My Garden At Sam and Earl's house

Sam and I are doing a kind of trade right now. I give him sewing lessons - or make pillows - or pull weeds and I get to grow vegetables and herbs in one of the garden plots that he made..

I had a great crop of radishes but then I decided to plant cucumbers and squash once those got all eaten up. At first I thought that I was going to lose the squash starts because they were not looking so good, but then they snapped out of it. I also planted two more tomato plants. The two that I have growing now are an Early Girl - and I forget which one the other is. One is a determinate and the other an indeterminate. They are full of foliage and very lush. Ive got a few little tomatoes coming on and some blossoms. But it seems like they are too perfect looking. I don't trust this. Because I killed my last tomatoes last year. They just failed.

First of all, last year they were in 5 gallon containers, had inconsistent water, and were not getting enough sun. They just didn't produce much. When mushrooms started growing in the soil, I freaked out and tossed them all into a compost pile.  I know now that mushrooms growing in the soil was a good thing - but the poor plants were not doing well any way. It was hopeless. And now, of all the crazy things, Ive got little baby tomato plants growing all over the place. I guess there were a few fruits on the plants that got massacred and those seeds got spread around somehow. Birds, wind..........who knows.  Nature is strange at best and I obviously didn't kill them dead enough...............

So these current tomatoes that Ive got growing up at Sam and Earl's are in soil that has been amended and mulched. They look fabulous and I cant believe that I haven't killed them. I don't have a car yet, so I kind of just get my starts where I can get them  - these came from Home Depot. I'm not promoting Home Depot at all. I'm just letting you know where they came from if that makes a difference to you. I would rather have purchased them from an organic nursery, but we just have to do what we have to do, don't we. I'm sure they are just fine. So hopefully they will continue to be healthy plants with lots of produce! Perhaps living next to a bee hive helps them grow better. I don't trust myself with container growing, but I do have a container garden over by my house right now with varying stages of growth. More will be blogged about that later.

Ive also got a row of lettuce and carrots growing in the ground. Ive been eating lots of salads now and I swear that this lettuce tastes better than any lettuce Ive eaten from a store.

In the plot next to mine, we planted 4 tomatoes for Sam and Earl - and pole beans. I'm sure they all came from a local nursery as Sam is a gardener by trade and very concerned with organics and the environment as well. With any luck, we will have tomatoes and zucchinis coming out of our ears.

There is that mama jay again protecting her nest.