What gives? And something new.

I always wonder why two plants grow so differently.  These two plants were started on the same day and kept in relatively same conditions (watering schedule, size of pots, fertilizer, etc). Yet the Super Sweet 100 plant is 11 inches tall and starting to produce. The Yellow Pear is still 3 inches tall and not a flower in sight.







My SS 100 plant, she even has a teeny tiny baby tomato on her






My teeny tiny Yellow Pear plant

I am pretty excited by the SS 100's first little teeny tiny tomato.  It will be the first tomato that we have produced from seeds we planted. We have done other plants, just never tomatoes. I've always been too impatient and just buy from a nursery

And now for something new.

Every visit my mom makes to California she shows me something new and wonderful at our local Asian market. Last time it was Chinese Okra aka Luffa.  It does seem weird that you can eat a luffa, I mean, you use it to exfoliate, right? You shouldn't be able to eat it. But if you pick it young it is sweet, tender and delicious.  I am hoping that this:

Chinese Okra seedling



 Will produce lots of these:

Store bought Chinese Okra

One of the ways I prepare the okra is peeled (you don't have to, the skin adds a crunchy texture that I like) as  much or as little as you want. Then chop it into bite size pieces.

Inside of the okra

All chopped and ready to be cooked

And stir fry it with some pork or chicken and garlic



Yum! 

I would have taken an after picture, but we were too hungry. The little one likes the okra, the big one doesn't like to try anything new so he never tasted it.

I hope this works!!!  Happy gardening all =)

Be careful what you ask for...

The hunt for straw was successful. After vacuuming out the back of our mini van.... it still isn't back to normal...


Strawberry/Rosemary bed is mulched. With a few cute little red berries resting on top of the straw.

A whole mini wheel barrel full still.

2 39 gallon bags full and still 1/2 of the straw left. I don't think I will need straw for a while. I see straw walk-ways next to the new bed.

Happy gardening all!

Hay....

S.O.S.

I'm having trouble finding hay. Can you believe it? I think I need to go visit a feed store. Now where to find one?

Where do you all buy your hay that you use as mulch?  My strawberries are in desperate need right about now.

That's the goal today. Find hay. Buy hay. Don't spend too much money.

Harvest Monday!

Happy Monday!  Harvest Monday, hosted by Daphne's Dandelions is an opportunity for gardeners all over the world to show what is growing in their garden.



This week we did a lot of much needed work in the garden. And managed an accidental "harvest" of 2 pounds, 81/2 ounces of Cherokee Purple tomatoes. We put a new and taller cage around the floppy CP plant, and lost a few limbs and fruits, but they will ripen on the window sill and we will enjoy them.

We also FINALLY added soil (um.... compost) to our 4x8 bed. My ONLY raised bed. I am so excited and cannot wait to plant it up! AT our Memorial Day cookout, one of my friends mentioned that the city landfill also has a greenery section that you can acquire soil, mulch and compost from, at very low prices. SCORE. I was looking online and found a place that had "container soil" -- for raised garden beds, for $35 a cubic yard, with an $80 delivery fee.... So we asked our friend to borrow his truck (which led to the soil conversation) and managed to get a cubic yard of material for $12.  When we went to the landfill, they let us know that they did not have top soil, only compost or mulch. Well, we were going to need compost anyway, so we went ahead and purchased it. A quick search showed we could grow in pure compost (anyone have any negatives on this?  I've seen various posts about things accidentally growing up in compost piles.... so it's ok for plants right? Compost is added to soil to amend with nutrients and lighten soil....so this should work, right?).  The city kindly loaded up the bad of the truck and we worked the rest of the afternoon on moving it from the truck (front yard) to the back. The boys "helped" get the soil in the bed and break up any soil clumps from the original bed soil by throwing them against the house.

Before

After

And the compost that was left over

Now I need a drawing of where everything will be planted and apparently some more trellises if I want as many climbing plants as I envision.  Oh, an if I never have to add most of a cubic yard of soil to a garden again it will be too soon....

Happy Gardening all!

When you try to do good for the plants....

And things go awry. I really, really tried to do good!  The Cherokee Purple plant was just getting to be so top heavy and the small little cage wasn't doing cutting it because it was all flopped over.  So I made the trek out to a real garden center, not just a big box store and bought a 5 foot cage. And the hubby agreed to help me prop the floppy mess over so we wouldn't do much harm.

