Growth: Updated

Some faithful readers may remember the the first post about the growth of the seedlings that we had growing in the kitchen with intentions of populating the garden.  You may also remember the subsequent posts that described their demise and our eventual need to sew new seeds or plant purchased seedlings direct into the garden.  But what you won't know is that a couple of those original seedlings survived! The survivors have been growing on our porch, and have actually been doing quite well.

Above is basil that we grew from seed mixed with some that we planted from our Plan B food share, I didn't actually think the food share plant would take, but Tracie proved me wrong!

I was really glad that at least one Flame Pepper sprout survived. My grandfather always grew hot peppers in his garden and I can remember him flicking open his ever-present jackknife, cutting one from the plant and popping it whole into his mouth - a feat I never attempted, and one that never failed to impress me. The pepper plant has been thriving despite it's limited space, sharing a small planter box that was given to us by our landlord with the basil plants.  It flowered with tiny but pretty white flowers and then exploded with peppers, and continues to do so!

Peppers maturing and drying.

A Green Zebra Tomato seed also survived! After growing it in the same window box as the basil and Flame Peppers for a while, we transplanted it to this bucket and it's flourished all summer.  So far we've got about a dozen tomatoes including what's on the plant now, but that's better than nothing! We also sewed some zebras right into the garden but they didn't sprout. Or so I thought - while picking tomatoes from one of our cherry tomato plants, I noticed a larger green tomato poking out through some clover, initially I had ignored it believing it to be an unripe one from a nearby roma plant.  Further investigation showed it was indeed a single zebra on a single stalked plant!

Even though only three plants survived it's been fun tending to them and having some garden experience at home, when we can't get to the garden.  Next year the porch will be used to a greater extent, especially after seeing what kind of sun it gets and the success of the plants currently growing.