Adventures of a Maude in Training

Our garden is turning into a tomato jungle. I did not anticipate some of the plants getting five feet tall. Yikes. Some have gotten so big already they've tipped their cages. ptor just helped me with some emergency staking and the plants are much more stable now.

And, damn, there is a lot of fruit out there. I wish it would hurry up and rippen.

The tomatillo plants are getting ready to set fruit as well which is great. I wish I'd gotten more of them going. I probably also did not need this many tomato plants and could have had a more diverse garden, but oh well--I have serious moderation issues when it comes to tomatoes. At least I have many, many different kinds of tomatoes--it is fascinating to see all the different shapes, colors and sizes of the fruit. I am very glad we got that canning book and some canning supplies.

The sunflowers are blooming up a storm and a few are reaching the eight foot mark. Quite gorgeous and large, which makes me very happy.

My tomato plants are starting to fruit. Yay! The sunflowers are also growing and many should be opening soon. Much happiness.

My marmande tomatoes starting to fruit. I grew these from seed.


( more garden photos )

A few weeks ago I planted my first tomato seeds in their little start-greenhouse.  I got 12 starts, which dwindled to 9 and I didn't get as much variety as I wanted (I bought 14 varieties of heirloom seeds this year).  I had used the lid on the container which turned out to be a mistake as it got too humid and that retarded the start process.  So, I cleaned out the non-used slots and replanted some seeds and didn't place the lid on.

Holy crap.

I now have 43 starts all of which look viable.  And they are still sprouting.  Yes, we have a yard, but it's not that big.  I am going to thin them soon to get the numbers down and so that those sharing slots will have a better chance. 

But, crap, I didn't except this many. I mean, I love tomatoes and all and wish I could have forty plus plants, but that just seems a bit excessive.

We will probably invest in some containers to put on the deck so we can have even more tomato-planting space, but we will still probably have many plants that can go to good homes in a few weeks.

loracs? Anyone?

We braved Home Despot on a Saturday afternoon because we needed to rent a tiller. We also needed a garden cart and they had a model we really like there. Renting the tiller was easy. Getting the damned garden cart was a ridculously complicated experience. Let's just say if you are too lazy/stupid/hungover/stoned, or any combination thereof, to handle your job as one of the many random clerks in the garden department (which was way overstaffed, even for a very busy Saturday), then maybe you should just quit and save us all the trouble. So damned obnoxious and tiring. But get the cart we did. Then we went to the San Leandro dump where there was a line (it didn't occur to me there would be a line at the dump) and we got a truckload of compost for the garden. Then home and ptor assembled the garden cart and I pulled the remaining onions out of the garden bed that was to be tilled, and started on my tomato seed planting while visiting with catzen. I got the seeds all planted and labeled in their start containers and ptor poured the compost and tilled the garden area (tilling at this point in the pregnancy was determined to not be the wisest thing). Now we have a nice garden area all turned over and filled with compost. Yay! Tomato seeds are in their mini-greenhouse thing in the window box and tomorrow we will plant sunflowers and a few other things out in the garden.

I felt well enough this evening to actually make a full dinner and we both were happy with it. We had salad of red leaf lettuce and baby spinach with gorgonzola crumbles and homemade balsamic vinaigrette, mashed potatoes made with fingerling and russet potatoes with spring garlic and onions (from the garden), sunburst squash and snow peas stir fried with olive oil, garlic and lemon, and some veggie buffalo wings. It was all very good, but I made way too much of the potatoes, so we will be eating those for a few days. The sunburst squash was particularly good. I had dessert of a kiwi fruit and ptor had some port.

ptor is resting on the couch and I am going to take a bath, then bed, then rehearsal in the morning and more garden and house chores throughout the day. Lots to do, lots to do.

I took advantage of the nice light at about 7:00pm and got some nice shots of our thistles and other garden things in our backyard.

Baby Artichoke


Volunteer Calla Lily


( a couple more here )

I ordered heirloom tomato seeds yesterday. Yay! I cannot wait until tomato season. So, so excited. I showed restraint when ordering and only purchased fourteen varieties. ( my purchases )

I made homemade bruschetta for the first time tonight and it was fabulous. Homegrown tomatoes and basil added to its wonderfulness.

I also made walnut pesto that was frikkin' fabulous mixed with some fresh tomatoes on pasta. Yum, yum, yum!

For a break, I finally got some new photos uploaded and decided to share:

red sunflower glowing from sunlight


ripening tomatoes


garden harvest


beautiful Harlie


Lots of other new photos have been added to Harlie's set and the garden set.

Full garden set here.

Full Harlie set here

From my time in the garden today:

Halfway open


Glowing sunflower


( Cut for the insect squeamish )

As usual, the pictures link to the full sets which have been updated today.

Of course, Harlie's set has been updated as well :)

Slowish day (day off from rehearsal--yay!)--we had lunch with catzen, got the oil changed in the Scion, got ptor some more shorts and me some more dance tanks at Old Navy, poked around the yard, spent some extra-nice time together, went for nice walk, and are now getting ready to make soup and work on more thank you notes.

While in the garden today I took some more garden pictures. The sunflowers are starting to bloom and the tomatoes are beginning to really ripen.
An example:

Click on the photo to see the full set.

I also took some (more) Harlie pictures and started a set:

Click on Harlie to see the full set.