Too many plants

I admit it. I have some OCD coursing through my veins. I come by it naturally. When I came across people who sold dozens of varieties of tomatoes, it was hard for me to resist buying one of every single variety. I held myself back at about 45 varieties and 50 plants, or something like that.

I live in a city neighborhood, so I don't have a lot of extra space. I have turned half of my driveway into a garden by using so many pots. I also live on a corner, which means everyone can see into my yard, no matter where I am.

So, a couple of weeks ago, as I was wrapping up planting my pots, a car slowed down next to my yard. I thought it was going to be someone asking directions to someone's house I didn't know.

"Hey! You be selling some of them plants?"

I actually burst out laughing and said no, but it did strike a chord in me.

How fun would that be to actually grow and sell plants next year? I have always dreamed of creating decorative pots to sell.

Perhaps this year I will just settle for a roadside stand of my huge crop of tomatoes.

Triple Tomatoes!

As I have said before, I went nuts on the tomato front. I have 34 different varieties, each one in its own pot. (Okay, the Old German and the Roma are sharing one ginormous pot.) It has only been a week-and-a-half since I potted them, and they have already tripled in size! I had to realign the pots to give them all more space!

If they keep this up, I may have to spread them even farther apart. I have no idea where they will go, then!

One of the pots even has a baby tomato already forming! It's still only May! I am so excited, because I am hoping this is a sign of what is to come.

People keep joking that I am going to be able to have a roadside stand this year. How fun would that be?

Connecting with my parents through the garden

Last weekend, I woke up feeling antsy, so I went to the Rochester Public Market. I love it there. Lots of vendors supply the city with fresh produce and goods. Right now it is also Flower Days, which means excellent deals on flowers and vegetables. Trying to find a parking place is a serious problem, though, and frustrates me to no end. I was ecstatic to finally find one right inside the market next to one of the coffee shops. It made it easier to spend way too much money.

I was on a mission to find someone who sold a variety of tomatoes. Last year, I remember seeing a group that had all kinds of varieties I had never seen before. I am a huge fan of the "nibbler" varieties that you can just pick right off of the plant and pop into your mouth. I have been known to have a full tomato lunch while sitting out in my yard. I do also like other varieties and want to try more. To my delight, there was a woman known as "The Tomato Lady" who easily had 50-60 different varieties. I started gathering every "nibbler" I could. She gave me a great deal since I was buying so many kinds. I ended up with 21 plants (all different, mind you) for $32. And the plants were beautiful. I picked up a few more from a couple of other vendors and then a couple more at the nursery after. Grand total of tomatoes to be potted: 34 - all different varieties.

I kept wandering around, looking for some good annuals. The nursery/farm market I go to has excellent prices on their flats. Unfortunately, most of the vendors at the Public Market were higher. I had passed someone who had flats for $13 apiece while I was collecting my tomatoes, but couldn't find that person again. I did eventually find someone who was selling flats at 2 for $25. I relieved him of his last two flats of lobelia. Those are one of my absolute favorites. Once those were loaded in my car, I headed to the farm market and spent more money on lots more flowers and veggies.

I spent the next 8 hours or so, sweating away in my yard. I cleaned out a couple of the beds and planted a whopping half-flat of annuals. I got all of the tomatoes potted, though!

Working on the tomatoes made me really miss my mom. She grew up on a farm and one of their major crops was tomatoes. It was tempting to try to call her and see if she would be able to talk to me about it. But the last time I tried, she could barely get out more than five words at once.

I also spent a lot of time working on the big bed on the side of the house. My father helped me put that together after I had dug it all up. I had reinjured an old break in my ankle the week before their visit, so I spent a lot of time scooting on my butt to place the rocks and plants. I exhausted myself shopping while hobbling on crutches. But we did it all together. I can feel him in the flowers when I am out there.

I still have so much work to be done. Unfortunately, this weekend I have been plagued with the stomach bug AGAIN from the little darlings at school. I hope to get out there in another day or two when I am feeling better!

Fresh from the garden dinner!

The Rochester weather has been crappy and rainy lately, living little to no time for paying in the dirt. When it has been sunny, I'm usually engaged elsewhere.

Finally, yesterday, after spending numerous hours working for others in their yards, I came home and started wandering around my own. My produce has been taunting me, growing bigger and bigger, but not yielding anything. And finally last night, I hit the jackpot! Sort of.

My red raspberry bushes finally had a bunch of ripened berries on them. There is nothing better than a raspberry eaten straight off of the bush! The ones that you get in the stores are simply picked too early and don't have that same ripe, sweet taste.

The original pea plants, which I had thought were finished yielding pods, are starting to flower again. There were two actual pods that were ready. The green bean plants also had a ton of beans that were over 6 inches long! So, I ended up with a nice bowl full of beans, peas, and berries to eat for dinner.



I steamed the peas and beans. I don't think I have ever had peas that were so sweet! And the beans were so tasty and sweet as well! I wish I had better adjectives, but I don't!

I have newer peas and beans starting to flower, and even more that I had planted later, so I should be getting crops all season long. I can't wait! The handful tonight was a little small, but I should have enough for tomorrow's dinner.

The other fun bit was, as I was harvesting the peas and beans, I checked out the corn. And the first set of corn stalks that I had planted are now almost as tall as I am and have corn silk!



So far there are four sporting silk on four of the plants. One is still a little dwarfed by the pea plants, and the sixth one looks like it is getting ready to sprout some silk. You can actually see the little cobs starting to form! I'm so excited!!

The other 24 corn plants I had purchased are slowly but surely growing, as well.

My smaller tomatoes are growing better than the larger varieties. I'm hoping to have some ripened cherry, grape, and pear varieties later this week!

Rain, Rain Go Away!!

It is almost 4 pm and it has been consistently raining since I woke up today at 6:15. Sometimes it has let up, but most of the day it has been coming down at quite a clip. Normally the rain is a good thing for those flowers and produce that I have growing in the yard, but there is such a thing as TOO MUCH of a good thing. Since Wednesday afternoon, it has only really stopped raining for approximately twelve hours, and that was yesterday.

I briefly checked things out yesterday during the brief sunshine, and I noticed that the flowers are indeed looking good. It's too bad I haven't had a chance to plant all of those flats, yet!

But some of the produce isn't so lush. I had planted a bunch of tomato seeds in six-packs, just like I did last year. I don't know if they were washed out a while ago, or if there was a problem with the seeds. And then I had tried planting some directly into pots, just to compare the two methods. The rain has shifted a couple of the seedlings in the big pot. Another one isn't draining for some reason, and it has totally flooded.

But the berries at least are looking plump and tasty! The rain is supposed to be gone by tomorrow afternoon, so I guess I will assess the damage then.

And then I'll be begging for rain by this time next week. I checked weather.com and there is just sun throughout the entire ten-day forecast. Too bad I can't bottle some of this rain to save for then!