Toe-may-toe-, Toe-ma-toe

Ah, tomatoes. The most popular garden endeavor. I am not immune, and I am expecting...

 

These are Sungold on a plant still hanging on to life from last fall. Yes, this orange color means they are ripe :) Very sweet and tangy itty bitty fruits.

 

The Mexico Midget should be the first of my 2011 tomatoes to ripen... I am anxiously awaiting these red cherry tomatoes. (and crossing my fingers they really are as prolific as reported)

This why little naked guy is a Clint Eastwood's Rowdy Red, Tomatofest says it will be "robust not for sissies bold, tomatoey flavors, with a firm, juicy flesh"

Amy's Sugar Gem looks like she's gonna be a good producer already! From Tomatofest: "sweet flavor and the tiny light gold sparkles in the red skin"

And finally miss Brandywine. Yet to set any fruit, but this is only the first flower cluster - I have high hopes for this summer. Although it may be too cold at night for them to set yet. It was very frustrating to coddle a rooted sucker off a Brandywine last fall all through winter checking daily for new fruit - only to learn they have a much higher temperature minimum to set fruit than cherry tomatoes :Z

Oh my! I forgot about my Purple Calabash! I am a bad green mother :'( I know she's flowering... I can't say for sure off the top of my head if she is setting fruit....

Next time... worms :)

The Discovery of Archie Jr.'s

 Last week I talked about Archie's Garden, when I got free worms and milkweed. Turns out those milkweed came with a bonus prize:

On May 8 while tending my seedlings to my great surpise there was an Archie Jr.!

As if things couldn't get any better, the next day I found...

Two monarch caterpillars at once - and we've never had any! I am extatic. Mother was less thrilled, her first reaction when I did the happy dance and "I got Archie's" song was "oh no, now you're naming caterpillars?". She was a bit cheerier when I explained why they are named Archie Jr and why they are so special, as well as making the promise that they don't come inside the house... (I accidentally brought a green one in with some salad greens last year and her reaction when I found it was rather hilarious)

Three days after discovery Archie Jr #1 has most definitely grown... Also, they each tried to stop my heart by disappearing for a day, but they each came back.

And by one week later:

Ok, at this point I was starting to have doubts about those Milkweed seedlings keeping up with the Archies. And those doubts turned out to be well founded because by the 15th they'd eaten one milkweed seedling bare of leaves and were working on the stem; and the other seedling triplet was only a degree better. Commence emergency nursery runs...

First I went to my local nursery: asked for milkweed, got a funny look, clarified "butterfly milkweed, butterfly bush" and got pointed to the only variety they had (and also picked up a purty columbine and echeveria because I am weak) only to discover a couple of hours later that the Archies weren't eating it... wrong butterfly bush. They gave me buddleja, similar common name, way wrong species :/ (I will be returning it, just haven't gotten around to it quite yet)

So I zoomed over to Home Depot because damnit, milkweed is popular now and it's blooming season and they ought to have it! But no, they don't. *&#%$^@!!!

And it was off to the International Garden Center (I could wander that place for hours... alas it is a bit pricey and reserved for special days *sigh*) where they're nicest little old guy happily showed me each of the milkweeds they had. Real milkweeds - Asclepias tuberosa (there was also a buddleja in bloom, thankfully I learned the first time though). I finally picked out the all yellow one first previewed in my Belated Bloom Day post. I also took home a blue annual dwarf delphinium *coughcough* for my mom of course.

And at home I wasted no time repotting that sucker and relocating the Archies!

 

Naturally a day after that one of them disappeared again... he has not come back yet `:( Then my remaining Archie Jr. started doing the Dracula here:

 He did the Dracula for 3 days straight. I thought he was going into crystalis mode, but no it was just a ruse. He started nibbling again...while I did battle with his cousins - the Fuzzy Terrors!

  You deplete my Kale, you get banished to the ornamentals in the front yard... :P

Anyway, last time I saw Archie Jr. he was still happily munching away his milkweed and getting super chubba. I didn't see him for a couple of day again, but then he reappeared this morning. I just wish he'd get to the crystalis stage so I can stop fussing over him!

 *sigh* I am a sucker for living critters.

Btw, the little milkweed seedlings look like they may acutally survive. The one that was eaten bare is trying to sprout new leaves, as are the other ones. Hoorah!

Southbay Gardeners

Hi there. So I've been exploring Folia which is another online gardening community. It has some similarities to the Dave's Garden website, but quite a bit more user friendly. There's the free subscription which so far seems very useful especially for new gardeners to keep track of things. There's also a few more bells and whistles if you want a paid subscription which is by a donation to the site for whatever you can afford ( I think I may actually do that next pay period).

Anyway, one of the reasons I started blogging about my green children is I want to connect with other gardeners, and especially others in my area. Because my growing climate is very different from most of the county and general advise can be confusing. I had found one gardening group near me on gardening, but their meetings have been kind of sporadic, and many of them quite a distance from me. On Folia I was able to make my own free group, and so I did. If you're in the LA check out Southbay Gardeners  :)