| First, the tomato patch:
The tomato patch
What you see here (above) are several tomato plants, marigolds, calendula (the yellow flowers), basil, a few leeks and onions, and a chamomile plant (small white flowers). There's also quite a bit of vetch in this picture, which I've since killed and turned into a mulch for this patch.
A few of the tomato plants have some tomatoes on them. This one here is my Glacier, an extra-early variety. The Green Zebra's also got a few tomatoes already.
I haven't seen any tomato worms (YET) and I believe the calendula repels them so that may be why. I've heard reports of blight in some parts of San Diego but so far I don't see any signs of that on my plants either. The one thing I do notice is that my plants look pretty stressed, probably due to lack of water. I haven't put any ollas into this patch yet and I'm not sure I will any time soon. Unfortunately, the water is free (it's included in our rent) and the ollas cost money, and money is one thing I don't have much of.
The second tomato patch, with peppers and eggplants too
This (above) is a new bed that my boyfriend prepared while I was in Cuba. I've planted several tomatoes here, plus a Thai chili, chocolate beauty bell peppers, and two Italian eggplants. This is where I've put the ollas.
The Squash That Ate My Yard:
The squash[es] that ate my yard.
This squash began as a volunteer last winter from the seed of a blue ballet squash that I ate. It's actually two plants, but I found that out long after I began referring to it as the squash that ate my yard. It's taken over the oleander bush, the potatoes, the geraniums, the compost pile, and now it's headed over the fence into the neighbors yard. I guess plants don't observe property lines. It had also gone across our garden path but we tied it to a stake to get it out of the way.
Staked up
Near the compost pile
The squash in the geraniums
Over the fence, into the neighbor's yard
Look! A squash!
And another!
An Out of Season Brussel Sprout:
You might have noticed a strange plant in the picture of the squash near the compost bin. Strange for this time of year, that is. Back in February, I planted several brassica plants. It was too late to plant any of them, but I had gotten some bad advice that they were "in season" so I planted them. Out of curiosity, I stuck a few of the plants in the ground outside of my normal garden beds, in parts of the yard where I hadn't prepared the soil at all. My boyfriend accidentally killed two of the collards, and the dog ate the third (along with two kales and two cabbages).
We've still got one kale left, barely hanging on, but this brussel sprout seems to be doing pretty well for some reason. I hear that you're supposed to plant them in September if you want to get an actual brussel sprout harvest since it takes them so long to grow. This one has been growing for 4 months now and it has itty bitty brussel sprouts on it. I was advised to keep the plant, eat the leaves like collards, and forget about the sprouts because they'll be full of aphids. I've never expected to get any edible brussel sprouts from this plant, but I'm just watching it in fascination as it grows.
Brussel Sprouts
The Strawberries:
The strawberry patch
The strawberry patch is now yielding strawberries. Our 12 plants give us a few berries each day. It's not much but it makes for much excitement in the garden, and the berries taste incredible. In the back, you can see a few lettuce plants, including one that is very tall because it is going to seed. In the middle, there is a row of beans - half yellow eye beans and half various types of snap beans. In the front left corner, I planted oregano and that plant is going crazy. In the very middle, there's a borage plant that is now blooming with beautiful purple flowers. The borage leaves taste like cucumber and I have several recipes for them, but we haven't used them in cooking yet. There are also medicinal uses for borage which I'm interested in exploring. And today, I found a nice surprise in the strawberry patch - beans! Big, beautiful purple snap beans as well as some yellow eye beans. I left the yellow eye beans to dry on the plant but I picked the snap beans for dinner.
Borage
Look what's hiding in the strawberry patch!
Our first bean harvest
We ate the beans tonight in a dish of cabbage with lemon juice and curry powder. Yum!
Corn and Beans:
I decided to plant four types of corn: an early and a late sweet corn plus two types of popcorn. I interplanted snap beans among them in the bed where the carrots used to grow. So far so good!
Corn and Beans with Scallions in front
Today I was looking in the corn bed, trying to weed out some volunteer tomatoes that were growing in there when I saw something strange. Was it a rotten carrot? It was about the shape of a carrot but black and scaly. Then I saw the rest of it: a lizard! I realize that it's not such a big deal to see a lizard in Southern California, but this is really a first in our yard. We live in a business district and we're one of only a few houses on our street, across the street from a shopping center. It's not exactly prime wildlife habitat and I really haven't seen any critters in our yard up until now. I'm pretty excited to have this little guy around! I tried to get a picture of him but that was the exact moment my camera chose to run out of batteries.
And last, my fig trees:
You might remember a while back I got a few fig tree cuttings at a fruit tree propagation workshop. Four of my cuttings took root and I planted them in soil in pots. Well, they are doing really well, each growing new branches and leaves. One of them was in a smaller pot than the others so I decided to move it into a larger pot. When I did so, I saw that it had grown quite a bit of roots, about two handfuls worth. I plan to leave them in their pots for several more months at least since they haven't yet outgrown them based on the one I just re-potted. At some point I will plant one and give the other three away.
My four baby fig trees
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