An Interesting Infogram

Now, I first saw this picture from a post about heirloom seeds and why they are so important on an excellent blog that I follow Two Men and A Little Farm. He found it on the National Geographic site. I believe I actually remember reading this article when it was published (thanks Dad for subscribing to their magazine). Two Men and A Little Farm writes a few comments on why it is so important that heirloom seeds continue to be used. The most important fact to know is that since 1903, we as a global community have lost 93% of our food varieties! That's a HUGE percentage. I wish I had remembered this before I grew my vegetables because I would have bought heirloom seeds instead. But now that I'm aware, I will do better next time. And that's what it's all about - spreading awareness so that we as a community can do better, and not lose anymore of our food varieties! 

Cucumbers, eggplants, and peas, oh my!

     The newest addition to my garden of containers include two cucumber plants, an eggplant, and snow peas. As previously mentioned, these were bought when C. and I went on a plant excursion on Monday. The eggplant and cucumber plants got put into containers right away. The snow pea seeds were just planted this morning.

     Now, cucumbers are a go-to vegetable but why eggplant you ask? First, I was inspired by this post about growing eggplants in containers on a blog called Our Happy Acres. They recommended the Hansel variety of eggplant and that is what I purchased. The pot I'm using is bigger than the one they show in their pictures, because as they say "larger containers will grow larger plants and therefore, grow more fruit." Yay for larger eggplants! Secondly, after talking with C. we realized that we would eat eggplant a lot more if we didn't have to buy it. We like to steam or saute this type of veggies (summer squash, etc.).

Here are our plants:

     I mentioned that this morning I planted the snow pea seeds. Out I went, coffee in hand, with my dog to keep me company. If you look closely you can see that Galen is passed out in the yard in the picture below. I got those starter biodegradable crates for only two dollars each, and for 72 pea plants, I'd say that's a good deal! I put two seeds in each hole, just to be safe, and I still have over half the packet of seeds left. What am I going to do with those seeds?! I guess I'm going to have to think about if I really want up to 144 snow pea plants before I go get two more crates. Oh, and that brings me to my next thought: I've decided that living in such tight quarters with other houses is not something I really enjoy. Too much concrete and too much supervision. But they do mow your lawn for you... so I guess that's a plus, especially in the next couple months, when temperatures will be 100 with high humidity. But back to the seeds, here they are:

     I will be keeping the peas inside, because they are very sensitive to heat. And heat is something that is very common down here. This morning when I went outside around 8 am, it was already 73 degrees. But it was also 100% humidity, according to accuweather, so it was hot and sticky. I was working up a sweat just sitting and planting, in a tank top and loose sweatpants. While I was doing that, my husband was off to his mandatory physical training and even though it was early morning, the heat must have been miserable. When C. got back from his P.T., he was all excited that I had gotten the seeds planted. And I guess we're not the only ones who are excited either, by the looks of it: