Saturday, July 6, 2013

Saturday Farmer's Market - 7/6/13


Saturday Farmers Market is a weekly event originally created by the beautiful and nature loving, Heather at Capricious Reader. It's a weekly event that celebrates gardening, be it your own garden or gardens around you; local food, be that at your local farmers market or at a restaurant or festival that celebrates eating locally; a recipe that you've created using fresh ingredients or a whole cookbook; and veggies, flowers, herbs and farm goods galore. Anyone and everyone can participate. It was originally started within the book blogging community but I'd love to see it expand beyond as well. You don't have to have a garden or grow veggies to participate, just post about how veggies, flowers, local farms, etc. have impacted your life this week. You'd be surprised! It may be too cold to grow things and it may be too hot to grow things, but you may just want to post about the plans you have for when the ground thaws. Or maybe even share with us how your community aims to keep things more sustainable or even about the local trails and nature offerings around you! This will also connect really well with Mrs. Beth Fish's Weekend Cooking ;) Thanks Heather for letting me take over the reigns for this wonderful idea that spawned from your creative brain :) Feel free to leave the link to your post in the Mr. Linky below, spread the word, and come back to read everyone else's posts as well! 

This week I'm bringing you the rainy day edition of Saturday Farmer's Market. And I'm not complaining about that ONE BIT because we've been in dire need of rain down here in Louisiana. We've had rain in the forecast every day for the last three weeks probably, but sadly haven't seen any. Not so much fun when you're container gardening because that means that you have to tote the watering can in and out and in and out. And when you have as many plants as I do on your patio, that's quite a few trips! And the flying and hopping critters outside love to sneak their way into your apartment when you're making those trips in and out :/ But I took advantage of the rain today and snapped a few pictures of rain soaked plants to post today. Here's a look at a few of the plants in my garden:


Here are the jalapenos which are funnily enough the worst producers this year. Normally I can't get rid of the jalapenos fast enough! But this year, I'm not getting many at all. However, the ones I am getting are the biggest I've ever gotten with the thickest membranes I've ever gotten. So lower quantity, higher quality! Which I'll take :)


The little tomatoes are still going strong! I counted the ones that are in the freezer right now and I've already picked 19 this year from my three plants. Well actually, I have two plants now because one stopped putting out and just looked pathetic. But the two plants that are left keep putting out more and more fruit :) Yep...definitely need to mix these with some of those jalapenos and make some salsa!!


If you follow me on instagram, you saw me post about my little pride and joy last night :) If not, I'll tell you all about it now! I managed to sprout a tree from my avocado pit after waiting very very patiently. It had been growing inside in a shallow dish of water for a long time and had a nice sized root. I saw the beginnings of a little wannabe tree inside of the pit but it just wasn't growing. I decided to try sticking it in some mud and seeing what it would do. I just noticed yesterday that it had this big stick coming out of it! And there are little baby leaves on the side :D I'm so excited about this!!!! Stuff like this is so neat to me...to think that I'll one day have a tree from a little pit :)


After rearranging everything this week in the garden, the pentas have finally flowered again! I think I have everything in it's prime spot to flower now. I hope so at least. Hopefully now with the flowers, the pentas will bring some butterflies and maybe even some hummingbirds to the garden :) That would make me VERY happy :D


All of the little wildflower seedlings that I planted are continuing to grow really well! Here's a little zinnia that's been stretching for the sun. I think this little guy is actually on it's way out and has reached and passed it's peak. It's still really pretty though :)


And finally, here's the giant Bell Pepper plant which has suddenly set out tons of flowers and is about to give me loads of peppers! Oddly enough, I think that I'm learning that if you're growing peppers in a container, they like to be tightly contained. This plant is pretty much rootbound and it's doing better than any other plant in my garden. So lesson learned....keep bell peppers in a tightly planted container for maximum growth! They don't like giant containers. I think this one is in a five gallon container and it's about four feet tall now with several branches. Very lush.

So what's going on in your gardens? Leave me a link or a comment below so we can all visit and see :) I wanted to add too, you don't have to have a blogger/wordpress style blog to do this! Tumblr/Flickr, etc. is a fantastic medium to participate in Saturday Farmer's Market as well :)

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6 comments:

Debi said...

We need to somehow combine and average out our weather this summer, I think. We had twice as much rain in June as we normally have, and are already almost to the average amount of rain in July. It is keeping things growing in the garden, but unfortunately the weeds faster than anything. :P Can I come down and eat fresh salsa with you?

DesLily said...

you are one great "container gardner"!! lol and your garden at moms is always great.. I think I look forward to you having your own home and "garden"/ yard more then anyone!!!

hope all is well babyboy!

Snowball said...

Funny. When we do get a rare summer rain it's a nuisance. It's never enough to allow me to skip a watering, and like last week, it can actually be harmful. I have been out in the rain watering because I had to get it done and knew there wouldn't be enough for my thirsty plants. It takes a diehard gardener to be seen watering in the rain by the neighbors! But they all think I'm crazy , anyway.

Your peppers look very happy. We had a batch of salsa from the garden. Aside from beating the pants off store bought, it feels great to eat something you grew. You'd think that would get old, but it never does. I've found that my peppers are happier in a soft sun area, out of the harsh afternoon sun. But I'm in CA. I don't know if that's a problem in LA.

Your avocado looks great! I have two of them in a pot outside. They're about two & three feet tall. The two across the street are about 30 ft tall AFTER the neighbor topped them. You're gonna need to get a move on finding a house!

Beth F said...

Wowowowowow. I need either your green thumb or to find a new place to garden. :))

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tohko said...

Your pentas is so cute!!! I hope butterflies and humming birds come to your garden:D