peppers, pumpkins, and tomato plants

My homemade tomato trellis is working out great! I've got three baby tomatoes on my Yellow pear, and plenty of buds on my Roma and Celebrity plants. Sadly my heirloom tomato plant has yet to produce a flower that produces a fruit, the plant suffered the most during the past few storms.

The trellis is a little less than five feet tall, I wonder if the tomatoes will grow all the way up it. I planted them right after mothers day and since then they have tripled in size. I think that now since the weather has been consistently good they will grow even faster. The poor tomato plants have survived through high winds of up to 50 miles per hour, heavy rains, temperatures dropping to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, and even snow! I protected them with a huge tarp during this extreme weather which was easily draped over the whole trellis.


Another plant that had a hard time during the extreme weather this spring were my peppers. On the left is a picture of one of my Habanero plants. I had four and one died, so I replaced it with the pepper plant pictured on the right which is a Mariachi pepper. The Mariachi is doing really well and already has two baby peppers on it. I also have two Jalapeno plants, a yellow bell pepper and a purple bell pepper.

This is a baby pumpkin! I'm so excited about my pumpkins, all three plants have several buds and the plants are huge. I hope my pumpkins mimic the leafy part of the plant and grow to immense proportions by October. I have decided that I will always grow pumpkins because they are so much fun to watch grow. I also planted some albino pumpkins in my front yard but I started them really late so I hope they can catch up to there orange counter-part.

HERE ARE SOME OTHER PLANTS IN MY GARDEN......

EGGPLANT (Never planted eggplant before so this should be interesting)


BLACKBERRY (I also have a raspberry bush, I hope I get enough fruit for jam!)


CARROTS (Most annoying thing about carrots is making sure they are spaced out because the seed is so small it is hard to plant them away from each other. I pulled plenty of seedlings out during the process and I hope I spaced everything out okay.)

NON-FOOD ITEMS


TRUMPET VINE-for the hummingbirds...


TIGER LILY

The poppy, my favorite flower

THE POPPY SEED LADY
(Author: Unknown)


A time of magicians and spells
A beautiful maiden was created
Her name Postomani, Poppy Seed Lady
Born of a mouse with the power of speech,
And then transformed it into a cat, a dog, an ape, a boar
Before her final transformation



A royal tale was then spun of deceit, love and death


The Poppy Seed Lady's flesh and bone of her untimely death
Grew a plant called Posto - The Poppy Tree
From this plant will be obtained a drug called opium,
Either smoked or swallowed a wondrous feeling was created
If abused, it will generate the consumer one quality of each of the animals
To which Postomani has been transformed
He will be mischievous like a mouse,
Fond of milk like a cat,
Quarrelsome like a dog,
Filthy like an ape,
Savage like a boar,
High tempered like a queen.

Bread!

Today I conquered my fear of yeast. Yeast is a one-celled fungus which converts sugar and starches into carbon dioxide bubbles and alcohol. I don't know where my fear stemmed from exactly, I guess I may have been afraid of killing it. I've baked so many things but when ever a recipe calls for yeast I quickly turn the page. Today I found that yeast really is not that bad. I gave my yeast a warm bath in 110 degree Fahrenheit and watched as the yeast slowly began to "foam".

I made a wheat bread which had whole wheat flour, wheat gluten, wheat germ, and sesame seeds. On the top before I placed it in the oven I brushed an egg wash on top and sprinkled oats. Not only does the egg wash give the bread a nice shine after it cooks it also serves as glue for my oats.

The hardest part was kneading the dough...holy crap! forget upper body workouts try kneading bread dough! Towards the end my arms became so tired and I had a glean of sweat on my forehead. I now have a new found appreciation for those women back in the day who would make bread every day without the benefit of a bread maker.




While my bread was cooking it filled the house with a wonderful smell. The smell alone made everything worth it. After the bread was done I could hardly wait to try it. I know I should wait till things cool but I had to cut a slice! I drizzled honey on my end piece (the best part) and enjoyed the fruits of my labor.

I found bread to be very east to make, apart from the kneading. I can't wait to experiment with the herbs in my garden! two breads that I will try with stuff I find in my garden will be a spicy oregano with sun dried tomato, and of course a Rosemary flat bread.

First Harvest

My first Harvest! yes I know it is very small but considering the summer has just begun I feel it shows great promise. My pea plants have probably produced the most thus far. Almost every day I go out and pick a couple of pods so I can eat them in a salad. The strawberries are new as of today, They had a slow start because of the cold weather and the rain but they are starting to produce an abundance. These first few strawberries were small but I think the ones later in the year will be much bigger.




My tomatoes have also started to grow. This picture shows two baby tomatoes which will grow to be yellow pear tomatoes. They are about the size of my thumb right now I'm not sure how big they will get.




My pumpkin plants have taken off, they love the spot that they are in! I can't believe how huge these plants are getting. Pretty soon they will be growing over the edge of the planter and into the walkway. I can't wait for a pumpkin flower to emerge.








Now this picture shows something I thought was pretty cool. I bought two climbing hydrangeas this summer to cover the wall on the South side of my garden. When I first bought the plants I read the little label which informed me that I would not need a trellis. I looked the plant over and could not find anything that would aide the plant in growing up my brick wall. I was confused but trusted the label and just planted the hydrangea next to my brick wall waiting to see how it was going to grab onto the brick. This morning I learned how. I was checking over all of my plants when I noticed these white things growing on the stems of the hydrangea. I did a little research and found that they were aerial roots which cement themselves to brick.

In my garden I have three different types of vines: Climbing Hydrangea, Trumpet flower, and a Honeysuckle. Even though all three are vines they are very different from each other. Each vine grows differently and has different things to offer. My advice for the day is go out and explore your garden. Check out all the different bugs and note how each plant is different in how it grows and looks.

I am an amateur gardener who has only been gardening for a couple of years. I've found that you can really enjoy your garden if you create it to fit your needs. My garden is centered around attracting song birds, humming birds, and butterflies. Before beginning your garden I suggest exploring the different reasons you want a garden that way you will create a space you will never want to leave.

Now I am done rambling.....I'm going to go sit in my garden.