More Goodies from the Garden Jan 2014 Garden Update

 Asian Pea Pods

 Lacinato Kale, finally recovered from the grasshopper feasting on them.  Cut leaves from the bottom up and not from the center top; that way they will keep growing upwards with new leaves to harvest. 

 Bright Lights Swiss Chard is doing well now and I am picking a few each week to thin them out. My parakeets love swiss chard!

 A volunteer tomato, probably the purple cherry we grew last year.  Several have come up and I am leaving them to see which one they will be.

 Lots of onions inter-planted with red Russian kale and Swiss chard. When I pull onions they will have more room.

 This is some Bright Lights Swiss Chard I transplanted from the onion area to give them more room. We eat a lot of Swiss Chard!

 I think this might be more beets.

Lolla Rossa Lettuce and Little Gem Romaine.  Lacinato Kale plants to the right, I sure hope I left enough space between the kale. 

 Close up of Speckles Butterhead lettuce, love this lettuce!

 Close up of Lolla Rossa Lettuce, another favorite of ours and it is so beautiful.  The leaves make wonderful wraps for a veggie taco. Those are more onions in-between the lettuce.  I plant onion sets all year round.

Close up of Little Gem Romaine Lettuce.

 My favorite mustard, Red Giant.  If picked when the leaves are small it can be added to salads, but I like the punch from the larger leaves and use it in a lot of my vegetable soups and stir-fry's.

My most recent bed of Rocket Arugula, planted in late November is ready to cut now.  If you cut instead of pulling up the plants of most leaf-type lettuce it will continue to send up new growth.  I have two sections of arugula and one is always ready for cutting while the other one is sending out new growth.  Keeps us with arugula for the entire fall through spring months, after that when the weather begins to warm it will send up seed heads.  I am a bit worried about my lettuces with this summer-like temperatures that we have had lately.  Today we warmed up to 83 degrees!

 Here is one of the raised beds that we planted out with some seedlings we bought at a local nursery that grows organic seedlings.  This will give me a jump on the smaller seedling that I planted out with seed in another bed.  These plants are much larger and will be ready to harvest by late February.  In this section we have 6 more lacinato kale plants ( I think I have 18 or more plants now at different stages of growth ), magenta swiss chard, mizuna mustard, tatsoi, red winter kale, and giant red mustard (1 of each).  Looking a little sad in the heat right now.

In this section is more Speckles buttercrunch lettuce, rouge d'hiver (a red) lettuce, a few tatsoi and a black seeded simpson lettuce.  

In this bare spot I seeded 2 more rows of the Parisienne carrots that I am growing in another bed.  More Chioggia beets, Collard Greens, a gourmet blend of beets and then seeded in between the lettuces on either side with french breakfast radish and Easter egg blend radish.

Here is a picture of the Parisienne carrots I picked today, along with some spring onions and a few Round Black Spanish Radishes. Not many carrots, but enough to go in our salad tonight!

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.

I Need The Orioles Back!

I wish our Orioles were still here, if they were these hungry worms would not be on my Lacinato Kale plants.  The little guys have pretty much destroyed the 6 plants that I put in last month.  I picked off a couple of the worms a few days ago, but I guess I missed this one because I didn't see it until I went to post this photo.  If you click on the picture it will enlarge enough for you to see the little guy on the center top of the leaf.

I do have more seedlings that are coming in and so far I have not seen any damage to the leaves.  I already picked a batch of the kale that the worms didn't get to, but it was tough to find!  Below are some photos of what is doing well. I should be picking the lettuces in another week.

We will have Greens for the Thanksgiving Table!

This is French Breakfast Radish, also planted Black Radish and Easter Egg Radish

Sugar Peas, also planted Snow Peas

Assorted Lettuces, I planted Sassy Salad and Mesclun along with Bok Choy, Mache, Arugula, Red Sails, Speckles, Oak Leaf, Buttercrunch, Black Seeded Simpson, Green Salad Bowl, Lolla Rossa, Red Oak Leaf and Rouge d'Hiver, Tango, Grand Rapids, Mizuna Mustard, Lolla Rossa, and Black Seeded Simpson.  I am sure there are more that I have missed, but that pretty much sums up what I have now. I plant seeds about every 3-4 weeks.  This allows me to harvest some for baby greens and also to let some grow to full height.  I planted another 3 feet today, but keep in mind that my rows are only 20 inches wide.

Lacinato Kale, what's left of it, you can't see in this photo but just to the right of the plants I have more seedlings coming in.  I guess I will need to break out the Insecticidal Soap.

Ruby Red Swiss Chard, I also seeded some Bright Lights Swiss Chard, both from Botanical Interest Seed Company

Sorrel

Rocket Arugula, I also planted a Wild Arugula that has very narrow leaves. It has a slightly stronger, more pungent flavor which is wonderful with Parmesan Cheese.  I also love to let some of the wild go to seed to harvest the flowers. 

Parisienne Carrots, a short round French Carrot

Yellow Bush Beans

More of Mesclun Sassy Salad Blend

Farmer's Market Blend, this is a mild mix

Not sure what is here, could be the left over seeds that I mixed together.  Looks like there is some Swiss Chard, Arugula and ??  I also put in Beets, but only a few came up.  

My neighbors dog decided to visit the beds shortly after we put down the seeds. The poor thing is old, and blind and wonders about the neighborhood aimlessly weaving in and out of peoples yards.  He is a Golden Retriever with very large paw prints, but I don't have the heart to chase him off, he is so sweet.  Often times I am working in the beds and he will come up behind me, startling me so that I almost fall backwards down the bank.