Artichoke update

Alright, now that I'm all backed up on updating you on the lil' plants that we were following closely when I started this blog.

When I last showed you how the artichoke was looking, things were going great. Not long after those photos were taken,  even more exciting stuff happened!

Looky here:

Holy crap! That's 2, count 'em, TWO little artichoke globes. What luck! My plot neighbor said he's had huge artichoke plants for years and they've never produced actual 'chokes to eat. And this was a plant that I totally salvaged from the weed patch that was Plot 24.

Well, nature giveth and nature taketh away. Was it something I did? No. It was a GOPHER.

A while back, I had a mysterious broccoli disappearance. It was during my blogging hiatus, but here were the pictures of the row when one plant went missing. Note the shaded area where the four three broccoli plants are.

And a closeup of where the plant once was:

Without a trace.

So one day I go to visit the plot and my beautiful artichoke plant has been nommed to death, the roots chewed up and the whole plant wrecked. AND HE DIDN'T EVEN EAT THE ARTICHOKES.

Needless to say, I'm heartbroken.

I'm baaack!

Ok people. I know your lives have been super empty without my blog posts lately. Well the wait is over...I'll have lots of new posts, starting today!

Not to worry, I've been gardening on the regular, and I've been taking pictures, but just haven't made it to the step where I tell you all about it!

Growing in da greenhouse

When we last left our squash flat, we only had one little sprout. But now looky here:

The bottom left square was the first one to burst through, but now everyone else in the flat is getting in on the action. We've got cotyledons in every square!

Good job, team!

Spiky and special

Our spiky little friend, the 'choke is staying pretty strong.

Wait. Do you see something there?

O.M.G. Is that a...? Is it blooming?

LITTLE ARTICHOKE!!! GAHHHH!!!! This is officially the coolest thing to happen in Plot 24 so far.

Pak Choi Check-in

Let's take a look at our little friend pak choi!

My, my, don't you look healthy?! There are lots of new leaves coming out on all of these plants, and there are some sections of the white stalks that are turning a light purple. Is that good or bad? Meh as long as it's growing. Here is what they looked like the day they were planted:

Keep up the good work, pak choi. I'm a little unclear on when I'm supposed to eat you, but we'll see...

A welcome intruder...

Over in a location in the plot where I don't have anything planted right now, there was a little green bit springing up. But it didn't look like just another weed. I let it go for a few days, and now what it is is unmistakable:

Cilantro! I'm guessing there was some growing in the plot back when it was a weed patch. I'm glad it stuck around. Ever since I noticed what it was, I've been watering it. I haven't planted those coriander seeds in flats yet, but hopefully they'll grow into nice little seedlings like this too. My grandmother would call this "volunteer" cilantro. She always tells us when a random sunflower comes up "volunteer" in her yard.

Hooray for garden volunteerism!

Can we have a salad yet?

The romaine loved all this rain- these little guys are going nuts. When I bought the plants and planted them, they were a little weak looking. Now they are crushing it. Check out this homie:

I very much wanted to rotate that picture, but apparently between iphoto and blogger, rotating this picture is impossible. This next picture is from when they were first planted. I'm not sure that these are the same exact plant, but they are all growing at a similar pace.

We did lose one of the romaine plants- no idea what happened. One day it was perky, and the next? Completely flattened and all yellowy. I know some cats wander this garden, so let's just blame them...