Sunday, June 19, 2011

What's Growing On.

Just some updates of what's growing in the garden. Let's start with something fun. I bought a mix of seeds called "Autumn Harvest Mix" from Pinetree Garden Seeds. It says it contains "a great mix of gourds, pumpkins and squash." The mystery is the fun part! What will grow? Delayed gratification again! It was a fat package of seeds for $2.95 and I barely made a dent in it. I picked what looked to be a variety of seeds out of the packet (about a dozen). I started some indoors and others outside. Here are two:

Can't wait to see what I get from this. BTW- Pinetree is a great source for seeds. I like their simple, newspaper-made catalog and that you can buy smaller quantities of seed for less $ (better for the small garden types). They also have a nice selection of cheap books.

Here's a tomato I've grown for the second year. It's called Juanne Flammee'. It's a medium, orange fleshed tomato I got from Baker's Creek Heirloom Seeds. I'm expecting this to be my first ripe mater followed by a cherry-type.
Baker's Creek has the largest selection of heirloom seeds that I know of and they have some fun spring and fall festivals to check out if you live in the Midwest or are passing through. While you're in Mansfield, Mo check out the Laura Ingalls Wilder museum! There isn't much else to do in those parts.

I'm on another mission. It's to grow organic eggplant. See, I LOVE eggplant, but it is terribly difficult to grow organically here. The flea beetles love it more than I. They eat a million tiny holes in the leaves until the plant succumbs. I had given up on eggplant for about 10 years and decided to try it again. This time- in pots. I promised to attend to it like a helicopter parent. I've sprayed it hard with water. I've sprayed it for days with a garlic and chili mix. As you can see it still has holes, BUT the newer leaves do not AND I have fruit! I think this one is called Purple Blaze. And only because I'm feeling cocky about the success of this plant I bought two Ichiban today. Hurrah!
And finally, something else I haven't grown in years- Tomatillos. But seeing as how I love salsa and can it every year I've asked myself, "why aren't you growing tomatillos?" So....here is the lovely beginning of the future salsa verde in my kitchen. A tomatillo flower:
Hoping your garden or the garden in your mind brings you as much pleasure as mine does for me. Happy Almost Summer!

1 comment:

Holly said...

Good luck with the eggplant! I have a really good recipe for you if you are successful...