Taste of Success

I harvested my first cucumbers yesterday and they were extra delicious. I thought they'd be weird tasting because they look and feel a lot different than grocery store cukes. There really wasn't a flavor difference, but the freshness was quite noticeable- especially in the texture. They had the same texture has a regular cucumber, but ya know, more crunchy I guess. Fresher. 

The cucumber plant isn't doing too well though; I think I'll only get a few more off the plants. They just soak up sooo much water, I can't keep up. Plus I have an infestation of white-flies in all my plants. The flies are tiny and suck the juices out of the plant, restricting nutrient flow etc. Combining the drought and flies has caused half the leaves to wilt & die. We'll see how long they last though.

I also harvested some oregano (which is going wild in the strawberry pot) and basil (which continues to go wild) and let Nicholas make a delicious meal with them. He combined my herbs with some fresh garlic in home grown & canned tomato sauce and put that on a slice of Italian bread with sausage and cheese. The sauce was absolutely amazing and incredibly flavorful for the amount of herb put in. I meant to take a photo, but it was just too good.

My other plants are doing alright. The peppers havn't grown much later and I think they might have a disease; the pepper gets a soft pink spot on them when they are about 3in in diameter. I have yet to try one of the green peppers. The plant looks alright though. We have had cooler weather for a few weeks so I think it stopped going to fruit for awhile. Luckily, its back up to the 80*s and I might get a few more.

The tomato is lame with silly flowers and no fruit.

The carrots, lettuce, pea, and leek have all sprouted! The lettuce were out a few days after I put the seeds in. The leek followed and the carrot just appeared on Sunday. I'll be eating salad in no time!!



Sorry of the lack of pics- my memory card is full.

Growing and Seeding

The weather has gone down a few degrees lately so I decided it's time to start the cool weather crops. The hot weather crops are doing alright, I suppose. With the cooler weather they don't take as much water and have not wilted at all recently. But, they do continue to grow.

Here you can see where the cucumber plant has grown over into the tomato area and is about to invade the basil plant.

I don't really mind it bothering the tomato; the silly thing has yet to produce one delicious tomato for me to feast on. It keeps blooming and blooming and blooming and blooming and blooming and NO FRUITING! I don't know what's it's deal, because I've seen pollinators. Both my cucumber and pepper plants have gone to fruit. Eh.












All that is exciting, but not as exciting as planting SEEDS!!!! WOOOOOOOO!

A few posts ago I think I said that I bought seeds from Seed Warehouse and was just waiting til the weather was right to plant them. I was bored yesterday and thought a productive way to procrastinate (oxymoronic, I know) would be to plant them.

Lettuce
I took one of my window boxes and made it just for lettuce. I have three different varieties and gave each a third of the window box. I planted about seven or so seeds for each variety to start out with. They recommend spacing lettuce about 6 inches apart.

• Organic Marvel of Four Seasons Butterhead: I don't know what is organic about it. The website also had non organic but what does it matter if you're just planting seeds? Whatever. Butterhead lettuces "have outer leaves that do not wrap tightly together but rather deveolpe an open, fairly flat rosette surrounding the inner leaves" (Vegetable Factory). So these are the floppy ones that aren't iceberg or romaine looking but still maintain a ball in the middle. The Seed Warehouse described this variety as having "stunning reddish leaves flaunting cranberry red tips with excellent flavor make this lettuce a must for your garden. If you are looking for a lettuce that is both attractive and tasty, this heirloom may be your choice." They also say it's a good container plant that will grow to 12-16inches in diameter and mature in 55 days. 
• Cimarron Romaine: A romaine lettuce, so long and skinny and delicious. This one is a deep-red color and is heat and cold resistant. Seed Warehouse says this is a good container plant that will mature to 10-12 inch long heads in 60 days. 
• Tom Thumb: This is a miniature butterhead!! It grows to the size of a tennis ball so cute. Seed Warehouse recommends growing these in containers and using them for individual salads. They also say they can grow indoors fairly well. Hmm... Matures in 50 days.

 I also do a window box just for leek. I think I put about 9 seeds in it. The only variety Seed Warehouse had was the Large American Flag Leek, and I think it's the most popular variety here in the states (go figure). If you've never used leek before, you are missing out. It has a sweet, mild onion flavor that does not over-power like green onion can. American Flag takes 120 days to mature, so it's very slow growing and sensitive to heat I think. I'm keeping mine in the shade mostly.

I popped three Super Sugar Snap Pea in with my cucumbers. The cucumber's root system has taken over the window box so I'm not so sure the peas will pop out. Sugar peas are easier than regular peas because you don't have to shell them, and that is why I got the sugar snaps. They mature in 66 days.

I put some Little Finger Carrots into the top of my strawberry pot. These are miniature carrots that grow no larger than 3 inches.  These are the true baby carrots; the ones you buy at the store are just shaved down large carrots. Little Fingers supposedly taste sweeter and have a deep orange color. These mature in 57 days, and I plan on planting them in waves in various pots.

I also transplanted the mystery tomatoes from the pepper plant pot to their own window box. They were just getting super leggy and in the way. I did not plant my Corriander/Cilantro because 1) I forgot 2) I didn't know what pot to put it in. Next time maybe. I also just remembered that I have some mesclun (baby greens) stashed somewhere that I need to plant as well. Oops.

Hopefully in the next few weeks I'll be harvesting my peppers, which seem to have stopped growing, but aren't turning red, and perhaps a few cucumbers. And, goodness willing, I'll get to eat a tomato before it gets cold. In a few months I will be eating lettuce and carrots nomnomnomnom!!

Growing Cucumber