Midsummer Update

The garden has been doing very well! The pest solution seems to be working, because I've had no more thefts! I'm trying my hand at a few fall crops. This past weekend, I planted some baby spinach, beets, and kale (l-r below). Unfortunately, nothing is sprouting yet, but I think they need another week or so.  

baby spinach

beets

kale

In the meantime, I've been enjoying cooking, and baking, and otherwise preparing food with our mini-harvests. I've made a Chinese stir-fry, and shrimp and veggie linguine with our Chinese eggplant. We've enjoyed a three or four batches of delicious zucchini fritters, some zucchini muffins, and veggie lasagna with all of the zucchini we've been getting.

shrimp & veggie linguine

zucchini fritters

zucchini muffins

 I made a jar of refrigerator pickles with my TWO cucumbers. They are so easy to make and there are only six ingredients. Cucumbers (obviously), apple cider vinegar, water, sea salt, crushed red pepper, and dill seed. I love that every ingredient is a whole food...and that I made it myself. They are yummy...super spicy!

Today, I cut some of the herbs for drying. I'm really excited to be able to drink my "homegrown" mint tea this winter.

fresh picked basil, rosemary, Italian parsley, and mint

Herbs drying under paper bags, keeps the dust off

Some of my "crops" haven't been so successful. I've only collected about two dozen cherry tomatoes, and two plum tomatoes. There are more small green tomatoes for both varieties, but they seem to ripen a few at a time, so I'm doubtful that I'll gather enough for a fresh marinara sauce. I've gotten two peppers, but neither have turned the red or orange they were supposed to. And...probably the biggest dissapointment...strawberries. From the beginning, with the bird net, special fertilizer and watering system, they've been pretty high maintenance. Last weekend, when I was pulling out dead tomato plants and sowing seeds for fall harvest, I found a bunch of fruit flies hanging around the strawberry pot. Upon closer inspection, I found three or four of the ripe strawberries bitten, presumably by squirrels. I took off the netting and brought the pot over to the bird bath for the wildlife to share. I was only getting a few strawberries at a time...and they were so NEEDY...I gave up.

Looking ahead, the compost is doing well. I'm making plans to expand the garden, to give the zucchini the space it needs, without crowding everything else out. And, I'm looking into other fun crops, like these little guys...CUCAMELONS! 

Even with my first year garden's ups and downs, I'm loving this. And I'm very happy for that.

July Rollercoaster. A Month of Ups and Downs.

Very, very shortly after I discovered that baby zucchini, I discovered 3 or 4 more! I was so excited! This was FINALLY happening! I was ready to start searching Pinterest for recipes so that I could use up my HUGE harvest.

And then...the baby zucchini started to go missing. I was so sad...deflated, but SO MAD! The zucchini was broken off clean, almost like it was clipped, which, according to Google, means RABBITS. Instead of using Pinterest to find zucchini recipes, I was using it to find ideas to keep critters away. Because the garden was already established, it would be difficult to put a fence in. With rabbits, you have to bury the fence 8 - 12 inches deep. There was no way I could do that and not kill something! So, I tried this stuff:

It's a solution of 1 egg yolk, 1 Tbsp of baking powder and 1 liter of water. The stuff STINKS, but it works amazingly! Once I started using it. The baby zucchini thefts stopped! I've already harvested 6 - 8 zucchini, and there are 3 or 4 babies out there right now. So, I need to remember this for next year.

After that little setback, more things started to grow! Like cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, Chinese eggplant, strawberries and, yes, more zucchini!

 

And...some things weren't doing so well. My basil and pepper plant leaves were being eaten, and two tomato plants seemed to be dying before they ever flowered.

Over all, it has been quite a learning experience so far! Tomorrow, I've got some things planned for the garden, so I'll post again tomorrow night. In the meantime, here's a photo of my mini-harvest from July 23rd. 

Do-overs and Discoveries

So, today (yes, I am actually posting ON the date this happened) I decided to trade my very cool, retro oscillating sprinkler for soaker hoses. With the oscillator, the water hits the side of the garage, and causes a huge puddle. I don't want to lose my last cucumber plant, so I wove the soaker hoses around the plants. the water has to stay on longer, but it seems to work much better. Next year, I will start out with soaker hoses...what a chore trying to get those things around some of these huge plants!

While I was wrestling the zucchini plant to put down the hose, I found this!

It's a baby zucchini! The photo shows it just about actual size. Isn't it cute? It is.

Twenty Days Later

June 28, 2014

It really is AMAZING how fast everything grows! Look!

These little round things will be red bell peppers:

These large yellow flowers will be zucchini:

These medium yellow flowers will be cucumbers:

These small purple flowers will be eggplant:

These tiny yellow flowers will be tomatoes:

We've already got little green cherry tomatoes!

And...the best part! we had a mini-harvest today! Spring onions:

And ONE strawberry!!

So exciting to actually have grown SOMETHING!! Tatum ate the strawberry and said it was yummy. I prepared the spring onions for storage. They should last a couple of weeks in the fridge, but I'm looking for a good recipe for tomorrow's dinner. :)

To prepare:

1. Get a plastic storage container about 8 inches long.
2. Rinse onions gently under running water, and pat dry.
3. Cut roots off of onions, without cutting into bulb.
4. Cut green to size of container, and put both parts into container.
5. Store in fridge up to two weeks.

It's a bit hard to tell, but the bottom of the picture shows the part of the green without the bulb attached. Use both/all parts!

(Not) For the birds

June 8, 2014
Shortly after discovering the baby strawberries, I started to notice some birds hanging around by the pot. So, I did what I always do...I researched, and sure enough, birds want to eat strawberries. That's fine, of course, but they aren't getting any of mine.

Here's the contraption I made to keep the birds out of my strawberries:

It is pure craziness. When I finished, I wondered if I'd not only made my pot bird-proof, but ME-proof as well! I can get in there. It's not easy, but I can do it. Next year, I hope to have something like this:

I love this idea from Garden Diva 1 . The search begins!

Things are happening!

June 4th, 2014. There's been substantial plant growth, AND, some tiny baby strawberries!

Fingers Crossed

On Sunday, I planted. I stuck pretty much with the plan: 2 eggplant, 2 cukes, 2 zucchini, 2 cherry tomato, 2 Roma tomato, 2 slicing (Rutgers) tomato, 2 sweet red pepper, 1 sweet orange pepper, green onions, and, of course, the not-yet-planted garlic.

Here is the herb corner:

Here is the scallion/garlic corner:

Here are the trellises for the cucumbers:

Here is the strawberry pot:

I love my vintage sprinkler!

Here's a full view of the veggie garden!

It was a beautiful day. It was great to just be outside, doing something that I really wanted to do. I achieved two goals...planting my first veggie garden, and getting my new boots dirty!

Even though I had to come inside to do my planning for school the next week, it was so cool to be able to look just outside my office window, and see my new little world.

I hope I still feel like that in a month or two! ;)

Start Anew

On Saturday, I went shopping for new seedlings. Before I went, I searched online to find out how to locate non-GMO seedlings. I found a list of Seminis/Monsanto home-garden vegetable varieties, and made sure the seedlings I bought were not on the list. I had to try three places before finding the eggplant. I also bought strawberries, and some herbs, which were not on the original plan.

I turned the compost to get it ready to start adding to it again. STS helped me add fertilizer and compost to the soil.

We decided to wait on the fence to see if we really need it.