Here I go again with Harvest Monday (May 31) on Friday

Posted on June 5, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

My raised beds in the first week of June

I am so far behind that I need another lifetime to catch up. At least I got my Black Krim, Mortgage Lifter, and Brandywine tomatoes into my raised beds, along with Black Beauty eggplant and green savoy cabbage, all grown from seed.

This tiny Black Beauty eggplant may not be as robust as ones I get from our local garden center, but I grew it myself from seed and am very proud of it.

This past week saw the last harvest of Florida Prince peaches, but the first of our blueberries. Since I’m already well into this week, I can report that my first patty pan squash and first tomato will be in next week’s report, God willing and the creek don’t rise. Both are ready to pick.

Early Girl tomatoes on June 4, 2010

This is actually the second patty pan squash to be fertilized. The photo of the one ready to harvest didn't turn out.

But all is not well in the henyard. Two-year-old Henrietta has stopped laying. No eggs from her in 10 days now. I think she may be molting. Two-year-old Henny Penny lays jumbo eggs, but the shells have gotten quite thin and half of them are breaking when she or Chicken Little step on them. That leaves the burden of providing us with eggs to Chicken Little, the youngest of our girls.

Our three little granddaughters requested that we bring eggs down to them for Memorial Day, so I gave them our last three eggs. I have to check the coop to see if we have eggs now before deciding what to cook. Right now, I have two eggs. Well, that’s enough to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Do you like the way I think?

Male squash blossoms and green onions went into scrambled eggs, along with some bleu cheese

I cut up the last of the Peruvian purple (blue) potatoes from bin # 1, along with some farmers market shallots and fried them up in bacon grease.

The result was a lovely homegrown brunch, along with English muffins from the store and homemade preserves.

I have to share a great gardening story. A neighbor boy, Kai, is about five years old. He came over a couple of weeks ago and I fed him some snow peas straight from the garden. He liked that, so I took him into the back yard and gave him some sugar snap peas. He LOVED those.

He came over a couple of days ago, barefoot and in pajamas, and asked if I had any more snow peas. Imagine, a kid coming over and asking if he can eat raw vegetables. I was thrilled!

Unfortunately, the sugar snaps are all gone and the snow peas have been overtaken by powdery mildew. He was really disappointed when I could only find one for him to eat.

Kai, who lives next door, helped me harvest blue potatoes from a Smart Pot.

I asked him if he’d like to help me dig potatoes. Since they’re growing in Smart Pots, they’re really easy to harvest. I just feel around in the soil with my hands and pull them out.  It’s like a treasure hunt and really fun.

Kai was eager to try. I showed him how to do it and he harvested the whole bag for me, 30 potatoes (2 lbs). He was covered head to toe in potting soil and grinning ear to ear. I let him pick out two blue potatoes to take home, one for him and one for his older sister.

Kai found the potatoes and put them onto the brown paper bag so I could weigh them before he took home a couple.

With both bags of potatoes now harvested, I planted sweet potatoes in one and German butterball potatoes in the other. The sunchokes are in the third bag and still growing.

My first attempt at growing sweet potatoes is off to a good start in this Smart Pot.

I got two other Smart Pots (felt-like grow bags), the 3 gallon size, and planted a Japanese eggplant in one pot, and three winter squash in the other. I may be overcrowding the winter squash. We’ll see. I planted a Red Kuri, Green Kuri, and Blue Hubbard, all mini size. I just love these Smart Pots because now I can grow vegetables in my driveway, the sunniest part of our yard.

I can't believe how robust this store-bought Japanese eggplant seeding is. What do they do, fertilize and water them? Hmmm, that's a concept.

I can’t resist showing you a preview of harvests to come before getting to last week’s harvest.

We expect to get small amounts of blueberries over the next six weeks from our two Sunshine blueberry bushes.

I don't know if it's my imagination, but these cheddar cauliflower seem to have a richer, more robust flavor compared to white varieties. Love them! And I grew this one from seed.

This promises to be our best year yet for Granny Smith apples, with three dozen having set fruit already. The tree is still in flower, so we may have an extended apple harvest this fall. Our Fuji apple has set three fruit, the Gala none, not even a flower.

Yippee, the first Blue Lake green pole beans came up today.

