yard long beans

I grew a mix of pole beans this year. Haven't really eaten any, but they are always beautiful on the garden fence. 

 

okra

8 plants this year. About right for us. I barely have enough to do anything, but I can make an excellent succotash when the corn and tomatoes are coming in, and that's about all I'm after. 

They take up about 1.5 feet x 4 feet of garden space. 
 

edible podded radish

Experimental this year, and quite good! The seed pod is lighter than the root - in flavor, in density... It's juicier, but still very "radish".

 

sunflowers

Every year I have tried to grow branching sunflowers on either end of the garden sink. This year I succeeded -  with two on one side.

 
 

corn

Just a note to remind us about corn quantities. 

6 dozen ears = 72 ears = 36 cups = 18 bags = 1/2 c per ear. 

hello again

There has been precious little time for gardening, let alone blogging about gardening. As you can imagine, what was the best garden I had ever grown, turned into the biggest weedy mess you've ever seen around this time.

Tomatoes are coming in nicely. One batch of garden tomato sauce is frozen, a couple batches of diced tomatoes, one batch of crock pot marinara (8 cups of that).

 

Ground hogs have been an ongoing problem attacking carrots, beans, parsnips and wow - how they love collards and Brussels.

The onion crop came in, as did the garlic. Fantastic yield with the garlic though I harvested late and the leaves had started to separate from the bulbs. I let a couple go to flower and it didn't make a huge difference in head size.

 

 

I'm still harvesting beets, and about to plant more.

Same with carrots. Here's what I got after not thinning and not weeding (much). I'm not sure about "atomic red", but "purple haze" sure met expectations!

 

Despite slugs, pole beans made it up the poles, but I can't reach the beans to harvest them.

I harvested the potatoes. Beautiful colors, but small yield. No surprise considering I did the opposite of tending them.

I really can't wait for the sweet potato harvest, the vines are everywhere, but it hasn't been hot so I really don't know what we will find under ground. 

Bad harvester

This always happens to me. Stuff gets out of hand. Exhibit A: club zucchini. 

But there's also some edible stuff. Wonderful delicate lettuce from a succession planting. 
 

Garlic

It's in - 120 heads, very good size. They got decent sun, decent watering, and not too much weed competition. I fertilized with miracle grow once mid-season. (I know, not organic... But I didn't have a good organic option right then and putting it off, in my world, means not doing it.)

 

Shell peas

Shell peas weren't as productive as sugar snaps (not their fault, they can be at just 2 feet tall) - but they were SOOOO sweet! We ate almost all of them raw in the garden. Ames eating the peas and delighting at feeding the dog the shells. 

 

Sugar snaps

I had a little trouble with blog connectivity from the phone so there are a few back posts to make. 

I must have harvested 4 pounds of sugar snaps this year, and could have had more if I'd been paying closer attention and not letting them get too big. 

 

Tomatoes!

Lets hear it for the variety "Fourth of July" which didn't quite make its deadline but nonetheless beat out the beefsteak that was planted a month earlier.

 

Wow - Look at it go!

Strawberries

I'm in love with this crop again.

Spring Harvest

We are just starting to enter a bigger harvest season so I thought I'd recap.

We have been harvesting about a pound of lettuce a week since May 1. We also have plenty of greens - a big bunch of chard, kale, or collard each week. We've been using herbs liberally - even cilantro which was a very appreciated gift from the cold frame.

Today we will pick our first zucchini (also from the cold frame). It's small, but it'll be nice on tonight's salad.

So I'd estimate total harvest so far:

5 pounds of lettuce

1 pound of spinach

2 pounds of kale and chard

2 bunches of cilantro

1/4 pound of beet greens

1 jar of dill (dried)

2 bunches of green onions.

tarragon, sage, oregano, mint, and rosemary as needed.

Garlic scapes

Just shooting out now!

 

Okra

It's up!

 

Strawberrios!

That's Ames' way of saying it anyway! Picked two this morning. It was a little premature but he scarfed them down anyway. The patch is looking good, but I'm afraid the birds might be thinking the same thing. 

 

June 2, Full Status

Things are looking good out there. Definitely my best year yet - mostly because my effort was more sustained. So... here goes:

This is the first year for this blue iris to bloom. It is a descendant of my grandmothers. Her white ones have been blooming for several years (although this year I think a frost took them out).

 Here's the asparagus patch. We stopped cutting about 2 weeks ago. We were gentle with the patch this year since it was only it's third year.

