Izzy (and Mama) Eat: The Gourmand Goes To College...

Tales of Empty Nest and College Boy Eats.. The Next Chapter

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

How Does My Garden Grow? Backyard Update



You may remember that this year has marked my first real foray into gardening. It began in honor of Izzy's birthday celebration. Raised beds were built. Holes were dug. Seeds were planted.


Since then we have been harvesting lettuce leaves daily. We finally had to remove all the lettuce plants which had become overgrown (note: Farmer Rich is a FARMER. Take his advice).

The most exciting part of the garden has been watching the transformation of the tomato plants, from small to tall and fruit-bearing. The tiny tomatoes seem to have magically emerged overnight. We are also closely monitoring our mystery squash. We are hoping it is a pumpkin.



The herbs have been the easiest to maintain, especially the rosemary and thyme. The basil looks like it might work out too. The jury is still out on the parsley which I just transplanted.

As for other fruits, the strawberries might be a flop. We had a total of three edible looking fruits, two of which were eaten by an unknown interloper. The plants look healthy but no new flowers in sight. At least we hold out hope for our Sugar Baby watermelon plant which is looking good.

Check back for more garden updates in a few weeks.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

New strawberry plants don't usually yield much or any fruit. (Or at least they didn't in the olden days. Who knows what today's breeding has done to them.) Also, strawberry season usually only runs for 2-3 weeks, (Memorial Day-ish to mid June) so it is normal that you have no new flowers now in July.
Hopefully you will have a bumper crop in 2010!

Chuck Bartok said...

Your Tomatoes are doing great!

Join us on our Video voyage regarding gardening
The Green garden behind the Barn
and
Growing Tomatoes for Health and Wealth
Thank you
Chuck

Izzy's Mama said...

Brooke: I hope you are right. I have an Alpine Strawberry plant. I spoke to the woman who sold it to me and she said it might have a few more flowers throughout the summer. Hopefully next year will be better! Wonder if it will survive in the planter.

Chuck: Thanks. They do look good to me!

Anonymous said...

Nice!

We've been getting a good crop of cucumbers here in the Philly suburbs. I became obsessed as soon as the first one was consumed, racing out every morning to see if anything else "looks like what it's supposed to be."

AND ... my kids are eating them, though they've previously eschewed them. Yay.

Chuck Bartok said...

regarding cucumbers, our kids were raised on them every summer, good vitamin C.

We slice them thin ( Shirley use a Grater/Slicer), add grated Fresh red onion, fresh ground Black Pepper,
fold in sour cream, and chill for an hour or two. You MUST sprinkle copious amounts of REAL Hungarian Paprika on top. Keep the Vampires and the cancers aways.

Even in the empty house the two us us eat several a day, various ways.

Izzy's Mama said...

Eileen: Ooh I am jealous. Wish we had planted cukes this year. We did have the seeds but they ended up in the party dirt.

Chuck: That cucumber salad sounds wonderful. I will make it with cukes from the farmer's market.