meals two weeks at a time, and that has worked very well.)

This month's pick up was yesterday, and Kim brought her daughter Marlisa as well as a brand new wee baby lamb! I wish I'd brought a camera. The tiny little thing was just born on Friday, and I could feel his heart beating next to my hand. Truly amazing. If I thought I could convince my husband that this was a peculiar-looking, long legged cat, I may have smuggled the baby home in my coat. The whole thing was just so darned cool, and this is not the sort of thing one can do when one buys meat from commercial feedlots.

This summer, I'm still going to stick to farmer's markets and my own garden for produce, but I'm going to make a bigger effort to build relationships with local farms. I really think it's the way to go, even if it takes a little more time than this modern world expects. More thoughts on that later.

2008-03-03T05:28:00.001-08:00

2008-02-27T04:53:00.000-08:00

I think....I think I got a whiff of spring breeze on my commute to work this morning. I could have been hallucinating.

In any event, I'd like this move to be OVER NOW, so I can get on with the planting. The sugar snap peas, they're calling my name! In a language that only I (and centimeter long, gray-green shrivel-ly seeds) can hear. "Plllaaaaaannnnnnttt ussss! PllllAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnnnnttt usssss!!!!"

It's actually a little creepy when I think about it.

The seeds of spring

2008-02-19T05:33:00.000-08:00

My package from Territorial Seeds arrived last week. I've been in packing HELL, so no chance to peek at the goodies just yet. However, I noted with a certain amount of glee that I could potentially plant my snap peas this week. THE GARDEN, SHE AWAKENS!!!

Ahem.

Romance, Garden-Style

2008-02-15T04:08:00.000-08:00

Just the other day, I was reading Gayla Trail's blog entry about Valentine's Day gifts for gardeners, and thinking how sweet an idea it is to give such a gift. Practical (usually) and keyed toward a hobby that grows plants, which are the traditional Valentine's gift.

I asked my husband not to get me a gift, since we've got the Whole Big Move Thing going on, but last night "the cats" presented me with a card, and this handy tool, a Leatherman Pruners Hybrid. Before this, I didn't actually have garden snips, and had been thinking about that lack a whole lot. It's not something I ever, ever mentioned though, so it makes me love "the cats" even more to know "they" were thinking that much about what I like, and what I need, and what I struggle with buying for myself.

The days grow not quite long enough

2008-02-13T04:54:00.000-08:00

O, how I long for spring.

I have, as yet, been unable to retrieve my gardening containers from the outdoors. Since November, they've either been covered in snow or soaking wet. Or covered in snow AND soaking wet. Most of them are heavy duty plastic, so it shouldn't hurt them to be out there, but to be honest, they're a bit of an eyesore.

To pass the time, I've been considering how and where to set up my seedlings. I think we have only one room with enough sunshine for the task, and it's currently my husband's office. We're going to need to swap offices for a while. I could just make room enough for a small table, but...the cats. Husband likes having the cats in the room when he's working. The cats like to eat plants. You see where I'm going with this.

The blueberry plant order is on hold. My gardening consultant (also known as "Dad,") pointed out that most blueberries don't produce in Year 1. I called Spring Hill to confirm this. I'm sure the lady at the other end wanted to help me. But her answer was "I don't see that information here. I got one a few years ago, and I think it produced the first year. But they may not be selling the same thing now. So you may get them the first year. You may not." Yes, I feel so much more informed now than I did 4 minutes ago.

I know I could just get the foolish thing now and have blueberries next year if not this year, but there's that whole "We're moving, and we need the space to be less cluttered so lots of people will want to buy our house" issue. Plus, one of the main motivators to get the stupid thing was a sale that has now expired, so. Meh.

I've ordered my first seeds!

2008-02-09T05:23:00.000-08:00

I put an order in this week with Territorial Seed Company. Last year, I got several seed packets from them, and everything sprouted well. (Sadly, most didn't make it to maturity for one reason or another that had nothing to do with their seeds.) The hardest part was deciding what to get, as I don't want to use any more containers than last year. We hope to move mid growing season, so this all needs to stay fairly portable.

