Update on the Recession Garden

(Will add pix later. Maybe. If I feel like it.)

So last you heard, I was harvesting my 6 radishes and the lettuce were starting to look lettuce-like. Some peppers had germinated, as well as some artichokes and maybe some okra.

Sadly, we never got the watering system really sorted out this winter: it watered most of the greenhouse, but not all of the greenhouse, excluding my seeds and rose cuttings some of the time.

So we're now down to one or two late-germinating chile seedlings, a handful of doubtful tomato seedlings, 2 okras, about 10 eggplants, and 6 or so tomatillos. Oh, and a fennel from that Austin Passion for Plants festival last weekend (it consisted of a bunch of informational/demo booths, and for every 4 booths we visited, you got a free plant. I got a 'Super Sweet 100' cherry tomato, and Matt got a 'Zefa Fino' fennel. I never got quite a clear answer from him on why he chose a fennel--I don't think he's a fan of the bulb or the foliage. He just said something airy about liking to have fennel in the garden. Well, why not?)

And we've actually harvested 2 side salads' worth of Lolla Rossa lettuce, which Matt loyally declared to be "really good."

Six more radishes languish in the pot, refusing to produce little bulbs. I think the intermittent watering stalled them out, along with some unseasonable heat. They're neither growing nor dying, just sitting there.

The pelleted butterhead lettuce never even sprouted, much to my consternation. And I think the lemongrass sprouts lasted about 1 day. The ahi limon chile crop, which was the inspiration for this entire effort, has completely died out. So sad. I may try to sprout a few more, just to see.

Amusingly, though, it looks like my initial prediction regarding the veg garden was right: I'm going to end up with almost nothing but buckets of tomatillos (and eggplants)--if I'm lucky. Well. It beats farkleberries and rotten turnips.