The Worlds Most Expensive Vegetables - Part 8

This weekend I had some of the worlds most expensive spinach leaves. Yummy! We thinned out a few spinach plants for salads so I guess I'm starting to get a return on my investment. KA-CHING!

As far as gardening, it was an unseasonably cold and wet weekend so not much got done. I spent another $22 for dirt, two giant marconi pepper plants (the plants weren't giant but the peppers soon will be) and a six pack of cherry tomatoes. I've been looking for sun gold, having thoroughly enjoyed a plant last year that I picked up at a plant sale the local hippy-dippy food co-op was having, but gave up and bought the ones every store in the area seemed to be selling: sweet 100. The marconi was also one I had to search for but well worth it. Sweet like bell peppers, these plants vomit out massive elongated peppers all season long. After buying the last two Rural King had I broke off one while planting. Oops. Here's to hoping it will still grow, especially in my weird, messy plot inside the shell of a raised bed. Yes, that's cardboard and yes, it looks like chaos but the plants don't mind. It'll look pretty on a plate. Pictured here, clockwise from the upper left (because I know you care) is cilanto, a marconi, a celebrity tomato (I didn't realize it was determinate until I got it home... poopy!), another marconi (damaged), and two sweet 100 cherry tomatoes.

Checking in on the raspberries, the ones I brought over from the old house are going well. I still can't believe that they survived our record-breaking cold winter just being heeled in on a pile of mulch at my dads but obviously they had no problems. Of the plants I just purchased, the blackberry is slow to break out of it's dormancy, as the plant seller stated, and two are starting up. However one, the Heritage Raspberry, isn't doing anything, except perhaps snickering at me.

Also planted this past week was about ten thousand green bean seeds, or so it seemed. After much reading I found that it was recommended to plant them three inches apart in two foot plots. That close? Really? We'll see. I'll put in another plot of Kentucky Blue and Slenderette in two weeks. No picture 'cause it's just dirt right now. My kids think I really like dirt but it's not that fun to look at.

This weekend was also the start of the long-anticipated Hoffmana melon patch! I purchased five types of seeds from Rare Seeds dot com and then dried some seeds from a cantaloup and a honeydew that were just waiting to be eaten. The melons, not the seeds. RareSeeds dot com gave me a bonus pack of melon seeds to make a grand total of eight types. And then I found a pack of orange watermelon seeds for fifty cents and figured "Why not?" These I sprouted two weeks back, mostly with success, and this weekend I put five of them into the garden with the remaining four to go in tonight. Squashies, cucumbers, and gourds are being sprouted now.

Lesson Learned: My smaller kids love worms but grubs freak us all out.