Here's what I got:

Basil - Aroma and Cinnamon. I should have the space for both, and basil did really well in the containers last year. I could have gotten away with just Aroma, but I'm curious about Cinnamon.

Squash - Cavili. I was very, very tempted by Eight Ball because c'mon, how cute is that? But Cavili is self-pollinating, and I had some pollination issues last year. Bees must not like the city.

Tomatoes - This was perhaps the hardest decision I've made so far this year. I originally had eight varieties of tomato seeds in my shopping cart, which I painfully (so painfully) whittled down to two: Super San Marzano for sauce, and Principe Borghese for eating and drying. I had one Principe Borghese last year that I bought as a plant from a local nursery, and I was really impressed with the output and flavor.

That may not be enough tomatoes, but if I'm really craving more variety, I'm sure I'll have no issues picking up another plant or two in the spring.

Peppers - Miniature Chocolate Bells and Cayenne. We mostly use bell peppers around here, and I was distracted by the chocolate color. I'd also like to dry more hot peppers this year, hence the Cayenne. I had good success with drying last year.

Root veggies - Kestrel baby beet, and Guardsman scallion. I should be able to drop both around the perimeters of my bigger containers. I am tempted by garlic and true onions, but I can order those later, after I see what sort of place we'll be living in next winter. I have Thumbelina carrot seeds and Easter Egg II radish seeds already, leftover from last year.

Greens - Violetta pac choi and Wild Garden Kale, a seed mix. I'd originally planned to get lettuce too, but the truth is that we don't really eat a lot of salads. I also have some leftover Golden Swiss Chard seeds that won't go to waste.

Beans and peas - I was ever so tempted by Etna beans for drying, because look how gorgeous they are. I'll save that experiment for next year, though, with such limited space this spring. My entire bean crop will be Romano Purpiat. The yellow Romano also looks lovely, but I decided to stay monochromatic this year. For peas, I elected to stick with Sugar Star. I grew them last year, and they were apparently very tasty, because some critter ate them all before they matured! This year's batch will be much better protected.

Eggplant - Twinkle, which may be the cutest, prettiest eggplant ever. I had great luck growing eggplant -plants- last year, but it was too late in the season and they never bore fruit. I'm hoping this year will see a more bountiful eggplant harvest.

That's it for seeds. A bit later in the season, I'm going order some herbs - Territorial ships these as a plant, not seeds. I need some Rosemary, Oregano, and Sage, at the very least. I am also planning to order a couple of blueberry plants, specifially Top Hat from Spring Hill Nurseries. I'll be honest, I'm really drooling over the idea of a citrus tree or more fruits (Figs!), but I'm trying to be spare, here.

I'm a bad blogger, but a worse gardener

2008-01-03T05:17:00.000-08:00

We've had some snow in New England. A lot of snow. It turns out, we set a record for most snowfall in a December this year.

Why do I mention this?

Because my gardening pots are still outside. Buried in snow. I waited too long to clean them up and get them in the house, so now they're in frosty limbo. I'm hoping with one more decent thaw I'll be able to retrieve them.

In the meantime, my brother in law and his wife were kind enough to send me a small kit for an indoor Italian Herb Garden, which I got started a couple of days ago. I eagerly anticipate tiny green plants unfurling in the next week or two. And having fresh basil to last me through winter, because O, How I Crave It.

In other happy news, seed catalogues have started arriving! I think my entire haul will come from Territorial Seed Company this year. I really want to expand into interesting stuff like corn and brussels sprouts, but I'm holding myself back for a couple of reasons. First, we're trying to be nice neighbors and the husband has asked specifically that I not overrun the backyard of our 4-family with more plants. Second, we are planning a move sometime this year, and the earlier the better. So I don't want to go crazy with enormous plants that I then need to figure a way to transport to their new home.

I have a list put together. I've had to pare it down twice, because there is clearly no reason to spend $200 on seeds in the small space I've allotted for gardening. Next year, I can expand. This year will be enough of an experiment, since everything's going in from seed. Last season was all seedlings and mature plants.

The last time I grew herbs from seed, I potted 50 peat pots. One plant made it to maturity. Let's hope this goes a bit better than that year.

