Tuesday, April 1, 2008

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Surprisingly, pretty well. We haven't lost any more plants, and I am doing super with my seedlings. We just did yellow bean seeds and those were fun! They are almost a foot tall and I only planted them last week. They need to be transplanted to the ground, but I am running out of room. I have already put my cherry tomato seedlings in the ground, and they look nice. The watermelon seedlings I put in a few weeks back did not do so well. Not one of them, in fact. Oh well, no watermelons. I am very proud of my cabbage seedlings. The seeds are tiny, about the size of poppy seeds, and the seedlings were puny too. But look at them now! I don't actually know how to cook cabbage, but I have eaten it before. Actually, the only time I've eaten cabbage is when I would be at the mall, and I wanted to eat "healthy" - I would get the steamed vegetables with my chinese platter. I haven't had that in about nine months now, and I am craving it. So I figure, I will find out how to make it just like the cheap Chinese place at the mall, and maybe I will make some bourbon chicken to go with it or maybe the orange chicken or perhaps the terayki... Moving right along, the broccoli is growing. I have one that is ridiculously huge and one that hasn't seemed to have grown at all. All the berry plants are just sitting there. I am not sure if they are sleeping or just deciding whether to die or not. The few leaves on them are green, so I figure that's got to be good. Right? The tomato plants are alive and growing a little taller, just barely. The cauliflower have surprised me by growing like crazy just this last week. They are now bigger than the broccoli. Except for that little one in the corner, I think that's the runt of the litter. My onions are growing too. I don't know when I am supposed to harvest them, since I can't actually see if they are getting bigger or not. It makes me want to dig one up every other week to check their progress. Anyone with experience growing onions? Child #2 has gotten so obsessed with going outside every day, that he has snuck out the door with no pants on before we even had breakfast. He says he is going to let the dogs out, and then he just follows them out. I have since learned to always have the deadbolt on. Thank goodness he can't work the deadbolt. He is especially happy that the air conditioner is now turning on and off. This is a carry over from last year, when he was obsessed with air conditioners. (I remember last summer at his 3 year check up, and all he wanted to do was stare out the window at the AC fan humming away. The pediatrician looked a little concerned and asked, "Does he do that all the time?" Obsess about fans? Yes. Thankfully, the doctor was able to get his attention long enough to ask a few questions, so not a total obsessive. All the same, I now have a prescription for an OT assessment, so we'll see what they say.) We had school outside twice last week. It actually seems to make the boys more calm. How strange. Child #1 sat and listened to stories about different types of wasps in the Christian Liberty Nature Reader. Awesome book - cheap, simple, lovely. That was until Child #2 walked onto an ant hill. He does that like clockwork every four months. Of course, I go swooping in, pulling the shoes off, pulling the pants off, swatting away at his legs and feet. I make sure to kill every last one that went on him. How dare they bite my son? Thankfully, he only had about six bites, so it could have been worse. Most of the time, I love being outside, feeling the sun and the breeze and the smells. I really hate the bugs though - red ants, wasps, hornets, bees, spiders. I cannot even begin to tell you how many biting and stinging insects I see when I go outside. But, no lizards!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You do know that Chinese cabbage and head cabbage are not the same? Which one do you have? Head cabbage is the kind in cole slaw. Are those green onions or round onions? Green onions you can cut the green tops and chop up like chives I think. Anyway, sounds yummy. Way to go green! Arty lady.

Ali said...

Which kind of cabbage? Good question. It has some name like Ferry's or Perry's or something like that. The onions are defenitely yellow onions (according to the package I bought at Home Depot). So many things to know. I thought you just plant em, grow em and eat em.