Ants in My Plants

Well, I officially have my first garden pests . . . ants in my cucumbers and caterpillars in my tomatoes. I'm lucky to have made it through my spring garden bug-free, so now I have to figure out how to take back my garden.

In the meantime, we're continuing to enjoy the fruits of our labor. We harvested our first kale and lettuce before leaving for our trip, and the eggplant continues to flourish. Last week, we enjoyed our first squash and cucumber as well. My first bell pepper is turning red, and we saw the first tiny bud on our broccoli today. Plus . . . I'm still hopeful that I can salvage the tomatoes.

What's Growing in Our Garden

Here's an update on our fall garden since I planted our first seedlings a few weeks ago . . . The three new Earth Boxes I planted are flourishing; the picture at left shows a few leftover cucumber I haven't found a spot for yet (still in the seedling tray) compared to the cucumber behind in it that's been in the Earth Box for about a month. The difference is unbelievable! Not to sound like an Earth Box commercial, but these things are amazing!

The three new boxes are planted as follows: one with tomatoes, one with cucumber and one with lettuce, kale & broccoli. Since I didn't have a box for the squash, I planted it in a wooden planter box Jim made in the spring for the corn. It's thriving as well, and I'm now wishing that I'd planted my cucumber the same way to free up a box for the more finicky plants.

Since I ended up with way more seedlings than spots, I passed some along to a friend - but still had some left. I couldn't just leave them there to shrivel up, so I bought one new box for more lettuce, kale & broccoli and transplanted my herbs from an Earth Box to individual plants. I wasn't sure they'd make it, but they seem to be doing great so far.

The eggplant that I planted in April is still growing strong - currently flowering and producing the 6th or 7th round of fruit (I've lost count). Tonight I'm making a roasted vegetable antipasto salad with eggplant from the last round. The pepper plants for our gardening co-op all have tiny little peppers on them, and the lettuce and kale looks like it will be ready for the first cutting in a few weeks.

After having disastrous gardening results in the past, I'm thrilled to be on season two of growing things we can actually eat.

Cafe 118 "Cooks" Up Amazing Food

Just blogged about one of our favorite restaurants - Cafe 118 - on the Central Florida Green Guide. Check it out! It's a great restaurant for date night, although I have been there with the kids, for girls' night and even for takeout after dance class.

The First Sprouts of our Fall Garden!

It's been only a few days since we planted our tomatoes and peppers, but we already have the first sprouts of our fall garden. We have more seeds to do this week, as well as some work to finish with out existing plants. The "finished" ones need to be pulled and put in the compost tumbler (yes, I finally have a finished compost tumbler - more on that later), and the herbs are long overdue for a trim. These days, we seem to have a hard time beating the heat to get out there in the morning!

What's Growing in My Garden

It seems that my spring garden is officially on its way out. The peppers are finished, the cantaloupe is drying up and the crazy tomatoes are done. Surprisingly, the eggplants are still growing strong, and my herbs, of course, are thriving.

Our work in the garden is mostly maintenance these days - watering, trimming, etc. - without a lot of reward. So it was certainly a nice surprise to enjoy a visit from this beautiful butterfly. She fluttered around Ava's marigolds for a good five minutes while we watched from just a foot or two away. We even saw her back the next day checking out Noah's plants.

For fall, we'll be making our first real attempt at starting from seed. Today, we planted tomatoes and peppers, next week will be broccoli and lettuce and we'll finish the following week with cucumber, squash and kale. I'm hoping that with a little work, the results will be just as good as they were for our first garden this spring!

My First Attempt At Drying Herbs

Okay, just to get this out of the way up front . . . the kids had no role in this venture whatsoever. I fully intend for them to in the future, but to be completely honest, I took advantage of a quiet moment to try this for the first time.

A friend had given me some tips for drying herbs since they were growing way faster than I was using them. And just by chance, that same friend delivered tadpoles to my door today, keeping the kids occupied long enough for me to snip parsley, oregano and sage.

Her advice was this simple - cut them, tie them and hang them up to dry. And since things are never as simple as they should be, I ran into my first little hitch trying to find twine. For some reason, that's the one thing I can never find when I need it. So I did what any homeschooling mom would do - raided the craft supplies. The yarn was also mysteriously missing, so I ended up tying them with pipe cleaners and hanging them off some tacks in the kitchen I keep up for the kids' art projects.

The look cute in the kitchen, but I've learned by experience that herbs will dry with even less effort. The parsley I'd left in a little bowl in the fridge a few weeks ago (because I didn't yet know what to do with it) is now nicely dried and made a nice addition to the kids' favorite (chickpea salad) today at lunch.

