I’m about due for another update!

We’ve been enjoying bits of this and bits of that out of the garden.  We’ve had salad a few times, plenty of lettuce on sandwiches, and we’ve all had at least one of the Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.

I just spent the last few hours weeding and tending to the tomatoes, and thought it would be a great time to snap a few pictures.

We have cucumbers!  I am hopeful that the yellow tint of this guy means he’s my Poona Kheera- because there are definitely a few of them.  This is my favorite cucumber, sweet, crispy, and delightful!  There are a few other cucumbers ripening up as well.  Can’t wait for the first taste!

My Purple Russians gave me a scare when I discovered some Blossom End Rot the other day.  So far though, it seems to be limited to just two of the fruit, and as they grow, the spots are not, so I think it’s just a fluke.  One of these tomatoes is massive- you can kind of see it in the back.

Here’s a Lemon Drop getting ready to fully ripen.  I have two of these plants in the garden- I hope they are tasty!

And here’s the mutant pepper plant.  I’ve already decided I want to save seed- and I haven’t even tasted the peppers yet.  This little plant is just quite abundant, and that makes me happy.

The next two pictures are of my Maule’s Red Hot pepper plants.  The curling of the peppers are unique to me- I can’t wait until they turn red- they are going to be very pretty to look at.

I have plenty of serranos- and in fact, I have no shortage of hot peppers at all.  Salsa making is going to be wonderful this year with all these delicious specimens to add to salsa!

And then a few more tomatoes.  Some Green Zebras because I love them.  I know a lot of people just don’t like them, but I love the grassy/citrus flavor they have, I love the way they look, and I love how they always, always produce tomatoes- even under the harshest conditions.

And finally, just because Minnesota has already been eating his, here is a picture of my very green Black Cherry tomatoes.  There are quite a few on the plant, so I can’t wait for them to ripen!

Overall, the garden is doing well.  I think we’ve learned a lesson though about using the free compost from our city… namely, that it’s not so great.  The city makes the compost from yard waste that people drop off- and apparently, they don’t get it hot enough, because we have so many weeds!  I am certain the abundance of quack grass and purslane and dozens of other weeds is from this compost.  The quantity of weeds is directly proportionate to how much compost went in each bed.  So the bed that has a ton of compost has a ton of weeds.  The bed that got very little compost has very little weeds.

Fortunately, we have our own compost going, and it’s looking fabulous already.  We’re also NOT putting the weeds into the compost bin- those will get taken to the city waste site for their compost.

Another lesson learned or remembered: I don’t really like Mesclun salad mixes.  Every year I plant them, and then every year I’m disappointed.  I don’t care for a lot of the bitter greens that are mixed in, and it just isn’t my go-to for salad.  Also, because they grow so close together, as they grow, the underneath becomes prime real estate for slugs, so I think I’m just not going there anymore.  I’ll just plant regular old romaine type lettuces and be happy.

Also, no arugula.  Ever. Oh my, all this time I’ve felt like I’ve really been missing out on this wonderful green that all the chefs use and everyone raves about.  Yuck! I did not like it at all, so I will not be growing it again.  It may be that if it’s grown in cooler weather it’s more tasty, but I happily ripped this bitter invader out of the garden today.

Mizuna is a winner though.  This lighter mustard green is delicious and seemingly doesn’t ever plan on bolting.