Garden update

Since the last post, the arugula and spinach bolted (we managed to make a tub of arugula pesto and some really good spinach dishes). Lettuce is almost gone, and we got a ton of peas. Fennel is somewhat unsuccessful, as it's growing upwards, instead of making nice fat bulbs. Scallions are also going nuts, and starting to look like onions.



Peppers are starting to get big too. We had the first cayenne, fajita bell, and anaheims today with lunch. The fajita bell was WAY spicier than I expected, but the cayenne was sort of a dud.


The tomatoes are growing like crazy--it looks like a jungle! The fruit are getting nice and fat, but still green :-( We got impatient and have been making fried green tomatoes though.

Gardening

For the first time, we decided to try planting a vegetable garden. We've rapidly killed every plant we've owned, so we had no idea what to expect with a garden. Our basic strategy: throw shit in the ground, and see what happens. Seriously.

We started in early April with lettuce mix, arugula, spinach, fennel, and peas. After planting, nothing happened for almost two weeks, but just when I had lost hope we saw a few tiny leaves poking through the ground. Arugula first, then some spinach. It was a bit confusing, because the baby veggies look nothing like mature leaves.

Here's some of the earliest arugula:


Once we had a little taste of success, we got more ambitious. We now have added tomatoes, eggplant (still pretty sorry looking), cucumbers, peppers, scallions, and brussels sprouts:


mixed lettuce:


pea plants climbing the chicken wire:



fennel:


right in the center, there's a tiny green pepper growing!


brussels sprouts--these are enormous, but still no actual sprouts:


cherry tomatoes--I cannot express how excited I was to see these babies. I totally can't wait to eat a real tomato!


grape tomato:


We'll see if the eggplants and cukes do anything interesting. We also transplanted a bunch of the tomatoes today to spread them out. Hopefully I didn't kill them! Totally can't wait to cook from the stuff in our backyard :-)