Poor, neglected garden

2007-11-06T06:06:00.000-08:00

I visited the garden this morning for the first time in a couple of weeks. I am a bad, bad garden momma. We went on vacation for a week, and I was out to pick the unripe tomatoes and whatever else I could find before the risk of heavy frost. My parents were treated to a bounty of green tomatoes.

We've apparently had a light frost in that time, but nothing too terrible, because most of the plants were alive and kicking. The drought had killed off the cucumber plant, and the peas are in bad shape - I moved the latter to our porch in the hope that it'll discourage the squirrels from pulling out the plants. But I saw ripe grape tomatoes, and peppers, and a number of green cherry and grape tomatoes. The garden greens are doing pretty well. The leeks are about as good as they're likely to get, so I'll probably harvest those this weekend. The eggplant is truly mighty, and is still a green giant out there. Not that it's produced anything to show for all the resources it's gotten.

I never got in the second round of carrots, and I didn't bother ordering saffron crocuses. I did get my composter, so one of this weekend's projects will be to start filling that bad boy up. The winter will be about compost, winter greens on the patio, and dreaming and planning for next spring.

2007-10-09T05:22:00.000-07:00

My poor garden's looking the worse for wear at this point in the season. It's time to start considering which plants are going into the compost pile this weekend. The traitorous eggplant is a top contender.

I went out this morning to check on things, and harveted an overflowing handful of grape tomatoes. My head swam with plans for when I'd dry this batch to give me more oven dried tomatoey goodness, when a combination of wet wood, clumsiness, and sheer bad luck caused me to take a spill and crush most of them. Sadness! Despair! I managed to salvage a few, and then grabbed some Black Cherries, but I feel robbed of the good stuff.

The rest of the garden is obviously slowing down. None of the Husky Reds has ripened since I picked the last one a week or two ago. My third cucumber apparently offed itself when I failed to water properly last week. There are two smallish banana peppers on the vine. The other hot peppers are still growing like weeds. Only, you know, hotter. And slightly more colorful. The greens need to be thinned, so I'm thinking we'll be having a salad with the trimmings this weekend. My sugar snap peas, once so happy and carefree, have become angry and defensive after being continuously ravaged by some creature, and haven't given me any tasty treats. And of course, I never managed to get another round of carrots and radishes in the "ground," after their unfortunate run-in with the neighbors' dog.

I've started reading "Square Foot Gardening" to see if it would work for me next year. Here come the daydreams about lovely lush lawns punctuated with prim white boxes filled with lucious green.

It wasn't a fluke!

2007-09-28T05:58:00.000-07:00

I made another batch of gorgeous oven dried tomatoes yesterday. This one's even darker than the last - I'm a little afraid I didn't let the first batch go long enough, and I'd really like to have some last through the winter. Actually, that's a bit laughable, as there's really not enough to keep me happy for more than a few dishes - less, if I share. But having the option to find them in my cupboard in 3 months would be nice.

I'm thrilled to still be pulling things off the vines, and I'm hoping the current string of hot days will help ripen more of those shiny beautiful tomatoes. There should be enough grape tomatoes on the vine to get at least 1 more batch done.

I am already daydreaming about growing grapes next year, and 80 trillion tomato vines.

Oven dried goodness

2007-09-24T03:51:00.000-07:00

I plucked a bunch of the Principe Borghese over the past week, and decided to try drying them. So yesterday, when I had several hours where someone would be in the house at all times, I set the oven to 200 degrees, cut my tomatoes all in half, and set them to shrivelling up. While I was at it, I sliced up a couple of sweet banana peppers that were on the counter and slightly past their prime.

I'm calling the results an unqualified success. The peppers dried to an almost papery consistency, and have turned brown. I tasted one, and immediately wanted to add it to dark chocolate. I'm seriously considering drying the rest of the peppers solely for this reason now.

The tomatoes are tiny, dark, and very tart. I fed one to my husband, who shook his head around and blinked several times after swallowing. I do believe the rest of the grape tomatoes will be reserved for this purpose as well, because I'd really like to have enough for sharing.

