(Editor’s Note: Due to an unavailable editor AGAIN, Sarah’s column is appearing a day later than its usual Thursday slot. Enjoy – DP) [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Check out that squash blossom!"][/caption] I can't believe how fast these squash grew.  Seems like just yesterday they only had two little leaves each and now look at all these flowers! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="so many"][/caption] And the sunflowers, which I planted at the same time, are now a couple of feet high: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="sunflowers with one squash blossom poking its head out"][/caption] I actually ate a squash blossom salad a few days ago because I knew I was going to be getting a lot of blossoms soon and wanted to see if I liked them.  The verdict was that they are delicious but they were also deep fried and stuffed with cheese and isn't anything that's deep fried and stuffed with cheese delicious?  They did have a nice delicate squash taste, but I think I'll leave mine on the plants and wait for the squash.  These are crook-neck yellow summer squash, by the way. And other exciting things are happening!  Good thing I compulsively take pictures, because now I can show you the progression this past week: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="from this..."][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="to this..."][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="to this..."][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="to this!"][/caption] I don't think it's quite ripe enough yet to pick, but I am eagerly awaiting my first taste of homegrown tomato.  And don't for a second think that I'm going to cut it up and put it in a salad or on a sandwich or - heaven forbid - cook it...I'm going to bite into that thing like an apple and let the juice run down my chin just like I did when I was a kid.  Mmm. Anyway!  There are lots more tomatoes, all green and all different sizes.  Some are getting pretty big and some are still just pea-sized.  Here's a particularly cute pea-sized one: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="little pea"][/caption] And a few larger ones: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="check out my new stakes! bamboo just wasn't cutting it anymore."][/caption] The same time that I tried squash blossoms I also tried some fried green tomatoes.  I've had fried green tomatoes before and never really liked them, but I would like to like them so I always give them another try.  Now apparently I might not appreciate them since I didn't grow up with them and also I've never had them in the South where they are a true delicacy but seriously they just taste like unripe tomatoes to me.  And I love tomatoes so much I can't fathom why someone would pick them early to get something that tastes worse but, again, I didn't grow up with them.  I should add that these foods were all consumed at Prohibition which has great food and lots of specials for in-season stuff (hence the squash blossom salad and fried green tomatoes.)  I will also add that one of my favorite sandwiches in this city (don't ask me to choose one favorite, there are so many!) is the fried tomato special at Chickie's, which is fried red tomatoes instead of green and infinitely better, in my opinion. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="green cutie"][/caption] But I digress.  One last thing I wanted to touch on was pest control.  My plants have seemed largely pest-free but I do see holes in the leaves where little bugs have munched.  That's okay!  The main reason I'm doing this whole gardening thing organically is that one of the best things about nature is the balance:  sure, bugs eat plants but bugs also eat other bugs and I'd rather let nature take care of the pests than try to interfere.  I don't know if this is that relevant around here, but growing up our neighbors had a bug zapper (or that's what I always called it...one of those bright lights that attracts bugs to it and then kills them with a satisfying zap.)  Living in the woods there are lots of mosquitoes so in theory a bug zapper makes sense.  Only it doesn't:  turns out mosquitoes usually avoid those lights because the lights are ultraviolet and mosquitoes don't care about that.  They are more attracted to carbon dioxide and human smells.  But slightly bigger bugs - the same ones that live off a steady diet of mosquitoes - are attracted to ultraviolet light and are the main casualty of those lights.  So then you end up with more mosquitoes because their natural predators are reduced!  Here's an article that explains it a little more scientifically and gives some real evidence.  But basically a lot of pest control just ends up disrupting the balance and giving us more pests in the end.  My approach has its drawbacks, though:  a few days ago I found one of my basil leaves half eaten.  I turned over the leaf and there was a caterpillar, munching away.  Look, it got a good two-thirds of the leaf: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="that leaf is not small"][/caption] before I took it rudely away from its snack and threw it over my fence into the alley.  But not before taking a picture of the little culprit: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="this thing ate, like, three times its body size. Hope you brushed your teeth, young man!"][/caption] Upon closer inspection, that caterpillar looks like the tent caterpillar kind that I found on our tree last year.  Those are no good and kill trees so I probably should have killed it but hopefully it made a nice snack for some bird.  We don't seem to have a ton of birds in our yard, so I don't feel too bad about doing the birds' job and killing things like tent caterpillars and - my nemesis - slugs.  I have kind of a hatred of slugs (they are ugly and huge here and leave gross trails) and I do not want them anywhere near me.  If I were a better person I would probably make myself love them but until that happens I will continue to leave out saucers of beer for them to fall into and drown.  Hey, drowning in beer can't be that bad a death, right? One last thing:  my parents came down this past weekend and gave me a great present:  water in my garden! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="hose!"][/caption] After exploring the dark, scary basement which is accessible by ladder my father found a pipe leading out back with running water!  And because he's good with things like this, he attached a spigot to the water pipe outside (I won't go into details on how suffice it to say it involved a blow torch) and that awesome hose was in the basement.  Success!  Now it is a lot easier to water the plants and I'm sure I'll be spraying myself when it gets really hot out there.  Thanks again! This was longer than planned (isn't that always the way?) but here's a shot of the garden this morning: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="lush"][/caption] See you next week! Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

