Harvest Monday - June 4, 2012

I haven't posted in 'Harvest mondays' for a while, the reason being I had one vegetable that got harvested every week and nothing else and that is ASPARAGUS!!  Don't get me wrong, we love harvesting it and eating it almost immediately, but it didn't feel right to keep posting the same thing every week:) 

So after harvesting for the last time this year, I'm posting all of the asparagus harvests in the last couple weeks(that didn't get posted earlier) in one final post!

For everyone else's harvests, please visit Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest #1

Spring onions

Harvest #2

Harvest #3

Spring onions, fresh oregano

Harvest #4

Garden Update 6/1/12

This past week, I planted EVERYTHING outside!!  Hooray!!  All done!  Now to sit back and enjoy the harvests :)  Easier said than done!lol! 

I'm very excited this year, as my fencing has changed to exclude deer... I ended up with 7 feet of fencing around my garden #1.  It's rebar and PVC pipes to hold the deer netting.  Also, added bright strings around the fence, as the netting blends in completely and I read that deer could bump into it unknowingly.  Within the deer netting is my regular 2 feet netting to keep bunnies and other critters out.  Since I've tied the top and bottom of the PVC pipes, I can remove the lower ties  to get into the netting and over the 2 feet fence!  Not the easiest, but atleast, we can get to enjoy our produce.  Keeping my fingers crossed.....

Garden#1

Garden #1 has 3 containers of potatoes, 2 containers of fenugreek(for leaves), peas, brussel sprouts, carrots, beets, turnips, white radishes, cilantro, peppers, 2 tomatoes, 2 rows of onions, 4 rows of green beans, 1 row of okra.

Garden #2

Garden#2 has about a dozen tomato plant(several varieties) peppers, eggplant, asparagus beans(long beans) and two bittergourd plants.

Garden#3

Garden#3 has 2 tomato plants, some eggplants, peppers, 1 row of onions, carrots, swiss chard, beets, kohlrabi(green and purple), water melon and honey melon plants.

Garden#4

Garden#4 has 2 tomato plants, white radishes, turnips, beets, carrots, cucumbers, long beans, spinach, cilantro, eggplants and  peppers.

Now my front yard is very colorful with peonies and roses. Check it out!

Peonies and roses

Another view...

More Peonies.

Garden Update 5/24/12

So far I've seeded carrots, beets, white radishes, peas, potatoes, onions(lots of it) and chard.  There are seedlings growing everywhere.  Indoor seeded plants are growing big and will be transplanted this weekend, hopefully clearing out our family room. The good part is that I have enough tomato plants for this year, growing well.  Peppers and eggplants, I would/should have seeded more....  Melons are doing good so far, the real test will be when they're planted outside.  Last year, half of the transplants died either due to manure or compost burn.....[sigh]  I had compost in beds and added cow manure to that. 

Setbacks:
1. Spinach, Red sails lettuce, Aragula, Radishes seeded early spring never made it...could it be compost or was it the weather....not sure. 
2. I've had some plants die after transplanting, as I used full compost and it must have burned the new seedlings....[sigh] 
3. Some seedling plants are getting their leaves chewed all the way and I am not able to see anything under the leaves- if anyone knows please let me know.  These are still inside the house, waiting for better weather, to be transplanted.

This is bell pepper plant chewed on(by something!)

See the entire leaf chewed to the bone, another one half eaten!

Holes in the eggplant leaves

Half eaten eggplant leaf

All of zinnias and few pepper/eggplant plants died.  Both Bittergourd plants made it(top right)!

Tomatoes, pepper

Melons, tomatoes, peppers

Tomatoes, peppers

Peppers, eggplants

Garlic plants on the edge, peas, yukon gold potatoes in container, onions planted

Onions planted in the two beds, fingerling potatoes in containers

Harvest Monday, May 14 2012

I've had 2 small harvests of Asparagus. I also harvested some fresh Oregano leaves for pasta one day.  Since I transplanted my red onions (from seed), I had some green tops to eat as well.  Posting this to Daphne's dandelions Harvest Mondays.

Green onion tops, oregano, asparagus.

Another small harvest of Asparagus.

Harvest Monday - May 7, 2012.

Well, since none of my greens did any good, all I am harvesting are Asparagus!  I suppose, it is not all bad, atleast I am able to eat something from the garden :)  I got two harvests just this week!  To check out what others are harvesting around the world visit Daphne's Dandelions.

I did plant spinach, Red Sails lettuce, radishes, aragula in early April, but they're still about 1/2 inch in height (:  Must be the crazy weather we've had, too hot and too dry with in between periods of cool weather. 

The past week, I also planted potatoes - Rose Finn fingerlings and Yukon gold, Red onions, carrots, beets, white radishes, swiss chard and turnips.  Peas were planted about a week ago.

My little seedlings!

I first seeded(indoors) on March 17th this year.  After about 20 days, reseeded cells that did not have any signs of germination and continued on ....  I hope I get enough veggies/flower plants germinated by May 15th.  I have set a limit of 15 tomato plants, I think I will end up with 17.   

As the plants grow, I transplant them into bigger containers(plastic cups).  I now have plants in different stages of growth.  Some are yet to germinate, while some look ready to be transplanted outside.  Hot weather loving plants (peppers, eggplants, tomatoes) will not be planted until last week of May.  Others like onions will need to be planted outside this week.  I have the usual plants this year - tomatoes, bell peppers, chilli peppers, onions, marigolds, zinnia, dahlia, eggplants etc.,  This is how they look - this week.....

Melons, marigolds

Zinnia

Eggplants, Peppers

Dahli and a lone bittergourd(right)

Red Onions

Brusell sprouts, Watermelon

Peppers and Eggplants

Tomatoes

 

Converting Old (flat) Garden to Raised beds

I've gardened in a flat land (at sod level) for past few years.  Early spring, every year I see the grass creeping in and taking over the sides of the garden.  During the summer, grass sprouts everywhere inside and it takes me forever to rip them out, inadvertently pulling tiny seedlings along with the grass roots. 

This spring, I was too tired to work on the tangled grass with its deep roots.  I just had an idea to convert the whole garden into raised beds - 3 of them.  It was quite easy and I am proud to say I did it by myself!!  Here's the progress in pictures. 

OLD garden(imagine without the 3 beds).  See the creeping grass...

Work in Progress- Layers of wet paper underneath the soil.

Wet papers before mulching(to smother weeds)

Mulched the edges all around!

Nice and Neat!  All done(except fencing)

I am planning to add a 7 feet fencing all around this garden, as I've had too many deer problems last year with a reasonable height fencing.  After that, I have to figure out how I will get in and out :)