Stepford Plants Report

I really haven't got a lot to say about the garden right now. It's overgrown, ripening, and I have harvested plenty of zucchini to make lots of bread. And tomatoes. I haven't gotten a usable pepper yet, but I might. And there are pumpkins spreading out across the yard, although some seem to be dying for no reason, and I'm not sure what type of pumpkin they are...

So, enjoy the pics, after the break.

Stepford Plants Report

A couple of things have happened since I last wrote about the garden. I got a few more pictures of the shed cats and I also took a picture of freshly harvested zucchini that became my lunch. I also finally cut the fence around the plum stick in half and put half around the grafted plum in back. But today, today I harvested some zucchini:

The gigantic one in the middle was under the stalk, about as hidden as it could be. Only its enormous girth gave it away enough for me to find it and, with hubby-Eric's vital help, cut it loose and pull it out. Yikes! In any case, I still have one and a half loaves of zucchini bread from my first bread effort to eat, so these will be grated, drained, and frozen.

Stepford Plants Report

I've become a common enough sight for two of the cats who hang out under my shed that they no longer automatically run and hide when I appear. One, a tawny gold cat, still is skittish and will hide if I move toward it. The other, a black and white cat, is now willing to sit still while I check the plants each morning and afternoon, and only gets worried if I go around the shed and out of sight.

The usual view of the black and white cat is legs and head sticking out from under the shed, lazily watching me as I go about my business in the garden plot. The golden cat usually is sitting next to the shed, between the shed and fence. Since the plants really started to grow I haven't caught any in my garden plot. I'll try to capture pictures of both of them, instead of just the one's legs.

I did manage to catch the black and white cat being a cat the other day when my family was visiting. As I helped load the car for them to leave, I glanced over and spotted the cat frolicking in the yard, chasing some bug. As soon as it noticed I was there, it hunkered down and watched me. But for a brief moment I saw joy.

Stepford Plants Report

So, I've been away and haven't updated the plants report for way too long, so now we're going to see the most dramatic changes so far. First off, I have already got two fruits off the Tiny Tim Tomatoes, and one that was overripe. They are small and cute and nicely tart for tomato.

While I was gone, my housesitter watered the plants and kept the Rotweiller away from them. On Monday she called me in a mild panic, as the water wouldn't turn on. Turned out that the irrigation water pipe that serves my neighborhood was under service, and the water didn't turn back on until this morning. In the meantime, because of the awesome job she did watering, the weeds in the yard started to climb to the sky and for the first time my garden plot became under siege by more weeds. So my first job once I got home was to mow the yard down to manageable levels again. My second job was to start weeding the garden plot... and for the first time I really wish I had a spade to dig the things out.

Stepford Plants Report

Not a lot to say this time, I guess. Well, yes, there is some news. New plants and such. But for the most part everything is going along the way I hoped. My soaker hoses are actually soaking instead of spraying randomly, and even the plants I thought weren't growing appear to be growing if I compare them with last week's pictures. So I guess I just need a little faith and a little patience.

The big news for us, I guess, is that I'm getting ready to go to the Winkie Convention down in California the first weekend in July. My house-sitter and her Rotweiller "Snuffy" will be monitoring the place while I'm gone. No pictures of Snuffy, I'm told he ate the last person who tried to take a picture of him. I'm sure that was a joke. I think. Anyway, with the soaker hoses apparently working, I hope to make it dead easy for my house-sitter to water the plants that aren't covered by those hoses. We'll have to see if I succeed.

Stepford Plants Report

I have managed the impossible. I killed a zucchini plant before its time. I'm sure it was a combination of the location, the watering, and the cats. But it's dead, Jim. You grab its tricorder and I'll get its wallet. In the meantime, the Plum Stick continues to grow.

I was actually on the road last week, and I took these pictures on Wednesday but I'm only getting around to posting them now. Sorry.

Stepford Plants Report

Well, the zombie zucchini continues to make me wonder. Will it survive? Will it die? Have I succeeded in the impossible: killing a zucchini plant before it produces too much fruit for a family of 9 to eat in a summer? I'm not sure, and I'm sure I won't know for a few more days yet. In the meantime I'll keep watering it and see what happens.

It was dark and stormy today, which is one of the problems I'm having in figuring out how much to water my plants. It seems like it must be rainy, but it's not. The storms mostly just pass over the valley. But being a Seattle gal, I see the clouds and somewhere deep inside I have the sense that it's going to rain or it has rained, and I don't have to worry about watering. Which is totally wrong. It's very strange to go outside with grumpy clouds hovering over town and still water my plants, but it's what I have to do. If I can get that into my head, perhaps my more picky plants will survive.

Stepford Plants Report

I'm not feeling very well about my plants this week. I think I'm messing up. I need to get on the ball and deal with the problems of the plants... I need to get back to watering them regularly. And I have a little terror of the plants that I put outside. I think they will die, but then I remember last year, and... Argh. Ok, let's start at the top, right?

