It begins

Tonight my kid made (and ate!) mini-pizzas using tomatoes and basil from our garden. Thanks, Michelle Obama for convincing my kid that veggies are cool.

My kid and I had a long discussion tonight about why some people think tomatoes are a fruit and others say it's a vegetable. (I remember being obsessed with the same topic in 5th grade. Kids today just grow up so fast.)

Jalapenos are coming in by the handfull. The tomatoes are slowly but surely joining the party. I'm ready to salsa, so let's get moving, tomatoes!

We have some beets and turnips that look ready to pick. Not going to take the plunge until I've figured out how to prepare them.

Finally laid the two soaker hoses I bought and hooked them up to the handy automatic timer. I'll bet it's a lot easier to lay those hoses at the beginning of the season rather than trying to squeeze between 4 foot tall tomato plants.

Red

Had to shell out $7 for tomatoes at the farmer's market this week. I've resisted buying any so far, knowing we have a backyard full of green ones on the verge. But who could resist an adorable four year old begging her mom for veggies? I only bought one pint, but then she ate half of it before we left the market, so I bought a second.

Soon after arriving home we found this:

They look even fancier on the vine with a few special effects.

Most are still green, but just as I predicted we should have a decent first harvest by July 4.

Per tradition, I planted everything entirely too close together and have already had to cull the herd. Some items were transplanted elsewhere and others were just thrown on the grown to wither as I silently screamed at myself for planting stupid things like turnips.

And we're off!

Out of town for 8 days, the temps shot to the upper 90s. I was sure I would come home to parched if not dead plants, but my husband came through for me and kept them watered. In the week I was gone, almost all of my plants doubled - if not tripled - in size. Some of the tomatoes are already completely unruly and required massive pruning to get them back inside their cages. (If they don't at least start out growing inside the cage, there's no hope for keeping them under control.)

I planted marigolds to keep away bunnies and bugs. I didn't really notice they were the kind that would get to be 3 feet tall, and shade the very plants I was trying to save. Had to uproot a bunch of them.

The zinnia are blooming. My daughter helped grow those from seed and is quite proud.

The tomato plants have flowers, and some even have tomatoes!!!

The beets and turnips are growing incredibly fast. It's fun to watch but makes me wonder what in the world I will do with them once they have reached full size, a question I'm now facing when I look at my purple basil.

The cilantro has been my only disappointment so far. I was hoping it would do a great job reseeding itself as it has done in the past, but no such luck.

The grow houses in the bathtubs have been shut down, and all operations have relocated outside. Let the countdown to deliciousness begin!

On the third day

Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed!

Random fist shaking

The tomato production of the remaining plants has slowed considerably, yet I still have to water as often as before. Seems unfair.

I have pulled more of the tomatoes I hate; still trying to transplant the understudies into garden space in hopes I can extend the growing season.

Went to the local hippie farmer's market today -- everything is grown within 100 miles and I swear people wear fake Amish hats to sell more food. (OK, OK, maybe they were Mennonites, but I still think they were milking it; those hats didn't even fit.) Before me was the most delicious spread of onions, peppers, tomatoes, etc. for $2/lb or less.  All that work I do, and I could drive 3 miles to get a wider variety of produce at 1/50000th the cost.

This weekend I spent over an hour chopping/squeezing/washing to make salsa for a relative's birthday. Barely ended up with one full jar.

To review: Gardens are a lot of time/work/energy and not necessarily cost effective. Also when fall comes and everything starts to die, you will get so depressed you will want to snuggle your shriveled up Arkansas Traveler vines. Oh winter, I hate you already and you're still months away. Still though, it gives me a reason to live for Spring and start all over again.

Progress report - 3 1/2 months in

The last progress report was just about 2 months ago, and the first one was June 4 (those were the days). Sorry, I disappeared for July (which resulted in the loss of all garlic and onions.) Here's your August photo montage -

These are the two smaller boxes:

Due to planting the tomatillos next to a weed like currant tomato plant, they have kind of melded into one giant mess of plants. I've attempted selective reduction several times, but those pesky tomatillos just keep coming back. They are growing through, over and around all the peppers. Annoying, but shades them which they seem to like.

This is the large bed. When I go to harvest, I just dive in and hope I can find my way out:

Many tomatoes have rotted in the center because I didn't see them in time. I think I have 8-10 plants in here, but who can know; they're all growing on top of each other at this point. Some of the vines are probably 10 feet long and could stretch to my deck if I got off my ass and constructed a fancy trellis.

(You will note however my ass is quite lazy. That is why our deck is 2 colors - we got tired halfway through staining it 8+ years ago and never finished. You got a problem with it, you're welcome to pay for a new one.)

A hot mess

Remember the update from June 4?

A lot can happen in 20 days.

June 24:

Random report

It was 99 degrees today. 99!!!! My tomatoes may soon cook themselves. I don't know what this heat does to tomatoes, but it can't be good.

Due to the heat all my gardening is done by the light of the moon, and I still come in drenched in sweat laced with potting soil. This update would be much improved with pictures, but no go at 10 pm.

I had to abort some peppers and tomatoes tonight. They were just growing terribly. Really this blog could be a what-not-to-do if nothing else. Let's just sum it up and say -
1. Drainage is important. Your plants can be too wet. Even when it's 99 degrees.
2. Miracle gro moisture control mix is totally worth it. I used some organic bullshit that smells like crap and holds onto water way too long.

My raised beds are so overgrown right now. I should've planted half that number of tomatoes in that space, but I just couldn't choose! I can't imagine what it's going to look like by August. I may lose a child in there. Or a dog. Which wouldn't be all bad.

My deck is also overflowing with pots of all shapes and sizes. I even moved a lot of things to the platform around my HVAC system. So little of our yard gets sun and I'm desperate for space! I know my neighbors just love the scenic view of our yard-o-buckets. But it's all cool, because I busted our HOA President for violating our neighborhood rules (which prohibit growing veggies in your front or side yard). If he comes for me, I'll just mention his squash situation.

I have one tomato that's orange. I am so eating it tomorrow, whether it's ready or not. I'm jealous of my farmer friends to the south who've had ripe veggies for weeks.

This concludes your stream of consciousness farm update.

Progress report, 1 month post transplant

I squeezed onions, garlic, 7 tomato plants and an eggplant into this tiny box.

Lots of pruning, staking and caging will be required. I'm guessing by the end of the summer the tomatoes will be 20 feet tall, or I will have given up and it will just be one giant mess of tomato plants.

The peppers are putting up a valiant fight against the aphids. It's been raining almost every day here and I swear they doubled in size in under 48 hours.

I still wish the 18,000 ladybugs I ordered 3 weeks ago would hurry up and get here!

(There's one other raised bed not shown, home to 9 more tomato plants.)