(Editor’s Note: Due to an unavailable editor AGAIN, Sarah’s column is appearing a day later than its usual Thursday slot. Enjoy – DP)

I can't believe how fast these squash grew.  Seems like just yesterday they only had two little leaves each and now look at all these flowers!

And the sunflowers, which I planted at the same time, are now a couple of feet high:

I actually ate a squash blossom salad a few days ago because I knew I was going to be getting a lot of blossoms soon and wanted to see if I liked them.  The verdict was that they are delicious but they were also deep fried and stuffed with cheese and isn't anything that's deep fried and stuffed with cheese delicious?  They did have a nice delicate squash taste, but I think I'll leave mine on the plants and wait for the squash.  These are crook-neck yellow summer squash, by the way.

And other exciting things are happening!  Good thing I compulsively take pictures, because now I can show you the progression this past week:

 

 

 

I don't think it's quite ripe enough yet to pick, but I am eagerly awaiting my first taste of homegrown tomato.  And don't for a second think that I'm going to cut it up and put it in a salad or on a sandwich or - heaven forbid - cook it...I'm going to bite into that thing like an apple and let the juice run down my chin just like I did when I was a kid.  Mmm.

Anyway!  There are lots more tomatoes, all green and all different sizes.  Some are getting pretty big and some are still just pea-sized.  Here's a particularly cute pea-sized one:

And a few larger ones:

The same time that I tried squash blossoms I also tried some fried green tomatoes.  I've had fried green tomatoes before and never really liked them, but I would like to like them so I always give them another try.  Now apparently I might not appreciate them since I didn't grow up with them and also I've never had them in the South where they are a true delicacy but seriously they just taste like unripe tomatoes to me.  And I love tomatoes so much I can't fathom why someone would pick them early to get something that tastes worse but, again, I didn't grow up with them.  I should add that these foods were all consumed at Prohibition which has great food and lots of specials for in-season stuff (hence the squash blossom salad and fried green tomatoes.)  I will also add that one of my favorite sandwiches in this city (don't ask me to choose one favorite, there are so many!) is the fried tomato special at Chickie's, which is fried red tomatoes instead of green and infinitely better, in my opinion.

But I digress.  One last thing I wanted to touch on was pest control.  My plants have seemed largely pest-free but I do see holes in the leaves where little bugs have munched.  That's okay!  The main reason I'm doing this whole gardening thing organically is that one of the best things about nature is the balance:  sure, bugs eat plants but bugs also eat other bugs and I'd rather let nature take care of the pests than try to interfere.  I don't know if this is that relevant around here, but growing up our neighbors had a bug zapper (or that's what I always called it...one of those bright lights that attracts bugs to it and then kills them with a satisfying zap.)  Living in the woods there are lots of mosquitoes so in theory a bug zapper makes sense.  Only it doesn't:  turns out mosquitoes usually avoid those lights because the lights are ultraviolet and mosquitoes don't care about that.  They are more attracted to carbon dioxide and human smells.  But slightly bigger bugs - the same ones that live off a steady diet of mosquitoes - are attracted to ultraviolet light and are the main casualty of those lights.  So then you end up with more mosquitoes because their natural predators are reduced!  Here's an article that explains it a little more scientifically and gives some real evidence.  But basically a lot of pest control just ends up disrupting the balance and giving us more pests in the end.  My approach has its drawbacks, though:  a few days ago I found one of my basil leaves half eaten.  I turned over the leaf and there was a caterpillar, munching away.  Look, it got a good two-thirds of the leaf:

before I took it rudely away from its snack and threw it over my fence into the alley.  But not before taking a picture of the little culprit:

Upon closer inspection, that caterpillar looks like the tent caterpillar kind that I found on our tree last year.  Those are no good and kill trees so I probably should have killed it but hopefully it made a nice snack for some bird.  We don't seem to have a ton of birds in our yard, so I don't feel too bad about doing the birds' job and killing things like tent caterpillars and - my nemesis - slugs.  I have kind of a hatred of slugs (they are ugly and huge here and leave gross trails) and I do not want them anywhere near me.  If I were a better person I would probably make myself love them but until that happens I will continue to leave out saucers of beer for them to fall into and drown.  Hey, drowning in beer can't be that bad a death, right?

