Harvest Season Begins!

To my fellow community gardeners- my plot is overflowing with lettuce! Please help yourself to some lettuce. My plot is 2 rows in from the far right grassland, 3 plots in from the main road (in front of the plot with the big white rain barrel). I have a sign in my plot that says "Garden More, Work Less." I have 2 varieties- Black seeded simpson (a light crinkly type) and Winter Density, which is heartier and dark green.

Maybe it's just because I attended my first farmer's market of the summer, but I feel like enough crops are coming in now to finally start cooking with them. New this week in my garden were carrots, young onions, and young garlic.


The onions need at least another month to bulk up but can be used while small,








and the garlic needs to age in the ground a bit if I plan to store it. In the meantime, I can eat the freshest, yummiest garlic I've probably ever eaten. The cloves are chunky and firm.

























Here is my "trug"- showing lettuce bounty, end of the peas, and carrots.

I had already removed the kale and collard greens.




My first zucchini will be ready in a week or so- and the big beef tomatoes will follow soon after.

Check out this carrot! Too bad only about 5 carrots germinated in my small patch. A fall crop would definitely be worthwhile.

Thinking of next year's garden (wherever it may be):



I would plant my onions and garlic with closer spacing.









I would interplant lettuce with a taller vegetable, to shade it from the summer sun and prevent bolting.

I would plant less early-spring lettuce and more early-spring spinach.





I would find out where I can get more seeds of this swiss chard and plant more of it.









I would start my tomato and pepper seeds a month earlier. Look at the difference between the store-bought transplants and mine!

















I would start my kale seeds earlier. It is just now ready for some harvest. (indoor sowed this year 2/8 and outdoor sowed 3/12)




I would sow my peas a few weeks later (this year, sowed 3/6 and had to replant a month later). Yesterday I ate two peas.

Strawberry Time

The last few weeks have been quiet for the garden but busy for me, with all the crops planted and nothing ready to eat yet.
Now it is strawberry season and I actually ate 3 perfect, luscious strawberries from my VERY SMALL strawberry patch the other day. This week I'll be going down to West Windsor to pick-your-own strawberries and have more than three.

Other developments:

Garlic is making scapes and the tips are turning brown. I'll harvest the scapes soon, and when leaves turn brown more fully, it will be time to harvest the bulb. I've also heard that when any scapes left behind stand straight up, it is a signal to harvest the bulbs.



The spinach will be bolting soon so I'm trying to use it up. I have two varieties, the pointy one is Spargo, which seems to have a low leaf to stem ratio and I won't plant it again.

The second is a more traditional type of spinach. I cooked up the spinach with some kale, balsamic vinegar and olive oil and it came out pretty good.



My swiss chard transplants didn't take well, but a little goes a long way with this vegetable.

Rainy Friday

Nothing to do but watch time lapse videos.

They're ALIVE!


Tomato Phototropism

Pepper Time Lapse

Pea Plant Development

Lettuce- Start to Finish


Bush Bean Seedlings


I actually have plenty else to do.

Gardening is Hard!

Why, oh why, must April showers coincide with the busiest 2 weeks of the semester? A quick visit to the plot last week showed me that a "crazy explosion" of weeds was occurring at my plot- and the hours I spent there this weekend have barely contained them.

Worse, it is now absolutely time to do the planting for warm-season vegetables, and we are not ready!

Around the Garden, 5/2/08

Cabbage and collard transplants are getting larger- though we'll see if I get any cabbage heads this spring.


A few peas have finally come up, and have been supplemented with some donated transplants.
This crop is sort of a let down- you plant it super early but then have to wait until the summer to eat it. :(


Kale planted from seed is getting larger (so are the weeds).






A different variety of kale, grown from transplant. Covered or not, it gets eaten by something.







The strawberry transplants are looking healthy. One is even flowering, but you can't see it here.





The garlic is looking really healthy. Only a few more months before harvest!






Tomato babies have been transplanted and protected from the cold.







Extra tomato and pepper babies are sitting out to get the sun.






All in all, things are looking very hopeful!

To do next time:

Clean up the sloppy job I did at planting potatoes, cucumbers, and beans, and decide whether I'm going with newspaper mulch or plastic as a weed barrier.

Supposed to be part of the last post.

Tomatoes!

Although several people have told me that tomatoes shouldn't get set out until Mother's Day, my garden books say it's safe once the last frost has passed. My seedlings still have a bit of growing to do before transplanting but I wanted to get the tomato bed set up. Therefore, I took a trip to Home Depot today and along with tomato supplies, wound up with 4 tomato plants to transplant.

Since I'm not sure how much time I'll be able to spend tending the garden this summer, I'm trying to plan ahead as well as I can to prevent weeds, and in the tomatoes' case, to stake the plants well from the very beginning. Tomatoes need to be staked because otherwise they will just form a heap of vine on the ground.

Normal wire tomato cages are said to be flimsy. The plants fall over and break and the tomatoes get mushy on the ground. One alternative would be to make your own tomato cages from concrete reinforcing wire. Apparently this is the cheapest and best alternative but sounds like a lot of work. Luckily, Home Depot had a slightly higher quality, triangular tomato cage for sale.

Here's my setup.
- Black plastic, to raise the soil temperature, prevent weeds, retain moisture in the soil, and prevent migration of certain fungi present in soil from transmitting to the plant (this would happen during a rain storm if the soil is exposed). I understand red plastic would be better.
- Tomato plant, planted deeply. Remove lower branches and plant it so just the top sticks out. This helps tomatoes grow strong root systems.
- Cage around each plant.
- Marigolds interplanted. In addition to being pretty, they are said to prevent pests.
- Basil interplanted. This is said to improve the flavor of tomatoes, and is convenient to harvest together for cooking.
- Plastic bottle cloches, to keep the plant warm. One of the tomatoes was too big for a cloche so it will try to survive uncovered. If it dies I will just try again.