Before the Rain

Rain, rain, and more rain.  This past weekend, the weather turned cold and damp...not a great start to June.

Friday night, before the rain started I went out to do some weeding and harvested what I could.  I picked 8 strawberries, 1 pea, and 1 head of lettuce. I also picked some thyme and rosemary (to make flatbread - a great rainy day snack).

I just can't get enough of these cute, perfect strawberries!

and look...my first tomato (on my sunsugar plant).

Harvest Monday 5.21.12

It was a beautiful and busy weekend in the garden, but more on that later.  I harvested two heads of Boston lettuce yesterday, which made for a great dinner.  My Junebearing strawberries are still red, but I guess that makes sense since it is not quite June.  I can only hope that mine looks as good as these.

Strawberry Season

English Lavender

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. I spent the weekend up in Maine, seeing family and welcoming the start of summer with open arms. Although slightly cooler up north, it sounds like it was a great, hot weekend for most of New England.

I had a special treat of fresh Jersey strawberries that my parents brought up from southern NJ, which tasted heavenly paired with a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Then, as I returned home tonight to my garden I found that a few of my own Junebearing Strawberries had ripened.

Now, I know the rule that you are supposed to pinch back flowers on strawberry plants in their first year to help them establish for the future - but I am just too impatient to follow that rule. I let my three plants flower away. So, tonight I ate three great tasting strawberries of my own.

I swear that most of my plants doubled in size over the weekend. I love watching everything grow. In addition to the three strawberries, I harvested more Salad Bowl Lettuce (2.25 oz) and my first head of Boston Lettuce (4.75 oz).

5/30/11 harvest

Other growing news...
The volunteer tomatoes are taking over and will need to be moved soon:


My first tomatoes (Better Boy) are growing:


My second succession of Black-Seeded Blue Lake Pole Beans (planted only on 5/24) are about half the size of the first succession, planted more than two weeks earlier on 5/8. The warm weather really made a difference with germination:

2011's First Harvest

Let there be lettuce...and salad.

In between the rain storms this week I harvested some of my Salad Bowl lettuce (11.4 oz). The leaves were definitely getting out of control, and I wanted to make sure I did not let them go too long, where they developed a bitter taste.

I love the fact that I have already had my first harvest, as it was about two weeks before last year. However, I still have quite a few weeks before I will be able to harvest anything but lettuce. My Boston Lettuce is doing quite well, and I expect to harvest some of that soon, but I anticipate the next veggie to harvest to be...sugar snap peas!

Sprouting peas

Sugar Snap Peas are sprouting!

So far about 14/18 seeds planted have broken through the soil. Planted on 4/3, they took exactly two weeks to sprout.

On Sunday I planted the following:
Lettuce - Boston (plants)
Lettuce - Salad Bowl (plants)
Onion - Red (plants) - total experiment; I am not really sure what to do with them
Marigold - Crackerjack (seed) - seeds were free, but I worry that this variety will be too big
Carrot - Short n' Sweet (seed) - half of one square
Carrot - Little Finger (seed) - half of one square
Strawberry - June-bearing (plant) - I couldn't resist increasing my changes for strawberries this year

Earlier in the week I planted a thyme and rosemary bush. I already experienced the convenience of having the herbs outside my door. While grilling Sunday night I was able to add some fresh thyme to my basket of onions, potatoes and peppers. Yum!

Here are some updated box shots - now that there something growing in each one.

Box 1
(Currently growing: marigold, thyme, rosemary)

Box 2
(Currently growing: marigold, sugar snap pea, strawberry, lettuce, carrot)

Box 3
(Currently growing: marigold, lavender, red onion)

Harvest Monday: First Tomatoes!

Gorgeous! As the sugar snap peas keep coming, I excitedly picked my first tomatoes of 2010! Three bright, orange Sungold tomatoes were ripe for picking on Sunday morning!

I also harvested a mix of all my lettuces, sugar snap peas, a forgotten garlic scape and three tiny strawberries.

Plot update (6/28/10)

Perfect Growing Weather?

After being away at a conference in Kansas City, MO for a week I visited the garden yesterday. I could not believe how much everything had grown! I think the great weather we have been having has kicked the plants into overdrive. Some of my veggie plants almost doubled in size (or so I want to believe). Unfortunately, it also meant that the weeds grew even faster! I spent a lot of time weeding my perimeter beds and in "the addition" - because, of course my SFG boxes were weedless!

