Things I've Learned This Week

*  There was probably a reason why, when I asked the guy at the garlic company to send me only really easy-to-grow garlic, there were no hardneck garlics in my order. 

*  Getting one cherry tomato a day is not necessarily that much better than getting NO tomatoes--especially when it's a community property tomato and must be split 50-50 with your spouse.

*  I'd probably be able to start making pickles if I'd stop eating all the cucumbers as soon as I find them.

*  Drawing a map of where each type of garlic & how many cloves of each are being planted is a fine idea in the fall.  In the summer, it might be a little bit less of a great idea when one has spent two hours trying to figure out how the map could show 15 plants and the garden 9, and if that means I've been mislabeling garlic.

*  For some of us, just growing whatever type of garlic grows with the least amount of fuss is probably best.  Let people who do it for a living figure out whether a garlic head is Polish White or Susanville.

*  I knew some of our strawberries would have a second crop of berries, though I guess I really expected them to do it when it wasn't 100 degrees. 

*  No matter how many times and in how many ways it is explained, there will always be a neighbor who can't figure out that if he waters at the wrong time, it kicks off the subdivision pump and no one gets any water for their lawns. 

*  I will never get used to the fact that teens today are still blaring rap music--which was new and sort of cool when I was in high school more than 20 years ago. 

*  Grocery shopping is a different experience depending on what time of the day you go.  Apparently ZZ Top shops at my grocery store early on Saturday mornings.  Who knew?

A Purely Theoretical Question

How many times must police cars be called to a neighbor's house before one can officially label them as "white trash?"

Garlic Time!

The garlic is actually having a tough year.  Last year we stopped watering it for two weeks before harvest, but this year the garlic is getting flooded by the concreted sprinkler head on the other side of the fence (Note for those of you living in Boise:  if you are ever considering hiring Butte Fencing, just take a sledgehammer to everything in your yard.  It will be cheaper and there will be less "collateral damage.").  So, we've put down plastic to stop the water from soaking in, and are just trying hard to dry it out as we can. 

This year we have 9 varieties of garlic, so in an effort to keep them straight

I'm using yarn.  Last year we had two, and I replanted both of those (I think--we really have trouble telling them apart) as well as 7 new ones in the sampler.  The red yarn is to identify the Romanian Red hardnecks.  The hardnecks are much smaller than the heads I got in the mail, so I think we let the scapes get too big or something, but the real failure so far is the elephant garlic

which is not only smaller than the softnecks from last year's crop, but it has these strange little offshoots.   They are sort of hard & really look like garbanzo beans.  Very odd--we're going to have to ask the garlic people on that one. 

And........

our first tomato!  It's huge in the picture, but this is a little cherry tomato from our Sweet 100 plant.  There was another one slightly orange, so we might get to split a little cherry tomato again tomorrow, but nothing else is even remotely close to red.  I know.  I've already been out this morning to check......:)

Things I Have Learned This Week

*  Some folding chairs are safe to stand on.  Other folding chairs are really prone to folding up unless one is standing in just the right spot.  It would be good to figure out which type one actually has BEFORE attempting to stand on them.

*  Even though the horrible fence company broke our sprinkler line, smashed the blueberry bush & broke apart our compost bin, we were probably the lucky ones.  They concreted over the common area sprinkler heads.

*  The first cucumber from the garden, I willingly shared with Andy.  Now it's every resident for him or herself. 

*  It might be just me, but when someone uses the "If you're not with us, you're against us" line on me, I'm more than happy to just say "Fine, I'm against you then."  Whoever they think the "other side" is, anything is better than being part of a bunch of closed-minded bullies.

*  Daisies are hardy, keep blooming, and seem to require nothing from me.  Hello new favorite flower!

*  A watched tomato does not turn red.  However, a watched spaghetti squash grows like a freakin' maniac.

Wrong On SO Many Levels

Bacon flavored vodka:

http://bakonvodka.com/

For those times when the weirdness of reality totally outpaces your imagination.

I Couldn't Wait Any Longer

Ta-da!

Our first pepper!  It's a type of sweet pepper called a "gypsy pepper," and the idea is that it produces lots of nice fast-growing peppers that would, in the garden of a more patient person, turn red.  We'll be testing that with future peppers, but for now it makes a really nice green pepper too.  Maybe a little less bitterness than green bell peppers?  Don't quote me on that--I love bell peppers of any sort, so I don't think the green ones are bitter, so the best judge would probably be someone who doesn't like them.  Still, a nice thick skin and great flavor.  The knife is in the picture to give you a size idea.

I have been patrolling the garden daily--especially the cucumbers as I am something of a cucumber maniac in the summer and it is late July and about cucumber time.  The plants are going crazy

as are the weeds.  (Incidentally, just in case you were wondering, horse manure is a wonderful fertilizer, but it makes EVERYTHING grow--including whatever weeds the horse ate but didn't thoroughly digest.)  Notice those amazingly large and un-cucumber looking leaves???????

Yeah--that would not be a cucumber.  My money is on spaghetti squash, mostly because I didn't plant it this year, and it seems to be taking its revenge.  This

is from a SECOND spaghetti squash plant that I didn't actually plant.  I'm just hoping that this,

which is growing on the back of the tomato bed, turns out to be a regular pumpkin as I think three spaghetti squash is a pretty cruel trick even for a garden.  Not that I have anything against them--they're fine, but they don't keep as well as hubbard squash and my plan this year was to plant 2 butternut squash, 1 Hubbard squash, and 1 "giant" butternut.  But I am trying to enjoy the mystery and excitement of never knowing WHAT I'm going to get when I plant the garden.  Everyone likes surprise parties, don't they?

I was relieved to find that at least some of my cucumbers are actually cucumbers, and a few are almost ready to be picked!

And I keep checking our garlic, but it's still too early I think. 

The heads on this hardneck really aren't formed yet.  I'll check some of the others tomorrow.  Thank heavens I know THEY aren't spaghetti squash!

Lots of Plants.....No Actual Food

I would like to say I can appreciate the fact that gardening is one long surprise party......but it's July 20, and right now we have NOTHING to harvest from the garden.  The strawberries are done.  The snap peas are dying in the heat.  The garlic isn't quite ready.  The zucchini & patty pan squash plants are the same size they were 3 weeks ago.  The lettuce has all bolted and is REALLY bitter.  The cucumbers are all plant & no cukes.  The peppers are getting close, but they're just not quite there.  We have lots of green tomatoes but nothing red, and we have all sorts of empty paper husks on the tomatillo, but nothing inside them yet.  Actually, I don't mind that one so much--it looks like the plant has decorated itself in itty-bitty Chinese lanterns.  It feels rather festive, to be honest.  But seriously, I AM ONLY IN THE GARDENING FOR THE FOOD!  So where is my food?????????????

I think it's time to get tough with the garden......I'd say "no more weeding until I get some tomatoes," but that would imply that there has been at least a reasonable amount of weeding going on..............Maybe I should threaten it with what Theo has been doing to my new carrot patch.........