This is a ripening tomato.  For the past few weeks I thought it looked like it was starting to change color- sure enough, when I went out after a storm today, I found it very vibrant- and definitely not green.  It will turn red eventually.  At first thought, I was a bit alarmed.  We are just 10 days out from a week away, and I really don’t want my tomatoes going gonzo while we’re gone.  Fortunately though, these are the early tomatoes, so I should be safe from an explosion happening while we are gone.  For the most part, the tomatoes are looking great.  We had to add to the trellis, because they reached the top, and show no signs of stopping.

I have a lot of pictures to share today- and a few thoughts to go with most of them.

This is an okra plant below.  I didn’t know if I could even grow okra here in NE Wisconsin.  It seems I can, however… when I read about how large okra plants tend to get, I read that they tend to get quite tall- 5 or 6 feet tall in the south, and loaded with blossoms and okra.

Umm, clearly, these little 12 inch plants are not functioning at full capacity.  However, there are a few okra worth picking- I just don’t know what to do with just 2 or 3 okra pods.  I’ll have to do some research in my vegetarian cookbooks.  I haven’t given up on them yet though.  I have plans to try them again next year, but since they’re so prolific in the south, I may have just started them too early, and subsequently put them in the ground too early.  I’m going to try again next year with a much later start date, and see what happens.

Next, here is a peek at my cucumber plants- blossoming and climbing, I can’t wait- they’re all slicing cukes, and I’m so eager for a non-hothouse cucumber!

And then this is one of my sweet pepper plants.  I decided to try planting mini-peppers this year.  It may not give us much more than a smattering of peppers- but right now, the plants are looking fantastic and loaded with blossoms- some peppers are forming, I can’t wait to see how big they actually are going to get.

This next photo is one vegetable I will not be growing in my gardens again. These are kohlrabi- and they really sprawl as they grow- meaning the leaves have a large wingspan.  They’ve been shading other plants, and for what?  A little knobby vegetable in the end.  While I have small raised beds, these are so not worth the space to grow.  I’ll be buying these at the farmers market- although I’ve never seen the purple variety there.

Here are some newly forming blossoms on my green pole beans.  I planted two varieties- Fortex and Kentucky Wonder Poles.  The kids are so eager for these blossoms to turn into beans.  I expect that we’ll maybe get a few beans before our vacation, but that when we return we’ll be picking like crazy. 

These are my yellow pole beans- these ones are growing like gangbusters, but no blossoms here yet.  These went into the ground well after the green ones, so we’ll see.

And then here are the three garden beds from a distance.  The lettuces are still doing well in the first bed- we’ve been eating from them for a while, and no bolting.  It’s been wonderful, and we’re really enjoying them.  I finally pulled out all the peas, and the garden looks naked without them.  However, I planted that space with more lettuces, so that when the current pickings do bolt, we’ll have more to replace them with.  I also planted more fennel seed.  I had read that July is the perfect time to sow fennel seeds, so we’ll see how they do.  I would love to have more than my one bulb that’s currently growing.

The carrots are taking their time developing, but the beets have been slowly trickling in and have been incredibly sweet and delicious.  Most of the herbs are doing great- except for the basil.  Oh, the basil is doing terrible!  That’s the only one I started from seed, and next year I’ll be buying plants. The sage is gorgeous, as is the thyme, parsley and chives.  The eggplants are taking their time, and I’m trying to decide if I should harvest some of the kale.

I’ve had many of the neighbors asking what I’m doing to my garden this year- it’s just doing so well! It’s funny, because I haven’t added anything, I don’t spray with chemicals or anything, and I haven’t even added fertilizers or added nutrients.  Except for one thing.  Fish water.  That seems to be the secret.  We have two fish tanks in the house- a 10 gallon one upstairs, and a 28 gallon one downstairs. About every 10 days I do a 25% water change in both tanks, and I water the garden with the fish waste water.  It’s loaded with fish manure and nitrogen, and apparently, my gardens love it.  I get the added bonus of not having to water in-between rainstorms with the hose- which is not free in my neighborhood.

