My husband felt that he had not started the bell peppers early enough, so he will plant those in pots so that they can overwinter in the house at the end of the season. Our beans have started coming up, as have plants for the two potatoes. We are still waiting on the squash to make its appearance. He also planted a few snow peas.
Two of the tomato plants got broken when a grow light got knocked on to them in the house, so Scott told me to go ahead and buy another tomato plant at the farmers market. There I encountered a self-proclaimed tomato geek, who had an amazing variety. As they were $3 apiece, or two for $5, I naturally came home with two. One is a Dester Indiana. The story is that the seeds were brought by a German man to Indiana, and he gave some to an Amish woman. I couldn't resist the story. The other plant, also an heirloom, is a Goliath, which is a variety that does not grow very tall. It's supposed to be sturdy and to continue producing fruit until a freeze. If we have a good season, I should have lots of different tomatoes with which to play in the kitchen.
My husband also bought seed for a fairy tale pumpkin--a variety I discovered at the farmers market a couple of years ago but have been unable to get since then. (There is someone else who likes the variety who usually gets there before the market opens and grabs the one or two that they have in their selection. The idea is to plant the seed in a large grow bag left over from when I used to plant a garden and place it on the side of the house, then let the vines run along the sunny side, and perhaps let any pumpkins that develop rest on the sidewalk. I got the idea after seeing a yard with lovely pumpkins a couple of years ago, even though most of the "yard" was pavers, with just a small spot of ground. We will have to protect the seeds until they germinate and get large enough that the chipmunks will leave the plant alone.
So far this year, we are getting regular rain and not too hot of temperatures. The black raspberry and blackberry crops look promising.
One of our two blueberry bushes has developed berries. For the second year in a row, the second one did not. If I can keep the birds off the one bush, I might get enough berries for muffins.
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