Garden Update

Ichiban Eggplant

The dog yard garden here at Maryland Sled Dog Adventures has received a couple of new additions in the past week.

Growing garden

Foggy morning with flowering azaleas

Currently growing in the vegetable garden we have: three varieties of lettuce; three pepper plants including a cayenne pepper, a green bell pepper, and a Marconi pepper; shallots; three tomatoes including an Early Girl hybrid, a Brandywine heirloom, a Husky Red Cherry hybrid; a burpee seedless cucumber; and an Ichiban eggplant.

The shallots have finally sprouted

Marconi pepper with lettuces in the background

Husky red cherry tomato

Early Girl (left) and Brandywine tomato (right)

Brandywine tomato

The Ichiban is a new addition to this year's garden that we are excited to try out. Unfortunately, Ichiban had a bit of a rough start. As we were hardening off the Ichiban in preparation of moving it outdoors to its new home, sled dog, Acadia, decided that she would pick up the Ichiban eggplant and run around the back yard with it. What she really wanted was the plastic pot to play with so we were able to locate the uprooted Ichiban plant in the "back 40" and quickly planted it in its large permanent pot.

Who me? I would never steal an eggplant.

(In case you are wondering, the brown stuff on the right side of Acadia's face is pitch from her repeated attempts to stick her head in the wood pile)

We selected the Ichiban variety because it greatly resembles Italian eggplant in taste and size but does well in containers. We selected the cherry tomato we are growing for much the same reason: it grows well in containers.

In addition to the vegetables, we've also planted raspberry bushes and a variety of herbs including mint, rosemary, sage, parsley, thyme, oregano, cilantro, and purple basil.

The mint is back!

Gardening is tiring says Chloe, the cat.