Sunday Harvest - Aug 11th

Herb Garden Maintenance

What a mess....

I haven't really spent time in the herb garden lately. I haven't had to. It's pretty much a set-and-forget deal and I pop out when I'm about to cook to grab something. I say to myself 'hmmm I should prune that...' then life goes on.
I was letting one of the basil plants go to seed, and was waiting on the cilantro (coriander) to brown off, and decided that today was the day to do some clean up. So out came the garden shears, and spent a good 4 hours putting things to rights.

 Much of this was 'use it or lose it' several of the basil plants were starting to flower, and things like parsley were making way for new leaves - another week and a lot of what was there would probably start dying off.

Cilantro here in the US you see a lot in Mexican foods. I had planted some in hope I'd get some more tomatoes and make some salsa - maybe next season I'll dial in tomatoes a little better. But all is not lost, no stranger in the UK is the coriander seed, in Indian cuisine it's dhania.
The dried seed (technically it's fruit - for the pedantic) can be used as a replacement for caraway in making things like rye bread, though personally I grind them up and use them. The nutty, orangey taste is quite nice.
The root of the plant is used in thai cooking, and if that wasn't enough - some crazy bastards even PLANT THEM (I know.. huh!).  Get the stems, bundle them up and put them in a brown paper bag. If you shake it a couple of times a week, you'll probably have separated them by the time the drying is done.

 Dill is best used when pickling, and I plan on pickling beets this year (much more than last year), and also cucumbers next year. This was more of a test run than a serious planting.  When pickling you'd put a bunch like this, only at the flower stage and some spigs of the leaves.
True story, up until this year I thought 'Dill Pickles' were a variety of 'pickle'... not that they were actually cucumbers pickled with dill.
Yes - I'm a dumb ass at times.
As for cooking with dill - never heat fresh dill, but the seed, toast it before using.  Again, substitute for caraway on a one to one basis, use it in bread, salad, cheese, all kinds of stuff.

I guess technically at this point both of these are spices..

Now THAT's some parsley (but you aint seen NOTHING yet!).  I love fresh parsley - but when cooking fresh you want that dark green fresh young leaves, but if you don't use it - or in my case you have way too much, then they grow up. The flavor is still there, but they lose a little in the texture. That's ok though as when you dry and crush it, that fresh texture isn't that important.
I cut all the plants WAY back then got down to sorting and trimming.  When drying herbs you gotta resign yourself to the fact that at some point you're gonna be trimming - the only question is WHEN. Thyme, for instance, is a pain in the arse to do afterwards. Parsley you can do either - or, or in this cast....both.

Bagging up this much would take a while, and at the end of the day I'd have bags all over the place. Generally if using paper bags it's best to trim the leaves first - and that's a LOT of leaves. The alternative is to bundle up the longer stems together into big sprigs, sorting the ratty and yellowing leaves out as you go - in the end you'll have several big bunches (I had 5). Tie them up with a rubber band and hang them upside down in your drying area on a coat hanger. The remaining stems I trimmed and put into a bag to  dry. When all is finished I'll shred the leaves with scissors, holding the whole sprig and working over a bowl. If I'm lucky I'll have all my fingers at the end and no blood in the parsley!  This will probably keep me in parsley flakes till the end of winter (considering I still have the plants).

Holy Crap! That's some basil!

My hand isn't even on it, and you can't even see the colander!  The basil needed pruning BADLY. It's one of those things that you trim it, it grows bushier. It also stops it from going to flower. I have one plant I'm getting seed from, and that's enough.  I planted 4 parsley plants in one square, and it's produced more than enough. Basil I planted 9. A one square to 4 in a square comparison, plus another 4.  By the way, it's not worth it to plant just one per square - the plant was marginally bigger, but didn't give 4 times the basil.  Next time I'll probably only plant 1 square of 4 plants.

 By the time I finished trimming I had 4 bags for drying and still had another overflowing bowl full to get through.  Considering I have a cleaned out Ragu jar full of dried basil already - and that jar was filled by 2 bags worth of loosely packed dried leaves - I already tripled the amount I have - even if I were to crush them up (and I will when these are dry) to resemble 'shop bought' dried herbs, I'd still have that jar full to overflowing.  Next time you're at a supermarket compare the size of a Ragu spaghetti sauce jar to the size of a dried herb/spice jar.. Yeah - more than enough.  So what to do with what's left? I wouldn't waste it, and as far as fresh goes - I still have PLENTY growing - this was only a prune back.

You've seen minced garlic?  Same deal. Get your food processor and some oil (I use sunflower, you can also use virgin olive.. if I had some on hand I would have) - I also add a cap of cider vinegar. Then blitz it. In this case I packed it full - hit it for 2 minutes, filled it up again and repeated two times.  Evetually you'll end up with a thick basil paste.
From here what I'd normally do is put it in an ice cube tray and freeze it. If you want fresh basil in something, you pop out a cube and toss it in your pot or pan.

