Garden Babies

Just in the last week or so (let's conveniently call it June 1st) the garden has exploded.  The hot temperatures are fooling everything into believing it's way later in the summer, I suppose.  The tomato plants all have flowers, and I have started my careful morning walks through the garden to peek at what  has popped out overnight.  I've also had to admit that the lettuces are just getting plain bitter.  This is really hard for me, as I try to get the most I can out of each harvest.

Here's what I worked on today:
1.)  I ripped out the original batch of mesclun, and replanted some in the shade of some of the bigger plants.  Maybe this will keep them from getting bitter too quickly.  Or maybe it's just too darn hot.

2.)  Replanted some spinach in shadier places.

3.)  Planted two spots of cucumbers.  (Annmarie, I took your advice!  Hopefully they will pop up quickly with all the warm temps!)

4.)  Watered, watered, watered.   It took me an hour an a half to just water this morning.  I really tried to give everything a nice bit of water.  But the reality is that it's just a big garden, and with all the side boxes, the new bushes, and watering the compost, it's no small feat.

Questions for the gardenly inclined.  (I made up the word gardenly I think.)
1.) Why are the leaves of the tomato plants in one box curling?  I hope it's not due to some large failure on my part.  Nothing like a tomato plant to hold a mirror to your face and say, "See, you are failing!"

2.)  How long until the cucumbers appear?

3.) How are you really supposed to water?  Every 3 days or so but with a good soaking, or every day just a little bit?  I've been doing the every 3 days thing, but wonder if that's too much water logging to give them a big drink and then let them dry out.  Is this like the "chicken and the egg" question?

And now for the pictures.  This is my botanical daycare.  Aren't babies so cute?

Aerial shot of the daycare center.  

 Aerial shot trying to include the whole sha-bang.

The broccoli and cauliflower patch close up aerial shot.

LOOK LOOK!  I got heads!!!!

See???!!!

I really hope it doesn't get so hot that the broccoli and cauliflower start to bolt or whatever it's called when the heat makes stuff flower or go bad!  I'm so excited.  This is a huge success compared to all my other attempts!

This could be a sugar baby pumpkin.  This could also be the Feed Me Seymour, Awful, Hard, Inedible hybrid plant we accidentally grew last year.  We called it a "squmpkin" because it was a cross between a pumpkin and a squash.  The problem was that the plant itself was the MOST PROLIFIC thing I have ever seen.  It took up a huge section of the garden bed, and for most of the summer, I thought I was growing pumpkins.  I was super psyched thinking about all the wonderful pies and mini jack-o/-lanterns we would make.  Until the fruit got bumps.  And grew handles.  And then I realized something weird was going on.  My garden mentor, Annmarie, informed me that SURE, it is possible to have created this weird hybrid plant by growing pumpkins and squash near each other the previous year.  By some strange miracle, they could've cross pollinated and made a rather unwanted garden baby.  But I tried to look in the bright side.  SUPER! I thought!  I have some neat new food to try.  Oh no.  Not to be.  We couldn't even break the things open.  We tried smashing them on the concrete patio.  We tried pretty much everything, and I think we succeeded in finally getting one open.  And we realized that it was too seedy and not fleshy enough to be anything purposeful, other than maybe a really cool looking decorative gourd.  It was growing in this same spot last year, and so I hesitate to say for sure that the picture above is a sugar baby pumpkin.  It could be her nasty stepsister.  (And based on how huge the plant is, I'm suspicious that it might be.  This year, no lemonade stand.  If that happens, we will have a decorative gourd stand.)

The first Sun Gold.  I am so excited I could tinkle in my bloomers.  There is nothing quite like Sun Gold tomatoes, which I only just discovered last year.  Not to mention everyone likes them, and best of all, they just keep on keepin' on all through the summer.  Even the girls sounded a huge, "Hooray" when I told them our first Sun Gold was out.  

First Tigerella tomatoes.  I believe this is an heirloom variety that will be green and yellow striped.  I had a lot of blossom end rot last year, and my heirlooms did poorly, so I'm hoping to avoid that this year.  (Annmarie, any ideas??)

Dear Zucchini, In a few short months I will be horribly sick of you.  But for now, you are adorable, small, perfectly cylindrical, and I can't wait to turn you into a mexican zucchini boat.  Love, Mommy

Baby bell peppers.  Another success that I've never had before, but I should knock on wood.  I will usually get a tiny little green nub, which then becomes deformed and weird.  Here's to hoping.

These represent actually the end of our strawberry time.  We have a bunch on the vine right now, still ripening, but no new flowers.  I'm okay with that.  I still would like to go pick a bunch at a larger farm and try my hand at jam, but I fear that the season is already over everywhere.

A tiny green honeydew.  I'm afraid this little lass is being shaded too much by the huge pumpkin-could be-squmpkin plant.  If I have to, I'll be pruning off the top leaves of her nasty, sun-hogging neighbor so that she can grow to her full potential.   I'd love a homegrown melon since we've never had one before.  Melons just don't seem to like me.  Probably because I plant them next to squmpkins.

If I were Jacob, chard would be my Joseph.  It would be my favorite, and I would make it a coat of many colors, but it already has one!  I don't know whether it's the composition of the soil, or whether chard really is just that easy, but it never fails me.  It grows quickly and easily from seed, can be planted fairly early (seedings went in April 6th, and I direct seeded another batch a couple weeks later), and if you harvest the leaves on the outside first, it just keeps producing and producing and producing all summer.  It doesn't seem affected too much by the heat, as long as it is watered, which is unusual for greens in my experience.  Lettuces get bitter, spinach bolts, but the chard does wonderfully, even in the full sun of our garden.  If you don't eat chard, or have no idea what to do with it, let me point you to two of my FAVORITE recipes that feature chard:

Swiss Chard Pie

This is an easy recipe, but rather time consuming because it calls for TONS of chard, which you have to wash and cut up.  I made it last Sunday, but only because I had one of our favorite college students (shout out to Solia!) over to watch the girls while I basically cooked all day.  But it's delicious, you can throw other greens in it as well (I actually used chard and kale from the garden) and it turns out looking just like the picture.  I decrease the cooking time to 30 minutes because I don't like the crust quite so crispy, and I use a regular 9" pie plate.  I also think it's better the next day after the flavors have a chance to meld and the crust softens.  Great for harvesting tons of greens at one time.

Gemelli with Sausage, Chard and Pine Nuts

This is an easier recipe, as it calls for less greens.  Oh my goodness, it is divine.  I have to admit, though, that I don't use raisins.  I have serious issues with using raisins or dried fruit in general in my savory cooking.  I don't know what it is, but I just can't do it.  I also know that my kids would probably stage a revolt if I tried.  SO, instead of the raisins in this recipe, I whip out the food processor and chop into itty bits a bunch of sun dried tomatoes (the ones that come packed in oil).  The combination of pasta, the sun dried tomatoes, and the toasted pine nuts is only made more wonderful by the Sweet Italian Sausage (which I get from my farmer Will at Whitmore Farm.  Side note:  best.  sausage.  ever.)

And lest we forget the flower bed....there are even babies among the Cosmos.

Happy Almost Summer!