 The cold frame continues to produce. Lettuce is still providing a steady harvest (along with romaine from the larger vegetable garden), the cilantro has already been put to good use, green onions (replanted from the grocery store) are being used as cut-and-come-again, swiss chard leaves are coming off regularly. I pulled half the arugula (and replanted with a second crop of cilantro, and we ate all the spinach when my parents were in town because it was starting to bolt. The zucchini is a tester. I have had BAD issues with squash vine borer in the past. My intention was to cover the cold frame with floating row cover cloth to prevent the moths from flying in with their eggs, but that hasn't happened yet, and the to-do list is pretty long with row-cover acquisition pretty far down the priority list. Maybe they won't find this plant.

Add caption

 And now for the vegetable garden. I should have cleaned up before I went taking pictures. You can still see the scar in the lawn where we ran the hose underground out to the sink. Hopefully it will heal by summers end.

To the left from the sink, the glorious sage shrub followed by tomatoes. Two beefsteak varieties (Beefmaster and 4th of July), one cherry, 2 Amish Paste, 3 San Marzano (roma style), and 1 heirloom from Doug's Gram Henry - we don't really know anything more about it except it is a descendant of one she grew. All the tomatoes were planted with a little Epsom salt (I have read completely contradictory reports on whether this is a good idea or not). The first three were put in holes with some Garden Tone all purpose soil conditioner. Those were planted weeks ago with Wall-o-waters to protect them from nighttime cool temperatures. They clearly have a jump on the ones I put in today, but will the fruit come sooner? Stay tuned. The last 6 were put in holes with epsom salts and Jobe's Organics Vegetable and Tomato. Atomic Red and Purple Haze carrots are planted between the tomatoes. I just installed the soaker hose today. I'm going to be putting a lot of money into soaker hose over the next couple weeks and I do hope it saves me an equivalent amount of watering time. Yes, I know I haven't tied up all the bamboo yet. Good grief, I really should tidy up before taking pictures.

 To the right of the sink, we made a last-minute plot plan revision and put in a long row of sweet potatoes instead of the cosmos and other flowers intended to attract beneficial insects. Watch - a plagues of locusts or some-such will attack the garden this year. I did put a patch of cosmos on either end of the sweet potatoes. When it comes to cutting anything off the planting list I am disabled.

Unfortunately, I can't remember exactly which varieties of sweet potatoes I planted. Most of it was Jewel, all came from Brush Valley Greenhouse. Behind the sweet potatoes next to the bamboo poles I planted scarlet runner beans. Something ate almost all of them. I have replanted with yard long beans and multi-colored pole beans. Hopefully there will be a wall of SOME kind of beans by summers end.

 Moving around the corner toward the shed, this is the state of the perennial bed. Everything is bolting. One new addition here is the White Straussburg edible pod radish grown from seed my friend Jim Eisenstein grows for the Seed Savers Exchange. Looking forward to this experiment! Dill is doing fabulously.

Behind the perrennial bed I just planted the edamame alongside the Sugar snaps which will climb the strings I just hung. Boy - I really do pack the stuff in, don't I? This bed was full of kale and dill (self-seeded) 2 days ago when I got ready for the edamame. The dill has been washed and is drying. The kale went into the quinoa kale patties I just posted the recipe for.

 Beets are backing up to the small fenced area. They don't get as much light in this location as previous years, so they are growing a little slower, but coming along. Germination wasn't perfect, but the holes have been reseeded and should be filled in by the next update.

Inside the fence, everything is doing well. A new patch of lettuce is looking forward to stepping up when our current lettuce gives up. I planted one hot pepper in the middle of that patch. It'll take over when this lettuce is done. (I like to keep the hot ones out of Ames' reach - that would be a cruel lesson since he's so used to running around the yard just picking stuff and eating it.) The garlic is thriving, but no sign of scapes.

I was committed to pulling the strawberry patch and replanting with something I thought would be more productive, but now I'm kind of glad I never got around to that. There are LOTS of berries in the making here. We stopped by our local farm today to check, and they said their's were about 2 weeks out. Ours might be a little more, but we shall see. (Yeah, the photo should be rotated but Blogger doesn't offer that option. Really?!?)

The bed behind the bench is doing pretty well. I still need to reseed some of the parsnips, but the leeks, daikon radish, kale, and collards are doing just fine. Okra seeds are in behind the greens, just a small patch.

