Category: garden

Fall Garden 2011: Check-in

The fall/winter garden never gets as big and bushy as the spring/summer one...

It’s been a couple of weeks since we planted the seedlings and seeds so, I figure it’s time to update everyone on how the garden is doing! The short answer is goodish, the longer one is below. Last week we transplanted the chard into the plot and last Saturday we transferred the kale. The slugs (my nemeses) absolutely loved the chard seedling and consumed half of them before I realized what was going on and laid out more sluggo, as well as going out at dusk and dawn to pick them off plants. I take a great deal of pleasure in chucking them as hard and as far as I can into the dry fields behind the house…

Arugula bursting out of the ground

The arugula is starting to come in and one of the nice things about arugula is no pests seem interested in eating it, it’s the easiest plant by far to cultivate. As you can see from the picture above the spinach, bok choy, and cauliflower are also doing fine. The slugs have been nibbling on all of them, mostly the cauliflower, but not enough to harm the plants. We’ve been having a mild fall so far and I’m not sure whether that is helping the garden or hurting it. If I’m going to continue gardening I really do need to read up more on these plants.

Kale seedlings right beforethey were transplanted

I know the question that is on everyone’s mind is “when can you start eating that stuff?” And, the answer is, “it depends.” The bok choy is ready to be eaten now, but as it stands we won’t get much from it if we harvest now. Give the the bok choy a couple weeks and we can start stripping off the outer leaves of all six plants and use them while leaving the plants in the ground to continue growing. The arugula should be edible with in a week, that stuff grows like weeds. The kale and chard are going to take a bit longer, but when the get to the right size we’ll be harvesting them in the same way we do the bok choy. The cauliflower? I don’t really know. Last year, they stalled out in growth and we ended up throwing the plants into compost. Hopefully, they’ll do better this year.

 

Fall Garden 2011: The Beginning

This picture in no way reflects the hard work it took to plant all that

We tore the Spring garden out three weeks ago and put in the winter garden last week. That week in between where the plot had nothing in it? That was a bad idea… Why? Well, because the soil dried out and before we could sow any seeds or transplant seedlings we had to water, and water and water. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. We went to Ace hardware to pick up seedlings in the morning only to find that much of their vegetable stock had already been sold. The only seedlings they had that we wanted were bok choy and cabbage so we picked those up and two bags of steer manure.

This is the good shit
This picture is more exciting than it looks

After we spread the manure we turned the hose on and sat there for fifteen minutes or so, it might have been longer. The soil had really dried out and in order to turn it over and incorporate the manure we needed a lot of water.

I work too, it's just that D doesn't take pictures of me...

After the ground was thoroughly saturated we planted the seedlings and sowed the chard, kale, arugula and spinach:

One of the joys of gardening: getting your hands dirty

After everything was planted, we sprinkled sluggo pellets down and we were done.

Just the other day the arugula and spinach broke through the surface. We’re still keeping our fingers crossed with the chard.

 

Spring Garden 2011: A Time to Reap

The spring/summer of 2011 garden's "Ultimate Form"

September has brought with it cooler days and cooler nights and that has slowed down the garden as well. We haven’t harvested a zucchini or tomato in weeks and the beans and cucumbers have begun to wither on their own. It is getting late in the season anyway and D is excited to put the fall/winter garden.  So, today we did a complete once over of the garden harvesting everything we found and then pulled it all out. The harvest turned out to be mostly green tomatoes; Diana has never had any before and I figure now is the perfect time to introduce them to her (fried, of course).

Half way there... Hey, stop staring at my wife!

In addition to tearing out the garden I turned over the soil,   “harvested” all the compost that was made this year (about a bucket and a half), and cleared out 1/3 of the vermiculture composter. The compost and worm castings and compost were then worked into the garden plot and everything was lightly watered. We’re going to let it lie for a week, or so, and then plant the winter garden. Much like last year we are going to plant a lot of greens (chard, spinach, kale, arugula, celery, etc.) I only hope that this year isn’t as wet as the last…

Soil enriched, turned and watered. I'll probably manure it too before we plant the winter garden.
Last fruits. All those reds tomatoes were completely hidden. That is what I get for growing monstrous tomato plants...
...and just a little more

Lastly, we found a couple of these enormous caterpillars while tearing everything out. These guys were as long and thick as my index finger! Anyone recognize it?

Is this a Caterpie or a Weedle?

 

How my Garden Grows: Summer 2011 part ?

Jungle-like density

Since last I chronicled the progress of the garden the pole beans have overgrown the fence and have proceeded to begin colonization of the front yard, I’ve lost an overgrown zucchini plant that spilled out of the box and then broke underneath its own weight, and some sort of animal has begun poaching all of my tomatoes! We’ve also been eating a lot of cucumbers (the regular and lemon varieties), zucchini, and green beans. We’ve been collecting so many of them in fact that almost every meal that is prepared now has one, or more of those three things in it. Bread salad is always a popular choice (seeing as it requires fresh basil and we have plenty of that as well)

The beans migrate into my neighbors yard...
Pole beans and cucumbers scale the growth screen and the fence...

That first picture is of the beans growing over one of the support ties for the tomato plants. The beans infiltrated into the tomato plants and then co-opted their supports. Next time I’m just going to plant bush beans. I can get the same, if not higher, yield, and not have to worry about the plants overcoming everything else in the garden. The second picture shows both beans and cucumber plants growing up their growth screen and over the wall.  One of the bushes in the front yard, planted to screen view of the electric meter and the fence has already been reached by a bean creeper and, I’m sure, will soon succumb to the pole beans. The funny thing is people said the soil in the garden was spent and nothing would grow! We’ve had a higher yield this year and more robust plants!

A cucumber blossom
Bean blossom
A cuke!

No picture of the harvest today. We’ve been going over the garden every day or so and so we pick a little produce everyday as opposed to a large pile of it on the weekends… This way we can incorporate the fruit into food throughout the week and have it at its freshest!

 

You can see previous entries in this series here, here, and here.

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