Big June Update: Early Red Tomatoes!

Well, May came and went without taking any pictures in the garden, but I did get up there enough to plant these gorgeous nasturtiums (got them at the Union Sq. green market) and do enough watering to keep things alive. Last Sunday I even got around to weeding, pulling up my spent pea plants and planting some new things in their place.

And here are the earliest red tomatoes I've ever had!! They're not quite ripe, as I like them really dark red, soft and fragrant. But they're almost there! Now if only the weekend would be hot and sunny...
You can see how much the tomato plants have grown. The other 2 are just as big as this one. I set up the automatic watering system on Sunday (June 5th, I know... too late like last year! but at least I had been watering a little). This plant had looked like it was going to die. I was worried that these red tomatoes would be the only ones I'd get because I'd underwatered. But, it looks like the watering system did it's job and I can't even tell it was ever in mortal danger! On the left is one of the white potatoes I planted in April. Seems to be doing well, though I honestly don't know much about growing potatoes so we'll just have to see when it's time to harvest.
Here are the blue potatoes. They suffered a bit down below because I didn't add soil when I should have, but I did add soil on Sunday. So, hopefully I'll have more potatoes than I planted =)
I got around to planting this watermelon seedling on Sunday, which had been growing on my windowsill for a while. I had some trouble with my watermelon seeds getting killed by fungus. On Sunday, I direct sowed a few more seeds in the hope that I can get a couple more plants growing. This one seems to be doing decently, though. I'm sure it's happy to be planted properly in the sunshine and heat we've been having.
I think these are the black beauty zucchini seeds I planted on Sunday.
I think these are the yellow prolific straightneck squash I planted on Sunday. I always mix them up with the zucchini because they look so similar.
This year, I tried something new and sowed some pepper seeds. I had some trouble getting them to start, but eventually got 2 plants, which I planted out on Sunday. One is a chimayo hot pepper plant from seed someone friendly sent me back in 2008. One is a King of the North red bell pepper I bought from seed savers exchange. I also mixed them up and don't know which one this is, but it has one tiny pepper forming! I hope it grows fast, as it was a bit stunted indoors.
Here is a beet plant next to my other pepper plant. We'll see which one is sweet and which is spicy when they grow up =)
This might look like weeds to you, but it's actually asparagus! When I received the asparagus plants in the mail, they looked like a bag of dried roots. The directions say to plant, water and wait. I waited for quite a while and they finally came up out of the soil. They actually looked just the way asparagus looks when you get it at the store, but they were much smaller and thinner. When first planting asparagus, I have read that you should let the plants grow without cutting them to eat for the first 2 seasons. This allows them to "fern out" the way they have here and gather energy to grow more next year. When you buy asparagus at the store, the "spear" is what has grown here and turned into feathery leaves. Who knew?!
On Memorial Day weekend, I went home to Long Island to help my parents in their garden. For my efforts, I got a pot of well established and delicious chinese chives (gao choi). They came out of a garden bed that we reclaimed from an awful amount of ivy. You see how the bottoms of the plants look whitish-purple? Where the plants start growing green is where I had cut them on May 29th!! They've grown a ton in just 13 days. Very strong plants. Chinese people have a saying that goes "strong like gao choi." I can see why.
Those scallions I planted at the end of April also grew like gangbusters. I should chop them and cook something.
Now an update on a few well established plants. These are my Northsky and Chippewa blueberry plants. As large and lush as they have grown, they remain a disappointment and I realize now that it's because there are no bees to pollinate them and they are not self-pollinating. Every year, they get covered in flowers and I have so much hope!! But then my hope is dashed when the flowers are gone and no blueberries form. What to do? Hand pollinate? Or just pull them up and start over with something else? Start a bee hive? Wah.
This Briteblue blueberry plant is much smaller but at least it produces something for me to eat!
These Loch Ness blackberries suffered last week from my lack of watering, but there are still some on the plant. They should ripen up nicely.
This Arapaho blackberry plant did not suffer as badly and is covered in these pretty little fruits. It'll be a while yet before they are large and black and yummy! My summit and anne raspberry plants are growing nice and lush as well, but I probably won't have fruit from them this year. Next year should be plenty!
This lilac I planted in April is doing very nicely =)
Here's a shot of the garden as a whole. Doesn't look as nice from far away! But, things are growing. In the near corner, you can also see a cold frame my father made me this spring. =)
That's a wrap for now!

Planting Time!

