Garden Update 3.0

I hope you enjoyed my super late photos and comments about our "new" garden. If not, then you probably won't want to read this post either ;). But if you did like reading that one, then you'll probably be entertained by this one too!

This is what the garden currently looks like. I took all of these photos last Thursday so they're pretty current.

The large tomato plants have pretty much taken over everything. We now have tomatoes growing in the cucumber/strawberry planter box, but that's okay, I never like cucumbers anyway. Plus, the majority of the cucumbers growing now are yellow and orange, so we've been tossing them away. We do have a few green cucumbers though. But perhaps cucumber season is over? Or maybe they're not getting enough nutrients?

The strawberry plants are dried up as well. We haven't gotten a strawberry in weeks, but I noticed a few new buds...so maybe they're getting their second wind? Leti and Lauren didn't care for the tartness of the strawberries, so they left the berries untouched. I picked, washed, and then froze them for our smoothies. It worked out well.

The zucchini and crook neck squash are done, I think. We get one or two squash every other week or so, but for the most part we end up buying our zucchini produce now. They were very abundant about two months ago though.

Like I said, the tomatoes are taking over. Because we never tied them up and were late at adding cages, they're growing everywhere. Luckily though, we all eat tomatoes and there are so many ways to use them. Lauren made marinara sauce several times, and we add them to pizzas, and salads.

The basil is also sadly done. It probably would've lasted longer had we taken better care of the plant. At first we were diligent and "pruned" the basil, but after awhile we became lazy and let flowers take over, so no more basil. Last week however, Lauren managed to pick enough basil leaves for a delicious salad dressing. Sidenote: I used this oil based basil dressing for my garbanzo bean and (homegrown) tomato salad; awesome!

Our baby orange sweet tomatoes are still my favorite plant; I've coined it my "work of art". When I first planted it in a container way back in March, I did a lot of research about taking care of tomato plants, and I've done pretty well following the "rules". I do a pretty good job at picking off all the yellow branches (it's normal for them to turn yellow) and I monitor the produce every few days. I read that a good tomato plant should get tall and skinny when you pick the suckers off, and that's what this baby tomato plant has come to resemble!

Even though we didn't take full advantage of our garden this season, I've enjoyed having it. I don't know if I'll be sharing any other updates on our summer garden (because I think the season is basically over for us), but I learned a lot about gardening and I hope to someday be able to have a huge garden! In which case, this first season of gardening ever will definitely be a starting block to leap off of.

Garden Update 2.0

* I wrote this post back in early July and am now just realizing that it was never published. I'm publishing it now (even though it's outdated) because I have an updated garden post I want to share. But to see the "after" pictures, I think it's necessary to show the "before" ones too. Sorry for my tardiness, guys. 

Since it's been a very, very long time since I shared anything about our garden, I thought some pictures and updates were in order!

I have to start by mentioning that Lauren and I moved into her mom's house for several months, so I'm so happy and lucky that we planted our very first garden in containers. This allowed us to "easily" move our little plants from our apartment to Leti's house without any digging or real issues. Knowing that this move was highly likely, we also helped plant a garden in Leti's backyard back in April. We planted several varieties of cucumbers (including lemon cucumbers) and tomatoes, strawberries, crook-neck squash, zucchini, green bell pepper, jalapenos, serrano chili peppers, and more basil. The three of us also built the planter boxes all by ourselves! That was a project in and of itself!

So how have these gardens fared so far? Well, speaking as someone who dislikes cucumbers and pickles, I can say we planted way too many cucumber plants. We're drowning in them and we have to throw away many of them because Lauren and Leti can't eat that many that fast. Lauren's already whipped up several jars of pickles to help use up some cucumbers, but I don't think we'll ever catch up.

I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who eats the strawberries. They're either too small or not sweet enough for the others, so about once a week I'm able to eat a bowl full of homegrown strawberries that aren't so bad.

