My how the garden grows!

The petit jardin is out of control. Seriously. I have two tomato plants that are already over 7 feet tall (thanks mother nature, for the rain!). I have snap peas everywhere and half a dozen zucchini's that will be ready in a week or so, if I can beat the blossom end rot (fingers crossed). My cucumbers are growing like weeds and I have a little, tiny artichoke that hopefully will grow in to a big, huge artichoke all growing steadily.

The tomato experiment seems to be going well. The plants that I didn't prune have multiple flowers and many stems, so we will see how the yield goes, the plants that I did on the funky tie up canopy jobber look beautiful and are flowering well, but as always, I planted everything too close together so I have to be careful when pruning and weeding so that I don't knock out an entire plant. And finally, the staked plants look good too. I think I pruned them to heavily at the start though, I believe that I crippled the yield on these guys by being to aggressive with the suckers (the little stems that grow at the apex of the main stem and the leaves that create secondary main stems).

Anyway, the experiment has been fun, at this point I believe that I will probably grow the tomatoes in the same three ways next year. I like the appearance of all the different contraptions in the garden. Maybe next year I'll get the fancy purple tomato cages. Purple is pretty.

Hey there, sweet pea!

Good news! I got my first yield from the petit jardin (I am a wanna-be francophile for those of you that don't know) and (petit jardin=little garden). I got a dozen perfect snap peas. Perfect in that they were delicious when eaten raw (3), amazing when sauteed in butter (3), and fantastic when thrown in a stir-fry (the remaining 6). Thus, 12 snaps were devoured. Oh yeah, in one day. Give a girl a day off and a garden, and she will eat...a lot.

Anyway, I am well on my way to a bountiful season. I have two Sungold tomatoes that are also ready. They are perfectly orange, perfectly round, and will be perfectly delicious...tomorrow...in an omelet. I have also enjoyed a few strawberries, and will have a couple good looking cucumbers in about a week. Geez, gardening is so healthy.

Here is my omelet recipe (to be honest, it's not an omelet, it's scrambled eggs with stuff; a veggie scramble, if you will).

Serves about 4

4 large eggs, yolk and all

6 egg whites

splash of milk

pat of butter

pinch of salt

couple turns of fresh cracked pepper

(mix this all really good...maybe use a whisk, maybe use a fork, you decide)

chop up the following

a tomato (the fresher the better)...my sungolds are the size of grape tomatoes, so I hopefully will have 4 or 5. Otherwise, use one regular sized tomato, or 1/2 a big ass tomato

one half a bell pepper -- pick your color, I prefer red, but green is good too, so is yellow...and orange, so just pick a color... sheesh.

one half of a small onion, a vidalia if you have it, otherwise lean towards yellow

one half avocado

I like to put jalapeno in my veggie scramble, and if you don't like heat, take the seeds out. Either way, dice up 1/4 to 1/2 of a jalapeno...the flavor is really almost better than the heat. If you like the heat, leave the seeds in...and chop close to the stem, heat you will have

Then, saute the onion, pepper and jalapeno in olive oil until soft. Add the egg/milk mixture and keep the heat at medium low, continuously move the eggs so that the cooked part intermingles with the uncooked runny bits. When the eggs are nearly done, throw in the tomatoes and the avocado. Continue to move the eggs around until they are all cooked just so (don't over cook! Rubbery eggs are kinda gross). Throw some cheddar cheese on top and if you have an oven safe pan, throw it in the broiler for a minute until the cheese melts. Serve with toast, salsa and some sour cream. Man I love breakfast.

Here's a shot of the first Sungold Tomatoes of the season!

Dear Fate, thanks for everything, please tell Karma hello!

