First Harvest!

So I visited the vegetable garden for the first time today since I got back to the Twin Cities and it's HUGE!! The tomatoes have turned into an absolute jungle and had to be strung to their cages because they were trailing everywhere. Still no ripe tomatoes but there's tons of green ones. The zucchini and pumpkin plants have shot up, as has the lone sunflower.

Our jungle of a tomato patch. The huge zucchini and pumpkin plants are behind those.

Victoria with our super tall sunflower.

The most exciting thing however, was our first harvest! We got a bowl of snow peas, a bowl of beans and an absolutely MASSIVE zucchini. We've got two more zucchini's that will be ready soon as well, but the one we picked is a monster. I took it home and made two loaves of chocolate chip zucchini bread with it and I still have most of the zucchini left over. Thankfully my aunt and grandma can put it to use and make some of their own zucchini recipes. 

Our harvest of beans and peas.

Me with the MONSTER zucchini!

About a third of the zucchini made this much bread.

And with that update, only one shift at work stands between me and a few days up in northern Minnesota with my boyfriend and his family. Lakes and cabins are one of my favorite things about summer here. :)

Rant Time

Alright guys. I don't rant much, but you'll have to bare with me for just a short little post because I really need this out of my system.
So I'm a Horticulture major, Food Systems focus, with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture. Kind of a mouthful, I know, but I'm excited to wrap my last two years of school up with that mouthful. I tell this to a good number of people on a regular basis because, when you tell people you're in college, that's the first thing they'll ask you.
The second question is always "What do you want to do when you're done with school?", to which I answer with something along the lines of "Well, I really want to work with urban agriculture, community supported agriculture groups, co-op groups, things like that." And the most obvious statement in my answer is usually the word "urban".
Now here begins my rant. Once the conversation gets started with those first two questions, it'll run along quite fine and then I'll get a statement that goes something like this: "Oh, well you should get yourself a big piece of land and get yourself a farm going on that." And I'm sitting there wondering if that person really heard anything I just said in my first two statements. I'm not saying anything against larger, more traditional farms in this. I really admire that lifestyle, honestly. I just recognize the fact that it's not for me.
But this statement that I hear from people when I describe my goals to them is, in fact, the reason I want to pursue this career so much. I want to prove to them that I don't need a big plot of land way out in the country to be able to feed myself, feed whatever family I might have in the future, and teach others to do the same. I want to change the way people think about food production and agriculture so that, when they hear those terms, their brains don't automatically jump to rolling fields of corn, wheat, or some other bulk crop. (Again, not that those aren't a very important part of agriculture, because they most definitely are!) But I want to get people start thinking outside the box more and realizing that they don't have to depend solely on their local grocery store or corner store for every single thing they put on their tables.
So when people say I would love having a big piece of land with a farm like it's the easiest assumption in the world, I like to look at them and say "No, that's exactly the opposite of what I want to do." Because studying horticulture and sustainable agriculture isn't just about taking care of me when I'm finished with school. It's about taking that 82% of the US population that lives in cities or suburbs and showing them what they can do with some dirt and seeds, and showing them what they can put on their tables from their own backyards. And it's showing people that they can take care of themselves and their families if they just step outside their box for a while.
End rant.

In other news, the UP of Michigan has been REALLY COLD (for summer anyway) for the days I've been at home. We had a couple sunny days where the temperature was bareable, but today it's been low 50s and raining. Pretty gloomy. But, on one of the nicer days earlier this week, we did a bit of blueberry picking and, despite the cooler temperatures, it seems to be a great season for it!

I also got an update from my gardening partner back in the Twin Cities that we've had the first (tiny!) harvest from our garden. Two jalapenos that we're probably going to make our guy friends eat for a challenge. Mostly to find out if they're good and how spicy they are!

Garden Update

Hello everyone!
My apologies for not posting too much this summer. I wanted to wait to give you a garden update until some tangible progress had been made. I went over to help put up a fence the other day and it seemed as if most of the growth had happened in the week since I'd been there last. We've got tons of flowers on the tomato plants and even a few small fruits. The pepper plants have shot up like rockets and the pumpkin has really taken off.

Quite a bit of growth since the last time I took a picture! 

Baby Roma tomatoes are just starting to show up.

About a third of the height of these peppers was probably achieved in the last week or so,

The pumpkin looks a bit upside down, but we were in the process of re-positioning it so we could get the fence up.

The nasturtiums are looking healthy too.

The snow peas are just starting to climb their trellis.

Our row of beans and the beets in front of them are growing a bit more slowly, but they're getting there.

After these pictures were taken, up went a fence to protect things from the rabbits. We had a young sunflower get it's head chopped off the night before, so we decided we'd better protect the rest of our crop.

In other news, my seasonal greenhouse job ended a few weeks ago. I'm a bit bummed to not be around plants all day anymore, but I gained a lot of really good experience and I learned quite a bit about caring for flowering annuals as well as how a successful greenhouse business is run. Getting internship credit for my major was a real plus too.
I go back to Michigan for a visit later on next week into the following week, so hopefully I can help my mom out in the garden back home, or just have time to take some wildflower photos to put up in a post.

Finally Gardening!!

This week I FINALLY started gardening again. My partner in crime returned from studying abroad and we're using her backyard for our vegetable garden shenanigans. Earlier in the week we planted our young plants and today we got all the seeds in. We're starting a little late in the season, but hopefully with a bit of luck and some nice weather we can be harvesting toward the end of the summer.