I couldn't find my ice cube trays, nor could we find them at the local supermarket - so instead a small tupperware style container is filled and put in the fridge.
It will keep for some time if sealed and refrigerated.  In this case you use it just like you would minced garlic - a couple of teaspoons and you have some intense basil-y flavor.






In other garden news, 3 or so days after planting and radishes have already popped up.  All 16 in record time.  With those, and the lettuce just below it chugging away - I'll have that summer salad yet!  All I need are some toms and maybe some beet leaves!  Also turnip greens have sprouted.

And of course some other stuff pulled out as the sun was setting.  Peppers.. 3 last week, 4 earlier THIS week, and 5 today.  There are plenty on the plants too - not small either. Next week I'm assured at least 4.
So 6 plants - 5 are producing more than I need. I think we call peppers 'solved' -this many peppers won't go to waste. Tomorrow I'll take all but 3 of the freshest and dice them, bag them, and freeze them. Any time I quickly need diced peppers (and when cooking who doesn't?) I'll have them on hand and ready to go!. Lettuce is the black seeded simpson variety - I'm pulling the leaves from the germination pots to thin the number. Some decided to pop up amongst the bib lettuce.
Beans - a small take. I have lots of buds but not a lot of beans atm, I'll see if they hit big before Autumn.  A little broccoli and a couple of small toms round out the take... looks like I'm having a salad lunch tomorrow!

Spring - a post mortem

Well the 21st was the Summer Solstice, and with that Spring has sprung.  It was a great season of learning, a few hiccups, some unexpected failures, and unexpected success.  Everything that didn't work out to plan yielded some knowledge. Although plant selection and timing will need to be improved, many good meals were had (several I've shown, but there have been several quick lunches and just garden browsing) - I'd give a generous estimate of between 1/4 and 1/3 veg was fresh grown from the garden. A respectable amount - but a quite a long way to go.

Garden costs for the new bed were easily met thanks to the addition of the herb garden - putting it well into the black with very little effort.

The garden itself as it faces Summer certainly looks a lot different than the initial pictures from Spring.  Some plants, like the beans, are yellowing and putting out what may be the last harvest from those plants.  The 2nd square of carrots are coming in, and those turnip greens have long since departed.
And yet EVERY square has something in it growing. So it's actually MORE productive right now than Spring.
New beans are popping up around the corn, a second planting of carrots are starting to sprout.  Peppers and some late planted tomatoes are in there too.  Possibly too late, but worth trying out.  There is going to be some dead time between the seasons, but hopefully that will be reduced next year.  There are some things to work out when it comes to optimal planting due to sun and rain - but as a whole things have turned out ok.  I'll break it down in sections.

The original garden bed.

 The first bed I put in and dug over.  Originally planted with (in order) turnip greens, a pepper from last year, lettuce, beets, carrots and radishes.
Currently holding beans, eggplant, peppers, kale and carrots.
The turnip greens were a good grow for spring, and something I'd do again - perhaps doing collards later in the year.  Last years pepper is putting up a couple of nice early peppers that are nearly ready to pick. The placement of those was spot on, and I wouldn't change a thing - apart from maybe the amounts.
Radishes were abundant - and I think I picked the right time to cut back to one square. With some adjustments to the planting of other things, I think the goal of fresh picked salads will work out better next year.  Carrots turned out well - some nice sized carrots, and the staggering of the two squares time wise is just about perfect - as the last of the first are due for pulling, the next batch are coming into their own.  The only thing I'd change here would be volume.  You can grow 16 carrots in a square and have them nearly all work out - but 32 is not enough.  64 will be the goal for next year with a 2 week staggering between them.
Beets was just a stupid mistake.  I saw some sprout that had been left in the germination container and decided to go for it. Yes they sprouted, then struggled, then eventually died.   Just boneheaded stupidity on my  part.  So long as the lesson is learned, and not repeated, then all is well.

The lettuce looks quite 'bolty' doesn't it?

Lettuce in both beds was a real letdown. I devoted an entire post to it early in the spring - and it all comes down to timing and variety.  2 things this blog is supposed to help me with.
The Black Seeded Simpson was the variety, and as you can see peeking between the beans and kale, it looks like it's about to bolt to seed at any moment - the leaves were quite prone to being burnt up as well.  By the time I tracked down what I'd grown last Autumn it was too late to plant.  In the future, as far as the garden beds are concerned, I'll be trying other varieties such as the Salad Bowl, and I might try Iceberg - the classic sandwich and salad lettuce.

As you can see though all is not lost. It seems the Black Seeded Simpson rather likes my germination containers - so next Spring I might set a long box aside and try growing 6 - 10 plants in there.
Regardless I will be sticking more to a proven method of growing lettuce when it comes time to plant again - sprouting and growing it in the boxes and transplanting it to the garden squares as space becomes available. This should cut down on wasted space anxiety.

2nd Bed.