One last thing:  my parents came down this past weekend and gave me a great present:  water in my garden!

After exploring the dark, scary basement which is accessible by ladder my father found a pipe leading out back with running water!  And because he's good with things like this, he attached a spigot to the water pipe outside (I won't go into details on how suffice it to say it involved a blow torch) and that awesome hose was in the basement.  Success!  Now it is a lot easier to water the plants and I'm sure I'll be spraying myself when it gets really hot out there.  Thanks again!

This was longer than planned (isn't that always the way?) but here's a shot of the garden this morning:

See you next week!

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

(Editor's Note: Due to an unavailable editor, Sarah's column is appearing a day later than its usual Thursday slot. Enjoy... and get out in your garden this weekend! - DP) [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Garden on June 16th"][/caption] This is getting fun!  (And I don't mean writing...that's always fun.)  I mean this gardening thing!  Up until the last few weeks I'd been worrying so much...what if everything died?  What if everything got eaten by bugs or, worse, I missed a day of watering and I killed all the plants?  I was away the first really hot weekend here (Memorial Day) and I was a mess on the drive home, picturing piles of dead, brown plants awaiting me.  But after doing this garden thing for a while now - 2 months if we count from the time I've been writing about it - I've realized that I don't have to be quite so nervous.  Plants grow.  It's what they do.  As long as they have dirt and sun and water they're going to grow pretty much no matter what.  In fact, the other day I saw some of the little basil that I had thrown in the compost bucket had found some dirt and was growing!  It's actually harder to keep something from growing than to grow it, which makes a lot of sense from a biological perspective but for some reason I was worried that wouldn't be the case. When I first started this I also thought it would be chore to tend to the garden almost every day.  Not so!  I actually look forward to my time in the garden every day (or almost every day - as long as it's not too hot I can skip a day and not freak out about it) because I can watch my little monkeys grow and remember once that they were all just seeds.  It probably helps that green is my favorite color so seeing so much green is nice, especially in the city.  Weeding can definitely be a little tedious, but I like going around and checking each plant, making sure the ties aren't too tight around the stalks and moving the ties up as the plants get taller.  The tomato plants all smell like tomatoes, the eggplant leaves are surprisingly soft to the touch and the sunflowers, squash and mint constantly surprise me by how fast they grow. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="squash is taking over! watch out, mint"][/caption] All this is just to say that this has been a lot more fun than I was expecting and it's nice that I trust my plants enough now to not be too worried when I see things like this: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="sad"][/caption] This little tomato is in a particularly bright spot, probably the brightest in the backyard since the white door reflects light.  It's looking dry and droopy because the pot is too shallow - it doesn't hold a lot of dirt so it dries out quickly and the roots get really hot and dry since there's no deeper place for them to go, where the soil would be cooler.  By that same token I can't water it too much because the soil just doesn't hold that much water and I don't want to wash all the nutrients out.  Basically I need to move it to a less bright spot or repot it.  And that's the project for this weekend:  repot this and a few other tomatoes that are outgrowing their little pots. This past weekend I repotted some other things: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="eggplant"][/caption] [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="and feverfew!"][/caption] You may have forgotten about my feverfew...I did!  It was just sitting in the front window growing along.  I would dump some water on it when I remembered to, probably a few times a week.  Last weekend was the time to deal with it.  I thought about just thinning it out but, again, I find it very hard to just throw out little plants (those little basils I found growing in my compost?  Yeah, I planted them because I figured they deserved it if they were willing to grow in a compost bucket.)  At the same time, I've pretty much filled all the space in our backyard that gets sun with my other pots, so I was kind of stuck.  But!  Then I took the little feverfews and planted them in some of the bigger tomato and sunflower pots, and I have one pot that's just feverfew.  I know I always say this, but the roots were insane!  I mean, seriously: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="the roots actually continue on past the bottom of the picture"][/caption] Wow, little monkeys!  After I planted as many feverfews as I could fit, I may have gone out front and planted the rest around a tree that the city just planted in front of our house a month or so ago.  But I'm not sure if that's entirely legal so I won't tell you for sure. I'm pretty happy with the basil: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="cuties"][/caption] ...mostly because anytime I buy a little pot of basil in the supermarket (this has happened at least three times in the last five years) I always manage to kill it.  Rationally I know that the pots are small and I probably forgot to water them that often, but somehow I think that when you grow things from seed you are kind of more in tune to when they're looking healthy or thirsty or too wet.  I don't want to get too far into vibes or anything, but it's definitely true that plants have a rhythm and I think you need to understand that to feel like you know your plants.  I can't believe I just used the word "vibes."  Forgive me! In reality these basils are probably just healthier plants than anything you'd buy at a grocery store, but I like my seed theory. Finally, here are some sunflowers: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="growing towards the sun"][/caption] Some of them are almost two feet tall.  I can't wait for them to grow up against the fence.  And here's some squash looking remarkably squash-like: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="squash is a great word"][/caption] The tomatoes are all growing along, but all of the actual tomatoes are all still green so nothing too exciting yet.  We'll see what next week brings! Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