The plum stick is surviving nicely, but is beginning to look a little droopy. Again, watering issues. The biggest problem is that it keep raining, and it's really hard for me to judge how much rain is enough. If I had an automatic system like almost every neighbor around here, they would just get watered. But since I have to do it manually, I keep second-guessing myself. Well, judging by this picture compared to last week's, I need to water more, rather than less.

Stepford Plants Report

I really should have gotten up and gone out to mow the yard the instant I was fully awake this morning. We've got brilliant weather out there, and it's supposed to get into the upper 70s and low 80s over the next couple of days. A nice change from the series of storms that have been hitting us the last few months. And the yard needs a mow. But I waited, and when I went out to get my pictures I could tell it was already too warm for me to successfully do any mowing. If I get some energy, I may try to clean up the garden plot, but no mowing today.

There have been a handful of developments in the plant life over the last week. Two plants have made their way to a friend's house, where they have already been transplanted outside, shaming me a little. One of the zucchini and one of the Moneymaker tomatoes are gone and shall provide fruit for someone else. I also finally repotted one of the peppers yesterday, and if I'm lucky both will survive long enough to bear fruit. But why don't I go into detail after the cut?

Stepford Plants Report

Eric had an unexpected day off on Monday, and it was clear and sunny, so we mowed the yard and trimmed as much as possible. It's still not too bad today, though if it's dry over the weekend I ought to mow again. I think mowing is one of those jobs that will never be done.

Before the cut today let's have another dramatic picture of the Plum Stick. Sadly, I moved as I took the picture, so it's a little distorted. But it's still a very cool image, I think.

Stepford Plants Report

Well, I was going to mow today, but it's looking pretty unlikely now. The weather report said clear skies and sun for the rest of the week, so I watered the trees yesterday with a deep watering, figuring that the ground would dry out enough for me to mow today... then this morning it rained for two solid hours. The ground is soaked. The grass is too wet to mow now, and I'm not sure it'll dry out before this evening. Oh well, at least I can still get a few pictures, right?

I'll start today off with a before-the-cut picture of the grafted plum, which shows the leaves on the Santa Rosa bit. The other two grafts look rather barren until you get a nice close up, which I'll put after the cut.

Stepford Plants Report

Today was an outside chores day for Eric and I, and so I got the mowing done and he got the trimming done despite both of us suffering from a long-lasting and incredibly annoying cold that is keeping us from being at 100%. I wanted to mow the yard and then go prep more of the garden plot area, but after I finished mowing my chest hurt and my heart was racing and I realized I had to stop for the day. An hour and change later I still don't feel quite right. No more cold medicine and then outside work for me, I think.

Today's mow at least made our yard look respectable, which is apparently a good thing for the neighbors. A neighbor even offered Eric the use of his gas-powered trimmer when he saw my poor hubby using the wimpy electric one we have. We felt a little rushed because although our yard was in sunlight, a dramatic dark storm seemed to be moving in, as you can possibly see in the dramatic image of the plum stick above. However, it appears that the storm was going past us, not actually moving in, as we still have sunlight on the west side of our house even now, while the east side continues to look like a storm.

More after the cut...

Stepford Plants Report

Well, tomorrow I plan on going out and mowing, but today I finally got around to transplanting most of the windowsill seedlings into larger pots. And I've learned a few lessons for next yet. Number one is ONE SEED PER POT. Seriously. I can't bring myself to kill a plant I've grown from seed, so I should just put only one in a pot to begin with. Number two is that I should never ever ever use outside dirt, only potting soil. I'm actually having to weed my seedlings because the outside dirt I used had some weedseeds in it. And number three is that the windowsill can just fit seven pots, so that's all I should try at a time.

Ok, well, I guess it's time to do the actual update of the plants. You can see previous reports here, although I put the pictures of some behind a cut so as to not clutter my front page too much. I'll be doing that here as well, after my first report:

This week let's start with the plum stick. That's the friendly stick I got on May 6th of last year and planted while feeling like a fool since it was literally just a stick with a blob of dirt on the bottom. But, as you can see in this picture, it's now survived its first winter in its new home and is once again growing some leaves. I'll admit to some relief after seeing the leaves, as I wasn't entirely sure it had made it through. I guess I need to stop worrying and let the plants just do their thing.

Ok, cut time. Follow the link if you can't see the rest of the post.

Stepford Plants Report

As I last reported, I've planted a handful of seeds this year, instead of just tomatoes. So I'm going to give you all the current status, but first I'll tell you about what's been happening the last couple of weeks in Stepford House...

Last Monday, after Saturday's Scare, I mowed the yard for the first time to make it look less like an abandoned home. I set Moby the Mower on a higher height, and did a cursory overall mow. Today I did the second mow of the season, still on the higher height, but I think I covered more of the yard this time than I managed last time.

On that Monday last I also started to break up the dirt in my "garden plot" and get it ready for planting. It'll be a few more days before I can plant, because we are having a late frost, but soon enough... soon...

Since I last wrote, more of the seeds have sprouted, and one even seems to have died prematurely. I've now got eight sprouts, one of which I'm sure is dead. And so I'm going to post more after the cut.

Stepford Plants Report

So I'm sure you are all just on the edge of your seats, waiting to hear about my planting adventures.

