First harvest for 2013

Well 2013 is here and that means planning for the season is here also. Today I went through my seed inventory and made a list of what I need to add. This year will be slightly different than last - we'll focus on planting as many things that my hubby really likes to eat like tomatoes, potatoes, beans, peas, carrots (a LOT more!) and such to keep it producing for our dinner table instead of trying too many new varieties. I will have less greens like kale because he doesn't like them, but will add more spinach. We will also install drip-system to keep things watered properly - my winter garden was suffering this year because we didn't have it in place and I wasn't around to keep it really going as it should have been. But at any rate it still produces as you can see from picked carrots and couple of radishes for our meal tonight. And our hydroponics are still going strong - giving me greens for stirfry.

So let's hope this year is going to be very productive and nature will cooperate.

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and hope that 2013 will be a lot better than last, with gentle rain at night and pleasant sun during the day to keep everyone happy in the garden for the year. And of course for everyone to stay healthy and happy and may all your wishes come through.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Holiday season is upon us so I wanted to wish everyone to have a Great Thanksgiving and remind that it's not material things that matter most - it's your friends and family that keep you happy. Today I'm thankful for my husband and my sister, my 3 adorable furbabies Midnight, Lipstic and Shadow, my friends and of course all those who come visit me on the blog.  Even though I haven't been posting much lately about the garden, it's still growing and we're still picking and I hope to do occasional posts until spring time. In the meanwhile, here are some shots of what is still growing around here, starting with some greens in hydroponic -  salads, bok choy and tatsoi. They are all different sizes because we keep picking and replanting continuously.

In the garden we have carrots, salads, brussels sprouts, chard and kale still growing.

Inside the house one of my lemons finally has a baby lemon! and a pot with 3 bell peppers is trying to survive the winter - hopefully it will last so I can have earlier peppers next spring.

Break in harvests

No more harvest post for a while. Last snow storm damaged my main hoophouse and before we were able to fix it cold air killed off all my peppers and beans. I still have some salads and carrots growing, some kale and swiss chard that are also being picked but for now I won't post any  pictures of these harvests. The smaller hoop house in the old garden is still standing and transplants of broccoli, cauliflower and cabbages are doing pretty well but not producing yet. We're also using hydroponic greens for salads and sandwiches but I keep forgetting to record these pickings. I'm really starting to miss warmer season where I had all those cucumbers and tomatoes at my fingers. This week I will start two cherry tomato seedlings to see if I can get them to grow inside during winter. So far there is a long pot wit 3 bell peppers in the kitchen so we'll see how that will work out.

First snow storm

Mother Nature is definitely not happy with us this year - we got snow a lot sooner than our usual December or January. But it does look pretty and white covering my back yard.

 Unfortunately it also covered my front yard with my new garden  and collapsed the hoop house on two beds. I haven't been outside yet to see if anything under neath survived. We're expecting warmer temperatures in next two days so will fix it during weekend. Greens might be ok but I'm afraid my experiment with peppers is done.

Harvest Nov 5

Not much going on in the garden these days. The hoop house that was damaged in the small garden was repaired, and the one in the new garden also in place now. There are few peppers growing but I didn't need them this week so did not pick any. Today's harvest is greens - swiss chard, kale and parsley. A handful of beans that I used for my side dish was picked as well but not weighted.

Next few days will be in low 20's so not sure how my hoop house will protect them - will find out the hard way after hard freeze is over. I also planted a bed of garlic that is about 2" tall now so had to pile mulched leafs on top of it to protect it. Hope it will be ok as it has to make it through winter.

Sandy's aftermath

Sandy whirled through the southern portion of NJ so we were lucky - damage was minimal. Few branches knocked out, power was out from 8pm to just past Noon but we had generator so no big deal. Arbor got blown out but once the rain stops and wind calms down my hubby will fix it. Two of the new hoop houses were damaged so he'll repair them, but the first one on the long bed is still standing. Overall we really lucked out and it could have been much worse like for those who are near the coast.