Moo breakfast this morning:





And outside, my garden is progressing beautifully. I planted a few more things last week, and all are taking well. Had to transplant the Japanese mustard, as it was overshadowing some of the herbs and I was concerned they weren't getting enough sun. Usually I plan so that I don't have to bother with transplantation, but since this was a surprise, it was of course by definition unplanned. ;) Still, I was pretty sad the next day, as it appeared I'd killed it. Luckily Chris suggested that it might just be shocked, and had the possibility of coming back to life---otherwise I'd probably have dug up its carcass and disposed of it. A few days later, it did indeed come back...and once it's a little nicer looking, I'll photograph my zombie Japanese mustard for you too. ;)

Here are the photos: as always, click through for larger versions if you'd like. :)

5/30/09 Herbal Menagerie

Front and center is the tarragon, which is surrounded by (clockwise, from top) salad burnet, rosemary, thyme, and dill. :)

5/30/09 Apple Mint

Apple mint.

5/30/09 Cilantro

Cilantro...or as it's known in our house, Moolantro.

5/30/09 Green Baby Strawberry

The strawberries are growing now!

5/30/09 Strawberry Fields Forever

Strawberry fields forever.

5/30/09 Parsley Flower

Parsley flowers.

5/30/09 Chives in Bloom

Chives in full bloom (just for Elva).

5/30/09 Salad Burnet Flower

Tiny, delicate salad burnet flowers.

5/30/09 San Marzano Tomato Flower

And finally, the plant (and photo) I'm most excited about: my San Marzano tomato, which is now flowering beautifully. :D

Time for dinner! :9
janniverse: (Default)
( May. 17th, 2009 01:05 pm)
Firstly, that Thai basil? In only one week, it's grown a lot. There's more of it coming up, too. But here are the same plants I took photos of last week.

Thai Basil, Only 1 Week Later!

And as I believe I mentioned previously, the dill is coming up like mad. Seriously, anyplace there's not something else planted, there's almost a groundcover of dill. Obviously it won't stay like this for long, as it grows to be rather tall rather quickly, but.

Miniature Forest of Dill

The salad burnet is just about to flower, too. :D

Salad Burnet, Almost Flowering

I'm also growing Japanese mustard. I forgot to take a photo of it last week, sorry. XD;;;

Japanese Mustard

And also, one of our yard bunnies was hard at work the other day, diligently cropping some grass. We saw him, and I tried to take photos, but they were kind of craptastic so I'm sparing you the pain of looking at them. Didn't see what else he'd been eating until today.

With that in mind, may I present Yard Bunny Garnishing Techniques, Lesson One? ;)

Dandelion Decimation, Side View

And a top view:

Dandelion Decimation, Top View

And a differently-angled view. It looks...kind of like the Dreamwidth logo. XD

Dandelion Decimation, Angle View

In conclusion, yay Yard Bunny! :)
Click through for larger versions if you'd like.

Italian Sweet Basil and Rosemary, 5/9/09

Italian Sweet Basil and Rosemary

Italian Sweet Basil, Top View, 5/9/09

Bai Horapa (Thai Basil), top view.

Bai Horapa (Thai Basil), 5/9/09

Bai Horapa (Thai Basil)


Various tomatoes, 5/9/09

Tomatoes: Roma, Sweet Cherry, Jubilee, and San Marzano

Strawberries, 5/9/09

Strawberries in bloom

Dill and Salad Burnet, 5/9/09

Dill and Salad Burnet

Flat-Leaf Parsley, 5/9/09

Flat-Leaf Parsley

Chives, 5/9/09

Chives, budding

I'm thinking those photography classes are paying off, as I did in fact take these all myself. I'm sure Joe is breathing a sigh of relief. ;)
janniverse: (Default)
( May. 9th, 2009 02:56 pm)
Planted my usual suspects earlier today, with slight variation: did one roma tomato, one cherry tomato, one jubilee tomato, and one San Marzano. Haven't tried growing San Marzanos before, but I really hope it does well...with the general ratio of tastiness between other types of fresh tomatoes gotten from a farmer's market and ones eaten just moments after plucking off your own vines, I'll have more than just cause to be excited. :D

Also planted standard-issue Italian sweet basil and some rosemary. My perennial herbs are coming back nicely, especially the salad burnet. (I've taken photos of all this, but haven't had a chance to look them over yet and edit, so you'll probably see those tomorrow.)

What's really impressive, though, are the things that have come back even though they're not really supposed to. My chive, well...nothing can kill chives. Or dill. Or strawberries, apparently. I expected those to be thriving, and indeed they are.

But my flat-leaf parsley! Even some of the cilantro! The dill has spread itself around to wherever there isn't something else planted, and since it's rather pretty and delicious, I don't mind one bit.

The TOTAL SHOCKER, though? Bai horapa (Southeast Asian purple-stemmed basil) EVERYWHERE. I don't remember when I planted it...if it was last year or the year before. It didn't come up then, though. Now? I'm lousy with the stuff, and couldn't be more pleased...well, except if it was Italian basil that randomly sprouted everywhere.

Can't wait to see what comes back next year! :D

Photos tomorrow. I'm really excited about my garden this year. The worms are, too---can't turn over a shovel full of dirt without hitting at least one. I ♥ my garden. :D
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