Well, she's taller now. But there were orphans made.

She's now 5 feet tall

Unfortunately these guys were broken off

So close!

A big one too

Not too shabby here either

All my little orphans

So now these poor tomatoes will finish up their ripening on my window sill and I hope they taste as good. And I hope the poor plant recovers! 

I hope tomorrow's gardening goes better too. Happy gardening all!

Lychee!!

When Mimi blogged about finding some Lychee at her Asian market the other day, I almost ran downstairs to my pantry in the middle of the night and opened up a can of Lychee (I may be exaggerating a little bit, I'm sure it was early evening....). I love Lychee. I've always had lychee growing up, but just seemed to forget about it for a while.  We had taken a vacation to Hawaii before I was pregnant with my first son and I had my first Lychee martini.... divine. And since we were trying to conceive, no boozing it up for me. I drank lychee juice with water and ice to satisfy my craving. And all during the pregnancy as well. Yum, yum, yum!

I also realized it had been a very long time since I headed out to my favorite Asian market.  And when I did get there.... I found.... LYCHEE!!!!!! (really not surprising since Mimi found it at her market). Of course some fresh lychee came home with me.

Lychee is a small, walnut sized fruit with a firm, bumpy exterior skin that hides white fleshy fruit similar to ....  maybe a less acidic pineapple? It's so light and summery. There's also a large brown pit in the middle to avoid, so don't bite down too hard.

I'm also going to add that it is very hard to type when there is a plate of lychee right next to me.  I'd peel one, eat the fruit, wash my hands, realize I wanted another one, peel, eat, wash.....you get the picture.  I finally decided that I'd be piggish and peel them all.... to eliminate sticky fingers of course. And they were yummy!

It was a pleasant snack, back to everything else that goes on here!  Happy gardening all!

Around the garden

I had a slight setback in getting better over the weekend.  I decided that I was "well enough" to go for a run with the kids this Saturday, kept it short and relatively slow. Sunday we had some friends over for a cook-out, and Sunday night I could barely function I was so beat down.  Monday I was in bed until 2 pm. When I finally managed to drag myself downstairs, some homemade chicken and rice soup, a coke, dayquil and Doritos (hey, we all have our guilty pleasures) made me feel closer to human. So now the hubs and my running hubs (we have run together for the past 6 years, and people we meet assume we are married, even though we have told everyone we are each married to someone else and my kids look NOTHING like him! It's always good for a chuckle. It doesn't help that we live within 10 miles of one another and carpool frequently) have banned me from running until at least Wednesday and probably Thursday. Boo.  So I think I might have to do some yard/garden work.

I have been bemoaning my crazy floppy Favas in my daily garden inspection. The ants have been running around on them like crazy, and since they didn't seem to be doing any harm, I just let them have fun.  The flowers are coming and going with no pods in sight.  When all the sudden I noticed something......

We have little fava bean pods!  Geeking out! It's the little things in life that I have to enjoy and get excited about.  SO now the wait begins.... daily checking and making sure that pesky bunny doesn't nibble! 

You can click on the photo to zoom if you want.  Sorry about the haziness,
picture was taken through the sliding glass door.

The bunny was the surprise hit of the gathering this past Sunday.  He came out multiple times during the day, much to the delight of the kids.  And now I am getting to borrow a BB gun from a friend's kiddo!  He he he, watch out Mr. Bunny!

This was his breakfast this morning. A green strawberry.

More wandering around the yard showed me something else I have been checking and waiting for.... broccoli!  Look close....Now the hard work to make sure no pests notice it's there.

And one of the clusters on the CP. Hmm....Soon my pretties!  I am extremely envious of everyone who grows lots of the same plant to freeze and can fruits and veggies for the winter months. Maybe one day we can be productive enough for that. But for now we are enjoying every taste of homegrown goodies.

And can you see the ragged ends of the sorrel?  That is not the result of some marauding garden pest on four legs.... that is from the two legged variety.  I often find them standing next to the container nibbling on little pieces that they tear off. "Hmm, Sorrel Mommy, tastes like lemon." Mainly the big one, and not to be outdone, the little guy copies him. And Daddy has to have a taste as well. Good thing we are organic!

Sorrel - after the kiddos discovered it.

And something pretty to end the blog today.

Happy gardening all!  Off to Target for more OTC meds and maybe the garden store if I can drag myself that far.