"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."
Robert Louis Stevenson




Showing posts with label Mesclun. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mesclun. Show all posts

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Harvesting Kale and Mesclun


Earlier in November the cabbage moth worms were devouring our lacinato kale plants. I would check each day and if I found any, I would toss them in a garden far from my vegetable garden. I hoped that the birds would find them and eat them before they made their way back to my plants, besides I hate to kill anything.  This is the first nice batch I have picked from my plants, I would get enough now and then to add to a soup, but now I am getting at least two dozen leaves at a time.



The mesclun salad mix I planted is flourishing too.  This batch is from the Mesclun Sassy Salad seeds from Botanical Interests.  

Yesterday I also seeded more areas and transplanted some of the Red Winter Kale that was coming up in the mix, I want to make sure it has enough space to grow to full size.  Also transplanted some of the  Giant Red Mustard plants as these leaves grow to tremendous size and need the extra space.  If you like to harvest your Mesclun mix when small, you will not need to transplant any of them, but I like to allow some of  the seedlings to grow to full size.  These larger leaves are nice to use in soups, and fresh  salads.  I can pick a couple of the larger leaves and have plenty for a big pot of vegetable soup.

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Winter Garden Update 2013, First Substantial Rain of the Season


Beautiful rain earlier today, it's warm at 63 degrees, and a perfect afternoon for weeding in the winter vegetable bed.  I took a lot of pictures to keep my blog up-to-date to review for next year.


Paw Print
 I did a second planting a little over a week ago and the seedlings are coming in.  My neighbors' dog likes to come by late in the evening and use one of our birdbaths for his drinking bowl; I don't mind that as much as I mind that he takes a short-cut through the newly planted area of the lettuce patch.  Paw prints that size can push the seeds so far down that they will not find their way to the light to sprout.  This is the second time he has walked though it, the first time he was digging too.   I had to reseed most of these beds, who knows what will come up in what row now.  At least they are salad greens and if they are mixed up it won't matter.  I can identify them as they come in and transplant if need be to give them more room.  I did try the first time to space the seeds of the head lettuces: Speckles, Oak Leaf, Red Sails and Romaine, so they would have enough room to form a good size head, but...oh well, if that is all I have to complain about I am one lucky gardener.  I should have covered them the first time!

Lacinato Kale, still some damaged leaves from the worms, but new growth looks free of holes.
On a positive note, my kale is coming back!  When the weather was still warm the white butterflies were still around and laid their eggs so we had worms that devoured the leaves. We still ate the parts they left us, I am not bothered by holes left from freeloading moochers.

 The peas and snow peas are making their way up the old tomato cages. I did have to add a few thin, cane poles to support them when small, but I think this will work out very well for me and make it easy to harvest. I have more growing in another area and I picked a few snow peas today. 

 Yellow string beans and green beans, both are bush type.

 We have blossoms!

  Arugula
I am harvesting all of the greens now, picking just what we need each day for our salads. It is amazing how little amount of space one needs to grow their own lettuce. You can even grow them in shallow wood boxes.  Line the bottom with many layers of newspaper to keep the soil from running though, sprinkle the top soil with the seeds and dust lightly with soil, press down and sprinkle with water once a day to keep the seeds moist.  In just a few weeks you will have your own salad greens to cut.  Also the greens continue to grow new leaves, try to harvest from the outside in and leave a few in the center to grow.  I do this even with the head type lettuces, not Iceberg mind you, but the types I am growing here.  

If more people would set up small gardens in their backyards, we would not have so many unhealthy people, and it costs cents on the dollar compared to the $4.00 bags you buy in the market for gourmet greens.  You can  grow your own for as little as $1.89.  That seed packet will supply your family with enough greens for the season.   You will be amazed at the flavors, many people that we share ours with said they had no idea that it tasted so different and so much better than what they buy even at the farmer's markets.  I think it is because ours is grown out in the open and not in green houses or hot houses with liquid fertilizers running through the watering mechanism that are used in mass grown facilities. We only use organic fertilizer and it is not liquid.  We blend our own which I mix in the soil before I plant.  I rarely need to fertilize more than once during the long growing season.  The winter rains help immensely in nourishing the garden, another reason it taste better than what is grown in greenhouses.

