Pon Charrd

Ah, chard.  A fail-safe, easy to grow, prolific, year-round producer.  Or is it?

I planted the darn things way back on May 7th, so they've had 3.5 months to grow.  Several varieties too... 2 square feet of vulcan (dark red), one of giant fordhook (white), one of bright lights (yellow, pink, white).  Each square foot was planted with multiple seedlings, but I was going to thin it down to 5 each for a total of 20 plants.  I was going to have salad greens (and stir-fry greens, and smoothie greens) aplenty, more than my husband and I could eat.  Even after a few replantings, all I have left over is just one delicate little vulcan chard!

5 inches tall after over 3 months of effort.

It is true that I started the plants too late... by the time the seedlings were surviving the digging cat's attacks, it was much warmer and chard is a cool-weather plant that prefers to be planted 2 weeks after the last frost.  I really, really want it to work... so today I started a bunch of seeds for transplanting, and I will just try again.  And again.  And again.  I must have chard.  I WILL have chard!  The season will end in violence if I can't grow a healthy patch of chard.

Despite my lack of success, this plant is still a beautiful little splash of color in my first real garden.  It is not attracting any pests at all, and the contrast between veins and leaves has me a bit giddy.  If only one chard could come up, I'd have it be the vulcan.  :)

Live long and prosper, little one!

And yes, I am fully aware that "vulcan" in this case is more related to fire than Star Trek.

Someone Has Impeccable Aim

Grumpy Cat Needs a New Name

On sunday, something amazing happened. Out of nowhere, Grumpy Cat walked over to me, vigorously head-bumped for several minutes to mark me as his own, asked for petting, and then in a flash flipped upside down in my lap and curled into a happy little ball, contented and dazed with the neck-scratching.  He's solid black, except for one very cute tuft of white on his belly which I had never noticed before... reminds me of my first dog as a child, named Star because she was all black with one small white spot on her forehead.

Grumpy Cat frequently exposes his belly to me now... a sign of trust and submission in most mammals.

Why is this amazing? When we first moved in, 6 months and 8 days ago, Grumpy Cat would flee the backyard as quickly as possible any time we would so much as open the back door. There was no collar, and he obviously spent most of his time in the backyard (in particular under the Zen bench), but he looked pretty well-fed. Over a few months of pretending like he didn't matter or even exist (which, I've learned, is a good way to get the neighbors' cats to take a sudden and excruciatingly desperate interest in me), he began warily tolerating my presence. Eventually I began leaving bits of tuna out for him which made him not so wary, and eventually he began almost not flinching as I petted his head once or twice while he ate. He still wouldn't eat if my husband put one foot out the back door.

Earlier this week I had a friend over, and we went out into the backyard... Grumpy Cat turned into your stereotypical Halloween cat, arching his back, raising hair, hissing and showing fang very pointedly at the new intruder to the backyard. While I hadn't ever seen that reaction from him, it wasn't at all unexpected. Then yesterday was the next time I saw him, and he very suddenly decided that he likes me. A lot. Even without food. I had won the battle of wills! I came into the house laughing and elated and danced with my husband in the kitchen... whew, I need a cuddly pet more than I'll admit.

Grumpy Cat will have none of that camera nonsense.

I have some hesitations about the cat:
- I don't want to “steal” a stray cat if it's someone else's pet, or make it too dependent on me by feeding it too often which makes it less likely to visit its real home. To feed, or not to feed...
- It is not a good idea to fall so deeply in love with the cat so that it is too hard to leave him behind when we move (which may be in a year, maybe 5 years).  It may be too late.
- Was the violent reaction to the visiting friend the catalyst for this loving change in behavior?  And how?  Is this an emotionally unpredictable kitty?

Grumpy Cat still looks evil... and less fluffy.

Ahem.  I just looked up how to tell cat sexes apart, lifted a tail, and figured out that he is really a she! Got to love the internet.

I have never, ever met such a resistant feline. But now I'm awash in endorphins from bonding with her. It might be love.  I'm in too deep. I'm thinking up actual pet names.


Do you have any cat advice to give me?
Thus far, my pet expertise is only in the area of reptiles, amphibians, fish, dogs, and rodents.

__________

Other posts related to the tale of Grumpy Cat:

Feeding The Cat  7/19/10
Getting Medieval  7/5/10
There's A Creature Lurking In The Garden!  6/25/10

Why Tomatoes, Why???

My tomatoes keep dropping flowers.  According to my coworker, they do this when nighttime temperatures reach below 50 degrees fahrenheit, but it hasn't been that cold.  Perhaps it is a lack of sunlight?  This is what it looks like:

 All crunchy and droppy

She also says that she has a ton of medium-sized green tomatoes on her plants... I have only 5 tiny ones.  Some of my plants are HUGE though!  Check out this current view of the raised beds.

"Mr. Stripey" in the back is definitely a monster. 

Ironically, it is the smallest, weakest looking tomato plant that has the only fruit which is beginning to ripen.  It may be because it's in the clay pot, which warms the roots more and dries out faster... perhaps the plant is in its death throes, trying to reproduce in its last moments?

 

A bit pathetic, yet edible.

As of tonight, I will start spraying the flowers with Blossom Set in hopes that they will stay... it's a hormone that should override the plants' desires to drop flowers in the cold and wait for warmer times.  It's my first year living in this area, but I have a feeling that it won't get too much warmer than this (isn't it summer yet?).  Help me Blossom Set, you're my only hope for ripe delicious summer tomatoes!

How are your tomatoes doing this year, and do you  have any advice for me?

Cucumber vines: So delicate, yet so strong

A Look at the Lemon Cucumber

Hooray, they are alive!

And what's that peeking out from under a big floppy leaf?

Quick, turn into a cuke!

Originally I grew some from seed and then transplanted them to the raised beds.  This result was pretty sad, and they died.  I replanted them with store-bought ones, and they languished for a long time, but lately they are suddenly hitting one growth spurt after another.

Hit me once... hit me twice!

The way that these little vines shot out overnight reminded me of the beginning of "Toxic Love" in Ferngully where Hexxus comes out of his slime form and grabs two poles.

(see segment from 0:14 to 0:21)

What??  They really did spring out like that.

Purple Podded Pole Beans

Whoa, I didn't know I had vegetables ready for eating yet!  I had been so focused on the sad, unproductive tomatoes/pumpkins/zucchini that I didn't notice these shadowy pods lurking beneath their foliage.

Soooooo pretty....

These things are delicious!!  They're green inside and lose the purple if you cook them, so I just ate a few raw.  I know I've mentioned the superior taste of home-grown peas before... just like the peas, these purple "green" beans are equally tastier and juicier than their supermarket green bean counterparts.  I had grown some blue lake pole beans (a traditional green bean) in pots last year, and they don't compare in taste to these more vibrant heirlooms.  I suppose it's a blessing that my blue lake beans didn't do well and that I had to replace them with something new from rareseeds.com.  A review on that website says that they'll save the extra pods at the end of the season and let them dry, and the dried beans make for delicious soups all winter too.  Yum!  We'll probably eat all of them raw, but I will save a few seeds anyway... since it's an heirloom, I'll be able to start new plants next year for free.

Even if they don't produce a lot this summer (I did give them a pretty late start since the blue lake beans didn't work out), I will definitely have them in the garden next year too.  They're climbing the trellis really well, and they've been easy, with a very high germination rate and producing very vigorous seedlings that needed no special attention.  And let's face it, in such a small backyard, vertical is the way to go!

Can't wait until my husband gets home from his trip... it'll be hilarious to surprise him with the vibrant beans!

What're the most oddly-colored veggies in your garden?