More Goodies from the Garden

We're headed out of town for a few days later this week, so I'm trying to use up all the goodies from the garden before we go. The kids requested Eggplant Parmesan, so tonight we picked our eggplant and more tomatoes for the sauce.

As much as I beat myself up about not being more diligent in teaching Ava the ABC's and 123's, I love the "life learning" she's picked up through our adventures. She can name all the plants in our garden and spot the same varieties when we're out and about. Recently, she's pointed out basil at the Magic Kingdom, marigolds in a neighborhood and jasmine at Grandma's pool. Like her brother, she's taken a big interest in the garden and had a great time helping me pick veggies tonight . . . after which she asked to go on Starfall to work on her alphabet!

Making Pickles & Preserving Peppers

Anyone who knows me well is probably laughing at the title of this post. In the past, I've had absolutely no success growing anything - much less preserving it for future use. But, I thought it would be fun to make pickles as a science experiment - too bad I didn't grow cucumber and dill this season!

Fortunately, I have a good friend who knows her way around both the garden and the kitchen who was willing to break out her canning supplies and help me out. The kids played while we did the prep work, then they helped us by counting the cucumbers, grape leaves, horseradish, garlic, dill, peppercorns, mustard seeds and cloves for each jar. Twenty minutes later we had pickles - piping hot pickles, of course, but pickles nonetheless. They are currently cooling, and I suspect that we'll dig in tomorrow.

Since I was in the pickling spirit, I decided it was time to do something with our bumper crop of banana peppers. They were literally growing faster than we could eat them (and Jim can put away some banana peppers!) So I found some simple tips for preserving them online: sterilize a jar, put in sliced peppers, fill with boiling white vinegar and seal with a hot lid (leave it in a boiling pot until you're ready to put it on). Voila!

We've been enjoying the peppers raw, but Jim really likes the pickled ones so I was excited to try this. Can't wait to see how they turned out . . . and to get the dozen or so fresh ones that we still have ready to pick later this week!

Pizza!

Noah had a great request for the first eggplant from our garden - pizza! It took me three days to get to Whole Foods for vegan mozzarella, but it was worth the wait. I knew I'd be short on time, so I bought some fresh focaccia at the farmer's market, sliced it in half and baked it with sauce, basil, eggplant and 1 yellow / 1 red tomato fresh from the garden. Here's a picture from before it went into the oven. The after pictures are a little too "crispy" to post because I'm bad at babysitting the broiler.

More From the Farmer's Market

I promise not to post pictures of my produce on a weekly basis, but I'm still thrilled to actually be able to buy local, organic produce. $30 seems to be my magic number up there.Here's what it bought me this week:

1 pineapple
2 canteloupe
1 large head of lettuce
1 bunch of asparagus
1 bunch of broccoli
2 bell peppers
1 huge cucumber
5 small cucumbers
5 peaches
4 bananas (plus two free ones for the kids)
2 mangos

Our First Real "Harvest"

Yes, we've picked arugula, herbs and banana peppers. But all those were in some stages of growing when we brought them home and planted them. So even though it was exciting, it felt a little like cheating.

Today, however, we picked our first tomatoes (two red and a yellow) and eggplant from plants we nurtured ourselves - very exciting! Noah requested eggplant pizza for dinner, but I spaced out and forgot to stop at Chamberlin's for the cheese. So, while the pizza will have to wait until tomorrow, we did slice and eat our first tomato tonight! It was fun to take a picture of our first "harvest", but I have a feeling our plates will literally be overflowing in a few weeks.

The Tomatoes are Turning

Well, we've had quite a bit of excitement in our garden these past few days. One of our patio tomato plants has two red tomatoes! Now, if I can just figure out exactly when to pick them. An even bigger surprise has been the bright yellow tomato on the plant next to it, which we thought was the same type. Guess we're in for a bigger variety than expected (and we need a new column on the graph).

We're up to 89 of the little guys now and should be eating the first of them within days. We also have a Japanese eggplant that's almost ready to pick and two more not far behind. I can see a lot of kitchen time in my future whipping up tomato sauce, tomato soup and every other way I can think of to make our "harvest" last for a long time!

Fun at the Farmer's Market

We've been meaning to visit our new favorite produce vendor at the Victoria Park farmer's market for a few weeks now, and today we finally made it. In the past, I've tended to avoid farmer's markets - mainly because I'd never seen an actual farmer there. I loved the idea of local produce and was frustrated to see vendors with the same produce that came off the truck at Publix.

Recenly, I've been happy to see local farmer's turning out at the weekend markets. Our local market (Lake Mary) has tomato and citrus farmers, but I was thrilled to discover a vendor with an enormous selection of organic produce grown on their farm in Melbourne. Today was our first time doing a week's worth of produce shopping there, and we were able to get everything we needed except for lettuce, spinach, broccoli, grapes and avocado (which I later picked up at Publix).