Here is my harvest for the week prior to Memorial Day May 31, 2010

FRUIT

1 oz. blueberries (first of crop)

2 lb 3 oz. peaches, Florida Prince (last of crop)

6 oz. strawberries

2 lbs, 10 oz. Subtotal, fruits

VEGETABLES

4 oz. beans, golden wax

2 lb 2 oz. cauliflower

5 oz. eggplant, Millionaire

1 oz. onions, green bunching

2 oz. peas, snow

2 oz. peas, sugar snap

1 oz. squash blossoms

4 oz. herbs (rosemary, sage, thyme, marjoram, oregano)

3 lbs, 5 oz. subtotal vegetables

5 lbs, 15 oz. TOTAL produce plus 8 eggs

If you had a harvest this past week, visit Daphne’s Dandelions and post a link on her blog.

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Sweaty Sunday May 30 2010

Posted on May 31, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

Phew, I worked in my garden until it got dark today. My last post on how much is undone in the garden embarrassed me enough that I toiled from sunup to sundown today. Got a LOT done, including resting in front of the telly during the heat of the afternoon. It got up into the low 80s out there today.

First of all, I planted my new Haas avocado tree. Although it didn’t take very long, I consider that my major accomplishment of the day given how long the tree is likely to last. I have great hopes for this little dear as it has already set seven avocados. That’s two more than my mature Littlecado, which has five on it this year. I’m hoping that Littlecado, which isn’t supposed to need another tree for pollination, will enjoy having the Haas nearby and will set more fruit in the future. So far it has been a pathetic producer.

After that, I raked up fallen leaves from the Littlecado avocado and composted them. Trimmed the ferns and composted them too. Watered both compost bins. It’s time to take some compost out of the bottom trap door, but I didn’t get around to that today.

I fertilized all of the fruit trees in the back yard except the avocados, which don’t need it. Hmmm. Well, that’s not exactly right. I always plant with E.B. Stone Organic Sure Start fertilizer because it contains beneficial soil microbes and nutrients to get the plants off to a healthy start. So the Haas avocado tree got Sure Start to get it going. Then I watered all of my trees and the flower border. I admired my dwarf Granny Smith apple in particular. It has nearly 3 dozen apples on it this year. Don’t know if they’ll all make it to harvest time in September or not, but so far they look good. The Fuji seems to have set only one apple and the Gala none. Nothing from the Red Flame grapes either. I’m hoping for both grapes and Gala apples next year as it will be their third year in the ground.

I took down the string and wooden trellises from the spent sugar snap peas (I pulled the pea vines, which were covered in powdery mildew, and put them in the trash two days ago) and put up a new string trellis for my pole beans. Planted 60 Blue Lake Pole Beans and 10 Scarlet Runner Beans.

I harvested the last two Candid Charm cauliflower heads to make room in the raised beds for some poor stunted seedlings that I started from seed back in February. They should have gone into the ground before this, but space is just now opening up in the raised beds. Planted 2 Black Beauty Eggplants, 2 Green Savoy Cabbages, 1 Black Krim Tomato, 1 Mortgage Lifter Tomato, and 4 Brandywine Tomatoes.

We ate the last of our Florida Prince peaches for breakfast today in pancakes, along with the first tiny harvest of blueberries and the day’s harvest of strawberries.

Over the past three years I’ve reworked my garden so that it will produce more fruits and vegetables. This is the summer that it is really starting to pay off. The amounts of my harvests aren’t large, but I love the variety of produce that I’m getting from our small yard. It’s so much fun playing with growing new varieties, and seeing what will produce in pots and planters as well as in the ground. Happy gardening to you all.

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Harvest Monday (May 24, 2010) on Friday? ACK!

Posted on May 29, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

I am lagging soooo far behind in my garden chores, it’s pathetic. I have tomato seedlings in little pots, eggplants in pots, even cabbage in pots.

These poor little seedlings have been in their pots too long. They're chlorotic and rootbound.

My raised beds are emptying out from harvests, but I haven’t replanted the squares yet. So much to do, so much yet to be planted.

About a third of the squares in my raised beds are empty.

I won’t even mention the avocado, Valencia orange, and two lemon trees yet to be planted.

This Haas avocado is my newest tree purchase. It's not in the ground yet.

It has two itty bitty avocados on it. They may or may not make it to maturity as some of these babies usually fall off.

And my blueberry bushes. I’ve had them three years and they’re still in their original nursery pots. ARG!

Will these blueberry bushes ever get planted? I bought some barrels to plant them in last year, but still haven't done the deed.

And here it is Friday, and I haven’t even posted my Harvest Monday for May 24 yet. Well, that’s one thing that I can take care of right now. I’m getting some good things from the garden.

Homegrown peaches and strawberries go on cereal in the morning and on vanilla ice cream in the evening.

