In the garden...

I have been so busy the last few weeks that I have completely neglected to post about my little urban farm! Last I posted, I had moved two beds to the back of the yard with the help of Big Daddy and the neighbor kids. I still have one to the side as I just couldn't bear to rip out all that beautiful lettuce while it was still producing! What can I say, I'm a sucker for lettuce! Anyway, the kids and I immediately got our hands dirty planting all three beds!

In bed #1 we planted four varieties of tomatoes. The Monkey Man LOVES tomatoes and the stranger the better! We chose grape tomatoes (hoping they will yield as well as the Sweet 100's from last season), Golden boys (a succulent, sweet, delicious yellow variety and the Monkey's favorite), Mr. Stripey's (red fruit with yellow stripes) and Black Krim's (an heirloom variety that is mostly a deep reddish, purple). I cannot wait to start harvesting tomatoes, NOTHING is better than a vine ripe tomato in the summer! Mmmmm! Along with the tomatoes, we planted 4 varieties of basil (African blue, sweet Italian, Thai and Spicy Globe).

Basil and tomatoes were just made for each other and both are thriving! In fact, I have more basil than I know what to do with! Have basil... will trade!

In bed #2 we planted Ichiban eggplant, peppers (serrano, pimento and jalapeno) and a row of green beans. I decided to do legumes this year as I couldn't grow squash to save my ass last year! Damn squash borers, curse you all to hell! I was a little perturbed though, I didn't read my seed envelope correctly and it turns out I bought bean bushes and not climbers. I hear the bushes produce well, but now they will take up more room than I was expecting and I won't have those lovely trailing vines!

And in bed #3, the lettuce finally keeled in the heat, so I quickly planted half the bed with okra and half with black-eyed peas!!

I can feel some gumbo and hoppin' John comin' on! Things were planted less than a month ago and other than the eggplant, things are going great. I don't know what's up with them, they are puny and the leaves are mottled and spotty and they aren't getting any bigger. They may get pulled so I continue adding green beans to the bed. I can plant the beans every two weeks until July 15 to have a longer harvest period. We'll see. So all is well in my little victory garden. I'm just trying to be diligent to keep on top of any infestation, watching it grow with intense satisfaction and looking forward to harvesting the fruits of my labor!