Score one point for the gardener!

The last time I updated you with details about my new SFG, I spread tales of carnage and gore complete with my own personal grim reaper. I'm not sure what happened between then and now, but things have really perked up. I gave the garden a nice bath of fish fertilizer, which is about the most vile-smelling substance on the face of the earth. It makes your entire garden smell like cat breath. Maybe the stink bath helped? Or maybe the garden just had to sort of grow into itself… but whatever it was things are growing surprisingly well.

Here are the two boxes. First the one on the left.


Then the one on the right.


The broccoli is coming in nicely, although the broccoli seeds I planted were duds - none of them sprouted, oddly enough. I'll take the one seedling I purchased and run with it since it's daring to survive.


The black eyed peas are nice and green and tall. I have no earthly idea how they grow or what they look like upon harvest or even how to cook them, so it's a given that these will be my best producers. If I have no idea how to eat a vegetable it's a given it'll be the only thing that grows. Hence my successful okra this summer. I'd like to add that I still have brand new okra plants that are growing up through our lawn with flowers and baby okra on them. Go figure.


Neither bell pepper plant looks especially healthy, but one has three bell peppers and the other has one bell pepper. They're all mishapen and twisted, but I'm down with that if they continue to grow. One bell pepper plant lasted less than a week under my care. RIP.


I've got three tomato plants doing well. One has small green tomatoes, one has tons of flowers and one isn't looking so great. Two out of three is a big fat win in my gardening book so I'll take it! Hell, one out of three is great in my book. I don't know at what point tomato plants decide that it's too wintery to keep growing, but I don't think they'll last into next year will they? That was rhetorical. The answer is obviously no. We're talking about my garden afterall. I'll be lucky if they survive the month.


The Kentucky Wonder beans have bounced back and have started slowly climbing up the trellis. I'm dying to see if any of these will survive my black thumb and actually produce. I'm definitely crossing my fingers for these. Farmer B is quite happy that his trellis is being used. I was about to glue dead bean plants to the trellis to make him feel better about building it when these little shoots started climbing up of their own accord.


The Swiss Chard seems to be doing well. I have no earthly idea when this is ready, how to harvest it or what to do with it once harvested. Do you cook it? Put it in with a salad or what? Once again, this is a guarantee that things will grow well in my garden. Any thoughts? Dare I chop this beast down and eat it?


The English peas aren't doing well at all. Please take some time to marvel at my awesome trellis complete with green tape and sticks. There are white flowers, but the plants are thin, yellowed and sickly. I'm guessing these will be chicken food before Thanksgiving.


I got a few radishes the other day, which was nice. Apparently any idiot can grow a radish so I won't brag about it. I had an egg in my pocket when I was pulling the radishes so it snuck into the photo too.


There's my big SFG update. I'm always surprised when I go out there and things are alive. The plants may quiver when I come near, but when I stay away from them for a couple of days they seem to thrive. I'm still not holding my breath that anything edible will come from the garden, but we're on the right track for once.