The Good are actually looking Very Good – these dragon beans are definitely ready to be picked and devoured. Riiiiiiiiight after I finish photographing them.
Also Good – these lovely little grape tomatoes should be ready in a few weeks. As should the lovely little bell peppers below.
The Ehh:
Since last fall, I’ve been experimenting with growing leafy greens and root veggies in containers. To be honest, I haven’t had much success outside of garlic, radicchio and chicory. Everything else grows but very slowly and doesn’t seem to mature. A fellow gardener suggested that I should water more because plants in containers dry out so much faster than plants in our local clay-rich soil. He’s probably right but I’m fundamentally Darwinist at heart. I haven’t got much heart for growing plants that can’t be sustained by the forces of Nature. At least 80% of the time.
Take, for example, the chard above. Four little chard seedlings survived the birds and are currently growing unmolested at the moment. They’re disease-free and growing slowly yet steadily but I still can’t help feeling like they’re just not livin up to their potential.
The kale would be the Ugly.
Despite having sown it twice (once last fall and once last spring), I still have no idea what it tastes like. Nonetheless, I imagine it must be incredibly tasty to the caterpillars that munched it all up. They’re all gone now – perhaps turned into moths or (my personal gardening revenge fantasy scenario) perhaps picked off by a grackle. Unlike the fall crop that froze solid under Snowmaggedon 2010, this crop soldiers on like some sort of undying leafy swiss cheese greens. Hopefully they’ll soldier on to the Great Fall Harvest, when I can really put their zombie tendencies to the test.
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