Reaping What You Sow

Lots of things happening in the garden this week.

I harvested the first of the sweet banana peppers - we made eggs this morning with basil and diced peppers. Every year I am inundated with peppers, and this year is no different. The jalapenos are running a little bit behind the bananas, but they're coming along just fine.


Since the carrots have finished for the season I decided to plant a couple zucchinis in their spot, right next to the yellow crookedneck squash. They're all in one huge pot together - I hope I don't have much trouble with cross-pollination. The zucchini has bloomed already. I'm amazed how short-lived the blooms are - within the timeframe of a few hours the yolk-colored flowers open and then close for good. I was lucky enough to snap this beauty this morning; the hues look too rich to be real:


My eggplants continue to steal the show. The grandpappy keeps swelling day by day - I'm smelling some eggplant parmesan in the next week or two. There are two other babies, and four or five buds waiting to bloom.


I found a Japanese Beetle munching on my basil the other day - that's a problem I definitely want to nip in the bud. I remember my mom's rosebushes would be covered with these iridescent crawlies back when I was a kid - I won't stand for it! It's amazing how a garden attracts so many different organisms, from insects to birds to mammals and of course diseases. Just when I feel like I've got everything back on track, a new threat pops up.

Generally things have been on auto pilot, though. I water once, sometimes twice a day, fertilize with Espoma Plant Tone about once a month, and that's about it. We've had some stormy weather the past few weeks, so I'd have to say my biggest problem is making sure the pots don't blow over in the wind. The tomatoes have taken several hard falls because of their height.

Things have finally grown so much that they are very visible from the street below. I'm sure the neighbors think I'm a kook when they see me tending to my plants - they probably wonder what the hell I have growing up here. At least I won't have to worry about them running off with a tomato or pepper!