Princess Garden Update - Mistaken Identity!

Today Will and I went out to the Princess Garden to work on some much needed weed control. When we planted, Terri and I were very careful to identify everything we planted with markers. Now everything is in full bloom - and looking very robust and healthy I might add - but Master Gardener (Uncle George) and my father-in-law Sonny both informed me today that our "banana pepper" plants are indeed tomato plants! I cannot believe it. I feel like we have imposters. I guess I'm still in denial, since I'm thinking to myself "they'll see!" when the little peppers start sprouting. At the same time, I understand that they know better than me so in the meantime I'll prepare myself for an abundance of tomatoes...

We may have a few more weeds than the average garden, but with me having a toddler and Terri being a pilot, it's hard to keep up! Weeds and all, the Princess Garden is beautiful and everything we planted is doing really well. Our lettuce is ready to eat and our (other 2) tomato plants are sprouting little tomatoes! (see picture below)

PS: Uncle George said I looked so disappointed when he informed me of the mistaken identity that he went out tonight and got two banana pepper starts and planted them in his garden so we can still enjoy them. Thank you Uncle George - that was so thoughtful!

On another note, last year Luke made some repairs to the old grape arbor behind our house. He replaced some of the boards that were rotting and it looks really nice now. We were then given two Concord grape vine starts as a gift.. and this year... we have grapes!! A fond memory from my childhood was picking grapes off of the vines along my Nana and Walter's driveway. I'm excited for Will to be able to pick grapes right off the vine and snack away as well! Here are the baby grapes.

Princess Garden

This year Terri and I decided to plant a garden. We have named it our Princess Garden. We planted wild flowers (including sunflowers and zinnias), cherry tomatoes, big beef tomatoes, basil, cilantro, green beans, cucumbers, jalapenos, banana peppers, pimienta peppers, zuchini, acorn squash - and that is all I can think of right now. It has definitely been a learn-as-we-go type of experience. Fortunately we have Uncle George (aka Master Gardener) living next door to monitor our efforts and give us much needed pointers.

Last week we got everything planted and it looks gorgeous! This weekend I put up stakes and twine around it to remind Rosco he's not supposed to run through it.

So this morning Will and I were slumbering peacefully when at about 6:50 the phone rang. It was Luke who informed me there had been a frost. The dreaded frost. His dad told him that in order to save the tomato plants I needed to go pour water on them before the sun hit them. Ok, ok. I rolled out of bed trying to open my eyes and peeked out of the window beside our bed that faces the garden. OH NO! The sun line was about TWO FEET from our Princess Garden! You've never seen anyone move faster. I pulled on some jeans, raced thru the house, filled up a pitcher w/ water, threw on my gardening boots :) and raced out to SAVE THE TOMATO PLANTS! I leapt over the bushes in front of the porch and raced over, hurdling the daffodil plants, with my pitcher a-sloshing. I tenderly doused them with water, rubbing the frost off each leaf. Just as I finished with the two tomato plants I looked over to see all of our banana pepper plants staring at me. With the sun-line now within inches of our babies, I raced in for another pitcher full. I ran back out to save them as well. I even went back over the tomato plants a second time to make sure I hadn't missed any spots.

As I went back into the house Will was still lying in bed looking at me like I had lost it.

It will be very interesting to see how the Princess Garden turns out this year. Personally, I have very high hopes!