The second bed didn't produce so well this spring, but that was due to both mistakes on my end and overall timing.  Originally it was planted with tomatoes, corn, spinach, cabbage, and swiss chard from Autumn.
The chard should have been pulled at the start of spring and replanted. Spinach was planted both too early and too late. A late Autumn planting had been holding on and I was convinced it would come good - rather, half died and the other bolted straight to seed.
By this stage it was too late and replacement plantings sprouted and immediately were burnt up in the increasing temps.
Cabbage did well apart from something nomming on it. I can't find traces of the critters that are doing it (no slug trails, no bugs to find), the second planting was staggered a bit too late and has been disappointing. 2 plants dead and the other 2 showing little to no progress past seedlings.  The corn came up, but I think I will need to rethink my soil strategy and placement for it. Still it is doing better than garden #2 corn - so I'll stick with it and learn. Currently I've planted some beans around it as an experiment in companion planting.  Other squares have been planted out with carrots and a couple of Queen of Hearts tomatoes, which I am now 98% certain are determinate (or bush) tomatoes.
I ended up putting down plants from the overflow, and as you can see the broccoli loves it there. This is doing better than my container broccoli, so next year I think we've found a home for it.
The cherry tomato up the back has vined and is running around the pine straw behind the beds, which is good as it takes up little garden space - however I've yet to see a single tomato appear on it.

The other tomato plants are doing well, and again in hindsight These would have been perfect for planting one-a-square and staggered them by about a week - optimally where the first 4 stalks of corn are currently planted.
If I manage to procure more seeds of this variety, it's the strategy I'll try next year.
If not I will be going back to looking for that ideal variety of tomato - preferably an heirloom that I can generate my own seeds from.

The 'bottom' bed

I still have rain wash issues to work out with the bottom bed, but for the most part it's doing ok. Corn and beans are growing, although I think more fertilizer will be required if I do corn again here. Peppers are all doing well - apart from a square at the end that sees the most rain wash and the most sun. The pepper there has remained a seedling size while others are taking off.
In Autumn/Winter I grew beans and peas here, something I'll be doing again this Autumn as part of a bigger strategy to finally get some healthy corn going.

The 'new bed'

This raised bed I started this spring and it's done quite well for itself. It was planted with peas, beans, lettuce, and kale. I don't have to say much on this as it's been in nearly every post this spring.
Peas did fairly well but died out early - the beans here are coming to their last harvest - and I'll let them go out and replant the squares in July.  In Autumn at the 'bottom bed' beans did ok and died out early while peas produced well.  In the future I'll only plant peas in Autumn and beans all the way through spring.  This should ensure some good nitrogen for whatever crops follow them.  Peas lasted me all Winter last year, and I hope to reproduce this in a different bed this year.

Squash in a pot

Squash I haven't made my mind up on.  The plants seem to be doing ok, but the squash aren't really developing to an edible size. This could be simply due to the maturity of the plant - or it could simply need more space, in which case next year could see me starting up a squash patch.
The butternut squash put out a single squash - but the plant seems to be needing some more love. I'll be seeing if some more fertilizer brings it around, or if it's simply run its course.
Time will tell on this idea.

The Herb Garden

A couple of non-starters and a couple of die-offs. But all in all the herb garden is doing well. Sage is on the way to being ready for picking, parsley is there in abundance and more basil than you can poke a stick at. The two plants of cilantro that survived are enough to be useful too.
Lessons learned here were to plant less basil, and that 4 plants per square seems to me to be an optimal amount.  After this photo was taken I cut the tops off several of the basil plants and trimmed the leaves for drying. If it all makes it through the process it will probably amount to $20 worth of dried herbs if bought at the supermarket.  Fresh - you don't want to know. A lot.  The availability of fresh herbs is what made the new garden additions pay for themselves, and is still the most cost effective thing you can do with a garden space.

An honorable mention has to go out to the potatoes.  I think I learned enough about them to try and make more serious run at them come late Summer.

On the composting front - the new bin is still half full, and will slowly break down (hopefully) in time for next spring - To harvest it I'll probably add a trap door to the bottom and make the design a 'flow through' box.
Vermicomposting was not without it's hiccups either - my own desire to take care of a surplus of paper goods from the move led me to make an error that will probably take a couple more months to sort out entirely. Also the rising temps and a lack of AC in the workshop are causing problems with them as well. Currently a box fan is being put on them, and ice blocks put in on the predicted hotter days.  In a few weeks I hope to move them to a better location in the workshop and take some steps to lowering the general temperature of the area.  Right nowt he entire house needs a new AC system, but that is a long term thing I need to work on - so it won't get solved this summer.

I'll be making plans over the next few days between farmwork and housework to outline my Summer garden plan.  The summer plant for this zone starts in July, so I have a week or so to think and adjust.  This also coincides with my end of month worm bin cleanouts - so I'll have a bunch of fresh worm castings to put in the soil when I plant.  The beans will be ready to be cleared out just in time to make way for new plantings as well - in time I hope to have this overlap of seasons at a point where it's a near constant production of veg with very little down time, and this first season seems to have turned out as a much better start point than I thought it would.

Cheers!