It's April 24th and these Stupice tomato plants have been sitting on my windowsill, growing faithfully for 2 months. Started back when there were feet of snow on the ground, here they are! They already have flowers in full bloom! Don't they look ready for the outdoors? =) I'm hoping for the earliest tomatoes I've ever had. Stupice has been my favorite and most successful variety since 2007, when I had 1 plant gifted by a generous gardener in the West Village. That year, it had been covered in healthy tomatoes all slightly larger than a normal cherry tomato. They were delicious, hardly ever split from a rainstorm and never had blossom end rot or pests. I'm hoping for more of the same!

I put each plant in its own bucket, where it will grow out the rest of the season. As usual, I buried the plants as deep down as I could get them without covering the healthiest leaves and flowers. In the planting hole, I put a healthy amount of crushed egg shells and bone meal. (It got dark out in the middle of the afternoon.)
Then the sun came out again! Doesn't this tomato look so happy?
I decided to try something new this year. Scallion seeds didn't grow for me, but I remembered that the scallions in the supermarket almost always have little roots at the ends. I bought a bunch at the corner market, chopped the tops for some food and decided to plant these.
Here they are, planted with some tiny chive and chinese chive seedlings. We'll see if the seedlings make it.
Also new in the garden are 2 Josee reblooming lilac plants, which are supposed to grow only 4-6 feet high. I'm hoping for some nice screening of my neighbor's windows and fragrant flowers. I bought a big bag of bark mulch at Saifee Hardware and have used some in this pot.
Here's my other lilac in the closer pot. The other pot is something my neighbor planted and left on my roof. Not sure what it is.
Finally, here are squash and zucchini seedlings I started. Hopefully they'll stay alive until the peas are done and I have space to plant them.

Garden Season 2011!!

I know. It's February. There is snow on the trees. But, I don't care. It's time to grow! This is probably the earliest start I've ever had and I think this is for the best. My plan this year is to stick with some tried and true staples, while branching out into fields uncharted!

I started these stupice tomato seedlings around February 15th and sowed them today. Although I've never grown these from seedlings, I did receive one plant from a very kind gardener back in 2007 and it was the most prolific and easy to grow cherryish tomato I've had. This will be my only tomato variety this year:

Another basic staple is some sweet basil, sown a couple weeks ago, and struggling a little, perhaps from fungus in the soil, but I'm hopeful these will be ok. Besides, I'm in no rush for basil. I just harvested a plant that has been growing for almost a year and made a nice batch of pesto I'll save for later:

Now, the new items I am trying this year!!

- King of the North red bell peppers (seeds started on 2/15)

- Blue potatoes (ordered from Seed Savers Exchange and arriving when it's time to plant)

- Asparagus (ordered from Gurney's and will take 2 years before first harvest)

- Anne Raspberry, a yellow variety (ordered from Gurney's) to replace the Summit Raspberry that died in its first season.

- Scallions (seeds started 2/15, but not sure if they'll sprout. Seeds are old and the chives and gao choi below already sprouted.)

Also, things I haven't tried to grow from seed before (seeds started 2/15):

- Chives (I just love those purple flowers and aphids ate mine to the ground last year)

- Chinese Chives (Gao Choi) (These are a must with shrimp and eggs. Sounds weird but tastes amazing)

In fall, I also want to try growing Crocus Sativus, whose stamens are the source of saffron, the world's most expensive spice. I want my own supply of saffron!!

I'm sure there will be other new things to try this year, as well. I'll be replanting my strawberries, as those that are planted have been growing a bit wild. I've read that you have to replant strawberries every few years, as the runners and plants start to return to the wild strawberry state. These are tiny and strange, and I've noticed this is happening to mine. I'm going with 100% Honeoye june-bearing strawberries. I believe these are the kind that my family enjoys best. Hope I'm right!!

I'll be starting lettuce, spinach and peas shortly. These ought to be the first to go outside. Look for more posts as the season goes on!

Spring is a wonderful time!

Spring is a wonderful time because every plant holds hope and promise of the tastiness to come! Nothing has died yet from my failure to water, the pecking of pigeons, or the occasional insect pest. Instead, there are flowers, buds, and lush green leaves to enjoy =) This pretty white flower might just turn into a strawberry I can eat...These plants could be covered in big juicy blueberries!
Even this Lochness blackberry plant, which grew wildly long canes last year with nary a bud...could be heavy with sweet dark fruit for eating in yogurt, smoothies, cereal... Yum!Tiny arugula sprouts might just fill my salad bowl one day...Purple chive flowers might make some lovely pink vinegar... (We can just ignore the bug infestation you can see if you zoom in on this pic! =( Wah!)

