Spinach anyone?

This morning we did some yard work and I cleaned out one of my garden beds. Or actually part of it only. Here is what it looked like before. See on the back all those greens? Those were radishes, spinach and dill. Ignore the front bed for now. That's our salads, arugula and sorrel rows.

So today we picked out all our spinach from the first bed. It's not altered variety so it was about to go into bloom - started forming stalks. New varieties are designed to keep them regular longer. But even with the short lifespan it gave us quite a bit of harvest. We've been eating it in salads, sauteing it in butter and giving it away. So how much did we pick?

How about a basket full of spinach! It's equivalent of full grocery bag of greens. Don't know about you but for me that's a tad much. So we'll saute some of it and the rest will be in the fridge for now. At least it "shrinks" when it's cooked. We'll figure out what to do with it later. Maybe Peter can take some with him to work for his secretary. He's been giving her some arugula because we have too much so maybe she'll want spinach as well.

We also plucked out all radishes because they were overgrown and instead I planted more salad seeds. Two weeks ago I planted more radishes between spinach rows so they're just waking up and first leaves are showing up. Which is good timing because now that all greens are gone they can spread out and start growing. Hopefully in two more weeks we'll have fresh crops. This way we're constantly rotating and keep things growing.

Seedlings have grown!

Remember my tiny cups where I put few seeds and let them grow so I can have my own plants? Well this is how they looked like before and after - a short comparison just for fun.

Here are they just "woke up" and starting to grow in the first week. Fast forward two month later...

Not so tiny anymore! And I placed couple of beans into the pot just to see if they'll grow together. Seem to be doing ok. Beans are natural fertilizers so it should help my tomatoes. And these two are not so small anymore. They even have flower buds. I'm looking forward to trying this type of tomato - if I remember right this should be Brandywine.

These are watermelon that were also planted from seeds . You might remember them when they were very small in the same tray as my cucumbers .

I don't have "baby" pictures of my yellow squash but it seem to be doing ok in the container. Both watermelon and squash will need space to spread out so having them on a deck is a good idea.

I know it might be hard to imagine for some but you really don't have to buy every single plant in the store. It gets expensive and if you're going to grow more than 2 plants each - get yourself some seeds and grow your own. It really not that difficult to do either. Seeds can be preserved for couple of years so it's a big cost saver, not to mention really a lot of fun to watch and see how they progress from tiny little things that barely visible above ground to a 3 foot plants, :o)

Yeay! more to harvest!

Today we picked our broccoli from the garden. It's not alot because it was just an experiment to see if it will grow so I only planted 9 plants. Well it definitely grew. And in the past week it really grew! All that rain and sunshine is very good for it.

It's just over a pound (1 1/4 lb) but it's definitely enough for the two of us and we had some already today for dinner. Home grown organic broccoli with no pesticides of any kind. It's probably cheaper to buy in the store for $.99/lb but I think I like this one instead. I left the stalks in place and just cut off crowns so hoping that it will continue to grow from other buds.

Protecting Your Garden

One of the challenges of having a garden is trying to protect what you grow from birds, deers and furry friends. I know that some people will not hesitate with killing animals but there is no way I would ever do that to any living creature. No traps, poison or guns here. They have the right to live just like people or even more so because honestly they were here first and we're trespassing on their turf. We're the invaders and not the other way around. But at the same time I still like to harvest something edible so I try to be creative when it comes to my greenery. First my DF put up a water repellent. It's connected by a hose to the water outlet that's always on, and is motion sensitive. It's set to spray for any sign of movement. So if the deer comes near my trees it goes off. It has 180 degree sensors so it should protect for any invaders in the garden. Of course there are some that just ignore water spray and keep on helping themselves to your stuff - like squirrels did to my strawberries. And you probably noticed in the picture that the strawberry bed is now covered with the netting. So far it seem to be working against the squirrels. The same netting you already saw on my beans and blueberries. We also put the same netting over our trees - plums and nectarines. As you can see it's loosely wrapped around the tree so it can grow but still prevents deers from stripping the leaves.
Unfortunately we were too late to protect our cherry trees and they got stripped but maybe they'll grow and will bloom next year around.

Flowers vs Food

"I want my garden to be pretty and covered with flowers!". I hear it all the time. Well guess what, so do I! Just because I grow veggies in my garden it doesn't mean that it's not pretty with flowers. Just wait until everything picks up and starts blooming.

