New season

We made a trip to Lowe's to grab a few of our favorite plants for the new season.

3 Ichiban eggplant plants and 1 roma tomato plant

It's cool to buy plants that have already started producing.

More tomatoes have been started from seed, too!

Roma tomato plant

Specialty basils

Here are the other basil plants in the hanging basket - Siam Queen (Thai) basil, and Red Rubin.

Red Rubin basil

There's some parsley in that hanging basket too.

Seed starting

Here's the pineapple patch - doing well.

Since the fall planting season is almost upon us, I started some seeds under the Aerogarden lights.

Green beans, tomato, cabbage, carrot, turnip

No action from the green beans or carrots yet

Carrots just sprouted!

Cabbage

Tropical Storm Isaac

Boyfriend moved some of the potted vegetables into the garage to protect them from the tropical storm.  The other pots have been moved up against the house.  What a great guy!

We had some rain and winds last night but the very tall okra didn't seem to mind at all.

The big eggplant we had growing is missing though.  Wonder what happened to it?!  I haven't gone out to investigate.  It's still rainy!

Crape myrtle

The crape myrtle that I got a few months ago from the Arbor Day Foundation booth at the Arts & Foliage Festival.  I finally put it in the ground.

I decided to put it out back to add some color there.

It's already in bloom - despite being such a young tree.

Variegated Agave

I planted some variegated agave along the side of the house

I only bought 3 plants, but these little plants were growing in those pots, off of "tubers" made by the larger agave plants.

So really I got 7 plants out of it!

Cactus

The cactus my aunt gave to me.  It has stayed small, but has recently had a little growth spurt.

Indoor cactus garden

One of the cacti died from Mom's little cactus garden here, so she gave the whole thing to me.  I put a new cactus in (on the right) to complete the set.

I just love it.  It's in my kitchen windowsill.

See the raised bed in the background?

Also I couldn't resist buying this guy.  It is called a Living Stone cactus, a.k.a. Mimicry Plant.

Neat!

New recruit

Agave

The blue agave Dad gave me.  It's happy in its new home.

Basil harvest!

Dad's basil plant - time to harvest!

First, find a friend to help you pick the basil.

Make pesto with basil, garlic, olive oil and parmean in
the food processor,  spread on a filleted chicken breast,
add mozzarella.  A little ricotta too, if you want.

Fold

And bake!

This is making my house smell soo intoxicating right now!  Just like an Italian restaurant!  Mmm!

Basil

The basil plant Dad gave to me.  Whoa!

Okra

Eggplant

eggplant (standard)

Ichiban eggplant - these plants are top producers for us!

ichiban eggplant

ichiban eggplant

Sweet potatoes

Sweet potato vine

A sweet potato pushing up out of the raised bed!

Sweet potato patch in the ground

Okra

The okra is doing VERY well.  Here are some shots of the okra vegetables:

okra

Bread in Italian breadcrumbs, then drop in hot oil

It has a flavor similar to a green pepper, but the flavor is not as strong.  It is different and interesting.

Aerogarden salad greens

 

 

The harvest!