Volunteer

I was quite surprised to find this little baby coming right out of the retaining wall. I believe this is an Aunt Ruby's Green Cherry, since last year's vine was prolific with fruit and sprawling all over the place. It will be interesting to see what happens with this little vine.

My question for you gardeners out there is this: if this vine bears fruit, what should I do?

a) eat it? I'm reluctant because the vine is growing right next to pressure-treated lumber (which contains arsenic, right?).

b) cut a slip and try to root it and plant it elsewhere in the garden? Is this possible? Will it be safe to eat?

c) save the seeds from the fruit and plant for next year? This should be safe, right?

My Thinning Companion

This is Butch. He keeps me company in the garden when the kids are not out with me. Today he helped me thin the carrots and beets.

June 1st Update

The tomato babies have all survived and seem to be doing well. They have been in the ground exactly two weeks now.

Black Krim.













Rosie Romanian.













Purple Russian. The leaves on this one are very thin and finely detailed. I wonder how this one is going to survive the season.







Lemon Head.













Costoluto Genovese.













Cerise Red Cherry.















And the rest. From left to right, Hess, Early Girl, Green Grape and Celebrity.

Check out the new tomato cages! I finally built some of my own after struggling for years with those wimpy wire ones from the nurseries. This weekend Kevin and I unrolled the roll of deer fencing wire left over from building the fortress around the garden. I snipped off the bottom 2 1/2 feet and ended up with a 5' high cage with some tines to poke into the ground for anchoring. They are sitting right on the dirt now. I still may need to anchor these to the boxes. I think I can do it later with some u-shaped nails if they get too tippy. I am very excited about these cages! And the fencing appears to be galvanized so there is no rusting. (Although I happen to like the rusted appearance too. It's so rustic.)

And now for a few more row shots of how things are growing....

Top row. The beets and chard in the front are looking a little ragged. A redwood hangs over this corner of the garden and was dripping rain on the seedlings last week, which tears them up a bit. And then they don't get as much sun up here either. But they'll do fine. With less sun the beets don't grow as large so they're really good. The salad greens are in the last two boxes.

Middle row. The front box has everything but the kitchen sink (peas, sunflowers, two bell peppers, cukes, fennel and bush beans). The second box is pole beans and basil. The last tiny box (barely visible) is herbs.










And here's a shot of the kids' box. The pumpkins are starting to really grow!