Spare Thyme

I have a few days break from the harvester, so I'm doing catchup around the house and putting things in order so I can put a good half day into the garden and yard.  Some rain over the last 2 days (which is what is giving me the short break from the harvest) has helped the garden take care of itself (although some fertilizing on a few things wouldn't hurt), with the exception of a solitary sage plant dying (probably from the heat), things are chugging along.
However that same rain is keeping me indoors, and probably away from the lawnmower for a little bit.  So time to catch up on some things we laid down earlier.

Back on the 5th of this month I put some herbs away to dry.  So it's about time to check up on them.  Although the basil and parsley still have about a week to go, the thyme was nice and dry - so it was time to jar it.

Most leafy herbs such as basil, sage, and parsley are fairly trivial - you simply cut or gently crush up the leaves and put it in a clean jar. Thyme however is a little different.

All those strings and stems are not terribly nice in a dish - when I use it fresh, smaller stems dissolve, or you could wrap it in cloth.  But I like to simply use dried herbs.
All those little leaves have to be removed from the stems.  One way is to run your pinched fingers from the tip to the base of the stem and the leaves will pop off - this is a bit time consuming though, and the oils from the herbs will rub off on your fingers - meaning you lose a lot of that flavor. I have yet to find an ideal solution to this problem.

 Lately I've taken to gently crush the ball of herbs while still in the bag to loosen the leaves - then put them in my baking sifter.

Alternating between gently turning the handle, tapping the sides, and plucking out the occasional stem seems to give me a good separation and minimum handling.

The end result was the leaves (large pile) - the stems (small pile) and some stems with a goodly amount of leaves on it.  These were worked with the pinch method and in the end it was all put into a small clean glass jar.

Sealed and ready for the later months when I might not have thyme on my hands like I do now.

There is still plenty in the garden for use (along with others), but if you have an abundance it makes sense to use it or save it.  The price of herbs being what it is, this is probably the most cost effective change anyone can make to their lifestyle.  The growing is trivial, the bagging is easy, and the storage of even the fiddly herbs such as tyme only takes about 10 minutes. Going by supermarket prices I probably saved around $5.  For the 15 minutes (of total active time) it took, I think it's a clear savings - even if you say 'time is money', that 15 minutes was paid to me at $20 per hour.

Here Comes The Rain Again...

Yep, just like the song!  Over the past couple of years I've been tuning into Southern Georgia's seasonal cycle.  Mid April into May the last few years you have lots of rain, driven in from both the coastal weather and from large storms in 'tornado alley' in the mid-country. Between those and the warming temps from March onwards, it makes for a usually brilliant spring, where planting is a breeze - and you get wonderful early harvests of garden veg as early as May.  This is how it's been since the kids were born.   This year, however, has thrown a bit of a curve ball.
The early rains were sparse, and now while playing catchup I've found myself using town water more than I thought I would - and the morning humidity and the occasional shower, followed by temps now in the 90's make things like spinach sprout then instantly fry.

I had been hoping for some more overcast days and a bit of the wet before I had to go out on harvest at the farm, if for nothing else than to make sure the garden was good and watered before I have to leave it alone for a week.  Well - be careful what you wish for!  A big storm with high winds moved through last night, and I'm left glad that I'd been trying to organize my garden timing and logistics around things like this.

My temp rainwater tub - 50 gallons

It only took 5 minutes last night to go from empty to full with the rainwater tub - I only have rain guttering on one small part of the roof (over the back door) - that's quite a bit of rain.  It only took another 20 minutes after that for the  swimming pool to go from it's minimum level to hitting the overlow at the max.

The new corn took a bit of a hammering.  Although by the time I got around to taking these pictures it had started setting itself to rights.  I gently pushed the stalks back into place afterwards and put fresh soil around the bases.

Yep that lettuce that had been nearly ready for transplant was also hammered . If today didn't start overcast I would have woke to see it burnt to a crisp.  Despite that, some of these were transplanted to the garden proper anyways. I figure this late Spring I have very little to lose by putting them in.

The ever-half full composting frame chugs along! it's been weeks since I first showed it, and each week I've been putting in shredded paper, large cardboard, leaves from the magnolia and grass clippings - yet every week it stays at the same level - half full.  By next year I expect some nice compost out of the bottom, and with something procured to sift and sort it - I might be at the stage where I won't have to purchase potting mix at all... Composted cow manure will still be on the shopping list though - I could get it for free and compost it myself (I have the connections) - but at 2.50 for a 40lb bag - to be honest it's worth it to buy as needed.

So with more rain threatening to come down hard again, I figured there was no time like the present to put in a little work and get things ready to change gears.  The window has truly shut on several of the more delicate spring greens - and there's no point lamenting it.  The time for direct planting in the garden has also passed.  The plan for Spring/Summer I think was fairly solid, but a few mistakes on my end and a bit of strange weather behavior threw a spanner in the works. I'll be tweaking it and trying again next spring.
The plan, as it stood, was to plant out around 1/2 the garden with 'fast plants' and salad veg, while having the other half taken with up with 'slower' plants - those that will put out over the summer.
Even though there were stumbling blocks, such as the attachment to leftover plants like Swiss Chard and Beets (just wait ONE more week, they'll come good! I'm SURE of it!) and late planting of a lot of things (some things I should have planted as early as January - others no later than March), I still got a fair bit out of the run - and plenty was learned.

