Winter Gardening - Winging it

So I bought some wiry temporary garden fencing at Ace Hardware. I zigzagged these around my little seedlings. The seedlings are turnips, kale, collards and other greens. I laid the medium weight row cover fabric over the wires and placed rocks at the edges of the fabric to keep them from being blown away. The idea is to grow greens for as long as I can through the winter.

I had some results from some soil tests recently that said the soil actually contained excessive amounts of phosphorous and potassium and other necessary nutrients.  So if I'm good about watering, we should have a nice crop of greens for Thanksgiving.

Garden Fabric Packaging 

Garden Fabric Packaging

Zigzagged Wire Fence

Seedlings

Garden Fabric in place

October Gardening

So gardening for the summer is over. I'm afraid all I have left from the garden are herbs for my Thanksgiving meal. I've planted some seeds for kale, turnips and other greens for the winter. I need to set that up next to continue to garden through the snow. I'm thinking a clear plastic sheet will do it; we shall see.

The last of the carrots.

I sacrificed several carrots to allow these caterpillars to continue growing there. I must have counted at least four! I didn't know they were active even in October. 

Variety of herbs: parsley, dill, sage, basil and rosemary. These will be flavoring my baby's first birthday lasagna.

Overall it's been a challenge to maintain the garden and keep up with my growing baby that's now toddling around with more confidence. We'll see what winter brings.

Goodbye Summer

We enjoyed the tomatoes this summer for sure and all we have left growing are the dopey end of season ones. So it's time to remove tomato plants from the garden. Chile plants are holding on for a few more weeks.

End of the season tomatoes

Tomato plants were hanging on that wooden piece.

The only tomato plant producing is this yellow tomato.

After clearing the garden of tomato plants and weeds this morning, I only have some herbs, chiles, carrots, and a butternut squash growing.

Sage, Rosemary & Thyme

Thai Basil. You should plant it! Use in place of mint or basil in recipes. 

At the end of the season it gives you some pretty pink flowers!

These jalapenos were plentiful this year.

Check out the tiny poblanos. I used them for sauces mostly.

My strawberry plants seem to have been burnt out with this summer heat and I'll have to replace them next year. The giant asparagus plant though is doing well and hopefully we'll have some beautiful spears come spring.

Butternut squash coming later this season.

Plot 22 ready for fall

It's the middle of August...

and tomatoes have been so miraculously plentiful. I have been having a blast getting old recipes out to use them up as they come out of the garden:

• served them with mozzarella and basil;
• diced and cooked them in a saag paneer;
• cut them into wedges and tossed in salads;
• pureed for an awesome salsa that really is like a gazpacho because I slurp it up so fast;
• tossed with cucumber in a coctel de camaron;
• sauteed them with ginger, beef and soy sauce for an awesome stir fry that oddly reminds me of visits to Fresno, CA...

This year's red tomato harvest has been awesome. They mostly came from the new seeds I have: New Girl and Valley Girl with just one Brandywine plant hold out from several years ago (definitely saving these seeds). Although the red tomatoes are slowing production, the yellow tomato plants are still growing and the plants look set to give plenty of ripe yellow tomatoes soon.

July 22, 2016 Pickling Jalapenos, Carrots & the last of the Kholrabi!

Love the "Taste of Mexico" cookbook. This jar went into the fridge and got eaten within two days.

July 29 Tomato Harvest

A Mexican salad: cucumbers, limes, cilantro, tomatoes, and slices of pickled kholrabi (to mimic the texture of cueritos)

August 1, 2016 Ratatouille

August 3, 2016 Saag Paneer (I use feta cheese instead of the paneer)

August 4, 2016 Tomato Harvest

August 9, 2016 Tomato Harvest

August 11, 2016 Coctel de Camaron

August 14, 2016 Harvest included two poblano peppers

August 16, 2016 Harvest included many more poblanos

Pest of the week...

The pest of the week is whatever is eating my strawberries. At first I thought it was birds eating the strawberries at the edges of the strawberry patch. But today I found some inside the patch that makes me think some kind of slug...

Bites from the strawberries

Harvest: Strawberries (unbitten), Cilantro, Bak Choy

Bak Choy: these also took some bites... But I'm thinking this must be slugs from all the wet weather.

Mid May: Where are my Greens?

So I had planted bok choy, lettuces, kale and they are taking their sweet time. There are vegetables springing up here and there but it's not very exciting growth yet. I also took the time to plant my tomatoes and eggplants because their growth stagnated over the past month. Ironically, the peppers seemed to burst with new life this past month.

Sparkle Strawberries just dominated my patch this year. 

Strawberries are forming from the pretty white blossoms

Overall Plot 22

Strawberry Patch lower left

Cilantro growing in cinder blocks

Lonely parsley

Brotherly dills

Nasturtium is joining our garden this year (on the left)

Rosemary joined us again this year after a cold winter

Bak Choy is growing (it's teeny tiny though)

Yummy lettuces are on their way

Pepper plant grew strong over the past month

Fava Beans clustered at the base of old aluminum umbrella 

Fava Beans, Tomato seedlings and Weeding

I pulled a bunch of weeds out of the garden today. My baby girl Alicia hung from my back sleeping. Here are some pictures of the garden including our first asparagus, strawberry plants and seed starts.

Tomatoes, Peppers, & Greens are off to a great start

Asparagus yay! Our very first.. I counted at least 20.

Strawberry plants. The new ones from JSS are getting stronger.

Another Asparagus picture

This is where I planted some beans and it looks like they didn't grow

But taking a closer look... here's a little FAVA bean!