(Editor's Note: Due to an unavailable editor, Sarah's column is appearing a day later than its usual Thursday slot. Enjoy... and get out in your garden this weekend! - DP)

This is getting fun!  (And I don't mean writing...that's always fun.)  I mean this gardening thing!  Up until the last few weeks I'd been worrying so much...what if everything died?  What if everything got eaten by bugs or, worse, I missed a day of watering and I killed all the plants?  I was away the first really hot weekend here (Memorial Day) and I was a mess on the drive home, picturing piles of dead, brown plants awaiting me.  But after doing this garden thing for a while now - 2 months if we count from the time I've been writing about it - I've realized that I don't have to be quite so nervous.  Plants grow.  It's what they do.  As long as they have dirt and sun and water they're going to grow pretty much no matter what.  In fact, the other day I saw some of the little basil that I had thrown in the compost bucket had found some dirt and was growing!  It's actually harder to keep something from growing than to grow it, which makes a lot of sense from a biological perspective but for some reason I was worried that wouldn't be the case.

When I first started this I also thought it would be chore to tend to the garden almost every day.  Not so!  I actually look forward to my time in the garden every day (or almost every day - as long as it's not too hot I can skip a day and not freak out about it) because I can watch my little monkeys grow and remember once that they were all just seeds.  It probably helps that green is my favorite color so seeing so much green is nice, especially in the city.  Weeding can definitely be a little tedious, but I like going around and checking each plant, making sure the ties aren't too tight around the stalks and moving the ties up as the plants get taller.  The tomato plants all smell like tomatoes, the eggplant leaves are surprisingly soft to the touch and the sunflowers, squash and mint constantly surprise me by how fast they grow.

All this is just to say that this has been a lot more fun than I was expecting and it's nice that I trust my plants enough now to not be too worried when I see things like this:

This little tomato is in a particularly bright spot, probably the brightest in the backyard since the white door reflects light.  It's looking dry and droopy because the pot is too shallow - it doesn't hold a lot of dirt so it dries out quickly and the roots get really hot and dry since there's no deeper place for them to go, where the soil would be cooler.  By that same token I can't water it too much because the soil just doesn't hold that much water and I don't want to wash all the nutrients out.  Basically I need to move it to a less bright spot or repot it.  And that's the project for this weekend:  repot this and a few other tomatoes that are outgrowing their little pots.

This past weekend I repotted some other things:

 

You may have forgotten about my feverfew...I did!  It was just sitting in the front window growing along.  I would dump some water on it when I remembered to, probably a few times a week.  Last weekend was the time to deal with it.  I thought about just thinning it out but, again, I find it very hard to just throw out little plants (those little basils I found growing in my compost?  Yeah, I planted them because I figured they deserved it if they were willing to grow in a compost bucket.)  At the same time, I've pretty much filled all the space in our backyard that gets sun with my other pots, so I was kind of stuck.  But!  Then I took the little feverfews and planted them in some of the bigger tomato and sunflower pots, and I have one pot that's just feverfew.  I know I always say this, but the roots were insane!  I mean, seriously:

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="the roots actually continue on past the bottom of the picture"]

Wow, little monkeys!  After I planted as many feverfews as I could fit, I may have gone out front and planted the rest around a tree that the city just planted in front of our house a month or so ago.  But I'm not sure if that's entirely legal so I won't tell you for sure.

I'm pretty happy with the basil:

...mostly because anytime I buy a little pot of basil in the supermarket (this has happened at least three times in the last five years) I always manage to kill it.  Rationally I know that the pots are small and I probably forgot to water them that often, but somehow I think that when you grow things from seed you are kind of more in tune to when they're looking healthy or thirsty or too wet.  I don't want to get too far into vibes or anything, but it's definitely true that plants have a rhythm and I think you need to understand that to feel like you know your plants.  I can't believe I just used the word "vibes."  Forgive me! In reality these basils are probably just healthier plants than anything you'd buy at a grocery store, but I like my seed theory.

