garden harvest

Today's harvest: purple Romanesco beans and two Rocky Hybrid cucumbers (yes, they are full-sized at 3 inches long) from my garden, and five Roma tomatoes and one volunteer tomato from Oscar's garden.  Salad and steamed beans for dinner! :D

Still no cherry toms from my garden, although some are starting to turn. I also hacked off about two cubic feet of extra branches. This plant is now taller than I am.

tomato harvest 2009, part 1

Growing tomatoes is always a bit of a crapshoot here in the Pacific Northwest, since the summer weather can be really unpredictable. There are several varieties specifically bred for this climate; that is, they tend to be smaller, have shorter growing seasons, and don't need a lot of heat to ripen. Even so, this is not a guarantee of anything. These toms just increase your chances of eating a vine-ripened tom. Last year, for example, was a terrible year for toms because it was cold and rainy for most of the summer. In contrast, the weather this year has been so hot and dry that you could probably get brandywines without any trouble. 

It's good to know a lot of recipes for using green tomatoes if you are a gardener in the Pacific Northwest. (Tip...green toms can be substituted for any recipe calling for tomatillos.)

This year I planted currant and cherry tomatoes. As you can probably guess, these are small tomatoes with a short growing season. In addition, the currant tomato was supposedly a good container plant. I say "supposedly" because I planted it in a container using the same mix that's in my raised bed and the currant tomato is a really unhappy looking plant. In contrast, the cherry tomato is about about as tall as I am (and I've been pruning this sucker back pretty aggressively too!), and is loaded with fruit which are finally starting to turn red. 

This morning I was able to harvest some currant tomatoes. This photo represents about half of the fruit on the plant:

(Seamus doesn't know what's in my hand but he wants to know if he can have some anyway.)

Despite actually yielding fruit, the currant tomato was not a success. First all, I expected a hell of a lot more tomatoes than a handful. Second, they had a weird texture--very leathery skin, and since they are so small, they have a very high skin ratio. Third, and most importantly--they aren't very flavorful. They are as bland a supermarket tomato in winter. Maybe this is due to the health of the plant and if the plant were happier, perhaps the tomatoes would be tastier. But I am a laissez-faire gardener. I will provide a raised bed, water, and a good soil mix and then expect a plant to produce under those conditions. I know enough not to plant a sun-loving plant in shade and expect good results.  But I'm not going to coddle the plant. If a plant does not thrive under the conditions I can provide, then I'll just plant something else. 

more random photos

view from the 32nd floor of the building I work in. Qwest field is in the left background, and the Port of Seattle is on the right. I love watching the cranes.

The "employee health center" at my office. Although I work for a state agency, I am co-located in a consultant's office and this is what they provide their employees. It's a stark difference than the first aid kits at the agency offices, in which great and passionate arguments arose about what kind of first-aid kit to supply. By law, the office must have a first aid kit, but so many of them come with aspirin or other mild pain relievers and apparently, we aren't allowed to "buy drugs with taxpayer money." So, if you are in an agency office, you are covered if you get a compound fracture, split an artery, or have a heart attack (there are defibrillators on each floor), but if you have a headache or cut your finger, you are on your own.

Contrast that to the consultant's cabinet, in which there are six different types of pain reliever, three types of throat lozenges, cold/flu/sinus medicine, eye drops, antibiotic cream, iodine and alcohol wipes, burn cream, several sizes of bandages for minor cuts, anti-diarrheal medicine, tablets for upset stomach, antacids, and many others. (They do not have anything to counter nausea. I guess they figure if you feel like throwing up, then go home.)

I love that someone decided to plant vegetables in an empty spot in an otherwise "professionally landscaped" area next to a building. Here are some beans.

And tomatoes.  First Hill, Seattle

Got pie? First Hill, Seattle

This is not my bike, but college classmates may remember that I painted my bike a similar color. Pioneer Square, Seattle

Dig a garden for Victory!

Just don't depend on me, 'cuz then the terrorists have already won.

I'm giving this garden thing another try this year, with a little bit more planning and education this time. I learned several things from last year's fiasco, which I guess is a good thing. 

Here are the things that I will not do this year:

1. try to share garden space with Oscar. We will each have our own raised bed. Oscar is a tomato maniac and he needs an entire bed just for those. 

2. Use a product called "Gardening Soil--great for fruits and flowers!" to try to grow root crops, and then wonder why none of the radishes, carrots, or beets are growing. (Hint--the nutrients needed for fruits and flowers are different than those needed for root crops.) Longtime readers may remember the pornographic radish from last year; that was grown in what has since become Oscar's Tomato Madness raised bed. 

3. Use flattened cardboard boxes as the barrier between the grass and the garden. Supposedly, the cardboard works to smother the grass, but I didn't have much success with that. My friend Latin Man gave me some landscape fabric, so I will use that this year.

4. Build the raised bed out of cinder blocks instead of lumber. It really was a great idea but it didn't work out for these reasons: a) they were not mortared together, and the ground was a bit uneven so there was some shifting from the weight of the soil, b) concrete is really porous and the bed dried out really fast

Here's what I will do this year:

1. Construct a 4' x 8' bed from lumber generously given to me by my friend HippieChick. (I'd asked her if she had any scrap lumber for building a bed, and she didn't but she's a very encouraging soul for anything gardening related so she bought me some "scrap" lumber for my birthday. Think that's a weird birthday gift? I don't. She once got a truckload of horsesh*t as a birthday gift and she was thrilled!)

2. Make the garden soil mixture per SFG recommendations.

3. Plant some pots with flowers that attract beneficial bugs and bees, and set these around the garden.

Oh well, we shall see. Wish me luck.