I dreamed last night that I showed the garden to my mother, and everything was warped and mutated and ruined. The cucumbers in particular were blackened and diseased on the vine - one of them half some sort of stalk growing out of it. I may be a little preoccupied with the state of the plants.

I'm a bad tomato mom

2007-09-18T04:33:00.000-07:00

We were supposed to get the season's first frost last night. I left my tomato plants outside, where frost will surely kill them. I've yet to inspect them to be sure they survived the night, though it looked like it wasn't much of a frost when I left the house this morning. I do need a long term plan, because it's mid-September, and winter in New England is inevitable.

We had a condo association meeting last night, and toward the end, our neighbors complimented me on how much the garden was producing now. Really, nothing but the tomatoes has done much, but I've learned not to underestimate the power of red spheres in an expanse of green. (Or in the case of our lawn, brown and dirt.)

We are getting a second cucumber. Huzzah!

2007-09-13T07:43:00.000-07:00

My three types of tomatoes this year! The top picture is Principe Borghese, hopefully destined for some sun-drying. The middle is Black Cherry, which has a great texture & consistency, without a lot of tomato goop. The last is Husky Red, which has been slow to produce, but is now going pretty nutso. The remaining tomatoes on it won't ripen before the first frost, but that plant has remained less than two feet tall, so I'm pretty comfortable trying to winter it for a while. It's tempting to try to winter the Black Cherry too.

Sadly, the Principe Borghese is a bit too ungainly to bring indoors. I will definitely be growing that one again next year. It yielded a whole lot of fruit for a short growing season - I didn't get them in until mid-July. I learned a lot from these plants...next year I will not be afraid to hack them back to prevent legginess. I will also give them better sunlight; the one thing that truly gave me agita was the powdery mildew that built up incessantly on the grape tomato.

I can't believe the growing season is nearly over.

Pepper post

2007-09-10T05:23:00.000-07:00

I harvested some tiny little peppers this weekend. So exciting! These started out creamy white, and they recently darkened to orange, and then red. Very bright, and it makes me happy just to look at them. Of course, I haven't -tasted- them yet. They're marked as "edible ornamentals," so I'm not convinced they'll be all that yummy. Still, they don't take up much room, and they're very cheery.

Here are my other "edible ornamental," Pretty in Purple. These are taking a very long time to fully ripen. They start off purple, but they're supposed to ripen red. So far, I've got purple, and purple fading to white, and something that may darken to red. Maybe. I wish I'd taken before and afters of the entire plant. It started out as a wee little bitty thing, and now it's easily as big as my banana pepper plants. Except it's growing horizontal instead of vertical. I think I'll try to use this one again next year, but to prune it back so it looks nicer.

The banana peppers are edible, and not ornamental. This one got very fancy, though! I'm not sure what made it curl up on itself like that, but I bet it'll taste just as good as its straight and narrow colleagues.

2007-09-04T04:45:00.000-07:00

I need to go out and take some new pictures of the garden. The tomatoes are still going a little crazy right now, and I fed them more milk this weekend to encourage more out of them. The lone cucumber is ready to pluck this weekend, and I think there was a second starting to develop. Designs for next year's garden are starting to occupy my thoughts in the early mornings as I wake up. Things to do this winter: Borrow "Square Foot Gardening" from the library, work on building some raised boxes if we figure out what our next home's yard looks like, and figure out some dedicated space to start seedlings indoors.

I still can't eat the hot peppers in the garden in their raw state, but I cooked dinner for the whole family and significant others yesterday, and snuck a couple in to the enormous pot of beef. It was pretty great to be able to use them, just like that after picking them. I have visions of preserving leftover veggies, but this year's garden isn't going to produce enough for that. Next year's crop will be a little more ambitious.

Tomato Identification

2007-08-28T05:37:00.001-07:00

I believe I've finally identified the grape tomatoes I've got growing. This is "Principe Borghese," which is fitting if only because Villa Borghese is one of my favourite places in Italy. It is apparently a determinate, but gets very big, which explains why I thought otherwise. From what I've been reading, these make excellent sun-dried tomatoes, and I'm going to attempt to do that. There are 8 gazillion on the vine right now, so plenty of room for experimentation!