Sugar snap peas go into pasta primavera.

I've finished harvesting blue potatoes from Smart Pot #1. Here's half the harvest.

 And I can dream of harvests to come.

Early Girl tomatoes

Celebrity tomatoes

I haven't been planting lettuce regularly, and it all went to seed at once. Only this Lollo Rossa is left.

Looks like we're going to get a few blackberries this June.

This will be the first cluster to ripen. Just enough for a bowl of cereal or ice cream.

I get enough strawberries every few days for my cereal. I think I'll plant two strawberry pots next year.

I have seven Tendergreen cucumbers growing in this pot. I normally only grow four per pot. I'm hoping that with regular watering and fertilizer, all will produce cucumbers. The first female flowers are now showing, but it will be a while before they're mature enough to be fertilized.

If I'm careful with my photo angle, my Garden of Infinite Neglect looks pretty good.

Uh, oh, the neighborhood fox squirrels are getting into the Florida Prince peaches. I picked the last ones today.

And now for the actual harvest from last week, ending May 24.

3 oz. Onions, Green Bunching

2.5 oz. Peas, Snow

6 oz. Peas, Sugar Snap

12 oz. Potatoes, Blue

1 oz. Squash Blossoms

5 oz. Strawberries

TOTAL

1 lb, 13.5 oz. produce plus 10 eggs

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Harvest Monday, May 17, 2010

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

Dang, I missed Harvest Monday AGAIN! I don’t know where the time goes.  All I can say is that it’s been a good week for salads. I made a salad Nicoise that was spectacular! I used boiled eggs, golden wax beans, snow peas and radishes in it, along with some seared ahi tuna that was caught by a friend.

Also, I made a wonderful crumb-topped peach pie, and had more peaches on ice cream and cereal. I love peach season. Our little Florida Prince peach tree is doing itself proud this year. I can hardly wait for the Babcock Improved and August Pride peaches to ripen. They don’t have as many peaches on them, but they promise to be larger than the ones on the Florida Prince. I should have thinned the peaches on the Florida Prince so they would have been larger. Live and learn.

Alas, the sugar snap peas seem to have reached the end of their life span. The vines must be 13 ft tall by now, flopped and looped over themselves in a tangled mess, and all covered in powdery mildew. Time for them to go. A smaller second planting will continue to produce a bit longer. The Mammoth snow peas are just coming into fine production.

Look at those bell peppers and eggplants. In May! (I mean look as in “see the list of harvested vegetables.” Regrettably, I didn’t have time to take photos this week.) Both plants are holdovers from the 2009 planting season. If winters aren’t too cold, they’ll spring right back into life as soon as the weather warms and I get a jump on the season.

Oooh, my Early Girl tomatoes have set fruit. This time last year, I was harvesting my first Early Girls. I delayed putting them into the ground this year so I won’t have that early a harvest to brag about this summer. Oh well.

Here’s the harvest for the past week.

FRUITS

2 lbs 4 oz. Florida Prince peaches

5 oz. strawberries

VEGETABLES

9 oz. artichoke (1)

3.5 oz. beans, golden wax

4.5 oz. bell peppers, black (2)

5 oz. eggplant,  Millionaire (2)

8 oz. lettuce

5 oz. peas, snow peas

1 lb. 4 oz. peas, sugar snap

7.5 oz. radishes (10)

Harvest

2 lbs. 9 oz. Fruit

3 lbs 14.5 oz. Vegetables  (62.5 oz.)

TOTAL 6 lbs 7.5 oz. produce, plus 15 eggs

If you had a harvest, or if you just want to see what people in the rest of the country are harvesting this week, visit Daphne’s Dandelions.

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Farmers Market in Nice, France

Posted on May 14, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

Street scene at farmer's market in Nice

Flower Stall at Farmer’s Market in Nice, France

This was my favorite place in France. So many wonderful foods. If I lived there, I’d go every day and scarf up those cheeses, breads, seafood, fruits, spices and veggies. Oh, yumyum. You’re going to want to dive into the monitor screen when you see all the beautiful things to eat, and take home some fresh flowers to put on your balcony.

Geraniums

Flower stall

Candied fruit

Candied fruit

Dried fruit

Spices

Eggplants and peppers

Heirloom tomatoes

Tomatoes

White asparagus

French Breakfast radishes

Purple-striped garlic

Breads

Cheeses

Seafood

Seafood

 Wow, what a feast for the eyes!

