Squash surprise

Plants are truly the craziest things. I've been watering two enormous pots of squash plants all summer. They continually have tons of blossoms, but I've never seen a squash on the plant.

Yesterday I watered again after work (it's been brutally hot here this week) and to my total shock, I saw this little guy growing:



The plant had turned itself a bit because of some wind and suddenly I noticed THIS:




It had been growing there all along! My plan for tomorrow's dinner is some stir fry with homegrown squash. It looks like there are more where this guy came from...

The next gardener in the family

I was away in Iowa for a little while and Chris was in charge of the watering. He did such a good job that TOMATOES GREW!

Sleepy squash blossoms

I love how these squash blossoms really look like they're in the fetal position... sleepy and waking up slowly as they grow.

Tomato buds?

Will these buds become tomatoes? Or more branches? Pretty weird and fuzzy and alien-looking, huh?

The squash race.

Here's an interesting study: plant four healthy squash plants in two different pots (one green, one blue) and put them on opposite ends of the garden. See which one grows faster.

Blue bin squash: for a while, this one had the most blossoms. But other than a little growth, these guys are still roughly the same size that they were when I moved them outside.



Now take in the green bin squash. I wonder if Chris has been adding something magic to them when I'm not looking.





It's a race for a squash... I'll keep you updated.

HOLY CRUD, IT'S A SUNFLOWER!

I mean, I planted those seeds and put some water in the pot everyday and stuck the pot in the sun, but I think in the back of my mind I was always pretty sure that sunflowers were not going to come out of that process. Not Van Gogh-worthy sunflowers!

And yet here's one, the smallest one, who just opened itself this morning. This is awesome.

Face plant into a flower by a bee.

This bee loves one of our Calibracoa (million bells) plants. Yesterday I caught him flirting with some pretty orange ones, yellow pollen dust following him out of each flower he met.

Mushrooms and pea recipes

Something magical happened yesterday in the garden. Maybe it was the 88 degree weather or maybe it was the presence of the new Gardenia or maybe it was the rain from a couple of passing thunderstorms, but this morning presented me with some weird stuff in the garden.

Most notably, these mushrooms in the tomato plant pot:




Weird, right? I swear they were not there yesterday when I watered.

The pea plants are presenting me with a new challenge: how can you use a handful of pea pods on a regular basis? Today I added them to my leftover spaghetti for lunch:



More pea cooking solutions to come, I hope. In fact, that would be a great blog: "Things to do with 6 pea pods." Someone create that and I'll be your biggest fan.

Around the garden this morning...

I just ate a bunch of pea pods in a stir fry this weekend and these guys are already big enough to eat.

More and more leaves growing on the squash, which had a rough transition outdoors.

With the purchase of my Gardenia, I had a new container to fill. A couple of random cucumber plants now call it home.

The Gardenia loving its first morning at home.

We got a tree!

So I've been looking to buy a tree. We have lots of short, wide pots of flowers and veggies on the deck, but I wanted something vertical. We also have an empty corner that's been looking pretty sad... which made today's random walk past a flower shop particularly tempting.

You guys, I bought a Gardenia!

To be fair, I didn't know what it was and I was first looking at the Hibiscus tree (crazy pink flowers and pretty tall). But suddenly I caught a whiff of something delicious. Like someone sprayed some perfume, except better. And so I turned my head and caught sight of these bad boys:



After a lengthy conversation with a local gardener who happened to be passing by, I was sold. I carried it home and made the doorman smell the flowers on my way upstairs. When Chris opened the door, there I stood, holding a tree in my arms and grinning like a kid on Christmas. He laughed for ten minutes about that. He buys PS3 games, I buy trees.

Here's the new inhabitant of our deck! I wish you could smell it across the Internets, but you'll have to trust me. It smells crazy good.

Where sunflowers come from.

Images from the garden

Chris' dad and step-mom arrive today to visit us for the weekend and as I watered the garden this morning, I thought about how far the deck has come in terms of decoration and becoming guest-ready. Last night at dusk I lay out on one of the lounge chairs, the air finally cool enough to breathe, and had the familiar feeling of loving where we live. The moon was full and Oscar was happy to lay under the chair, swishing his tail.

It was a nice night.

Herb garden update

The herbs are thriving outside- all except the basil growing alongside the tomatoes. It's so windy up on our deck that the poor guys look war-torn. Here are the herbs, holding their ground:

Cilantro: this screams out salsa. Must do that this weekend.



What exactly does one do with oregano?



Even the tomato plants have trouble with the wind:



Basil nursery in toilet paper rolls...



The only thriving basil left; could be because it's been protected by the big sunflowers.

Sneaky Peas.

Attention lovers of Where's Waldo?: feast your eyes on the following pictures and try to find some sugar peas.




Did you see them? Cause I water these plants everyday and I never saw them until yesterday. Sugar Peas would make good chameleons... here's a closer look:




Now it's not enough for dinner yet, but I think I will be taking a couple of these guys off the vine tonight to stimulate more pea production. Exciting news for the little garden that could...