I'd already figured out what these were, but I wanted to share a picture because I think they look pretty neat. They're Black Cherry tomatoes, and they taste like the bigger varieties of black tomatoes that are becoming more and more popular. These get to be about 1.5" in diameter on my vines. It seems I'm not letting mine mature long enough either, as they usually have a little bit of dark green stripage when I pick them. This does not make them any less tasty.

(PS - not my pictures.)

Insult to injury

2007-08-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

I went out to water plants this afternoon, and realized the one lonely radish that had been left intact by the neighbors' dog is now gone. Vanished. I suspect smaller critters at work. The snap peas also looked a bit trampled, and all the sticks in the pot were smashed or broken again. I replaced those. I'll replant the carrots and radishes this weekend. Earlier if I can get out for more potting soil.

The single cucumber borne by the vine is looking very pretty, all shiny and green today. I moved the two mobile tomato plants into full sun for the afternoon to help them ripen, since it's not as hot today as it's been recently. The greens are starting to look distinctly different from one another...I need to pluck some sprouts to give them a little breathing room. That should happen this weekend too.

I wish I could chew, because there are several banana peppers that really want to come off the vine already.

Success and Failure

2007-08-25T12:57:00.000-07:00

My acorn squash plant is gone, gone, gone. I went outside today to find my grape tomato absolutely covered in powdery mildew, and I blame the squash vine. It didn't seem to be producing anything anyway, so I yanked it. It's sad, because I'd have liked to see it do something, but I'll try again when I have a gardening spot that gets a bit more sun.

The grape tomato plant is pretty much bald now. So depressing. It has a gazillion little fruits on it, which is very exciting to see. I just hope there are enough leaves left on the vine to feed them.

Making up for a disappointing trip to the garden: I has a cucumber! An honest to goodness cucumber is growing on the vine. Also exciting was the discovery of more small tomatoes on the standard plant - I counted 3 more small ones growing. (I also discovered that I kept the tag in the pot, it's a "Husky Red.")

There are a bunch more Black Cherries on the vine, too. I hope all these tomatoes have time to ripen! I picked two purple beans, 1 grape tomato, and 1 purple pepper, just to test the heat on it...I really don't think they're going to turn red. This one seems to be getting white, not red.

There are several banana peppers ready to be picked, but I had my wisdom teeth out yesterday so I won't be ready to eat those any time soon. I can only imagine how much it might sting to have capseisin in tooth sockets!

Late August

2007-08-23T05:37:00.001-07:00

A brief visit to the garden this morning revealed that I need to do some picking tonight! I've got a bunch of banana peppers ready to go, a couple of purple beans, a Black Cherry (or two), and one lonely ripe grape tomato. I think I'm going to scour the internets for recipes to preserve the peppers. We've got nothing for salad in the house except for those, and as we've already seen, I'm just not manly enough to eat too many in one sitting.

Somehow, the Pretty in Purples are STILL not ripening to red. It's been weeks now! I think the tag lies, and they will remain purple. It does not take any fruit this long to ripen, nevermind one that's not even an inch long.

The Black Cherry plant is producing a few more fruits, which is happiness-inducing. I tasted them this morning, and they're really quite yummy. Sweet, but not too sugary. Very smooth texture. I will be looking for these seeds next year...I already knew I liked the color. The grape tomato is astoundingly full of fruit. Both of those has really taken off in the past couple of weeks. The standard tomato has 3 fruits left, growing a little bigger than the last ones I picked, and 1 is starting to ripen. That plant hasn't gotten much bigger than it was when I picked it up mid-summer, so I suspect it's a determinate variety. Still tasty. I just wish I'd seen more than 6 tomatoes from it. But heck, it was a buck!

My cucumber lives to disappoint me, and the eggplant isn't far behind. Both behemoths that give me nothing. NOTHING.

