2010 was a wonderful year for myself and my husband with many changes. We had our first child towards the end of April last year, and in February (yes, in the blizzard) moved from our townhome into a single family home with room to grow into. I joke that if we were still in our townhome, the baby would have had to live in a dresser drawer. I loved my old home, and the layout of the garden was easy to plan, but I love this house much more. I am excited to get back into gardening after taking a year off. Last summer, I went into major gardening withdrawal. I didn’t have the time to plant as the baby kept me much busier than I expected, but how I did miss being outside, and I really missed the homegrown tomatoes, cucumbers, Swiss Chard, and everything that I had grown the year before. Now in May, she will be one, so I expect to start teaching her to love the garden and where food comes from. Right now doesn’t need to be held 24/7, can play on her own for short periods of time (with supervision) and absolutely loves the outside as well as getting into everything. I am spending time protecting a Swedish Ivy I’ve been growing for years, although she tries to get it on an almost daily basis. My sweetie loves plants and flowers, but she is rough and gets upset when I won’t let her grab and yank the leaves.

In any case, that was a bit of a tangent, but just one of the challenges I’ve been thinking about when it comes to gardening….

My yard is not flat. It consists of three narrow tiers, and currently there are bushes and trees that are wonderful shade, however limit the area in my yard that gets good sunlight. That’s one challenge. Where do I put my planters? Do I create a raised bed, and where do I put that? Should I remove any of the bushes that are here in order to plant a veggie garden? These are the questions I am currently thinking about. Plus, the other major challenge which I am going to face this year…. What do I do about the deer? One of the things I love about our new home is that it is near woods and parkland, and that sometimes, we can feel like we aren’t really in the suburbs of DC. In the summer, we often see deer almost every day walking outside our yard. In the recent snow, we saw deer tracks all over our front yard. Our yard is fenced in, but deer can easily jump over the fence. Right now, they are rarely in the yard, and our dog is a deterrent, but I know that when I start growing basil and tomatoes, and other plants, that the jump will seem less of a risk. So I will keep on planning, and will post as I establish a new garden, face new foes, learn many more lessons, and hopefully, enjoy the harvest.

Come on Springtime! I’m ready for you!

1) weeded a little (need to do more)

2) tested soil in the containers I’m growing tomatoes in (based on purpling veins in the leaves and no more flowers, I think it is low in nutrients) – I couldn’t read the nutrient testing, but my soil is a neutral pH.

3) fertilized tomato containers and pepper container with Tomato-tone organic fertilizer

4) set up mesh trellis for peas and switched out the solid one that kept falling down due to rain or squirrels

5) went crazy at the local nursery– no better sign than “All seeds – 40% off!”

6) decided to plant pumpkins and some winter squash (acorn and hubbard) based on sale seed purchase

7)watered the raised bed and other planting areas with compost tea.

8)came inside and lay down, pestered by dog and went for a walk.

My new favorite gardening quote: “A good gardener doesn’t have a green thumb, she has brown knees.”

Happy gardening!

Hosta Flowers

Sea Oats

My peppers continue to do pretty well. The peppers (except for Holy Mole) are small, but the plants still seem to be growing bigger. I have eaten 3 jalapeno peppers. I had to throw out a Carmen pepper which looked great, except the back started to rot. I was very upset. However, the plant seems to be doing even better now that it is not concentrating on ripening its fruit. The Gypsy pepper is pale yellow, and I’m waiting until it turns red to eat it because I heard it is better when red. I am also doing similarly with Holy Mole, which is supposed to turn brown. It is now a dark green glossy color kind of like a pasilla.

