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Garden Update – My, How You’ve Grown!

Thanks to all this recent heat, my garden is coming along – the tomatoes especially are enjoying the hot weather  they are sporting nice healthy greenery and thicker stems.   I was able to get out early on Sunday and do some weeding, which makes a world of difference!

garden long shot

My tomatoes have started to take off!  From top to bottom – Amish Paste, Prudens Purple, Silver Fir.

Tomato Collage

I found two tomato volunteers while weeding!  One is bigger and healthier than the other, but I hope some daily TLC will help the straggler along.

volunteer tomato

volunteer tomato 2

I’m really looking forward to seeing how these little guys will grow up.

My cucumbers have flowers!!

cucumber flowers

These four plants are coming along.

4 lemon cukes

I got to plant something new this weekend, too – a beautiful little spicy basil plant, compliments of my friend Harlan.

spicy basil in the ground

My containers are doing well, too.  Clockwise from top left: lavender flower, more spicy basil, thyme sprouts, tastoi.

container collage

Because of the hot weather, my arugula sent up flowers for about a week; if I had let it continue, it would have gone to seed.  I harvested the remaining leaves and turned under the roots and stems (thanks to fellow gardener Jen for the inspiration).  I’ll plant lettuce or braising mix in its place this weekend.

arugula on its way out

Finally, there is a very cool decrepit outbuilding on the property – I love how the ivy is growing up it.

ivy

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Gardening: I Grow It In the Ground

As I’ve written before, I am very fortunate to have a garden plot in the backyard behind my apartment.  I’m not growing a wide variety of things, mostly tomatoes of varying sorts, and cucumbers.  Speaking of cucumbers here is one of my lemon cukes:

lemon cucumber plant

I’ve got four plants in the ground right now.

I’m also growing tomatillos:

tomatillos

These have really taken to the soil and are quite large now compared to when I put them in the ground.  Tomatillos are crazy growers and two plants should supply me with plenty of fruit this summer.

I’m growing ground cherries:

ground cherry

There are about four plants in there, and when they get a little bigger, I’ll separate them.

I’m growing tomatoes, too.  Two of the varieties are Prudens Purple and Silver Fir.  Thanks to the urban gardener meetup a few months ago for the Silver Fir seeds!

prudens purple

silver fir

I’m also growing an Amish paste tomato, and I attempted to grow a yellow pear.  The yellow pear especially is not thriving – I think it’s because of the location in the plot.  Unfortunately, this space doesn’t get as much sun as I would like.   I may put one of the remaining pear tomatoes in a container on the deck.

And finally, another gratuitous tree shot:

through the trees

Hooray for the warm weather growing season!

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Gardening Progress

I thought I’d show you some pictures of what I’m growing these days.  I’ve grown everything from seed, and some things are progressing faster than others.  Right now the plants are in containers but I’ll transplant some of them into the ground or into bigger containers.  I am so fortunate to have some garden space at my current home, plus a large deck on which to do some container gardening.  Living in NYC, it is awesome to have this open space right outside my door.

Almost all seeds came from the Hudson Valley Seed Library, of which I’m a member, except for the Silver Fir tomatoes, which were shared with me at an urban gardening gathering last month.

First, my arugula.  It’s coming along quite well!  I’ll be keeping it in this container and hope to eat it as baby arugula; I’m not fond of arugula that is tool big or old.  I actually tried one of the sprouts yesterday morning and it was delicious – very green with some peppery bitterness.  It tastes like the real deal!

arugula long shot

arugula sprouts

I’ll have to thin it, and will eat the thinned baby leaves, yum.

I’m also growing lemon cucumbers, which is an heirloom variety of cucumber.

lemon cucumbers

These guys live in my kitchen window right now, and are getting big enough to transplant soon.  I also have a pot outside with two lemon cucumber plants, but these in the window are growing faster.  Go figure.  I always think of my grandfather when I consider lemon cucumbers.  I think he’d be happy that I’m growing them.

I’m also growing ground cherries and tomatillos.  These guys are slow growers and are still in the baby sprout stage:

ground cherry sprouts

tomatillo sprouts

Finally, I have four kinds of tomatoes growing, all heirlooms – Yellow Pear, Amish Paste, Pruden’s Purple, and Silver Fir.  I’ve planted them in paper pots (made from newspaper), and am in love with using these pots.  When I put them into the ground or a container, I can simply cut out the bottom and plop the entire thing into the ground – the newspaper will compost right into the ground.

tomatoes

I have plans to plant thyme, parsley, basil, and some braising greens.  Also some flowers – cosmos and butterfly flowers.  I think it would be nice to attract butterflies!

It’s been a lot of fun growing everything from seed.   It’s magical, the way they sprout up and then grow their second set of leaves.  It’s also the most economical way of acquiring plants and growing food.  I’m really looking forward to seeing them all continue to get bigger and then fruit.  And to eat it all!