Any day you don't learn something is a day wasted.  And as I tend to think we learn more from our mistakes, I won't be beating myself up over the ones I've made.... just so long as I don't make the same ones again!

Spring, like Autumn is the time for planting. Summer and Winter are for the ripening of their respective crops - and if you've planned it right in Spring, you'll be getting things through Summer.  So with  under 20 days till Summer starts, we sweep the board clear and change directions.
Starting with the emptying of the overflow containers:

No point crying over a lack of Rosemary or wasting time trying to plant more cilantro - the overflow has plenty of sage and chives that are healthy and good sized. Any available space in the herb garden is planted out with them. I'd rather have plenty of a few things than a little of several - especially if it means garden space that isn't pulling it's weight.
So far I've been pulling plenty of Basil from this bed, and when you consider the cost of fresh herbs - I easily get $5 worth every few days. There's PLENTY. And the more you trim, the bushier it gets - I might try making some pesto at this rate. Sage is catching up and I'll have lots of that on hand pretty soon as well.

From the clump of cherry toms (you see in the lettuce picture) - several were put into spa pots I had set aside. Leaves were pulled back and they were planted the depth of the pot.  The nature of tomato plants will hopefully give them a solid root base.  The pots were filled with composted cow manure and a good handful of worm castings.  These ones I know vine all over if you let them, so keeping them in pots keep them contained and not have them overrun everything else.

 Hard to see with the massive carrot tops, but peppers were transplanted into the failed lettuce squares.
Here I deviated from the 'no planting seed' and filled out a couple of squares with the 'queen of hearts' hybrid tomato seeds, in pots they are a very managable plant, and I don't think it's too far out of the time frame for them to come up.  If I do it will be a nice bonus, but I have my bases covered in other ways if they don't.

Even the tiny leftover squash plant got a new home.  This circular bed I made for a blueberry plant that got knocked over at the farm. I knew it only had a 25% chance of making it, but this way I'd have a place set aside at the end of the year if new plants become available.  If I get them from the farm I will be getting a self pollinating plant - if I buy them from a WalMart, or similar, I need to get 2 to have fruit. This soil may be too acidic for the squash, even though it's in it's own pocket of potting mix.  But it was plant here or get thrown away. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 The planters I used for overflow will now be repurposed for propagation. No more lettuce will be planted though - what I have, if it doesn't burn up, will be transplanted to the garden as fully grown ones are pulled.  The others have been amended, turned, and planted out with kale and peppers.  In the past (Garden #1) I planted peppers late in the middle of summer and still had them produce nicely all the way till winter, and Kale has proven to be worthwhile addition as a speedy substitute for broccoli or cabbage. Having some to replace the ones I pull out will be cool.  Cherry tomatoes are still up the back of the container, where they'll stay until I find space or if they fruit I'll use them to take seed for next year.   The parsley in the container next to them I decided to keep, but gave it a haircut.  I have my fresh parsley in the herb garden, so I'll keep this around to stock up on dried herbs for winter.

All herbs that have been producing more than I used were trimmed up, along with the very last of the snow pea pods.  They've been put in brown paper bags and tied up with a rubber band and stored in my closet under the stairs. The AC intake is there so there is constant fresh air movement - it's dark, and it's cool. I've dried out herbs in there already and it's worked out well.  I'll probably store potatoes in there as well if I need to (wishful thinking that there will be a surplus!).  2 ways to dry herbs. Either in a brown paper baggy (I save mine when I go to the gas station for this and that) and shake them up every few days (change bags if they get dampish) and they should dry out in no time. This is a good way to do it if you have a log of stuff to dry and little time on your hands. Another way (one I use when I DO have time) is to trim up your sprigs and gather them into bunches, collect them at the base and wrap a rubber band around them, and hang them upside down from clothes hanger using a clothesline pin.  Again, put in a dark cool place, and leave for a few weeks.  when they are dryed out, cut them up and put them in a sealable container (like a glass jar - I have lots of them from the baby food days) or even an empty spice jar you've saved.. the good thing about that is that it's already labled :P

Looking to Summer, it's a time for things that have been planted to come good - Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplants, Squash are all on the menu as it stands - but for these to hit their potential I'll have to be looking towards better watering and fertilizing solutions. I have a few ideas in the works, and look forward to documenting a few low-tech/low-cost DIY projects over the coming months.

As I finish typing this up it still hasn't rained, but you know the second I go out and water the transplants it will come down cats n dogs :)

 But for now I'll just relax, watch the sun set, and enjoy some fresh green bean casserole and let the weather sort itself out.

Harvest Time, Late Post for May 20th

Last week was BUSY!  Between the kids and a couple of days at the farm, I found myself on Sunday dead tired and a million and one things to catch up on.  Had I posted on Sunday this would have been a different post I'm sure. For one I was going to be opening out on it being the first time since September that I had to use house water, but as fate would have it - when I finally got to the point where I could do Sunday's harvest a thunderstorm hit - literally as I put shears to plants. The garden watered, my 50 gallon rain tub refilled, and not having to water for 2-3 days.

