Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Seattle Tomato Saga


Seattle is not known for tomatoes.

Our summers are mild and wet with little or no humidity. When planning the tomato section of the garden, smaller tomato varieties were chosen, but a few bigger varities were thrown in to see how well they would actually grow. To refresh your memory, here are the seedlings:

This is only part of the successful seedlings. Several were given away.


And then came the Wall-O-Water, or Aqua Shields. Their purpose was to insulate the plant against any cooler weather Seattle might experience AND trick the plant into thinking it was getting more sunlight.




In May and June, the Aqua Shields were great.



By mid June, I thought that I would have a few tomatoes to enjoy. But, I also knew that they still would not taste the same as those I had grown up eating in Indiana. Seattle just did not have the hot temperatures or humidity to produce the rich tomatoes.

But...here is where the story takes an almost Twilght Zone Twist...

This is the front yard area in at the end of June.
(Notice the height of all the plants based on the trellis)


After weeks of abnormally high heat and humidity,
(temperatures in the upper 90's and as high as 104),
the front yard area looks like this:

It was an amazing transformation and hopefully not one to be repeated next summer. Seattle has never known heat like that. As the tomatoes are ripening, I'm wondering...


will it taste more like an Indiana tomato?

Friday, July 31, 2009

Got Carrots?







Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Checkin' in with the carrots



Whenever visitors come to the house, I give a tour of the garden sections of the yard. At the end of the "tour", I always pick a carrot and give it to the visitors.

It's really a way for me to check on the growth of the carrots, but let's keep that a secret! :D

Here are the carrots today:

I really think these are the small carrots.
But I'll wait a little longer before harvesting.

Friday, July 17, 2009

The Emerald City

Wow. If Seattle wasn't green enough already...

Tomatoes Take Over the World



Romaine & Green Leaf



Tallest Dill Plant EVER



My Favorite: Basil



Sweet, Sweet Peas



Swiss Chard

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Snapshots of How It's Growin'



Overview


Elijah's Carrots


Cabbage


Salad Lettuce (looks like lunch for tomorrow!)


Green Beans


Peas Appease

Well friends, I am not going to be harvesting any broccoli.

No raw broccoli for my three year old (he doesn't understand what happened, but neither does anyone).
No fresh cream of broccoli soup.
No broccoli for my freezer.
The plants are large and healthy, but no stalks are growing. Nada. Nothing. Just leaves, leaves, and more new leaves in the center of every single plant!

I do want to show off my whopper broccoli, though (it almost covers a 4 square foot area). Here is one of nine gigantic leafed plants that's going in the composter tomorrow...



However, the peas are a-coming, and so it makes me forget my broccoli woes (momentarily). Very soon I will be popping fresh sugar snaps in my mouth. Maybe my three year old can be appeased with peas.


Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Got Turnips?

Looks like Lisa's got ladybugs, but I have turnips! :)


They aren't huge, but they are big enough to do something with.