Deep rooted seeds

2007-08-22T05:08:00.000-07:00

My grandfather was in the hospital this weekend - fortunately, nothing life-threatening. I decided to visit, and snuck in some tomatoes for him. Papa had a big garden behind their little cape, and I remember him giving my family tons of cukes and tomatoes to take home with us whenever we visited - which was quite often. He'd save all his seeds and use them for next year's crop. I can still picture it vividly, rows of peppers, tomatoes staked on discarded metal pipe and tied off with cut up pantyhose, enormous cucumber vines, all on a bed of dirt surrounded by cement block. My grandparents had a lot of flowers around too - roses, geraniums, and lillies were predominant, and I still remember how wonderful it smelled to wander around their backyard. There were giant lilac trees on the property line that divided their yard and my great aunt's. They took a lot of pride in how that yard looked. (A grumpy "There's poison in the grass!" was one of the first signs of spring in my grandparents' home.) And a lot of pride in the veggies they provided to their family.

I'd picked a bunch of tomatoes Saturday morning in anticipation of seeing my parents and sharing the miniature bounty. (OK, I really just wanted to prove to my dad that I could, in fact, grow something edible!) I let them sample some of the Black Cherries, and gave them the standard red, but hoarded the rest for Papa. He is not a talkative man, but his whole face lit up when I walked into his pale green room, and again when I took out the plastic baggie full of little tomatoes. They're not quite what he grew in his garden, but I like knowing that he's seen proof that he's passed the torch down to his granddaughter. Hopefully, he liked eating those efforts!

(Also, the neighbors' dog has ravaged my garden again, though not so bad as last week. I need to move.)

Och, Powdery Mildew!

2007-08-18T05:42:00.000-07:00

I may have one lonely radish hanging on through the Doggie Destruction. We'll see how it does. The potting soil that got dumped is effectively ruined, as it's all mixed in with the dyed cedar mulch - I don't really want to be growing edibles with whatever chemicals might be in there.

Yesterday's garden discovery: my grape tomato (for this, indeed, is what my "San Marzano Roma" turned out to be) is susceptible to powdery mildew. Seriously, this mold is the bane of my gardening existence. I trimmed the plant bald yesterday. Happily, it still seems to be throwing baby tomatoes my way. The hot weather + rain isn't great for the mildew, but it makes the plants pretty happy anyway. Growth on the tomato plants measures in feet, not inches. It's really amazing, despite the annoyance of needing to re-stake again.

I got a pretty good haul yesterday, about half a dozen of the heirloom cherries, a few grapes, and a banana pepper. I wish I'd taken some pictures of the heirloom cherries on the vine, they're beautiful. One standard tomato too. It looks like the fool plant really is going to give me just two more tomatoes. If it's going to throw any more, it needs to do so soon, lest the babies not have enough time to ripen before winter takes hold. I cannot say I'm not tempted to bring the tomato plants inside just before the frost and see how long they last. We've got a number of weeks before that though, and at least two more tomatoes to munch on before then.

I don't think my cucumber's going to produce a single thing. Sad. We're well past the time when everybody else's cucumbers have started being eaten. Stupid plant.

That's a spicy meatball

2007-08-17T04:47:00.000-07:00

It turns out that the "sweet banana peppers" are actually hot! Just mildly so, but I neglected to get all the seeds out before I tossed a couple in a salad last night. After several pieces in one bite, I was completely caught off guard by the heat. And later, I had the misfortune to rub my eyes with PepperFingers. Aieeee!

I have to say though, that there are few things more pleasant than munching on veggies grown in one's own back yard.

seethe

2007-08-14T14:57:00.000-07:00

I peeked outside today to check on the garden and noticed that the carrot/radish trough appeared to be on its side. And that some of the peas' climbing twigs were on their sides. I rushed out to investigate, and sure enough, the trough is nearly empty of putting soil and seedlings alike. I can only guess that our neighbors' Great Dane puppy was outside unsupervised and got into them. Nothing else was touched, and the seedlings weren't eaten, just uprooted.

I am so very, very angry. There's not a thing I can do, except replant this weekend. I may go back out tonight and try to salvage what I can, but it's disheartening. I can't wait to have a place that's not a condo, so we don't share a yard with anyone. This is the second time something in my garden's faced an early demise, and both incidents are linked to the same neighbors. It's not malicious, but that doesn't make me feel any better about it.

To cheer myself up a bit, I picked two more grape tomatoes, and 2 small banana peppers.

