Planting Our Garden in April

We had bought some herbs and planted them in pots at the end of March (see Herbs in Pots). We had prepped our garden’s soil in March, too (integrated some compost, turned it a bunch to loosen it up), but it took us until the second weekend in April to get our act together and actually plant our garden. It was a little bit later than we’d hoped, but we used all plants rather than seeds so we should be ok.

The garden consists of lots of peppers, tomatillo, and musk melon.

Miniature red bell pepper

Italian roaster pepper

Guajillo chile pepper

Jalapeno pepper (we planted two of these)

Fresno chile pepper (we planted two of these)

Caribbean red hot pepper

Musk melon

Yellow tomatillo

I also planted a couple more things in pots earlier this month – chives, and a tomato plant I got at work (my boss was giving away his extras, planted from seed).

Tomato – pretty sure it’s a brandywine

Community Garden March-April

There was a lot of work on the community garden in the past month, planting stuff for a spring/summer harvest. Most stuff was planted the last two weeks in March or first week in April. Including:

Beans planted from seed next to the onions (look carefully to the left under the trellis).

Variety of mild peppers

Two cucumber plants – one is a “lemon” cucumber that produces round, yellow fruit

Hot peppers (back) and tomatoes (front)

You can see we used a lot of hay as mulch this year, which should protect the soil (keeps it cool and moist).

There are also several squash plants, but I didn’t take a photo.

We had a weird end of March where there was a cold front for a day or two and we had a little frost, so some of the seeds never produced and we think that was why.

The peppers were all plants, but the beans and squash were from seed.

One of the pepper plants up close

Herbs in Pots

This year, we decided to keep all herbs in pots so we have more control over their access to sun, and so they can keep surviving over the seasons (if all goes well).

The spicy oregano and lemon balm made it from last year, so we just re-potted them.

Lemon balm

Spicy oregano

We went to Magic Garden Nursery and picked up the rest. We got Thai basil, which did really well last year; spearmint (as opposed to peppermint which we tried last year – spearmint has bigger leaves); and cilantro and Italian parsley, which I tend to use regularly in cooking so thought they were good bets.

Thai basil

Spearmint

 

Cilantro

Italian parsley

I still want to get chives and possibly regular basil, rosemary, and/or thyme. I can’t decide…

The Last of the Carrots

All what remained of the carrots in the community garden had to be pulled up last week to make way for the summer garden. There was some pretty decent sized ones – I think the sun in the last few weeks made a big difference.

Here is a sampling of the batch we got to take home.

These are so good. I really like the purple ones, and the white ones cook up nicely, but would have to say the traditional orange ones are still the tastiest just as they are out of the ground.

Reflections on Our First Winter Garden

The days are getting longer, and winter garden season is officially over. We are in the process of getting rid of what’s left of our winter garden plants, and preparing the soil to plant things for the spring/summer.

Our own winter garden was very small and basic, with only broccoli. We just didn’t have anywhere else to plant (because of the movement of the sun, our summer garden plot is covered in shade in the winter).

That said, we did get a good harvest of broccoli. It took longer than expected and everything was mostly ready to eat at the end of February/early March. Taking the shade cover off our patio made a big difference. Sun is real important.

Broccoli plants in our patio planter

The community garden broccoli (which is actually just in our neighbor’s backyard) did really well. We planted a lot of it (about 30 plants), and ate a lot of it. My only hope for next time is to space out the planting a bit, so we don’t have nothing for months, then end up overrun with broccoli in the course of a couple of weeks.

Broccoli plant in the community garden

The kale and Swiss chard also did well. The kale did seem to get nibbled on my something, so many of the leaves had holes in them, but nothing was destroyed. We’ve removed all the broccoli plants now, but the kale and Swiss chard are sticking around for a few more weeks, we hope. Which is great, because I’ve found they can be added to pretty much any dish.

Our two kale plants in community garden

Kale and Swiss chard plants in the community garden

The radishes did quite well and became pretty big. Those have been pulled up now. The beets, on the other hand, still haven’t grown that big. They remain in the ground, next to where we pulled up the radishes and broccolis, in hopes now they have some space and more sun that they’ll get ripe. We’ll see…

Beet plants in the community garden – still not that big

The cabbage plants took a while to get form their heads and were just recently ready to begin harvesting. We encouraged them by tying the inside leaves together to help form a head. The first cabbage I harvested is what I used for the Irish Stew, although before that I had been picking a leaf here or there.

Cabbage plants in the community garden

The purple cauliflower did pretty well and tasted good, although it always seemed a little “stemmy” – like the heads never formed as thick & solid as you would see in a cauliflower at your grocery. That could just be the variety, though.

