Harvest Monday............12/12/2011

This past week I have been getting some small harvests from the cold frames and a little from the spinach bed too.

A nice bowl of lettuce and finally some spinach!

The fattest carrot I have ever grown! One of four that survived the late planting.

Pak Choi

There are three varieties of Asian Veggies growing in the cold frames. The Tatsoi & Baby Choi are doing well with the exception of some nibbling from bugs. But, the Pak Choi pictured here is bolting. I guess there has been too much fluctuation in temperature with all the unseasonably warm weather and now cold weather.

Total weighed harvest - 1 lb.

Carrot - 4 oz.

Lettuce & Spinach - 4 oz.

Pak Choi - 8 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions our host of Harvest Monday to see what's going on in Veggie Gardens around the globe!

Mother Nature's Challenges at the home garden

This year Mother Nature is handing us a lot of challenges. We have had way too much rain. The temperatures fluctuate drastically from day to day and even during the day.

The animals here at the house are out of control. If it's not the squirrels, it's the bunnies. If it's not the bunnies, it's the snails! If it's not the snails, it's the birds.

I spent most of the day Friday between rain and in the rain setting up bunny barricades.

This is the small bed where something snapped off the one tomato plant. First I had to put the tall stakes in the ground and add the first row of wire for the tomato supports. Next I put up the bunny fencing. As you can see the onions in the corners are growing like crazy from all the rain. I have been trimming the greens on the onions. This should help them create bigger bulbs.

I also added some height to the bunny fence around the peas out back. The bunnies are so bad that three will come in the herb garden at once with me standing right there! I think that there are about 6 good size bunnies coming around. Therefore, bunny trapping is my first priorty here before the squirrels. I set a trap in the herb garden before I left for the day yesterday. It seems like I didn't adjust it correctly though. Somebody got a taste of food.....now I can lure them in for the catch!! Hopefully!!

The Spring Blush Snap Peas are about 5' tall. This is the first flower.

If you enlarge the picture, you can see the damage on the Little Marvel peas from all the rain.

They are starting to bloom. I hope that all of this rain doesn't affect their production.

I have never had snails in the garden until this year. It must be from all of the rain. They have been snacking on the Baby Choi.

The tomatoes and the carrots in the greenhouse bed are doing great! I just need a few hours of decent weather this week to take the greenhouse down, set-up the tomato supports and put up the bunny barricade. I can't put the permanent tomato supports up until it is down....and those tomatoes are getting big!!

Some of the carrots in the pots have rotted from all of the rain. I'm going to have to re-sow some more. I also had to cover the pots with bird netting to keep the birds and squirrels out. This is also the first year that I have had birds bother with my garden. Oh well, I guess that Mother Nature is handing me everything she can to whip me into shape!

Harvest Monday.......5/9/2011

This week I had my first harvest from the plots. Although that may sound exciting, it was due to early bolting. Almost of all my Pak Choi both here at home and at the plots had started to flower. Last year it was very warm and I had the most beautiful plants. I am hoping that the later planted Baby Choi & Tatsoi will do much better.

The total weight of all the tiny bolting Pak Choi was only 12 oz. I have to say that it was a real disapointment. I did make a wonderful dinner with it though...Spiced Chicken with Pak Choi. The recipe is posted here.

This is a picture from last year's post. It's a really great dish!

I also harvested a nice head of lettuce which was made into a Ceasar Salad for lunch. The recipe for the dressing can be found here.

Total Harvest for the week: 1 lb.

Pak Choi - 12 oz.

Lettuce - 4 oz.

Stop by Daphne's Dandelions, our host of Harvest Monday to see what is going on in veggie gardens around the globe!

Eggplant & Peppers planted at the plots...almost

Yesterday I went to the plots early in the morning to put the peppers and eggplants in. They were looking really good and needed to go in the ground. I decided not to put all of the eggplant in one bed since I have no idea what I might encounter. I decided to put the sweet peppers and half of the eggplant in Bed #5. Since I try to do as much companion planting as I can, I put some peppers then some eggplant then some peppers and so on.

As I was planting this bed I realized that I had left the Orange Bells, Marconi Bells and the Corno DiToro Red Italian frying peppers at home! No wonder I had more extra plants then I thought! As you can see there is Kohlrabi and onions on the right side of the bed and as you can't see there are Little Marvel peas on the left side. The peas are coming up much better at the other end of the bed. Once the Kohlrabi and peas are finished there will be plenty of room for the Eggplants & Peppers to grow nice and big. The white powder on everything is Diatomaceous Earth, I have been sprinkling a lot of it up there especially when I plant and before a rain.

I planted the hot and spice peppers in Bed #4 along with 5 more Eggplants. There are some Sugar Magnolia Purple Snap Vine Peas planted along the left side of this bed. They were planted much later then the Little Marvels and it looks like 100% germination with those.

Since it is raining today the forgotten sweet peppers will be planted at the plots tomorrow.

While I was there I noticed that most of my Pak Choi was starting to flower there too! I guess it's just this crazy weather we have been having. The Pak Choi was pulled and will be our first tiny harvest from the plots.

Pepper Varieties

Jalapeno
Serrano
Cayenne
Habanero - Seed from Mimi
Pepperocini - Seed from Thomas
Paprika - Hungarian
Pimento

Yellow Bell - Corona
Red Bell - Quadrato Rosso D'Asti - Seed from Granny
To be planted:
Orange Bell
Red - Corno Di Toro - Italian Heirloom Frying -Pointed
Red - Marconi - Italian Heirloom Frying


Eggplant Varieties

Black Beauty
Early Black Egg
Rosa Bianca
Lunga Violetta Di Firenze

The Plots at the end of April

Although our weather has not been cooperating, the planting at the plots is up to date. I have to say that I am pleasantly surprised how well everything is growing over there.

The weather finally cooperated on a day when "The Italian" was home and the final two beds were framed out this past week! Hopefully we will be able to get the rain barrel system and shelter set-up this coming week.

Bed #1 (The Pot Garden) is completely planted. I finally put in 30 cauliflower plants yesterday and filled any extra space with more onion sets. This bed is full of Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Onions & some Pak Choi. This is the weediest bed that I have there. If you remember, the plot to the right was full of 7' high weeds.

             

Broccoli & Cabbage

I did loose a couple of broccoli plants, but overall everything is growing wonderful!

The Snow Peas are coming up OK. The English Peas (Little Marvel) are very sporatic in germinating. I think that a lot of them rotted from all of the rain. I also feel that some much needed organic matter in the beds would make it easier for them to grow.

All of the Kohlrabi is growing great! I planted some Celery at the end of this bed and in another bed yesterday.

Both varieties of Asparagus are coming up. This is the Jersey Supreme. I couldn't get a good picture of the Purple Passion due to the sun and location of the bed.

Many of the strawberry plants have flowers on them!!

The potatoes are coming up quicker at the plots then here at home.

The Raspberries and Blackberries are growing like crazy over there! Now I need to get working on the paths, compost bins and amend the soil in Beds 3 & 4 to get them ready for the warm weather veggies.

This week at the Plots

Everything is slowing progressing at the plots. The days that "The Italian" is home it rains all day, so the remaining beds won't be framed out until mother nature cooperates.

Most of the planting is up to date with the exception of some onions and two special varieties of peas. The weather is supposed to be good in the beginning of the week but that could change at any time.

I planted 4 White Kohlrabi and 3 Purple with some onion sets between them on Tuesday. You can see how windy it is over there from this picture. They are all doing well.

The cabbages are getting toughened up from the wind and growing nicely as well.

I finally planted the Heritage Raspberries that I have had here at the house. I also met the people who planted the other raspberries and blackberries. The woman identified the two varieties of raspberries as Heritage and Roadside Red. I can definitely tell them apart. The blackberries are supposed to be Hull, I could not find any information on them though.

The Pak Choi that is planted at the plots seems to be doing better then the ones I have planted here at the house. That's a good sign!!

The balance of the Sagre potaoes and the Kennebecs were planted in this bed. It's hard to see where I planted them in this picture. It was so windy that day that the top of the soil dried up almost immediately.

