Winter Garden Update 2014, Lots of Photos

 The garden at 5 weeks.

Here we have Kohlrabi, Red Beet, Chioggia Beet, a blend of Gourmet Beets and Kalettes, a hybrid plant that is crossed with brussel sprouts and kale. San Marzano Tomato plant in the back, getting huge.  I will need to put a fence around it soon, or it will move into the bed.

 Red Russian Kale

 The larger plants in the center are Brussel Sprouts.  Back row is Easter Egg Radish, White Icicle Radish and French Breakfast Radish.  Front row has Freckles, a Romaine lettuce and also some Broccoli Raab plants that are not in the picture.

 Lacinato Kale plant is a real workhorse.  I pick from these two plants each week.

 Sorrel, one of my favorite greens to add to soup and salad.  It has a wonderful lemony flavor.

Some backup Lacinato Kale plants.  I think I have 6 of these growing in a few places around the garden.

 This is Michihili, a Chinese Cabbage; off to the right are more smaller seedlings of the same plant.

 More Broccoli Raab or Rapini plants, planted just a couple of weeks ago.

 Marvel of Four Seasons lettuce

 Snow Peas

Now for some bad news!  A gopher moved in overnight and took down one of my Graffiti Cauliflower plants.  I have 6, and I hope to get him before he moves on to more and damages or kills them as he did this one.  We set a trap here so hopefully...

 Buttercrunch lettuce, and more holes from a gopher.  We set two more traps here so keep your fingers crossed that we get it.  Friday Tony will dig down 18" all around our garden, and put down a barrier of wire mesh to keep them from getting in again. Lots of work and we should have done that before I planted.

 Speckles lettuce

 Graffiti, a purple Cauliflower. The five remaining plants that the gopher didn't get to.

 Ruby Red Swiss Chard

 Augula, Oak Leaf and a butter lettuce.  Also seeded a blend of mesclun that is beginning to come in now.

I will leave you with a photo of Garden Party, my pretty rose in my front bed.  She is all covered in raindrops from the few showers we had last week.  All of my roses are blooming again!

Birth Anouncement, We Have Sprouts!

August 25

Look at the little ones at just 5-6 days old! 

August 25

Just a couple of photos today to keep my blog up-to-date on my newly planted winter garden plants.  I have another flat of plants that only had a few sprouts showing so I didn't bother to take a picture of those.  Most of these are the lettuces, a few of the lacinato kale and a few broccolini are showing too.  

Planted August 20

Planted August 20

Today's Harvest

Here is what I picked today from our community garden plot

Lacinato Kale from our community garden plot

Pulled the rest of the onions from bed along the driveway

Last of the Cherry Tomatoes from raised beds in the grove

 

Last of the tomatoes from my vines here at home.  I have 4 plants at the community garden but they are not doing all that well, I will give them until October when I will then need the space for the winter garden.

 a sweet little bouquet from my backyard flowers

Have a Beautiful Day!

Garden Update 2014 and on to the Winter Garden

 These photos are from our community garden plot.  The squash plants are the ones that I reseeded in July.  After harvesting a ton of squash from Patty Pan, Ronde de Nice and Crookneck, the plants were then attacked by aphids.  We finally gave up and pulled those out.  I am so happy to see that the new plants are looking healthy and so far no signs of another infestation.  I also had problems with the Japanese Cucumbers (soyu) that I planted back in March.  The new plants are looking good and are loaded with blossoms.  I think I forgot to get a picture of those so I will add one later on.

 Purple Bell Peppers are doing well, but they have been small.  Too much heat for them early on I suspect. The plants are looking better now and the fruit is growing larger before ripening. 

Yellow Bell Peppers

This is Max's Gold a Yellow Zucchini Squash from Botanical Interest Seeds, just coming in now.

Lacinato Kale looking sad in the heat, but still growing and we are picking once a week.  These two plants will continue to grow year-round for us and will get taller and taller; we pick from the bottom up.

 This is Kentucky Wonder pole beans, again I pulled out the plants from March and this batch was planted  in July.  We had the worst July temperatures that I can remember, plus high winds which really damaged so many of my plants.  Fortunately for us, the weather up until November and on into December will still be perfect for the newly planted seedlings to continue to produce for us.

 First of the Patty Pan I harvested from the seeds planted in July.

 The six Italian Basil plants had no problems at all for me and I have picked so much basil this year.  I cut half and leave the other half to flower for the bees.  Then when the other half grows back, I let that one bloom and so-on and so-on.  These plants are constantly serving up pollen for the bees. Someone somewhere will be getting basil flavored honey!

 More Kentucky Wonder pole beans.

 This is Cocozelle, the only squash plant that did not get infested with aphids or at least not enough that I had to reseed.  It is now beginning to vine and taking over the pathway.  As long as it produces I will let it go where it wants.

 Here is the second seeding of Crookneck.  I plant way to many seeds so some are being choked out by the larger plants, but I will let them decide who gets to take over.

 Here is the second planting of Ronde de Nice.  I should be picking in a couple of days.  See below.

 

I think this is another Cocozelle that I planted just in case the other one got infested.

 This photo shows an overview of the plot.  We took out all but one tomato plant and that is Cherokee Purple (not in photo here)  I have not seen many new blossoms forming so I may take it out.  We ended up buying 3 more San Marzano plants in early July, so far they look good and I have picked about 6 from those plants.  Still plenty of time for them to give us a nice crop.

Another view of the basil in bloom.

 I have started 3 flats of seeds for my winter garden.  This is just two of them. 

 

Garlic waiting to be separated and planted in a flat.

Winter Garden Plan 2014

Here is what I have sowed so far:

Lacinato Kale

Winter Red Kale

Broccoli Raab Rapini

Michihili Chinese Cabbage

Rocket Arugula

Mesclun Blend Lettuce

Butterhead Marvel of Four Season Lettuce

Freckles Romaine Lettuce

Butterhead Speckles Lettuce

Oak Leaf Blend Lettuce

Valentine Mesclun Blend Lettuce

Butterhead Buttercrunch Lettuce

Ruby Red Swiss Chard

Five Color Silverbeet Swiss Chard 

Still need to plant seeds in flats for:

Spinach

Cauliflower

Broccoli

Cabbage

Tatsoi

Bokchoy

Mustard Greens

Peas

Snow Peas

Brussels Sprouts

When we get to planting I will direct sow:

Early Wonder Beet

Turnip Purple Top White Globe

Rutabaga American Purple Top

French Breakfast Radish

Easter Egg Blend Radish

Garlic (from bulbs started in flat)

Spring Onions Sets

Have a beautiful day!