I read something recently:  "If at first you don't succeed...you must be a gardener."  Now, this is the kind of cutesy saying bad gardening books are full of, but this one went on to contend that gardeners are stubborn and that, indeed, stubbornness is actually a good quality in a gardener since so many things can and do go wrong each season.  Okay, maybe that last part was my own projection.  But!  Gardening has taught me to try again and again and, stubbornly, again.  It took me three years to grow an eggplant but, dammit, I finally did it.

tomatoes (and two blackberries)!

What can I say, it's tomato time.  I'll write a more in-depth post about what varieties I grew this year and how I liked or didn't like them but - spoiler alert - they were all pretty great.  Especially the yellow pears.  With so many tomatoes I've been making my default tomato sauce and it tastes great but looks a little...well, like puke.  I casually mentioned that to my boyfriend as I served him a dinner of pasta in that sauce and he kindly asked me never to describe it that way to him again and then cleaned his plate and went back for more.  A keeper, I say!

It's that great time of year when we get to enjoy the literal fruits of our labors:  lots and lots of tomatoes!

a day's harvest

I know this black krim is not very...black.  I was going to let it ripen on the counter for a few days before eating it (I thought to myself), but then my boyfriend cut it up and served it for dinner that night.  It was delicious and I'm never one to complain about being made dinner but next time I will tell him my plan instead of just thinking it.  You know, communication.  Hey maybe I should start a relationship blog!  JUST KIDDING.

Lastly, I've been enjoying lots of really sweet blackberries from a plant I got from the nursery at Bartram's Garden:



They are really plump and really good.  Sometimes blackberries are too...hard? for me but these just melt in your mouth.  Also the plant is thornless which is nice considering I planted it right in the middle of my yard and frequently have to push its branches out of the way to get around it.

fancy eggplant

Keep watering!!  Hopefully we'll get rain soon.

That magical time has come when everything is in bloom!

pretty flower

As you can see, the cucumbers and the tomatoes are kind of in, ah, cahoots because maybe I planted them a bit too close together.  But I think they can both stand their ground - you can do it, little ones!  And maybe soon I'll have some cucumbers to show for it.  I grew (or tried to grow) squash the first year I did this and only got flowers, probably because they were not pollinated.  There seems to be lots more pollinators in my West Philly garden than there were in my South Philly garden so I'm hoping my tactic of not manually pollinating will work this time.  We'll find out soon!

The day has come!

eggplant!

More on the rest of the garden soon, but I just could not contain my excitement over my first eggplant.  Success!!

what is that?? (besides my chipped nail polish)

Listen, I don't want to jinx this but that looks like the beginnings of an eggplant to me!

Wow!  So many new things!  And more, too, next week!

I don't have that many new pictures because it's been raining so much and I am loathe to go out in the rain just to take some blurry pictures of tomato plants.  But rest assured they are growing fast and are enjoying the rain.  So let's take a look at all the other plants that I tend to neglect in favor of vegetables in the summer.

Above is lavender and what I assumed was Lamb's Ear until these bright magenta flower showed up.  Turns out it's rose campion and I'm not entirely sure where it came from!  On the left side of the picture is a blackberry (or possibly raspberry) from Bartram's Garden.  I get it last summer and it's starting to flower so maybe I will get some berries?  We'll see.

The excitement of this week was when I harvested some beans...11 of them, to be exact.  They seem a little small but the pods were turning yellow so I looked in one and hey!  beans.  I'm letting these dry and hopefully I will get more so I can make something with them.  Next year I promise I'll plant more than one bean plant.

Other than that I've been frantically staking my tomato plants to keep up with all this growth.  More pictures next week, once things dry up a bit!

I don't have that many new pictures because it's been raining so much and I am loathe to go out in the rain just to take some blurry pictures of tomato plants.  But rest assured they are growing fast and are enjoying the rain.  So let's take a look at all the other plants that I tend to neglect in favor of vegetables in the summer.

Above is lavender and what I assumed was Lamb's Ear until these bright magenta flower showed up.  Turns out it's rose campion and I'm not entirely sure where it came from!  On the left side of the picture is a blackberry (or possibly raspberry) from Bartram's Garden.  I get it last summer and it's starting to flower so maybe I will get some berries?  We'll see.

