This cucumber decided that it wanted to do it’s own thing this time. Huh.

SNAP. That’s a big pickle baby.

Surprise! Our cherry tomatoes turned out to be yellow tomatoes… and tasty too!

Now, several months later my cucumbers all died within three days of settling into real dirt outside. So, I trotted down the road to the Saturday Market and bought a flat of six for $1.50 (it was a flat of six containers but it turns out that each container actually held two plants… that’s TWELVE cucumber plants!). I didn’t want to plop them all back in the same place the last cucumbers met their untimely ends in, so I put half of them in an Ikea tupperware bin (the lids don’t lock onto the bins making them practically useless for cramming things into so I didn’t feel much of a twinge when I drilled drainage holes in the bottom) and crossed my fingers.

Here’s the mildly rag-tag “container garden” that’s camped out in the parkinglot. Basil on the far right, depressingly stunted cilantro next, tomatoes in the next container and the wee ones in front, and lastly, cucumbers climbing their way up a trellis in their cozy, useless-for-storage box!

The basil is doing just fine… so far.

Still achingly small tomatoes. I hope they do their tomatoey business before those snow drifts descend again!

And here’s the second half of the garden. Joe and I carved an area out of an old, overgrown vegetable garden on the other side of the parkinglot and planted the cherry tomato plant I bought from the Craftsbury Academy’s plant sale, two acorn squash ($1 for two at the Saturday Market!), three bell peppers (free from the Ag. Program at Sterling) and the other six cucumbers. Linus has been unwittingly indispensable, that blue bucket is full of bunny fertilizer just chillin until we need it! How exciting…

An acorn squash-to-be!

So that’s the garden. In other interesting news down at the lower dorms, Steve is keeping seven of the meat rabbits from the barn out on pasture to compare their weight to the ones still cooped up in the barn.

He refitted a chicken tractor with wheels and scoots them around next to the potato patch.

A California bunny with muddy-red paws… which are perfect foreshadowing. I was buttering my toast this morning and, glancing at the parking lot out the window, saw a delightful little white rabbit calmly meandering around. All seven bunnies had gotten out AGAIN. Between three people we caught six after about and hour of chasing and scrambling… the seventh is nowhere to be found but there’s a mysteriously large pile of white fur in the driveway. The rabbit above squeals like a wounded pig when you grab him. It’s an utterly terrifying sound.

Cucumbers, hanging out in mini cups. Joe and I were “pranked” on April Fools Day… someone put roughly 200 little cups half full of water in front of our door. Sadly, our door doesn’t open up outward so I just opened the door in the morning, grunted and raised and eyebrow as I neatly stepped over them. We left them there for a few days until we hunted up a big bowl to pour the water from each cup in to. Now we have 200 little plastic cups, some of which are being used and reused to start the cucumbers because they are a bit too big and their roots too impressive to pop into egg shells very neatly.

Do you remember those wee seedlings I showed you? The ones in the eggshells? Here they are! The basil in the middle flat are the ones from the photo, but all of these were seeded in eggshells then transplanted once they got their first set of adult leaves. These are recycled salad containers I found in the office recycling and they make pretty perfect medium containers for the tomatoes (left) basil (middle) and cilantro (right) once I punched some holes in the bottom for drainage. The lids they came with are parked underneath to catch any water that might make it all the way down through the soil and out through the holes.

Up close basil babies…

And what are they roosting in? EGGS!? Whoa…

And you can just crush those egg shells a little bit and stick them right in the ground? Yeah… that IS pretty cool!

Pollinating Bee Log – Bees Nest

This is along the same lines as this mason bee house I posted about a while ago. The little tubes are the perfect homes for these non-aggressive, busy pollinators. Plus this looks like it would be super easy to make on your own.

Garden Bug Box

This house provides homes for ladybirds and solitary bees, two insects that are essential for any garden (Lady birds are the same insect as Lady bugs). That way you can provide breeding areas for aphid eaters and pollinators all in one!

Hedgehog House

While you’re at it, you might as well try to save that dwindling hedgehog population too! They sell this sweet little house and I couldn’t NOT post it. Not that there are any hedgehogs around these here parts.

The beans are getting their pretty little pink flowers. They’re so delicate and nice…
And the peas! ALL THE PEAS! The ‘rents have been eating some in the week I’ve been gone, but there are still plenty out there.
The yellow summer squash I planted has these funny light blotches on their leaves. I think I even spotted a teeny tiny yellow squash forming!


The potato flowers that have already bloomed are now turning into funny little fruits… I swear I put potatoes in the ground. What’s going on!?

Remember that little baby rhubarb I was coaxing into life on the windowsill? Well, here it is! Impressive… I know.

I’ll definitely list some squash on there if it goes as bonanza as I think it will (I have about 10 plants which will wind up being about 10 plants too many, I think) and maybe some potatoes if they’re as bountiful as they look. We’ll see.

The snap peas in all of their glory.
Hey hey my my! Those are some nice lookin’ peas! They taste so good straight out of the pod. Who needs to cook them?! Seriously…