Promises Promises

While the brocoli has been disappointing, and the kale is slow to get started, everything else is coming along like hotcakes.

I have wee little vegetables showing up all over the place. The promise of cucumbers and tomatoes to come.





I know, the peas and beans aren't far behind. The peppers need a little heat to get their groove on, but they'll get there.


In the mean time, I am amusing myself with the lillies.

Weekend Garden Tales

It has been a good weekend around here. Yesterday we got out to the Farmer's Market (original Minneapolis one this week) and got snow peas, kale, cilantro, strawberries and green garlic. We napped while it rained and ended on a high note in St. Paul having dinner at Boca Chica's Taco House. (35 years that place has been around, and people are still discovering the awesome salsa)

The garden is doing really well. The tomatoes in the new beds are twice the size of the two in last year's bed. I think that means I needed to add more compost to the old beds each year. For now, I'll fertilize a bit.


The peas are loving their trellis. Most of them have started to hang on. I have a feeling we'll have peas in a week or so.

One of last year's onions was missed, so I'm letting it head out for seed. Well, and because it looks cool.


We at the first radishes from our garden. I cannot get over how much more buttery a really fresh radish is. We'll try roasting them when we have a larger crop.

The cucumbers are doing really well. They're starting to climb their trellis, and we have the beginnings of a lot of cucumbers. I suspect I may have pickling in my future based on the current flower count. M has other ideas though. Cucumbers have turned in to one of her favorite foods.

Recyclable Pea Trellis

Last year was the year of the small plants in four packs. Last year I purchased things that people didn't even know you could get in four packs at the nursery. (Beans, peas, brussels sprouts) This year, I was determined to save some money and plant from seed. While I didn't get going quite as early as I wanted to, I didn't do too bad.

I planted peas, beans, radishes, beats, broccoli, sun flowers, and cilantro. So far, everything has come up. The broccoli isn't doing so hot, and I'm not sure if one row entirely didn't just poop out on me. However, I am hopeful that some of it actually produces something, otherwise it is a lot of wasted space. The radishes are now thinned to the point where I am just waiting for them to mature. I didn't get any radish sprout salad this year, some three year old ate all of them while I was thinning... The sunflowers and beans are good, each about four inches tall. The beets are coming slowly, but that is expected.

Since I am trying to do more this year, but spend less money, I thought I would show off my new pea trellis. Last year I bought two three foot tall trellises at Target in their garden section. They were not wide enough for my row of peas, so I strung twine between them. It worked OK, but the twine stretched out when it was wet. I could have just gone out and tried to find more to fill in this year, but if I remember correctly, they weren't cheap.


So, I took the same two small trellises, used some really straight sticks from trimming our tree earlier this year, and created a more stable structure between them. Most of the branches are either a single straight branch, or a stable Y shape. They were slightly green when I put them in, so I was able to weave them in and out. Since peas aren't all that heavy of plants, this should hold up. I didn't use this method for my cucumbers since they can get heavy. Bonus, it is completely recyclable. If I hadn't had the metal ones from last year, I think I could have totally done with just the sticks.


The last picture is from today. They are just about ready to grab on. I'll take pictures as their season continues, since I think on top of everything, it will be a cool look.

Wednesday Garden Update

My mom, grandma Tere, will be here tomorrow (blogging may be light through the weekend). She sent these with my brother earlier this week (she is at his house first). I know they get a bad rap, but I love them for taking the dog out/gardening. Also, when my feet were huge when I was pregnant, they were all that fit. I finally have a girly colored pair. It isn't like I wear them to the store. Just to drive my car to the Starbucks drive through.



Every other day, sometimes daily, I pick between two and four tender young summer squash off of my two plants. Monday night I picked tiny ones, swearing there was no way I would have any until Thursday. Tonight I picked four, including one larger one. Good thing they are great grilled and I like them in salads.



I've been eating some of the flowers, but mostly the nasturtium is good for being pretty. It is getting a big leggy, and I cut some of it back to make room for the peppers, but the flowers are unreal. So bright and cheerful.

We've had about eight peas off of the one larger plant I had, and as soon as the rest of them start flowering, I know I will have tons. Tonight M and I ate about 10 green beans right out of the garden. I am incredibly proud that I am teaching her where food comes from. I'm also more than a little tickled that she is like me and will just eat stuff right there, in the yard.

When my tomatoes ripen, I will be drowning in them the way I drown in summer squash right now. I can't wait. Neither can A. He has already requested that he get a tomato, salt, and pepper in his lunches every day when they become available. To go with the tomatoes I will have a peck of jalapenos. Two plants, tons of peppers. The first one was eaten last night. Fresh is always better.

And 12.25 feet more

Apparently my tweet about addiction was more than just a joke. I can't stop gardening.

Last Saturday I went out and got the wood to make another planter box. That was after I bought more plants on Thursday at the Minneapolis Farmer's Market. You know, I had to find room for them.

I also bought a three foot long window box to help me rotate lettuce crops and two more pots to help me grow a few other things.

So far I have the yellow squash planted (from Dehn's Garden at the FM), some kale (I have a kale obsession you obviously understand if you know me), and some cucumbers in one of the pots. After M wakes up from her nap, I will be going to buy peas. Then in go the peas and I think another row or two or radishes and maybe carrots. You can never have too many radishes.

On the non plant side of things, I've mulched with the ground up stumps and some commercial mulch, and moved the rocks that ringed our tree (that came out two years ago) to around the planter boxes and along the fence. I think it is a nice touch. Added after this picture were two garden gnomes, picked out by M (who went on and on last weekend about our "new gnomes"). Our previous gnome had an unfortunate incident where he lost his arm.

Sidelined by the thing eating my brain.

Between family things, weekend projects, and a two day headache from hell (that kept me home today), I haven't been exercising nearly as much as I wanted to. Tomorrow looks like rain, so this week is turning out to be a complete bust. I'm hoping Thursday and Friday fare better.

In other news, my garden is so far a major success. M wants demands to be outside every single evening, which means I have to find things for us to do while we are out there, lest she eat all of the gravel created by our crumbling steps. This means that everything is getting watered every day like it should. I even had to go out and get her her very own very small watering can. Next will be having her help me spread new mulch on both the area surrounding the garden beds, and where I decided to create a new bed in front.

The only struggle I am having is that she wants to "dig" with the "shovel" in the dirt. That means a couple of times a tomato and a marigold have nearly met their demise. Perhaps I will have the energy (and money) this next weekend to go buy her a large pot of her very own. I'm not sure there is a plant on early that could stand up to Two, but I'll find whatever is cheapest and try again in vain to teach her gentle. Perhaps when things start growing things that she can eat it will get through, but I doubt it. That is asking a lot for anything under ten. I got in trouble all through elementary school for picking peppers before they were ripe and salable on the farm.