I have a pretty pitiful garden, and yet I keep trying to get things out of it. This time of year we seem to be racing against the heat; it's too hot to put anything new into the ground and I worry everything out there will just FRY in a month or two. The Romaine is gone already... I'll put some more seeds out late fall and it'll grow thru the winter. My two attempts at potatoes failed... once from a late frost and the second one was just too old a potato, the eyes weren't green at all. And just today my nose discovered a bag of 3 potatoes in the pantry that I must have left for future planting. (I swear it smelled like a critter had crawled in and DIED in there.)
I have some squash going, and some cucumber plants which haven't blossomed yet. The crookneck squash look like they'll be ready to harvest in a week or two.
I have garlic out there, I planted some cloves and lo and behold, they GREW! I don't know what to do next, like how do I know when to dig up the bulbs?
I have red onions from last year all crowded together. They just came back all by themselves, and their bulb isn't round and fat like we'd like, it's shaped straight, like a gargantuan green onion... only red. Do I let them keep growing and HOPE they get fatter? I dunno. They've already flowered and I cut off the flowers before they went to seed. I guess I'll try to harvest some. They taste fine, even tho they aren't the usual shape.
So see what I mean? I can seed and get things to grow, but I don't really know always what to do later with it all. My usual emotion is pure surprise when I go out and things aren't dead.
Luckily, much of the time the garden senses my inadequacies and just takes care of itself. Case in point: A head of Romaine sprung up over under the lemon tree on the other side of the yard, so a seed must have fallen there when Jemma and I planted them way back when. I made sure it got watered and we harvested for salad, truly a freebie! I have green onions that just keep coming back, tho their bulbs are non-existant and they are a poor excuse for onions, but make great green chives. A green pepper plant sprung up in a big flower pot, so I've transplanted it to the garden and it seems to be thriving - hopefully giving us peppers later in the summer. Oh, and I have a dozen or so small basil plants, I guess it truly went to seed last year and now we have a LOT of basil - I need to cut some to dry. Anyone need basil?
My triumph thus far is a tomato plant that is going gang-busters with small roma tomatoes.
I finally gave a dozen away to the neighbors, we won't eat them all. Reeder wants me to make sauce or something, but there isn't quite enough to go to that trouble. There are no blossoms, however, so I've fed it again and am hopeful we'll have more soon, before the real heat comes on.
I have some squash going, and some cucumber plants which haven't blossomed yet. The crookneck squash look like they'll be ready to harvest in a week or two.
I have garlic out there, I planted some cloves and lo and behold, they GREW! I don't know what to do next, like how do I know when to dig up the bulbs?
I have red onions from last year all crowded together. They just came back all by themselves, and their bulb isn't round and fat like we'd like, it's shaped straight, like a gargantuan green onion... only red. Do I let them keep growing and HOPE they get fatter? I dunno. They've already flowered and I cut off the flowers before they went to seed. I guess I'll try to harvest some. They taste fine, even tho they aren't the usual shape.
So see what I mean? I can seed and get things to grow, but I don't really know always what to do later with it all. My usual emotion is pure surprise when I go out and things aren't dead.
Luckily, much of the time the garden senses my inadequacies and just takes care of itself. Case in point: A head of Romaine sprung up over under the lemon tree on the other side of the yard, so a seed must have fallen there when Jemma and I planted them way back when. I made sure it got watered and we harvested for salad, truly a freebie! I have green onions that just keep coming back, tho their bulbs are non-existant and they are a poor excuse for onions, but make great green chives. A green pepper plant sprung up in a big flower pot, so I've transplanted it to the garden and it seems to be thriving - hopefully giving us peppers later in the summer. Oh, and I have a dozen or so small basil plants, I guess it truly went to seed last year and now we have a LOT of basil - I need to cut some to dry. Anyone need basil?
My triumph thus far is a tomato plant that is going gang-busters with small roma tomatoes.
I finally gave a dozen away to the neighbors, we won't eat them all. Reeder wants me to make sauce or something, but there isn't quite enough to go to that trouble. There are no blossoms, however, so I've fed it again and am hopeful we'll have more soon, before the real heat comes on.
And there are sweet onions that Nichole shared (You buy them in a fat bunch and can NEVER plant them all, so you can share with your friends.) They are taking their time, but still growing. They are next to an Aloe 'forest', chubby huge plants all jammed together. If anyone wants aloe, just let me know, I've got tons. I'll have to find recipes for these that I have a plethora of: tomatoes, basil, onions. I guess I should also have planted Spaghetti Squash!
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