Here we go. Again. Dammit.

Thanks to Henri Marlin’s parents, we have four new tomato plants.  A gift brought to our fish fry in a pot.  “Well, they can’t stay there”, The Fisherman says.

 

 

 

 

The Garden Of Love, Dammit, has not been touched for…..at least 7 months.  And actually, the pepper plants have thrived on their own with all the recent rain.  Who would of thought?

So, this afternoon, we put SJ in the pack-n-play out on the garden slab and we started to weed it.  It was not that bad.  Even good enough for a hungry garden spider to make its abode.

SC named it Frasco.

Our big a$$ basil plant is still there and doing great. 

The Fisherman divied up the tomato plants (which already have flowers!), in the ground they went and sprinkled with happy water. Lets see how they do.  Henri’s parents are not sure what type of toms these are, so it will be a surprise.  Maybe cherries…maybe romas.

I am sure in the next couple of days, I’ll be buying some flower seeds, trekking to the Ag Dept for plantlets and asking King Of The Garden (father in law) for some more cow peas to try again…damn leaf miners.  But, now I know.

We’ll give it another shot.  Wish us luck.

Bugs With Lights on Their Hats: Leaf Miners.

That was my vision when I found out what was attacking the leaves of my cow pea plants and starting to encroach on some of my tomato plants.  They are called leaf miners and they are nasty little buggers.  They are TINY larva that live INSIDE the leaf of plants and burrow along the vein lines leafing (ha ha) little trails on the leaves that resemble snail trails….that really threw us off!

I posted a picture of  a leaf on FaceBook, my addiction, and got several responses from the genuine:  “mix soap + water, spray.”  To the Really?:  “Mix equal parts beer + water. ” To the just plain someone had way to much time on their hands:  “It looks like a white squiggly line is eating your leaves! Why fix it? It looks nice….”

In the end, all it took was an email to my father in law with attached photo.  Leaf Miners.  Hard to kill topically because they live inside the plant.  Have been researching my options.  Thank goodness the peas are ’bout ready to be picked.  Not much I can do for them now, but I need to stop the mining on my tomato plants.  I just hope they haven’t formed a union over there or I’ll have to do some negotiating.

Which brings me to admit something.  This gardening sh!$ is HARD!!!  I remember putting the seeds in the ground the beginning of the year and telling The Fisherman that they would sprout right about the time this baby should come outta me.  Ya, sure.  I’ll have PLENTY of time to tend to the garden and take care of it properly.

Reality is, I drag my butt out there to water only because I am DEAD tired.  Cukes died.  Squash died.  Japs are totally stunted for some reason.  Several variety of flowers never took off.  I am trying REALLY hard to keep up with it, it is just bad timing right now.  I would love to be able to spend an hour or so weeding, cleaning, pruning, etc each day.  Having a pretty garden is a healthy garden! 

Just bad timing. 

But, always looking on the positive side:  Our cow peas will be able to be picked any day now.  Our Brussels Sprouts look strong and healthy.  Bell Peppers are producing nicely.  LOTS of tomatoes.  And the marigolds looked beautiful in the ol’ shopping cart.  Not bad for our first real attempt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week, we just put some more cukes in the ground….let’s see if I can keep up with them.

First Crop For Eatin’.

The Fisherman and I recently were able to eat the fruit of our labor.  Literally.  Our little tomato plant that our friend Maggie gave us is going gang busters; we just have to keep the yard birds off of it!.  Here’s a bit of info you may or may not know, and may or may not even care about:  I never eat tomatoes.  Couldn’t stand them.  Why?  I am embarrassed to say it had something to do with a really nasty joke I over herd my Daddy telling when I was a young girl, and it just had that big of an impression on me.

Until about 3 weeks ago.  Right Before SJ was born.  I had such a tenacious craving for tomato/mozz/basil salad.  Just ask some of my friends.  Sanni called me up for dinner and in one hand I took a bottle of champagne and the other, all the fixins for these yummy apps on crustini.  I could not get enough.  At the ag fair, I bought my weight in tomatoes from several different vendors.  The best were the hydroponically grown toms from Tropics Hydroponics Farm owned by Brian & Linda McCullough.  I can’t wait to go get some more!

So with this bountiful cup of juicy, red ripe tomato bubbles, I made what I call a “relish” because the toms are too small to slice to add to crustini, but PERFECT to slice in half for a chunky relish.  Add a little cubed mozz, fresh basil (have you seen our bush?  left over from the Alecci days and nursed back to a pretty hefty plant!), salt, cracked pepper and balsamic vinegar.  Not rocket science.  No fresh mozz?  Use the shredded stuff and pop it in the oven for a warm, cheesey treat!  I always have a bag of already prepared bagel chips or crustini on hand for this healthy little snack.

And more importantly, I am eating tomatoes.  30+ years with out them.  What a shame.  Right now, they are about the only thing SC won’t eat and I wonder if I had an influence on that.  We are tying to encourage her to try them.  She loves to pick them…..

Somehow, I think my Dad influenced the fact that I had such a strong craving for the red yums yums late in my pregnancy.  He LOVED tomatoes.  He would sit at the table and slice them, add salt & pepper and eat it as a snack.

Thanks, Dad, for still encouraging me to try something new, again.

Tropics Hydroponics Farm owned by Brian & Linda McCullough. 

227-5546 tropicshydroponics@mac.com