First produce of the season

The benefits of watering your garden with pure natural rain.  

The radishes are looking good and tasting even better.   With a nice bite to them, they have been the perfect addition to a real "garden" salad with the butter Bibb lettuce that is still growing from the fall.

Some jalapeños and Aladdin peppers are here thanks to the bountiful rain we have been blessed with for the past week.  For cast predicts two more weeks of rain which is wonderful for the garden but even better for my watering expenses.  

Tomato plants are a good three feet high and have several green fruits on them.  Maybe in a week or two some will be ready for picking.  Can't wait to make some roasted green salsa.  

The beets from the fall are likely as big as softballs, but can't decide what to do with them.  Roast them and put them on a salad and pickle the rest.  May try eating the greens as chips or sauted.  

Transplanted mint is doing well, but the cilantro and basil are not. I think the zucchini plants and tomato plants are blocking out to much sun for them.  Will just have to wait and see.  

The mystery tree is growing rapidly. The leaves look like a maple tree.  Need to do some research soon to see if it's a tree I want to keep.  The only trees I like are ines that give me something to eat.  Speaking of trees, the peach tree has a a couple of fruits on it already.  

Picked up a fig tree thanks to a student who gave me a gift card to Natural Gardeners.  Planted it in my new butterfly garden beside the future pergola.  

I finally got the three pergola post in the ground and planted three of the five grape plants beside them.   Not sure where to put the remaining two vines.  One of the ground vines as tiny little grapes on it.  Can't wait for it to grow and cover the future pergola where we can sit, enjoy the weather and view, and share a meal with family and friends. 

On another note, just returned from a trip to Boston where a visit to Fenway Park , I got to see a rooftop garden in person.  It was pretty cool. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

So its been awhile since my last post

Even though its been about a month since my last post and things have been beginning to slow down.  The cucumber vines are almost dead and looks to have developed some disease on the vines.  I only have one zucchini plant left after the 2 weeks of constant rain, which ended up rotting one of the plants out.  The tomatoes plants are slowly dying due to the overabundance of rain we have had and not having enough sunlight during the day to dry out the stems.  I tried cutting some of the branches to thin out the denseness of the tomato "bushes" that I had this year, but haven't seen any real health improvement in them since.  The potato plants finally died off... which is a good thing because that's when you know to dig them up.  I harvested about 3lbs of small potatoes, but will the only way to see if I did a good job is to cook some up to eat.

One positive thing from all of the rain we received is that my herb garden has blossomed quite well.  Have really enjoyed using fresh basil and oregano in my homemade garden tomato pasta sauce.   The mint and chocolate mint has been a nice refreshing twist on our morning smoothies too.

As the school year starts getting closer and the summer plants fade away, I will need to either decide if I want to try a fall garden again this year or just cover my beds with compost and cover and wait until next spring.


Running Total of  Summer 2012 Produce

Cucumbers: 27

Tomatoes: a little over 32 lbs  

Zucchini: 6

Peppers: 8

Potatoes:  about 2 dozen small potatoes

So my estimated savings according to the USDA National Fruit and Vegetable Retail Report (this week's issue)

cucumbers @ 2 for $1  =  savings of $13

tomatoes @ $2 a lb = $64

zucchini @ $1.50 a lb = $18

peppers @ $1 each = $8

potatoes @ $2.99 for 3lb bag = $2.99

total savings @ $106+  (not counting the cost of fresh herbs and scallions)  

With the addition of the soaker hose and a timer, the cost of water was minimal this year.  The cost of vegetable plant seedlings were about $2 for 6 pack of tomatoes (bought 2), each cucumber and zucchini (2 each), peppers 3pack (4 packs), potatoes (free from our pantry)  so my costs were @ $20 for all the seedling plants. 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Homemade tomato cages

Week 5, Day 28: April 17

So my attempt to crowd in my tomatoes this year like my brother did last year has me wondering.  There were a few of them that were being overshadowed, so I had to transplant them to an open area.  With the remaining ones, I decided to make a grid of sorts to help keep the tomato plants growing upward and not intertwining with each other.  I used some 36" stakes and some jute cord to create a grid pattern.  Hopefully this will work, only time will tell though.  I have used tomato cages in the past, but its been a 50/50 success.  Most of the tomato plants either grow to tall or the branches break off from the cages.

The potatoes continue to grow, so I planted a few more spuds in the front of the bed a few days ago.  You can see a few little shoots.  Funny too, is that I have noticed a few baby shoots of basil pop up in the potato box and with the Lima beans.

 The peppers are getting a little bit more growth to  them along with the onions in the back.  The kale "tree" has been my longest success to date.  That thing just won't give up.   In the lower left side of the box, you can see a few leaves sprouting from the rhubarb that I had planted about 4 weeks ago.  I wanted to experiment more with some perennials so this was my first.  I want to plant some artichokes and asparagus as soon as I find some to buy.

    

The zucchini now has some flowers on them and hopefully they will make their way to the trellis behind them.  I will most likely have to force them since the sun will be out in front of them.

The new 8x8 bed has had the least amount of new growth.  Mainly because everything was planted about two weeks later than the other beds and I hadn't set up a irrigation system for this one until today.  The 4 4x4 beds have two soaker hoses on them so allow for deeper root absorption and less water evaporation.  As you can see in this pic, I had a soaker hose but upon turning it on, found that it had a hole in it and wasn't quite effective.  So for now, I will be using a simple fountain style  sprinkler, early in the mornings.

 

Get dirty and keep on gardening!

Off to a good start

Week 4, Day 21: April 9

Finally finished the new 8x8 bed.  Planted some cucumbers, peppers, and a few different beans and peas.  This is my first attempt at the peas and beans.  I have always grown them with my students in school but never once thought to actually grow some in my own garden.

 

The potatoes are beginning to sprout and the tomatoes are gaining some height.  For the zucchini boxes, I had to saw off where the old trellis was and reposition it to the back of the raised bed.  Its a little shorter than last time, but I think it will still work.