I’m still eating the chard- which I have been for at least a month now, and it shows no signs of bolting.  I wonder if it bolts at all?  The second crop of spinach wasted no time in beginning to bolt, so we’ll be eating that this week and then I’ll be waiting a while before planting more seeds.  The patty pan squash is starting to look a little large, but still no blossoms- they’re starting to peek out, but no flowers yet.  I walk the gardens every day, and every single day I seem to find something new.  I love my vegetable garden!

I have some flowers as well.   Today I took a close look at my lavender plant and was thrilled with all the pretty purple flowers.  If it keeps it up, I may actually be picking some for drying.  In the meantime though, I plucked a few sprigs and a daisy to keep me company in the kitchen.

First, the tomatillos.  I have enjoyed tomatillos ever since the first time I made a green salsa.  The tomatillos were roasted with some onions and jalapenos, and then blended with cilantro, garlic, and lime juice for some of the best salsa I’ve ever had.  I read on a blog last year that tomatillos were exceptionally easy to grow, and I thought, why not? I seldom seem to find good ones at the stores these days, and just imagine…my own salsa verde in the pantry. The tomatillo’s were the toughest to germinate though! They took a long time to sprout, and then once they did, they were the tiniest, most gangly sprouts.  There wasn’t much to them, and I was afraid they wouldn’t do to much in my climate.  Um.  I think I was wrong. Here are my tomatillos today.

I had planned on two plants in pots, but when a third seedling emerged and survived, and I found myself with an extra pot, I decided to plant the third one.  They’re doing fantastic so far…the plants are monsters- the main stem is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter itself, and while they seem fairly sturdy, I have gone ahead and loosely tied the plants up to some bamboo poles for added support.  It’s been a few weeks since the first signs of flowers, and oh boy, somethings been doing some pollinating!  Here’s a picture of some of the tiny little lanterns beginning to grow.

It’s my understanding that the paper husk emerges first, and then the fruit grows inside the lanterns- and I also understand that it may take awhile, but I’m sure having fun watching these plants grow.  They’ve fascinated the entire family.  While they seem to be doing okay in pots, I bet they would be even happier in the ground.  They dry out easily, so I’ve had to water them pretty frequently.  Here’s a close-up of the biggest lantern so far.

I also wanted to explore the tatsoi a little further today.  I confess that this is the second planting of tatsoi, as I missed the first one entirely.  I had no idea what I was dealing with, and the plants bolted before I could even blink.  One day I had little green leaflets, and this vague idea that I should find something to do with my tatsoi, and then the next minute I had flowers and terribly bitter and astringent leaves.  So they came out of the ground without ever really exploring the green.

Tatsoi, as it turns out is an Asian green, commonly used in stir-frys and such.  When I ordered the seeds for the tatsoi, I guess I had been under the impression that I was ordering something similar to a bok choy, so I was surprised to learn that these little leaves were all I was going to get.  The plants are very pretty in the garden- the leaves are a nice shade of green, and they grow in this pretty circular formation.  They are meant to be eaten as small, tender leaves.  Straight off the plant the leaves have a nice crunch to them and a flavor not unlike bok choy, or a napa cabbage maybe. It was a light flavor, and in the background was the vaguest hint of something peppery.  The stems are also delicious and are very crunchy and full of water- they were very satisfying to bite into actually.  Here is a close up of one individual plant:

I used them tonight in a noodle dish for dinner, and I must say that tatsoi gets high marks as a cooked green.  I will be growing them again, but I will have to make a note to keep an eye on the tatsoi.  I’ll be checking it every day now and see if there are tell tale signs before bolting.  The plants themselves don’t seem to grow too many leaves by themselves either, so I have to say that if you were cooking for more than one person, you would want to grow more than one square foot of the tatsoi.  I would say one foot per person at the minimum.  It was definitely effortless to grow- direct seeded into the garden it germinated quickly, and as my first experiment with an Asian green, I must say I find it a success.

I ordered my seeds for tatsoi from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, and if these are any indication, I’ll be ordering plenty more Asian greens from them in the future.

