The Squash have It.

While I have harvested a little here and there from the garden in the last few weeks, this is my first Harvest Monday post compliments of Daphne. Check some others out. I finally got an overhead shot of the garden.

I never seem to photograph my lettuce and that is probably because I cut and eat it. It is supposed to be better if it stays in the refrigerator over night so I am going to have to cut a day in advance. I have never tried head lettuce and might do that for the fall since my daughter likes it so much better than the mesclun mix. I pulled all the radishes. Half last week and the rest this morning. I realized that they were not getting bigger and the timing was not right for them this year - only dime size. So much smaller than last year when I got quarter size radishes.

This week, I also pulled a bunch of garlic. The stems fell over and they never gave me garlic scapes. I was so looking forward to getting some this year to make the pesto from Happy Acres. I still might get some scapes from the garlic I planted on the other side of the garden.

I guess the squash are the winners for the week. I was not sure when to pick the pattypan squash but it looked about the right time. I know it is hard to tell size but it was about 4" in diameter. Nicely followed by striped zucchini squash, compliments of Robin. I will try to pick these small. I think it is better for the plant and they taste better also. These three are about 8" long.

Lettuce Update

Back in August I posted on Small but Amazing Things. I had just planted lettuce seeds and marveled at how quickly they germinated. I have been enjoying lettuce from the bed for the last week or two and will be taking a salad to a pot luck tonight.

Sept 7th

August 9th

August 11th

I also have had a small tomato surge. The sungolds and juliets are producing a good bowl full a day. There are about 40–50 green tomatoes of various shapes and sizes on the plants and I am hoping they will have time to  ripen enough for picking.

Small but Amazing Things

I am truly amazed at some of the garden activity and thought this would be a good time to share.
For starters, Things in the garden have not looked really well lately. The tomato leaves are turning yellow. They stopped setting fruit so I think I might only have tomatoes through August. Despite thinking the zuchini was on it's way back, it has done nothing in the last 3 weeks. Strange that it is so big, green and healthy looking. I was feeling I needed new life in the garden.

Amazing thing #1
The lettuce bed died and thought that it was time to plant another batch. My lettuce bed is directly behind the back porch and gets sun until noon–1 p.m. The previous owners of the house left a large role of fiberglass screen material in the garage. While Granny has a great system for shading her lettuce, I discovered that the screening makes a great material to protect newly planted seeds from heavy rains, sweltering heat, the sun and cats using it as a litter box. It works for a day or two after they germinate.

Nothing too amazing except that it was Monday morning when I planted the box. This morning when I went out to do my morning garden stuff, I saw that many of the seeds germinated. Two days or 48 hours seems so quick and I am just amazed that the dust like seeds, can produce these seedlings, and in time lettuce.
Here are some of the pictures. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Prepping the lettucebox.                     Screening on the box after planting.

The seedlings at 8:00 a.m. this morning.

Amazing thing # 2
I don't prescribe to any specific gardening philosophy but I prefer not to use insecticides and feel that the food chain and insect world need to be kept in balance. So a few insects don't bother me. I would not call my garden organic but this year, I did not use anything besides compost in it. Sometimes it is a problem but sometimes I harvest something that is just perfect and I am shocked to see no bug bites, discoloration in the fruit, distorted shapes. How does nature make some things so perfect?

Kale leaves without a blemish.

Harvest Monday

I am so excited to be back again this week. Thanks again to Daphne's Dandelions' Harvest Day. The holiday last week got in the way. What an exciting week. The growth in the garden is visible by the eye. I look at in the morning and everything is at least an inch taller in the evening.
Tomato fruit are on almost all plants, the bush beans are just about to bloom, the pole beans are leaping and I am sure that my structure will not be big enough. The cucumbers are beginning to climb and I can see some fruit.
I have never considered  weighing my harvest as many other's do but I am beginning to see why one would do so. This is the harvest for the week:

Swiss Chard: two bowls full

Two turnips out of my daughters plot. She loved pulling these out.

   

More radishes and lettuce, one onion to see what was happening. No, not the tomato.

Pinched basil, cilantro tops and chamomile flowers.

The zucchini are getting bigger but the crook neck can't seem to open male and female flowers at the same time so all of the fruit are dropping off. If anyone has thoughts about why this is happening, I would appreciate it.  I would be happy to hand pollinate if they were open at the same time.

Last but not least are my peppers. What's happening?????

Harvest Monday

New to Harvest Monday listed on Daphne's site  but I am excited to join the group. Thank you for doing this. It gives me a specific mission for the week. Can't wait till next week when I am a little more prepared.
Thinned radishes, Chamomile, lettuce and Mustard.

 

how it starts

I start thinking about my garden for the following year at the end of the growing season. So, this garden I started planning back in September and October of 2009. I decided on a square foot garden but I never do anything by the book because it is so much easier for me to learn from my own mistakes rather than someone else's expertise. My square foot garden is divided up in various sized spaces and I have very little room between each of the plots. all of it gets drawn in my garden sketch book and my only regret is that I can not use water color in my sketchbook.

After I plant my seeds, I begin to think about what goes where.

Sometimes it is general and sometimes I mark varieties.

The only seeds that are in at this time are my pole beans, some radishes and garlic.

I have a wonderful 10 foot planter box behind of our back porch and it gets 6 hours of morning and early afternoon sun which is great for lettuce.

I planted this batch around March 24 and had my first salad of thinned lettuce with roots on April 19.




The temperature is dropping tonight and I have to bring all the plants inside. Hopefully tomorrow, i can plant more seeds.