From early spring time I had Tulips and Hyacinths, then came Lily of the Valley and Lilacs with Azaleas and Rhododendron and roses. Everything was in bloom. I was very surprised by the Lilacs because we didn't know they were there. When we bought our home we didn't get a list of what's where and since it was fall most of the shrubs lost their leaves. So to see this beauty bloom was one of the nicer surprises. And it sits on the side of the drive way so it's in a good spot.

The same was with azaleas. Very pretty and nice spring surprise for us. And we have white ones, bright red and purple making the entire landscape very bright and cheery after dreadful winter. And while my shrubs were blooming my veggies were growing and now they're in bloom as well.

Just take a look at these gorgeous pea flowers. Not only they look great but they also smell heavenly. And after they're done blooming you get to pick peas for your meal. It's a win-win situation. And they're not just in my pots - I planted them all along the border of my garden so as they grow and wind around my fence they create 'green' border with flowers. Nice for the eyes and good for snacking later. And another good part is that they'll be blooming for several weeks so it's on-going beauty. And after they'll be gone my gladiolus that are planted right next to them in the same row should be in bloom. Not to mention my eggplants and tomatoes will pick up as well by that time. They also can be quite striking in appearance. And if you really want some nice pretty flowers why not plant Nasturtium? It's beautiful and its flowers can be used in salads. There are many choices of what you can do. You just need to choose to do it.

"I have no space"

That's the first and most common excuse when it comes to not having garden - I have no space for a garden. Ok, so you don't have space for a traditional garden. How about using space that you do have for some irregular planting. Let's pretend that my fenced garden doesn't exist. I still have my container garden on the patio that's surrounded by azaleas and rhododendron bushes. But there is space UNDER those bushes and around them. So I used them.

This is rhubarb that I planted on both sides of the patio steps to the back yard and some Hyacinth bulbs. With it mixed some green peas. Will they produce anything? Don't know. We'll find out but for now they're alive and kicking (I mean growing). Hyacinths finished blooming right in time for rhubarb started spreading high and wide so it's a good combination. Next spring they will bloom again. Place has bad soil, lots of rocks but it still produces something. In the fall I'll add compost to help with the soil quality.

These are my peas and beans - I threw some seeds on the ground between azaleas bushes and some other green bush and they took. Seem to be ok so far. I just covered them with a netting to protect from deer and they're growing. Hopefully they might even give me some green and yellow wax beans this summer. Once again, very little space but it's still used.

And here is a make-shift bed that was kind of an afterthought. We had some dirt left over from the pile that was delivered in a truck and dumped by the big evergreen tree. After using what we could in the raised beds we didn't want to shovel all this extra and haul it somewhere else so we made a quick bed - leveled it on the sides and top and planted few things. There are few cucumber plants mixed with sunflowers, few potatoes to the right side and farther inside the picture are garlic and onions.

As you can see my garlic is almost hidden by the tree yet it still grows. Bad heavy soil, rocks and no food but it's growing. And I hope to use it soon. And what about space along the sides of your house? On the side that I have my garden, actually between my garden and walls I have space to walk around. I also had some ground cover greens. We made few holes in that cover along the wall and planted some blueberry bushes.

They're not taking whole lot of space but they'll grow and produce some berries. I didn't expect them this year but apparently they have mind of their own so I'm not going to argue. Though I'm really looking forward to next year when they're fully grow into the spot and won't suffer from shock of being transplanted. Once again they covered with netting to protect from animals and birds.

So you see, you can always find space. Be it in the hanging planters, small pots and container garden or anywhere else where you can put some dirt and seeds. You just have to "want" to find it.

How to use what you grow

Sometimes people ask me - do you really use all those herbs and greens that you're growing? And honestly their question is more surprising to me than my answer to them - of course we try to use everything in the garden! Sometimes I do get too many greens so I share them with others, like arugula that decided to grow like weed and we just can't keep up with it so I snip some and give it away. But there are few things that I use all the time - like spinach, sorrel, dill, parsley, thyme, rosemary and oregano.

This parsley and dill were picked fresh this afternoon and used in my chicken dish for dinner. Last week I made soup with sorrel - very easy to make yet also very refreshing and can be eaten hot or cold.

Sorrel gives it slightly tangy lemony taste that's very satisfying on the hot summer day. And of course my typical lunch - fresh salad tossed with my own greens. I have several types of salads but the first one I had was with arugula, spinach and radishes.

Just added sliced turkey breast and egg and my salad was done. No need for any dressing because greens are so nice and fresh and juicy that it didn't need anything else. Now I'm looking forward to some snap peas that are in bloom for stirfry and broccoli for side dish.