Archive for the 'Gardening' Category

I’m still getting used to the growing seasons in California. Pictured at left is the (yes, 1) cherry tomato plant that I planted in early May. It produced many a yummy tomato, though the damned rats got most of them.

Now it is late November and the plant seems to think it is spring! In late September, it mostly died back. That seemed to simply be a prelude to insane growth. And it has flowered and set fruit!

I’m betting that the first hard frost will kill the plant. Yet, the vegetation is dense enough and it is sheltered by the fence to the point where it wouldn’t surprise me if it survived such a frost.

Other than adding some really good compost from the city of Sunnyvale and watering the plant regularly, I didn’t do anything special. Largest Tomato plant I have ever grown.

The mystery fruit has been identified!

Daniel Jalkut suggested that it looked like this photo claiming to be a Balsam Apple. I think the photo is mislabeled and this is actually a Balsam Pear or Bitter Gourd.

This difference appears to be important as the Balsam Apple is toxic while the Balsam Pear / Bitter Gourd can be cooked and eaten. I hope I find another gourd on the vine as I’m looking forward to tasting it.

I now have a gardening plot in the local community garden! Woot! I had been on the waiting list for over a year. Turnover is pretty low as there are quite a few folks that have lived in the neighborhood for decades.

However, the family that had the plot ran afoul of the community garden police back in late June. In particular, the extended family showed up, stripped the fruit trees and let their kids run wild through the garden.

So, they got tossed. Now, I took possession of the plot on Sunday. The plot has had nearly zero care beyond watering since late June. If you are familiar with the Northern Californian climate, stuff grows incredibly well. Supremely well. Unfortunately, that includes both desirable plants and weeds (some of which are desirable).

More pictures of the plot and more info follows. The gardening feed will contain updates to my great garden adventure. In particular, it’ll contain my efforts to document the rather odd collection of stuff (like that orange thing pictured above) that I have inherited in the plot.
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