Simply Irresistible!

I had to do it!  

I knew our onions were probably not ready but I was too curious to wait any longer.  I picked one out of a bunch of three and plucked it out of the soil.  

I may be biased but it was the most delicious onion I've ever had.

It also lead me to wonder about thinning plants out.  I know you're supposed to thin out the plants but I don't know when or how.  A quick search online lead me to a very comprehensive article from the BBC.  I felt a lot better when I read you might be able to transplant the carrots you pull from the ground while thinning out the row.  

We have a lot more room in some parts of the garden because we had to pull some of our plants due to bolting.  

I had no idea what that was until today.  All I knew is that my little spinach plants went from four baby spinach leaves to a tall flower in no time (See our flickr site for photos).  I couldn't figure out what happened but I spoke to a more experienced gardener and she explained that the hot weather we had a few weeks ago likely caused it (remember when it actually felt like summer?).  I found an article online that explains her theory and instantly felt better.  

I also gained a new appreciation for farmers.  It's hard to grow vegetables when the weather never does what you want it to!

Luckily each plant is different because our other plants exploded over the past few days!  Our tomato plants now come up to my waist and the pumpkins have grown right out of the garden.

I still have a lot to learn about the pumpkins.  The plants seem to be doing well despite the crowding.  I don't know if rubbing the two flowers together did any good yet.  The flower has now fallen off and I'm not sure if that's good or bad.  What's interesting is that they're sprouting new roots along the vine.  I'll have to take a photo to show you what I mean.

Our beans have finally grabbed a hold on the mesh we nailed to the fence.  We put it up way to high for them but, with a little coaxing, they seem to have a good handle on it.  

Everything is flowering, including the cucumbers so I'm hoping that means fruit will be soon to follow!

How's your garden doing?  E-mail me at jennifer@atv.ca

A little bit of lovin'

"Gently swab the stigma of the female flower with the pollen-laden stamen (of the male flower)."

Sound a little strange?  Apparently it's one of the secrets to growing a giant pumpkin (tinyurl.com/m2fdvr).  That same web site suggests selecting the  most promising pumpkin and removing most of the rest.  I'm not sure I'll be able to do that!  Luckily I'm not looking for a prize winner.  I just hope to get a pumpkin large enough to carve in October.

The rest of the garden is doing well.  Our spinach is going to seed already.  I'm not sure if that's normal.  We only got a few leaves of spinach on each plant.  I'll have to do some investigating into that.

We're experiencing a lettuce explosion.  The new rule:  every meal must contain lettuce.  It's the only way to get through our harvest!  

The beans have finally grabbed hold of the mesh we put on the fence, our single zucchini plant is growing strong, and our tomato and pepper plants are flowering.  It's an exciting time in the garden.