It is week 10 and I’m super excited! We have a tiny eggplant growing! How about that purple variegated little guy!
A little backtracking here. I was very worried about the eggplant since it had been chewed up by, I think, flea beetles (see this post). On the advice of our District Conservationist (I’m very lucky to work with experts!), I purchased and spread diatomaceous earth and that seemed to do the trick. I am trying very hard to keep everything natural and not use pesticides on the garden, so I’m pleased that this worked!
Side note about diatomaceous earth: this is a naturally occurring fossilized remains of diatoms, which is effective in controlling hard insects. It acts as a non toxic pesticide due to its abrasive qualities. Check the link above for more information
So, imagine my happiness to see the first little eggplant growing. The plant hasn’t grown too much and I was fearful that it was not going to bear any fruit. Yay!
As predicted, we also harvested 3 zucchini and 2 cucumbers this week as well.
Funny thing about this. We checked the garden on Thursday and thought that the cucumbers wouldn’t be ready for the next few days. So – we got a cucumber at the grocery store. Note to self: Cucumbers grow many inches overnight! Also – they are MUCH heavier than store bought ones. Here’s the comparison:
Same general length, but you can see the homegrown one is way fatter. It weighed a whole lot more too! We put them on the scale and the store bought one was 9.5oz. Any guesses as to how heavy the homegrown one was?
Yep – more than 50% (!!!) heaver at 14.5 oz.
Also – Maddi will be happy – the Tat Soi is sprouting!
I’ll keep an updated tally of this year’s harvest here for anyone wanting to keep track! There’s a link at the top of each page.
