a little bit of gardening

It's finally Friday!  Can anyone say:

I feel like this week has just drug on forever.  Does anyone else feel this way??

Last night after piano lessons, my hubs and I worked in the garden.  (He loves the name "hubs", don't you dear??)  Anyway, I had a lot of weeding to take care of, plus some seedlings to plant.  We ran up to the hardware store to get some ant spray (those pesky things won't get out of our backyard!  we've totally been infiltrated by the little pests) and ended up getting another bag of organic gardening dirt, a mini eggplant that already has a couple of the cuties hanging on its branches, and a French herbs mixed pot.  The French herbs mixed pot contained basil (mmmm!  breathe it in!), summer savory, thyme, and chives.  Only the basil looked good, but that's really what I was going after.  I can never have too much basil in the summer!

When we got back from the store, we had about 20 or 30 minutes until it would be too dark to work.  I did get all my seedlings planted and some weeding done.  I still need to do some more weeding (they seemed to take over out of nowhere!) but I'm very happy with how much we got done last night.

I need to do a real post about my garden!  But so far we have:
Spinach (it bolted from the heat so it had to go)
Broccoli (I harvested a bowlful last night!)
Red Cabbage, Green Cabbage
Garlic
Herbs (Basil, Thyme, Chives, Summer Savory, Sage, Rosemary, Lavendar, Variegated Oregano, Italian Oregano, Greek Oregano, Greek Basil, Genovese Basil)
Brussels Sprouts (although they still haven't produced... I'm just going to wait until they bolt and see what happens)
Celebrity Tomatoes, Cherry Tomatoes, Green Zebra Tomatoes, Early Girl Tomatoes, Patio Tomatoes
Jalapeno Pepper, New Mexico Peppers Green Bell Peppers, Sweet Green Peppers, Golden Bell Peppers, Purple Bell Peppers, Sweet Chocolate Brown Bell Peppers, Anaheim Peppers, Tomatillo Peppers, a few other peppers I can't remember
Zucchini
Yellow Squash
Mini Pumpkins (for an early harvest in September, will plant again in July for a later October/November harvest)
Green Beans
Strawberries
Mini Eggplants

Now I am NOT an expert garden at all.  I just picked a bunch of seedlings after researching, planted them the best I knew how, and I'm hoping for the best.  I call up to the local garden center with lots of questions.  They probably know me as well as the house alarm company by now.  I figure all I can do is try, and the worst that can happen is I don't get a good harvest.  But either way, I'm learning.  And the best way to learn something new is to just DO IT, right?

So far, the broccoli has been the best.  And the spinach.  I'm still harvesting broccoli.  To keep it from going to flower, I have to trim off the broccoli florets as soon as the little heads are the size of a pin-head.  The bigger you let the florets get, the more chance you have it's going to go to flower... especially now that we're experiencing 80-90 degree F weather during the day.

My yellow squash is also truckin' along.  I have two yellow squash seedlings that I planted; one already has 5 or so baby yellow squash, and the other has 3 with a lot of flowers ready to bloom.

Now, one thing that has me stumped is my Green Zebra tomato plant.  I'm not sure when to harvest the tomatoes...  they stay green, so I can't pick them when they turn the right color!  Everyone has told me I'll know by how they feel, but the first one I picked wasn't quite ready. 

credit: http://www.theartofseed.com/green-zebra-tomato/

My husband's workplace offers Saturday gardening classes to members and family, so I'm excited to attend a few of those this summer and fall!  Maybe I'll become an expert gardener...  Maybe. 

Alright, I've gone on far too long gabbing about my garden like it ain't no thang.  If you have any tips (especially concerning Green Zebra Tomatoes!) please share, I would love to hear.