My potato box is now complete and filled to the top with soil. I anticipate them starting to flower by the end of the month (when I will check for new potatoes). I appreciate the cautionary comments from Leslie of dreams and bones, " I have found that soil that is too fertile tends to yield lots of foliage but no spuds. So as you add dirt, make it dirt, not some extra enriched soil." This is a lesson that I may have to learn this year, sine I used a mixture of free compost and store-bought potting soil. The plants definitely grew fast (planted on 4/18; first sprouted on 5/7) - way faster than anticipated, which may not be a good sign! I still wonder if there are any spuds in there! Hopefully the mystery will soon be solved!

I love getting comments and tips! This is what blogging is all about-sharing and learning!

In other growing news, my two corn varieties are coming along nicely!

Brocade Sweet & Japanese Hulless Popcorn

Here is my first 2010 harvest comprised of lettuce (Salad Bowl & Mesclun Mix), Sugar Snap Peas, Basil...and something else that is so special it needs its own post (to follow shortly!)

In not so great news...my Everbearing Strawberry plants appear to be growing well and producing small berries, but critters have made any red berry inedible to humans. I placed some bird netting over the plants two weeks ago, but it is not stopping smaller pests. Also, two of my cucumber varieties, recently bought and transplanted, did not make it. With sadness, I pulled up my shriveled Diva & Burpless seedlings (varieties that served me well last year). However, I decided to try two new varieties: Sweet Success & Straight Eight!

My Easter Celebration

...was in the garden of course! Today was about as perfect you could get for Easter Sunday-temps reached almost 80 degrees! To make the most of it I logged about 5 hours - the the most time I have spent in the garden in many months; and to top it all off it was the Red Sox home opener! People were everywhere!

I was anxious to check on the peas that I planted on 3/20 as I was afraid that the incredible rains we had drowned them or washed them away. I only saw signs of one plant breaking the surface, so I will have to keep an eye to see if the rest follow. When I planted last year in mid June they seemed to come up quickly. Maybe when planted earlier when the temps are cooler, they are slower to grow..? However, I am so happy to already be able to plant, remembering that this time last year I was 'plot-less!'

Today's garden chores consisted of:

• stabilizing the fence between my plot and my neighbor
  
• weeding the perimeter flower bed and three square foot boxes
• raking leaves
• trimming back wild rose bushes along the back fence
  
• planting lettuce (Mesclun salad mix,Buttercrunch & Salad Bowl ) & carrots (Short n' Sweet & Baby)
• drafting possible layouts for the 'addition' area which include a space for my potato box, corn and a shaded area
• adding one wheelbarrow of compost (I forgot my shovel today which made it very difficult; I will need to add more when I return with my shovel!)
  

Playing catch up...

It has been a while since my last post so I thought I would create a photo collage to catch up what has been happening! To see more detail, click on the photo and move your mouse over the photos. Enjoy!

First Big Harvest!

I'm back! Sorry, I have been away from my garden for almost two weeks as I was enjoying another vacation! I heard that we had some pretty bad weather in Boston with at least one bad storm! However, the garden appeared to be in good condition. The sugar snap peas have climbed up the trellis, tomatoes were turning red and there were a lot of green beans to pick! I am finally able to update my harvest report! Unfortunately, the cucumbers have taken a turn for the worse. They appear to still be growing cucumbers, but the leaves have almost all died. I am hoping that the cucs continue to grow.

The biggest consequence of being away for so long are the weeds - around the fence and in the flower perimeter beds. I was not able to tend to the weeds tonight, but it will be a big project for another day...and it is going to be a lot harder to keep up with them than I thought!

Here are some snapshots from tonight:

Cucumbers & Mandarin Hybrid Peppers

Tomatoes & Sugar Snap Pea flowers

Multipik Squash & Super Sweet 100s

A harvest of flowers and veggies!

A Great Sunday!

I just returned from the garden with RADISHES! Only three, but that is a start. And, actually one was cracked...but I have RADISHES! I wasn't sure when to pick them, but thought I would try a few! Check out what my garden has provided me with today:

Lettuce and radishes for a salad, mint for a mojito and for decoration, hydrangeas and a dahlia! Bon appetit!

I am so happy! I spent about four hours checking in on each square foot! I "weeded" the itsy-bitsy weeds trying to grow, and if needed, helped guide them up the trellis, or added compost to freshen up the soil. I also gave a few plants some food and sprayed neem oil to hopefully help with bug control. I also tried to tackle some of the weeds along the fence that were starting to encroach on my flower beds.

Here are updated pictures of how the boxes look!


Also, cucumbers and beans are growing!