Garden Update (6.19.13)

Update time!

We were out of town from Thursday morning through Monday afternoon last week, and I watered minutes before we left, but then it (finally) got hot in Chicago, so... the peas suffered a little. They seem to be recovering nicely.



First tomato sighting!



Thai chile blossoms and cilantro doing great!



Lots and lots of baby red bell peppers:



Green beans, cherry tomatoes, zucchini:



A little sprouty part inside the green beans; not sure what it will look like in a week, but I suspect this is the part where the beans will come out:



Raspberries aplenty, and annuals looking as glorious as always!



BASIL!



Your turn! What's growing?

Garden Update (6.12.13)

This week, I got an indoor/outdoor rug and a couple of patio chairs for the roof, and I've been taking my morning coffee up there. Anne sits on the rug, and I sip my coffee, and it is completely worth the three flights of stairs I have to climb to get there.





This morning I was looking at the tall, tall pea plants, laden with peas and flowers, and thinking about what to do with those pots when the peas succumb to the summer heat in a few weeks. I'm really going to miss those leafy green vines! They're so pretty.





Gardening is like tandem painting with God. I do a little work, a little planting, watering, thinning, fertilizing. Then I leave for a day or two and come back up to see what my Partner has added to my work. He provides the sunshine, rain, and all of the magic that happens when plants grow and bloom and flourish. The garden never stops changing, and needing to be changed.







When your garden is on the roof and there's no hose up there, you have to lug watering cans up the stairs (or hope it rains a lot). I was very excited to see a big rain storm in the forecast for this afternoon and evening, until I noticed another little detail: possible damaging hail. Pretty frustrating, but I'm feeling thankful for meteorologists (and my friend who alerted me of the hail warning!). All the plants are safely in the stairwell until the threat is past. I'm hoping the hail dies down before the rain; I would gladly drag all those babies out in a downpour if I thought they'd get a good soak without my having to bring them water. Plus... playing out in the rain is fun.

Garden Update (6.5.13)

The weather's been cooler, so things don't seem to be happening as fast, but on the upside, I've still barely had to water, and I bet the rhubarb season is going to be long this year. There are 4 pounds of rhubarb in my kitchen right now, just waiting to be turned into delicious treats. Here are this week's developments:

Tiny baby bell pepper!


Green beans:


Zucchini:


Tomato:


Carrots:


Sugar Snap Peas, with PEAS on them:


What about you?

Garden Update (5/29/13)

Lots of rain lately = less trips up the stairs with a baby and two 2-gallon watering cans. Feeling thankful. I gave everyone on the roof a fish/kelp/bat guano/worm casting liquid plant food today. That was the first time I've fertilized at all (although I started with an organic potting soil that I'm pretty sure came with food in it).

The raspberry bush wasn't supposed to fruit this year, and maybe it won't, but don't these look like little flower blossoms? And aren't flowers just baby fruits? We shall see.



Green beans and zucchini:





Basil that I sowed when I planted this tomato seedling last week are sprouting! I'll wait a couple more weeks and sow seeds in the other tomato pot, in hopes of lengthening my harvest!



Carrots!



And the most exciting development: the peas are blooming!

Garden Update!

Things are happening fast around here. A lot has changed in the two weeks since my last garden update. The weather was crazy, and in the process of trying to harden off my tomatoes and peppers, I killed them. All. Apparently I overwatered them, then put them outside for too long too fast, and then my feelings got hurt, my pride got wounded, and I forgot to water the survivors. So they died too. It was a pretty sad and desperate few days, and here's what I have decided: for now, I'm going to buy starter plants of the ones that need a long head start indoors, and start from seed the ones that can be directly sown outside. The outside plants are doing fabulously! And I adopted a couple of new plants from the amazing garden center in our neighborhood! Let me show you:

Poor guys. *sob*


The first arugula harvest!


Peas climbing.


A stowaway! Carrot seed must have gotten blown by the wind.


A newcomer: Black Beauty Zucchini


Empress Green Beans and Nasturtiums


Arugula, just before I dug it up in favor of a tomato, and sugar snaps


Carrots


Better Bush Tomato (hybrid, supposed to be great for containers), with basil seeds sown all around.


From left: Cherry Cascade tomato seedling and Thai Hot Chile seedling (in the cardboard box); Latham Raspberry bush in the black pot (my Mother's Day gift!); Thai Hot Chile in the blue pot (with cilantro seeds sown in the strawberry pods on the sides), and a Mini Red Bell pepper in the green ceramic pot.