Tip#57: air dry it

Mmm, clothes smell like flowers

Mystery peas

Fiona's mother gave me these mystery peas to take care of before she left for her month long vacation.

After only a few weeks in the field, peas began to appear

Not sure what type they are

Purple and green peas. Or are they beans? Podded vegetables are not my speciality, so I have no idea.

Invading the lettuce patch

Bountiful harvest

Here's a portion of the bountiful harvest my neighbours kindly shared with us. Pears from Christina, roma tomatoes from Fanny's garden and grape tomatoes, courtesy of the "hey, you!" guy whose name has escaped me for over a year and it's gotten to the point where it's just embarrassing to ask

I was worried about their rippening less than a week ago; now I'm concerned about the tomatoes rippening too fast. Here are some Tiny Tims from my backyard. If you examine the green parts closely, you can make out the black fly damage

Tiny Tims from my aunt's garden. Look how cute they are!

Windowsill garden

Herbs and seedlings watching cars pass by

Everything's fruiting


Even the tiny, neglected pepper plants are bearing fruits. Guess I didn't have to be extra protective of them

He's still here

... and he's still alive

Cabbage doing great

Even though it's been rather hot and humid lately.

Aunt's "jungle"

Tiny Tims can survive anything from undersized pots to droughts to devastating bug attacks.

My puny tomato plant feels even more inferior than before as the neighbouring tomato plant looms over the fence. At least there's shade on a hot, summer day

The virgin lettuce is bolting under the glaring sun

Even with all the weeds surrounding them, the chili peppers are looking great

Tornado!

The GTA was hit by a disastrous storm and tornado that tore off roofs and flipped over cars. Fortunately, the Eastern part was spared and everything in my garden is still standing except for these two tomato plants that tipped over, squishing the neighbouring pepper plants. I staked them up this morning and all's well again!

More zucchinis

Zucchini 22, 23 and 24

Lettuce bolting

I've been looking forward to gathering lettuce seeds ever since my family has made a habit of devouring four to six plants each meal. Unfortunately, tiny fruit fly like insects are attaching themselves to my bolting lettuce. Meticulously brushing each one off with a paintbrush is working pretty well, but talk about a tedious process!

Mini bell peppers

Yikes, they look like weirdly shaped lanterns

Green tomatoes

I'm starting to fret as these Tiny Tims refuse to turn red. Most of my neighbours' tomatoes are already ripe, even the ones that were transplated later on the season

The one I collected from my aunt's place is quickly turning red as it sits on my desk

Forest of basil

I really overdid it this time and most of them are only seedlings. Imagine the giant bush I will have by the end of next month

Baby Big

Felt like adding a little fun and shock to the garden, so I let one of my zucchinis grow as it pleased.

Baby Big: born August 16, 2009

19 inches long

weighing in at a hefty 8.4 lbs

Hopeless to hopeful

Can't believe it - the sacrificial eggplant is bearing fruit. For some odd reason black flies have recently stopped visiting my backyard, giving a chance for the leaves to survive before they get chomped off. I guess more leaves = healthier plant = fruit

I cross my fingers, hoping it matures into a big, fat fruit

So hot and humid



Ugly curd

Completely deformed and bolting

Eggplant in the pit of my stomach

Another good mornin' to you!

Sorry little buddie, but it's time.

Oh crap, look at that. I chopped you up before you had fully lived your life
So it turns out that I once again made the mistake of harvesting too early. Luckily there are still four more trial and error eggplants in my backyard to collect : ) hope I learn fast

Cabbage seedlings

In the process of planting out some fall crops, starting with broccoli, cauliflower and these cabbage seedlings

Red pepper

Sorry to disappoint, but the title is a lie :D You can make out a small green patch on the left side of the pepper if you squint hard. Oh, I can just taste its sweetness!

Carrot seedlings sprout

It's during times like this that I wish there was an SLR camera at home. I love my point-and-shoot camera overall, but it's a pain when photographing smaller objects like seeds and seedlings. Anyhoo, carrots are a few days behind the already sprouted radish seedlings, but it's all good as long as they come out healthy

Broccoli? Cauliflower?



I forgot to label the broccoli and cauliflower seedlings in the field.. so.. yeah.. damn. I can never tell the difference between the two

The life and times of my globe basil

June 14 was impulse buy day: two cute globe basil plants

July 24: both were so round and cute but neither reached their full "giant poof ball" potential

August 11: first time successfully propagating a plant - hooray! In less than two weeks the roots have reached the bottom of the pot and the leaves are looking mighty healthy

Radish seedlings

When I first started to garden earlier this year, I was afraid to intercrop in case something went wrong and the entire field had to be dug up - but aha! I'm feeling confident enough to give it a try *knocks on wood*

No sight of carrot seedlings yet, but radish seedlings have been popping up between the rows of lettuce. Before I googled "radish seedlings" I thought I had accidentally sown broccoli or cauliflower seeds in the field. It's weird how they all look alike despite their final appearance

Vege lunch

My fridge was empty after several days of eating out, so I picked some fresh produce from the garden

I was excited until I realized that the pepper was too young, too bitter and produced too few seeds. Ugh