Ghosts of Gardens Past

Nature always finds a way. 

I've spent countless hours and dollars cultivating the ideal environment to grow the veggies and herbs. But sometimes I ask myself if these plants REALLY need the royal treatment.

I bring this up because over the past few weeks, I've noticed a few unexpected additions to the garden. Maybe a better term for them would be "old friends".  They've popped up in the rocks and crevices between my pots. They being tomato and dill plants. My only guess about their emergence can be they grew from seeds of tomatoes dropped by last year's plants. The location of the little plants would suggest so. The dill may have come from the wind blowing seeds off the flowers of last year's dill plant.

Think about it, this is how nature did its thing well before there were any gardens. Tomatoes are simply seed carriers and provide a vehicle to drop those seeds for plants to grow in the future. The dill plant is no different than any dandelion or other weed that uses the wind to spread its offspring.

As cool as this is, I still plucked them with the weeds. Sorry, there's no pension plan or social security in this backyard. I have enough on my plate providing for this year's plants. 

Munchkin Munchies

This morning I finally saw the beginnings of sugar pea pods on the vines. We had seen countless purple blossoms open in the past couple days. One blossom on Wednesday turned to three on Thursday, seven on Friday, and almost two dozen by this morning. I only assumed the pods were soon to follow. Sure enough, two pods have begun to form next to each other. If I had to guess, there are probably other pods tucked away in the vines that I have yet to discover.

The fingernail-sized pods join a handful of celebrity tomatoes to make their debut in the garden this week. I had been pinching blossoms for the past week or two on the tomatoes and peppers in order to prevent fruit from forming so early. I know that seems a tad counter-intuitive to be stopping the plant from growing fruit. But early on in the season it's a good idea to do so and allow the plant to focus on growing bigger. I guess the celebrity tomato got a couple past me. But the good news is the celebrity plant is the largest and healthiest in the garden, so I think it can handle fruit development.

In the case of peppers, the plant adapts to pinching the first generation of blossoms and the next round will produce peppers with stronger walls and more flavor.

After Pinching the White Blossom on The Romanian Pepper Plant

For all those gardeners out there, I stress the importance of looking over the plants and keeping them well groomed right now as they grow. That means pinching suckers off the tomato plants, cutting small branches less than an inch or two from ground level, and pinching blossoms on very young plants.

Happy Memorial Day!!!

The May Monthly Update

The Garden: May 19th

It's always nice to look back and realize how far our little ones have grown over their short lives. And like good parents, it's always important to let loved ones know what our little bundles of joy have been doing since we last put out the family newsletter.

Okay, seriously, who really likes getting the family newsletters at X-mas time? There's more exclamation points in those things than old Batman episodes. Kerplow!!! The dog got fixed in April!!! Bam!!! Zing!!! Bobby got his first haircut in June!!!!!!! Whoosh!!!! Pow!!!!!

But part of the purpose of this blog is to update what the plants have been doing in our garden. And since the last pic I have of the whole garden was April 19th, I figured I should update everyone on the plant progress on the 19th of every month. So Grandpa and Gramms, Aunt Suzy, Uncle Jimmy, and Cousins Billy Joe and Chantelle....here it goes.

There has been a permanent dark green blob floating over our house on the weather doppler for the past three weeks. We have had a ton of rain this spring coupled with sometimes hot, sometimes chilly temps. I forgot to pull out the plugs on the bottom of the planter I used for my cucumbers. One morning last week, I went out to find the cuke plant was swimming in three inches of water. The soil was soup. Five days later, the soil is still soaked. But the plant still looks healthy.

• Acorn Squash-Still going strong. The vines haven't begun to spread, but it won't be long.
  
• Albatross Bell Peppers- Slow and steady growth...some buds have already appeared.
  
• Jalapeno Peppers- Getting taller with bigger dark green leaves.
  
• Romanian Sweet Peppers- See bell peppers.
  
• New Mexico Espanola Chiles- These NM chiles are slow out of the gate. Unfortunately the squirrel dug a hole right next to one of the Espanola plants and damaged the stem. Today, I dug up that plant and inserted another Espanola plant I had growing to the side.
  
• New Mexico Heritage Chiles- This chile is also slow to take-off. The positive sign is the stem looks a lot thicker and the plant continues to sprout new leaves.
  
• Bush Whopper Cucumbers- I may have to go by arm floaties for the Bush Whopper plant after last week's drowning. But so far it's doing well and continues to grow.
  
• Celebrity Tomatoes- Three times its original size. I already have three small fruit on the vines. I'm trying to pinch a lot of the buds so the plant can continue to focus on growing and developing those first early fruit.
  
• Mr. Stripey Tomatoes- Was a late addition, but is growing at a nice pace. It's behind its brothers and sisters, but it will catch up soon enough.
  
• Patio Tomatoes- Doing what it does best: Growing thick like a bush. I expect to see some fruit developing soon.
  
• Supersweet 100 Tomatoes- The thinnest of the tomato plants, the Supersweets are doing just fine. Like the other tomaters, I've been keeping a close eye on suckers. Also, don't forget to cut off small branches within an inch or two from soil level.
  
• Finger Carrots- Hard to tell how these are doing...but they're thick and the green tops look healthy and tall.
  
• Lisbon Onions- Slowly plodding along.
  
