Why I Oughta...

When I was shopping with the girls, how could I possibly pass up a variety of tomatoes called "Rapunzel"?!?  Just look at that photo:  I've never seen a plant that grows like that at any of the home improvement/gardening stores.  They're cherry-sized which is the preferred size by Nat and the girls.  I have to think these will be a hit this summer. From TomatoGrowers.com : Just like its fairy tale namesake, Rapunzel puts out long, cascading trusses, each with up to 40 sweet, bright red cherry tomatoes that keep coming all summer long. The long stems are quite impressive when picked fully loaded with tomatoes, which can be enjoyed individually as they ripen.

Every year, I grow our beans on a trellis net perched above one of our beds.  You can see a photo of our typical setup here on the blog .  But this year, I was gifted something new for my birthday:   a Bean Tower from Gardener's Supply .   Taking a photo of the Tower without any growth on it is kinda hard, so I took this ratty photo (below) of the instructions/details.     We've already picked out the bean seeds, but because I still have to get a new thin layer of compost on the top of our beds, we still haven't planted them yet.   Here's what it says on the Gardener's site : Grow bushels of beans with our tallest, strongest and sturdiest bean trellis tower yet. The secret is thicker supports coupled with 10" legs that hold the structure securely in the ground. The Bean Tower in our test garden yielded 2,400 beans between mid-July and late September — in just 1-1/2 square feet! Supports are 5 mm thick with 3.5 mm crosspieces. Openings are 7-1/2" s

I picked up a few tomato plants at Angelo Caputo's last weekend that I hadn't ever planted before including this one:  the Mortgage Lifter. The description supplied tells a neat story about "Radiator Charlie" and how he cross-bred four varieties of tomatoes to develop this beefy variety.

I was cooking pizza for a little dinner party with our friends from the city a few weeks back so I took a trip to Angelo Caputo's for Chellino Scamorza , some hot soppressata , and a few other items.  I usually pick up a little container of basil to top the pies, but they had these containers of potted basil for $0.99, so I figured with the price being less than the container, I couldn't loose. I could use the basil that night for the pies and then plant it and harvest all summer.  I usually buy a basil plant each summer anyway, so why not start early. Well, that plant sat in our kitchen for two weeks, but I finally got around to planting it in a big pot.  One of the lead stalks cracked off during transport home from the store, so we only have one big stalk and a halfie.  I gave it some organic plant food and with a little bit of sunshine and some water, I think we'll be basking in sweet basil glory for all of our KettlePizza adventures all summer .  

I went to Home Depot a few days ago after work to pick up a new furnace filter and made a stop in the Garden Center.  They had a lot of the usual suspects:  Big Boys, Early Girls, etc.  But they also had this little Cherry-ish variety called Indigo Rose.  They're a blend of red/black/purple when ripe. Via JohnnySeeds : Anthocyanins are powerful anti-oxidants. In the early stages of fruit development, Indigo Rose develops a dark purple pigment in its skin where exposed to direct sunlight. Green when unripe, purple-red when ripe, the 1-2 oz., cocktail-sized tomatoes have good flavor with 'plummy' overtones. Developed by Jim Myers at Oregon State University using traditional plant breeding techniques.

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at Nat's folks' house with the kids.  While we were there, my mother-in-law showed us this super weird tomato.  She put it on the ledge above her sink in her kitchen in the sun and mostly forgot about it.  At some point, some weird stuff started happening and the seeds *inside* the tomato started to sprout and grow INSIDE the tomato.   I thought it was pretty interesting, so I posted it to r/mildlyinteresting using a throw-away account .  If you're of of *those* folks, make sure you give it an upvote !

Planted a set of heirloom beans in a different spot this year in an attempt to rotate the crops a bit.  After the birds picked away a half dozen or so of the seeds, these seedlings emerged and are on their way to grow up that trellis net.

In addition to the Jack-O'-Lantern seeds that I planted over the weekend , I also put in these Big Moon seeds right in the same area.  From the look of the seed packet, these are supposed to grow big but have a neat shade of orange on the flesh that give these a bit more romantic look to them. I've put in 2 different 'hills' of the seeds, so once the seedlings emerge, I'll thin them down to 3-4 strong growers and hope to stay on top of them as they grow.  I'm thinking I should invest in some of these pedestals for these guys this year.

Some of them are absolutely HUGE.  These were planted via seed tape ( post here ) and did pretty well in terms of size, but not so much on taste.  They were a bit woody tasting when eaten raw.  But...they sure do look awesome.  Next year, I'll see if I can optimize the growth to focus on taste.

This was the second year we grew carrots in our garden.  Last year, we had a bunch of those short stubby ones that I planted way too close together.  So this year, I decided to try to use carrot seed tape to make sure the seeds were evenly spaced and I wouldn't have to yank a bunch of seedlings out. Something happened.  Either I planted them too deep or the seeds in the tape had turned or something because I only ended up with about 20 or so carrot seedlings.  Instead of the 300 or so I was expecting. This is the first one that I pulled out to see where they were in their growth process.  They're much longer than last year and have a nice orange color up near the leafy greens.  I'm going to leave the rest of them in the ground a bit longer, so hopefully we'll have some carrot stick 'mixers' for a bloody mary bar during one of the Bears' games this season.

We're starting to get a lot of little green gems.  Still a week or two away from harvesting time, but they're looking nice and not getting any splits from uneven/over-watering.

Earlier this summer, I picked up a tomatillo plant on a whim.  I stuck it in the ground and pretty much forgot about it.  At some point, I read that you actually needed two of them for pollination ( source here ), so I went back looking for another one, but came up empty. I let the plant grow, but figured it was a lost cause.    I went back into the garden this morning to poke around and see what was happening and look at this beauty that is growing.  There are a few of them starting to take shape, so either they're going to be some bizarre tomatillo/tomato hybrid, you don't actually *need* two of them, or something else weird happened totally.

Just a bit less than a month ago, I posted this photo of our radish seedlings popping up in our center vegetable bed.  Yesterday, I started to pull them up and we got a mixed bag.  Some really nice, plump, beautiful pink/round beauties.  And some skinny-minnies that are the result of bolting (I think?). This was the first year I grew radishes and they were VERY easy from seed.  They are an early crop, so can be replaced by things like Pumpkins and lettuces I would think.  I'm not sure I'm going to put anything in the space these were in this year, though.

This morning, I put in the Yukon Gold Seed potatoes in the ground (those are the ones on the left).  I had five pounds of them and the bag says that we could end up with a yield of up to 50 pounds. Based on my past experience, we won't get up to 50 pounds, but we *will* get some potatoes.  From the looks of things on the web, this variety is pretty versatile.  You can steam/fry/grill/roast them.  Heck, Mrs. Martha even makes fries out of them . 90 days from now (Sept 1st) or there about, we'll be able to harvest them.

Last year, I planted a few rows of carrots via seeds, but because they were so small, I ended up with way too many seedlings spaced way too close together .  This year, I'm using a little bit of technology in the shape of 'seed tape' that will make planting these beauties a bit easier.    I'm going to focus on the root vegetables this year and pare back the tomato varieties in the garden.

The carrots are starting to mature to the size that is worth pulling.  There's tons left out there that I'll get to this weekend.

Last year it was mice .  This year...I woke up to find 2 squirrels devouring my corn!  I ran outside and chased them off.  But after the meal they had, I'm guessing they'll come back.  I can only hope they don't like tomatoes and carrots. I managed to grab one fully-intact ear off the stalks, but there was close to a dozen more shredded ears laying on the ground.   Based on this story , I'm not the only one to loose their corn harvest to squirrels. Take a look at that ear, though!  Those are some juicy kernels, eh?  Once we taste the ear that is currently in the fridge, I think we'll resolve to give it another go next year.

I planted a tiny little cantaloupe vine in the small raised bed that is against our house in late May and mostly forgot about it.  But this morning, as I walked by our basement window, I noticed for the first time that the fruits were starting to form.  There's one tiny one in the middle of the photo and a slightly larger one on the left side.  Melons ( apparently ) love heat, so we've had a good summer to grow them, but I'm wondering how long it will take until these will mature.  Ready by Labor Day?  I sure hope so.

This zucchini somehow got lost in the garden and I let it get away from us a bit.  I used this morning's Sun-Times as a comparison point so that you could understand just exactly how huge this thing is.

Hauled in the first *real* tomato that wasn't an early variety or grape/cherry with that very pretty Golden Jubilee .   Those medium-sized red ones are from a plant that The Babe picked out herself called "4th of July" that is breed to ripen early.  Although we didn't get them by the 4th, I blame the fact that I got them in the ground in late May to be the cause, not the plant. Also, our Zucchini plant continues to throw off enormous fruits that we can't keep up with.  I put a few of these outside on our curb with a sign that said "Free Zucchini" and they were snatched up within the hour.  And, those of you with sharp eyes will spot the two cucumbers.  With salads being made around here all the time - and my mom's adoration for cukes - those will be eaten up in short order.