as always, click to see full sized uncropped!

corn ears forming!

hand for scale! mini-basketball size!

Red Mr. Stripeys!

Lemon Boy!

Purple Beauty Heirloom Peppers!

Pink and White Hibiscus!  Does anyone know if this variety is edible!?

Cilantro flowers turned Coriander Seeds.

Tomatillo plant still OOC.

My baby lemon tree sprouts planted from a store bought lemon!

And my fearless (ha!) garden protector, Odie!

That’s all for now!

Ryan “the Avant Gardener” Santos

so yesterday we had our first vegetable!  an organic zucchini. we sautéed it with some local organic garlic and yellow squash from the farmer’s stand down the way and ate it over grilled tuna.  it was spectacular.

in a day or two, we will have another zucchini.

again click images for full size, here we go…

The spaghetti squash has officially become “Squash Thing.”  And i fear one night in my sleep it will grow into my bedroom and completely cover me and swallow me.  each arm is growing at a rate of 6-12 inches a day.  it’s about to take over the hibiscus bush.

it’s also begun growing down the rows of corn.  i have to check it at the end of each day to make sure it hasn’t latched it’s vines around any corn stalks.  next year i’m going to need a garden just for a single spaghetti squash plant.   ah the miracles of WORMPOOP!

spaghetti squash!

my ambrosia melon has finally shown signs of growth after about a month of nothing, it now has new blossoms daily, and is threatening to go “spaghetti squash” on my shallots.

shallot tops and ambrosia blossoms in the background.

the bottoms of my shallots getting that “onion skin” papery husks and an ambrosia blossom.

group of yellow peppers.

my monster red pepper!  the largest of my peppers at the moment.

there are 3 kung pao peppers that are getting pretty large!

baby purple beauty peppers!

zucchini’s that will be ready to eat either tomorrow or monday!

first sunflower of the season!

some little white peach tomatoes!

as you can tell, my lemon tomatoes are my most bountiful plant so far. in the first photo you can see the bottoms of them starting to turn yellowish.

these are the green zebra tomatoes.  notice on the second photo the “zebra” like patterning begining to develop.

these are the red mr. stripey tomatoes.  just babies, they just fruited a few days ago.

this is my out of control tomatillo plant.  there is also a yellow pepper plant in there, but the tomatillo has completely enveloped it.

one of the many baby tomatillos.

the yellow peppers hiding in the giant tomatillos plant.

that’s all for this week!

-ryan “the avant gardener” santos.

click the photos to see the whole thing, i hate that this blog cutz em offz.

gardenz overviewz.

corn! at least knee high and before july! ahead of schedulez.

baby heirloom lemon tomatoes!

kung pow peppers and blossoms!

big baby red pepper!

shallots getting that oniony paper skin!

shallot patch!

out of control spaghetti squash! it has a bunch of baby squashes growing, the largest sadly already didn’t make it. but at this size, there will be about a bazillion more coming.

first full tomatillo husk growing thing!

baby yellow pepper!

first baby zucchini!

that’s all!

keep it dirty!

-Ryan the Avant Gardener!

Tomatillo blossoms. There are like… a million. So in a few months, if anyone wants some organic tomatillos, let a dude know. P.S. F Aphids. The love eating the leaves, hopefully they leave the fruit alone.

Spaghetti Squash Blossoms!

Kung Pao Pepper Pods!

Heirloom Red Buran Pepper Pods!

Heirloom Lemon Boy Tomato Blossoms!

that is all!

Ryan “The Avant Gardener” Santos!

p.s. this post is dedicated to LOLgardening.

I IZ UR TOMATILLO PLANT, I FOUND MUH BUKKET AND I IS GOTTEN HUGE.

I IZ UR PLANTZ, SOAKIN UP UR SUN

I IZ UR PLANTZ, CHILLIN IN UR DIRTZ

I IZ UR SHALLOTS, GROWIN TALL AN TASTYZ

WE IZ UR CORNZ, HOPEZ WE IZ KNEE HIGH BY JULYZ!!!

I IZ UR ZUCCHINI, I B BLOZZOMINGZ.

I am all out of LOLspeak for these. BIG spaghetti squash plant!

OK SEE YA NEXT WEEK

CORN!

CORN (close up) !

SHALLOTS!

and now an introduction to my herb garden. a few items (mint, rosemary, oregano, chives) are transplants from last year! they made it all winter with me indoors, the mint even survived outside!

chives w/ edible violet blossoms (top left), purple basil (top right), thyme (bottom)! mulched with organic mulch to help keep moisture in during a predicted dry summer.

sage (left), basil (top), hyssop (right), rosemary (bottom right), parsley (bottom left)!

stevia (top) mmmm!, cilantro (bottom right), oregano (left) GIANT!, horehound (not pictured)

lemongrass (top left), mint (top right), lemon mint / lemon balm (right), garlic chives (bottom), thai basil (left)!

and now for a garden update!

errrything’s gettin BIGGER!!!!!!!

dude don’t forget the extra yellow pepper and the TOMATILLOS!!!!!!

ok see ya in the DIRTZ,

L8Rz, THE AVANT GARDENER!!!!!!!

next to that we have 3 rows of corn, peaches and cream variety.

then in front of those, is the tomato line, including heirloom mr. stripeys (red), heirloom green zebras, heirloom lemon boy (yellow), and when it arrives some heirloomwhite peach tomatoes.

then in the front most line are the peppers, heirloom red, yellow, a kung pao, and when they arrive an heirloom red buran, and an heirloom purple pepper.

in a side pot not pictured, there is another heirloom yellow pepper, and tomatillos!

i have chosen a great fertilizer, terracycle, which is as it exclaims, WORM POOP! but the worms are fed entirely garbage, plastic, paper, tons of crazy stuff, and they turn it into poop and then they liquify it! wild! also all terracycle products come in re-used soda bottles, and the sprayers on the ones that have them come from corporate spill-over. they’re trying to eliminate the concept of garbage completely and hey, i think that’s rad! you can get the products at any home depot i believe.

tomorrow i will include photographs of my herb garden which is much further along, including garlic chives which have their tasty purple blossoms right now. mmm!

after a few hours of raking and tilling resulting in gumby-like rubber arms for the day, here we have it… my plot of dirtiness:

tomorrow… everything goes in (except the 3 transplants that haven’t arrived in the mail yet)!