A quickie from the garden

Tuesday's Sampling

Hi Everyone!

Just thought I'd check in for a quick little update. I planted some seeds this past Sunday and the Sunday before. I haven't observed any sprouts of the eggplant yet, but the golden melon has sprouted as well as the pole beans. The pole beans looked so strong and vigorous when they were poking their heads through the soil, I was amazed. I bought a couple of tomato trellises to stick in the ground to enable them to crawl up with support. I found after a few days of being sprouted, however, that they were turning yellow. OMG! What to do... What to do?! Dan decided to give them some fertilizer which turned them almost immediately back to a healthy green color... Whew! but then before long some of that rich color began to fade again. A good dose of water revitalized them again, so we're thinking they need more water on which to sprout and grow. I didn't take a snapshot of them tonight, but I will soon. I promise...

I did pick a few sample items though for sharing... and discussion: a strawberry (first season being planted), a carrot, and an onion.

Notice how long the root of the carrot is. This is very good because it means that the carrot plant is able to penetrate this tough clay that passes as soil here in Kansas. It also means that once the carrot starts to fill out that we'll have wonderfully long, healthy carrots to harvest.

As for the onion, did you know that each shoot of green at the top of the onion plant represents a layer of the onion bulb--sort of like rings on a tree. The more shoots on top, the larger the bulb underneath. Makes sense, doesn't it?!  I love learning these fun facts to know and tell and Dan just learns this wonderful information and passes it on to me to learn too. How fun is that?! Did you know that in the Middle Ages of Europe onions were so valued that you could pay your rent in onions. Think it'll work today? I'm hoping so because I have lots of onions and they seem to grow well here. I'm really liking that option.

Oh... and the potato towers have had dirt or compost added to them a few times already and the plants just keep growing and growing. They look like they'll need more soil or compost added to them this week as well. I can't wait to see how the potatoes develop in the towers and what kind of layered harvest we'll get from that experiment.

Lastly, for tonight, I learned that the way to know when a plants seed pod is ready to pick is when the plant starts turning brown. Then pick off a seed pod and open it up; the seeds are waiting there in abundance. I bought the heirloom seeds this year, mostly, so I'm looking forward to being able to harvest some seed pods to pass this abundance into the future. And I'm learning along the way. This gardening stuff has never been so much fun as this year.

The joy of gardening... ahhhh...

Bon appetit!