Our First Place

Garden update - August 25th, 2007

It's been a while since I have done an update on the garden. I stayed out of the garden to avoid getting anymore unsightly misquito bites before the wedding and the weeds just took over. It worked out well that we were home for a week after the wedding before going away on our minimoon. It gave me a chance to clean up the house before going away. I consolidated my wedding piles into one giant wedding pile and put it in my office (spare bedroom) to hide it. I don't know how I am going to get rid of everything.

Without further ado, here are some wedding gifts from my garden. The newest thing was I have green bell peppers in my garden. I wonder if peppers are meant to be late in the season. We seasoned them with oo, s&p, and grilled them. They are meant to be eaten while they are small (like the size of an apple). They taste really sweet when small.

I also have tons of eggplant. They too are picked while they are still "small". Most people are under the impression that veggies are supposed to look like those overgrown, tasteless masses you see in the supermarket. The smaller, the less seeds as well. We also grilled these and they were perfect. Nice and fleshy, no seeds.

Right away, I recognized that the cantelope was ready to be picked and eaten! Previously, they were still too "raw" to eat and tasted like a cucumber. You know they are ripe when they are really orange in color and you can see that color through the skin. They wrip right off the vine and are slightly tender to the touch. They should be eaten soon after you pick it. They were so juicy and sweet! I have lots more too!

And now my PRIDE AND JOY! As we were weeding and mowing the lawn, we saw that one watermelon was eaten by an animal. Looking at the flesh on the inside, we could tell that all the watermelons must be ripe! I don't feel bad that it got eaten because it's hard to tell when a watermelon is really ripe. So that clears me of the guilt of having to sacrifice one as I did with the cantelope to see when they are ripe.

Blogging about the garden has really come in handy because now I can look back to see how many weeks it took the watermelon. We tapped on it and it's very "hollow" sounding and the sound "bounces back". That's how you know it's ripe and juicy. We had a total of 6 significant watermelons. We ate 2, gave 2 away, 1 eaten by the animal and we still have 1 more in the garden. They taste just like a watermelon! We were really shocked that they grew so we were really suprised when we had a watermelon good enough to eat!

Then I have tons of tomatoes, chilli peppers and pirella leaves. I can't give them away fast enough! Everyday, there's 40 more tomatoes to be picked! The okra stopped for a little while and now there's all new growth and more okra! I have had 4 more butternut squash.

My LOVE! A hot pink Dahlia! Dahlias are in season now. It was the perfect shade of pink too! I planted these bulbs in the early spring. I purchased the bulbs from Home Depot. Bulbs should all be 50% off now in stores. I think I am going to stock up on some for next spring/summer. You shouldn't buy seeds or bulbs over a year old (check the expiration date on them), but I bought these last Fall which is late in the season and yet they still grew (along with my peonies). The bulbs get a chance to rest over the winter. Perennials are worth the investment.

Next year, I am not going to replant any veggies. I had way too many this year and whatever grows back (from the fruit that dropped to the ground) will be enough for two people to eat. Intentionally, I sacrificed some eggplant and threw them into the ground for next year.

Instead I am going to work on landscaping the area around the house, deck and backyard next year. I am going to line the area closest to the house with tall, colored grasses. I have seen a lot of grasses in the parks in Philly that are very hearty. They are low maintenance and grow back each year. I am going to pick them from the park, learn the name and plant them in my yard.