Unfortunately, being beginning gardeners we didn't put the tomato cages in soon enough. The tomato plants quickly took off and by the time we got to putting up the cages, it was way too late. Leti and Lauren somehow macgyvered a system to hold the plants in their upright positions using string. This worked for a few days, then the weight of the plants took over and now the tomato plants are at a 45 degree angle. Our first tomatoes were a let down; they were completed rotted on the bottoms. We quickly learned that when watering, you must water only the soil rather than the plant itself. After that we've had some success and managed to pick about a dozen good tomatoes: Early Girls and Romas.

When our garden was first starting to yield crops, we managed to grow several crook neck and zucchini squash like every other day. However, since the tomato plants have taken off, their tall height has blocked the squash from getting enough sun. So now we're lucky to get 3-4 squash per week. Lesson learned: plant your tomatoes in the very back so that they don't block the other plants from getting necessary sun.

The tomato plants have also hindered all of our bell peppers from growing. We've been able to pick a few jalapenos, but haven't used them yet. We finally have three very tiny bell peppers growing.

Both basil plants have been doing wonderfully. I love going to the backyard and picking basil as we need it for dinners. So far we've added basil to our pizzas, pasta, and made our own creation of ciabatta bread, garlic butter, tomatoes, and basil. Lauren also made several batches of vegan pesto which have been a huge hit!

As for our container garden, things haven't been doing as well. The zucchini, cucumber, and strawberry plants have all produced some fruit/veggies, but nothing compared to the larger planter garden. The plants in the container garden have started turning brown and droopy. I'm assuming it's because the containers weren't large enough.

On the other hand, the baby sweet tomatoes have done pretty well until recently. Every few days we were able to pick a dozen or so tomatoes from the plant. But lately, new tomato growth has slowly decreased. The plant still looks healthy, so I'm not sure why it's come to a standstill.

Despite not getting a ton of fruit and veggies from our container garden, I'm so glad we went through with it. I'm also happy to have had the opportunity of planting a garden in Leti's backyard that we're able to enjoy as well. I've never planted anything before so this whole experience is something completely new to me, and I'm still learning and figuring things out. The best feeling is being able to walk outside and pick fresh produce that you yourself grew; collecting our bounty as we like to call it! 

Container Garden Update

I recently shared a picture of the first little baby tomato! It's still very green, but very exciting nonetheless.

So, I thought I'd share and show how the rest of our container garden is doing. I watched a handful of Youtube videos about planting and harvesting the other day, and now I'm even more obsessed with our tiny garden. I also apologize in advance for all of the pictures; I'm sorry I'm not sorry!

As I mentioned before, the tomato plant is growing super tall and wide. After I spotted the first little tomato, I spent the next several weeks looking for more tomato buds compulsively. There's currently over a dozen little green tomatoes now! We also finally added a cage...better late than never. Look how big the first little green tomato is now!

 

The zucchini plant is getting huge. Flowers are beginning to grow, but they haven't bloomed yet.

Both cucumber plants have grown since being planted, and the Japanese cucumber plant just started showing signs of real cucumbers! We also just added cages, don't worry.

The strawberry plant has about a dozen flowers with teeny tiny strawberry buds. They started off green, but now they look brown...I hope that's supposed to happen. There are two larger red strawberries that I'm pretty certain have stopped growing. I'm thinking they're ready to be picked?

We've already used some basil in several different meals, and it tastes excellent! I must admit though, I didn't know the correct way to harvest the basil at first. I just picked off the biggest leaves, no matter where they were on the plant. After watching some videos, I learned that you have to look at a basil plant in layers. When you go to harvest the herb, simply break the entire top layer of leaves off.

The flower seeds that Lauren planted are looking good too. Now it looks like more than just a pot filled with soil. Hopefully the green shoots turn into pretty flowers soon instead of looking like a bowl of weeds.

I'm seriously in love with admiring our plants. Every morning before we leave for work, Lauren and I look at their growth, and I drool over their changes. I'll definitely be sharing further updates on our container garden as more growth ensues.

First Tomato Growth

Look at this little guy; isn't it so cute? Lauren and I spent some time today trimming our tomato plant (picking the suckers off), and by chance we spotted the first little baby tomato. Even though it's still green, it's awesome! I love being able to step outside and marvel at our plants' continuous changes.

I didn't have time (I was too lazy) to take pictures of the other plants, but I'll definitely share an update of the other plants soon!