Weekly Update - June 8, 2015

The excessive rain has destroyed the plan.  We did not have the ability to craft the different raised beds we wanted.  We are just trying to get the plants into the ground so they do not get root bound and die on the porch.  When the rain let up for several days this week allowing the soil to dry enough to plan, so we got up early Sunday morning to go out to the Garden and plant the herbs.


We left the south side of the garden for herbs when planting last week. We checked the weather when we got up at 6 am and it said the rain was going in but not until 10 AM, so we loaded up the plants and went over getting to the garden around 6:45 AM.

We had to remove the weeds from the garden space as we did not weed this section previously.  We used the soil twister to pull out the larger weeds and loosen them so they could be easily raked out.  It was not that time consuming.

Since I want to be able to lift out some of herbs from the garden at the end of the season, I decided to bury plastic containers and place the plants inside.  They can grow in the container, yet still be removed at the end of the year, reducing the root shock which killed the herbs I removed from the garden last year.

I used plastic cat litter containers.  They are thin flexible plastic, easily cut with a box cutter.  We made them deep for all but the thyme plants which we cut the container slight more shallow for.  We cut holes in the bottom for drainage.

I then dug out the dirt in various holes slightly larger but not deeper than the containers.

Placing the container in the ground I packed dirt around it, then filled it part way and added the plants.  We added water before and after plating the plants.

The spaces we planted back in May had a fair amount of weeds, that were in some cases taller than the plants.  It had been two weeks since we had been there, so this was to be expected.

The excessive rain was not loved by all the plants and resulted in one plant death. These are the cucumber plants.  I have yet to plant any bean seeds, but I will take care of that this week.

 The peppers are doing okay, but the hot peppers that had a few peppers forming have lost those peppers, probably again a product of the extra rain.

Hot pepper with damaged fruit

The Planted Community Garden - Sunday May 24, 2015

This year we suffered from over-purchase syndrome.  That affliction where you buy more plants than will fit in your space.  That linked with the fact the plot at the end is actually smaller than it is supposed to be, something I had not planned for, made our original plan will not work out quite right.

Here is the plot, a bit weedy due to the fact we did not come out until May 24, due to the days of rain. We first removed the grass and used the hand tiller to break up the soil and remove the large weeds from the garden edge.

You can see the hand tiller to the left in this picture.  It is a pole with three curved claws at the bottom.  You place it in the ground and twist and it brings out weeds and breaks up soil.  You can see the original plan I posted back on May. I put in the paths and measured off the garden and that was when I discovered the the plan was not going to work.

We were not able to put in three long beds and two short, instead we got two long beds on the sides and three short beds down the middle  We planted tomatoes in one long bed as planned but it was shorter than it should have been so all the plants did not fit and we had to put the plants a bit closer together.

We purchased too many peppers and planted them into two beds leaving us with only one small bed for everything else and one long bed for the herbs.  I think I am going to have to sacrifice at least part of the herb bed for more vegetables, as the kohlrabi, broccoli, beans and squash cannot possibly fit in the last bed.  We lost the time for growing lettuce because of the heavy rains in May so we will try that experiment later in the season.

I will be growing some of the herbs in containers and will be planting onions and shallots in between the peppers. I will need to wait until the first week of June as it rained for five days straight starting with the evening of the day we planted these plants.  That rain and the effect of cold weather on the plants will be covered next week.

weekly update - July 28

taken 7/26/14

The rain has stopped.  In fact this past week we had to stop by and water the garden several different days as it has not rained at all.  We also finally had several warm nights so that the Tomatoes which were on the vine staying green and orange finally turned that robust red you want them to be.  The zinnias are in bloom, the sunflowers are almost ready to bloom and the herbs are growing so quickly I could harvest them everyday.

Zinnias

Green peppers

This material coupled with zucchini, broccoli rabe, cucumbers, beans, peas and peppers and a wonderful selection of herbs all coming ripe made the garden a place of bounty this week.

Although we have harvested previously, this was the first time we filled that basket while at the garden. Here is a view in the basket.

I spread everything out on a table so you could see all that we retrieved on our water and harvest run on Saturday.

The purple basil to the left has been turned into herbal vinegar (check out this post if you want to make an herb flavored vinegar yourself.) The lemon balm (above photo, top left) was bundled and hung up to dry.  The genovese basil (front left) became a caprese sandwich with ham, mozzarella cheese, fresh tomatoes and a drizzle of olive oil on toasted bread.  It was marvelous!

There were enough beans to fill a pint basket (the square wood basket you see at the farmers market) which means we have at least a pound and can make a full recipe of a green bean dish.  Now to decide which one.  I will post the recipe once we decide what to make.

The broccoli rabe (just above the tomatoes in the above photo) is the sweetest broccoli I have ever tasted and as a result it rarely makes it to be cooked.  I eat it raw as a snack during the day.

orange thyme with needle-like leaves

The peppers have been coming in 1 or 2 a week for a month so each generally ends up in a salad, but this week I think we will make kabobs.  I have a great recipe for a Greek yogurt dip for kabobs that will be tasty!

