Hey! El Nino is over! La Nina is making her way here, but at the mo, we're back to (near)-normal. Which means it's finally warm around these parts. Well, except for the 60 degree weather we had last week....
BUT, finally, the garden is producing fruit! A mere 100-and-something days after it was planted, my early girl tomato plant finally has a red tomato. Never mind that it is smaller than a cherry tomato. Never mind that I'm supposed to have tomatoes at 75 days. That's probably just a (very rough) guide (that assumes good conditions). Whatever! A tomato! My end all, be all, favorite vegetable! Wahoo!
Unfortunately, it got some kind of mold... too much moisture.
It's gone... in one bite. It was soooo good!
Here is what our garden looked like before:
And now:
Lettuce: We had to replant some new plants; a very good yield from the first round, but not great. Unfortunately, the cilantro bolted. I didn't know what bolting was until it was too late.
Strawberry plant = fail. Jury is still out on the basil plant.
Snap peas = yum! We have put the first batch in stirfry and I ate some off the plants today. It reminded me of picking peas on my grandparents farm. This is the 100% recycled trellis we made: twine, branches, and posts left behind in the yard from previous renters.
Peppers are finally growing, but still no fruit. Well, there was one pepper, but Beckerman sent it flying while defending his yard from the "evil" cat next door, Max. *sigh* There are two other pepper plants, but they are less promising.
The thyme plant (peeking behind the pepper plant) is growing and we've been able to harvest some for drying. We could have harvested it fresh, but I broke a branch off, so now we're drying it. It smells wonderful!
I am so excited about the spaghetti squash! There are a few others on the plant. We'd had others, but I now suspect that kidden may have knocked them off. I'm not sure how else to account for their mysterious disappearance and the fact that the addition of gates have allowed these to grow. That puppy is about 2 inches long. Woot!
What do you get when you combine a cat litter container and an invasive plant? Great yield of mint, apparently.
The cabbage has been a colossal fail. We're pretty sure it's not savoy perfection cabbage, which should form heads, despite what the little plastic thingy said. We have something that doesn't form heads, and we're pretty sure it's past it's prime. No matter though - because grey aphids have invaded. We threw 4 of 6 plants in the compost bucket. I'm pretty sure the other two will follow soon. I guess the grey aphids decided we weren't using them, so they'd move in.
Bummer.
The chard has been a dream. We've harvested three times, and a fourth time today. We've always used it in stirfry, but Rachel has me dreaming of quiche.
All kinds of yummy tomatoes that are growing. I can't wait until they are ready. I have a dream of eating tomatoes off the vine, warmed by the afternoon sun.
Did I mention that I love tomatoes? We have four plants: one early girl, an heirloom roma, a common cherry, and a green grape (small, cherry-like) plant.
Today we cleared some branches with the hope that we'll get more sun in the yard and will reap the benefits. I don't know why I'm including this, but when I was scanning the pics, I discovered a gratuitious picture of yours truly, pruning tomato plants. Don't worry, I spared you (me?) the close up of my double-chin.
Beckerman likes the garden. No, I have no idea why he decided to hang out in a "cage." And yes, he did this all on his own. Oh, that would be the dead strawberry plant and the ??? basil plant.
Later he took in the late afternoon sun:
And in a completely unrelated note, I was able to finish a knitted item in ONE DAY. The burp washcloth! It was a lot of fun. I'm glad it only took one day, because when I mentioned to new daddy that the baby was due on Monday (tomorrow) he replied, "oh the baby was born four days ago." Yes, it only took 73 yards. It's no cardigan, but hopefully the new mama is happy. Apparently she's trying to learn to knit, so I left her with the remaining cotton to practice. Baby J was fussy, so we didn't spend too much time with him. But he's right next door, so I hope to see him again soon.
Hope you all had a great weekend too. I will now finish my shot(s) of Bailey's and go to bed, where I probably should have been awhile ago.
Pattern: Burp Baby Cloth (and rav)
Yarn: Sugar 'n Cream Solids
Modifications: A few: changed the boots, added some spaces between features. Check out my ravelry page, if you're interested.
Knitting yardage total 2010: 2,032
your garden is looking great! hooray for your first yummy tomato!
kitty looks so adorable hanging out with the plants.
Posted by: melissa | July 12, 2010 at 08:17 AM
Love all the garden photos! It's been a tough year for gardens on the west coast for sure. Your cabbage was probably the right kind, sometimes they just don't cooperate and form heads - again the weather this year likely hindered them.
Your cat is too cute.
And the burp cloth is priceless!!
Posted by: kate | July 12, 2010 at 09:02 AM
woot to everything. it all looks awesome.
Posted by: Heather | July 13, 2010 at 04:02 AM
i love the burp cloth!! very cute. and your garden, failures and all, is really excellent. :)
Posted by: Lis | July 14, 2010 at 05:36 PM
Love your garden update...as Kate said, this year has not been the best for gardening on the west side. Some things that are fails this year will probably blow you away next even if you do everything the same. It sounds like you are having fun and enjoying the things that are definitely winners...which is the whole point! And let me know if you make a quiche with that chard...I bet it would be amazing!
Posted by: Rachel | July 22, 2010 at 10:43 AM