Purple Bell Pepper

Kittens really take up a lot of your time and energy. Luka is a ball of energy, and incredibly needy. Every time I leave the house to go outside, she cries and puts her paws to the window. It's really cute, but at the same time, so tiring! My garden has been neglected for the past weekend because of my little kitten.

But today I was able to leave Luka for a little bit and tend to my "big" baby--my vegetable garden. The purple bell pepper is now almost completely purple. It's kinda strange to think that it was once a tiny little pepper.

Below: The progression of the purple bell.




Now I'm wondering if the bell pepper is ready to be picked or if I should wait and see if it grows any larger? It's a pretty small bell pepper right now.

Failed Attempts at Growing Corn & 1 Yellow Tomato

I’ve heard that corn always tastes best right after it is harvested. But I think it’s hard to grow because of how it pollinates. You need lots of sun and lots of corn plants. I’d love to think the square foot garden method works for every vegetable and fruit, but it probably doesn’t. For success at growing corn, I would need to fill each square with corn. Unfortunately, I don’t have that luxury. Cam and I had planned to build more SFG boxes, but with the arrival of Luca, we don’t currently have the time.

To compensate, I tried another experiment. (Yep, I love experimenting). This time, however, I think this will be a failed experiment. I had a few small stalks of corn, so I transplanted them into the same SFG box. Two stalks per divided square. My hope was that this was close enough for the pollination to work.

Below: The corn after it was first transplanted. See how healthy and happy it looks! So green!

Unfortunately, this experiment is doomed. A week later, the corn isn’t getting any taller and its leaves are beginning to yellow. It’s rather sad to see my corn slowly die… (See below)

This time, I won't pull it out like I did the cucumbers. I'm going to let it die on its own. And if it miraculously survives, I'll be ecstatic. But I'm not going to get my hopes up. I'll continue to water, but I'm going to think it's a lost cause.

Another rather depressing fact: I had planted seeds in empty squares in box # 2, and the corn seedlings are also yellowing. They aren't getting any bigger, and I have no idea what to do. I was planning to transplant them after Cam builds a new box, but I doubt that they will survive much longer.

Below: The baby corn seedlings

Well on the bright side, I planted two rows of corn at my parents’ house. Since my dad has a green thumb, I’m hoping that I can harvest fresh corn by the end of the summer. Let’s cross our fingers! He’s using a raised bed, but the beds are long enough for rows. I’ll keep you updated on that development as it comes! (I believe corn is traditionally grown in rows.)

I’ll end on a positive note. After impatiently waiting, one of my cherry tomatoes has started to turn yellow! I’m hoping that more tomatoes will follow its path and start turning. What joy it will be when I can pick cherry and grape tomatoes for my salads!

Above: The new yellow tomato! Sorry for the blurriness. It was a windy day!

Kitten Update & Zucchini and Cucumber Flowers

For regular readers of my blog, I wanted to give an update on the kitten that Cam saved last week. (Check out the initial post about her). You’ll be happy to know that I have adopted the kitten. Her full name is Foxy Luka Nguyen-Cornelius, but we call her Luka. She’s an American short hair and only about 2 months old, possibly younger than that. No one knows her history, but she is the sweetest little thing ever. The vet thinks that she was weaned from her mother too soon, so this has caused her to be extra clingy to Cam and me.

Currently, she’s living in the very spacious sun room and she just loves being around us. She is incredibly vocal, meowing constantly, and she’s very playful. She hates it when we leave the room, and she meows until we come back. It’s hard to resist her because she is so lovable and cute!

The vet said that she will become less clingy as she gets older, but I really don’t want her to grow up and be a regular old cat. To me, she’s almost a dog trapped in a cat’s body. She follows me everywhere, likes to sit in my lap and nap. Once she gets big enough to fit into a harness, I’m going to try to leash train her. We’ll see. For now, I’m really enjoying her kitty-hood.

Now onto gardening fun! I have to correct myself. I’ve been incorrectly telling you that I have squash plants. I actually have zucchini plants. And the one in SFG box # 1 has started to flower (below).

