マディソン絵日記/Madison Iwai Says: Things that are thriving update!

I think being in Southern California has such a benefit when it comes to growing fruits and veggies except growing cherries which require 500+ chill hours we can't provide... BUT we can grow bananas! That's right we have a new addition to our thriving family and it's a Banana Tree! Have you seen a banana tree? If you only look at just leaves you may think it's another tropical plant but it fruits!!
We planted it by the pool where the tree can get tons of sun during the day and the heat from the stones will keep the tree warm at night. Madison named it "Nana Tree" because that's how she calls Banana:-)

That middle leaf that's about to emerge and open up was not there when I brought it home about two weeks ago... I guess it's liking the new sunny spot!

Upon my google research I found out that bananas that we buy from stores come mainly from banana trees called Cavendish because they travel well the most... And Banana is actually not a tree or plant, but Perennial Herbs! Who knew that! So if our Nana Tree does well then we should see the flower in about 6 months or so and bananas will be ready in about 2 months after that...:-)
So we will keep you updated!

Madison's Square Garden had a growth spurt the last few weeks and we had our first green pepper and beet harvested last week and two green beans and a few heirloom tomatoes this week...

Madison thinks this eggplant is her BFF...:-) She even went into her kitchen to find her plastic eggplant and put it next to the real one on our kitchen counter to keep each other company...:-)

These climbers came out of seeds in our make shift green house in our kitchen and growing nicely... Success!

Madison loves veggies so the first green pepper got picked and went straight to Madison's belly in a matter of minutes! That girl is soooo cute! I was able to get a bite off of it and scrape most of the seeds before the whole thing minus the stem disappeared...:-)

Same thing happened yesterday when I let Madison pick her first green beans... I told her that I will grill them quick since we were about to grill some steaks for dinner but apparently cooking is overrated in her mind and she was chomping on them right there... When she was done with them she gave me two pointy ends to throw out... Apparently stems are yummy to her also. So after those two incidents I've come to conclusion that as long as those plants keep producing one at a time we will not be enjoying the fruits of our labor anytime soon... And next year I need to plant another green pepper and definitely no cherry tomatoes as none of us like them. And I want the crazy strawberry patch Jim and Alyson have!(*Update: Dave and my dad just built a Madison Square Strawberry Garden so my dream is about to come true...)

We are starting to see flowers on our watermelons! Finally!

I'm not sure if we already introduced our fig tree yet but we have a fig tree that we almost killed by not watering enough but big thanks to Drew and Kate we got it back and so many other plants... We knew that the tree was dying when all the leaves went brown and hanging down but after removing all the leaves we started to water twice a day as per Drew and Kate's instruction and new leaves emerged in about two weeks and now doing better than we ever expected!
My mom has been really enjoying these sweet figs ever since they arrived last Saturday...:-)

Orange tree also was struggling and actually dropped all the baby oranges that it came with when we bought the tree but it also made a nice come back and they are flowering and being pollinated so it's very exciting but they won't be ready to eat for another 10 months or so... Long road ahead of us...:-(

The Apple tree has also had exciting growth. We are just confirming in the last few days that those flowers actually got pollinated! So the bottom of flowers are starting to swell up!! YAY!! Dave wasn't 100% on board with my mini fruit orchard plan but I think these yummy apples to be got him more interested in the idea, and also the oranges are working for him too... Everyday we are both checking how our plants are doing and that makes me smile because I feel like we are one of those older retired couples with their plants except 5 minutes after that I am running out of the house to get to work on time...:-)

This picture was taken last Saturday but today they look so different! the fruits are getting bigger every day! Amazing!

As you know both our blueberry bushes almost died during The Klein Drought 2012 but are slowly making a come back with new leaves BUT since we LOVE blueberries we can never have enough blueberries so I got two more bushes and I'm trying to propagate them to grow more blueberry bushes for free! I just propagated them last week so we will have to wait another two weeks or so to see if any of the cuttings actually rooted but fingers are definitely crossed! and we will keep you updated:-)

This tiny blackberry bush I got from Lowe's for $5 is growing so many new shoots and flowers...

Another plant that is thriving like crazy are our corns!! They grew sooo fast and now you can actually see corn growing and they are getting bigger every day! Did you know that each silk is connected to each kernel and if that silk doesn't get pollinated that kernel won't mature... We take those corns lightly and bite them off so fast but from now on you may have to take a second to look at the corn on your plate and give them a high five for successfully going through the whole growing process.
Anyways, I've been shaking the tussles to get the pollen to spread around to make sure each silk gets pollinated... It is a lot of work people. Weird thing is Dave gets so embarrassed that we have corn growing in our yard... so I don't get a lot of supportive cheers from him but I think it's really fun to grow such a farm icon in your front yard... That's right front yard...but I like it:-)