Sometimes it's good to have the reins taken from you - well me. I can fall into a system of order very easily, and nature doesn't work that way. Also (although some won't admit it) you end up very invested in plants you've been raising - especially if you've been fighting to get them going. Having most of a week taken from you and letting nature do it's thing can be good. Plants that have passed their season will fade away and you can push forward, rather than trying to bend natures will to your own stubborn pride.

So on we go, this was harvested Monday (and all pictures were taken Monday) but it's now Wednesday night and I'm getting around to posting it all.

Not too shabby

Again a great turnout for beans and peas - more peas this time, and less beans. The differences are negligible and the quality remains the same.
The beans are sorting themselves out in terms of timing. These are were blooms and small beans last week - and in turn the next group will be ready next week.  The only question that needs be answered is will the first batch follow this rotation with more blooms, or will it be more effective to replant.  Either way another 2 squares would put me quite flush with beans, and certainly further along the way of working out the logistics of a full veg intake over spring.
Peas are producing but they are way too big for their trellis. I had to train them back over.  If they bounce back and keep blooming it will be great - My Autumn peas continued till the spring, If I get to the start of summer I'll be happy.
Radishes I continue to thin one of the squares out and keep only one planted full.  I think this is a good strategy and I'll try and adhere to that next spring.  Swiss chard I pulled out. After the week break I could see it wasn't growing at any rate anymore while other plants (such as Kale and my Greens) were going gangbusters.  Time to pull it and eat what you can.

Now THEMS some greens!

 The growth that convinced me to pull things and move on was the greens. They are going great.  I count them and the Kale as 'in the harvest' but I will pull them when I use them (this week).  Like Lettuce I prefer to keep them in the ground till needed.  As for 'moving on' there's a small Kale in the center right square - replanted where I had Beets.  Nature did her thing and told me 'it's over for them' - all 16 were only the size of small seedlings, and I planted them before the carrots - at the same time as the greens.  Be it the wrong place in the garden to plant them, I missed the opportunity, they are gone.  The 13 in the square next to them are shaded - and seem to want to keep growing so I'll keep an eye on them.
Lettuce is starting to sprout in both the bed and the containers - so I might do some catch up on that yet.  Spinach has been replacing the Chard. The hot swing of weather sprouted them all then fried half of them.. Some insects have been nomming as well. Replanted them out and we'll see on Sunday.

This plant has doubled in size since this photo on Monday.

 Squash are starting to flower - I was concerned about the size of the plants (leaves vs flowers), but they have grown larger since Monday. I'll soon be spacing the pots further from each other.  I'm crossing my fingers that this might be the best way to grow larger plants in limited space.

The herb garden is producing very well - especially the basil and parsley. The sage is playing catch up, and all the seeds for Basil and Sage have sprouted out. Garlic is doing well up the back.  Thyme - I guess it doesn't like transplanting that much! I've thrown a few more seeds there.  Dill is coming along, but the same fate that held the Spinach also hit the Cilantro. 2 of the four plants were lost. Still I replanted and moved on.
Rosemary, as predicted, failed to make an appearance.  I used to suffer that with Parsley - no matter what I did it wouldn't grow. Ill be making it my project later this year to crack the rosemary code (without buying seedlings).

Still between here and the containers I have fresh Basil, Thyme, and Parsley to cook with fresh from the garden. If I can build a surplus I'll dry some out to store for later in the year.


In other news, having a week hands off the worm farm, I could objectively see a change in the levels of the trays, as well as a change in the color of the 'tea' that runs off them - slowly darkening again. It's not there yet, but it's on the way.  If I get another 30 bucks to throw at the worm farm I'm very tempted to purchase more of the European Red's - you get half as many, but they are more than twice the size - and they seem to be making a difference (or alternatively I could just let them breed out in that tower and have a more objective look at their performance).  Thus far the overabundance of paper goods doesn't seem to have slowed them down.

My flirtation with Eggplant has yielded 3 seedlings that seem to be doing well. One is in a container of it's own, the other 2 are in one of the overflow containers and have transplanted well. As space becomes available I'll be putting them into the garden proper.  I need another bed!  Oh well - that can be a Summer/Autumn project.

The composting frame, once again, had it's level sink below the halfway point - back to the same level as my pre-mow entry last week. Considering I put 4 boxes of shredded paper goods and all the yard clippings in there, this is becoming a great asset till the worms get back up to speed.  By the end of this week I'd have had to mow again (if the intermittent rain ceases for 24 hours) and another 4 boxes will be added, taking it back to the 1/2 full mark once more.

Spring marches on - I look forward to getting even more out of the garden before this week is ended!

First Veg of Spring - Garden Update

10 days since my last post, and you saw some half decent snaps. I've been rather busy this week with the twins turning 3, getting a few things in the yard squared away so I could work out where to put the replacement for their budget wading pool (15 bucks well spent - but it's time to upgrade), and other household sundries.