 Spicy Salad Mix


This is Tatsoi (taht-SOY), an Asian green in the brassica family.  I add this to the salad mix but also like to use it in the same way you would baby bok choy.  This plant can have a peppery note to it, but with the mild winters we have, it remains sweeter. It really took off when we had the rain a few weeks back and today it looks like it is loving this cooler rain.

 More of the spicy salad mix from Botanical Interest seeds.  See the link of have on the right side of my blog, look for the Mesclun Farmer's Market blend or Sassy Salad blend.

The second planting of Lacinato Kale on left.

Sorrel

 Second planting of onions

Swiss Chard

More onions, I also have Swiss Chard seeded in here that should be coming up soon.  The onions will be harvested by the time the plants need the room.  I like to put onions in amongst my seeds when planting,  I use onion sets and they come up quickly.  

These are onions I am growing from last years seed heads that I saved.  I will transplant them in the next week or so to give them more room.  If you have ever transplanted onion seedlings you know it is torture on your back and knees. 

Well that's about it for now.  I will leave you with St. Francis in the garden, watching over the hibiscus plant and keeping a close eye on all the little ones, protecting them from visiting cats and dogs.


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Winter Garden 2013



I am late posting photos of my winter garden plantings that took place a couple of weeks ago.  Of course had I taken the pics then there wouldn't be anything in the pictures but soil!  It doesn't look like much right now but when the little guys grow up the plot will be covered in goodies for us to eat all winter.

We are still using the area along the driveway this year and probably next year, since we used the adobe bricks from the raised beds for the labyrinth; I don't have that space to use right now.  This area gets a lot of sun and I can easily work the ground from both sides.  We used one of the tomato cages for the peas and green beans; I think this will work out pretty well and I can always add a tall fence around the cage to give the peas more room to spread and hold onto if need be.  I still have another section (past the kale) to dig up and amend the soil with compost, then I will plant more of the same things but a few weeks later. This way I am not harvesting all at once. Sucession planting!

Snow Peas and Green Beans on the cage, Easter Egg Radishes, French Breakfast Radishes and Round Black Spanish Radish.
Snow Pea shoots, in the back area there are onion seedlings.  I used the seed heads and just sprinkled them along  the parimeter of the row.  I will probably need to separate some of them as they get larger.
In this area we have a french Carrot called Parisienne  from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds that is short variety.  I also planted Cilantro, Parsley and Dill somewhere in the space. LOL
Same area, with Gourmet Baby Greens, Mesclum Sassy Salad Mix, and Arugula.
Lacinato Kale
Chioggia Beets, these are the red and white stripe beets and Gourmet Blend Beets, this mix has golden, orange, dark red and stripe beets.  I will do intermitant planting of all of the beets, onion sets and radishes, watching for areas that I missed and seeds that did not germinate. 
Last seasons Swiss Chard looking sad, but it will now do much better with the cooler nights. Also a section of onion sets in the foreground.  I planted many of these a month or so ago and then more on this day.
Bright Lights Swiss Chard and More of the Red Chard.

Mesclun and Salad Bowl Blend
Pencil Pod Yellow Beans, a bush variety.


A Girl’s Garden
Robert Frost (from Mountain Interval, 1920)

A neighbor of mine in the village
    Likes to tell how one spring
When she was a girl on the farm, she did
    A childlike thing.

One day she asked her father
    To give her a garden plot
To plant and tend and reap herself,
    And he said, “Why not?”

In casting about for a corner
    He thought of an idle bit
Of walled-off ground where a shop had stood,
    And he said, “Just it.”

And he said, “That ought to make you
    An ideal one-girl farm,
And give you a chance to put some strength
    On your slim-jim arm.”

