Round Two

We’ve had a few seedling casualties but that’s to be expected I would imagine.  Some of the seedlings are still doing quite well and now we seem to have a miniature full blown garden right here in the dining room!  The seedlings have now all emerged (except the herbs, which we planted very late) and include two kinds of heirloom tomatoes, tomatillos, an assortment of hot peppers, cantaloupe, cucumbers, leaf lettuces, and even some itty bitty strawberries.

tomatillos and cucumbers starting on their first set of real leaves

my little powerhouses.  They’ve been transplanted into bigger containers and have survived the shock

left to right : yellow heirloom tomatoes, hot pepper mixes, black krim heirloom tomatoes all starting to get their real leaves

an experiment in gifting: JuJu received this container and set of seeds at school so we’re trying it out.  So far so good.  We have teeny tiny strawberry plants!

Newbies

Here are a couple of shots of the seedlings as the were just a few days old.  We planted in mid February (which might have been a little late) but they did well from the get go!

Cucumbers

Cantaloupe on the left and corn on the right

Sad Little Gate

winter : early 2011

Plans

Squash Blossoms

I read recently that a squash plant will not produce any fruit if friendly lil’ bees do no pollinate the flowers.  (All of that is a little fuzzy.)

Well, my squash is covered in flowers.  And since the plant is producing no fruit I was a little confused what the purpose of growing squash was if no squash was ever going to grow.  But, I present to you, Stuffed Squash Blossoms via Epicurious.  What in the world….

Does anyone know how to tell the difference between a male and female blossom?  I’ve heard you can use a small paintbrush to pollinate the flowers yourself.  At this point, I find that preferable.  I’m feeling some googling coming on.

Before and After

How is it that I have failed to post a single decent all-encompassing picture of the garden?  It’s long overdue.

In no particular order: tomatoes, basil, oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary, blackberries, squash, eggplant, jalapeno peppers, cilantro, and asparagus.  We have some gifted onions growing in the terracotta pots on the back “wall”

Gardening is super fun.

All Grown Up

This morning I was running around like a mad woman feeding the child, gathering an overnight bag (sleep over at Nana’s!), getting ready for work, watering the plants when….

Whaaa?

My tomatoes!  Heavy with their 3 fruits were bowing to the ground under the weight of it all. 

Me thinks it’s time for some sturdy cages.