Call Me Audrey

Wednesday, July 20, 2011
I have a hard time thinking of vegetables as scary or intimidating. I grew up with a huge vegetable garden in the backyard and tend to view vegetable plants as pretty innocuous and even, kind of friendly. So I was surprised last month when the neighbors expressed fear that our tomato and broccoli plants might "eat them."

But as time goes by, I have to admit, the tomato and squash plants are looking rather bad-ass. I've taken to calling them "Audrey", ala Little Shop of Horrors.


I oblige their cries of "Feed me" with plenty of water and a little plant food every couple weeks. But not too much plant food. Andy devoted a portion of yesterday to tying back the rambunctious tomato plants so we can actually pass them on the deck walkway and get in and out of our cabin. We still have to kind of angle ourselves sideways to get around them.

Meanwhile, over in the new raised bed, things are progressing at a similarly "wild" pace. We've been harvesting broccoli and kohlrabi for the last week and a half now. I'm letting the cabbage get huge though. Just because I can. 
Visions of sauerkraut danced through their heads
The zucchini, yellow squash, and pumpkin plants are taking over one half of the raised bed and exceeding expectations. I had little hopes when I planted the pumpkins. I picked the package of seeds up on a whim when the Gold Nugget winter squash seed I'd ordered didn't arrive due to crop failure last year. Now the pumpkin is climbing the fence, sending tendrils willy-nilly, and bearing teeny-tiny pumpkins. Exciting!


Granted, it's only fair if I share our gardening failures too. The onions have once again committed massive hari-kari. I spent last night pulling out all of the spinach and arugula which immediately went to seed after sprouting. We're still figuring out what will and won't grow in our shady terrace gardens. In our extreme heat, one Thai basil plant kicked it when I wasn't looking (or was too hot and miserable to care).

As Andy said yesterday, "Now I know how people have massive, productive gardens."

To which I said, "And why all the people with productive gardens are like 57."

This gardening stuff is most definitely a work in progress. You learn what to do and perhaps more importantly, what not to do, every day.

10 comments:

  1. Your garden looks beautiful! My tomatoes look about like yours and my acorn squash, cucumbers and zuchinni are flowering like crazy. My spinach and brocolli crops were disappointing this year. But it has been a strange season. And my garden is still overrun with weeds...

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  2. My garden is taking a long time to produce but I'm slowly seeing chili peppers and yellow wax beans. I've harvested tons of carrots. Still waiting for the tomatoes and zucchini. Your garden looks amazing!

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  3. i think of veggie plants as friendly, too! (i want to put googly eyes on them).

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  4. I am deeply jealous of your garden, it is incredible!!!! WOW!!!

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  5. I love your Little Shop Of Horrors reference! And your garden--- it is amazing!!!!

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  6. WOW Ada, you're garden is amazing!! I'm so jealous of your green thumb.

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  7. Your garden has really blossomed!! Harvest is going to be a wonderful time at your house. :)

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  8. I would LOVE to, someday, have a garden. I know that they are LOTS of work but I can get behind that. It would be nice to have lots of fresh veggies (for at least part of the year) to munch and cook. We'll just have to see how things eventually pan out.

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  9. This is an amazing garden for the North Shore! Gorgeous green tomatoes.

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  10. My garden is going wild too, i love it! This is my first year of my very own garden (my parents always had one growing up) so i'm pretty proud! Great photos.

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