Finally, here are some sunflowers:

Some of them are almost two feet tall.  I can't wait for them to grow up against the fence.  And here's some squash looking remarkably squash-like:

The tomatoes are all growing along, but all of the actual tomatoes are all still green so nothing too exciting yet.  We'll see what next week brings!

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

It's hot!  And suddenly my basil was overflowing... [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Basil basil"][/caption] So I had to repot it.  I’m getting a little low on both containers and space so I ended up throwing out (or “composting” in my “compost” bucket - quotes because it’s mostly just weeds and things from the tree that I’m hoping will break down into something usable) lots of little basils.  Here are some of the casualties: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Basil aftermath"][/caption] But!  Then I had the idea to take all the baby basil leaves that I was going to compost and make pesto!  I’ve never made pesto before because I’ve never owned a food processor.  My roommate, however, does.  So I got as many of the little basil leaves as I could and ended up with a little over a cup.  Not much, and definitely less than most recipes call for, so I just washed all the dirt off of them and put them in the food processor with some pine nuts, grated parmesan, and a clove of garlic.  Once I figured out how to use the food processor (not entirely self-explanatory, okay?) I poured in a little stream of olive oil as it all whirred around and in about 5 seconds I had pesto.  Wow!  There wasn’t much of it (like I said, I only started with about a cup of basil) but it was delicious and a very pleasing shade of light green thanks to the baby basil leaves.  Sadly I have no picture because my "camera" (iPhone) was acting up.  But I’m looking forward to more basil and more pesto! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Repotted basil looking a little sad"][/caption] You see the brown pot with the cage over it in the above picture?  Those are my heirloom tomatoes, the beauty queens.  Here’s a closer look: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Beauties!"][/caption] As you can see, they’re quite a bit behind the beefsteaks in terms of size.  They’ve definitely always been smaller but the beefsteaks really took off once they got outside and the beauty queens did not.  The beauty queen stems are a lot thinner and there are no signs of flowers.  But the above ones are actually bigger than these babies: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="come on!"][/caption] Really, beauty queens??  You look like you did the day I transplanted you and that was over a month ago.  I guess some varieties of tomatoes just grow more slowly?  Or maybe their roots need to grow before the plant does?  Who knows.  All I can say is that I’m running low on space so you’d best start pulling your weight soon, beauty queens. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Why can’t you be like your beefsteak brethren?"][/caption] Another thing I’ve noticed is that, while most of the beefsteaks are growing straight up against their supports (bamboo stakes and one metal cage), some seem to really like growing horizontally.  Like this one: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="That’s fine, I didn’t want you to grow vertically anyway."][/caption] I assume it’s because I didn’t stake them in time, but now I’ve got two plants like this.  I tried to stake one but I accidentally snapped the stem!  So now I’m not fighting it - if they want to grow horizontally they are welcome to, I just need to move around my tomato “patch” so these two don’t get stepped on.  Whatever you like, monkeys. As for the other plants, my sunflowers and squash are coming along nicely: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="I can’t wait for sunflowers!"][/caption] And little lavender is flowering: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Obviously that’s not rain in all these pictures...I had just watered."][/caption] Tomatoes are still growing, too.  Here’s a little baby I just found: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Sorry for the weird angle."][/caption] And now some random things:  the deadline for that PHS city garden contest I mentioned a few weeks ago is tomorrow!  So any fellow city gardeners out there, I urge you to enter.  I just did! And the most exciting news of all is that the South Philly Food Co-op is now accepting member-owners!  One of the reasons I like co-ops so much is that, since members are also owners, everyone is really involved in all aspects, from board elections to how the co-op is run to what the co-op actually sells.  And, in this case, where it actually is!  I got involved in co-ops in college and am really excited to be a part of one again.  Here is some information on joining the South Philly Food Co-op! I'll be back next Thursday with another update!  And hopefully fewer exclamation points. Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

It's hot!  And suddenly my basil was overflowing...

So I had to repot it.  I’m getting a little low on both containers and space so I ended up throwing out (or “composting” in my “compost” bucket - quotes because it’s mostly just weeds and things from the tree that I’m hoping will break down into something usable) lots of little basils.  Here are some of the casualties:

But!  Then I had the idea to take all the baby basil leaves that I was going to compost and make pesto!  I’ve never made pesto before because I’ve never owned a food processor.  My roommate, however, does.  So I got as many of the little basil leaves as I could and ended up with a little over a cup.  Not much, and definitely less than most recipes call for, so I just washed all the dirt off of them and put them in the food processor with some pine nuts, grated parmesan, and a clove of garlic.  Once I figured out how to use the food processor (not entirely self-explanatory, okay?) I poured in a little stream of olive oil as it all whirred around and in about 5 seconds I had pesto.  Wow!  There wasn’t much of it (like I said, I only started with about a cup of basil) but it was delicious and a very pleasing shade of light green thanks to the baby basil leaves.  Sadly I have no picture because my "camera" (iPhone) was acting up.  But I’m looking forward to more basil and more pesto!

