Bonsais and mulch

Which have nothing to do with each other.

After a lecture (of sorts) from my garden neighbor, I decided to mulch my garden. Not having any mulching materials readily available, I headed over to my friend Sam's house to pilfer some from the streets. We grabbed some giant leaf bags and started shoveling grass clippings in. At one point, her neighbor came home as we were gathering grass clippings from in front of his house. He looked at us like we were crazy, then started laughing. I doubt he thinks we're crazy, just a bit eccentric. I got two giant leaf bags of clippings, which covered about 2/3 of my garden, which isn't bad. I'm curious to see how much it helps keep the weeds down and the water in. But so far, my garden is doing great!

One of my experiments this year is corn. I bought quite a few corn plants, some organic and some regular. I honestly can't remember which is which, but one group is doing far better than the other group. this is also the first time I've planted herbs other than basil, and they're doing better than expected at the moment. The beets are doing great! I picked a few the other day and roasted them, and they were delish. I'll have to plant more the next time around. I love beets. I pulled all of my shallots and I'm getting ready to hang them in my closet, the only cool, dark, dry place that I house. I also have a few volunteers, which I think are melons left over from last year. I don't actually remember what type of melon they are, but I know I didn't get the same kind this year, so I'm very hopeful they'll turn out to be good.

On a somewhat related side note, I've decided to take up bonsai, although probably not too seriously. Just a bit seriously. We'll see what happens. For now, I have two starters and no tools, so I can't do much other than just keep them alive (which is going well so far).

So if any of you want ideas for birthday gifts for me, bonsai tools and a tomato machine would be awesome!

Extreme gardening

It's getting to be that time to start getting all of my plants in the ground, and today is going to be a big day for it. I wanted to take a moment and record what I've planted so far and what I'll be planting today.

So far I've only planted my first heirloom tomato, a green zebra. It's one of my absolute favorites, as it produces wonderful sweet tomatoes that are the perfect size for one person to use in salads and sauces, and it produces a lot. I also planted a yellow pattypan squash, which will be great for roasting, grilling, baking, and plenty of other uses.

Today I'll be planting 20 Roma tomatoes, 6 European Red Bell peppers (with 6 more that accidentally went home with Stacey), 6 Golden Bell peppers, 4 Sweet Banana peppers, 12 green beans (actually more like 36, since each once has three individual plants), 1 Blue Jay bell pepper (a bit of an experiment), 1 Giant Aconcagua pepper (another experiment), and an heirloom Cocozelle bush zucchini. I still have to plant 5 more tomatoes (4 heirlooms - one red, one orange, one yellow, and one purple - and a yellow plum), a tomatillo, some basil, 2-3 cucumbers and 2-3 eggplants, although I haven't decided which kind to plant this year. I'm thinking about trying to plant some herbs in the brick planters outside my apartment, but I'm not sure what the gardeners would think.

I'm also somewhat accidentally stumbling into bonsai. I inherited a rather cool planter with a dead bonsai in it from my mother, and I finally got a new bonsai at the nursery. I wish I had done some research BEFORE I bought the bonsai, because I think I bought a deciduous plant, and I would definitely have preferred an evergreen. At least it only cost $3, so if I make a giant mistake, it won't be a horribly expensive one.

OK, I'm off to the garden to get these babies in the ground. Wish me luck!