Berries coming along! 6/22/13

The blueberries and Blackberries are coming along nicely! I can't wait to eat them! Hoping the birds don't get to them first! 

The blueberries 

The blackberries! 

Apple seed experiment! 6/19/13

The organic apple seeds I saved from over the winter are really taking off! Some of the seedlings are now approaching the top of the container!

First Squash Flower of the season!

Finally dug up the Radishes! 6/15/13

After a rainy month and planting the cherry belle radish seeds on May 6th I figured I might as well dig them up.  They never got to the size they were suppose to but did bounce back the last week or so. 

They still look really cool and I can't wait to try them!  I dug up 7 radishes today. 

Blackberries are growing! 6/11/13

Heavy Rain prep and improvise

With the heavy rain of tropical depression Andrea heading our way this afternoon and night I've been preparing my garden.  One thing I wanted to do is tie the lower branches of my blackberry bush up.  I wanted to do this to keep the very new berries from hitting the ground and being covered in mud!  However I was out string so I had to improvise.  So I took some short bamboo stakes I had from last years garden and created crutch like supports for each of the three branches. Hopefully this will be enough to keep the heavy rain from pushing these low branches into the ground! 

Apple Sees Experiment!

As a fun experiment this summer I decided to try out growing some apple trees from seed.  Not that I have any space for apple trees in my yard or the patients to wait up to 10 years for it to bear fruit! As I was juicing organic apples from Whole Foods this past winter after getting my Juicer I was gathering seeds.  I had to remove the seeds from the apples before juicing so I figure why not save them and try to grow them in the spring.  I collected a few granny smith apple seeds (my favorite apple) and some fuji apple seeds.  Neither of these varieties grow well in Connecticut but this is just an experiment.  Although if they were to grow and fruit, they would be safe to eat because they were organic seeds! Anyways I saved the seeds in a glass bowl on my windowsill for a few months.  Then in early May when I was planting other seeds I saved, like my basil seeds, I decided to plant the apple ones just to see if they would grow.  After I planted them I did some research and realized if the seeds weren't exposed to a cold dormant period they wouldn't sprout.  This was a disappointment because I had kept them on the warm window sill for those few months so I wasn't expecting them to sprout.  Well to my surprise every apple seed I planted has sprouted and begun to grow.  Some of the apple trees are already 2-3 inches tall!! It will be interesting to see how big the trees grow over the summer and whether or not i'll have to find a place to plant them!  As I write this I realize this is a perfect example of Growing from kitchen Scraps!

My Rosemary Survived the winter!!!

My potted Rosemary from last summer survived the winter! Of course it helped that I put it in my shed for a few months!  Ever since I took it back out in March it didn't show much life at all but I just noticed today some new growth at the top of every stem!  Rosemary can't survive in the ground up here in CT due to the cold winters but leaving it in the pot and taking a little extra care paid off! Now I don't have to buy new Rosemary this summer! 

Staking the tomatoes 6/6/13

With the remnants of Tropical Storm Andrea expecting to impact CT Friday and Saturday I thought it would be a good time to stake my tomatoes.  The only reason I haven't done this earlier is that I've been debating what kind of staking I wanted to do.  I could stake them individually, with cages or as rows!  However with the plants growing and 3-5 inches of tropical downpours on the way I needed to stake them before they snap in half! 

Planted Basil 7/4/13

While my basil seedlings continue to grow I planted the small pot of basil I got at Lowes in the ground near my tomatoes.  They're companion plants so they should grow well together! 

Blackberry bush in Bloom! 6/2/13

The thornless Apache Blackberry Bush is in bloom!  I can't believe how beautiful the flowers (yes I've never seen a blackberry bush in bloom before!) Although the bush is small it's still nice. And notice the branch growing out the middle, that will be a berry producer next year!!!