So I guess everyone was expecting some HUGE haul of wonderful veg, and have me telling them how it was 'all worth it and easy to do', then go into pickling and storage methods so as not to waste this bumper crop as it we look towards our winter months....

 Well, sorry to disappoint! Technically the first spring 'harvest' it was more 'pick it or lose it'.
I did want to show the colors of them - and the pics don't do them justice (my camera is ballsing up today).
I noticed 2 radishes bolt to seed on Friday - so I'll be pulling these as they poke a little red out of the soil and adding them to the gallon bag near full I already have in the crisper. I was hoping they'd time out with young lettuce - but it wasn't to be.
Radishes will be cleared out and make way for another crop (undecided - I'll see what's in my seed bag - it might be spinach, or something new).
Peas were the first spring buds coming to nice bulging pods. I could lose this first few while waiting for the others to catch up.

As you can see, now in full bloom there is no shortage of peas for next time, but these early buds may harden up waiting, and I didn't feel like baby pods for a salad with no dang lettuce.

 On the subject of that garden bed - it's interesting to look at the beans in front of them and compare them to the other 4 squares on the right next to them (a close up below).  They were planted at the same time, same soil, they get the same sun, watering, fertilizing.

There are only TWO differences between them.
The left hand beans are 2 squares planted in front of the peas (although with the sun on this property - they aren't shaded by them), and the left 4 squares were mulched with worm castings when they came into their 2nd leaves.

These beans weren't mulched. I had some left over from setting up beds and containers and decided to use the surplus to start mulching early - though a small casting harvest this month (which I'll go into in vermicomposting later) has put this on hold for maybe another month.

Even if I don't get to do it with these beans - it shows an objective look at what mulching with castings is capable of.
That being said - consider these plants are less than a month and a half old, that's from planting the seed to now. Although the picture doesn't really pick it up that well - all of these are in flower and with beans, in another week I think I'll be having some worth picking... so all things considered, my liquid worm runnoff fertilizer is no slouch either.

Carrots - about 3/4 the size of my hand - not a bad size to cut up and put in a soup or stew - but when you consider they came out of the container shown to the right (a standard 'window box' plastic garden pot) - it's not bad at all. I doubt they would get any longer - only wider - and as I learned over Autumn, there's a limit on how big you want a container carrot to grow.
Anyways - I want to use this container for other things, so as they mature I'll pull them up.

The herb garden, shown last blog post being planted, is doing good. Basil is growing quite fast  - and the single plant is growing marginally larger than the front 4.  The question will be will it produce four times as much in order to 'break even' - time will tell.
The sage next to it is coming along slowly - but all 5 plants are doing well.  The squares ahead of them have sprouted their basil and sage from seed, as well as cilantro and dill.  All other transplants have done well - chives, parsley, although the thyme is recovering - one of the sprigs didn't quite make it. Thyme being a ground cover - that doesn't give me much concern.  Garlic in the back is peeking up, and the only square not to show me the goods is Rosemary...but Rosemary has a long germination time anyways - so time will tell.  Even if it doesn't - if all the squares bar one is producing fresh herbs it will easily put the entire garden into the black before summer.

I was going to curse out the lettuce again, and was thinking of trying a new variety, when I noticed several very very small plants peeking up from the soil after watering.  The spacing would be right for the lettuce I planted into those containers last post - and so I'm hoping for a positive outcome.  If they pop I should expect between 10 and 12 ready for transplant in about a week and a half.  To fully fill out the squares I need about 14 plants - so if I get a good result I'll keep one container aside to propagate lettuce for the rest of the spring - transplanting to the bed as I pull the others.
This is not a BAD thing all in all, as the spacing between the growing plants SHOULD allow me to pull lettuce as wanted on the day - which always gives you a MUCH better product than harvesting and storing in the fridge.

One of the big things today - though it doesn't LOOK impressive was this little baby. Tucked at the end of the Turnip greens.  It's a pepper plant just starting to flower out. Big Deal.  Well it's the sole survivor from garden #2.  I took 6 pepper plants with me when I moved to the house. 4 survived long enough into that summer for me to plant in the new garden bed - of those 4 this one had some dashes of green at the mulch mark after the break of winter, and it's kin were dry sticks of wood.

So pruned back to an inch above the soil, it's grown above it's old stick of a base and putting forth flowers - whereas the new Peppers are only into their 2nd leaves.  So with any luck - some early peppers.. 'You could just do them indoors and transplant!' I hear you cry - but alas the house cat, while being a very good mouser, has a love for anything green or anything resembling a straw - the only thing that saves my outdoor plantings from the cat is that it only gets out when it manages to escape.  Maybe next year I'll build that little 9ft greenhouse of my dreams... but that's a LOT of outlay, even if I use my mediocre DIY skills.

The Turnip greens are doing rather well (when you look at them from 10 days ago) although I still think on my part that was a boneheaded planting.  Collards would be a good planting for greens alone - but what I SHOULD have planted were Turnips... I could have gotten a 2 for 1 deal on that.
Live and Learn.

All in all a good start for me I feel - with a good idea of some Autumn/Winter crops that work in South Georgia, next year I can start tightening up the gap between the seasons plantings - in a perfect world having an overlap between the last of Winter and first of Spring.

