Garden Breakfast

This morning I decided to make myself an omelet. I normally just eat whatever I make for the kids. Today I gave them leftover cinnamon banana pancakes, and I just couldn't make myself eat more pancakes (as good as they are, I have eaten PC every morning for a week, lol)

I finally had a ripe Lemon Boy tomato, so I wanted to use it.

Portabella, banana pepper and swiss cheese omelet with chopped yellow tomato.

MMMMMMM

Yay for homegrown!!

Who is less than a smart one?

THIS chick! *points at self accusingly*

For those of you that don't know, I live in Mississippi and have started a garden. I have been really good about watering in the early morning so that the water is absorbed before the major heat of the day starts...but guess what I KEEP doing? Trying to weed, at 12:30...duh! I think the heat melts my brain daily and makes me forget just how much it SUCKS to squat over super-heated dark soil, fumbling around attempting to foil the crabgrass's plot to conquer my little patch of green heaven!! Bleh

On the other hand, I now have nearly 20 tomatoes growing! YAY! So what if they are less than an inch in diameter. I haven't killed them yet!!! Huzzah!

The watermelon and cucumber plants are spreading like crazy, and both have tendrils started, as well as a few blossoms...sooo, maybe fruit soon?

Everything else is taking its time. One thing I am definitly learning from this experiment is PATIENCE, something that has been seriously lacking in my life for a while. Although, it is pretty nifty to wake up early to water and see all the overnight growth and blossoming. Funny thing is, the tomato plant that fruited first (Better Boy) is the shrimpiest one of all! All of the others are at least 2.5 ft tall, most are almost 5ft...BB is only 18 inches.  I hope he hits a growth spurt soon!

Yes, that is my chubby, bright-white self with my middle son, the Bubba. He's always eager to help mom, especially if it makes him look better than his lazy brothers. >.>

I love this pic!  :o)

Go Figure...

When I started this little gardening endeavor, I tried to do everything "right". I read the information on all the heirloom seeds that I acquired and tried to follow the directions. I started my seeds in doors when there was still a possiblity of frost. I started each set of 2-3 seeds in their own little individual greenhouse cup, complete with organic soil and starter fertilizer. BUT they all died...TWICE!!!! I started a total of 50 plants, 25 at a time, watered and cared for them, kept them inside until they were big enough to be set oustide a little while every day...and they died...all of them. Wilted into teeny, little, sad reminders of my tendency to kill green things. I fussed, and whined and fumed and "RAWR"ed until I almost gave up. I bought allready started plants that seemed like they would do well and I was less likely to destroy them. (They're doing well, by the way...4 plants are at or over 4ft in height!)

But I still had all of these heirloom seeds left over from my disastrous experiment...what was I going to do with them? On a whim, I bought 2 18" wide, coconut-fiber-lined, hanging baskets at Dollar General, filled it to about 2" below the rim with sorghum peat and organic potting soil...and tossed a handful of Cream Sausage (a yellow-white paste tomato) and Green Zebra (green with orange stripes roma-type) into each and said "to heck with it!" (I actually think I said something more colorful and witty, but darned if I can remember, /sad face) That was, ooooh, 3 weeks ago or so? I have watered them, or nature has (we've had a series of nasty storms a-rolling through here lately) but haven't really checked on them since I "washed my hands of them" and they were above my line of sight.

What do I see when I tippy-toed up to see what I could see?

                                                                Cream Sausage

Green Zebra

I left them alone, and they grew...Go figure.

/sigh

A little bit of green...

But more than I have ever been able to grow, EVAR!!

For those of you that don't know, I am attempting a small vegetable garden patch this year. The soil in Mississippi is well-known to be great for tomatoes and such. I am a tomato lover, if I could eat tomatoes every meal, every day...I would. Soon, my dream will come true! I hope...

In this little patch of green heaven I have 8 varieties of tomatoes, Roma, Lemon Boy, Mr. Stripey, Better Boy, Sweet 100, German Johnson, Black Krim...and one more, I can't remember!! It'll be a Surprise Tomato! :o)

I also have a small yellow watermelon (far left, out of pic), Ichiban eggplant, Red Onions, Vidalia Onions, Cherokee Yellow Wax Beans, pole beans, sweet peas, cucumbers and maybe some beets and Black Seeded Simpson lettuce will choose to grow where I sowed them...I am afraid to weed the row where they are...not sure which is grass and which is veg!

I will definitly need to learn to can if all of this grows! :o)