First harvest.

Peas!

Small harvest, but a harvest. Tim and I picked these few little peas yesterday right before our thunderstorm. They are so sweet. I never liked peas, but man, they are delish right off the plant. So sweet and crunchy. I don't know if I'll get any more peas off these plants or if they are done. I know that if I don't get out there and weed that the weeds are going to do them in.

I also noticed that a couple of our potato plants have flower buds on them. I need to do some more reading on potatoes but I think when it flowers that is an indication that there are potatoes underground. I think I have to pile some more dirt around the bottoms. Again, it will require some reading. This is why this is an experiment I guess. I don't know what the heck to expect. It' fun learning along the way. Look at these plants. I think they all grew another 2 inches in the three days that we were in NY. Crazy.

Buds on potato plant.


Forest of potatoes.

For some reason almost all of my beans are done. I don't know if I transplanted them too early of if they didn't get enough water or animals enjoyed them. I have two wax bean plants left out of all the ones I put out there. I think it's too late in the season to grow any more. I don't know if I'll plant beans again next year. I probably will and try and do it a little differently and see if I get a better outcome.

Brian...you had a question about re-potting a tomato. It can be done. Two years ago we didnt' have access to a nice in ground garden area and we had a deck garden. I grew tomatoes in a big pot along with Tim's hot pepper heaven. All you have to do is get a pot that is bigger than the one it's currently in. Fill the pot with a good soil, add some compost or other organic fertilizer and then put the tomatoes in with a stake or a cage. It's easy getting the tomato plant into the pot. Just turn it upside down in it's current container and carefully squeeze the pot to loosen the soil and it will drop into your hands. If the roots are all balled up you carefully loosen the soil up and kind of tear up the roots a bit. Drop it into it's new home and put in a stake or cage at that point. And then water. We made the mistake of not staking/caging it when we planted. I had no idea the plant would get as big as it did and when it started producing tomatoes they kind of fell all over the place. It needs support. We had to try and slide this cage over a huge plant and I think we lost a couple of branches. Lesson learned. I actually think I like the idea of stakes even better. That's what we've been doing on all of the tomato plants this year. We have to keep tying them up as they grow but they seem to grow better when they are not trying to conform to a cage.


tomato plant grown on deck in 2006.

I have a lot to do in the house today because yesterday was a loss for anything. I will get out into the garden either later today or tomorrow. We are supposed to have perfect weather this week, if not a little chilly. Our highs this week supposed to be in the high 60's and low 70's. Nice weeding weather.

Have a great day!