It didn't work.

Fruits of my labor

2007-08-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

I ate the smallish tomato yesterday with my lunch. Like an apple, which I supposed is a little weird, but I didn't want it getting all messy. It was delicious! Sweet, and a little hint of crisp flavor. I wish the plant was planning to put out more than half a dozen fruits.

I suspect there'll be another ready to pick tonight, and I'm hoping the first banana pepper will be ready, too. There may even be a couple of cherry tomatoes ready. I'm clearly growing two different varieties...I had no idea what I had, as one came from a farmer's market and the other was mislabelled as a San Marzano roma. The latter is growing classic bright red cherries, and the former seems to be giving me something stripey and purple-pinkish. Neat!

I suspect a slug has been inspecting the garden. There are thin trails of shiny on the acorn squash, which is the only plant that touches the ground. I'm not sure what else it could be, but it's only in the past few days that I've seen it. I applied a second round of anti-mildew, as that plant still seems to be suffering, but it may meet the same fate as its cousin the cantaloupe. It doesn't appear to be getting any better, and the last thing I want is an invitation to hungry, slimy critters.

The Forest for the Trees

2007-08-13T04:48:00.000-07:00

One of my most recent "crops," the European salad greens, is perhaps the best illustration of how I need to learn patience if I'm going to ever manage to grow a good garden. I used up an entire packet of seeds between two 14" round containers. An entire packet.

This was not the original plan. I wanted to put in 1 crop, then sow more seeds as I harvested. I'm not sure what happened...whether I was tired after working in the sun to get 4 other containers done, whether the seeds were just so tiny that it didn't seem right to just sprinkle in a few, or if some other madness overcame me. I have an entire tiny forest of seedlings now, whatever the reason. And no seeds left for later. To make matters slightly worse, most of those seedlings are concentrated on half of one container. What exactly was I thinking??! Sure, they're tiny now, but these are going to grow into good-sized heads of lettuce.

Ah, well. We'll be having some, er, "sprouts" on our salads for a week or two. This is why I really shouldn't garden unsupervised.

In better news, I saw teeny carrot greens poking through the dirt beside the radishes. Thank goodness I showed a bit more restraint with those seeds, because I really want to be able to replant right through the first frost.

Mini Harvest

2007-08-12T16:54:00.000-07:00

The garden got no love from me yesterday, but a quick peek into the back yard confirmed that everything was doing just fine without me - better to avoid fixing what isn't broken! I wanted to take a few shots of what I've got going on out there today, so out I went. Of course, the finicky cuke was wilting on me by then. Ridiculous. I busted out the watering can, snapped a couple of pictures, and admired my little green world.

The picture is of the Pretty in Purple pepper. I'm somewhat suprised they haven't turned red yet - they've been at that large-ish stage for nearly a week. ("Large," of course, is a relative term here, as the fully grown fruits don't even reach 1".) It's a very pretty plant, all in all. The purple fruit is pretty and whimsical. It's labelled as an edible ornamental, so hopefully it'll taste good once it's ready to be picked!

I brought in 1 cherry tomato - closer in size to a grape tomato, really - 1 small standard tomato, and one purple string bean. I ate the bean myself, but fed the cherrygrape to my husband, who declared it "a pretty good tomato!" He may have just been soothing my ego, but who cares? He's pretty smart for a boy.

Got milk?

2007-08-10T04:42:00.000-07:00

You know, ever since I learned that my cucumbers may not be cucumbers after all, the whole plant's been disappointing me. I got home yesterday to discover the leaves all wilted, despite a good amount of rain the day before. It's almost is if the plant is picking a fight with me just to avoid being sad when I say goodbye. (Little does it know that I'm not ripping it out - it's already bitten me once!) I think I'm going to do one of the homemade watering systems suggested by Gayla Trail of You Grow Girl. I'd been putting it off, but it's simple enough to do, and I've got the materials and the drill. May as well do something with them.