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Harvest Monday, May 10, 2010

Posted on May 12, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

Now that my first peaches are ripe and the first potatoes are dug, I’m finally seeing harvests in pounds instead of ounces. This past week is the best so far. Come to think of it, I’ve been too busy to post Harvest Mondays for the past three Mondays. I have some catch-up to do.

First harvest of Golden Wax Bush Beans

But first, let me brag a bit about the dinner I cooked for Mother’s Day on Sunday. I picked up a great French cookbook while I was in Provence last week (En Cuisine by Jules Francois). It has gorgeous paintings by the author and I’m enjoying “eating” my way through this delightful cookbook.

One day's harvest of Florida Prince peaches

Our guests brought French champagne and chardonnay, as well as a couple of lovely French cheeses. I’m afraid that I was too busy cooking to take any photos of the dinner, more’s the pity. Our menu was:

Soupe aux Champignons (mushroom soup with four kinds of mushrooms–white button, Crimini, Hen of the Woods, and White Beech)

Poulet aux Eschalots, Thyme et Citron (whole chicken with white wine, whole shallots, thyme and lemon with a lovely lemon-cream sauce)

Pommes de Terre aux Buerre (farmers market German butterball potatoes and homegrown blue potatoes with butter, chives and parsley)

Haricots avec Petit Pois a l’Anglaise (homegrown golden wax beans with sugar snap peas in butter)

Baguette (homemade French bread)

Olives (California grown)

Crumb-topped Peach Pie with Grand Marnier (using the first of my homegrown Florida Prince peaches)

Two Meyer lemons and a bowl of Snow Peas

Oh my, I wish I had a picture of that dinner. Wish I could put the aroma and taste up on the web. Suffice it to say it was as delicious as it was beautiful!

First harvest of blue pototaes from a portion of a Gro-bag in our driveway

Harvest Monday May 10, 2010
6.5 oz. (1) Artichoke
5.5 oz. Beans, Golden Wax
2 oz. Bok Choy
4 oz. Chard
2 oz. Green Onions
1 lb (2) Lemons, Meyer
6.5 oz. Lettuce
4 lbs, 3 oz. Peaches, Florida Prince
4 oz. Peas, Snow
1 lb. 14.5 oz. Peas, Sugar Snap
14 oz. Potatoes, Blue
1.5 oz. Radish, Pink Summercicle
6.5 oz. Strawberries
Male Squash Blossoms and Herbs
Harvest, Fruit: 5 lbs, 9.5 oz.
Harvest, Vegetables: 4 lbs, 12.5 oz.
 
TOTAL HARVEST: 10 lbs 6 oz. produce plus 13 eggs

I’ll catch up with the two weeks prior to this later.

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Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

The train station in Nice was lovely, and presented our first real challenge in navigation and communication.

A subset of our camera club (Photographic Society of Orange County) went to Cagnes-sur-Mer by train on our first full day in France. Next to the farmer’s market at Nice, this was my favorite place on the Cote d’Azur.

Our first stop was the Renoir Museum, where he lived for the last years of his life. Beautiful place, but we got lost twice and arrived two minutes after they closed for lunch. After a long, hot walk, it was frustrating to not get to see it.

Stymied in our attempt to see the Renoir Museum, we walked back down the long hill and had lunch at a small cafe. I had Croque Monsieur, a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. This one had Bechamel sauce on top and was delicious. Wine was cheaper than water, so I had wine.

This beautiful gate to an estate was close to the Renoir Museum.

After lunch, we caught a bus to Haut de Cagnes, a medieval castle and village atop a hill in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Instead of getting physically lost on unfamiliar streets, I got wonderfully lost in the beauty of the old doors, windows, and stonework. Imagine, a medieval village dating back to the 1300s with people still living there. Small apartments were selling for half a million Euros, if you’re interested.

Haut de Cagnes

Grimaldi castle

The old stone entry to the walled village of Haut de Cagnes. Imagine how many people have passed through these stone walls for so many different purposes over the past seven centuries.

A courtyard in Haut de Cagnes

Windows

Succulents in window

Window with ancient wooden windowsill

Window and lamp

Window with geraniums

Window with green shutter

Window with pansies

Window with succulents II

Ivy on wall

Glowing courtyard by church

Church courtyard

Potted plants by doors

Shuttered window

Closed door

Courtyard scene by Grimaldi castle

Outdoor cafe outside the entry arch to Grimaldi castle

The group gathered for a respite before catching the bus to the train back to Nice. I'm in there third on the left in a dark green t-shirt, looking pretty happy after my glass(es) of wine.