The excitement of this week was when I harvested some beans...11 of them, to be exact.  They seem a little small but the pods were turning yellow so I looked in one and hey!  beans.  I'm letting these dry and hopefully I will get more so I can make something with them.  Next year I promise I'll plant more than one bean plant.

Other than that I've been frantically staking my tomato plants to keep up with all this growth.  More pictures next week, once things dry up a bit!

Hello!  My plants have now been outside for a month and besides some cold nights about a week ago it's been smooth sailing.  Let's look back and see how much these cuties have grown.

Here they are on May 2nd after having survived the first night outside:

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pitiful[/caption]

Here's the next day...looking quite bedraggled from all the sun (note to self:  next year don't worry about hardening off but do give them a few days of partial sun before going all in):

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poor things[/caption]

But then things started looking up.  Here they are on May 7th, growing well:

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hi friends[/caption]

Here's the whole bed on May 8th, still looking pretty sparse:

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lots of dirt[/caption]

Here are some baby beets on May 10th:

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beets[/caption]

Here's the whole bed on May 16th, getting a little greener.  I actually had too much room and had to go out and buy some more veggies (starts cause I was too late for seeds) from Greensgrow.  I got an eggplant (still trying to get just one eggplant, maybe the third time's the charm?), Green Zebra tomato, yellow pear tomato, some lemon cucumbers and zucchini:

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now with irrigation![/caption]

May 20th:

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are we getting sick of the same picture yet??[/caption]

May 22nd:

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hey, slightly different angle![/caption]

Which brings us to today, the last day of May:

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lots of growth thanks to all that rain![/caption]

Almost all of the tomatoes are staked (or, uh, should be...) and last night I made myself a very little salad of arugula, beet greens and baby chard.  Pretty good!  My father came down and helped me with those trellises, which are just from the South Philly Lowe's painted with leftover paint from the trim of my house.  I think I may paint the raised bed that color, too.  The wall is my neighbor's garage and he graciously told me to do whatever I wanted with it, including drilling things into it.  Thanks, Matt!

So here's what it all looks like now that the back is cleared:

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little yard[/caption]

That back patch of dirt will hopefully be grass soon and next year I'd like to get some of the concrete out of there, but for now the concrete is integral in keeping the weeds away.  And I think my plants are loving the raised bed!  They should, there are like 40 gallons of Bennett Compost in there.

And now it's June (almost) and the real growing will begin.  And the real test of the irrigation system.  But one month in the raised bed is looking good!

Hello!  My plants have now been outside for a month and besides some cold nights about a week ago it's been smooth sailing.  Let's look back and see how much these cuties have grown.

Here they are on May 2nd after having survived the first night outside:

Here's the next day...looking quite bedraggled from all the sun (note to self:  next year don't worry about hardening off but do give them a few days of partial sun before going all in):

But then things started looking up.  Here they are on May 7th, growing well:

Here's the whole bed on May 8th, still looking pretty sparse:

Here are some baby beets on May 10th:

Here's the whole bed on May 16th, getting a little greener.  I actually had too much room and had to go out and buy some more veggies (starts cause I was too late for seeds) from Greensgrow.  I got an eggplant (still trying to get just one eggplant, maybe the third time's the charm?), Green Zebra tomato, yellow pear tomato, some lemon cucumbers and zucchini:

May 20th:

are we getting sick of the same picture yet??

May 22nd:

hey, slightly different angle!

Which brings us to today, the last day of May:

lots of growth thanks to all that rain!

Almost all of the tomatoes are staked (or, uh, should be...) and last night I made myself a very little salad of arugula, beet greens and baby chard.  Pretty good!  My father came down and helped me with those trellises, which are just from the South Philly Lowe's painted with leftover paint from the trim of my house.  I think I may paint the raised bed that color, too.  The wall is my neighbor's garage and he graciously told me to do whatever I wanted with it, including drilling things into it.  Thanks, Matt!

So here's what it all looks like now that the back is cleared:

That back patch of dirt will hopefully be grass soon and next year I'd like to get some of the concrete out of there, but for now the concrete is integral in keeping the weeds away.  And I think my plants are loving the raised bed!  They should, there are like 40 gallons of Bennett Compost in there.

And now it's June (almost) and the real growing will begin.  And the real test of the irrigation system.  But one month in the raised bed is looking good!