Random Garden Pics

Well, the two weeks off work due to a periappendiceal abscess and appendectomy have given me way more free time than I really know what to do with. I'm not supposed to "work in the yard" while recovering. The JP drain sticking out of my old c-section scar for the past week has sucked the fun out of most activities anyways (as well as 150 cc's per day of infected fluid out of my abdominal cavity). This morning said buh-bye to the 2' of tubing and attached squeezie bottle and look out world! (I have my 5-year old convinced my JP drain is a special "juice box" the doctor wants me to keep attached to my belt).

It is so nice to have a garden to come home to:

Pencil-sized purple passion asparagus spear

Potatoes have been hilled up-Green Mountain on the right, and Tom Wagner's selections in the two left rows

Yacon from an ebay seller in California


Garlic, Shallots and Potato Onions 8 months after planting

2" tall okra seedlings seem to be struggling a bit. They were planted out about 2 weeks ago, just as all the cloudy rainy weather started. I suspect they will take off as soon as we get some clear hot dry days.

Finally the first strawberry flower! Time to break out the bird netting.

Lettuce looking cool and crisp in the east bed, which is up against the house in afternoon shadow.

Pole beans of various makes and models prepare to send their first tendrils skyward

Wall O'Peas. To date, all pods have been eaten in situ.

Baker Creek's Topaz

These tomatoes are grown from a seed I saved from a Yellow Pear tomato which I crossed with Cherokee Purple pollen last summer. I know the cross took, because the shape is definitely not pear-like, and the one is already much larger than its Yellow Pear parent. I was actually hoping for a small purple pear yielding the rich Cherokee Purple taste; looks like I may get a beefsteak type instead--keeping fingers crossed for taste genes inherited from pollen parent.

Do not adjust your color settings-yes Virginia, there is a Blue Tomato.
These are currently smaller than golf balls. Very excited to see how this one progresses.

More later. Right now, I have to get back to "not working in the yard".

yeah but...how are you supposed to know when they're ripe?

The Green Zebra:
egg-sized and -shaped fruits on average plants:

or the Green Sausage, which is a small plant with wispy leaves and bushlike habit, spindly and kind of weak-looking but absolutely LOADED with fruit, two trusses of which are shown here (and yes I know, I see the blossom-end rot):

or the Green Giant (a large beefsteak on a large potato-leaved plant)?

...any tips would be greatly appreciated.

Homegrown Tomatoes

Y'know, my mom loved to garden. Even when she wasn't feeling all that great she still had to have something growing in the yard. Maybe that's where I caught the bug from. This morning I saw the date on the calendar and noticed that today is April 10, mom's birthday. Then I went to check the plants and noticed that today is also the day that my one prodigioius Stupice seedling decided to open it's little bloom. Coincidence? probably. But kinda cool too.

Now, time for a song...

(this video was originally downloaded from here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxwjMtI4aoM) but for some unknown reason I couldn't copy the embed code so it was easier to just download it and re-upload it.)

Stupice Rhymes with "My Pizza"

So why is it spelled like that?

I potted up a Stupice seedling 10 days ago and man it must have grown a cm per day. Apparently they're not lying when they say 60 days to harvest, because look what I just found~ a teeny tiny flower bud! People talk about getting a ripe tomato by June 1, I may just beat that. This little guy and his tree brothers and sisters are now too tall or my grow light shelf. I hadn't bargained for this. I just repotted them 2 weeks ago and they took off like gangbusters. I need a taller shelf and more grow lights. Should I repot again or wait another week? I don't know! I wish I had a hoop house. No, I wish I had a greenhouse. I wish I lived in Arizona. Wait, no I dont, too hot and dusty, I don't care if its a dry heat, I like it right here. I wonder if it will bloom before May 1. I think I'll pick up some liquid kelp and worm castings next week. Couldn't hurt. In other news, I have revised my garden layout for the umpteenth time. That does it. I'm buying the wood for the raised beds next week.

Graduation Day

These occasions are so bittersweet, aren't they... I mean, you spend your whole life preparing for this day, so you'd think when it finally happens you'd be ready for it, but no...The emotion is so....raw......The first of my seedling six-packs graduated to empty frosting tubs, foam can cozee's, and old slurpee cups today and I'm beside myself! One six pack of mixed sweet bell peppers planted way back in January, and one six pack of "tree-type" tomatoes, from Val and Dan. Actually got seven tomato plants, because one was sharing. I never grew tree-type tomatoes before. They are not really "tree-like", but they're supposed to have a compact growth habit like a determinate variety, but instead of bearing all fruit at once like the determinates, they bear fruit continuously throughout the season like the indeterminates. Sounds perfect for patio containers, perhaps to give to friends and/or relatives. That's why I started them so early. By the way, I sowed the rest of my garden tomatoes yesterday, 40 cells worth. That's 20 different varieties, NOT including the 4 trial varieties I have promised for Dave, or the elusive Orange Fleshed Purple Smudge that I ordered from Baker Creek last week but when I checked the website the next day a "out of stock" message appeared. OUT OF STOCK! crap. Maybe I'll have to shell out $9 for 5 seeds on ebay after all. Because 20 varieties is not nearly enough tomatoes is it?

