Veggie Garden After All

Apparently, vacation is not only good for people, it's also good for gardens! Remember my earlier poor attempt at growing lovely vegetables from seeds?  After this first near total fail, I had decided to sow again, but in pots this time, to keep a closer eye on the development. In my last update, I was getting ready to transfer that second round of baby plants onto the garden patch.

I had not set my hopes too high, as it was getting quite late in the season (almost July!) for starting a garden anew! But to my delight, everything survived the transfer and started growing... and producing!

Second attempt at a garden patch, nearly 3 weeks after transfer - July 18, 2012

Tiny little baby pumpkins! They look like small elves. heehee :) - July 18, 2012

My parents and grandmother visited us from Canada in July (hence the lack of entries in that period of time, by the way), and when they arrived, I got a few tricks from the experienced! The tomato plants were the only thing remaining from my original garden attempt, but I couldn't understand why they were growing so big and nicely, yet had so few flower buds. So I learned that it was better to prune the plant, so it could concentrate its energy on producing nice tomatoes. As the plant develops, shoots, commonly called "suckers", form in the axils, and these shoots need to be removed.

The shoots at the axils need to be removed for better development of tomatoes

Within a few days after pruning / cleaning up the plants, I started seeing an increase in the amount of buds, and in the speed in which everything was progressing. By now, about 3 weeks later, my tomato plants are full of buds, flowers and green tomatoes growing by the day!

Fresh tomatoes in the making - July 31st, 2012

I have already made several salads with fresh zucchinis, fresh lettuce and fresh basil and chives. I can't wait to replace store bought tomatoes with fresh tomatoes to go with the rest. No vegetable taste better than the homegrown ones!

Second attempt at a garden patch - July 31st, 2012

This project may not have worked exactly as I expected from the start, but in the end, some of it worked out and I come out of it with a little more experience than I had when the season started. Hands on trial and errors... and some good advice from experience gardeners. There is no best way to learn. :) I'm afraid I've been stung by the gardening bug. I wonder if the symptoms are contagious? ;)