As you know, last year I planted five tomato seeds (Moneymaker) on March 31st. The first seed broke through on April 9th. They eventually turned into monsters and provided buckets (literally) of tomatoes. I vowed not to make the same mistakes this year.

I also planted a stick on May 6th that I was told would grow into a plum tree. It grew an impressive array of leaves and some tiny branches over the summer. The leaves fell off for the winter, so we'll be watching to see what happens to the plum stick this year.

So, what's happened so far this year? On a visit to Costco, I noticed they had plants, and I told Eric that if they had a grafted plum tree, I would buy it. Sure enough, they had a grafted plum tree with three varieties of plum on it, so I puchased it and we somehow got it home. We planted it in the back yard on March 19th.

On March 24th, I planted eight seeds for the windowsill. I planted two varieties of tomatoes (Moneymaker and Tiny Tim), a variety of pepper (Yolo Wonder), and some zucchini (Fordhook). Two seeds in each pot. I have watered them regularly each morning, and on the morning of April 1st I saw the first signs of life from the zucchini and the Tiny Tim Tomatoes.

In the morning, they were barely peeking through, but by the afternoon, both Tiny Tim's were up and visible and the zucchini was making sure I knew that it will have to be transplanted sooner rather than later.

Pictures after the jump.

So... Many... Tomatoes...

I'm in Seattle for the weekend, helping out at BrickCon 2010. I came over a little early so I could be with my family and recover from the long solo drive. I also brought my family a little gift of every ripe tomato I could find on the One Dollar Tomato plants. The bucket in the following picture is a 4 quart Dairy Glen ice cream bucket, and the tomatoes are almost overflowing from it.

I'm not really sure what the LEGO alligator was doing there, except that he apparently likes tomatoes:


Um. Right. Anyway, my sister and I went on a jaunt to REI to look for an appropriate hat for her cold weather class that she's going to be taking, and I spotted the following. All I really want to know is why. Why that name? Just... why.


After our jaunt at REI we stopped in at a grocery store and I spotted these Oz Pumpkins, which I was tempted to get for hubby-Eric, except I knew they wouldn't last long and add in the whole trip over the mountains and it just didn't seem like the best ever idea. Oh well.


But man, if they're from Oz, I wonder if they have any magical Oz powers? Is orange the color of any Oz country? Would they work as Jack Pumpkinhead heads?

Oh well. I've got other things to do tonight before turning in. I hope to write a little more about BrickCon if I'm not so tired I can't function. In the meantime, I think Eric will be keeping up his Banned Books Week posts for your enjoyment and edification.

Stepford Plants Update

Not much to report, really. The plum stick and arbor vitae continue to grow oh so slow. The real action is with the tomato plants.

The grew big enough to eat small dogs and neighborhood cats, then settled into a routine of producing very nice fruit for me. I've been regularly picking tomatoes, most fairly small, and putting them in a bowl on my counter to eat when I think they are perfectly ripe. After two days of storms, I went out today and found that one of the BIG ones that I thought was never going to ripen was not only ripe, it was perfectly ripe. It was firm but not rock solid, and I decided I was going to have a sandwich with tomato on it today as soon as I picked it. There were six other ripe ones that I brought into the house as well, and one I rejected because it split open on the vine. There are quite a few pink-ish ones left, so I won't be wanting for tomatoes for now. Pity that hubby-Eric doesn't like tomatoes!

After I cut the big tomato and put slices on my sandwich, I thought to take a picture of what was left, sorry it's so blurry. Fortunately, I love tomatoes, and had the rest of the fruit as a side to my meal. Later, when I started having a snack craving, I looked at the cookies in the pantry, then remembered that I had brought in seven tomatoes today, adding to two that were already there. So I fixed up a plate of sliced and diced tomatoes for a snack instead of cookies. Less calories, more filling.

I probably won't be posting more about the tomatoes. The plants themselves are an ugly tangle, and looked even worse for wear after being beaten down by the storm and winds. The other plants... well, I might update you on their status through the winter, but don't count on it. The next regular Stepford Plants updates you are likely to see will be plants on the windowsill next Spring.

My conclusion about the One Dollar Tomato Kit: It was worth every penny. Even with the other stuff I purchased to supplement the kit (larger pots, tomato cages) the total cost was far less than I would have paid to get the tomatoes I've gotten so far. Financially a win. In addition, it gave me a sense of achievement I've never had, as every single plant before this that I've tried to grow has died. Nutritionally, it's gotten more tomatoes into my low fruit and veggie diet, so that's probably another bonus. So it was a win on several counts, and I gotta once again thank Lisa, my evil twin sister, for the idea and the original kit.

One Dollar Tomatoes *burp*

Yes, I ate them. They were a little green, still, but really good. Especially when you consider that I grew them from seed. I will let future tomatoes ripen a little more before digging in.

But I did it. I grew something from seed that I was able to eat. And I am utterly confident that I can do it again next year. And better, as well, since I know what mistakes I made this time.

Stepford Plants Update

Well, it's nearly the end of summer. We're getting close to whatever end the tomato plant will have...

Stepford Plants Update

Keeping you up-to-date on the vital Gjovaag experiment in growing things...