Growth Spurt!

We Have More Tomatoes!

   Our cherry tomato plant has had some fruit for a while, but now we have real, growing fruit on the vine and a host of new blooms that will become baby 'maters soon enough!!! Yaaay! :) :) :)Last night I pinned down hubby and begged him to take pictures of our plants for me. He kindly obliged, so I have spent the afternoon making collages. Here are the progress reports so far!

Let's start with the slowest grower, the broccoli. We had four plants to begin with, but two of them failed to thrive and ultimately died. We had all but given up hope on these two when we purchased Alaska Fish Fertilizer for the garden. I have heard and read good things, so with fingers crossed we mixed it up and watered the plants. It is hard to tell much difference from the first picture to the last, but you can see in the bottom right photo (if you squint) that the plants have finally perked up and are each getting new leaves right in the center!

The link shows you the exact kind we purchased which, at 2 tablespoons per gallon to be used every third week, seems like a good value. I won't lie, it smells exactly like you think it will. I about wretched when I took a sniff after my sneaky daughter assured me it did not smell bad. Worse, the odor was stronger when mixed with water. My yard smelled for two full days. I am both enthusiastic about and dreading the next application. haha

In the bale next to the broccoli we have cucumber and pumpkin. You can tell just by the picture that the cucumber has gone from a humble few leaves to a healthy growing plant. :) You can also tell that some unfriendly bug has been lunching on her leaves. Grr. Depending on how large this problem becomes, I may have to invest in some food grade pesticide if there exists such a thing. 

As mentioned, here is the pumpkin plant that sits next to the cucumber. :) It is already growing and looking beautiful! Having read up on pumpkin, I have learned that it is not uncommon for the first round of flowers to be all female and, having no male flowers to be pollinated with, die off. I am trying not to get my hopes up when I see the first flowers, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't eagerly looking for them! :) I haven't decided yet what to do about trellising. 

In the third bale we have two kinds of tomatoes. Here you see the beefsteak. You can tell that this fella has grown considerably, but isn't necessarily entirely happy. This plant seems the most hungry, and looks wilted and pitiful in the hot afternoons between watering. It perks right up after it is watered, with every plant food application, and with every rainfall... so why can I not manage a good picture? This tomato plant IS showing the very first flower now, though, so I haven't given up on him. ;)

The cherry tomato plant sharing the same bale has fared considerably better, and is the proud owner of the fruit displayed in photo at the top of this page. Though you can't see them as well in the last photo here, there are thirteen tomatoes as of yesterday, and a good handful or two of flowers ready to turn into tomatoes. We are all very excited about harvesting these as they ripen! 

Ah, the humble pea plant we threw out but wouldn't die. :) 

This little guy has spent so much time growing in the leftover dirt I thought it would be wrong of us not to move him over to the fourth bale. Remember, it was recently half-vacated by dead tomatoes. (The heirlooms that did not survive.)

I scooped gently underneath and around his original planting pod, being sure to take plenty of extra dirt with me and praying that I did not upset his root system. Blessed amazement, he came just fine and did not seem to mind the transfer! Two days later when we took the last photo in the group above we found he'd crawled off to the side and is hanging onto the vacated tomato cage for dear life! haha Grow my little guy, grow!

My last surviving heirloom tomato has finally taken a mind to grow. (: This little guy is the only survivor out of four that we were given, but seems to be doing really well now that his roots are sure. Since this is the same bale that killed his friends, my thought is that it did not condition at the same rate (or as well) as my other bales. Still, we all know the saying 'slow and steady wins the race'. This little guy may surprise us and be the biggest yet. 

Now, I just HAVE to get to my planter tomatoes! These babies started out as outcast dirt thrown carelessly into the planter with the strawberry plant when I had to re-start my garden. I wondered if they might sprout, but otherwise did not hold out any hope. Sprout they did, indeed! We thinned out one or two when they were the size in the top right picture, but it just broke our hearts.

I know.... we're saps....

As you can tell, they did not just grow, they BOOMED!! How am I supposed to separate them now? I ask you! You can't imagine the joy these fellas give to Giraffe and me. I even think Hubs gets a kick out of them as well. I mean, look at them! They are growing faster and better than any other plant I have! We can't let them go now! You can see we plopped a broken tomato cage in there. That really made us laugh, it seemed so pointless. Yet, here they are in all their glory, growing like the kings of the patio! :) 

This is not the most recent picture of the celery plant, but it is the last snap that I have. Suffice to say that it is still growing. It is much darker green now, and I am concerned that it is going to end up being too bitter to enjoy. Next year this stuff is getting onto a bale, and we'll put a ring around it to help it grow tall instead of out. 

I should also mention before I go that we are planning on picking up some floral wire this weekend or the beginning of next. I am going to lovingly and carefully add it to the tomato cages so the various other plants have something else to grip onto as they grow. I am also going to try to use it to help brace up that planter full of beefsteak tomato plants if I can manage it without breaking any of them. 

Mercy, but I am green to all of this straw bale gardening! haha Even so, look at how the Lord is blessing it! (: <3 :)