The other plants all seemed perfectly happy, but I gave them a drink anyway, in case we get some light showers today - if there's one lesson about gardening that's remained in my head since I was a kid, it's that shallow watering damages plants. If I do cukes again next year, I think a bigger pot would be good for them. Or perhaps just train the vines in a more vertical direction. Containers don't hold as much water as the open ground does, obviously, which creates one watering problem. But the cukes also have wide leaves that act like umbrellas over their pot, and I suspect less rain is getting in there than in the other plants' habitats.

I also fed my tomatoes some milk, another trick of Ms. Trail's. I'm mildly concerned about blossom-end rot, and I haven't supplemented with calcium at all. We had some milk that was long past its expiration date, so I went ahead and used it. Here's hoping it makes them happy!

I made a tomato!!

2007-08-09T04:44:00.000-07:00

I've plucked a few beans off a vine several times in the last month, but this feels like the first honest to goodness "harvest." A lush, vibrant red tomato, just begging to be eaten with a little salt. A tomato! I did that!!

There are a couple of others ripening on the vine, but they're far smaller. Perhaps 2 or 3 green ones as well. That may be it for this vine. But heck, what did I want for a buck and not getting them in until July? There are a couple of cherry tomatoes ripening, too.

I was extremely suprised when I went out yesterday and discovered seedlings sprouting from all 4 new containers. At first, I thought perhaps they were weeds...they were as delicate as new clover. But the seedlings in the two greens containers seemed exactly alike, yet different than what was growing in the radish/carrot box. The peas were very obviously little tendrils, not weeds. I called my dad to confirm that these could, in fact, be my plants. I don't know why it suprises me that they'd come up in a matter of days, but I was just out there two days ago and didn't see a whit of green. Now they're a couple of inches tall! And a bit of an embarassment, as it's now perfectly clear how overboard I went with the salad green seeds. Oh, dear. There are about 8 million of them in there.

One other confirmation from my dad was more disheartening - I'd read on another garden blog that the female flowers of a cucumber look like cucumbers with a flower attached. I'd thought that these were already-pollinated fruits, but no. None of them seem to be getting big like everything else, so I fear there will be no cucumbers. I should have planted flowers to attract more bees; we really didn't get very many.

And now, a moment of silent for my canteloupe plant, which I ripped out last night in frustration. Despite a liberal dosing of inhibitor this weekend, it was mottled with yellowed holes, and I'm tired of wasting time and resources on it. It was never going to actually bear fruit anyway. If I plant it next year, I think I'll put it in a raised container, so it has a chance to air out between storms. I'm much sadder about my herb window box - I think our neighbors well and truly killed both sage and oregano when they sent it toppling 2 stories down. The basil is barely hanging on. The new farmer's market I visited last weekend had a guy selling sage and rosemary seedlings. They also had the best peaches and blueberries I've tasted this year, so I think it's worth going back despite it being so much farther away.

Mostly, I'm just excited about my tomato. I did it! I grew something edible!

Pea Mutiny

2007-08-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

So last night, I peeked out my kitchen window to check on the garden, and noticed strange white pebbles in the snap pea container. Curious, maybe some animal had been digging and dropped them there. Or maybe something fell out of the trees. I didn't get a chance to investigate until early this morning, when I found out they were - peas! In all the rain, the seeds had swelled to the size of marbles, turned white, germinated, and somehow pushed themselves up out of the soil! So very irritating, especially given that I was dressed for work and had no time to change after getting filth all over me. I pushed them all back in their dirt, washed my hands off with the hose, and made a quick check of everything else.

Who ever realized peas could be so mutinous?!

Anyway. One tomato is perfectly, deliciously red. A smaller one isn't far behind, and several cherries seem ready to ripen as well. I count 3 fully developed banana peppers - one large enough to bend its stalk, so I need to stake it soon. The Pretty in Purple has 3 or 4 full size (about 3/4") peppers, about ready to turn red. The mini white pepper is also putting fruit out, but I've lost the tag so I have no idea how big they're supposed to get.

Both eggplants are monstrous, but show no signs of producing anything yet. I seriously cannot believe how out of control those plants are. They were wee little things when I put them in the ground, and now they dwarf everything out there. The cantaloupe really needs to just get dug out, is not doing well at all. I hate to rip anything out, though. Grrr.