Garden update, stardate 08012009

There’s good news and bad news, and thankfully the good news outweighs the bad. But let’s start with the bad.

Bad news

I had to pick (and toss) the watermelon today, because the rind split and bugs were chomping like mad on its tasty insides. At least they got to enjoy it.

Also, something’s been munching on the only cantaloupe too, but it’s in much better shape. Shaking out rolly-pollies when I see them….

I’ve been overwatering the Black Prince. Unfortunately, the effects of overwatering and underwatering look very similar. Read somewhere today that I should water tomatoes deeply every five to seven days when they’re setting fruit, so I’m going to try not watering him and the rest of my tomatoes for a few days. It makes me cringe inside, but I’m going to do it.

Neutral news

The peas continue to live, despite the heat, but I don’t think they’re going to make peas. Oh well. They look pretty. Sort of. An interesting experiment in the new raised bed?

Good news

The tomatoes are ready! The tomatoes are ready! And I’ve been eating them like mad on tomato and cheese sandwiches (on fresh bread from A Sweet Affair) and they’re sooo good. Salads with one of the many cucumbers (see below) are also fantastic.

One of the tasty first tomatoes

One of the tomatoes was so huge it snapped the vine it was on. I guess I’ll have to make fried green tomatoes….

Om nom nom nom!!

The lemon cucumbers are still going crazy! I give them away on all occasions. I gave Max and Christopher one the size of a softball about a week ago, I kid you not. I’ve decided to make these fresh lemon cucumber pickles in an attempt to use the bounty.

Lastly, I’m happy to report that the eggplant is finally on its way to propagating the species.

Flower, flower little eggplant!!

Anyway. That’s the garden. Used some mint in a watermelon-mint cooler drink today. I’ll have to post a food update soon.

Watermelons and Strawberries….

Grow time.

My watermelon is growing.

Time to eat you!

Om nom nom.

More on the container garden.

State of the garden address

Here’s the garden update for the week. I trimmed the dead parts off the mint, which appears to not be entirely dead. Maybe you CAN accidentally break off the main root and still have a successful transplant. We’ll see.

The lettuce sprouts have kinda died off though. Oh well. It was exciting for a little while. Maybe I should plant some more herbs. And the cucumbers have sprouted as well. Their little leaves look much sturdier than the lettuce does, so hopefully they’ll going strong.

The Black Prince flowers.

But the most important and exciting news this week is that the Black Prince tomato has put out its first flower, with at least six more to come. I’m really pleased by this, especially since the Peron had a flower that just croaked. I can’t wait to eat a dark brown tomato. I ask that you grow, my dark lord!

How does your garden grow?

I woke up this morning to find that more of my lettuce seeds had sprouted. It was actually quite wonderful, because I was on the phone and counting the sprouts, then after a bit more talking and looking at the rest of the garden, I started to count again – and came up with more! Very exciting.

June 28th, 2009

I’m interested to see how the tomato plants get bigger and have decided to take a picture of them at least every couple of weeks so I can compare and contrast.

Too many figs I won't eat

The figs appear to be ripe, but I have no idea how to prepare them and honestly I’ve never really liked the fig dishes I’ve tried. This is a problem. But there are four corncob with silk growing away! So excited…. That’s something I know how to eat and love.

I also just thinned the other lettuce seedlings… I hope I did it right.

Garden bounty!

One of my favorite things about summer is fresh, delicious, sun-warmed lemon cucumbers picked from the garden and eaten immediately. They’re just so delicious and so pretty. How come more people don’t love these? It’s so hard to find these anywhere except for my garden!

A freshly picked lemon cucumber

Just wash them to get off the little prickly points (they must be related to pickling cucumbers!), slice them, and eat them straight or with a little bit of salt. Yum!