Gardening

Lately I've been into gardening. Somehow, the idea of growing one's own food is very enticing. And, just growing things is somehow rewarding... caring for it, watering, weeding. I even cleared land to plant my plants!

I may be turning into my grandmother, although she never directly taught me anything about knitting, crocheting, sewing, or gardening.

One of my pots of strawberries, above. Squirrels keep getting the berries! Argh...

My bell pepper plant. I hope it flowers in time.

A bush cucumber. I just put it in and it's early July, so I hope I didn't plant too late.

Above three: I have 2 tomato plants in pots. A "4th of July" medium sized tomato (just starting to blush yellow... so not quite ready on the 4th of July as it claims), and a cherry "sungold." I got them at the Bellevue Farmer's Market and they were expensive, but they are working out better than the $2 tomato plants my mom got from Fred Meyer, so far.

My zucchini plant, "costata." It is growing leaves ferociously, but I'm not sure when it's supposed to fruit. By the end of summer, I hope.

I just sowed seeds for kale and swiss chard today, in hopes that I'll be able to harvest some in the fall/winter. We'll see how that goes. My mom is skeptical of plants that start from seed. I have a ton of kale seeds left over. I'll either have to clear the rest of the garden plot (a couple hours!), find an existing clear spot to grow them, or just keep the seeds for next spring. Or I could find someone to give seeds to. I don't know how to cook or fix chard OR kale, so I'll have to research that. I was just desperate for something to grow in midsummer, and my options were limited.