It was not enough of a garden,
    Her father said, to plough;
So she had to work it all by hand,
    But she don’t mind now.

She wheeled the dung in the wheelbarrow
    Along a stretch of road;
But she always ran away and left
    Her not-nice load.

And hid from anyone passing.
    And then she begged the seed.
She says she thinks she planted one
    Of all things but weed.

A hill each of potatoes,
    Radishes, lettuce, peas,
Tomatoes, beets, beans, pumpkins, corn,
    And even fruit trees

 And yes, she has long mistrusted
    That a cider apple tree
In bearing there to-day is hers,
    Or at least may be.

Her crop was a miscellany
    When all was said and done,
A little bit of everything,
    A great deal of none.

Now when she sees in the village
    How village things go,
Just when it seems to come in right,
    She says, “I know!

It’s as when I was a farmer——”
    Oh, never by way of advice!
And she never sins by telling the tale
    To the same person twice.

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Garden Update Lots of Pictures!

Easter Egg Blend Radishes
It has been a couple of months since my last update.  After our battle with the raccoons and then replanting the beds three times, it took a while for the vegetable garden to produce. We have been harvesting lettuces, green onions, kale, pea pods and swiss chard the last few weeks.  I will post a lot of pictures to keep my blog up to date on the growth and varieties we planted. All the seeds I used in the garden are from Botanical Interest Seeds.
Bed One

Bed Two

Bed Three has Purple & White Vienna Blend Kohlrabi, American Purple Top Rutabaga, Sugar Snap Peas, and Spinach

Bright Lights Swiss Chard

Red Sails and Tango Leaf Lettuce, and a few Cilantro Plants

Easter Egg Blend Radishes (I picked some earlier)  and Gourmet Blend Beets.  Spring Onion Seeds I saved from last year. These I tossed around in all the beds.

Early Wonder Beets

Q's Special Medley Mesclun Lettuce

Oak Leaf Lettuce

Mache Corn Salad Greens

Kale Italian Lacinato (Nero Toscana)

Brussels Sprouts Long Island Improved Heirloom



these are just about ready to pick

start at the bottom and move upward when picking. The plant continues to grow taller and taller forming new sprouts at each leaf joint.
Kohlrabi Purple and White Vienna Blend

Kohlrabi Purple & White Vienna Blend

Sugar Snap Peas


I also planted Bok Choy and onion sets along with some garlic which I didn't get a picture of.  They are just coming in so I will update that later.

I purchased as many organic seeds from Botanical Interests as I could this year.  I think this spring I will add more seed from Baker Creek and Seeds of Change.  I have used Seeds of Change a few times now for my tomato seeds and have been very happy with them. But I do love Botanical Interest and will always buy the majority of my seeds from them.

We are off to a great start in the winter garden, now that the raccoons are gone. Oh, I forgot to mention; my neighbor caught 8 raccoons and relocated them somewhere.  So far I have not had any more damage to the beds.

I will continue to plant consecutively so we can harvest throughout the growing season, which will end for me around early May. I will need to use some of the beds for tomato plants as I generally get those in around March or April.  Last March we had a hail storm late in the month so I may hold off on the tomatoes until April this year; that will give me a couple more months of winter vegetable planting.

I have already started to pull tomato seeds to plant in pots that I had saved from some of my plants last year.  I will get those going this month.  I also need to get started on replanting the herb garden. I generally do this about every two years and put in some new plants to replace those that may have become overgrown or woody.  The marjoram is due this year. I may just move it as it has the most intoxicating aroma and I love to make wreaths out of the longer stems. Hang one on your garden gate; all those that enter will ask "what is that lovely smell?"

I will end with a couple photos of our Aloe plant that is in full bloom now.

These tower about 6 to 7 feet tall.


You may just get a fleeting glimpse
of golden wings or faint footprints
For gardens whether large or small
Are not quite what they seem at all.


Happy Gardening!