Category: Garden

Volunteer plants are always fun.  Nature has done the selection process for me.  I don’t have to cull or deal with failed germination–just transplant and be rewarded with a hardier stock, already more adapted to my specific micro-climate.  I mentioned these plants previously, but now I have actual fruit.

I still don’t seem to be having major problems with the vine borers either, so maybe everything’s happily maintaining in symbiosis.  I’ve also been pretty generous with the nitrogen additives, given through foliar feeding, which has yielded giant leaves, resembling tropical undergrowth.

I have two promising jack aspirants:

–Simon

I realize of course that it’s a little silly to get excited about mint growing well, but look at the size of this sprig:

And this was only one of several sprigs that Liz cut, as it was starting to crowd the rest of the herb garden.  And so, faced with the conundrum of too much mint, what should we do?  It would be a shame to waste it.

If you know anything about me, then you probably already figured out what happened.  Hehe–MOJITOS!  Some classics are eternal for a reason.

–Simon

If you recall, this is the experimental gardening year, and from the seed vault I have planted a pickling cucumber vine, and despite the presence of vine borers, it appears to be doing very well.

I came back from Wisconsin to see these guy on the vine.  As they were not normal cucumbers, I was uncertain when to pick them.  A quick Google search revealed that they could be picked at any time, so I guess they don’t suffer as much from bitterness if they get bigger?  Liz also concluded that they were ready, so I was convinced.  She also referred to them as “salad cucumbers”, so I presumed she had some prior experience with the variety.

I found them pleasantly very crunchy, and milder than I expected.  They didn’t have that strong cucumber-y aftertaste.  They’re also very prolific.  I anticipate a future experiment with homemade pickles.

–Simon