Solanum, of course, as in the nightshade family, which includes tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes among other things. I, however, am referring to tomatoes and peppers, which I planted out today! But first we'll start with some pictures. I finally took a picture of my garden plot. I kept forgetting to bring the camera, and finally tonight I ran back out on a special trip and took some pictures. Here's the one of my garden plot:
(as always, click for larger versions of pictures)
It's about 53 x 53 or so...no exact measurements; I just took my tape measure that was 50 feet long and figured it was a few feet longer. It's nice black dirt, if a bit clumpy since it was tilled from a grass field and it hasn't been worked before. It's finally starting to look like it might actually be a garden rather than an empty patch of dirt, although it would look more that way if my PUMPKINS ZUCCHINI AND CORN HADN'T FROZEN.
Anyway...Here's the broccoli and a cute little brussel sprout plant. I don't know why, but brussel sprouts look more like cabbages than cabbage looks like cabbages.
I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that only about half of my melons are going to survive. Out of two hills of 3 watermelon each, only 3 plants remain. Luckily I have maybe....2 or 3 that I saved for replacements. While the leaves on my healthy watermelon look pretty good, all the cantaloupe are looking kind of ragged. I'm hoping that all but two will come out of it, but for the moment they look pretty sad. I may be destined to not have homegrown cantaloupe, we shall see. Watermelon on left, cantaloupe on right.
The peas are actually doing quite well. Out of all the ones I have planted so far, only one looks like it probably won't make it. I attempted to get creative and put the on strings in a V shape. I am thinking of putting a taller plant, perhaps okra if it is ornamental, inside the V. I have a few more green, and then all the golden to plant yet. The golden aren't quite to planting stage. All are snow peas, by the way. I like cold weather crops...
And finally, to the topic of the day, the tomato and pepper planting! I planted seven tomato plants, which means only oh...30 or so to go :| I planted the largest ones since I thought those might be the most likely to survive out there, and I'm letting the others grow for maybe another week before being cast out into the real world. I tried to plant them deep, since they root along the stem, to nullify their legginess. The peppers I just planted up to their "false" leaves, or cotyledons. The peppers LOOK like some of my healthiest plants...we'll see how they fare out in brutal mother nature. I planted seven bell peppers and eleven hot peppers of various varieties (they came in a "hot pepper mix" so I am not going to be sure what they set fruit.) I have more of those, too, but I'm letting them grow a bit more as well. I also have more recent pepper starts, such as my pepperoncini, jalapeno, hungarian wax, and black hungarian, and habanero. Oh, and my banana pepper I bought at Walmart, although I'm doubtful those seeds were mature. Ha, I'm going to drown in peppers.
Left is tomatoes, right is the beginnings of a pepper field.
And lastly, I will leave you with the pretty rural scenery that surrounds my garden. It's full of majestic natural beauty and wildlife. So much so that I have to encase my garden with a six foot fence.
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