Fruit on the Vine

The first tomatoes and peppers have been sighted in the garden, and here it is only the Fourth of July. That's just the way Chauncey rolls!

Below you'll see some Poblano Peppers, along with some Pink Brandywine and Green Zebra tomatoes. Pink Brandywines are often slow to pollinate, so much so that people have been know to use electric toothbrushes, and other contraptions, to massage the blooms to hasten the process. Fortunately, it looks as though my electric toothbrush will be staying indoors this season.

Here's to a bountiful harvest!

Tomatoes!

As of last week, all the tomatoes have been planted:

1 Pink Brandywine

1 Green Zebra

1 Yellow Pear

1 Black from Tula

4 Hillbilly Potato Leaf

3 Nygous

As you can see in the left-hand picture, the nursery plants are doing quite well. The Pink Brandywine is already 3' and all have blossoms already.

The seedlings held up to transplanting well. If they're anything like the nursery plants, they be relatively quiet for 7-10 days while they establish roots. After this, fingers crossed, they should spring up quickly!

Nature's Hideous Progeny

Apologies for the radio silence! Chauncey has been a bit under the weather lately and much of his gardening time has been spent trying to outsmart deer who have been grazing in the front yard. An entire bed of day lilies, just about to bloom, was lost in a single night. These flowers must be like deer candy, as there is obviously plenty of other things to eat in the neighborhood. Fortunately, after some research, it seems that Flowering Cherry Trees are "deer resistant." I'm in the process of acquiring such a tree and plan to dig up the rest of the beds when feeling better.

In other pest news, we had a palm-sized visitor in the garden this morning--yes, actually in the fenced-off garden. What could possibly get inside the poultry-wired plot? An 8 ounce bunny, of course! The photo above is a tad on the Loch-Ness-monster side, I realize, but I can assure that Mr. Baby Bun does exist. And, as the second photograph clearly attests, he likes beets. Smart bunny.

Making Strides in the Veggie Garden

With a recent visit from Tundra Gardener and a number of other work-related items keeping me busy, I'm afraid that I've been neglecting the electronic documentation of my real life gardening accident.

Here are some recent shots from the veggie garden. You'll notice that the Pink Brandywine (far right corner), which has the sunniest plot in the garden, is doing quite well and already over 2.5' high.

Doesn't take much sun to bake the clay soil to an unappealing light-reddish brown, but clearly aesthetics are not a priority here. (Well, almost. See subsequent post about Zinnias...)

I'm hoping to plant the heirloom seedlings (above) sometime this week after they have been hardened off. Fingers crossed that its not too late for some productivity!

Garden Center Score!

I was able to get away to a local garden center out in the exurbs, and, not surprisingly, this place was better stocked than anything nearer the city.

I was able to acquire three heirloom tomatoes: Pink Brandywine (known for it wine-like flavor and low yields), a Green Zebra (known for its beautiful coloring and zesty flavor), and a Yellow Pear (known for productivity and spicy, sweet flavor).

My heirloom seedlings are coming along better now that I have rigged up a florescent light (more later), but I wanted to stack the deck, so to speak, and ensure a bountiful tomato harvest with a few store-bought ringers.

Also in the haul:

Peppers: Tobasco, Jalapeno, and California.

Herbs: Sweet Basil, Genovese Basil, Cat Nip, Cilantro, Parsley, and Rosemary.

I'll try to plant everything early the week, after I've hardened off the tomatoes for a few days.

Being There, In the Garden

This week from the what the h^ll is this file:

Vegetable Garden

Now that the rain has finally stopped, I took the morning to put the finishing touches on the vegetable garden. I used 3' poultry wire dug about 10" into the ground to keep out any enterprising intruders. The space looks a bit small in these photos, but it's about a 10X10' plot that should offer ample room for tomatoes, peppers, herbs, beets, and a few pie pumpkins.

As I may have mentioned before, this plot was taken up entirely by day lilies, which were absolutely nightmarish to dig out. I suspect that they are the garden equivalent of IKEA furniture. You start with just one piece, thinking that so long as it's only one, the choice is elegant and tasteful. Of course, bat an eye and you have an entire MALM bedroom set or, worse, 100 square feet of day lilies.

As I'm not a mature adult, I will pause to mention the 8" tall varmint (pictured above) that made all this work necessary.