First Rooftop Foray of the Season

The balmy weather and my quickly growing pea starts helped me overcome my laziness and get out on the roof today for the first time this year. And what a nice visit it was! I spent about an hour looking around, cleaning up the dead leaves from the strawberry plants and planting some peas. Just 1 bucket so far. Maybe I'll get the rest in on Sunday. It was just so nice to see that the vast majority of my perennials survived the winter and have high hopes of flourishing this year! Certainly these blueberries are looking spectacular.The strawberries look lush and happy, like every spring.The chives are so strong it looks like they never died over the winter.The flowers are starting to come up again too, though it does appear my experiment with overwintering the bulbs in flower boxes had some casualties. I think my hyacinths just rotted away, as I can find no trace of them. A couple of the lily bulbs may have, as well. We'll see what comes up later. Maybe I'll try my hand at more of these low-growing creeping type perennials. They seem to have been quite successful.

Flowers & Spider

Here's a few pics and a video just for fun. First maiden pink flower in my window box.

Pretty chives.

Awesome spider.

Awesome Spider Video! What can I say, I'm a little geeky. Ok, the quality sucks, but I'm new to this. Cut me some slack.

More Peas Please!

My how things grow when you're away taking final exams. I have a pea! I'll have to wait until it gets fatter before I eat it though.

Looks like I'll have more to come too. The pea flowers are a pretty white to contrast with my purple chive flowers in the background. I thought about cutting the chive flowers to use in a salad or to color/flavor some vinegar, but every time I go on the roof they're so pretty amongst all the greenery that I leave them.

Looks like I'll have strawberries soon, as well. They're simply covering my strawberry plants and getting bigger.

One strawberry is even turning red! It's kinda small, but that's ok. It is also demented, like many of the strawberries, it seems. I'm learning =)

My tomato plants are big and bushy! But, you can tell that the Black Krim on the left is kinda messed up because it got squashed a couple weeks ago. Still, it's got tiny flower buds. The Bloody Butcher in the middle has a couple of open yellow flowers soon to be tomatoes. The the Hillbilly on the right has one big flower bud and a few tiny ones. It's supposed to give really large tomatoes. I hope they grow ok in the buckets. I had hoped that my tomatoes would ripen earlier this year than last, since I planted them out earlier. I'm not sure I'll be quite so lucky, because when I planted them they were smaller than when I planted the tomatoes last year. The result is that my tomato plants look really healthy and bigger this year, but didn't come to flower quite as soon. Here's a look back at a year ago tomorrow.

The Tulameen Raspberry in the far corner has just started to leaf out from it's roots. The Lock Ness Blackberry that was all white shoots and crimson tips last time has also put out lots of leaves and the Arapaho Blackberry is looking good, though not growing terribly fast. Of all 4 plants, it was the only potted plant and it's root system was pretty small. The Summit Raspberry has yet to show any growth, but I'm sure it'll be coming strong soon.
My lettuce, arugula, and spinach pots are growing along. Since when does Arugula turn brown? I'm surprised.

Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries Oh My!

A lot has happened in my garden lately, most notably the addition of 2 blueberry, 2 raspberry, and 2 blackberry plants!! Also, I've almost given up on growing anything in flats this year. It's only April, and things are dying from drought. Unless my New Zealand Spinach grows, I'm putting my flats away until next year. Anyway, here's a rundown, with pics.
Strange looking shoots from my Loch Ness Blackberry.
Pretty green leaves on my Arapaho Blackberry. The raspberries were just big sticks with roots, so they didn't really warrant their own picture. You can see each in the background, Tulameen and Summit.

My blueberry plants, Briteblue, Northsky, and Chippewa. Unfortunately, the birds have gotten to the Briteblue even before it made fruit! All it's leaves are eaten =( I hope it comes back...

The strawberries have tiny green berries now! I'm excited for when they turn red =)

The tomatoes have all been planted properly, and won't be moved for the remainder of the season. I hope they grow big and strong!

Girlish pinkish-purple flowers about to bloom on my chives! The flowers can be eaten in salads or used to color and flavor vinegar. They didn't have flowers last year.

Here's all the chives, count the buds!

Some short pots of lettuce (upper left), arugula (lower left), and spinach (lower right) I'm growing. Arugula seems much easier to grow than lettuce... I harvested the arugula and lettuce growing in my indoor window boxes. The arugula was SPICY!

Finally, an update on the flower boxes. I planted some lavendar, maiden pinks, and white creeping phlox among the lilies. Nothing yet between the hyacinths, but i'm hoping to add a sedum or something.