Planting Late...As Usual

Between Mother Nature's harassing rains and waxing humidity and my energy roller coaster, I am FINALLY getting around to planting. Perhaps a bit late, but I'll have to do the best I can. Hopefully the heat and humidity (where the hell did spring go, by the way?) will force things to grow quickly. I'll save my early spring goodies for fall harvesting.

So, in my usual OCD overkill way, here's what I have in starter pots:

Peppers

Sweet chocolate pepper

Napolean sweet pepper

Sweet Pimento Apple pepper

Purira Chile

Sweet pepper

Herbs

Cilantro/Coriander

Cinnamon basil

Dukat dill

Genovese sweet basil

Grandma Einck's dill

Giant Italian parsley

English thyme

Italian oregano

Italian flat-leaf parsley

Tomatoes

Moneymaker tomato

St. Pierre tomato

Santiam tomato

Tall Vine Eva Purple Ball tomato

Black Cherry tomato

Querida F-1 tomato

Eggplant

Black eggplant

All the seeds are either heirloom and/or organic. I have no idea what kind of tomatoes I'm going to get from these--sweet or tart, meaty or juicy, thin- or thick-skinned, so it will be an interesting season.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to get out to the garden proper before the heat and humidity become unbearable and plant the direct-sow seeds.

Tomatoes are Fruiting!

It continues to rain almost daily, although we were supposed to get pop-up showers today and didn't. It was nearly 100 degrees today, and if the humidity wasn't 100 percent, well, it was close enough to call it. Within just 5 seconds of walking outside, my head started to sweat, and a collection of sweat-drinking flying things swarmed me. I was able to get some pictures taken of the garden, however, and plants are loving this wet weather!

The once-neglected Sun Sugar tomato plants are now looking tremendously healthy, and have produced their first fruits/ It was all I could do to keep myself from picking them early and savoring their sweet, summery taste. But I refrained in order to let them ripen. They should be ready in a day or two. The heirloom tomato plants, which were a bit wilty after I planted them a few days ago, are now standing up straight! Depending upon the heat tomorrow, I may try to get out and stake them; if it's too hot and humid (which is predicted for tomorrow), I may wait a day or so. They are small enough and straight enough that I don't need to worry for now.

The zucchini plants have filled out nicely, and I expect to see blossoms within a day or two. People, I fear I will be overrun with zucchini! Of course, given how many plants I installed in the garden, that comes as no surprise to me. I will be grating and freezing a lot this summer, I suspect! The onion and shallot shoots continue to grow, as well, so I should have a lot of those come fall.

The cucumbers are now getting their squash-like leaves, and it won't be long before they'll send out their tendrils to grab on to the dirt. My goal is to try to train them up the fence. We'll see how that goes.

The bean plants are gaining strength and will do better as the zucchini grows a bit more and begins to shade them.

I can also see the Mammoth Dill, which isn't so mammoth right now, peeking its shoots above the grass clippings.

In the seedlings department, the Beefsteak tomatoes have risen, as well as a couple of pepper plants and some of the oregano and basil.

Just writing about all this food is making me hungry!

Settling for Seedlings

The ground is still wet and spongy, so I haven't been able to do any planting the last few days. I have searched the house and garage from top to bottom for my leftover heirloom seeds from last year to start, but can't find them. Good thing my life doesn't depend upon it.

I was so frustrated, I finally went to Menard's and purchased some Burpee organic seeds to plant. I started Beefmaster tomatoes (my favorite--I love the rich, meaty tomatoes best for BLTs and just eating off the vine) as well as California Wonder and China Giant peppers. In the herb category, I planted parsley, (no sage--rarely use it), rosemary, thyme, more sweet basil, and oregano. I already have dill in the garden (although it hasn't come up yet), so the only herb I'm really missing at this point that I'd like to have is cilantro for salsas and salads. I started all these today and put them on the plant warmer and under the plant grow light, so hopefully in a few days I'll see some shoots peeking above the soil!

Meanwhile, Mother Nature's grow-juice (read: rain) has resulted in some very healthy veggies: the tomatoes have greened up and have a lot of growth; the zucchini are taking off. Yes, all 12 zucchini plants are doing well, so if anyone needs zucchini...well, I'll have plenty to provide to others as well as plenty to freeze and use! The picture at right shows one of the plants with a stray robin's egg next to it, perfectly positioned by nature to show scale.

So far, the bunnies have stayed out of the garden, even though I have not yet put up the rest of the garden fence. They like to play in the front yard down by the retention pond. The cattails make perfect cover for their bunny hide-and-seek games. David and I watched them last night cavorting around, hopping straight up in the air at times, running into each other, playing leap-bunny, and generally having fun. As long as they stay in the front yard, we will not have to reduce them to bunny stew.

OK, I was just kidding about the stew.

I Think I Can Be Classified as OCD

It happened. I received my seed catalogs a few weeks ago and knew I had to place an order immediately. When my gardening buddy, Michelle, saw the Seed Savers certified-organic, heirloom bean sampler I had ordered, she asked me how many beans I was expecting to plant. (Garden-ese for "please, may I have some?"; of course, I promptly supplied her with some from each of the six varieties.) She also suggested donating some to our local college horticulture program, which I'll do. And then, I'll probably save the leftovers for next year and add some new varieties to the mix.

[Left to right, back row: Hutterite Soup, October, and Good Mother Stallard; front row: Jacob's Cattle Gasless, Ireland Creek Annie, and Lina Cisco's Bird Egg.]

But I didn't stop with beans. No, you just can't sustain yourself on just beans for a year. I've added plenty of veggies to the mix:

Peppers - Orange Bell, Chocolate Beauty, and Buran

Tomatoes - Amish Paste, Sweet Pea Currant, Red Zebra, John Baer, Marglobe Supreme, Illinois Beauty, Cherokee Purple, and Beefsteak (my favorite)

Lettuces - Amish Deer Tongue, Bronze Arrowhead, Forellenschuss, Red Velvet, Susan's Red Bibb, and Yugoslavian Red Butterhead

Other Greens - Strawberry Spinach, Apollo Arugula, America Spinach

Squash - Black Beauty Zucchini, Golden Zucchini

Eggplant - Florida High Bush

Radishes - Plum Purple, Early Scarlet Globe

Beets - Chioggia, Bull's Blood, Detroit Dark Red

Carrots - Danver's Half Long, Scarlet Nantes, Dragon

Okra - Clemson Spineless, Star of David

Peas - Green Arrow, Amish Snap

Green Beans - Ideal Market, Empress

Cucumbers - Double Yield, Boothby's Blonde, A&C Pickling

Celery - Cutting Celery

Onions - Australian Brown, Red of Florence

Herbs - Fernleaf Dill, Grandma Einck's Dill, Omega Flax, Santo Coriander, Cilantro/Coriander, Chives, Greek Oregano, Giant Parsley from Italy, Rosemary, Cinnamon Basil, Genovese Basil, Stevia

Edible Flowers - Dwarf Jewel Mix Nasturtiums, Empress of India Nasturtiums

So, as you can see, I have ordered far more seeds than I have room for in my garden. I got a bit carried away due to spring fever. But all is not lost--I will share some seeds and save some seeds for next year!