Gardening Progress & New Box!

Everything is really growing around here. Sometimes it feels a little bit like I'm living in a jungle. A very pruned, scaled back and contained jungle, but a tropical place nonetheless. I mean, look at this zucchini plant. It's completely taking over the box!

The other day I did some real harvesting for the first time it feels like. Well, other than radishes, lettuce and herbs that is. We had enough broccoli growing to finally actually eat some!

Broccoli, chard and parsley.

Together with pasta, cream and salami it made for a pretty awesome meal (not to mention, the locally traded wine and home baked sourdough bread wasn't bad either - it felt like a super local meal altogether!)  

The garden is making progress. Although I'm really aching for things to grow faster because I want to eat more of what I'm growing... now! I'm also starting to realize how small of a harvest you really get, unless you have more space to garden, and I'm trying to think of ways to expand our growing area.

Every now and then we get a taste of what it actually is like to grow your own, it just doesn't happen that frequently. But, when it does happen, it's not bad. I love going out and grabbing a few radishes for a salad. But it would be nice to really grow more.

The first tiny tomatillos are starting to appear. I'm hoping the "highly productive" promise when I bought this seedling will ring true!

I've got a pepper growing. This one is supposed to turn black later on. It's a sweet, black pepper plant. Exciting, right! Too bad I don't have 10 or 20 of them growing though.

The eggplant is making progress too. I really hope I actually get an eggplant, or a couple. Wouldn't stuffed little eggplants be just wonderful! 

And tomatoes are growing. After replanting my tomato plants and giving their roots more space they are doing much better.

And lastly... we have a new box. This one is actually rather large. Not super large, but larger than the other small ones in the back.

At first when the box was constructed I figured, well I'm just going to grow more lettuce and radishes. But then I started thinking, maybe it's too hot at this point to grow lettuce and radishes? What grows well in heat? Basil? I went to the seed store and picked up basil seeds and also kale seeds which apparently are good to plant now for a late harvest.

And then I discovered a forgotten cucumber plant hiding under the wide-spread zucchini plant in the front. Also, somewhere under there was a sad looking basil plant, not to mention chard plants which could use more space. So I figured they needed new homes; more space, more sunlight. Then I planted the basil seeds and the kale seeds, but I figured hey - I need more cilantro and that dill I planted way back never came up. I better try again with the dill. And who knows, maybe you can grow lettuce at this point, I should try to grow some spinach, and why not try more radishes as well. So... my initial thought was to grow just one or maybe two things in the box so as not to overcrowd anything, but that thought obviously didn't last very long. Basically everything went in this box. I think I need more space. But let's hope something comes up. Because wouldn't it be just awesome to get kale! to get basil from seed! to get more herbs! to get more spinach! In miniature format that is, because you just can't fit everything in a box without scaling down on the amount of seeds going in.

So we'll see what comes up.

I like the garden though. Even though I need another hose, because 10 trips with the watering can is starting to get a little tiresome. Or maybe we need to figure out something more permanent like a drip system. And we need more boxes. More space. I want to grow more. Not just get a taste every now and then. Maybe construct a garden on the roof? Or replace all the grass? Chop down the trees around that provide shade (horrible thought!)? I don't know, I just would like to harvest more. Live more off the land. Or at least live more off our mainly shady, mostly used up 4000 sqft of front and backyard... I'm thinking just planting edible things for the future. You know all those areas around the house where people usually have pretty, flowering bushes and flowers? I'm thinking of just planting fruit and berry bushes, potatoes, beets, root fruits of different kinds, onions etc... Can I intersperse that with flowering bulbs to come up in the spring? Isn't it kind of funny how you never really see potatoes and onions growing in flower beds surrounding a house or on the one side of the fence? It just kind of makes sense to me to use up all the available space. Although at the same time I should really pace myself because things take time and only when you let things fall in place over time do they really look and feel right. I'm just a bit impatient.