After coming back from vacation we had a few surprises in the garden. One of them was a crazy amount of weeds that had taken over after the warm week. The other was a decent harvest of peas, some berries, a pepper, carrots and beets.
For dinner we had a colorful meal of pea soup and beet and carrot salad. The picture doesn’t do it justice, but this pea soup was a wonderful lime green.
Don’t forget the dessert.
We were able to harvest a few peas and a couple beets this morning.
We went ahead and blanched the peas and froze them to make a pea soup once we have enough. Apparently you can even use the pods to make a broth so we froze those too.
With the beets I plan to make a salad using the greens and the boiled beets.
The newest addition to our family is the Big Green Egg that Drew got for his birthday from his wonderful family. This will give him his next project of learning how to use the thing.
Here is the current state of the garden. We are hoping to pull up some beets soon.
Front: Carrots and beet Back: Lettuce, peas, and cauliflower
Peppers and cucumbers
Corn, beans, and squash
Tomatoes
We just had our first meal of the season with food from the garden. Taco salad with freshly picked lettuce and some of the salsa we canned in the previous year.
A quick look at the garden.
We are starting to get excited about the garden as each bed is filled. Our tomatoes and peppers that we planted too early are not doing well. We decided to buy a few seedlings from the Plant Kingdom to supplement. Here is a look at the fruit and veggies.
Peppers
Tomato
Corn and Squash
Cauliflower
Carrots
Beets
Peas
Strawberry
Blueberry
Currants
It is great to see some green in the garden these days. Our peas have been transplanted. Drew set up a handy trellis for them to grab onto.
The first sighting of the corn occurred this morning.
We have tomatoes, pepper and cauliflower also growing in our loft. The carrots and beets have been sown.
In other news, some of you already heard about the near drowning of the chickens, but here is the proof. They were under water in this pond in our backyard before Drew came to their rescue and used his he-man strength to pull the coop up onto the shore. Glad he was home.
Now for your entertainment, some pics of Willis being a snow bunny.
It is very comforting to see signs of new life in our loft even while I feel as if my own energy and life force is slowly withering away. Okay, maybe I’ve exaggerated, but why in the heck do I still have another month of busy season!? The weather is starting to get warm and I am over being cooped up (sorry chickens) in an office six days a week.
Enough of my complaining, Drew has already heard plenty. The good news is that the seeds Drew saved from our cherry tomato plant have been doing the best out of every other seed we’ve planted so far.
Go Drew! The seedlings in the back are the cherry and the seedlings up front are the beefsteak. There are also signs of peppers, who took forever to get going this year, and cauliflower. Last year I planted the cauliflower too late in the fall. This year I’m going to try a spring crop and if it fails, I’ll try getting my fall crop going earlier.
This weekend we will start prepping the soil for our berries and planting the kale. I’m getting excited as the weather warms up!
My goal was to get my garden going as early as possible by starting my onions indoors. My first attempt with onions outdoors was not a success story and I don’t think my second attempt is going to be any better. I’ve only managed to get one onion to grow. Behold!
However, it turns out I am a master at growing this moss-like organism. It has completely taken over where the onions should have been.
I may need to suck it up and buy onion sets this year.
Surprisingly, the beginning of the next garden season is almost upon us. I just checked my garden calendar and I am scheduled to start onions indoors at the end of this month. In celebration, I’ve updated the look of the blog. Hey, it’s much cheaper than redecorating our house!
Things are quiet now and it seems like a good time to evaluate our first year garden. I’ve compiled all of my notes below to help me plan for next year.
Tomatoes: These grew very well. Struggled a little with blossom-end rot and with rodents eating them before they could ripen. We had to bring them all in while still green and ripen them in paper bags.
Lettuce: The spring crop was great. Next year I want to plant in succession so that it isn’t all mature at the same time. The summer lettuce never grew. It must be too hot.
Onions: Did not do well. Next year try planting them deeper.
Bell Peppers: Also did not do well. Next year do not plant them next to the tomato plants as they are too shaded. Also try planting more.
Cucumbers: A great producer! We did have the cucumber beetle come a give the plants bacterial wilt. I’ve heard to cover the cucumbers until they bloom to keep the beetles away.
Tomatillos: We did not give them a trellis and it fell over and broke. Definitely want to try again with support.
Jalapenos: Did way too well. We had to pull them up before they were even done producing because we had a ton of jalapenos. Next year only plant 2 jalapeno plants.
Beans: They grew well. We want to plant more beans next year. We also need to start them earlier so that they have time to dry on the vine before frost comes so we can get fresh and dried beans.
Patty-pan Squash: Horrible. We only got one. Next year we should try planting in deeper mounds and maybe get a different kind.
Spaghetti squash: We got one, but it may have been affected by the bacterial wilt because we never got another. We would like to try more of these.
Corn: Was all eaten by something. Next year start indoors.
Kale: It’s growing well in the raised bed, but not the pots. Try to plant earlier next year and plant more.
Cabbage, Brussels Sprouts, Cauliflower: All of these were planted too late and are either dead or barely hanging on now that it is winter.
Raspberries: Red are doing great, black are planted in too shaded of a spot.
The other plants all did well but we don’t plan on planting eggplant, okra, and all the different kinds of tomatoes again. Some new items we want for next year are:
-Carrots, beets, strawberries, blueberries, sunflowers and peas.
I’d say overall it was a success!
