Tuesday, June 23, 2009

rain and shine

Our first sunflower in the rain yesterday...
And the sun today!
First gladiolus

Today's harvest. Plus 5 okra. Cucumbers are not as scary as I feared after the rains. And I managed to force all of these on a visitor today. Thanks G!I forgot to post the photo of our first tomato! Golden Currant. My husband was away so we shared it three ways. It was slightly tart, but really hard to tell the taste from such a little sliver.
I bought some lemons for the seeds (also because they are yummy squeezed on salad udon, our summer Monday dinner) and one is coming up. Lemon tree very pretty....

2 comments:

Jeff Wignall said...

I planted a tangerine seed in a Dixie cup about 20 years ago while watching TV one night (and eating the tangerine). Much to my surprise it grew quickly and it's now about six or seven feet tall and spends summers (in a pot) in my backyard. I've ignored it, forgotten to water it, pruned it mercilessly, let it get some kind of mold disease--and yet it survives. Unfortunately it needs another tree to pollinate--though it has flowered a few different years. I grow tons of stuff from my kitchen garbage and have a mango tree growing now--about six inches tall. I clipped open when end of the pit envelope (that long pod) and then stuck it in muddy potting soil in the kitchen for a few weeks and one day came down to find an odd little tree growing. I'm loving watching your garden grow :) It's been raining almost everyday for the past month in Connecticut! My garden looks the same as it did a month ago when I started planting it--totally stunted. But tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and hot, so I'm hoping it takes off. I have lots of those Reisentraube plants growing--I'll know in a month if they're as good as the seed catalogs say!

jeff
www.jeffwignall.com

Xana said...

I'm glad to hear you've had good luck with citrus fruit, even in CT! We have two clementine trees and a kinkan (like reisentraube sized clemetines, you can eat the skin). Both flowered this year, but the baby fruit all died. It is only the second year, so it might take a bit longer. My husband planted a bunch of citrus seeds last year, from fruit we ate, but he never labels anything and now we have no idea if they are grapefruit, lemon, or what. He didn't clip open the mango seed. Should we dig it up and clip it, I wonder? It is in the 80s-90s (both heat and humidity) here, so hopefully the mango seed will be tricked into thinking it is on a tropical island. My dad said that his peas are just starting in CT. I am hoping our tomatoes will hurry up and ripen before the girls and I leave for CT ourselves (July 15). Otherwise, we may miss out entirely, as my husband doesn't have enough time to water after work and summers here are brutal. I don't know if the tomato plants will survive until mid-August when we return. I have one (just one) Reisentraube tomato almost ripe. I will tell you how it tastes. Probably watery, as it is rainy season here now.