Berry Blooms

I had my doubts that I could actually start strawberries from seed. I had more doubts that they would survive the seedling stage. And here they are - with blooms even! I ordered 'Red Wonder Wild Strawberry' seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company's 2008 catalog. There isn't much information in the catalog about them other than to start them indoors like you would tomato seedlings. I know they won't produce much this year - if anything. I should probably pinch the blooms off, but, I don't want to. There aren't enough to do more than enjoy a berry or two anyway, and I still have more seed to try again next year, so, think I'll do as I please!

New Cast Members

I'm always trying to grow something new. Thanks to a generous valentine gift from hubby, I got to order tons of new-to-me seeds from Baker Creek this year. Meet some of the new characters growing here this year...

Painted Mountain Corn - my family struggles with blood sugar issues, so high-carb goodies like sweet corn are off the table. But growing pretty colored corn for fall decorating is do-able so I selected this variety, even though it is advertised as a "flour" corn.





Lemon squash seems to me to be nearly identical to any other yellow summer squash in flavor, it just has this fun lemon-like form. I have 2 of these in the garden, one full and healthy, but the other wilted. I couldn't ever find signs of vine borers, so I can't say for sure what happened. I feared it just wasn't getting enough water so I watered it well, mulched it heavily, and watered then watered some more. It continued to die a bit more each day for about a week - until the last few days - now it seems the few unaffected vines are growing new leaves! Keeping my fingers crossed it pulls out of it.

Hollyhocks and wild strawberries...odd combination but I'm proud that I started both from seed! The bed these are in have a mixed and unplanned variety of plants, including marigolds, petunias, sweet william, coleus and calendula. The hollyhocks won't flower for another year, and I doubt the strawberries set fruit until then.



I want to make salsa, with the majority of ingredients coming fresh from my garden. So, this year I added 2 varieties of tomatillos to my plant list. I love the paper-lantern look! The verde variety has these husks growing in large numbers. The giant variety has only one husk on each of the 2 plants and the leaves are curled up....too much water? Anyway, the trick is to be sure I have enough peppers, onions, tomatoes, cilantro and tomatillos all at once. We'll see....