What's Blooming

I may have 8 foot tall quinoa plants growing in the garden but I am really most excited about the flowers. Makes me forget about the sad state of the tomatoes.

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Begonia*

Begonia

Fuchsia - "Blackie"

Cordyline, aka Hawaiian Good Luck Plant, aka Ti Plant

Hydrangea - Peegee 'Limelight'

Rose

Stargazer Lily

*I HATE the look of Begonia leaves but I love the flowers, they have the craziest stamens!

Carrots.

Frankly, I'm a little afraid to pull up any more.

The end of August and nary a tomato.

From a distance my garden looks good but production of actual things to eat has been weak. Apparently you need sun to yeild fruit. All I can hope for is an extended growing season via a mild fall. But I'm not holding my breath.

I would really really like at least one full size ripe tomato, I do have seven large leafy plants after all (plus a cherry and a grape size). But it isn't all bad.

I grew four different types of green beans this year - three with climbing tendancies (Malibu, Tall Telephone and Yard Long) and one bush. The bush variety was Burgandy (purple really) which turned green when you cooked them which was fun.

Plenty of lettuce. Our climate is good for that. And a beet. Never been a fan of beets but I think that was just the pickled kind they served on salads at the San Gorgonio Inn. Now that I'm grown up I can handle a roasted or sliced fresh beet now and then. I grew the Chiogga type which has flesh kind of like a bullseye.

Rainbow Chard. A cousin of the beet. Flavor is okayish. Healthy for sure and a beautiful addition to the garden.

Sun Gold cherry tomatoes. All 5 of them.

One cucumber. Burpless. Whatever that means.

Tomatillos. Difficult to grow from seed. My seeds didn't grow but I bought a small plant that turned into a large plant with tons of fruit. I just hope that they can ripen.

The tomatillo plant is like four feet by four feet wide. It makes good shade for the lettuces.

Broccoli. It grew but I didn't realize it prefers cooler weather and planted it in the same sunny row as my Japanese eggplant which likes it hot. And hasn't fruited yet.

Strawberries. Seascape and another kind I can't remember the name of. They are prolific right now.

The most exciting thing in the garden this year - Artichokes! What a cool looking plant. I grew these from seed.

Baby oranges being pollinated by bees. I consider this just good practice for the bees since I'm pretty certain oranges won't grow here. (But I'm sure going to try again this year)

Blueberries. Darrow.

Avocado Plant

I've always wanted to sprout a plant from an avocado seed. And I've spent years trying. (I kinda recall my mom doing this when I was younger but not sure if she had any success)

Previously I used the toothpick suspended seed in a glass of water method and it never got very far. Finally I read somewhere that you could just put a pit in a plastic baggie with a wet paper towel, set it in a dark place and forget about it. I put a few* per bag (5 total) and it worked! All five sprouted (I brought them out of the dark after about three months) and now over a year later (still in the plastic bag roots and all and two feet tall) I am ready to plant them in dirt. I am very nervous about this because I planted one in dirt a few months ago and it died. I even used special potting soil for avocado. So far I have planted two and will see how they fare before I plant the others. Maybe they just prefer to grow hydroponically. They are supposed to make great-looking houseplants so I hope they survive.

* I used avocados straight off of a tree in CA this time instead of those from the store. I don't know if there is a difference because they haven't been trucked and refrigerated or if organic would be superior to conventional.

Nature's Bounty

These were my carrots. I kept them in the ground as long as possible (harvested 9-2009) and the lush green tops were getting me excited. Much to my dismay this is what I pulled up.

I don't know whether to blame rocky soil or transplanting tender seedlings at the wrong time but these are the saddest gnarliest carrots I have ever seen. I was hoping to have a family taste test to see which color was preferred. Instead I washed them off and chomped a few myself then tossed them into the compost pile. The purple were the best.

Even though I grew tired of the gardening thing by the end of summer, and even though I couldn't bend over to plant anything at the moment if I wanted to, looking at these pictures and getting seed catalogs in the mail makes me excited for what might come forth from the soil per our hard work next year. All I know is that it won't be zucchini. And that I will plant my tomato plants farther away from each other (who knew they got so big?). I will probably be starting seedlings here inside come March. Depending of course on when my own seedling decides to arrive.

(I had always wanted to make a panzanella (bread salad) and having basil, tomatoes and scallions in the garden provided the perfect opportunity. But I was the only one who liked it)

One thing we had copious amounts of besides squash and tomatoes were dahlia's. In October when I finally thought we needed to cut down the cutting garden we had enough flowers to make bouquets for three of our neighbors plus ladies I visit teach. Avery made deliveries on her tricycle in the rain. the tubers have since been pulled up and stored for the winter to prevent rotting.

Out of Control

Update on how the garden is growing.

How does your garden grow?

There were two things I was really excited about when we got close to finishing our house - having a housewarming party and growing a garden. The housewarming party hasn't happened - at least not with the elaborate menu I daydreamed about - but we have had numerous BBQ's and gatherings so what we lacked in quality we have made up in quantity.

And the garden... well, the jury's still out on what kind of bounty we will have but we did finally get stuff in the ground. I started seeds indoors in early April. They didn't get transplanted until mid-June. Then they promply went into shock. But the good news is - we are enjoying a revival. Everything managed to perk up, although it has yet to bear fruit. Unless you count the lettuces. They've been ready for weeks.

Ben built me some garden/grow boxes and this is what I planted:

- Mesclun (which is basically a mix of leafy greens - lettuces, spinach, arugula, Swiss chard, mustard greens, endive, dandelion, frisée, mizuna, oak leaf, mâche, radicchio, sorrel, kale etc.

- Carrots (rainbow variety)

- Tomatoes (heirloom variety, roma, early girl, sweet 100's & sungella)

- Squash & Zucchini (two plants that are taking over an entire box)

- Peppers (Bell, Jalapeno, Anaheim, Habenero)

- Radishes (I heard these helped carrots grow better)

- Herbs (Cilantro, Parsley, Thai Basil, Thyme, Oregano, Chives)

- Cabbage (Red and Savoy)

- Onions (Red, Sweet and Green onions)

- Brussel Sprouts

- Giant Pumpkins

- Peas and Long Beans

- Red Grapes

- Berries (Blackberry (rampant and inhereted with the lot), Blueberries and Seascape Strawberries)

-Mystery Plants - I have more than a few that I can't figure out. Some may be weeds.

I also have tiny dwarf orange, lemon and a lime tree but I think I live in the wrong climate for them to produce.

There are more things I would like to add - Raspberries, maybe a type of small potato, some fall/winter squash varieties, garlic. If anyone has any suggestions let me know. My garden philosophy is to grow things that either you usually just need a bit of but have to buy in larger quantities at the store (i.e. herbs), things that are expensive or things that are rare. But mostly I just like to watch things grow.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

We just discovered yet another fruit tree in our jungle of a backyard. Bananas! They were just hiding among some other palms.

Add that to the Guava, Pumelos (technically our neighbors tree but they said we can have some), Mango and Coconuts and we have quite the tropical fruit salad! All ours for only $2900 a month!

Avery and Elmo watching the trees grow.

Here is some Bonus material for the grandparents (in other words boring for everyone else) of Miles w/ his Pumelo. I think he is giving it a medical exam: