Tomato Jungle and Other Garden News

It's a jungle out there. Technically, it's a tomato, potato and nasturtium jungle. See for yourself.

Can you find the tomato plant? Look for the silver tomato cage. Got it? Okay, now look at all the tomato branches reaching to either end of the bed. Sheesh! I relish reminding these plants that I knew them when they were just babies.

May Babies

If you were confused by the difference between a determinate and an indeterminate tomato plant, look no further. My tomato plant is living out it's destiny as an indeterminate variety - huge and unruly. Got to figure out some sort of staking system. I'm thinking of a stake with a V on top so I can just plop a branch in the V. Does this exist?

First 2 ripe tomatoes. Yum and yum. Sun gold variety.

Plant is LOADed with green tomatoes. It will be raining tomatoes here very soon. Beware, tomatoes may become my new strawberry.

Ghost pumpkin vine. What a beautiful pattern it's making.

Ghost pumpkin blossom.

Nasturtium. These beauties are taking over too. Lucky they can get by on their good looks.

This sweet bouquet was made by my 4 year old. Darling, right? She insisted it was put on her bedside table.

How does your garden grow? Send links!

Photo Friday

The first carrot from our garden. Can't wait to see the rest.

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Broccoli Surprise

Ah, my first broccoli harvest. Couldn't wait to pop it into the steamer and savor a taste.

And that's exactly what I did.
I opened the steamer,eager with anticipation, and saw these - 2 steamed CUT WORMS!

Apparently they missed the rinsing and chopping. Yeah, I know they're just worms. Yeah, I know they were just subjected to a boiling hot steam bath. But I was totally grossed out. Utterly and completely. It may have been different if it was a friendly pink earthworm that I had discovered. But these white, puffy, seemingly gooey grub-like creatures just repulse me.

Feeling disappointed, I did some serious self-talk, reminding myself the worms were NOT in the broccoli anymore. That there was absolutely nothing wrong with the broccoli. I sampled a piece and was amazed with the flavor. Who knew broccoli was sweet? This home grown broccoli tasted nothing like the broccoli from the grocery store. Tender, sweet and the most beautiful shade of green.

After my brave nibble I went to tell Bryce about my worm fiasco. When I returned to the kitchen I found 2 of these crawling out of the sink. Washed them down the drain. Tossed the broccoli in the trash. I swear I'll eat the next harvest.

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Indeterminate Garden News

The rain has ceased and the sun's come out here in the Pacific NW. We're hoping summer is really here. My garden has taken off, especially the potatoes - at least the part of the potatoes I can see. I have more salad greens than we can eat and I'm enjoying a snap pea or two a day. I'm already starting to think about my garden for next year.

A friend recently shared a useful bit of information about tomato plants. Some online research filled out her information. Here's the scoop - Tomato plants can either be of the indeterminate variety or the determinate variety.

Indeterminate tomatoes are also called vining tomatoes. Vines continue to grow and lengthen throughout the growing season. Because of this they produce tomatoes throughout the growing season. They require heavy staking or caging as they can become very large, heavy plants. Most tomato plants are of this variety. More information here.

Determinate Tomatoes are also called bush tomatoes. They do NOT continue growing throughout the growing season. After the plant has reached maturity, the fruit is quickly ripened and then the plant begins to diminish. This variety tends to be smaller and more compact than indeterminate tomatoes. More information here.

This information is particularly useful if you only have a small space to plant your tomato. It is also useful if you want to have the majority of your tomatoes ripe at the same time (for making tomato sauce.) Most heirloom and cherry tomatoes are of the indeterminate variety. Roma tomatoes are usually determinate plants.

**When you're at the nursery, check out the plastic stake in the tomato plant, the variety should be printed there.** Hope this helps in your garden planning (for next year.)

Garden Bits

Spring arrived. Actually it was more like a sweltering touch down. None the less, it was great to see something other than gray in the sky. I finished planting my vegetable bed. Added a sun gold tomato, 2 broccoli plants (found these at the Ballard Farmers Market and couldn't resist) and 3 ghost pumpkin starts. On a whim I also bought 4 organic strawberry plants, tristar variety, and planted those around our patio. Now I'm set. Just a waiting. Checking all the time, fussing, watering, definitely smothering. Just can't stay away. I'm too excited. Here is the complete list of what's planted in the raised bed. Starting in the closest corner and going clockwise: 2 broccoli plants & 2 ghost pumpkins, tomato & 1 ghost pumpkin, snap peas (bush variety), potatoes, edible flowers, carrots, salad mixes, cilantro & parsley.

My mom suggested planting my tomato at a 45 degree angle. She said it would straighten itself out, searching for the sun, and end up with a stronger stalk. I tried it. It was straight 2 days later. hmmm. Has anyone out there heard of this?

Veggie Dreams

I have long been wanting a gardening area for the kids. I envisioned one where we could plant veggies, berries and kid friendly flowers. My husband, Bryce and I talked about this decided to build a raised bed on the south side of our house. We shared our idea with our neighbors, Peter and Michele, in hopes that we could, together, create a small children's garden in between our houses. They became excited about the idea too and decided to build a raised bed as well. Our plan was to have two shared raised beds.

Bryce found great building directions on Sunset.com. The raised beds would be 8 feet X 4 feet and constructed out of cedar. A few weekends later Bryce & Peter had them all ready to go!

Now for the super fun part, deciding what to plant! Michele and I planned on planting different things in each bed so we could have more variety. This would also allow us to gain more experience about what grew well. My mom suggested we try square foot gardening as a way to get as many plants as possible into our beds. The idea is that you get more room in your garden when you plant in squares instead of rows. I looked it up on line and found it was a common practice in urban gardens - perfect for us! Of course our beds are rectangles so we'll be taking a creative approach to the square concept, but hey, should be okay.

The girls and I started 7 different plants in peat pots a few weeks ago and they are ready to be planted. In our bed, we're going to plant: ghost pumpkins, carrots, sun gold cherry tomatoes, and potatoes. We're not sure about the rest. But I'll definitely keep you posted on our progress. Fingers crossed for no more rain, hail or snow, we're ready to plant!