Bounty

I have been enjoying eating from my garden. Tomato’s: heritage Cherokee and Floridana, Big Boys and Romas. They had small brown worms at first, but eventually either I picked them off, or they matured into butterflies/moths. It stopped being a problem. Every day I have been cutting up a tomato and eating it with salt, pepper, and a little olive oil as a mid morning snack.

Three huge papayas have ripened on the 2 Red Queen trees over by the white fence. (Note Chapstick for scale in photo.) Absolutely delicious. The trees were expensive. So I’m going to try to grow more from seeds. 

The leeks are doing okay, but need more light. Onions should have been thinned; we are eating them as spring onions. Carrots also needed thinning. We are eating them as minis. 

The strawberries are meh. One blueberry plant is dying, another lost most of its berries in a hard rain, the 3rd is now producing enough for me to have a handful on my cereal each morning. Yesterday I saw a male cardinal eat 1 ripe blueberry, but the birds haven’t been a problem so far. The blackberries are putting out leaves and a few flowers right now. They are even regrowing among the bananas I planted in their previous bed by the fence since I did not dig up all the roots when I moved them. I will ask Betsy about relocating/replanting all the berries when she comes next month.

This has all been such a joy. I am really pleased with my meager harvest. Next up: Beauregard sweet potatoes, both from the roots that I didn’t dig quite all up and the slips I made from one little saved potato. I have Seminole pumpkins in big pots, but they are too hard to keep watered, so I’ve planted 3 in the leek bed.

Yesterday I transplanted 5 black eyed pea plants to the vegetable bed. I have to start okra. I see bananas on 2 trees. I hope more will flower soon. I must get the potassium on them soon.