It's been almost two months since I started my straw bale garden for this year, and I can't believe how much growth I have already! A couple of the tomato plants are so large that they reach the top of their cages, and I think the pepper plants may need some cages soon too. I counted about 15 tomatoes yesterday, and they are growing on all four tomato plants. I'm excited to see how many we get total and I can't wait to try the first one, which so far looks like it will be a San Marzano.
The pepper plants also have many peppers and flowers on them. The poblanos started first, and now I have a few shishito peppers and jalapeños growing. The banana peppers and the green peppers seem a little slower, but they are flowering, so I'm not too worried. The squash are also flowering out of control! I've never tried making anything with squash blossoms before, but with how many there are each day I'm starting to consider it. I don't see any actual squash growing from the blossoms yet, so I may have to look into how to pollinate them again too.
This past week we used some of the herbs from the garden when grilling potatoes, since the herbs are the only plants that are ready to be harvested right now. After coming back from Minnesota, I had to make some mojitos, since they are one of my favorite drinks that my brother-in-law makes (don't worry Matt, I gave it a good spank!). I don't have a ton of mint yet, so I used a blend of our different kinds of mint. They were so refreshing with how hot it has been lately! I also had to use some of my lettuce to make the ramen salad my sister Miranda made. It was insanely delicious - I highly recommend it.
For those of you curious about how the playhouse turned out, it is absolutely adorable. Miranda finished up the painting, the deck floor and the decorations, and I couldn't be happier with it. It's even better than what I imagined and when I'm missing Norbert, now I can picture him playing restaurant inside his own little house <3
Commenti