The couple who runs the farm is extremely friendly. When they saw Noah's interest in gardening, they showed him pictures of their farm, including a few shots of the red peppers he picked out as they were growing on the plant. Their prices are very reasonable for organic produce. Here's what we got for our $30 (some of it got eaten before I took the picture):

• 1 huge watermelon
• 1 pineapple
• 2 mango
• 4 bananas
• 5 peaches
• 1 eggplant
• 2 zucchini
• 4 tomatoes
• 4 red peppers
• 2 yellow peppers
• 8 jalepeno peppers
• 10 new potatoes

We will definitely be back for more next week!

Tomatoes Gone Wild

After three solid days of rain, the tomatoes have just gone wild, shooting off new branches and blooms. We did lose a cherry tomato due to the weather, and Ava was "very, very disappointed" and insisted on eating it (even though it was still green). Once she pronounced it "delicious!", I resumed the business of counting our little green tomatoes, which has turned into quite a difficult job. I think from now on our tallies will be my best guess; I try to go plant by plant, but I can never guarantee that I've gotten them all or that I didn't sound something twice. Grand total as of today - 72 tomatoes, all green. Can't wait to start getting some red ones on our chart - and on our plates!

The Edible Garden

Today's excitement was being about to see the garden for the first time in days. Noah's been itching to pick fava beans, so that was the first order of business. I let the arugula go WAY too long, so we cut that today as well. Since it's too spicy for the kids to enjoy in salads, I'm going to try it in a grilled veggie recipe and have also packed up a big bag of it for a friend. We have three eggplant growing and are looking for signs of fruit on the canteloupe.

Towering Tomatoes

Our tomato plants are officially out of control. The 59 tomatoes now growing on them have toppled the stems, and yesterday we discovered all five plants laying on the ground. I'd put stakes in when I planted them but wasn't exactly sure what type of "support" they needed. I get it now. So, this morning's project was tying on some supports to help hold them upright. I can't imagine I did it the proper way, but it seems to be working.

Other excitement in the garden this week included Noah's spotting of the first pods on our fava bean plant and Ava's discovery of our first eggplant! Now, we're off to research their growth cycle so we'll know when to pick them!

Terrific Tomatoes

Today was tomato day again, and here is our latest graph. It's getting hard to count them, but I think 46 is pretty accurate! The seedlings are officially done (except the corn, which seems to be hanging in), but all the other new plants are doing well. Noah made the great discovery that the Earth Box with the small plants (herb and arugula) uses less water than the other two (with the enormous tomatoes, eggplant and cantaloupe). We talked a bit about why that is, and it was an interesting lesson for both of us.

We've had to step up our watering efforts since the heat kicked up a notch (or five!) We noticed that the plants were droopy today and wondered if we needed to move them to an area with more shade. But after seeing how much it took to fill the reservoirs (and seeing how they perked up within minutes), it seems that water is the key. It may not sound like a big deal, but being able to successfully troubleshoot a garden problem was a pretty big deal for me. Maybe this "trial and error" learning isn't so bad after all.

Noah's Perfect Pepper

My boy was thrilled to pick his first pepper from the garden yesterday. In fact, he refused to leave for Disney until the deed was done.

Tonight, we sliced it up in our salad and he ate every bite. He's usually not into anything spicy, so I was worried the banana pepper would have too much kick for him. Fortunately, it turned out to be pretty mild - of course, I think he would have eaten it anyway. We're all delighted that there are another three peppers on their way!

Tomato Thursday

Even though Noah's been insisting on counting them everyday, there's still something special about our official days to count and graph our tomatoes. We're up to 35 - still all green. In the coming days, we'll also be updating our garden pie chart since we've added a number of new plants.

Noah is truly hooked on gardening! At the farmer's market yesterday, he talked me into a banana pepper plant and got Grandma to buy him a Gerber daisy. We planted them yesterday, along with my new cucumber plant and the seedlings from the Earth Day festival.

Apparently I don't do well with seedlings, because less than 24 hours later, they show few signs of life. Sigh. Perhaps this is a sign that I'm taking on too much and should stop while I'm ahead. After all, the goal of this growing season was to keep a select few plants alive and let the success encourage me to do it again - next time (rather than right now). I think I will try to nurse them back to health, then refocus Noah on planning our summer garden. As long as he can plant something, he'll be happy!

A Garden in Bloom

The tomatoes may be the only plant already producing fruit, but all the other plants are thriving as well. The canteloupe is threatening to take over an entire Earth Box (and then some) and is blooming like crazy. Our eggplant also has its first bloom - a gorgeous purple flower with a yellow center.

There are still plenty more blooms on the tomatoes, as well as some really interesting white and purple blooms on the fava bean.