Friday, May 30, 2014

Garden Tour - May 29, 2014

Something...my guess is the groundhog or the bunnies...ate a lot of the peas.  Despite the attack,
I have peas!  Not full pods, obviously, but they're getting there.


The tomatoes are getting taller everyday.


What's that growing next to the "Cantaloupe" marker?  Not a cantaloupe.
I'm pretty sure it's a tomato randomly growing.


Oh!  There's the cantaloupe hiding behind the marker.


That's Leroy.  From what I'm told, he used to be an hors d'oeuvres holder...toothpicks
in the holes and all that.  Now he guards the cucumbers and cantaloupe.
Sixteen in all, it's a lot of work, but he said that after years of being stuck in a cabinet,
never seeing sunlight, he's happy to be outdoors.


We are growing a variety of cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli.
I'm pretty sure this is a Purple of Scicily.
That's tar paper around it.  That's supposed to ward of cabbage worms or something.
Knock on wood...so far so good.


This is the second mushroom that grew.  I don't know if it's edible. 


We grew a whole quart mason jar of strawberry popcorn last year.
This year, we decided to try regular sweet corn one last time.


Two years ago, I grew one gigantic flowering sweet pepper bush, that produced not one single pepper.
Last year, I grew some small ones that actually produced peppers.  
I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a good crop this year...knock on wood.


The sugar snap peas are growing like weeds.  The Hubby came up with the great idea
of using the two small tomato cages wire tied together as support.


First round of spinach.  More seeds are starting as we speak.


I don't know what's up the zucchini.  This is the only healthy looking one.
The other two are iffy at best.


Did the same thing with the kale as I did with the spinach.  I started some new ones yesterday.


One garbage can of potatoes are starting to flower.


We have more strawberries this year than ever before.


This is Bruce Lee.  Just like Leroy, he was rescued from an estate sale.
He likes to hang out near the eggplants to Kung Fu fight the insects away.


I also picked up this beautiful old tool box at an estate sale. 
Inside are all my, now finally organized, seeds.


Henrietta Hen has been around for a long time.  She keeps the seedlings safe.
A cut worm (I think) decapitated a sweet pepper so she's standing guard over there now.


Mint. Mint.  More mint.  I've been giving away mint plants.
Soon, I'll bring some to work to hand out.


The weather is still wonky.  I'm hoping it starts staying warmer soon.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Garden Tour - May 4, 2014

Something happened to a bunch of my seedlings.  I started mostly over, let's see how it goes.
In the meantime, I have plenty of peas growing.
 

As usual, I have 5 millions pounds of mint growing. 

 
See that plant growing amidst the mint?  The one with the little white flowers?
Apparently, it's garlic mustard.  It is edible, although it does contain some cyanide.
It is also incredibly invasive.  My Bestie the Hot Horticulturalist
(apparently, I can't use her name, but I can say that, yeesh) says to pull it all out, so I will.
I may still try a garlic mustard pesto recipe...we'll see.

 
 
It's hard to see, but the strawberry patch has flowers.

 
I'm trying to grow potatoes one last time.  The first time, they mostly rotted.
The second time, it took a lot of space, and I grew like ten potatoes.
This time, I'm trying out the infamous growing potatoes in a garbage trick I saw
on the Hope Gardens site.  We're trying Adirondack Blue, Russet and Yukon Gold.
Hopefully, they will later become the best pierogies ever.



The spinach took it's time, but it's finally growing.
 

 
As are the kale.
 


Honestly, I forgot what this is a picture of...Savoy Cabbage?  Green Macerata?  Purple of Sicily?
They all look the same to me, so I'm never sure...
 

 
Sugar snap peas.  I use two small tomato cages stacked on top of each other
to keep them from falling over.  Hopefully, we'll be better about picking them this year.



 This mint is different from what I grow.  I have no idea how it decided to
move into the garden.  I'll have to pull and relocate them.

 
The garlic I used from store bought stuff that sprouted.  Almost all of it died over the winter.
I have three that made it.  Let's see if they turn into a full head or just stay a little clove.
 


Not only have the asparagus started growing, we've actually had some for dinner already.
 


It's been a mix of super skinny to insanely thick.  I have more roots someone gave me.
I'm debating on planting them in front lawn....
 

 
It's still on and off chilly.  So much so that I forgot to start leaving my seedlings out to harden off.
They'll move into the grow station tomorrow.  If I remember....