last year in honor of earth day, the realty company that owns the building that i work in, gave out tiny little trees and encouraged us to plant them.
so i planted the wee thing and hoped for the best.
and check it out! a year later, it's bigger!!!
maybe not a lot taller, but he's got five branches!
this year, they gave us packets of forget-me-not seeds. I'm going to plant those too and see what happens.
happy earth day everyone!
it has gotten abruptly fall like here in New England in the last few days. and in fact yesterday there was talk of overnight frost in the northern sections of my county of residence.
normally this would be fine with me. i like it when the temps get brisk. but not this year.
see, i still have seven tomatoes, pretty much half of my non rotted tomato crop for the year (i know, pretty pathetic) ripening on their vines.
and there's no way in hell i'm letting them freeze to death.
so i knit them little sweaters.
well, technically not sweaters. more like little capes. because tomatoes don't have arms, so they don't really need sleeves.
heh heh. i can't tell you how much these amuse me.
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day 154 -- heh.
with j out of town tonight, i was on my own for dinner. i prepare virtually all of the meals in our household mostly because i don't think oreo cookies and munchos make for a proper dinner. but that's just me.
anyway, since my mother-in-law had given me tomatoes from her garden (nice red ones) and i had one ugly red one and 2 small green ones that that fallen off too early, i decided to make myself some dinner.
so i chopped up the tomatoes and sauteed the green tomatoes in some olive oil and garlic. once they were soft, i threw in the ripe tomatoes (tasted my ugly red one and damn did it not suck) and a small handful of coarsely chopped up basil (from my garden, thank you very much).
salt and pepper, and plopped on top of some pasta with shredded parmesan cheese, i have to admit it was pretty yummy.
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day 130 -- j would have hated this. he's so lame sometimes.
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day 114 -- i had a fun day today. i just wish i didn't live so far from everyone.
last time i talked about my tomatoes, this is what was going on.
that was two weeks ago, so it's time for an update.
the good news ...
this is what my tomato plants look like. i didn't really think twice about how crazy the foliage was until i saw claudia's plants and ashley's.
the bad news ....
they've got actual red tomatoes. i do not. maybe if my first couple hadn't contracted the rot, i'd have red tomatoes now. who knows.
the good news ...
i have about 15 smaller green tomatoes (and a couple of bud fruits) growing ROT FREE!!
it's been a little nerve wracking though. see, norma told me that to prevent the rot and yellowing leaves, i needed to treat my tomatoes with epsom salts (for the magnesium) and bone meal for the calcium. the thing is, although i had epsom salt at home, i didn't have bone meal and i didn't have time before my long weekend away to go pick any up. and i didn't want to leave the plants untreated for 4 additional days. so i got creative. and planted a TUMS at the base of each plant. i figured it couldn't hurt and TUMS are made up of calcium carbonate.
and so far it's working.
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day 110 -- i also had some of my basil on my pasta for dinner
norma talked about this happening. and i listened. oh i did. but i misunderstood and thought it didn't apply to me. and now i'm paying the price.
(the top tomato was picked in haste by the way. it doesn't seem to be affected by the scourge that is blossom end rot).
so in the hopes of salvaging something, i'm going to try and cut out the rotten parts and then i'm going to fry what's left and see if it's palatable. it won't kill me, will it?
and i'm going to pick up some bone meal, fertilizer and epsom salts tonight on my way home.
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day 96 -- if you don't hear from me tomorrow it means that the tomatoes killed me.
first thing most mornings, after i've poured myself a cup of coffee, i go check my tomatoes. this morning was no different.
but when i went to open the door, through the window, i saw this tiny little baby bunny munching on dandelions.
i opened the door as quietly as i could, sure he would bolt as soon as he saw me, and instead of running off, he crouched down in the grass and sat perfectly still.
and the whole time i was out there, he didn't move a muscle. after a couple of minutes, i went back into the house, and watched him run to safety.
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day 90 -- sure i fell in love with the tiny bunny, but if he touches the tomatoes, his name is "stew."
i've been thinking about starting a lot of projects but have only been able to obsess about babette. i've got two more sections to go, but they just happened to be the biggest sections. i hope to be finished by the end of the month.
here's one of my favorite squares.
and my garden is progressing.
tomatoes! see, there's two of them there. the bigger one is about an inch and a half in diameter.
and lettuce! in a week maybe i'll have enough for a salad!
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day 82 -- back to work tomorrow
the sky turned dark late yesterday afternoon and after a quick bout of thunder and lightening, the sun came out. but only in the west. the rest of the sky was still dark so i ran outside with the camera in the hopes of finding a rainbow.
and i found two!
also, here's this week's gardening update. the tomato plants are growing. i swear they're considerably bigger and i see a couple of buds coming in on one of the plants. no cilantro yet, but i see tiny basil leaves pushing through the dirt. finally, the lettuce is a little out of control. i basically just threw all of the seeds from the packet into the pot. i don't think i was supposed to do that. oh well, tonight i bought another container, and tomorrow i'll thin them out.
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day 64 -- i may not have a black thumb after all.
so i've never been much of a gardener. a couple of years ago i tried my hand at growing herbs, which was fine, but unsatisfying and last year i tried sunflowers and that was disheartening at best. part of the problem, i know, is that i don't know what the hell i'm doing and i become overwhelmed with the details. reading up on the topic just makes me feel as if i know even less than before i started reading up on the topic and that makes me realize that i will never know anything and i just want to give up.
and then norma comes along with her garden tutorial "along." and she promises me that i can grow something in free standing containers, and that she'll hold my hand (figuratively of course, but i'm sure that if i needed her to hold my hand for a second or two -- not too long of course -- that she would. maybe to make up for the fact that she mispronounces my name sometimes) and tell me exactly what i need to do.
so last saturday i did some shopping at my friendly neighborhood home center and came home with some potting soil, some seeds, and some tomato plants.
i've started small. some cilantro (i'm all about cilantro) and basil.
lettuces.
and some big boy tomatoes (i accidentally also picked up a big beef tomato plant).
i planted according to package directions. (they could stand to be a little more explicit by the way, the instructions on the packages but norma says not to sweat it too much.)
so now i'm just waiting for something to happen. norma promises me that something will.
grow damn it!
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day 61 -- *sigh*
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