Today's thoughts are based around my good friend Karma and her best friend Fate. I will be the first to say that I have great luck, an amazing family, and have basically had a charmed life (a couple scraped knees, sure, but charmed nonetheless). But sometimes these crafty girls can surprise even me. A twist that came straight from Fate (or is it Karma?) happened on Wednesday. I emailed a floral wholesaler to see how to become a client on Tuesday of this past week. ((Last weeks flowers are featured on this post...soooo preppy, so cute, right?!?!?)) Well, I received a call back from a gal named Sylvia on Wednesday morning. Turns out, she and her husband Damon are friends from my high school days. They worked at a florist in Nebraska City and Damon made all my flowers for the dances. He did a ring and a bracelet made from Freesia for prom my Junior year, bands that tied around the top of my opera length gloves made of orchids for my Senior year prom, shoe-clips of some kind of purple flower for the holiday dance where I was crowned Queen (oooo, I love me a crown) and basically just did some crazy-beautiful stuff every dance I went to. He is freaky talented and I got to act has his temporary muse for three years (sheesh, I am a lucky girl). Anyway, they are creative, amazing and wonderful peeps, and Fate led me to them again. Not only do I get to be back in contact, but I also get to pick the brains of some serious flower people and I have a wholesaler! WOOT!

I also started school this week. Floral Design (I am gonna LOVE THIS!!! homework is to make a color wheel and practice bows), Horticulture (can't wait to learn more about gardening), and Entrepreneurship 1050 (leap floral boutique, here I come!!!)

Please remember, comments are welcome!!! :)

Gardening Experiments

And so the gardening begins. This year, because we had such a warm spring in Omaha, I planted way early...like two weeks before mother's day, which most would say is at least 2 weeks early. I got lucky and my garden seems to be thriving. I already have little baby tomatoes on two of my plants (ooooo, I can't wait!!).

I am approaching the garden differently this year. I am testing different ways to grow my 12, yep, twelve different tomato plants. I've read a couple books that suggest different ways to prune and different growing methods, so I am trying three different ways. I have 4 of the plants staked, a Yellow Pear - which are cherry sized yellow tomatoes, a Sun Gold - which are cherry sized orange tomatoes, a Purple Cherokee - a large dark burgundy, almost purple tomato with an amazing flavor, and a cherry tomato plant. These I am pruning pretty hard taking all the suckers (new stems that grow at the axis of the main stem and the leaves) from below the first flowering point. I am aiming for these to have two or three main stems, this supposedly brings bigger fruit sooner, but yields won't be as high. I have 4 tomato plants in cages, and I am barely pruning these at all. Rumor has it (from the book The New Victory Garden) that this will produce large yields, of smaller fruit. The caged tomatoes are 2 Green Zebra's - sweet yellow and green striped tomatoes that are great for salsa verde, a Brandywine - which is a pinkish red tomato that is large and really tasty, and a Green Sausage tomato - which I've never planted before but looks just like it sounds, it is about 3 inches long and sausage shaped. Finally, I have 4 that have a string tied around the stem and tossed over a canopy (the bamboo stakes in the photo) wrapped around the top stake and tied to a rock in order to have stability. The logic behind this is that the wind can move through the plant easily and all the leaves are open toward the sun in order to photosynthesize and produce more sugar to make bigger fruit. These experimental tomatoes are: an Old German - which are yellow and red striped and get to be 1 to 2 lbs, a Black from Tula - which is a dark purple medium sized tomato, an Italian Heirloom - which is large, red, and great for canning, and a Big Boy - which is the run of the mill, dark red, juicy slicing tomato. These I am pruning, but not as hard as the staked tomatoes. I also planted a tomatillo, five different peppers, sugar snap peas, spinach, butterhead lettuce, random salad greens, 3 different kinds of eggplant, squash, beans, an artichoke, asparagus and cucumbers. No kidding. Sheesh.

Arizona vegetation is pretty amazing. I can't believe that the Arizonians get to live with bougainvillea growing so wild that it probably is considered weedy at this point, the color is so intense it seems to glow in the dark. Mexican heather is so plentiful that the entire resort smells beautiful, and there is this really funky orange and yellow flower that is envy inducing for a flower lover such as myself. But, my favorite (right now, at 5:48pm on Tuesday) is the crazy purple cactus that my sister and I are photographed with above. It looks like it's been watercolored. Love it. The yellow and orange plant is the photo below, don't know what it is, but it sure is pretty.