I also cut orange thyme (far right by the peas.)  This is being left to dry in  a paper bag like the thyme I have harvested before (see July ___)   I generally cut only one thyme per day so I can remember which one I cut and keep them from getting mixed together in the harvesting basket.

Lemon balm before harvesting

Cucumbers - you have too look for the fruit, it is hidden under the large leaves.
You think you have none, then pull back and leaf and find more than one.

We grew a burpless cucumber which is very thin with few seeds.  We are going to turn this week's cucumber into a cucumber salsa and serve it over chicken and fish.

We harvested the bush beans today and have been debating harvesting the pole beans, but I know that both pole and bush beans will continue to produce until the vines die int he fall, so I think I will harvest the pole beans and save a later collection for drying to use in the winter.

From Bounty to Problems

Most of the issues this week are simple and not too upsetting or difficult to overcome.  The tomatoes still have the dark spot and the blossom end rot I have mentioned before.  This is due to the cooler wet weather.

You can see the black spot on this non-ripe tomato

And the peas have already started to dry so this will be the only harvest we get from them.  I will remove the plants and sow another row of peas for fall harvest.

peas turning brown 

Making Salad from the Garden

So far we do not have any fresh tomatoes so I had to get them from the farmers market, but the plants have flowered and the pollinators are out so it is just a mater of time.  However the salad greens and the peppers were available so I harvested that.

salad greens

I collected butter crunch lettuce, sorrel, mustard greens, and micro greens.  We washed and drained them , then tore them by hand into a bowl.  (Please remember my camera is broken, so I cannot turn on the flash, making indoor picture difficult.)

We added tomatoes, green onions and carrots from the farmer's market and gathered fresh herbs from the garden to made an herbal dressing to go on top.

Creamy Herb Dressing

1 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup buttermilk

1/4 cup fresh parsley, minced
1/4 cup fresh basil, minced
3 tablespoons herb vinegar (any combo of herbs is good)
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons fresh thyme, minced
1 tablespoon fresh chives, minced
1 tablespoon complementary herbed honey (plain honey is fine too!)
1 green onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Combine all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. For a more emulsified dressing, blend all ingredients except oil, then slowly drizzle in the oil with the blender running. Cover and chill for several hours before using to allow flavors to blend.  Cover tightly and store in the refrigerator.

Weekly Update - Community Patch 6-15-2014

This week I was ill and it rained every day, so i did not even visit the garden between 6-8-14 and 6-15-14.  That morning my hubby and i went out to make sure everything was watered as it did not rain on Saturday.

The one thing you can tell from the garden is that I was not here once this week.  The weeds are taking over.  We spent about an hour weeding with a hoe.  I did not have much energy so the weeding was haphazard at best and I will need to get in here next week to catch up.  I am hoping to feel better in coming days.

Last week i mentioned that my neighbor was new and that she had a lot of catch up to do as the weeds were rampant in her patch.  Well in my absence this week, she cleared out all the weeds from her patch.  It is an amazing sight isn't it?

I expect she will be planting it this week, although there are a number of tomato and other plants along the back edge.

There was great growth and many plants are producing fruit!

Here is a cucumber on the bush cucumber plant.

 A nice pepper on the Lady Belle Pepper plants.  There were actually two of them and we harvested and sampled them.  Wonderfully sweet!

The greens were exploding and not as hurt by the heat as I expected them to be.  The Giant Red Mustard (center) is going to seed, but I am okay with that as I want to harvest the seed and use it.  The leaves of this are bitter, yet not so pungent as to be off putting, tossed in with romaine and bib lettuce they are a great counter point.  The red stem sorrel (to the right) is also very flavorful.. I enjoy this in salads and will try cooking it as a wilted vegetable in the next few weeks.  The arugula (to the left of the mustard) has been ravaged by bugs.

Obviously it is preferred, because the plants next to it on both sides do not have this extensive damage to the leaves.  I cut some often, but I never eat it because the bug damage makes them useless.  I never see the bugs making the damage though so I do not know what treatment is wise.  they are also getting ready to go to seed, so I think I will just leave them as a bug magnet to keep pest off the other greens.

The micro greens I have harvested regularly and will save the remaining seed  for fall when the temps cool back down to grow another crop.  The collared greens are just getting to the mature size needed to harvest.  perhaps another week.

This is after watering and weeding.  You can see I cut down on the weed population, but I think they are still winning.  I added three more rows of string to the pea fence because they had outgrown the  rows I stung last weekend.  Hubby felt my stick frame was not sturdy enough for the peas so he reinforced it with pine stakes.  He also staked the grape and cherry tomato plants.

The herbs are getting bushy and will be ready for a first harvest this coming week.  I have already dried the thyme I harvested a couple weeks ago and plan to cut fresh herbs from the garden for a program I am doing called Be an Herbal Gourmet at the Lisle Public Library on June 17th..