Purple cauliflower harvested from the community garden

The carrots were delicious, but they never grew as large as we’d hoped. We’re pretty sure it’s because they just didn’t get enough sun. As the sun has been shifting over the past several weeks, we’ve already noticed them to start to get taller. Next year, we’ll need to find another spot for the carrots.

Two carrots from the community garden

The onion and garlic seems to be doing well. These take almost a year until they are ready to harvest, so we just have to be patient.

Onion and garlic plants in the community garden

The winter garden did seem to require less maintenance – less watering, obviously, but also no need to worry about shade cloths, and the bugs/worms didn’t seem to be much of an issue. The season does seem shorter though. It feels like we just planted stuff and it’s already over. But we are looking forward to picking out our plants for the upcoming summer season!

First Carrots

Bed of carrots and cabbage

The carrots aren’t planted in the ideal location – the wall to the south causes them to not get nearly enough sun. (This is one of our summer beds, re-purposed for the winter garden, but probably needs to just remain a spring/summer-only bed).

That said, after a couple of months, some of them have now grown enough to harvest. They aren’t super big, but they are still super tasty. Lots of flavor.

Carrots – short, “round” variety

Carrots – multicolor variety

 

Growth of Broccoli and Cauliflower

The broccoli plants in the community garden are getting nice and tall, and have their first fruit! We just need to wait a bit longer until the first ones will be ready to harvest.

Broccoli plants

First broccoli fruit

The broccoli plants in our own planter haven’t been growing as quickly, and we think it’s due to lack of direct sun. So yesterday, we removed the shade cloth over our patio. In just a day, they are already looking better.

Porch shade cloth removed to let in more sun

Broccoli plants

The cauliflower in the community garden is also doing well, and has its first fruit. It’s a beautiful purple!

First fruit on purple cauliflower plant

First Radishes

Growth of radishes as of late November

We were able to harvest our first radishes recently! Crispy, juicy, and real nice on a salad.

Radishes fresh from the garden

 

 

 

 

Community Garden Progress in October

The winter garden was planted, beginning with lots of broccoli, carrots, garlic, onion & lettuce as I talk about in the recent post on winter garden beginnings.

It didn’t take long for the carrots, garlic, and onion to sprout.

Carrots (front bed), onions, and garlic (back bed) beginning to grow

The lettuce we planted from seed is also coming up nicely.

Lettuce plants

In the subsequent week, we also planted beets and radishes from seed, in rows near the broccoli plants. These grow nice and quickly, as well, and are looking healthy. The radishes are growing especially quickly and will probably need to be thinned out.

Rows of broccoli (left), beets (center), and radishes (right)

Radish plants up close

We also planted some kale and Swiss chard plants.

Swiss chard (front) and kale (back)

And snap peas from seed, already growing nicely.

Snap pea plant growing up the fence

And some cabbage plants out front in the same beds as the peppers we have still growing.

Cabbage plants

Very much looking forward to the winter harvest!

Winter Garden Beginnings

October is the time of year to begin the winter garden. Our first one!

First we had to think about location, because what gets sun during the summer doesn’t necessarily get sun in the winter. We actually can’t even use our summer garden plot, which is in the southwest corner of our yard. (The sun is further south in the sky, so the southern wall blocks pretty much all sun in the winter months).

So for our own garden, we are mostly just using the patio planter we built back in June, which has been empty for several months. We planted 8 broccoli plants, and are using netting to keep the dogs out.

Broccoli plants

We also planted heirloom carrots from seed and put in a planter we’re keeping in the front yard, where there is a lot of sun. It has been a week, and they have just started to sprout. We’re considering preparing the soil and actually planting in the front yard as well.

Heirloom carrots planted from seed

The watering schedule is lighter now that we have cooler days. We are currently getting highs in the 80s and lows in the 50s, and find that watering every 2 or 3 days is sufficient (rather than daily or twice-daily watering in the summer).

For the community garden, we cleared out the front two beds (what was left of the bean and edamame plants) and planted seed. In one bed, we planted all rows of carrots – 3 different varieties. In the other bed, we planted garlic and onion. The pepper plants are still going from the summer so we’re keeping those around as long as they last. Because of the south wall, we can’t plant anything here for winter because it won’t get enough sun. We did remove what was left of the cucumber and cantaloupe plants.

Beds of carrots, garlic & onion seed

We are extending the community garden into our neighbor’s backyard. We planted a couple dozen broccoli plants. We also planted a couple rows of radish and beet seeds.

Broccoli plants

We also planted a bed of different varieties of lettuce from seed.

Variety of lettuce seeds

Since sowing, everything has started to come up and we actually are going over there today to thin out some of the plants so they don’t compete for resources.