A Week of Gardening . . . Monday

After weeks of "needing" to get around to it, I am finally getting the garden in this week. This morning I set out my Rutger, Brandywine, and Roma seedlings, as well as Anaheim Chile and California Wonder peppers.

I arched a cattle panel behind my cold frame where I planted Luffa Gourds (check out this great link for making a luffa soap gourd) and Climbing Okra seeds. The Luffa I hope to harvest for sponges.  The Climbing Okra was given to me by a neighbor a couple of years ago.  It is actually very much a part of the Luffa family, but can be eaten like okra (though it looks more like zucchini).  The benefit is a larger vegetable than an actual okra, but with a similar flavor.  I'll have to let you know how it goes!  I am hoping to create a shady, cool place to grow lettuce over the summer.

I also planted a few Castor Bean seeds. This seed was given to me by an older gentleman that I used to purchase hay from.  He had this beautiful plant growing at the corners of his garden and I commented on how huge and lovely it was.  He went on to explain to me that he planted Castor Bean to keep moles out of his garden and generously shared some seed with me.  A bit of a warning, castor beans are said to be poisonous - I cannot say I have researched this much - but I do know that these are the same plants that are used for making Castor Oil.  I am afraid that I am old enough to remember the threat of taking castor oil, though I am pretty sure that I never actually took any ;) 

Last week I planted several varieties of Sunflowers including Bellezza D'Autuno, Giant Gray Stripe, Floristan, and Earthwalker.

                        

My potato plants and onions are all doing well. My cool season crops have been pretty slow in coming, so I spent quite a bit of time this morning top dressing them with some compost. I also have some snow peas coming on . . . looking forward to getting into those REAL SOON!!!