You see the brown pot with the cage over it in the above picture?  Those are my heirloom tomatoes, the beauty queens.  Here’s a closer look:

As you can see, they’re quite a bit behind the beefsteaks in terms of size.  They’ve definitely always been smaller but the beefsteaks really took off once they got outside and the beauty queens did not.  The beauty queen stems are a lot thinner and there are no signs of flowers.  But the above ones are actually bigger than these babies:

Really, beauty queens??  You look like you did the day I transplanted you and that was over a month ago.  I guess some varieties of tomatoes just grow more slowly?  Or maybe their roots need to grow before the plant does?  Who knows.  All I can say is that I’m running low on space so you’d best start pulling your weight soon, beauty queens.

Another thing I’ve noticed is that, while most of the beefsteaks are growing straight up against their supports (bamboo stakes and one metal cage), some seem to really like growing horizontally.  Like this one:

I assume it’s because I didn’t stake them in time, but now I’ve got two plants like this.  I tried to stake one but I accidentally snapped the stem!  So now I’m not fighting it - if they want to grow horizontally they are welcome to, I just need to move around my tomato “patch” so these two don’t get stepped on.  Whatever you like, monkeys.

As for the other plants, my sunflowers and squash are coming along nicely:

And little lavender is flowering:

Tomatoes are still growing, too.  Here’s a little baby I just found:

And now some random things:  the deadline for that PHS city garden contest I mentioned a few weeks ago is tomorrow!  So any fellow city gardeners out there, I urge you to enter.  I just did!

And the most exciting news of all is that the South Philly Food Co-op is now accepting member-owners!  One of the reasons I like co-ops so much is that, since members are also owners, everyone is really involved in all aspects, from board elections to how the co-op is run to what the co-op actually sells.  And, in this case, where it actually is!  I got involved in co-ops in college and am really excited to be a part of one again.  Here is some information on joining the South Philly Food Co-op!

I'll be back next Thursday with another update!  And hopefully fewer exclamation points.

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

I found my first tomato! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Tomato!"][/caption] It's really only a little bigger than my thumb: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Just a baby"][/caption] but that's okay.  It's from the first flowers; actually, these here: that I wrote about two weeks ago.  Neat!  They're on the biggest beefsteak plant which is over 5' tall.  It's the one in the corner that's, well, the tallest. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="It can peek over the wall now!"][/caption] So yeah, that wall's about 5' tall, maybe a little taller.  I must say, I wasn't expecting such tall plants but hey, I'm not complaining.  They smell GREAT - just like fresh tomatoes.  And the stalks are really thick!  Here is one, not the plant with all the tomatoes, but another beefsteak: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Strong"][/caption] Now I need to admit something.  When I moved all the tomatoes outside, I didn't bother to label which were beefsteaks and which were beauty queens (a smaller - thank god - heirloom variety) because I was all like "I know all these plants as intimately as my [non-existent] children, of course I will be able to tell which is which!  Pshaw, I don't need labels."  Well maybe I didn't think exactly that, but I definitely figured that I would be able to tell the plants apart at the very least by where I placed each pot.  There's only so much room, ya know?  Well, that was a month ago; since then I've moved the pots around so much trying to get them all enough sun and water that beyond the 4 or 5 biggest beefsteaks and two pots that I remember are beauty queens, I actually can't tell the rest apart.  So:  label your plants even if you are sure you'll remember! But hey, I do have other plants besides tomatoes.  Here's one of the eggplant, with a weird shot of my hand and arm that was supposed to be for scale but kind of just looks weird: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Sorry for the weird glowing arm"][/caption] I heard and read that eggplants are really picky and hard to grow and compared to everything else I've planted I'd say that is definitely true.  They apparently need very warm soil to actually grow, which is why they didn't do much the first few weeks I had them outside.  I had to take them inside or cover them outside because apparently temperatures under 50 degrees can kill them.  This black container is all eggplant: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Little ones"][/caption] and, even though I took that about a week ago, that's pretty much what they still look like.  The ones in the bigger containers are definitely doing better (or at least are bigger) so this weekend I'm going to repot the smaller eggplants in much larger pots to give their roots lots of room.  Hopefully I won't kill them.  Fingers crossed. I am really impressed with how fast the sunflowers and squash are growing.  Here's the squash now large enough to hold its own (hopefully) against the mint: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Dwarfing the lavender now!"][/caption] And here are the sunflowers and a few more squash growing nicely: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Lots of new leaves!"][/caption] I like that with the squash you can still see the two original leaves at the bottom of each stem.  Hopefully the sunflowers will be tall enough that the squash can grow on the ground around them and they can both live in harmony. That's right, my garden will be harmonious. This weekend the plan is to move things in smaller pots to larger ones so that I don't freak out as much when I can't get home to water them and it's 95 degrees and sunny.  Right now I'm watering everything twice a day since it's been so hot and the smallest pots are still completely dry by the afternoon.  That said, they survived the hot Memorial Day weekend with only being watered Friday afternoon, Sunday and Monday night when I got home and everything was fine.  I am thankful for my raised bed, though, since it takes a while for that to dry out and the roots can go nice and deep. I'm leaving you with a picture of the second tomato, which is so cute I couldn't help but take a picture of it. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="I think it looks like it's wearing a hat"][/caption] See you next week! Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