Where's my #@$%#$ Lettuce?

By now you've seen a few snaps of the current layout, and know my goal is trying to get as much out of my space as I can - while working within a 'pay for itself' budget. So seeing blank squares, or squares that aren't filled out at least 80% really starts to chap my ass after a while.

Sometimes it's where you don't expect them to pop up. Consider lettuce. Over the last 3 to 4 years I've grown probably 5 different varieties (mainly due to my seeing LETTUCE on the seed packet and grabbing it without reading it) in just about every way I can imagine growing it. In old cans, milk jugs, long window sized containers, in rows, in square foot squares.

I put it out the same times of the year, and it pops on up and grows - I can always count on it.

So where is it? It's supposed to be on that line right below the beans. Where there should be 16 nice little lettuce popped up, there's 5... maybe six.
This is on the new bed I just installed - and everything else has popped up just fine. I plant all my stuff from seed - although I do propagate in containers for some things - including lettuce - but usually this time of the year it's fine to plant right into the ground.

Worse still, the other 8 nestled between the turnip greens at the top, and the carrots and radishes below, haven't even put forward one peep of green.
I grew spinach here over the Autumn and Winter - but that was mulched with worm castings and afterwards dug over and amended with the same.
The same treatment the other squares (which held lettuce and and other things over the winter).

I'm now up to 3 replantings and nada.  Admittedly we've had some crazy weather swings between hot and cold, some very heavy rains - but it remains that by now I should be seeing something..
2 different places in the garden - 2 mixes of soils - same results. My guess is the weather and temps. 

Raised beds are able to get soil to warm temps faster than straight ground digging - but planter boxes do it even faster. 
Usually I plant a window container with them as both a backup, and also (due to limited bed space) to transplant as the garden squares are harvested.  Letting them get big and cutting my replant time.

This year though - everything is full up - once I put in the new 4 x 4 I expected that to go gangbusters and used my pots and containers to expand herbs and other things that require larger spaces in the beds.
I also keep 2 containers as 'overflow' - When I plant seeds I pop in 3-4 seeds per plant and thin back.  As I thin if I pull up a plant with intact roots, I'll pop it in an 'overflow' container. The plant will stay small because it can get rather cramped, and if I need to transplant to fill up a square - I can use it.  Also, as with lettuce, it can give a jump start on replanting.  I like to keep the garden beds as close to full and working as I can.

So what to do?  Putting in another 4x4 is out of the question  as the first hasn't paid for itself (this harvest will cover those costs) - besides, the next 4x4 is planned over Autumn and Winter - it's going to be an experiment in bringing the things I use closer together (self watering containers, square foot gardening, and vermicomposting into one unit).  It will be rather more expensive than a regular 4x4 as well.

More containers? Well they aren't THAT expensive - I've been phasing out my old weathered cheap pots for self watering pots as they wear out, but I'm running out of space to put them on - the hopes of expanding the garden wasn't to increase patio clutter but decrease it eventually.

Luckily I do have the old beds surrounding the house (my first beds were made by fixing those up). 
A rummage through the workshop and my list of 'to do' projects (there are so many I have to write them in a notebook or I forget them all) gave me a solution.  I've wanted a herb bed by the back doorstep - but this was going to be a Summer project, after the blueberry harvest.
The old bed that was there had been washed away down to some half broken down weed cloth - when I moved in I weeded them out quickly and covered them with pinestraw as mulch till I got around to them.

Peeling back the pinestraw and cutting the weed cloth showed some nice black soil - riddled with roots of bygone plants and other rubbish.
I blocked it out with some 2x4 scrap I had in the workshop and after some work with the shovel, hoe, and soil rake got rid of most of the crap and got to inspect the soil - it was a bit dense, so 3 blocks of coconut coir were hydrated (see the bucket off to one side) and mixed in.  I would have liked to use more, but my stash of coir is now running a bit low. I'm down to 3 bricks and I'll save that for my worm needs till I get more.

 Add 2 40lb bags of composted manure at 1.50 each, and some lattice from the workshop and we're good to go.
The lattice I use on the gardens to grid them off I get at Lowes for 7 bucks - you get 10 strips at around 8 foot per strip.

 

 The back strip is reserved for Garlic. People ask me 'where do you get your Garlic seeds from? ". Well I don't. I buy a bulb at the supermarket - break it up and put it into the ground (pointy end up) - and up shoots more garlic... it's that simple








The rest is planted out with Basil and Sage. I did a single plant per square at the back and 4 in a square one forward - I've planted them close in containers before - so this will give me a good test to see what works best in a square foot. One forward from those I've planted them again as seed.
To the side we have Parsley and Thyme. The front squares were planted with Dill, Cinantro, and Rosemary. If I were able to get Rosemary started earlier I'd have rearranged the order and called the bed 'Scarborough Fair' - ah well the the best laid plans, and all that.

So - herb garden sorted I now have a few pots and containers at the ready to plant out and try and get that @#$%!ing Lettuce sorted out!