What we have planted:
-Five Roma tomatoes
-One heirloom "Striped German" tomato
-Two mini-belle peppers
-One banana pepper
-One jalapeno pepper
-Nasturtium
-Beets
-Bush beans
-Snow Peas
-Sunflowers
-Marigolds around the tomato plants

We decided to save space and do our herbs in containers. We have:
-One pot of chives
-Two pots of basil
-One pot of mint

We have super sunny location, so I'm excited to see how things turn out!

The Roma tomatoes are the plants I started from seed, as are the two mini-belle peppers. Three of the Romas are still pretty small and I'm hoping they make it and start growing more soon. I don't think they enjoyed their extended time in too-small pots on my windowsill.

In other news, two of my African violets are blooming gorgeously, and two others are starting to as well. I'm in the process of rooting a lot more cuttings from other African violets (not my original ones with the white/pink center flowers) in hopes of getting some more plants with different flower colors.

More updates to come from the garden once things start progressing. We should see some seed germination in (hopefully) about a week and a half. But right now is the waiting game, so cross your fingers for some strong seedlings and good weather!

Ch-Ch-Changes

While the Grow Write Guild prompt asked about changes to your garden, as the closest thing I have to a garden at the moment is my houseplants, I decided it would be best to write about those instead. 

Back in the fall of 2011 I moved out of the house and into my a tiny closet of a college dorm room. The only greenery I took with me was a small clay pot with a spider plant stolon taken from a large plant back at my house in Michigan. Over the course of a year, I went from one plant to three, to eight, to twelve. Now that I'm in a large apartment, my plant count is currently at eighteen houseplants; that count not including the five tomatoes and three pepper plants that will soon be going into a friend vegetable garden. 

My collection began with that little pot that is holding up a
 few of my books and was soon joined by another spider plant.

My plant propagation class soon bumped my total up even higher.

My hibiscus plant was one of the biggest additions.

My first African violet has now become four African violets
through propagation and division.

Here is two of those new African violets with a bit of a
view of the pothos plant.

Also added to the mix has been two orchids, a snake plant and a pothos taken from one of my mom's pothos plants at home. Soon I might have even more African violets from a propagation project I'm working on right now. And I love each one of my plants and dote on them all the time. Each new plant is exciting in the way making a new friend is exciting. Thinking about it, my "garden" of houseplants has gone from a sentimental attachement to home through a spider plant, to a horticulturalist and plant geek's garden of misfits, propagation projects and friends. And I'm quite glad it's turned out that way, even if I sometimes look at my little corner and wonder just how I came to have so many plants. 

Current houseplant "garden".

Blooms of Campus

It's a little sad that I'm only posting this now. Last year, I was posting "What's Blooming on Campus?" back in April! Thankfully, the weather is finally acting like summer and campus finally got some color. Below the pictures I've got a bit of an update on what I'll be up to this summer and what you can expect to see from me through my posts!

White Magnolia

Pink Magnolia

Apple Blossoms

Tulips are springing up everywhere on the St. Paul campus.

Yellow and red tulips.

An adorable crocus variety I found blooming on the West Bank.

Finals are also finished with so I actually have time to blog now! I passed all my classes (hooray!) and now all I have in front of me is my job at the greenhouse, being a tour guide for the university, and gardening with one of my best friends once she's back from studying abroad. So you can expect vegetable garden posts from me this summer, as well as some other Twin Cities gardening related topics. I'll be getting back into Grow Write Guild posts as well. My next post will hopefully be one of those. :)

Spring! Spring?

So Minnesota has decided it doesn't remember what season are anymore and, despite the few days of gorgeous, spring-like weather we had last weekend, yesterday brought almost a foot of snow to the southern part of the state. Thankfully, the Twin Cities didn't get any and instead get to enjoy chilly, cold, gray weather. I'm sure all the plants that got excited and sprouted during the warm weather are rather confused by this point. Frankly, I am as well. Last year, we had daffodils by the beginning of April, and this year we're dealing with 30 degree days at the beginning of May. Doesn't really make much sense.
Thankfully the St. Paul campus has some color to offer up in the form of the adorable little scilla flowers that blanket the more wooded areas.

In other news, last week I started my greenhouse job and am having a really good time. Just being able to work in a place filled with plants makes even the more simple tasks enjoyable. We do a lot of rearranging displays, watering and lots and lots of sweeping. My favorite task so far was when we got a new shipment of  moth orchids in and I got to help unpack the boxes, tag them and set them out on display. It was like a mini Christmas, pulling plant after plant out of the boxes, all with amazingly vibrant colors. They were right in mid-bloom and absolutely gorgeous. Some of the larger varieties included some giant, pure white blooms, a white variety with purple spots on the petals and a purple center, one with yellow-green petals and a purple center and rich, dark purple ones as well. There were tiny ones too, some bright pink with yellow edges, purple with darker centers and peach colored ones with gold centers. I've probably ranted enough about orchids now... Anyway, I've found I have to learn things in a really short amount of time, and by no means do I know even close to half yet. But I have another full weekend of work starting tomorrow, so we'll see what that brings.

I'm planning on filling another Grow Write Guild prompt for my next post, but I'll probably be pretty busy until finals week is over. So probably somewhere around the 17th or 18th I'll try to have that up.
In the meantime, I leave you with more scilla carpet pictures. I hope spring is proving to be a lot...springy-er than mine!