Salty olives and vin du pays

Others opted for non-alcoholic beverages. I'm not even going to try to pronounce the one on the left.

 Maybe I shouldn’t have had that second glass of wine. I ended up dancing hiphop with a group of young men who were listeing to loud American West Coast rap on the very crowded bus. (Keep in mind that I work with Hispanic gang members at the Orange County Conservation Corps. Despite the fact that I’m 67,  I’m familiar with rap and hiphop, plus the dance steps.)

I borrowed a ball cap from one of boys who was wearing it backwards. Very old school. I showed him how to put it on bill forward, then rotate it back about 20 degrees. Yeah, I was down with it! I was movin’! One of the boys told me in English that I “must shake your ass more.”

My group was so (embarrassed, mystified, enthralled, entertained–take your pick) that we missed our stop and ended up dashing across the busy street to catch the bus back to the train station. What a day.

In Nice, we went to a nice Moroccan restaurant for dinner.

I had lamb tagine with prunes and almonds, sweet, exotic, delicious.

I slept like a stone. I was in love with France.

Stay tuned for photo essays on Nice and Monaco/Monte Carlo.

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Comfort Hotel Azur Riviera in Nice, France

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

I just got back from a week on the French Riviera. Sounds nice, doesn’t it? Well, it was and it wasn’t.

I can report many good things about the trip, but there was too much walking and climbing for my poor old knees, and our lodging left a lot to be desired. I’m going to make multiple posts on the trip. I’ll start off with our hotel, which had pluses and minuses.

I went with the Photographic Society of Orange County, a great group of photographers. They take an international trip every year; this was my first overseas trip with them. We had nearly 30 people in our group, but everyone split up and went their own way once we arrived.

The travel agency booked us on Swiss Air, a great airline. Although we were packed in coach seating like sardines, we got free wine, good food and Swiss chocolate. I grabbed this shot by holding my camera over my head and shooting behind me. Jerry and Dedra, right behind me, were in our group.

This was my first trip to Europe, and I was thrilled to see the Swiss Alps, even from the air.

The signage for the hotel at street level was computer printouts sheathed in plastic and taped to the hotel front.

The lobby of the Hotel Azur Riviera had nice marble on the floor, a remnant of what must have been its former glory days.

Fabien was one of the desk staff. I must say, the staff was excellent, especially Fabien and Jacques, who helped me get my new iPod set up and connected to the free hotel WiFi.

The marble staircase was quite attractive, but I have bad knees and needed to use the elevator.

The tiny hotel elevator only held one person with luggage, or a maximum of three people packed in. Here Carole, Carol, and Marianne cram in for a ride to their rooms on the 5th floor.

The elevator broke on our first full day there, stranding two members of our group inside.  The staff had the elevator fixed within 36 hours.

I stayed in Room 410. The rooms were small and stark. Two out of three lights in my room did not work, nor did the phone. The bed was comfortable.

Small rooms, sparingly furnished, were situated on a VERY noisy street.

The tile in my bathroom was attractive, and the fixtures were in good shape. The shower was tiny, like one in a motor home, less than 2 ft square. Soap and shampoo were not provided, but were available by asking at the front desk. I brought my own, not being sure if they were furnished.

I didn't see screens anywhere. If you opened the windows to get some fresh air, bugs came in. One lady in our group was bitten by something in her room, probably a spider, and had to go to the hospital. This is the view out my window, leaning out to snap it.

View from my room.

View out my window looking the other direction. The neighborhood looked like a cross between the French quarter in New Orleans and New York City. Constant street noise.

The video is  just people and traffic below my room, but you can get an idea of the noise level. Too bad I didn’t get the sirens in this video. Wee-ooo-wee-ooo.

Breakfast was included, and I thought that it was great. We had fresh baguettes and croissants every morning.

We had cold ham and cheese, canned fruit cocktail, cereal, orange juice and a coffe machine that had a choice of cafe, cafe au lait, cappucino, or cocoa. No decaf, so I drank cocoa.

We had the same breakfast every morning. Sometimes we had boiled eggs as well.

To avoid going back up on the tiny elevator, I looked for a toilette on the ground floor. This is what I found. I didn't have the courage to go any farther.

This is the tiny kitchen where the desk guys prepared our breakfast. They didn't have a separate kitchen staff. Fabien did a great job of arranging the baguettes and croissants on the table. When he wasn't on duty, the cocoa was too weak to drink.

There was an open air butcher shop next to the hotel lobby, part of our building. The butcher roasted chickens on a rotisserie outside the shop and it smelled GREAT.

