Harvest Monday....... July 1, 2013 & Harvest Totals to Date

We had two big harvests this week, a lot of the Broccoli and the Garlic. Some of you may have seen my Big Broccoli Harvest here. Well that wasn't all of it for the week. I harvested a few heads earlier in the week and a few more on Sunday. Sorry, no pics of those.

Sunday I went to the plots and pulled the remaining peas. The peas in the home garden were pulled last week. It's just too hot for the peas and they were about finished. After I finished with the peas. I thought that I better check the garlic. Well, it was ready to be pulled. I pulled all the garlic and brought it home.

Since we are in constant threat of thunderstorms lately, I had to put it under the covered part of the back porch. Now I can barely get out the back door!

38 Heads of Music (Hardneck Variety)

 

and.... 

 a total of 56 heads of Silverskin (Softneck Variety)

more of the Silverskin

 

The garlic heads are a good size and I'm quite pleased with the harvest. I think we will have enough for us and my son's household. Later this week I will hang the garlic and let it cure for storage.

 

Since I have been a bit busy and haven't participated in Harvest Monday this year, I thought I would post my year to date weighed harvest totals.

  



Baby Choi - 3.25 lbs.
Asparagus - 3.3 lbs.
Strawberries - 20.8 lbs
Broccoli - 16.8 lbs.
Garlic - 94 Heads (will be weighed once they are cured)
Greens & Lettuce - 3 lbs. (I haven't been weighing most of these)
Onions - 8 oz,
Peas - 11.2 lbs.
Peppers - 1 oz. (1 hot pepper)
Spinach - 5 lbs
Tomatoes - 3 Sungolds (not weighed)

Year to date Total - 62.45 lbs.

 

Hop on over to Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in gardens around the globe!

Home Garden Update mid-April

Wow, I can't believe it's mid-April already and that I haven't posted in a month! I have been reading a lot of blogs though. It's just been very busy with work, life and the garden.

The cold weather and then the hot dry weather has passed and the weather has turned to normal for this time of the year. So.....I finally managed to get the home garden cleaned up this weekend.

The Right Cold Frame Bed

is planted with onions and carrots under the boards. I use Granny's Seed Mat Method.It works great!

The Left Cold Frame Bed

is planted with Asian Veggies, Kale, Collards and Lettuce

The over-wintered Spinach is really taking off!

I harvest this nice big colander of spinach on Sunday

"The Italian" sautéed it with olive oil and garlic....yum!

 

The Peas finally sprouted after our rain this past week!

They're all popping through the ground!

 

I usually plant my early Tomatoes in this bed.

This year I sowed 2 rows of Little Marvel Peas and 2 rows of Carrots.

Slicing Cucumbers will be sown on the right side in about a month

The Herb Garden has been cleaned out.

It was a mess from that Sandy blowing through here last fall!

The Rosemary made it through the winter for the first time!

Lots of Happy Daffodils in the Herb Garden too!

 

In the basement, there are a few Large Tomatoes......

smaller tomatoes......

and even smaller tomatoes!

They will be a nice size when it's time to plant them out.

There are a lot of peppers growing....medium and small

Way too much Celery!!

Cauliflower, Cabbage & Eggplant

The Broccoli has already be planted at the plots.

I'll post on the plots tomorrow.

 

So, how's your garden coming along???

 

Starting Early Crops, the Winter Garden & Seed Starting/Planting Schedule

Today I finally got some of my early crops started! I was planning on starting some crops last weekend. However, cleaning up the basement and fixing my one germinating table took more time than I expected.

Since last year was my first time trying to use soil blocks......and I didn't do all that well with them. I decided to start my first plantings in containers. I am however planning to start my Broccoli, Cabbage & Cauliflower in soil blocks.

 I started Collards, Arugula, Tatsoi, Pak Choi, Baby Choi, 4 varieties of Kale and 6 varieties of Lettuce. All of these will be planted out in the empty cold frames very early.

These pretty and colorful tomato cages are the only thing in the cold frames right now. "The Italian" got them for me for my Birthday in December. I think they are really cool! He had them all lined up in a path from where I park my car to the back door and then a special present in the last one!

 

I didn't get around to planting the cold frames this past fall. Life got hectic and truthfully I think it was best for the soil. Last year I had slugs all winter and lots of bugs all season due to the mild winter we had. Maybe a good freeze will help things out a bit. That's my excuse reason and I'm sticking to it!

 

The overwintered spinach (the only way I can grow it) is doing well. The plants are very close right now. I will space them out once the weather permits.

