memories of summer 2011 growing season

My first ever vegetable garden—in my entire life, that is—was hewn out of a grassy patch of sandy yard.

sandy soil, overgrown weeds...my first ever vegetable garden

Vain Asian girls like me take pride, and aim for, a fair silky complexion. (That's our definition of beauty, I guess.) In Manila I had a diamond facial peel monthly, without fail, just to clear my skin of any gunk. I was even on a glutathione regimen—worth $80 a month—just to maintain a fair, glowing skin.

All those thousands of pesos down the drain with my vegetable garden in 2011, which I grew in the midst of summer, in Central Florida…where the temperatures are typically around 101ºF (38.33ºC). After a few weeks, Hubby said I was too...brown! (He was pining for my old skin tone apparently.)

I started late into the growing season, you see, because the gardening bug bit me just after spring has gone. And I hadn't known that smart Florida gardeners take a break from their gardens in the summer.

I imagine people driving their cars by and seeing me and they're shaking their heads at the crazy Asian lady hoeing and watering and tending her plots in the broiling heat. (I didn't know! I'm new to these woods, y'know.)

It was an experimental garden where the mantra was “Anything goes!”

And truly, anything went in and out—weeds, pests, alternating 3-day-rains and high temps, gadzukes zucchini that died after setting forth a seriously leafy front...

the gadzukes! zucchini would flower, then not follow
through on the promise of fruit! bad plant. bad!

I even met a ladybug once!

a most welcome visitor in the garden

We had lots of okra, bitter gourd (ampalaya in Tagalog) and string beans every other day.

we had a steady supply of vegetables for our table.
our family just luv veggies!

the okras were the most prolific, sending out new
flowers every day so i could pick fruits every couple of days

ditto with the bitter gourd (aka ampalaya), which didn't
have any problems. probably because it didn't have any predators

the string beans (aka pole beans, asparagus yardlong,
and sitaw,  Tagalog name) were just as prolific as the okra.

And for the first time in my life, I was able to grow several bell peppers from seed, culled from ones bought from the grocery store. How awesome is that, eh?

bell peppers, seeded from store-bought veggie

The only thing that didn't do well were the bush beans. I don't know if it was me or the seeds I bought but they definitely didn't grow beyond a spindly 2 inches long...and I know for a fact that they're not supposed to behave like that. That is, I don't know if I gave them the nurture they needed (grimace).

this was the size that's as far as the green beans would deign to grow

I'm hoping this growing season, started on time finally, all my plants will thrive and fruit vigorously.

first harvest, spring 2012

Went to water my garden yesterday and saw that the bush beans were begging to be picked.

That officially makes beans--which was heretofore something that reminded me of my brown-thumbish past because the first two seasons only yielded stunted beans--my first ever harvest this growing season!

Blanched them for about 5 minutes and served them as a side salad for my yummy Bistek (so says hubby and in-laws).

cherry tomatoes and green beans emerging

Yesss! Cherry tomatoes and green beans, in my garden, they are a-springing.

(Ooooh, bad rhyme but I'm happy.)

obviously, these are cherry tomatoes. i still have yet to see
where the roma tomatoes are.

methinks the cherry tomatoes that i got are the early varieties.

some honest-to-goodness cherry tomato fruits. now, i'm hoping they
ripen up quick so i can sample them. (i believed tomatoes
were apples until i was in kindergarten, owing to the
fact that the real apples were way expensive in 70s Philippines.

some pretty serious flowers from my green beans. 

green beans, they are a-emerging...hope they grow long
not stunted.  the first time i grew them, i harvested plenty of
2-inch long dwarfish beans!