I found my first tomato!

It's really only a little bigger than my thumb:

but that's okay.  It's from the first flowers; actually, these here:

that I wrote about two weeks ago.  Neat!  They're on the biggest beefsteak plant which is over 5' tall.  It's the one in the corner that's, well, the tallest.

So yeah, that wall's about 5' tall, maybe a little taller.  I must say, I wasn't expecting such tall plants but hey, I'm not complaining.  They smell GREAT - just like fresh tomatoes.  And the stalks are really thick!  Here is one, not the plant with all the tomatoes, but another beefsteak:

Now I need to admit something.  When I moved all the tomatoes outside, I didn't bother to label which were beefsteaks and which were beauty queens (a smaller - thank god - heirloom variety) because I was all like "I know all these plants as intimately as my [non-existent] children, of course I will be able to tell which is which!  Pshaw, I don't need labels."  Well maybe I didn't think exactly that, but I definitely figured that I would be able to tell the plants apart at the very least by where I placed each pot.  There's only so much room, ya know?  Well, that was a month ago; since then I've moved the pots around so much trying to get them all enough sun and water that beyond the 4 or 5 biggest beefsteaks and two pots that I remember are beauty queens, I actually can't tell the rest apart.  So:  label your plants even if you are sure you'll remember!

But hey, I do have other plants besides tomatoes.  Here's one of the eggplant, with a weird shot of my hand and arm that was supposed to be for scale but kind of just looks weird:

I heard and read that eggplants are really picky and hard to grow and compared to everything else I've planted I'd say that is definitely true.  They apparently need very warm soil to actually grow, which is why they didn't do much the first few weeks I had them outside.  I had to take them inside or cover them outside because apparently temperatures under 50 degrees can kill them.  This black container is all eggplant:

and, even though I took that about a week ago, that's pretty much what they still look like.  The ones in the bigger containers are definitely doing better (or at least are bigger) so this weekend I'm going to repot the smaller eggplants in much larger pots to give their roots lots of room.  Hopefully I won't kill them.  Fingers crossed.

I am really impressed with how fast the sunflowers and squash are growing.  Here's the squash now large enough to hold its own (hopefully) against the mint:

And here are the sunflowers and a few more squash growing nicely:

I like that with the squash you can still see the two original leaves at the bottom of each stem.  Hopefully the sunflowers will be tall enough that the squash can grow on the ground around them and they can both live in harmony. That's right, my garden will be harmonious.

This weekend the plan is to move things in smaller pots to larger ones so that I don't freak out as much when I can't get home to water them and it's 95 degrees and sunny.  Right now I'm watering everything twice a day since it's been so hot and the smallest pots are still completely dry by the afternoon.  That said, they survived the hot Memorial Day weekend with only being watered Friday afternoon, Sunday and Monday night when I got home and everything was fine.  I am thankful for my raised bed, though, since it takes a while for that to dry out and the roots can go nice and deep.

I'm leaving you with a picture of the second tomato, which is so cute I couldn't help but take a picture of it.

See you next week!

