It’s finally gotten warm and sunny here in Vancouver, BC. That means good times are coming for my garden, right? Well let’s see…!
First, the balcony plants!
The Beans – … Seriously?
After the toxic mushroom incident, I changed out much of the soil in the bean planter. As a result, the beans have gotten taller and more bean-like. A few flowers bloomed. And then… one bean. Yep. One lousy bean. “Fruitful and high-yielding varietal” my ass.
The Tomatoes – Success! *happy dance*
In July, I reported the growth of one lovely baby tomato. A month later? We have over 30 little tumbler tomatoes growing on our two plants! In fact, not only do we have little fruits, we have HARVESTED little fruits. Indeed, we have harvested… TWO tomatoes! I’m super excited (can you tell?). I’ve never had this many tomatoes grow, EVER. I am a little concerned about the lack of foliage on the plants. They don’t seem to be as leafy as I would expect and many buds withered without fruiting, but perhaps that is due to the lack of direct sunlight.
The Oregano and Thyme – Still an epic success!
Both herbs are still growing happily and beautifully together. I’ve had to harvest in quite a bit actually, and I’m not sure what to do with it all. I’ve never attempted to dry herbs, but this year might be the first. My oregano has even started flowering. Any ideas? Hit me up for fresh herbs!
The Watercress – Hmmmmm….
The watercress seems to have died down a bit. I am not sure if it has caught a disease or if the earlier growth used up too many nutrients. It’s still producing, but not nearly as much as before. The leaves are not growing as large and many turn brown before maturing. It is a bit puzzling.
And, readers might remember that Brian and I started a community garden plot back in July. Well, so far, no one has stolen any of our veggies (as far as I know…) and, overall, the garden is growing quite well.
More tomatoes! – Success!
Yes, we have three more tomato plants growing. They were gifts from the UBC Farm, given out to all the community gardeners. I was a bit skeptical when we received them. The plants were scraggly and wilting. But a bit of dirt, some string and some wooden stakes, a bit of sun and voila! Beautiful, bushy tomato plants. These varietals produce a larger fruit than tumblers, so I’m excited to see what we get. There are already 4 tomatoes growing!
Lettuce, Butter Lettuce, and … Greens
We got 2 lettuce plants, 2 butter lettuce plants and 2 plants of unknown type. Some kind of Asian choy. Anyhow, they’re all doing GREAT. The leaves are getting big and they should be ready for a first harvest in a few weeks. We scattered some egg shells around them to try to prevent slug attacks, but judging from the holes being made in my greens, something is still eating my plants. I may have to bring out CF’s Bug and Cat Spray. We’ve harvested a small bundle of leaves from the lettuces and have already made two salads. Yum!
Zucchinis – Growing, growing, growing…
Our garden plot has FOUR zucchini plants, which in retrospect may be too many for this size of planter. They are growing well, with lots of leaves and new shoots coming up but no sign of squash yet. I’m a little concerned for one of the plants – I dug it out and moved it a bit further away from the other plant the other week and it’s looked a bit wilted since then. Hopefully I didn’t mangle the roots while shifting it over.
Green onion and ginger – Meh!
We’re also growing ginger and some green onion. Plants like garlic, ginger and green onion are good at keeping away certain bugs, so it’s nice to grow them here and there. Green onion is interesting, as it will seem to die off before sprouting new shoots. My parents grow green onion every year, and without fail, you will lose all the shoots that originally came with the plant before the plants starts to mature to a point where it can be harvested. So I’m being patient. Plus I hate onions. Bleh! I love ginger though, so I’m excited to plant it. However, it’s unlikely that we would be able to harvest any rhizomes until next year. The rhizome that I planted has sprouted, so with any luck, the ginger will have some time to grow before the end of the season.
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So that’s that! Brian and I have already saved a lot of money with our garden and it looks like we will save a lot more before the season is over. Things are going well and I suspect that when the end of August rolls around, I’ll have a lot more news to report!
