project paw paw and other gardening adventures

i heard of paw paw trees for the first time last month from my friend andy, and for those of you who know him, it is a subject of which he is fond. within days of mentioning it to my housemate jennifer, she had found me a (free) source of young paw paws in need of transplant. about two weeks later, with the help of tree-savvier than i am friend jake b., i was in the process of planting two of them in my yard (you need at least two for them to pollinate and produce fruit). i was told that they are fickle plants and don't really like to be moved once they've started to grow successfully, and right now they seem to be having some issues (leaves turning brown, no new growth), but it's only been a week and a half, the rain has kept them well watered, and there's good southerly sun in my yard, so we'll see if they perk up with time.

this weekend i also took advantage of the surprisingly nice saturday afternoon to plant flowers (some annuals, some perennials) and seeds for lettuce and okra. the vegetable and herb seedlings i've been growing experimentally in the basement (beets, eggplant, carrots, green peppers, basil, cilantro, dill) are not ready to be transplated, so right now i'm putting them outside for a few hours a day to allow them to acclimate. i also picked up some tomato and squash starts from mildred's daughters farm in stanton heights, which i'll probably put in the ground next weekend. only got 4 varieties of tomatoes this year (instead of the 11 i tried to plant last year, with varying success)...