Abundance in the Garden

After my very trying start to my gardening year, suddenly I'm looking at prospective (and actual) abundance! I just harvested a volunteer cucumber from last year: it's 13 inches long!!!!! Not sure what it's going to taste like. It grew in a matter of days, so I'm going to have to keep an eye on the vigorous plant and the other baby cukes on it. I have flowers on a couple of pepper plants, flowers on most of my bean plants, baby jalapenos forming, green tomatoes on most of my tomato plants, and.... a HUGE crop of basil. I'm going to be making pesto today because I brought in about 4 cups of leaves!!!! That's right: 4 cups. Crazy, eh? I've rooted some of the cuttings in water, so let me know if you're interested. I know Alicia is--I can always root more for the rest of you. I have Marseilles, Sweet Genovese, Lime, and Cinnamon.

Interesting Idea: Survival Seed Bank

So, I ran across this little idea in another blog: Survival Seed Bank. You can buy a certain amount of seeds that will last you quite a while due to the way they're sealed. The idea is that then you can ensure that your family will always have a source of food.

This is interesting to me partly because my cousin Cary Fowler (well, first cousin, once removed) was one of the key people getting the Svalbard Global Seed Bank up and running.

Gardening Take 2

Well... we left behind the first garden. I was sad to leave - had lots of squash, cukes, melons, beans, radishes, carrots, lettuce, spinach, peas, beans, basil,beets, mustard, and discovered (the day we left *sob*) that 3 pepper plants and 2 tomato plants were growing back! Not sure what happened to my cabbages, now that I think of it!

So... I'm trying take 2 at the new place. I planted some squash, zucchini, melons, lettuce, spinach, and mustard. It sounds like a lot, but it isn't - just threw a few seeds in the tiny plot and hoping something happens. I have some space in the front that I'm considering sticking some other stuff into. It'll be a late late harvest, but hopefully the weather will hold and we'll be good to go. I'd be overjoyed at some melons and spaghetti squash at this point. 2 things I hate to pay for!

Organic Gardening is for the Birds...

...and slugs, cabbage loopers, roly polies, weird black bugs, worms, rabbits, dogs,.....

I'm delighted to report that I harvested two monstrous heads of Napa cabbage Thursday night and will harvest two more this week. The amount of bugs in my kitchen sink as I did the preliminary cleaning of one head gave Elizabeth nightmares.... Seriously. They freaked her out, and she woke up in the middle of the night thinking there were bugs in her bed. It could have been because her mommy was also a little freaked out and working VERY hard to keep all the bugs in the sink/down the drain as they frantically crawled up the walls of the sink. Hmm.... Next time, I'll just hose the cabbages off outside or dunk them in the kiddy pool (when there are no kids in it).

ANYWAY, once that trauma was past us, I was willing to re-wash and eat this lovely, Swiss-cheese-looking cabbage. The bugs left me a little, and, when it's chopped finely in a yummy Mexican slaw, you can't even see the little holes and inroads from the bugs.

I've got baby tomatoes coming on one tomato plant, cukes/beans/zucchini/winter squash sprouting, and pepper and basil plants thriving. All greens, save the cabbage, have gone to seed. Oh, I even harvested a little broccoli. My peas look like they're packing up for summer vacation.

How's everyone else's little plots doing? Katie, I know, has some Swiss chard coming up.