Wednesday, June 23, 2010

In Memory of our Tomato Plant

This year we Summer and I decided we would try planting some veggies in our little tiny 8 x 2 area on the patio. Summer is at an age where she can help take care of them and hopefully see the fruits of her labor.

Here she is holding her first little cherry tomatoes.
These are the only ones we got because the plant got spider mites and I had to pull it up before they spread to our other plants. I was really sad because it seems like every plant I have ever tried growing has died. I am determined to prove that I can keep one alive.

So, I am doing all I can to keep the nasty bugs away from the others. I really hope that they survive and that we can finally be true gardeners and not just pretend to know what we are doing.
We are happy that we got at least four little tomatoes, and that so far our other plants seem to be healthy.
This is our cherry tomato plant just before we dug it up. See how it is super yellow and dead on the bottom half. They spider mites just eat it up I guess, then they move on to the other plants.
We went to a gardening place and they helped us identify what they were, and what to do to get rid of them. At this garden center we learned we would loose our plant, however, Summer gained some tadpoles from the trip.

I will blog about that later. She is trying to take care of them and keep them alive. Lets hope they don't end up like the tomato plant.
This is our yellow squash plant about a week ago when we dug up the tomato plant. It is starting to bloom male flowers, and in about a week I think the female ones will start to bloom, and then I can hand pollinate them in order to get them to grow. I have learned these things from some great friends who have had more luck with growing things. We will see if I can get them to grow.
Our red pepper plant and basil are having no problems. I finally used some basil the other day since my plant was looking a little large. I needed to harvest some. It smells so good, and I think it is great to eat right out of our own mini garden. Hopefully we will get to eat more than just basil.

It has been fun so far, and it makes me really look forward to having my own house with a back yard for growing a large garden. This is great for learning though. It is not as much work as a huge garden will be.

Keep your fingers crossed for us, and in a couple weeks you may see pictures of some yummy squash.

2 comments:

emily said...

I'm so proud of your tomatoes. We haven't managed to grow any yet, but we have killed tomato plants year after year--hopefully this year will be our year. I agree with you about the basil--it smells so good and is so fun to just pick it and know you're eating something you grew!

I need to know who it is giving you tips about squash--I could use know how like that!

Brekke said...

I'm impressed! I should get to work on my little plot.