Yesterday I spent the day in the garden.  I couldn’t have asked for a better day, as it was hot and sticky and because of that, it was quiet.  No one was out doing yard work, and even all the kids were inside in the cooler air conditioned homes.   So I spent the day plucking weeds and giving every single plant some attention.  The first real bit of attention went to my pea plants.  The shelling peas were ready to be picked, and it’s amazing to me that in just a few days the plants themselves went from vibrant and healthy to “oh my gosh, it’s getting hot- time to shut down”.  Really, just like that, the plants were dying off from the bottom up.  So I picked all of the shelling peas and then pulled the plants out.  Well, I didn’t pull them out actually, I snapped them off at the ground.  Pea roots leave beneficial nitrogen in the soil, so I wanted to be sure I left the roots in the dirt. The snow peas will be coming out in the next few days as well, I think.

With the shelling peas out, I took a long look at my kale plants.  Seriously, they were turning into monster plants, and I’d planted four per square foot.  It didn’t take a genius to see that I’d over-planted a bit.  So I took three of those kale plants and transplanted them to where the pea patch was.  They really didn’t like being moved.  Yesterday they wasted no time in wilting, so we’ll see… I may have killed off some of the kale.  Hopefully they’re just mad at me and will spring back after last night’s rain, and today’s cooler temperatures.

I also found okra flowers yesterday! Okra is one of those things that I really don’t know if they’ll grow well here. I’ve been keeping an eye on them, and for the last week or so they all had these pointy things on them, which I wondered about.  Could they beginning to fruit? That didn’t seem right to me, as I’ve heard the plants can get pretty tall.  Turns out, they’re blossoms! And pretty ones at that.

Then there’s my lovely tomatoes.  They’re still doing incredibly well, and most of the plants are bearing beautiful green fruit for me.  I had to add some bamboo poles to a few for added support, and this weekend Andy and I will have to come up with a means to extend the tomato trellis- because they’ve reached the top!   I hope they take they’re time ripening, as we have a week away at the end of July, and I just have a sneaking suspicion that my tomatoes are going to ripen just in time for me to be gone for a week.   It’s also very interesting to see the difference between the heirloom tomatoes that I’ve started from seed, and the few store bought plants I bought because they were there.  The store bought ones are barely growing, and just don’t look anywhere near as beautiful as the heirlooms.  Where the heirlooms are going on 5 feet tall, the store bought ones are hovering around 18 inches or so- just tiny and not doing much.   Here are all my tomato pictures:

Green Zebra:

German Red Strawberry:

Siletz, you can see the biggest tomato starting to get a slight yellow haze to it.  These are the early tomatoes, so they could be thinking about turning red I suppose.

Here’s some of my plants, large, tall, and sprawling:

And then here’s the store-bought ones:

And finally, while not a tomato, here is a picture of my radicchio. They seem to be growing a lot like cabbage- the leaves are forming and then curling onto itself. They have a slight purple hue to them, which is only going to intensify as they continue to grow.

Which brings me back to the peas.  Last year I didn’t grow any peas, and we missed them.  While we never did anything with them, the snow peas were fun to just pick and eat.  The kids loved to do that- they’d walk out to the patch and just sit there and have a snack.  So this year, I determined I was going to plant them again.  Only because I had extra space, I decided to try some shelling peas as well.  The thing about the shelling peas though is that it takes a lot to get some peas.  Yesterday’s picking yielded about 2 1/2 cups of shelled peas.  The previous days picking was about a cup, and before that we would just pick a handful here and there.  The point being that it takes a lot of pea plants to make a substantial amount of peas.  Yet we enjoyed them.  Even I liked them- and I’m not fond of peas at all.  The peas themselves were twice the size of a store bought pea, and they weren’t mushy in the least when I’d cooked them.  So I’m unsure if I’ll be planting them again.  At least where we are now.  I could see at some point, if we had some acreage and a large space for gardening, devoting a bit of space to peas, because they were delicious.

Later this week I’ll give a tomatillo update.  They’re…well, they’re getting massive.  Andy keeps calling them my beanstalks, because they look like they could just grow forever.  The amount of blossoms and tiny little lanterns forming is encouraging.  I can practically taste that green salsa already!

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.