Picture Update.

Ah summertime. Time to weed, weed, weed, did I mention weed? Did that last weekend. Filled a trash can to the top. Yep. Weed season.
Now that that's done, time to plant the summer crops. But first, some pictures:

Dragon Fruit Flower! Our first. Isn't it amazing?

We have tons of caterpillars. Lots of butterflies too. This weekend, we counted 5 different kinds of caterpillars. We also have a couple of unidentified green and gold cocoons.

These guys are finishing off my fennel. I was going to compost it, but I decided to wait until they are done with it first. They are freaking HUGE caterpillars. Like my pinky-sized.

This is a collard green. One of the best things to grow because it continues to grow even as you harvest leaves. I think we had 5 batches before it was time to replant.

One harvest.

Some of my lovely orchids.

Now THESE are caterpillars!

Garden Update

The garden is flourishing and the kids are growing. But it leaves very little time for me to write sometimes. I'm making a commitment though to write a post at least once a week.

We have expanded the garden to a second much larger plot than the one I have photographed here before. We are growing crazy amounts of collard greens, potatoes, leeks and jackfruit trees. The trees are about a foot tall and will be going up on Craig's List shortly for sale. If you have never had a jackfruit, they are very strange and HUGE spiky fruits. The fruit itself tastes like a tropical fruit like mango with a citrusy sweetness and maybe even apple thrown in 'cause why not?

To eat it, one must cut the bastard open, wait for the glue (yes, glue. don't get any on ya) to seep out. You can use a towel to soak it up and then immediately wash the towel. Then you can take out these little pods and eat them.

The Girl Child did not want to try a piece. Daddy made her take a bite with much fuss and whining. She then ate up a whole bowl of them.

I have also harvested some eggplants. Made fried eggplant and Babaganoush (sp?). Tasty.
The tomatoes are coming in but the cut worms are making it hard to get any ripe whole ones. I have sprayed with neem oil, so hopefully that got the suckers.

We also have about a handful of strawberries almost daily. Maybe 4 or 5 raspberries. (Grow damn it!)

This past weekend we also had ripe starfruits. They will continue to ripen for a while so I can pull them off as needed. The tree is not even very tall yet but it is heavy with fruit.

The collard green plant is the best. I have made 4 batches of them and the plant barely looks touched. I wonder how long it will continue to grow in new leaves? The Little Guy LOVES these. He ate nothing but collards for dinner last night. He was staring at my plate too, like he was thinking, that better not be the last of it mom.

Finally bought some weed barrier. Looking to install this weekend, but I need more dirt first. I really don't like weeding. Annoying.

I also have a number of new seeds to plant. Carrots, lettuce, spinach, cucumbers and beans. I think the cold weather is probably behind us so it should be ok to get those going.

The new patch is not organic though. :-( Hubby put miracle grow soil in there.
I figure the herb patch can stay organic and the other will not be.