Tag: tomatoes

Argula and cilantro sprouting… First yellow bean!

It’s been HOT and I’ve been watering my seed beds everyday. The Brussels sprouts, beets, carrots, and leeks are showing nothing, but I have arugula and cilantro popping up

Arugula

Cilantro in pot. I ran out of packaged seeds, so I pulled out the ones I dried last year for coriander- they are viable! Yay!

There’s also basil popping up inside from seed.

Pulled some more onions to cure, and a hand full of squash and a couple of snap peas (they never make it inside)

Also not inside is this first yellow bean. It’s inside my tummy.

more yellow and green beans on the way, though!

More progress shots. Red ribbon tomato almost ripe- have had a couple of sungold already. Both are happier than this tomato plant growing out of the side of whole foods.

I had a crazy raptor day last week- saw a bald eagle making Red (the redtailed hawk) mad, saw 3 osprey over the studio, and a group of swallows chasing a kestral across the field. One of them left us a little pellet filled with scales and bones on the deck.

Here’s our usual morning soundtrack (plus truck traffic, usually)

[wpvideo KemW5Xhk ]

Things are starting to happen.

It’s been hot and sunny, and I had a nice looooooong day rearranging the studio today, then stopped by to water B’s lovely plants. Where our land is wild and jungly- hers has a polished garden feel. It was a nice change… and I may have eaten some peas, before I knew what I was doing. It was part muscle memory, part desperation.

Some of our jungle. It needs trimming and weeding, but boy are the bees happy.

We do have a couple of pea stragglers. I am most grateful for their sacrifice.

The purple peas do not taste purple.

Other things are starting to happen too!

Strawberries are happening for real. This was today’s haul.

First blueberry!

Summer squashes

The ugly duckling nova tomato has the first non-cherry fruit. I’m glad I made room for it.

There’s also the start of a healthy pepper.

Sungolds coming soon!

Okra buds. I hope I have enough plants for pollination. They make really lovely flowers too.

Green bean monster!!

Artichoke taller than me!! More than a dozen heads. (I did get up early to spray it with water and been oil, but I’m not confident we’ll ever get viable good out of it. I’m curious about cardoon since you eat the stem on that. I wonder if it tastes similarly.)

The huckleberries are larger this year, but the tree looks like it’s ailing.

The solal underneath it INSANE.

Its cooling down. The birds are singing.

Fertilize!

It’s been raining for a few days, almost thunderstorming, and I’ve been busy/flaring to much to be outside. (dislocated neck?)

I planted a few more okra starts in south d and west e

After pulling a bunch of bolting radishes. I found some beets hiding under there, too.

And a lovely robins egg blue robins egg.

the green beans are growing!

I fertilized (acidizer) the tomatoes, except for one container tomato as a test.

Then I side dressed basically everything- lower and pots

Planted nasturtium along the new rock wall in the lower bed

And a couple of delicata on the slope- protected by copper and sluggo.

Asparagus progress

Volunteer Mullein

Okra progress.

The last of the planting… For now… Maybe.

I got an early (for me) start and picked up more starts at Squak this morning. The weather is just cool enough to make working in the yard pleasant. (:

Added a Sun Gold plant to west D. I removed the ailing Nova and the red robin from the bed (since it will never get big), and also planted a thriving Nova in West C.

The beets next to it over wintered and are bolting now. I’m going to leave them to it (:

I messed around with the ailing Nova so much that I felt bad, so I’m giving it one last chance to grow in the upper area. (I do this every year- go tomato crazy. Fortunately P doesn’t read this or he would know that my 5 planned tomato plants have turned into 8…)

The red robin I pulled out of the bed went in my last empty pot.

Planted a lipstick pepper and a hot pepper in upper B with 2 of my Perfects.

Planted a delicata next to the concrete pad in the upper area.

A couple of butter baby in the angelene next to the dead Apple tree.

More okra seeds with the starts in south d

more green bean seeds with the sprouts in South D (slug was tossed.) and more peas in West E.

Borage seeds went in a couple of bare spaces on the slope, and under the purple rhody

Found a mystery squash starting on the slope- likely from a last year’s seed.

Things are looking pretty good- and the bees have finally arrived ( I was worried!)

The hummers are making a racket, and yesterday P rescued a fledgling Robin from the driveway. (it’s parents were not impressed.)

I have been doing soooo much weeding, but it never seems to make an impact. We just lost our maintenance crew, so I’ll have to find another that understands what weeds are ok, or pick up the pace myself (but… Kittens! Letterpress! Art! Studio Time! Sleep!)

cut back the artichoke to give space to lavender and blueberries beside it.

I can’t wait to eat everything!

Sunny Saturday

P and I worked in the garden this afternoon. He mowed and got the irrigation mostly set up. I planted planted planted.

4 okra plants went into south d.

I replaced the non-starting direct sown squash seeds with starts.

Planted the remaining “healthy” peppers in upper c. Five total between the two beds.

Starting some more leafy greens to plant in the upper beds.

As I do every year I planted “just one more” tomato (red Robin) in a container.

Here’s some progress shots.

Planting

Feeling better today- so I decided to embrace the sun and get some stuff in the ground!

Also notable- although I feel like we’ve had some rain, the soil was DRY dry, and I had to hand water everything. It’s about time to set up the drip line I guess.

2 Nova sauce and one red Robin cherry tomato start (my starts) went into west C and west d. They went into cages… Which always feel a little optimistic in size this time of year. (;

Two peppers went into upper B… Which was supposed to be full of kale, chard, and romaine…. HA! Next year I won’t even bother direct seeding those.

I put out one little okra to test soil conditions in West D. If it’s still alive in a couple of days I’ll move the rest out. Okra would probably be a good use for water walls in the future.

I moved a couple of the squash starts out to the greenhouse, and planted a bit more romaine and kale in there.

I also added red fertilizer to the tomatoes in the ground, and blue to the blueberries and camelia.

PROGRESS

Green bean sprout

Chardonnay or Gewurztraminer grape. Not sure which. /:

Garlic

we also have a small army of mushrooms around the planters.

Eager

I’m very eager to get the tomatoes in the ground- but nights are still getting below 55, and a bad EDS flare up means I’m not walking very well.

So they are mostly in big pots, and all in the greenhouse now, along with the okra and peppers. I gave a couple of cherry tomatoes away- then realized that they will still need supports- so once I can get down to the shed I’ll put a support on my little container tomato.

Planted some more cilantro in the wide pot. I’ve found that I have better luck overseeding, eating them young, then letting the rest go to seed. I have no luck cultivating an adult plant without bolting. The cilantro actually did very well throughout the winter, so I will continue successive plantings for yummy tacos.

Hippity hops.

I’m going to try to start some romaine inside now now that I have space. Maybe I’ll have better luck planting starts.

(not pictured)

Green beans are showing their little heads in south d. A bird pulled at least one out to investigate- adorable monsters. I love green beans- especially the flavor and abundance- but I hate how long they tease you before they have vegetable.

I think that’s it for today- gotta go ice my ankles and “rest”.

May Showers

I’m getting some ready to debut the studio, but there’s also garden stuff to do.

Today I planted delicata seeds (lower c), butter baby (lower d), yellow squash (lower g) and zucchini (lower g).

I did a bunch of weeding in the lower bed and on the slope. There are a lot of volunteers I don’t recognize- so more weed identifications are coming.

Cooper helped me in the garden, Stevie decided she did NOT want to be outside. Then it started raining.

Progress photos…