Today I was admiring my tomatillo monster plant when I found something completely new.  I found a blossom! In fact, my largest plant has two blossoms, and one of the smaller plants has one blossom.  The blossoms themselves are gorgeous, my picture here really isn’t very good.  But what is really interesting is that the blossom is under the leaves.  They’re not poking out on top or dangling from a branch, they are forming on the main stem underneath the large leaves. They must like shadows and the large leaves provide that.  This is a very interesting plant!

Then here are my peas!

They look great- full of peas- these dangling here are my shelling peas.  And that leads me to the problem-I planted the shelling peas and the snap peas right next to each other…

I know, I really wasn’t thinking, because one row of shell peas and one row of snap peas are totally intertwined- and even worse, I really can’t get at them because of where I planted the trellises for climbing.  Big lesson learned here I guess.  The snap peas are just beginning to form, so I have a few days to think about it anyways before I have to do something drastic.

Oh- and this was a fun find!

When I went through my seeds I found three old butternut squash seeds and thought, what the heck, and planted them in the middle of my yellow pole beans.  Well, sure enough, all three seeds have come up. It will be interesting to see if they do anything.  So far I seem to have a bit of a green thumb this year- and all 13 of my tomato plants seem to be doing well.  Yes, you read 13.  Don’t know what I was thinking, but after two years of very few tomatoes, by golly, this is the year! Several of the plants have little green fruit, so we’ll see how they do.

That’s one of the things I love about gardening.  There is always something new to find, new to see, perhaps new to taste.  Take for instance, these yellow pole beans, just planted last week.  When you try a new variety, you never know how they’ll do- if they will even germinate and burst forth from the ground.  With these beans, I have 100% germination.  Every single bean planted has sprouted.  I planted heirloom beans, Marvel of Venice, which is an Italian heirloom that produces long, flat beans.

My grandfather used to grow flat yellow beans.  One thing I remember most about my grandpa was that he always had a lush garden- he always seemed to be growing something new, and just about every space that could be planted with something was planted.  I remember warily eyeing the eggplants that he grew- they seemed scary to me, and as I recall, no one ever ate them…but he still grew them.  I remember the yellow beans though, because I didn’t much care for them.  I remember eating them cooked with melted butter, and biting in and seeing the enormous purple seed pods- I liked beans, but these just weren’t my favorite.  As it turns out, the variety he grew were actually Scarlet Runners, an heirloom which I’ll have to try someday, simply because Grandpa grew them.  I also remember where he grew them- on Grandma’s clothesline.  She had those clotheslines that were a basic metal “T” on either end, and Grandpa had rigged up some lattice one one of those T’s and I clearly remember the massive bean bush…I wonder if they crept out onto the clothesline at all once they reached the top.   I have memories of going to visit Grandpa every summer and spending time just exploring the garden- he was always proud to show something off.  Sadly, he was taken away long before I ever had an interest in gardening.  I imagine he would have had tons of little nuggets of advice for a novice gardener like myself. 🙂

This plant is one that I suspect Grandpa had never even heard of, let alone tried to grow, and that would be a tomatillo.  I’m beginning to be a bit concerned about my use of a pot for these guys- those are awfully big leaves.  I recall seeing the Manic Organic picking tomatillos and how abundantly loaded his busher were with tomatillos…but I definitely don’t remember them being monster plants.  I have three plants, all destined to be turned into some Salsa Verde.  Without even seeing a blossom though, I’m wondering if I should start enhancing my supply of canning jars now.

These seedlings are the Patty Pan Squash that I’m growing.  I never actually intended on planting these this year.  I was going to skip zucchini altogether this year, but then I decided to order some smaller, more compact, yellow summer squash.   Well then, when my order came in from Baker Creek, they had put in a small free gift- a packet of patty pan seeds. After thinking about it, I decided to plant those instead. I think the kids will get a kick out of seeing the little flying saucer shaped squash, and I’m hopeful that they won’t be near so prolific as those zucchini plants last year.

So far so good though.  In the next day or so, I’ll be actually tearing out the first of the spinach and putting in…well, something else, I’m not sure what yet.  I also need to pick up something for the ants, or they’re going to get all of my lettuce.  They’re hungry this year, and have made quick work of my Tatsoi.  Speaking of which… I need to do better research on things I’m planting.  I assumed I was planting something similar to bok choy, and as it turns out, it’s more of a green- and should be eaten asap.  Some of the tastoi is beginning to put out blossoms, so I suspect that means they’re about to bolt.  I need to find a way to eat Asian greens quick! I’m thinking some kind of peanutty noodles or stir fry, but we’ll see.

The garden is officially planted.  Everything is in the ground that should be there.  However, the spinach is about done already, and the radishes are ready to be eaten as well.  So that means I’ll either replant the same things in that spot and see how they fare, or I’ll plant something different.

I also found some sprouts on my peas today-so far just the shelling peas, but I suspect the snap peas will follow along shortly.

Also growing on one of my early tomato plants- a few actual tomatoes!  Now, I know those little orbs are going to tease me for some time with their green-ness, but I’m really excited to see them.  This is the first time I’ve ever started tomatoes from seed, so to see the process continue to play out is very exciting.  Hopefully all the tomatoes I’ve shared with other people are doing just as well.

I was pleased to see today that everything I’ve planted this week in the garden seems to be thriving.  The peppers and eggplants in particular are practically growing before my eyes- it’s amazing how healthy they look.  With any luck there will be more updates shortly.

This was a good week for the Tummy Treasure Gardens.  My excitement began Monday morning when I peeked out between rain clouds and saw all the pole beans were coming up- and boy were they ever! They’re growing incredibly fast, they must like all the rain we’ve been having.  That would be the sprouts you see here at the base of the bamboo poles.

