On The Trail Of “Grow Your Own”
by John Weckerle
Examination of our beds this morning reveals another week of excellent progress. Two of the tomato plants in the north bed (Early Girl and Better Boy) have begun to flower, and the squashes are flowering prolifically (most of the flowers are hidden by the leaves). The plants continue to grow rapidly. I have a concern regarding the red and golden bell peppers, however, as it seems that they are destined to be over-shaded by the squash. Attempts to keep them in the sun by cutting back squash leaves will continue.
Photo – North bed this week
Photo – North bed last week
In the south bed, most of the seeds have sprouted, and the lettuce, herbs, peppers and eggplants seem to be doing moderately well. Eggplants are growing a little more slowly than the plants in the north bed, but appear healthy; these had a little trouble with the high winds a while back, as did the green bell pepper in the same north-south row. They are all on the west of the bed, which means they bear the brunt of such events. The string beans (bush variety) are growing very rapidly. The big star here is the lettuce and, with that in mind, here is…
The Salad Report
I harvested some lettuce leaves (enough to feed all three of us once, and me again four times) and made a salad. The salad also included a container-grown green bell pepper which had turned a deep red, but was still very tasty. I added store-bought cucumbers, onions, celery, feta cheese, and tossed mine with just a bit of Newman’s Own Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Dressing (always use just enough to put a thin coat on the lettuce; otherwise you overpower the taste of the veggies). It was delicious; the lettuce had an excellent, hearty taste – no doubt at least partly due to the satisfaction of having grown it.