Garden Update

It's been a busy couple days in the garden. The heat has finally broken and I can get outside without melting. What's Happening?

One Growbox is done, the zucchini and cucumbers succumbed to powdery mildew, there were no blossoms active so out they came.

In the Squarefoot bed, the squash is turning into "Frankensquash." The normal stem has  turned more ribbon like and there is a large cluster of tiny squashes. Have yours done this?

I cleaned out some "squares" and added more soil mix (1/3 each by volume, peat, vermiculite and manure). I got a nice little surprise when cleaning out one of the squares that I had grown green onions. These little treasure were hiding under the soil.

I put in carrots, beets, radish, lettuce, bush beans,kale and bok choi. Hopefully we'll get something from them. Here's a couple squares.

We've been getting good harvests and the cucumbers in particular keep on coming. Almost to 50 lbs from three plants. Well, two plants now. I know  it's normal, but I still am thrilled to pick a few pounds one night, go out the next and get another three plus pounds. It makes me happy.

Picked some peppers yesterday. I'm a little paranoid to let them go all the way on the vine. Seem like when I do, some critter gets to them or they rot or in some way become unusable. Not happening this year. I'll pick a little early and be sure to have something to eat.

These peppers are big. In my hand for scale.

I also picked a couple of the giant marconis. The big one is 8" long.

Are you planting fall crops? When are your frost dates?

Until next time, Keep Digging & Eat Well!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - @gastrogardener
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener
email: thegastronomicgardener at gmail dot com

Sunday Harvest(s)

I made a trip over to the veggie plot. It is terribly over grown and the only thing surviving are the peppers and tomatoes. Not sure what happened to the vines (zucchini, cucumber) but they are shot. The tomatoes, though over grown, are prolific. Sadly any ripe tomatoes were chewed and/or rotted. I picked almost 7 lbs of green tomatoes! We'll see if they ripen on the shelf.

When I got home it was finally cool enough (83F) to water. While watering I saw plenty to pick. So I did.

Here is today's haul. It's more than 13 lbs of produce. I'm pretty happy with that!

Meatless Monday should be a snap!

Until next time, Keep Digging & Eat Well!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener
email: thegastronomicgardener at gmail dot com

Chilies and first tomatoes

It was happy to have a cool breeze tonight after dinners as I  poked around the garden. What a break from recent days. Let's take a look at the peppers (or chilies if you prefer).

Cherry pepper

Early Bell - these are huge

Hot banana

Hot Red

Jalapeno

Any finally, the first couple pounds of tomatoes. Celebrity and Black Prince. The ones on the left asre from the grow boxes, one the right Squarefoot method. I'll be tracking production throughthe harvest.

Until next time, Keep Digging & Eat Well!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt

http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

A Sunny Saturday Morning

Welcome Jessica, I'm glad you are here.

I've been a litle remiss in posting, life keeps getting in the way blogging. The nerve!

It's a beautiful sunny morning, so I grabbed the camera and my coffee and stepped out the back door. There is something for everyone this morning.

I'll start with the vegetables, but if you wish to jump to the flowers, Scroll down.

Green beens starting to blossom

Hairy Tomato blossoms

Cukes growing up the mesh trellis, so far so good!

A healthy start

The peppers are also doing well.

Giant Marconi (sweet)

Hot banana

Greens are a mixed bag. They are growing well, but something is eating them, I will put up a short fence this weekend.

Chard, lettuce, and shallot

Lettuce is happy

Rabbit(?) damage



Eggplant



Green tomatoes in the Growbox

All in all I am rather pleased with the Squarefoot garden attempt. So far so good.

Flower Power!
This week the lilies burst onto the scene.

Good view of Stamen and Carpel. The Anthers will stain fabric, be careful!

I cut this Clematis down to 6" tall last fall. It's over 8' tall now.

One of my favorites, Coreopsis "Moonbeam" just starting to bloom, in a week or so it will be a golden carpet.

That's what I'm up to this morning, now I'm off on a field trip. More about that later!

Until next time, Keep Digging & Eat Well!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener

Starting some Seeds

It doesn't feel like it, but this is really only the second season that I'm vegetable gardening in earnest.  Clearly I am still learning, and there are many firsts that I'll go through. For example, starting seeds.

Inside.

In March.

We are about 10 weeks before being frost free. I know for others, down south USA or in Britain for example, spring has sprung. But today, it was snowing here.  At  least I can start some seeds, or try to anyway. The microgreens didn't turn out so well, so I'm not completely confident in my success. But for the price of a single plant, I can start multiple plants. I like that.

All winter I've been reading different gardening books, and one that did a good job of showing how to start seeds with not a great deal of effort is The New Victory Garden book by Bob Thomson. While he uses 4" pots, I'm going to recycle some plastic tubs from cottage cheese and yogurt. The idea to split them is my wife's. So she gets the credit for that.

Here we are with the tubs. They were thoroughly washed.

Measure down 2.5 "

Cut while connecting the dots.

One tub + one lid = two potting buckets

Drill holes to allow drainage (and wicking)

10 pots done

Fill with seed starter.

I've got tomatoes, eggplant, broccoli, peppers, celery.

Planted and sitting in a bath - we'll see if it wicks up by morning.

Once moist they go on a heating pad until they germinate.

So we shoud have spouts in a bit of time, then they'll move into the sunny south window.  Follow along, it should be educational.

Until next time, Keep Digging & Eat Well!

The Gastronomic Gardener
Garden blog http://amidwestgarden.blogspot.com/
Cooking blog http://ihopeyouarehungry.blogspot.com/
Twitter - www.twitter.com/DavidPOffutt
http://www.facebook.com/TheGastronomicGardener