Eggplants At Last

As usual, I came home from Grandma's with more peppers than I need, and a handful of cherry tomatoes, although for some reason the big tomatoes are ripening slowly. I also found two ripe eggplants. And I remembered there were some carrots that were too little a few weeks ago, so I dug them up today.

I know you guys want pictures but I never have my camera with me and pictures just don't look as good on my phone. So I put a little still life together of some of the veggies I picked today.

So Many Peppers

I picked peppers and tomatoes today. This is the third batch of peppers so far and there are more every time I look. The hot peppers are particularly prolific, as are the aconcagua peppers. Today I picked less than half of the peppers that were ready because I knew I would never be able to eat them all.

The tomatoes so far have been yellow pears and black cherries, but today the first two slicing-sized tomatoes were ripe. It looked like some kind of bug had made holes in one of them, though, so I'll have to see if it's still edible.

There are two or three eggplants that should be ready any day now. They're definitely the prettiest plants in my garden.

Family members, PLEASE go pick some peppers!

A Cacophany of Carrots

I walked home from Grandma's today with two bags full of vegetables. I pulled up about two thirds of the carrots and decided I would leave the rest because my bag was full. They're really cute and fat and stumpy but I haven't tasted one yet. Family members, if you want carrots, go to Grandma's and dig them up. Seriously.

I also picked a few tomatoes (yellow pear and black cherry) and several peppers (one orion bell, one purple beauty, and a bunch of banana peppers that may or may not be hot). There are many more peppers and tomatoes ripening and one tiny eggplant just starting.

Things are coming along!

Ripe Tomatoes and Fresh Spinach

It's been so long! Forgive me. To be honest, there hasn't been much going on in the garden except that the vegetables have been doing what vegetables should do--growing and ripening. The peppers, tomatoes, and eggplants are loving the hot weather we've been having lately. But if you've stuck with me you're definitely due for an update.

On Saturday I harvested the late lettuce and spinach Grandma planted. It tasted surprisingly good considering how hot it's been and how big it got before I harvested it. I also put a new layer of leaves under the tomatoes, although all the leaves that are left are wet so I'm not sure how much good they'll do. And to my delight there were three ripe yellow pear tomatoes. I wasn't able to wait until I got home and ended up eating them in the car. You can see how nice they looked...before I ate them...below:

And there are all sorts of peppers growing like crazy. I'm very excited, but none of them are ready to pick yet. I'll keep you posted!

Weeds, Onions, and Some Pretty Flowers

I got rid of all the clover and crab grass that had crept its way into the upper garden. The poor carrots were all tangled up in clover, so now the garden is looking much better. I also put a fresh layer of leaves under the tomatoes.

I harvested the lettuce from the lower garden. It all seemed to survive, though some of it is kind of stunted. It's probably nearly radioactive with all the chemicals running off from the country club during the flood, but I'll try it. And look...it's an onion!

I pulled up some of the weeds around them and they're doing better than I thought. I have some questions about onions for anyone who cares to answer. First of all, do they like this tropical rainforest weather or are they just extraordinarily hardy? Secondly, is the onion supposed to stick out of the ground like that or has the rain washed away the soil? Lastly, how do I know when to harvest them?

Since I didn't have a lot of interesting things to photograph today, I thought I would show you how beautiful Grandma's garden looks right now:

Checking In

I've been rather busy of late so I haven't even visited my vegetables for about two weeks, let alone done any gardening. Today I managed to stop by and see how things are doing. I'm afraid I found the lower garden in a worse state than when I last saw it. The few peas and broccoli that had been clinging to life are gone and I only see three scraggly little onions. Grandma says if the foliage is healthy then the edible part underneath the soil is fine too, but I don't know if they're going to hold out much longer.

The upper garden, on the other hand, is very happy. I need to do some weeding and replace the leaf bed under the tomatoes, but everything is growing well. The heat is favoring the eggplants and peppers, as you can see from this eggplant:

 

 The carrots are growing like weeds as well, and there are bunches of green tomatoes, some round and some pear-shaped.

While it's turned out to be a much smaller operation than I originally intended, it's still going well, all things considered.

Tomatoes

There's not too much going on these days, but I did give my tomatoes a little bit of attention yesterday. Their bed needed fluffing so I poured a flesh layer of leaves around them. One of them is already growing a tiny green tomato!

Grandma was also kind enough to plant some more lettuce and spinach for me. It may not do well in this heat, but it can't hurt to try.

This might be the least exciting blog post since Al Gore invented the Internet. Sometimes gardens just don't do anything worth writing about. Thanks for reading anyway.