invitations, tomatoes, and how do you prepare fava beans?

This blog post has been a few weeks coming. I've been taking lots and lots of pictures of the general goings on around here, but you know.

Ok. First I was really busy putting these in the mail. (Thank you to all who helped! It was really a group effort!)

Then I got sick with a cold that had me sneezing for 4 days straight. It left me with the I-just-blew-my-nose-for-four-days-straight-mustache look. Cute.

And between the grand mailing-of-the-invitations and the catching a cold, I've been working a lot (at my job and in the garden) and taking lots of pictures.

A couple of posts ago I alluded to a newspaper pot tutorial that I was going to put up here. Well, someday I'll get around to telling you all about how to make newspaper pots. But even if my tutorial never makes it up onto the internet, no one will ever go for want of knowing how to make a pot out of newspaper because there are a zillion other people who have put up tutorials on their blogs showing how it's done. So for now just google it.

In the meantime, I'll show you some photos of the tomato plants that have grown up out of our newspaper pots. I'm very pleased. They're almost the same size now as the starter tomatoes you can buy at the store. 

Cherry Tomato, mid-March. Just potted it.

Three Brandywine Tomatoes, mid-March. Note: They are in newspaper pots (circa January) in a box of homemade compost that my dad brought down for me as my compost pile is not yet...well...composted. 

Cherry Tomato. The last photo made me think he wasn't going to make it. This looks more promising. mid-April.

Brandywine has taken off!

Brandywines mid-April

Cherry Tomato today. No longer being supported by the toothpick!

Brandywine today. They've grown a lot in the past couple of weeks!

These photos are especially for you, Dad. I hope you're reading! And I hope your tomatoes are growing!

So that's been fun, watching the tomato plants grow. Hopefully we get some delish fruit off of them. Homegrown tomatoes are the best.

I didn't bring my camera with me, but the bean plants at the community garden plot got tomato cages placed around them, too. Wait you didn't know about the bean plants?? Oh right, I haven't told you yet. I planted a zilllion beans at the minifarm. In counting the ones that have sprouted, I think the tally is 16 black eyed pea plants, (hope we like black eyed peas...), something around 8 green bean plants, 2 "royalty purple pod beans" (sounds exotic) and 1 golden wax bean. The directions for the beans said to place structures for them to climb around on before planting them, but I was eager to get my seeds in the ground. Now that they've sprouted, I'm short on time (and creative energy) and thus chose the easiest bean jungle gym I could imagine constructing - tomato cages. Hopefully beans like tomato cages and my experiment doesn't turn into a disaster ha.

And while we're on the subject of beans, the fava beans are coming into their glory and I picked a gorgeous harvest today.

Maybe someday I'll post a tutorial on how I made this little veggie bag. Suffice it to say it was easy. 

There are some peas in the mix as well. This is by far the biggest harvest I've had of homegrown goodies.

By the way, growing my own vegetables is getting to be addicting.

Now...does anyone have any good fava bean recipes?

hanging in there.

January 18th. Yikes! Our wedding is exactly five months away, and this date marks one month since my last post. Can I say I've been busy? December had Christmas, and so far January has been...you guessed it...wedding wedding wedding. Hence why I haven't updated the blog in so long!

While some days I feel like I'm truly "hanging in there," the title of today's post is really in reference to our little plot. Just before Christmas, I noticed that our seedlings were looking pretty sick. Examples:

(poor babies!)

Thanks to some quick internet research, I learned that our seedlings were suffering from nutrient deficiency, most likely nitrogen. I posted some photos on down to earth forums and the community there agreed with my diagnosis.

Basically, J and I learned the hard way that healthy soil is the first step to healthy plants. The forum-goers offered all sorts of wonderful advice on organic fertilizers, and kindly pointed out that the bark mulch was robbing the soil of nitrogen as it decomposed (oh.). We were advised by a few to start over, after amending the soil, but being stubborn as I am I decided to fertilize like mad and hope for the best.

Step 1: Get back from being at your parent's house for Christmas, see that your planties are looking worse, rush to the garden center and buy whatever has the most nitrogen in it (bat guano), and use as directed.

Step 2: Visit the garden with your fiance, then rope him in to helping you pick the bark mulch out of the 24 square foot plot. Laugh a lot and realize that tedious chores are always more enjoyable when performed with a best buddy. Walk back home a little happier.

Step 3: Check out the garden section of your local Whole Foods, then realize (joy of joys!) that they sell worm castings. Tell yourself that you don't need to start a worm farm now that you know where to get the good stuff. Starting a regular compost bin will do. Buy the castings and mulch your plot with them.

Step 4: Be really really excited when your plants regain their color and show signs of producing something edible!!!!

Fava Flowers

Looks like real kale

Swelling Radish

Pea Flowers!

So that's the story about how this nurse nursed her garden back to health. And in keeping with my ultimate credo that prevention is the best medicine, I've started a compost bin in my back yard for kitchen scraps and the like. I've even got a date to pick up manure to add to the bin from my buddies who have back yard chickens. The idea being that once these crops are done, the compost will be ready and I'll be able to add it to the plot just in time for summer planting (yum!)

My bike basket brimming with palm fronds, after I rode around the neighborhood looking for "dry brown things" for my compost bin. I'm turning into a crazy person, I really am.