Edibles: My First Tomato

This little tomato did most of its growing while the tiny plant was still inside of a pop-bottle container. It's beating out all my other tomato plants. The fruit of the Furry Yellow Hog Tomato is supposed to be striped with white and yellow or green (as well as ping-pong ball sized and covered in peach fuzz), so I don't know where these reddish hues are coming from. We'll see.

Garden Log - March 22 and 25, 2008

A lot has been going on in here lately, including a lot of new seeds planted for transplant in late May. I thought it was about time to get some new photos up.

I decided the pea plants were growing too fast to stay downstairs on the grow shelves. I've replanted them into a couple good-sized pots. One will stay here in the kitchen and the second is going to Lindsay's house.




My tarragon seedlings also have a new home in the kitchen. Here's one of the three pots.


I harvested half of my garden cress growing in the bonsai container for a salad last week. In the empty half I planted White Hailstone Radishes and more cress. This shot was taken 3 days after planting. It occurs to me that this is my first intercropping. I'm going to look into the compatibility of these two crops, as I think they'd make an excellent planting project for children.


And here's a shot of my leading chile pepper, an "Ancho Grande", which I received as a free bonus packet from Baker Creek. Anchos are dried pablanos, so I assume this is a large variety of that kind of chile.


The okra is coming along somewhat slowly, but it is a very attractive seedling.




Finally, my yellow hog tomatoes are coming along quite well. The whole of the plants are rather furry, to go along with the promised fruits.

Garden Log - March 12, 2008

These pictures were all taken yesterday evening. The little seedlings are all coming along well. One of the Okras died, but the other is thriving. I'll probably split the tomatoes up into separate containers soon.








I really like these pea plants. They're growing so quickly, I might have to pot them up in some larger containers before it's time for them to go outside. They're supposed to be a bush variety, so hopefully this will work out.


The onion that sprouted in the kitchen has perked up quite a bit.


These rapini are in need of harvesting. I keep meaning to make myself a salad, but just haven't gotten to it.




This tray, which is actually the second one I planted in, is doing real well. The chard is looking great, but I'm not going to be able to grow it as big indoors as out. I recently read that chard roots go as deep as 6 feet, which obviously isn't going to happen in here. Radishes are coming along well through the middle of the container.




I've gotten a lot of Cherry Belle Radishes out of this container. The rapini hasn't quite developed yet, but I'll be eating a lot of it when it does.




I'll have some more in depth thoughts on everything up soon.

Garden Log - March 7, 2008

The Okra in the first shot is a little hard to make out, but I wanted to include it because it's rather unusual looking. It has white stalks with black tips.








What do you do with onions that sprout before you can eat'em? I plant'em and harvest the "green onions" that grow out of them ('em). You can cut and cut again as long as they grow back.

Garden Log (Number 2:) - March 5, 2008

Boy, I can't even go a day without something growing. Here are a few more introductions...

This first little guy just sprouted today. This was from a bonus seed pack I got with my last order. It's called Furry Yellow Hog Tomato, and is supposed to produce furry, ping-pong ball sized, white and yellow or green striped fruit. Since I took the photo, the other two seeds of I planted also came up.



And there's these little fellows, Garden Cress planted in a Bonsai container. They're living in my kitchen by a South-facing window.



Today was my first "harvest". Some radishes that went to Sarah at Downtown Home and Garden.



And here's a row of basil plants growing near the cress. These were started in a couple pop bottle containers and more recently transferred and thinned. Two varieties are represented here: Licorice and Lime Basil. A Kalanchoe I'm rooting is also making a cameo appearance.



Yum.