Pepper Container

Holy Mole

Small Bell Pepper

My cucumbers were doing quite well. I did notice and kill a few cucumber beetles and squash bugs (horrible, horrible, pests that kill plants and won’t die–look them up, they are the bane of the squash gardener) although was never able to get pictures of them to pass on. Look them up and fear. Anyway, I got quite a few cucumbers but today pulled the last on one vine that looked like it had pretty much had it. I also pulled all the zucchini plants. I kept fighting but finally admitted that it just wasn’t working. I’ll add some pictures. I licked the first problem – yellowing and browning leaves, everything was looking good and I got about 3 zucchinis from the plants, then came horrible powdery mildew which spread very quickly and stopped production of the zucchini. I was out of Neem and some anti fungucides, and really was pretty tired of fighting with the zucchini plants. Plus, frankly, I had a horrible infestation of squash bugs last year and with the appearance of a few of the little buggers, I wasn’t really willing to continue to fight with zucchini that just wanted to die. So I pulled all the zucchini plants and am taking donations from my neighbor, whose zucchini, like most people’s zucchini, produces more than they ever want or can consume. I planted some suyo long burpless cucumbers in their place and in the place of the cucumber vine I pulled. I figure I have time for a harvest of fall cucumbers, and the squash bugs should actually be gone by the time these vines are flowering. So, hopefully I will win. Just a note, if you are container gardening and have an infestation of squash bugs, GET RID OF YOUR SOIL. Among other evils of this bug, they overwinter in mulch and soil. So really if you have an infestation, you shouldn’t grow squash plants for a few years. I happened to have gotten rid of my soil, so it wasn’t too bad, but chances are if I had kept my soil, I would have been fighting squash bugs daily. Another of my burpless vines has just started to really blossom, so I’m looking forward to it producing fruit which it hasn’t yet.

First harvest - cucumber 5.6 oz

Another cucumber

Baby zucchini - one of the few

Powdery Mildew - believe me it got worse!

Powdery Mildew again on another zucchini plant

New blossoms on a burpless variety

Cleaned up cucumber container

Beans & Peas:

Awesome! Getting a few beans every day and now just letting them grow so maybe my husband will get a few too. The pea plants have been growing slowly in the heat, but have just put out pods this week. I plan on planting a pea crop in late August to try and get a fall crop:

First pea pod

Yellow bush beans

Eggplant:

No harvest yet, but they are definitely growing. I’m not sure how large Ichiban eggplants are supposed to get, so I should look that up. But it is definitely a beauty. And my fairy tale eggplant slowly is getting bigger.

Ichiban eggplant

Fairy tale eggplant

My tomatillos are also…slowly… coming along. It’s actually starting to drive me crazy. Grow faster!!!!!!

Tallest tomatillo plant

Potatoes:

I’ve never grown these before. It’s been about 3 weeks since I planted. Some shoots have come up. I’ve had to add compost to one plant. Wondering when and if the other seed potatoes will come up or should I put compost over the entire can? Hmmm. Definitely a learning experience….

Can 1: 1 growth, covered with compost

Empty potato can

Potato Can 3: 1 shoot

Fingerling potatoes planted in raised bed

2nd growth in raised bed

Other crops (in other words, fun with the hoop house):

In my raised bed, I’ve planted radishes which are going gangbusters! I think I may be able to harvest some in a couple weeks. I’ve also planted cabbage and broccoli, and am succession planting greens (planting a row of greens every week). For fun, I also put in some garlic cloves that have sprouted. Although I don’t think I’m going to let these grow into bulbs (I have more coming in October, which is a more appropriate time for planting), I’m going to have fun eating and using the garlic greens for cooking, which apparently taste (surprise) like garlic! I’m also salivating at the mustard greens….

Mustard green seedlings - 7/8/09

Mustard Greens

Radishes - 7/12/09

Radishes today

Cabbage seedlings - 7/8/09ish

Cabbage - first real leaves have emerged

Broccoli plants

Garlic

Nevada lettuce seedlings

Chard - first seedling spotted!

Hoop house I made

But in any case, I wanted to do an update on my wild surprise tomato plants. The one growing in the rocks (See my post called “Life finds a way”) has definitely thrived. I caged it, and it now has it’s first fruit. I can tell by the fruit that it was one of my favorites from last year, the “Juliet” tomato. As an added bonus, this plant and the new wild ones growing seem to be the healthiest plants growing this year! I’m loving it. I haven’t mentioned it, but I also have a wild “tomato bush” growing near where I kept my vines and rotting plants from last year. The bush is really about 3 different tomato plants that I’m just letting grow wild like the vine it is. And they are starting to produce fruit as well. I’m hoping to be up to my ears in tomatoes this year, and happy that I decided to start canning this year. Mmmm homemade tomato sauce and salsas!!!

