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How Does My Garden Grow?
Aug. 9th, 2013 08:33 amThis has been a busy summer - mostly a good one, but definitely a full one, and so I haven't taken much time to talk about my garden yet. But that doesn't mean it's not there, or that I've forgotten it.
If anything, this has been the best year for my garden in a long, long time. We've finally figured out how to grow zucchini in a container, so for the first time since we've moved to the new house I've got actual, edible squash again, instead of just overcrowded stems and a few flowers that succumb to blossom end rot. So there's been zucchini bread, and zucchini-corn panini, and quesadillas, and all sorts of goodness.
Our peas have come and gone, and the first round of green beans is over, but the plants have started flowering again, so soon there will be more. Our peppers are thriving; the trick seems to be starting with slightly older seedlings to compensate for the shorter growing season. The cucumbers, which at the start of the season were so small that I gave up on them, have grown to cover their entire trellis and are producing at almost alarming rates.
After a ridiculously slow start, we just started harvesting broccoli by the pound this week. Eggplants are almost ripe, carrots and potatoes seem to be percolating along happily as far as I can tell from the parts of them that are above ground, and this year's experiments (celery and Brussels sprouts) seem to be keeping up as well.
And the grape vines that we put in last year? The ones that we figured would take a couple of years before anything actually came of them? They've already overgrown the 8-foot-high trellises that![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umbran put in for them and are moving on to conquer our back deck, and they're covered in grapes. Still green, but growing and thriving, and hopefully they'll ripen before too too long.
The only (minor) hiccup is in our tomatoes. Between one of our Early Girls failing to thrive and the fact that the one seedling I thought was a plum turning out to be just an overgrown cherry, we now have maybe one or two plants of globe tomatoes and four happy, thriving, overproducing-like-crazy cherry tomato plants. Which is great for snacking and salads, but not so ideal for sandwiches, salsa, or sauce.
So - any ideas of what to do with a crazy preponderance of cherry tomatoes?
If anything, this has been the best year for my garden in a long, long time. We've finally figured out how to grow zucchini in a container, so for the first time since we've moved to the new house I've got actual, edible squash again, instead of just overcrowded stems and a few flowers that succumb to blossom end rot. So there's been zucchini bread, and zucchini-corn panini, and quesadillas, and all sorts of goodness.
Our peas have come and gone, and the first round of green beans is over, but the plants have started flowering again, so soon there will be more. Our peppers are thriving; the trick seems to be starting with slightly older seedlings to compensate for the shorter growing season. The cucumbers, which at the start of the season were so small that I gave up on them, have grown to cover their entire trellis and are producing at almost alarming rates.
After a ridiculously slow start, we just started harvesting broccoli by the pound this week. Eggplants are almost ripe, carrots and potatoes seem to be percolating along happily as far as I can tell from the parts of them that are above ground, and this year's experiments (celery and Brussels sprouts) seem to be keeping up as well.
And the grape vines that we put in last year? The ones that we figured would take a couple of years before anything actually came of them? They've already overgrown the 8-foot-high trellises that
umbran put in for them and are moving on to conquer our back deck, and they're covered in grapes. Still green, but growing and thriving, and hopefully they'll ripen before too too long.The only (minor) hiccup is in our tomatoes. Between one of our Early Girls failing to thrive and the fact that the one seedling I thought was a plum turning out to be just an overgrown cherry, we now have maybe one or two plants of globe tomatoes and four happy, thriving, overproducing-like-crazy cherry tomato plants. Which is great for snacking and salads, but not so ideal for sandwiches, salsa, or sauce.
So - any ideas of what to do with a crazy preponderance of cherry tomatoes?
