Garden preview

"No news on the adoption" is what we had to tell our family this weekend. With nothing adoption-related to blog about, I thought I'd share some gardening insights. Gardening is an awesome hobby, in my opinion. Its a great feeling of accomplishment to raise a little plant from seed or seedling and harvest its bounty. Killing weeds and insects are good ways to reduce stress at the end of a long day at the lab. Plus, with food prices on the rise, raising your own produce can save you some serious cash and make you some friends at work because there is always more than two people can eat. This year's strawberry harvest is going to be gargantuan. About 80% of my plants are June bearing, which means around June 1st, we'll pick the first ripe berry and around June 30th, we will pick the last one (and leave the rest for the birds to pick over). The rest are ever-bearing which means they will re-bloom and bear fruit all summer, as long as I keep watering them.

My three garden plots currently contain cilantro, spinach, tomatoes (3 varieties), tomatillos, peppers (5 varieties), and potatoes. I overwintered the cilantro and spinach, which means I planted the seeds in the fall and kept the seedlings covered with bubble wrap and/or floating row cover to protect them from the cold. Once the temps warmed up a bit in March/April, they took off. They are a cool season crop, so that means they are starting to go to seed and will die when it gets consistantly hot. I'll harvest the seeds and start the cycle all over this fall. The tomatillos are green tomatoes that we use to make green chili and green enchiladas/tacos. They re-seed themselves every year, so I don't have to worry about buying new seeds, just dividing the seedlings into managable clumps. The tomatoes with cages are in the foreground of this pic, with potatoes in the background.

Flower gardening is not as lucrative financially as growing your own vegetables, but it is just as rewarding. The year we moved here (2005) I ordered some white peonies from Papa Geno's and planted them in the fall. The next spring, only 1 plant bloomed. The next season (spring 07), more plants bloomed, but I realized one of the plants was not the same variety! It had the offensive hot-pink flowers I remember from my youth. So that fall, I dug up what I thought was the offending plant (hard to remember when the blooms are long gone) and banished it to the back yard. Well, I must have dug out the wrong plant because today when I got home, the buds had opened, and there is that same gaudy hot-pink lady. I'm tempted to cut off all the blooms, but will let it be for now. Also, I feel bad for the plant that got moved to the back yard for no reason, since he obviously has the nice white blooms.

One pink plant ruins the whole presentation!

Bad flower, good flower

I banish you to Hoboken! Poor guy did nothing wrong; a case of mistaken identity.