Why haven't I posted on here since April? Yeowza. I've been all sorts of busy. I actually fried almost every one of my seedlings. Accidents happen, life goes on. Instead, I restarted by just putting seeds in the ground. So far so good.
I have a lot of zucchini growing. Plus, the mystery squash...
What's mystery squash? You're guess is as good as mine. They were growing in the compost bin, and I assumed they were pumpkins. Apparently, I was wrong. Any guesses?
I don't know what happened with our peas, but only about half sprouted. And of that half, a very large groundhog made an appearance on our deck and ate half of them. It's okay, I'm happy to share with our backyard wildlife. We still managed to shell a few cups worth of peas.
We have three types of beans in addition to the shelling peas....I think french string beans, snap peas and a weird purple one my mom gave me that changes color when you cook them.
We're growing two types of melons and bunch of pickling cucumbers. We're trying a new trellis system this year, made out of repurposed parts of our old garden fence.
This is supposed to be a melon, but it looks like a cucumber. I am starting to think I mixed up some of the seedlings. Much like the mystery squash, only time will tell.
Hey! What's that next to the cucumber trellis? Are those tomato plants?
Why yes, they are! So is this.
And this. So, yeah....after I fried my seedlings, I picked up a bunch of tomato seedlings from a lovely lady on freecycle. After planting them, I noticed some small tomato plants growing in my garden. We usually get five or six every year. This year, it went from a few here and there, to about thirty unplanned tomatoes. All in all, I think we have around 50 plants, more than ever before. Thank goodness I know all about canning. We'll have tomatoes well into the next growing season.
I also bought some new, fancy red lettuce seeds. Unfortunately, I was entirely too lax about watering them, and and only one sprouted. That's disappointing. I might throw in more seeds this week.
Every year, the mint comes back by itself. I brought a huge bucket of it to work, and you couldn't even tell I noticed any from my yard, that's how much I have.
The cilantro reseeded itself from last year. Just like last year, I didn't cut them in time to clean and freeze them. Also like last year, I will instead, harvest the coriander seeds. For right now, there are a slew of beautiful, tiny, white flowers attracting all sorts of beneficial bugs.
The carrots are doing well. I bought a weird stubby type that should do well in clay soil. The beets...I don't know what's going on with them. I have to start new beet seeds I think.
I'm doing just a few basil in a pot. I probably should have used a bigger pot and planted more seeds.
The pears are back of course. The squirrels and groundhogs will be happy.
I wasn't sure how big that broccoli was going to get, and didn't harvest it in time. It flowered and now went to seed. I'm just going to sprout the seeds to add to salads and sandwiches. Right now it looks like a crazy mess. I'll start new broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower seeds soon.
And this wild mess? It's the kale. That kale plant has taken on a life of it's own. We had an aphid infestation, but thanks to my trusty new sprayer, I wiped it out. I'll explain later. The kale also went to seed. Since I have seeds from last year, and this one plant produces so much kale that I don't need to plant more, I'll sprout these seeds too.
A few kale leaves are starting to pop up.
I have a lot more to tell you. I'll try to post more this week.