Seed Starting Frenzy

YAY! We're officially in Countdown Mode...It is now 12 weeks BLF (Before Last Frost) 'round these parts, so according to several different and sometimes conflicting recommended planting time-lines, it is now time to sow the onions, celery, celeriac, selected brassicas, peppers and eggplants, and possibly early tomatoes indoors. Which is exactly what I did this weekend. Well, actually, the pepper and eggplant seeds were put in ziploc baggies and left to simmer in my fancy high-tech seed-germinating cabinet, shown below. I checked them this morning, and after only 3 days I am ecstatic to report that some of the peppers are showing signs of life! Which means I'm going to have to move them to cells pretty quick, which in turn means a trip to Lowe's in the near future to buy a couple more shoplites and a laser level, because God knows nobody in their right mind would attempt to hang a temporary grow-light shelf without a laser level (at least that is what I have lead Pakman to believe.) In my house, the colder it is outside, the faster seeds in the fancy high-tech seed-germinating cabinet sprout. I believe it is because during frigid weather the furnace kicks on more often and for longer periods of time, which provides the nice constant warmth to the underside of that cabinet where the air vent is located.

In all, I have planted approximately 800 onion seeds into saved freezer-entree containers. There were about 600 Yellow Valencia seeds in a pack for $1.35 from Peters Seed and Research, and about 200 Long Red Florence in a pack for $1.75 from Tradewinds Fruit. Also I planted 3 flats each (actually cut off gallon plastic milk jug bottoms) of Redventure Celery and an unnamed Celeriac variety, also from Peters Seed. I have never planted onions or celery/celeriac from seed, so we'll keep our fingers crossed. Believe it or not, I did not broadcast-sow the onions, I actually sat there and poked 600 holes in the soil and meticulously placed a single seed in each. I hate waste. For the celery/celeriac, I sprinkled a pinch or 2 of the microscopic seed over the soil and pressed them in with the back of a spoon. Keeping the soil moist with a mister and whispering sweet nothings to them at regular intervals is the recommended procedure, which I am so far following without fail.

Some of the peppers, eggplants, lettuce and brassicas are from seed I obtained for seed trials for this guy who I became aware of through the miracle of internet forums. I'll be posting with regular updates on the Seed Trials, as this was part of the deal—in exchange for free seeds and the resulting veggies, I'm supposed to keep records, notes and impressions and pics of what grows, all raw data for his new seed company venture. I'm glad to be a part of this interesting project. Also I plan to save lots and lots of seed. Stay tuned for plenty more on that.

And finally, the first round of tomatoes are: An old early variety, Wayahead Red, obtained for free from wintersown.org's SASE tomato offer, and Stupice, another early variety that sets fruit in colder weather, as well as three “dwarf” or “rugose” tomatoes destined for porch containers named Matchless (red), Coastal Pride (orange) and Bushy Charbarovsky (fuzzy red), with seed obtained from these fine folks. Val and Dan have an amazing garden with many rare and unusual tomato varieties, some developed from their own breeding operation and available nowhere else! Their garden is also featured on page 196 in the 2009 Farmers' Almanac. Besides all that they are also the nicest people you'd ever care to know. I also santitzed the starting mix using hydrogen peroxide per their instructions, so hopefully this will greatly reduce damping-off, a fungal disease that can plague seedlings, especially slow-germinating ones like celery. I'm so excited that the countdown has begun! Bring on spring!

Speaking of Tomatoes

Traditionally, January is the month of garden planning. However I began planning mine back in August, so by now the plan is pretty much done. I'm also using a spreadsheet to organize and calculate my choices. Spreadsheets are a very powerful tool, and one must be cautious that such power be used for good and not for evil. So far, 2009's garden will cost approximately $1,614 not counting the stone mulch, cubic yard of vermiculite, and lumber for the 15 new raised beds. Ok maybe that's a little extreme but I have been on gardening hiatus for about 6 years and I guess I'm just making up for lost time. Also the fact that the new house has about 1/3 acre yard with basically nothing except grass, Only 2 trees and is fenced in, makes me a little giddy. Included in that amount is 18 fruit trees and a hedge of Leyland Cypress so don't roll your eyes like Pakman.

I did narrow my tomato varieties from about 25 down to 11 finalists and feel very good about it. They are:

Regular Red Slicers:

New Big Dwarf: Only 60 days, determinant 2' tall plants, producing 12 to 16 oz fruit, going to grow this one in containers.

Stupice (rhymes with "eureka"): 55 days, smallish fruit but sets in cold weather

Longkeeper: supposed to be able to pull up the entire plant, fruits and all, right before a killing frost, and hang the whole thing upside down in the basement and have constant supply of vine ripened fruit through January-February. Cant wait to try this one!

Caspian Pink: Cooler weather plant supposed to rival Brandywine in taste.

Specialty cool colors:

Copia- Red/orange fine vertical stripes

Big Zebra- Green/yellow fine vertical stripes

Ananas Noir-Mottled rainbow colored, photos I have seen show mostly green/purple outside w/ red core

Carbon-purple tomato, supposed to less prone to cracking

Banana Legs- so I can make yellow spaghetti sauce to top red (tomato-flavored) pasta and a sprinkling blue cheese of course.

Currant tomatoes:

Matt's wild cherry- just to see what all the hype is about

white currant-so I can make a salad with tiny white tomatoes, pink fleshed radishes, giant purslane and Bull's Blood beet greens.

(pic of bananalegs is from tradewinds fruit, rest are from gettle.org)