Here are some pictures of the tomato plants:

My Wild Tomato Plants:

Wild Tomato Identified...

...As a Juliet plant

Another tomato vine growing in the rocks...

What kind of plant will you be?

My Tomato Bush

With Type 1 fruit

...and Type 2 Fruit

And for tomato lovers… Tomato Porn (enjoy):

Sun Gold tomatoes

Juliet

Pink Girl

Early Girl

Lemon Boys - starting to turn yellow!

Brandywines continue to grow bigger

Celebrity Tomatoes

Cherokee Purple-- a much abused fruit

Mr. Stripeys

San Marzano plum tomato

I’ll post when I pick and weigh the Early Girl!

Another interesting bit of news is that I have found out that Montgomery County’s lawn recycling is composted and then packaged for sale at most local nurseries. I’ve purchased “LeafGro” which is labeled as a soil conditioner, but actually is the lawn clippings composted with no additional additives added. It seems like really good compost, and I am excited to see how it works to grow various things. Plus, it was pretty reasonably priced. I am using straight compost with a little seeweed/fish fertilizer to grow the potatoes, and in the raised bed, have combined the compost with manure compost, vermiculite, and peat moss. According to Square Foot Gardening methods (see this site), the  mix should be 1/3rd compost, with 1/3rd vermiculite and 1/3rd peat moss. My mix is definitely more compost, but I think it will work well. We’ll see! My next step is to start composting myself, and am learning a little about that as well.

I just feel better that apparently this happens to many people who throw themselves into this hobby. Who wouldn’t want to see other ways to trellis and support tomato plants?!!! Feel free to look over my fence anytime. I consider it a compliment.

Enjoy some of the pictures I took. These were all taken on June 19th and you can definitely see some growth since just a week ago!

Sun Gold cherry tomatoes

Juliet Tomatoes just starting... can you see it?

Pink Girl's 1st fruit

Early Girl

Celebrity

Cherokee Purple...the cutest tomato in my garden

Sweet Havana Pepper

Holy Mole Pepper

Baby Jalapenos

Gypsy Pepper

The first bell pepper has started!

Cucumbers on Trellis

The first eggplant blossom

Happier Bean Plants

Mystery Tomato

I spent about an hour outside weeding today. Although in the past, I have found this one of my most dreaded chores (probably because my mom enjoyed sending me to prune or to weed as a punishment when I was in my tween years), I found it quite meditative and soul satisfying today. I went outside without headphones or music, and set to work. It was a gorgeous day–one of the few days we’ve had without rain. As I threw myself into the work that I had let build up, at first I found myself thinking negative thoughts– “God I really slacked out here… That weed barrier sure doesn’t keep any weeds out!… Ugh. I hate weeding.” But as I settled in, I started noticing the bird song. The birds seemed to be celebrating the good weather and were having a good chat around my yard. I saw a squirrel do his high-wire act from trees to fences to power lines. And more than that, I noticed how quiet it was. Despite bird chatter, I couldn’t hear any noises of cars, or people shouting, or sirens, or anything like the usual jarring and busy soundtrack to my life. And as I noticed the quiet and natural sounds, I also seemed to find the work itself quite satisfying. I moved between each container removing all the weeds that had emerged, including this ground cover from the neighbor’s house I can’t seem to get rid of, as well as grass, etc.

As I was working along, I also noticed something funny– I found weeds that looked like tomato plants. And I kept finding them everywhere. And then… between two containers and amidst a ton of other weeds, I found a real tomato plant growing. I have left this one alive to see how it goes. It strikes me as quite a funny looking plant– a tomato vine standing upright among river rocks. It shouldn’t be here, but it is. And I thought about all the tomatos that had been eaten by ants, or fallen off the vines. I had been a little lazy last year, and left quite a few tomatoes just to rot or dry out on the outside of the containers. I hadn’t given it much thought. And here, after winter, because a tomato lay fogotten on the ground, here emerges a new plant! I have no idea what type of plant this is. But I look forward to seeing it flower and grow, and to see if it can find it’s way to bear fruit among the rocks. For some reason, this little plant has given me hope. Maybe we can all find a way to live and thrive amongst the rocks in our own lives.