The 567 Project: tomato

We continue to work on the house (I promise) but we took a few weeks off to plan and begin some larger projects that are all still underway and also enter in a little home improvement contest. We hope to complete painting and replacing the shutters this week so stay tuned for more updates.

We entered our kitchen into The Worst Kitchen in America contest by the DIY and Food Networks. We created a video (including rap written by Andy) to enter into the contest. Unfortunately, Andy and I can barely stand to watch it (pure embarrassment) and I just don't have the nerve to post it here. If you really want to see it you can find it on the DIY Network website.

Andy was able to install the faucet and part of the shower. It's crazy to see water running out of a faucet in an otherwise unfinished bathroom, but at least we have running water (and no leaks!). He began working on the wiring this weekend and discovered that we really needed to add a new circuit and rewire the existing bathroom so he had to take down the entire ceiling and feed new wiring from the basement. It was a productive weekend. I'll post some pictures ASAP.

The garden is also doing great -- lots of tomatoes, squash, eggplant, and beans.

The tomatoes that are yellow on top of the heirloom variety called Mr. Stripey. They are delicious!

Everything I read online says to keep a notebook or journal for your garden to track when you plant seeds, transplant, harvest, and to note crops that did well or not so well. We were in such a rush to get things in the ground that my early attempts to track what we were doing in the garden went right out the window. At least I'll be able to look back and this blog and have some idea of what we planted and how it did (or in some cases didn't).

A little refresher -- here is what the garden looked like almost 2 months ago on May 25.

Tomato plants.

Lettuce, beets, radishes, carrots, and peas.

More lettuce, spinach, and cabbage.

We ate a ton of lettuce from the garden, had a few meals with sugar snap peas, and just ate small crops of beets and broccoli last week. The cabbage and broccoli were healthy plants but I think the late spring planting caused the low (or no) production.

Warm weather definitely caused some plants to grow like crazy.

In the front we have an Ichiban eggplant, some green peppers and a zucchini. In the back I took a stab at some companion planting where one plants attracts certain beneficial bugs or provides needed nutrients to its companion plant. We tried a Three Sisters Garden with corn in the middle, pole beans around the corn that use the corn plants as a trellis and the beans provide nitrogen for the corn (a nutrient depleting plant), and then squash around the beans to shade the roots.

A few delicious Ichiban eggplants just about ready to be picked. I've had some minor damage to the leaves by japanese beetles but not enough to really stress the plant.

Tomatoes!!! The plants got so tall that they have outgrown the cages and needed some additional stakes. We are still having problems with branches breaking off in heavy winds. I started trimming them back to prevent more breakage. We just noticed a few ripe tomatoes earlier this week.

An heirloom variety called Mr. Stripey.

Beefsteak.

Romas.

We ripped out the peas and planted some late green beans, wax beans, and cucumbers.

Green peppers and more beans where the lettuce was.

Shady side -- I gave up on growing veggies here and instead planted some impatiens.

Nasturtium. Another companion planting attempt. These flowers are supposed to attract beneficial insects. I can't say I've seen any specific bugs (other than our ladybugs), but I haven't seen tons of damage either, so we'll keep them around.

Broccoli. (and a few green peppers, jalapeno peppers, and ghost peppers (apparently the hottest in the world and Andy's experiment) that aren't visible)