First Food From the Garden

I am sad to report that there is not much going on in the garden.  I don't think I am going to get much out of it other than a few more lessons learned.

Here are a few of the lessons:

1. There is definitely not enough sunlight back in the garden area to grow much of anything.
2. There are definitely too many insects back in the garden area for the vegetables liking.
3. I won't likely be able to plant another garden back there next year unless several trees are removed.
4. The stuff in containers seem to be working out ok. 
5. It's probably not very smart to go away for 10 days without lining someone up to check on the plants and give them a little water every few days.
6. I moved one particularly sad-looking tomato plant from the garden to a spot on the side of the house and that seems to have been a smart move.  It has no tomatoes yet, but it seems quite a bit happier now. 
7. Next year I should invest in a few larger containers since the container stuff seems to be working out the best.
   




All is not lost, however, and there are a couple of things that seem to have been somewhat successful.

Bush Cherry Tomatoes

I had run out of room in the main 5x5 garden area so I stuck one bush cherry tomato plant in the area with all the rhubarb.  I hacked together a little fence using the things you're supposed to use around the plant for them to crawl up as they are growing, but just put it out further from the plant.  So far I've had some success, although I do see a few stalks that appear to have been snipped off by a deer or two.  I don't think they've gotten any of the tomatoes though.  When I checked things out as soon as I got back from vacation I was very happy to see that there were actually a few ripe cherry tomatoes ready for eating.  The next night I picked them, cut them in half, and threw them in a salad to go with dinner.  They were fantastic.  Nice and juicy with lots of flavor.

There are a few more now that are pretty much ready to pick any day now, and a bunch more that are still green.  So hey, at least I can say that I have already exceeded what I got out of the garden last year.

Patio Tomatoes

I have a (3 gallon?) container with "patio tomatoes" sitting at the top of my driveway.  None of these have actually ripened yet and they are still rather small, but there are definitely several tomatoes coming and the plant looks fairly healthy.  Hopefully something very yummy to look forward to in the near future.  

Green Beans

After I planted everything outside I had a ton of green bean seeds left in the package I bought. I thought it would be a good opportunity to grab an old container from various plants I bought earlier this year and last year, throw some dirt from the yard in it, and throw in a few seeds. I've kept the container sitting in my sun room since then. That was right around Memorial Day. I just noticed yesterday or the day before that there were actually 2 little green beans hanging from one of the plants. There are also a few hidden here and there outside in the garden. The plants outside though are terrible eaten up by insects so I don't think I'll get much from them.