tonight's dinner features a salad with lettuce and tomatoes from my very own little garden. both are delicious and made even more so with the addition of some buffalo chicken bites! i'm so happy that my garden experiement has some successes in addition to the several not-quite-successes! can't wait until next year to try again!
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we finally got pid out into water that was a bit deeper this past weekend. he truly loves the lake but is pretty committed to the shallowest waters. as luck would have it, there was a friendly young boy from the neighborhood that owned this little floatie car deal in the picture below. he must've noticed pid eyeing it as he came and told my husband that they could use it. still stuck in the shallow end but loving the car, we eventually convinced him to venture deeper into the water and he had a blast! yay! i'm very much loving the decision to live near the lake. it's a great little bonus in nice weather!
wow!! i didn't get out to harvest yesterday due to heavy rain and thunderstorms so i went out this morning and lo and behold - cucumbers! they grew a lot in the last two days - good thing i didn't forget about them! i saw some more little ones, too. hoping those will grow well now that these aren't sapping energy! will update later on the taste of these two.
UPDATE - the boy approved of the cucumbers once sliced, however i felt they were a little bitter... not overly so, they were definitely edible! a link i found on causes of bitterness in cucumbers (http://www.hort.purdue.edu/ext/bittercukes.html) suggests that i might have better results if i water them more evenly and mulch them. might give that a go...
we had a nice relaxing independence day 2011 - it was our first day to go hang out at the lake and re-meet some of our neighbors. weather was great and we had a nice few hours outside. the kid was on cloud nine and called himself "swimming" though he was really just scooting along on the sand in the shallowest part of the water. but it was good to see he is much more at ease in the water after swimming lessons last winter!
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i was a little worried about my cucumbers a week or so ago... there were NO flowers in sight. but then suddenly there were tons of blossoms all over the thing and today, 4 little cucumbers! cute little specimen below! that's the largest of them right now and i think they were pickling size so will probably take it off in a day. had to get some stakes for that plant though - it was running off on its on agenda!
my potatoes are a whole other issue - they are no longer displaying the yellow leaves that i decided meant i should fertilize them - i think that's a good thing. BUT... they are looking a bit sad and pathetic overall. i did just come across a comment online (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1428862/yukon_gold_potatoes_are_a_great_potato.html?cat=32) that yukon golds are short season so perhaps they are simply approaching harvest time already? [article quote: "Yukon Gold potatoes are a great choice for a private home garden potato. Yukon Gold potatoes are an early variety of potato so that means it needs a shorter growing season. They are a great potato choice for people who live in an area where the growing season is short. Yukon Gold potatoes have small eyes that are receded into the potato therefore they are more resistant to sprouting then other potatoes. Since the Yukon Gold potato is resistant to sprouting they are good for storing for a long "]
Garden - July 7
so i decided this year to test my skills at gardening with a little container garden. my mother has a large plot in her community garden and, i'll go ahead and admit it, i'm a bit jealous of her fresh veggies! i got these planted a little later than planned, early/mid may. the tomato i tried to start from seeds did NOT fare well but on a recent visit, my mom blessed me with a little tomato plant that is doing well so far.
so from top left to bottom right: peppers, carrots, tomato, onions, potato, lettuce, cucumber, spinach. all planted in plastic planters with miracle gro moisture control soil and osmocote fertilizer at planting. the peppers, carrots, lettuce, cucumber and spinach were from seeds; the onions and potato were from sets and the tomato, as mentioned was purchased.
the potato plant has been growing marvelously, but then it started to get a bit yellow - not sure if it is sick and diseased or just malnourished since i neglected to fertilize them again since the initial planting. OOPS! gave them all a bit of miracle gro tomato/vegetable plant fertilizer. we'll see how that turns out in a few days.