Next to that we have a bed with a patch of the beneficial insect attracting mix (from Fedco), 4 rows of carrots (Atomic Red, Purple Haze, Nantes, and Danvers). In front of that will be a patch of beans, not sure which yet, with parsley at all four corners of the bean patch.

A long row behind all these smaller patches has the onions. They aren't getting quite enough water, but I guess they are doing OK.

Potatoes are in laundry baskets this year. Easy to harvest, but will they produce well?

And finally, the favas. Aphids still seem to be under control, and celery and celeriac in front of them have survived the transplant.

Have Kale?

Quinoa Kale Patties. Better than they sound.

http://yummysupper.blogspot.com/2012/09/quinoa-kale-patties.html

Salad beauty

 

Fava beans

Apparently fava beans are magnets for aphids, often in the newest growth at the tips. I was showing off the fava beans to a friend on Wednesday when we noticed the buggers. It wasn't a horrible case, but concerning none-the-less. We found one ladybird beetle, but I was worried they wouldn't keep ahead of what looked like a serious, though nascent, issue. 

I used insecticidal soap on four plants and let the rest be, just to see the full suite of effects before dousing them all.

I'm happy to report that as of tonight the infestation seems to have lessened and I saw another ladybug tonight. The plants are looking good. I made sure to water them well through this hot spell.

The flowers are gorgeous. Black and white. Super cool.

 I planted a row of celeriac and celery alongside the favas tonight, purchased at Brush Valley greenhouse today.

Surprisingly palatable raw kale salad

1 bunch of kale, chopped small

Small amount of diced red onion

Whisk together:

Juice from one lemon

Similar amount of olive oil

Dash of salt, pepper, and honey

Pour over kale and toss/massage until kale begins to wilt. 

Photosynthetic energy at its finest.
 

Broccoli

Well, based on snooping around my neighbor's yard, we could be harvesting broccoli right now. Good to know!

File that under notes for next year!
 

The garden grows...

Some highlights:

 

 
 
 

 

Water at the garden

I should have posted this follow-up after posting the pictures of us digging up the yard. Sweet success!

 

Status report (May 9th)

Finally the rains came! A week and a half of no rain and then 2 inches over two days. It's a great time to pull deep weeds even if its not a good time to turn the soil. Unfortunately, it's also a great time for weed seed germination. (See asparagus photo below.)

Herbs: chives led the way, oregano, marjoram, thyme, and tarragon are all ready for picking. Sage and rosemary are greening up. My parsley roots rot and have bugs every spring, so despite the classification of 'biennial', I need to plant that new. Basil is started but its a long time out. 

Perennials: sorrel is overproducing, asparagus is giving us a small handful each day, enough for salad adornments, horseradish is bolting, and rhubarb is too. The rhubarb leaves have short stalks - I'm told to top dress with cow manure. Dill has come up in carpets under both. I was hoping for that!

Roots: Beets are up with their first true leaves, but the germination wasn't uniform, I wasn't the best about watering them. Planted on April 13, they are now nearly one month in the ground. There are about 30 there, a satisfying amount for a first planting, but I better put the replanting on the to-do list. 

Stuttgarter yellow onion sets are in and a couple inches high, having been planted on April 23rd, 2 1/2 weeks ago. There are about 120 of those. 

Parsnips are in, but not up, same for first and second planting of carrots - red, purple, and orange! (Parsnips were planted April 13th (one month ago), 1st planting of carrots went in April 25th, 2nd went in May 6th.) Daikon radish is in (April 25th) and up, barely, and my leek starts are in (April 24th) and growing gangbusters! There are about 30 of them.

Garlic is always the stunning crop of spring. About 100 heads.

Peas and beans: sugar snaps are doing better than shell peas, but both are growing. Sugar snaps have even begun climbing. Both were planted on April 8th.

Fava beans are so beautiful! It's my first time growing them. They need an early start (mine were presoaked and went in the ground April 10th), and they seem to be making the most of it. Nearly 100% germination on those.

A Fedco mix of plants that attract beneficial insects has been planted in two spots, totaling about 16 square feet, and it'll go in yet another spot when the soil drains enough to work it. Beans, brussels, okra, and more greens all have spots reserved for them.

Last, but definitely not least, the cold frame gives us salad greens every night, lettuce, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard, and soon cilantro! The arugula is already starting to bolt however...

And that's where we stand on May 9th.