Moving around the corner to the back bed, I also found that one of my cucumber varieties was poking up as well.  The Poona Keera from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds are all popping out and soaking up the son.  There are no signs yet that the Marketmore’s are coming, but I’ll give them a few days break.  I also was excited to see the long beans at least have sprouted.  Of all the things I’m trying new this year, this is the one I am most excited to see come to fruition. This is a picture of the cukes basking in the almost-sun.

And then!  Andy spent a great deal of time on Saturday filling in the third bed with some compost from some very generous friends.  We gave it a few days then to allow the rain to settle it and compact it up a little bit.  Then on Tuesday I added several bags of organic garden soil to top it off and stir into the mix and before I knew it, I was marking off my grid and putting in the plantings that have been so desperate to be in the ground.  The sweet red and yellow peppers are in here, as are some Kale, Radicchio, my Ping Tung Eggplant, Broccoli, and some more pole beans- this one a yellow variety.  I also have some lavender and thyme in this bed, and my patty pan squash.  I did sow some seeds as well for more spinach, carrots, and tatsoi, but left about 10 squares blank at the end of the day.  I really need to sit down with my seeds and see what I missed and what I want more of.  I think probably a few more lettuces will go in if nothing else.  This next weekend Andy will put the fencing up around this bed after I’ve totally finished planting it.

As long as I was emptying my starter pots of plants, I also went ahead and finished planting the hot peppers.  These ones I put in pots, as last year I discovered they did phenomenally well in pots compared to everything else.  The two varieties I planted this year were Chili de Comida and Anaheim Chiles- both started from seed from Baker Creek.  The Comida Chilis were a low germination variety, so I’m very pleased that I have three of them doing very well.

As far as the pots go, I think I have decided that planting such things like spinach and radish in pots doesn’t give me any advantage.  As it stands, the radishes in the pot still have some growing to do, where the radishes actually in the garden, planted several weeks later, are bursting to be picked- they’re gorgeous.  Same with the spinach.  While I felt I had a bit of an advantage planting spinach in the pot, the spinach in the garden grew quickly and is ready to eat now.  I’ll finish with the pot of spinach and the pot of radishes this week and then put something else in those pots.  I have plenty of eggplant and okra that could go in the pots, or maybe the last tomatillo sprout.  We’ll see.  I’ll get the rest of that third bed planted in the next day or so, and then it’s all just weeding and waiting!  The peas are looking fabulous, and any day I expect to see some blossoms poke their heads out.  Only one of my fennel plants germinated, and while I think I’ll let that one continue to grow and see how it does, I think the rest of that square foot will be planted with some carrots or something- we could never have enough carrots.

Overall, if the weather continues to cooperate, it looks like it will be a bountiful year for the garden.  The only thing that is still up for debate is whether or not I want to attempt a winter squash this year.  Last year’s turned out terrible, but I started them very late. If I started now, I might have a chance of success.  We’ll see.  This year’s growing season is a whole month shorter than last years.  Last year I planted the majority of my seeds on April 27th and the following week. This year most went in June 3rd or later. That’s a big difference!

I have some progress to report as I’ve finally been able to plant the two established beds fully. About a month ago or so I planted the peas, lettuce and some herbs, as well as the chard and beets, but the rest needed to wait for warmer temperatures. Then yesterday I was giving my tomato plants a little loving when I noticed that two of them had blossoms. Uh-oh, they need to be in the ground. So I mustered up all the energy I could and went to work. Here to the left you see the finished results of the first bed. On the end closest to us you can see my bamboo pole bean trellis, followed by the snap pea trellis. Then the whole garden was boxed in and fenced with green garden fencing. Now there’s some great stuff! It’s much nicer to use than it’s metal counterpart-chicken wire. It doesn’t leave wires poking around and it’s really easy to maneuver with a scissors and a staple gun.

The bulk of my tomato plants went into the second bed pictured here to the right. That bed already had chard, beets, kohlrabi, and okra in it, but the back half by the wall was a blank canvas. The tomato plants are along the wall, although I still need to come up with something for them to grow on. In front of the trellis I planted my two varieties of slicing cucumbers as well as the Chinese Long Beans. I’m very curious to see if the long beans produce. I’ve never had them, but they look really cool- like giant green beans that are three feet long. This garden still needs its fencing around it, but I ran out of steam yesterday and didn’t feel like playing with the power tools.

So far the gardens are looking good. My fennel hasn’t come up yet, so I’m debating just using that square foot for more carrots or something, as it’s been a while. My eggplants aren’t looking so hot, but they like hot weather, so I imagine that as it warms up they’ll begin perking up and thriving. One that is surprising me is the Asian green Tatsoi. It’s like a baby bok choy and it’s growing beautifully! I think I’m going to have to plant some more in the third bed once I get that one going. The third bed will get rolling shortly, that one is going on the other side of the shed, so essentially, my gardens wrap around the shed. That bed will have more pole beans and also my patty pan squash plant in it as well as more greens, lettuces and carrots.

I also ran out of potting mix yesterday or I would have gotten the pot menagerie finished as well. This year my hot peppers and tomatillos are going in pots, as well as an early pot each of spinach and radishes. The radishes we’ve been enjoying, and we’ll nibble at the spinach later this week I think. We had a plant die out last year in our backyard landscaping, and since the patch around the plants is nicely covered in gravel, that’s where my pots are going this year. It works beautifully, and looks nice too. The tomatillos I plan to move around the yard as needed, because as I understand they are a big attractor for the pollinators, which could be good or bad, depending on how you look at it.

So far, so good. It’s so exciting to see everything growing in the gardens, I love it. As early as this weekend we could start nibbling on some of the baby lettuces, and of course, that spinach that is ready to go. It seems like we’ve had to wait so long for the gardening to really get going, but now that it is, life is grand again.