Happenings in the vegetable patch.

So there's been a nice steady few weeks of serious sun, and then big rains- which has really been great for my farming experiment 2.0. There has been some significant growth since planting day. 

The tomatoes are doing wonderfully. The three larger plants are actually producing beautiful looking fruit. the cherry tomto plant has already given me about 16 large (organic) cherry tomatoes,  the large "pink lady" tomatoes are huge, and slowly turning pink, and the third (which I thought was a pink lady, but was marked wrong at the nursery) has about 12 shapely looking medium size tomatoes, and I'm excited to see how long it takes them to ripen. They are gorgeous.

Over in the herbs & veg section, the herbs and lettuces are all growing nicely, with the exception of one spinach plant that seems to be struggling and looking pretty weak (I have no clue why!). The 4 arugula bushels have doubled in size, and the herbs are starting to look more full. The artichoke, eggplant, and zucchini plants look healthy and great- but I honestly have no clue what's happening under the ground or what to expect from those bad boys.

As for the fruits, all the plants look great- and some of the rasberry bushes (especially the heritage ones) are starting to have tiny greenish buds that I hope will turn into fruit near the end of the summer and save me from my uncontrollable need to spend 5.99 on raspberries on a weekly basis. Squirrels and birds be warned: I will defend my berries with force.

Heritage berries, almost turning pinkish!

The other plants seem to be budding as well, Im hoping that my 2 year old bluberry plant will actually produce some fruit this year- and I should see some strawberries too. The ground cherry plants are already showing the delicate paper-like green shells, that will soon house some pretty little yellow guys. I'm watching all of it, and feeling pretty positive. Watermelons dont look like they've made to much progress, and I'm not holding my breath.

Ground cherries

Animals seem to be staying away from the massive amounts of Cayenne that I have been putting down. I caught one squirrel actually jump from a vertical postion on the fence, right onto the tomato cage - a few foot drop. I ran out like a raving loon and scared it away. Besides that, they are still running back and forth on the fence all day but not daring to come down into the cayenne den of fire. It takes a lot of upkeep to sprinkle cayenne after each big rain, and it's going to get more and more intense as the summer gets on, and more fruit starts to blossom. I'm ready. Stay tuned.