 

There are some burned leaves. But, we will have happy Spinach this Spring!

 

I also started two varieties of Leeks, Caratan & Large American Flag. Large American Flag is new variety for me. I received the seeds from Seeds of the Month Club and am happy to try a new variety. I wanted to try another variety.....so, we shall see how they do.

 

The Celery was also sown today. This year I sowed my tried and true variety, Golden Self Blanching. I also started another new variety from Seeds of the Month Club, Utah. I'm really excited to see how the Utah celery does. Let's just hope we don't have more celery than last year!

 

Also sown were some Herbs; Rosemary, Basil (for inside), Winter Savory, Summer Savory, Cumin & Lemon Grass.

 

 

 My seed starting & planting schedule for this year is as follows:

 

February 23/24 - Start Broccoli & Cabbage

March 9/10 - Start Cauliflower, Eggplants & Peppers

March 16/17 - Peas Outside

March 30/31 - Start Tomatoes

March 30-Mid April - Potatoes, Onions, Carrots, maybe Beets & Greens Outside, weather permitting

April Mid-Late - Broccoli Outside

April -Late to May-Early - Cauliflower Outside

May Early - Start Squash & Melons

May-Early to Mid - Tomatoes Outside

May-Late - Peppers & Eggplants Outside

May-Late to Early June - Direct sow, Beans, Cucumbers, Squash, Popcorn and any other warm crops that I forgot!

 

I'm sure this will change a bit, as it always does. But, that's the plan for now! How are you making out with your garden planning for this year???

The Home Garden Mid-June

The home garden is looking pretty messy right now. I guess that it's just going through a transition from spring crops to summer. All of the rain and heat we had for several weeks didn't help much either Warning, lots of pics

Click on any pic to enlarge.

The Left Cold Frame Bed has been pretty much cleaned out. Most of the lettuce and all of the Collards, Kale & Asian Greens bolted from the heat. There are a couple of celery plants in the back and still a little bit of lettuce. I decided to plant some dry beans in this bed. They are the little sprouts you can see coming up. Later in the season, I will plant this bed with carrots.

The Right Cold Frame Bed is filled mostly with carrots. The Kale in the back is still doing well. It was planted last fall. I wonder how long it will last? There's also a little lettuce under the kale in the back and some recently planted carrots under the boards.

The Herb Garden really took a hit from all the rain. I had several newly planted herbs that just died. As you can see, the oregano was recently trimmed back. It was huge! In a few weeks it will be huge again. There's Miss Banana on the back corner of the deck. She follows me everywhere.....instead of cleaning out the bunny nests like she did when she was younger!

The back section of the Herb Garden.

This is where many of the newly planted herbs died. The Spaghetti Squash are coming up along the fence. This past week, I planted a few new herbs here...Marjoram, Curry and Variegated Thyme.

My Sage Bush is looking pretty good. It got hit late last season with a ton of rain. It used to be at least twice this size.

Some Slicing Cucs for "The Italian" are coming up along the edge of the Garlic Bed.

I don't know what is going on with the Soft Neck Garlic. It's all leaning. The Hard Neck Variety isn't doing this. Anyone know???

The four early tomatoes with a few carrots and marigolds planted here and there. My early tomatoes are usually way ahead of the later ones. Not this year. I think some of the later maters at the plots are doing much better. 

The Sungold is fruiting.

Thanks for the seeds Dave! We can't wait to taste them!

This is supposed to be an Eva's Purple Ball. It really looks like a Cherokee Purple to me. Time will tell!

This is Bed #1. It looks like a hot mess to me!

I pulled all of the Snap Peas on both ends. Those really tall leaning peas are a different variety of shelling peas. They are at least 7' tall. I like the Little Marvels much better. So, I'm going to plant a fall crop at the plots. All of the spinach and lettuce was pulled. The early broccoli is done. Right now there are a few celery plants, some dried beans, carrots under the boards, a couple of cabbage plants and the balance of the hard neck garlic at the far end.

This is one of the broccoli heads I cut a few days ago.

The Perennial Beds are very lush right now. There isn't a lot of color though. They too are going through a transition. You can see Miss Banana following me around!

We do have some bright blossoms here and.....

there!

Here's Alvin....my Flower Child. 

He sleeps all day among the plants. Occasionally he gets a vole too!

The Home Garden Mid-May

We made it home from our vacation in New Orleans about 2AM on Saturday. We had a wonderful time and ate a lot! "The Italian" and I were very surprised when we got out of the car and saw the home garden in the dark. It was just amazing how much it grew while we were away! Sophia must have given the plants a lot of love while we were gone!