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

Finally, some sun! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Garden on May 24"][/caption] And what goes with sun?  Sunflowers! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="2 week old sunflowers"][/caption] I started these sunflowers inside because I didn't want the rain to hurt them.  But it turns out that sunflowers are pretty strong and I probably could have just planted them in the ground ("ground" being my raised bed.)  Oh well.  Just look at their nice roots! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Ignore my dirty fingers, please."][/caption] Along with the sunflowers I also started some summer squash inside.  Again, it probably could have been sown directly in the ground but I like to baby my little seedlings.  Like the sunflowers, these little ones seem pretty hardy and the leaves are a nice shade of dark green. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Again, ignore the fingers."][/caption] I don't have too much space left for plants outside (or at least space that is sunny) so here's where the sunflowers and some squash will go: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="That strangely glowing thing to the right is lavender left over from last year."][/caption] The rest of the squash is going to the right of that picture, to compete with the mint (just kidding, I'll help the squash out until it gets big enough to fight for itself.) Here are some droopy, newly-planted sunflowers with a few squash: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="What's that amidst the ivy? Don't worry about it."][/caption] And here's the rest of the squash [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="500" caption="Stay back, mint!"][/caption] It's a little late to be planting squash (probably should have done it about a month ago) but I think the growing season here is long enough that it shouldn't matter too much.  Here's the squash again, this time with my new little rosemary I bought at Urban Jungle on Passyunk Ave. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Squashies"][/caption] The rosemary was so cute and looked nice and healthy and I couldn't resist, even though I have rosemary seeds.  But I would have had to have waited to plant the seeds in the fall and I wanted rosemary now, dammit.  What can I say, I am prone to impatience. Oh, hey.  While I was prepping the raised bed for the squash and sunflowers (basically grabbing handfuls of dirt and worms and mixing some compost it) I found something interesting: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="That's a weird-shaped rock."][/caption] Hmm.  Not a rock! [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Skull"][/caption] Some little animal skull!  My picture is sadly not too great but those front teeth mean business.  I probably should have mounted it on a stick as a warning to all other animals Lord of the Flies-style but it kinda freaked me out so I threw it out.  I know, I know.  Or I could have just kept it in there and let it fertilize the soil and decompose on its own - do skulls even do that? - but I didn't really want to come across it again.  I might have screamed when I found it.  Maybe. That was the excitement for this week!  Still lots of flowers on the tomatoes: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="Fuzzy"][/caption] And, well, lots of tomato plants: [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="374" caption="A veritable tomato forest!"][/caption] My grandmother warned me that some of the flowers might fall off the tomatoes without any fruit but I think that's okay because there are many, many flowers now. I'm going away this weekend so I'm kind of hoping it rains here a bit.  If not, though, I've got a backup waterer.  Thank you! Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.

Finally, some sun!

And what goes with sun?  Sunflowers!

I started these sunflowers inside because I didn't want the rain to hurt them.  But it turns out that sunflowers are pretty strong and I probably could have just planted them in the ground ("ground" being my raised bed.)  Oh well.  Just look at their nice roots!

Along with the sunflowers I also started some summer squash inside.  Again, it probably could have been sown directly in the ground but I like to baby my little seedlings.  Like the sunflowers, these little ones seem pretty hardy and the leaves are a nice shade of dark green.

I don't have too much space left for plants outside (or at least space that is sunny) so here's where the sunflowers and some squash will go:

The rest of the squash is going to the right of that picture, to compete with the mint (just kidding, I'll help the squash out until it gets big enough to fight for itself.)

Here are some droopy, newly-planted sunflowers with a few squash:

And here's the rest of the squash

It's a little late to be planting squash (probably should have done it about a month ago) but I think the growing season here is long enough that it shouldn't matter too much.  Here's the squash again, this time with my new little rosemary I bought at Urban Jungle on Passyunk Ave.

The rosemary was so cute and looked nice and healthy and I couldn't resist, even though I have rosemary seeds.  But I would have had to have waited to plant the seeds in the fall and I wanted rosemary now, dammit.  What can I say, I am prone to impatience.

Oh, hey.  While I was prepping the raised bed for the squash and sunflowers (basically grabbing handfuls of dirt and worms and mixing some compost it) I found something interesting:

Hmm.  Not a rock!

Some little animal skull!  My picture is sadly not too great but those front teeth mean business.  I probably should have mounted it on a stick as a warning to all other animals Lord of the Flies-style but it kinda freaked me out so I threw it out.  I know, I know.  Or I could have just kept it in there and let it fertilize the soil and decompose on its own - do skulls even do that? - but I didn't really want to come across it again.  I might have screamed when I found it.  Maybe.

That was the excitement for this week!  Still lots of flowers on the tomatoes:

And, well, lots of tomato plants:

My grandmother warned me that some of the flowers might fall off the tomatoes without any fruit but I think that's okay because there are many, many flowers now.

I'm going away this weekend so I'm kind of hoping it rains here a bit.  If not, though, I've got a backup waterer.  Thank you!

Sarah DeGiorgis has lived in Philly for five years and is finally starting to feel like a true Philadelphian, though she still detests cheesesteaks.  She enjoys reading, watching bad tv, eating and cooking good food and digging in the dirt. Catch up with her continuing efforts to grow food in South Philly by clicking here.