While we are on the subject of potatoes....the dang City Squirrels were in the potato bed here at the house! They dug up one potato so I covered the top of the bed with chicken wire. I guess it is time to get the traps out!!

Have a Happy Easter!

Almost Finished Digging at the Plots!

I have spent the past two days turning over the last two big beds at the plots. I am happy to say that the only digging that I have left to do is one small bed in the back for the raspberries that have been hiding in the basement!!

Bed #3 was turned over on Thursday. This bed is 5'x 25' and will be the main tomato bed (Tomato Alley). "The Italian" informed me last night that he cut the wood to make it 5'x 26'. I don't think that it will take me more then a few minutes to turn over that extra foot!

Bed #4 was done on Friday. This bed is also 5'x 26'.

I am happy to say that 80 of the 82 strawberry roots that were planted 12 days ago are growing nicely. The remaining two may make it. I only ordered 75 so we are ahead of what I had planned. One can never have too many strawberries!

All of the broccoli plants are doing well and have new growth. 8 Calabrese and 6 Walthan 29 have been planted so far. I have a few more broccoli seedlings to plant there on Sunday.

This Cabbage is Tet Noire, seeds from Jane at "A Kitchen Garden in Khei Maui" is also showing signs of new growth. I planted 3 of this variety and 3 Red Acre. The Tet Noire leaves are bigger then the Red Acre.

3 Chiefton Savoy Cabbages were planted. They are also growing nicely.

6 Pak Choi  have been sown in between the broccoli & cabbage. They also seem very happy. I have to say that I am very pleased with everything that I have planted at the plots so far. I was a little apprehensive as to how well everything would grow since I have not added a lot of compost to the beds yet. I'm still waiting for my nephew to find me some good clean compost. I haven't found any that I feel comfortable to use there.

I finally remembered to get something to mark the plants with. I purchased 300 large Popsicle sticks at the craft store for $4. I was then able to take the plastic cups that where next to the plants out and replace them with markers!

I have met a lot of great gardeners at the plots. There is a very nice woman who will be a great help. "Whitey" the oldest gardener at the gardens, sent her over to talk to me. He says we are both Gardening Nuts!! She has been gardening there for many years and has quite an interesting gardening background. She used to tend to Mrs. Rodale's gardens at her home until she passed away. Yes, that is "The" Mrs. Rodale! I'm sure she will be very helpful since she is a completely organic gardener with many many years of experience.

Another one of the gardeners there "Bill", who is two plots to the right of us, brought me a great gift the other day....Calla Lilies! He grows them from seed and gave me 8 rhizomes each of two varieties. In the 80's & 90's I had many Calla Lilies....but one year I didn't bring them in for the winter and lost them. Since they are quite expensive I never purchased any more.



These will be planted in pots on the deck.

I would like to introduce to everyone a local gardener, Todd. He lives right here in the Lehigh Valley where we live. He has a very good, well written, informative gardening blog. Stop by his blog, BBOG, Big Blog of Gardening. He has a lot of great information to share!



Home Gardens Mid-April....A Pictorial

Everything here at the house is moving along slowly but surely. Boy what a difference from last year!

Left Cold Frame, overwintered carrots are finally growing and some spinach & pak choi has been sown

Right Cold Frame, the arugula is about finished, some spinach has been sown here too. I will sow more when I pull the arugula plants

The peas are finally coming up

I planted some pak choi in empty spaces in the garlic bed

Some color in the perennial beds & herb garden

Carrots have been sown in between the cloches. More carrots will be sown today in 4 large pots.

There are some good brussels sprouts on this plant. I will cut them off today and finally pull the plant. This year I started them earlier.

Lilacs are filling out. Last year they were in bloom at this time, a month earlier then normal.

Oregano is coming up nicely

The chives are also pretty big and we have been using them for cooking

Spring flowers are blooming in the perennial beds

Four flats of cold crops & some herbs have been hardening off under the bench on the back porch and most will be planted at the plots this weekend

The early tomatoes at 8 weeks old. They have been spending most of the time outside and will be planted in the cloches this weekend. Last year they were in the cloches about 10 days earlier.