The garden seemed to explode in one week! The Snow Peas and Snap Peas must be almost 7' high. The Alderman shelling peas are about 5' tall. They are a different variety then I have planted in the past and are supposed to get 4-6 feet in height.

All of the perennial flower beds exploded too! The Dutch Irises are just beautiful!

The Chinese Cabbage and Broccoli are looking good. I do see a little nibbling though. It must be slugs. All of my Pak Choi for some reason has bolted. The Baby Choi looks great though. I may have to try another variety of Choi in the fall and next year since this variety seems very sensitive to bolting.

Some Bunny climbed the fence and tried to make a nest. I guess I will get out the spray and add some additional height to the fencing in this bed.

Before we went away I removed all of the overwintered Kale and Vates Collards. There is some spring Kale & Georgia Collards in this bed. We really like the Vates Collards much better then the Georgia variety. The overwintered Celery in the back has bolted and will most likely be removed tomorrow.

The overwintered Kale is this bed is still doing quite well. The carrots are chugging along and the Escarole in the front has bolted and has to be pulled.

The Sugar Magnolia Purple Snap Peas are starting and so are the Spring Blush Snap Peas! They are just beautiful and tasty too!

This picture is a little fuzzy. But you can see how tall all of the peas are. It really took us by surprise to see such growth! The four early tomatoes in the Kozy Koats are getting pretty big. I will have to remove the cloches and stake them in the next couple of days.

The first Snow Peas of the year were harvested this morning! I'm sure that there will be many more peas harvested this week! Yum!

I will do a separate post on the state of the plots.

The Home Garden at the beginning of May

I haven't posted much about the Home Garden lately since I've been so busy with the Community Garden move. The garden is growing well...but it's pretty messy around here!

This is the Left Cold Frame Bed

All of the overwintered Kale & Collards have been removed in the back of the bed. I planted some Celery and Baby Choi in their place. Do you think that we have enough lettuce growing???? Maybe somebody needs to harvest some!

This is the Right Cold Frame Bed

The overwintered Kale in the back of this bed is still doing well. It does look a bit funny since I just harvested most of the leaves. There is also some lettuce in the back that definitely needs to be harvested. Maybe Miss Banana will take care of that for me today! The mid section of this bed has carrots growing in it. I am keeping the bird netting on to deter those darn squirrels and birds!

Look at all those little carrots!

The Garlic is growing like crazy!

And so are the Snow Peas behind it! 

I know that they are not supposed to be friends....but, I have growing peas and garlic next to each other for years and they do just fine. Look at those boards just laying there....what a mess!

There are 4 Early Tomatoes growing in Kozy Koats in this bed with carrots in between. The pill bugs were so bad under the boards that I had to remove them. I decided to put the shade cloth over them for awhile so they could get a little bigger.

This is Bed #1

There are two different varieties of Snap Peas growing on each end and Shelling Peas along the long side.

Bed #1

Garlic growing at one end.

Bed #1

Some Pak Choi, Lettuce and Spinach at the other end

Bed #1

I also planted a few Broccoli Plants, Chinese Cabbage and I think a couple of regular Cabbage plants in the middle

One end of the messy deck. The cushions and table tops need to be brought out of the basement and put on the furniture. Someone also needs to replace 4 boards on the deck and then power wash and stain it!

My new little Dwarf Carmine Jewel Cherry Tree is in it's pot.

The Herb Garden definitely needs a little cleaning up!

This is the part of the Herb Garden behind the messy patio furniture.

That's a bunch of self seeded Cilantro, weeds and greens from the daffodils!

There is one flower pot that is looking good!

I planted perennials in some of the pots last year and this one doesn't need a thing added to it!

My new Dwarf Tophat Blueberry bush and some weeds in the stone pathway in the background.

The Carrots that I started in this pot in the basement were very happy until I took them outside. I'm sure they will perk up and green up once they get used to being outside. I also have three more large pots that need carrots planted in. That will have to wait until after vacation. And there's that dirty deck again!

Not the best color in this pic.

Here are the Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants and some herbs hardening off on the back porch waiting to to planted......

Here!! Yes, the beds at the plots are finished!!! Yippee!!

Well, it's going to be a busy week! Today I will be baking for the graduation picnic tomorrow. "The Italian's" daughter is graduating from college tomorrow. We will be leaving early in the AM. Then her graduation dinner here (not at our house) on Sunday....then the plots must be planted before vacation next week!