• Dwarf Gray Sugar Peas- These things shot up like a rocket. But so far...no pods. I had to take the cage lid off the strawberries and use it for another support for the vines to grab onto. At the base of the stalks many leaves have gone yellow and died. Today, though, I saw one purple blossom on a stalk. Could pods be in the near future?
  
• Rutabagas- I most definitely overseeded the rutabagas. No way will I get decent sized 'bagas unless I thin out the pots. But I'll be honest...this was not my most anticipated crop.
  

The Fruit File

• Blueberries ('10 Harvest)- Developing nicely. I have some stalks coming out of the ground that are developing healthy leaves and a spiny stem.
  
• Raspberries ('10 Harvest)- Like it's berry cousin next door, the raspberries are growing and looking good.
  
• Strawberries- Mr. Squirrel has done me no favors by digging holes throughout the strawberry pot. I'm down to two healthy plants. The jury's out on the strawberries.
  

The Herb Honor Roll

• Basil- We've ravaged this plant already. Found one caterpillar on the plant having a feast. But he's dead and our caprese salads live on.
  
• Chamomile- I guess it's doing fine. Don't have much interest in it.
  
• Chives- This is the nuclear bomb of the garden. It has exploded. A couple weeks ago, several purple flowers bloomed. They are pretty and tasty.
  
• Cilantro- It has slowed recently and some leaves have died off or lost color. I should probably make some guacamole and thin it out.
  
• Dill-Still young but looking good.
  
• Lavender-Dead. Next.
• Oregano- Can always count on oregano to be healthy and plentiful.
  
• Parsley- Used it in a couple dishes this weekend and looks healthy.
• Peppermint-Growing out of the depths of last year, the peppermint looks like it will be strong again this year.
  
• Rosemary- Doing alright. It will take off soon.
  
• Thyme-Both the garden center plant and the plant grown from seed look great.

Let's Hope This Espanola Chile Plant Takes Root

All-in-all, we're pretty darn happy about progress. This weekend will be the first time I feed the plants. The nutrients combined with warmer weather will probably do wonders. By June 19th, we could have a jungle on our hands.

Pick Your Fairy Tale Reference For This One

I guess I could get cutesy with something from "Jack and the Beanstalk" or "The Princess and the Pea." But forget it...I'm not feeling so Hans Christian Andersen-inspired tonight. It's pouring rain outside...again....and I rushed out to cover my New Mexico chile plants. They're struggling to grow because of over-watering (on my part..not Mother Nature). And for my efforts, I'm pretty soaked.

But I can feel good in knowing my sugar peas are doing wonders over in the back corner of the garden. I started them from seed, or pea, and quickly they have ascended upwards, grasping on to my A-frame trellis.

What's the fairy tale secret? Well, it could be this magic potion suggested to me at the garden center. In the botanical world it's known as garden inoculant. It contains stuff that I could not begin to spell or pronounce. Simply, it's a bacteria that gathers nitrogen. And we all know that nitrogen is a good ally in our garden kingdom.

I followed the instructions and soaked the seeds in inoculent and water before planting them in my pots. The inoculant helps fertilize the soil and promote better growth and yield.
Well, after a month or so, I can safely report the plants are quickly shooting for the sky and grasping onto anything they can. That is why I built the A-frame trellis. One close look shows you how the vines wrap tightly onto anything for support. The trellis so far has done the trick, but last week I had to add an attachment for the plants not close enough to grab onto the original frame (It's also smart to sometimes gently "guide" the vines to wrap onto the support). Within a day or two, the new piece was swallowed up in vines, stalks, and leaves. I'm betting by this weekend, the pea stalks will reach the top of the A-frame.
I haven't seen any pods.But when I do, odds are it will be underneath the trellis. The vines start producing mature peas at the bottom first. So I'll keep my eyes "pea"-led for some in the next week (sorry).

Are You There Blog? It's Me Jeremy.

The Acorn Squash Has Come A Long Way

Don't think because the blog has been quiet, so has the garden. Due to other chores and a last second assignment to Mexico City, I haven't been able to sit down and write up a little somethin'-somethin' for Two Thumbs. But fear not, there is plenty to talk about.

First, as they'd say in the racing world, the field is set. I've just about used up all free space I have for planting. So what I planted this weekend will in all likelihood be the last veggies. I've updated the veggie vitals to the right. As you can see, I finally chose my heirloom breed. Kudos once again to Merrifield Garden Center for an abundance of choices. I think I had three different varieties in my hand before going with Mr. Stripey tomatoes. But, I was very tempted to go with Pineapple tomatoes.

Aside from the stripers, I planted Romanian sweet peppers, thyme (the seedlings just weren't progressing very well), and Bush Whopper Cucumbers. The story behind the Bush Whoppers is pretty simple. Unlike its cousins, this cucumber breed grows more as a bush rather than a vine-spreading, space-swallower. Because space is already limited and I planted it next to the acorn squash, I needed a plant that wouldn't spread wild through the garden.

As for those acorn squash, you can see for yourself (above) how much they have progressed since starting as little seeds less than two months ago. 

The other seedlings are doing pretty well. One of the fastest sprouters has, without question, been the cilantro. It looked pretty rough when I first transplanted it to a large pot outside. But the steady rainfall and a little bit of sunshine have done wonders. Once we get the jalapenos and tomatoes spitting out fruits, we'll have the beginnings of a damn good guacamole. 

Our next entry we'll look at the fastest "climbers" in the garden this year. Here's a hint: Think Popeye's adopted kid.