I was looking through previous posts earlier today and realized I hadn't made a garden update in a while. WOE IS ME!!! Unfortunately, I didn't get home in time to get any pics tonight, but I'll give you the details anyhow. :-)
What's doing well:
The TOMATOES! Good grief! They have taken on a life of their own (oh wait...they're plants, they actually DO have a life of their own...)! All plants are covered in little green tomatoes AND little yellow flowers. I expect to be swimming in tomatoes before long. Which is A-OK with me! Can't wait to make spaghetti sauce and perfect my salsa recipe.
Speaking of salsa - the cilantro is totally out of control right now. I had to go out earlier and grab a handful to give to our friend Phil (champion salsa maker). It's getting so big and bushy that it's threatening to kill things near it. Kind of like Phil's goatee. :-D SHAVE ALREADY! FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!!!!! ;-)
Also doing well are the cabbages. I have three heads of cabbage coming along nicely right now. Another two to three weeks and there will be sauerkraut!! YES! yum yum yum
All told, Hubby and I planted something like 40 strawberries. Some of them are doing fantastic (we even have a few flowers already!), and some of them never really got started. As long as I get at least 10 strawberries this year, I'll be pleased. I've been taking note on what they seem to like and will remember my lessons for next year's garden.
OMG! How could I forget my #1 producer?! LETTUCE!!! and Spinach! Salads have become a daily affair around here. All 5 varieties of lettuce have done exceedingly well. We've even had to "go country" and give away Romaine. In fact, if you want any Romaine or spinach and you have a salad spinner (gotta clean it folks!), let me know and I'll bring you some.
The green beans and wax beans are also growing like crazy. All the plants ended up coming up and now they are starting to flower. The plants have gotten very busy and are currently threatening the cucumbers that are next to them. I will be outside this weekend trying to device some contraption to keep them from shading the cukes too badly.
Radishes are always a success for me. It's funny - I'm not really a radish fan, but I know they are good for me so I plant them. I can only make myself eat them in salads or sauteed with butter and poured over asparagus though. :-)
All the onions are doing famously. They've had to get their "hair" cut several times as they tend to mooch sunlight from everyone around them. I'm a big green onion fan, so I've been chopping it up and throwing it into different recipes. I make a good green onion. :-) Hubby assures me that we are still months away from actually getting a full size onion though. *sigh* We use a LOT of onions around here. I'm thinking of putting more in the ground as soon as the cabbages are harvested...
We've also got our first jalapeno of the season growing right now. It's still pretty small, but it's also pretty early in the season. Hubby normally has a jalapeno-green finger, so I'm not worried about it. I'm sure we'll get more than our money's worth.
Broccoli has also been a huge success. We've gotten 4 heads of broccoli so far and still have one or two plants in the ground. I'm actually getting a little sick of broccoli. :-)
What's not doing as well:
As mentioned before, the beans are overshadowing the cucumbers a little. They're doing really well for plants that aren't getting a lot of sun right now. We also had a problem with the backyard rat eating the seedlings every time they got about 3 inches tall. Right now, we've got 5 plants going and two of them are getting to be 6 or 7 inches tall. We've got a long way to go with these guys, but I'm still keeping my fingers crossed. I've found 3 pickle recipes that I want to try, so these guys HAVE to work out for me!
The snowpeas got off to a REALLY slow start. I think our seeds were old, cuz we had to've put a hundred in the ground before we got 8 plants. So far, all the seedlings are doing really well and taking to their trellis, but I'm not sure how many snowpeas we'll get as it's going to be getting hot pretty soon here in Texas. Snowpeas generally speaking don't like heat...
I FINALLY got a carrot to grow. That's right! Out of the 16 planted, ONE is growing! I'm just carrot-cursed, I guess, which is actually fine as I feel the same way about carrots as I do toward radishes.
What's doing fine, but isn't enough to write home about:
The bell peppers seem to me like they're getting off kind of slow, but Hubby doesn't seem too worried about them and he's the Pepper Man. I'm taking a wait and see approach.
The corn plants are about 10 inches to a foot right now. We are a LOOOOOOOOOOOOONG way away from sweet corn!
And last but not least, Hubby's horseradish JUST broke ground over the weekend. The thing was planted in February! Talk about a slow developer!
The basil, chives and flat-leaf parsley are also taking their time (hahaha! So should've spelled that "thyme"). They're all cute little plants, but a long way from harvest unless they start growing like maniacs soon.
So! That's your garden update for today. I promise to get out in the garden this weekend with Hubby's fancy-shmancy camera and take some pics for ya. I still can't get over how cool it is to eat out of the backyard. For all of you considering it or asking for advice, GO FOR IT! It's so rewarding! oh! And make sure you buy a salad spinner!
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