The flowers haven’t opened up yet, and I don’t know if they are male or female, but they look promising! Little zucchinis are about to be born! I love the yellow color in the flowers. That’s the beauty of vegetable gardening—you get the flavorful fruit as well as the pretty flowers.

Below: A close look at the big, pretty soon-to-be flower

It's hard to believe that that zucchini plant used to be a seed that we planted inside. When we first transplanted it, it flopped over and didn't stand up straight for weeks! And now look at it! Getting nice and big!

I pulled out the diseased zucchini from the soil because I didn't have the patience to wait and see what it would do. But the ones that were left are doing better now. They are slowly getting larger, and their stems are intact.

Below: The other zucchini plants

The cucumbers that I planted last week are still blooming. This time, they have new flowers! I’m not sure about the sex of the flower, but there are two sets. One yellow, and one white. Either way, I have both sexes. It looks like fuzzy cucumbers are growing behind a few of the flowers. I don't particularly care for the look of these flowers, but at least they produce vegetables.

Below: The cucumber flowers

One of my favorite summer sandwiches is a cucumber and tomato sandwich with mayo and dill. Maybe in July, I can harvest the ripe vegetables for my sandwich. That'll be so exciting!

P.S. For Tina: I'll end up posting more about what square foot gardening is, but I'm going to wait until Cam and I decide to build more boxes to describe our process. We don't follow everything the founder of SFG, Mel Bartholomew, recommends. We probably should, but we don't. I love experiments, as you've probably noticed. :-)

Strawberries, Oregano, and Fruit Trees

My two strawberry plants are doing well. Unfortunately, there are no new strawberries yet. I ate the first and only two strawberries from one of the plants. But as of today, no new growth. They are the ever-bearing variety, so I'm hoping they will fruit later this summer.

Below: The potted strawberry plant.

The potted plant is pretty healthy, and it continues to grow new leaves every day. You can see its new growth at the bottom of its stem. Very green and incredibly promising.

Below: The strawberry plant in the SFG box # 2.

The planted strawberry plant has nice foliage, and the leaves are very green. Even if it doesn't fruit again, it is pretty to look at. I love the leaves--similar to three-leaf clovers.

I'm in need of education from you expert gardeners. I'm not sure how strawberries even form. Do they come from flowers? Or does the fruit just grow off one of the leaves? I'm so clueless. I need to do some research on this.

Above: Oregano from the front vegetable bed. (2 angles of the same plant).

I planted two oregano plants. One is in the front (the photo above), and the other is planted in one of the SFG boxes. The front oregano is flourishing and one sprig is growing very tall. I think I may need to harvest some soon and try my hand at drying. I’d love to make home-made dried oregano for my Italian dishes. Italian food is my absolute fav. (Kinda strange, huh? Since I'm Vietnamese).

I've heard that oregano spreads very quickly, but Cam and I wanted to grow an herb that would come back yearly. At least with oregano, it'll come back for several years and we don't need to replant any.

Below: The nectarine (right) and cherry (left) trees

I absolutely love fruit. I don’t like candies or chocolates that much, but I’ve always had a sweet tooth for fruit. My parents grow delicious apples and pears in their garden, so Cam and I decided to plant a few fruit trees at his home.

In the late April, we planted three trees: (1) cherry (2) nectarine (3) red delicious apple.

Below: The red delicious apple tree
The apple tree (above) had bloomed in early May, and I was expecting to have a small harvest of apples this year. But alas, it was not meant to be. After the flowers "died," we had one small baby apple, and I was so excited. But a bird flew down and carried it away. So sadly, no apples this year. Hopefully, next year.

The cherry tree is still very young, and we didn't have any hope for cherries this year. So hopefully in the next few years, instead of buying cherries from the grocery, I can just go to Cam's house and pick some the tree.

The only tree that we've had any success with is the nectarine tree. I really enjoy eating nectarines, so we bought a tree that already had fruit. We figured we couldn't go wrong!

Below: The nectarine tree