Good Zebra, Bad Zebra

What prompted this post was my finding of a pair of zebra mussel encrusted sunglasses on the beach of our local lake last week.  Zebra mussels are a recently introduced invasive species that, despite best efforts, are proliferating in many local Minnesota lakes.   They are hyper competitive and in a short period of time have become a dominant species in the lake.  Bad Zebra. 

Bad Zebra 

For tomato lovers the tomato variety Green Zebra is something many of us now take for granted.  It was developed by Tom Wagner over 30 years ago and released in 1983.  It sometimes called an heirloom, and Tom is often not given credit for the breeding.  He combined the green stripe gene (gs) and an interesting tasting green when ripe (GWR) background through a series of crosses over many years of breeding.  Green Zebra was a founder source for Brad Gates and other breeders that have combined stripes and great taste as a way to introduce novel looking and tasty tomatoes.  On Tom’s New World Seeds website you can now buy seed of his reselected Green Zebra - we planted it this year.  Good Zebra.

Here are a few newer lines tracing in part to Green Zebra; Michael Pollan, a great striped GWR GZ derivative from Brad Gates; our MP x Cowlicks F1 (photo by Blane Horton); and three F2 segregants from that same cross. 

Michael Pollan

MP x Cowlicks Brandywine F1

F2 segregants MP x Cowlicks

Mum's a Garden Smarty

Another reason to love my Mum - she identified the mystery flower! It is ... a balsam. She also informs me they are hardy, flower for ages, and are really hard to find in Adelaide so lucky me to have about six of these spring up from the seed mix in the balcony garden! Here are some more pics to tell her thanks.

Harvest Monday (1 day late)

Harvest Monday on a Tuesday and with no new pictures on my camera it makes me think I had no harvest. But just because I forget to photograph it doesn't mean it isn't there. The delicious tomato and cheese toasted sandwiches my bf and I had for dinner last night were nuanced by the basil from the garden.

And a ripe verison if this beauty - a black russian tomato. Despite nearly succumbing entirely to the wilt that takes over my tomatoes, which you can clearly see in the picture below, this guy survived a prune, regrew and gave me 5 more tomatoes. The wilt comes on early, so can't just be due to old age, and it affects other gardens locally. Definitely something to investigate - any suggestions intrepid gardeners of the world?

We've also been enjoying lettuce in our salads. Indeed the balcony garden grows so much lettuce that I can take it in salads that I bring to friends' BBQs and use it to feed 15 people! This picture is just one of the pick-and-come-again lettuces I grow in the garden. There are about 6 more of these scattered throughout.

Future harvests are poorly timed - I am off to Adelaide to visit family for Easter so I might not be able to enjoy the corn and snowpeas which are ripening as I type. Maybe I could have a cob of corn tonight with one or two snowpeas. Then again, they won't go to waste, they'll just be enjoyed by the housesitter.

If you are thinking, darn that TIBG is getting lazy, I'm not, it is just I've been a little preoccupied as this post shows.

Other harvests can be found over at Daphne's Dandelions. She has some delicious looking spinach ...

400 posts and other milestones

This is my 400th post. Well ok it's the 401st but maths has never been my strong point so I'll celebrate it as if it is the rounder, former number. Besides, I was a little preoccupied when I hit the 400th posts because ...

... it is also the week for milestones. In case you missed it on my other blog, I passed my PhD!!!!!!!!! It even comes in multiple colours (well black for the library anyway.)

After 5 years of slogging it out, countless memoirs keeping me awake at night, far too many reading-about-war-related nightmares, treading the carpet bare in the 942.08 section of the library and venturing to conferences a plenty I'm now one graduation ceremony away from being Dr Totally Inept Balcony Gardener.