I had never seen leg of lamb presented in quite this manner.

The butcher worked on this large piece of meat to cut it into smaller portions.

I’ve tried to present a balanced view of the hotel, at least my experience with it. Other people in our group experienced problems other than the ones I had, like no shower curtains in their in-tub showers, showers with leaky hoses that sprayed all over, no towels, etc.

All in all, the hotel wasn’t terrible. It was convenient to the train station and bus stops, with many good restaurants nearby. It would be good for students perhaps, or those who are on a tight budget. It just didn’t suit our group of mainly senior citizens, and one tiny elevator was no good for a large group checking in. The place was too noisy for me, but most of the hotels seemed to be in similar locations, right on the street, and older. If you stay there, bring your own soap!

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Back from France, garden looks great

Posted on May 6, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

That was certainly a whirlwind trip. Five days on the French Riviera with my fellow members of the Photographic Society of Orange County, with two days of flying to and from. I took over 600 pics and am now processing them and whittling them down. I promised my readers in the Huntington Beach Independent that I’d have photos and videos posted here. Ack, the column comes out tomorrow and I’m still buried in garden chores.

It's a jungle out there. All three raised veggie beds are doing great. Look at those peas!

Three raised beds and herb garden looking toward the chicken coop and fruit trees.

The Super Sugar Snap Pea vines have grown to an incredible 12 ft, flopped way over the top of the string net. They’re still producing like crazy. And now my Mammoth Snow Peas are producing, so we’re buried in peas. Everyone should be so lucky.

My Mammoth snow peas grow in a tiny 1 ft x 6 ft dirt strip by the water and electric meters.

My blue potatoes are almost ready to dig, the artichokes are giving us a few chokes here and there, and strawberries are producing steadily. The golden wax beans are ready for a first picking and my patty pan squash plants are getting bigger every day, showing lots of flower buds. I think that there’s even a Millionaire eggplant or two ready to pick. Vic took great care of the garden while I was gone.

I should have thinned the peaches on my Florida Prince peach tree. Now I'll need to stake the branches so they don't break.

I counted 35 peaches set on my Babcock peach and 120 on my Panamint Nectarine. Only three apricots though. Can’t count the number of peaches on this Florida Prince. The Snow Queen nectarine just finished flowering, so I can’t count them yet. I forgot how many peaches are on the August Pride peach, but not many. Looks like maybe 20 navel oranges have set. Yes, I like to count my fruit before it ripens.

The first French Breakfast radishes are ready to harvest. Do the French really eat them for breakfast?

The Garden of Perpetual Responsibility is producing strawberries, green onions and artichokes. The first flowers are open on the blackberries, and the bok choy is ready to harvest.

I'll transplant these leeks into the raised bed when space opens up. I'm still harvesting leeks that I planted from seed in January 2009!

This is a new veggie for me, Italian red of Florence bunching onions. I'll try transplanting some to the garden bed and let some mature in the pot to see how they do.

The Garden of Infinite Neglect has collards, beets, 3 kinds of kale, radishes, Kyoto red carrots, fluffy top Chinese cabbage, patty pan squash, golden wax beans, yellow onions, eggplant, and chard. It's not so neglected this year.

 

The Tendergreen burpless cucumbers have sprouted, but there are too many in the pot. I'm going to try transplanting half of them to another pot.

This is such an exciting time in the garden. So many new things sprouting, and some things ready for harvest. Busy, busy.

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Spring is a busy time in the garden

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

No time for photos today. I’ve been going full steam on my garden the past few days, planting scads of things. Since my garden in coastal southern California goes year round, I’ve harvested a few firsts this week too, like the first artichoke of the season. I boiled it and ate it with a store-bought lemon dill dipping sauce. YUM. And I couldn’t resist pulling a couple of baby Dutch Redhead and Pink Summercicle radishes to see what they tasted like.

The Redheads were so cute they made me giggle. They were perfectly round, about the size of marbles, with a sweet crunch quickly followed by heat. They aren’t mild like my German White Icicle radishes, but they sure are pretty with irregularly patterned rose-colored tops and pure white bottoms. I liked them enough that I planted more today.

I harvested just a few pink Summercicles to thin them. I’m growing them in a pot and they’re doing fine there. They are sweeter than the Redheads, with a sweetness that lingers even once the radish heat takes hold. They weren’t as hot as the redheads, but hotter than the white icicles. Very pretty with long, straight, untapered, blunt-tipped roots like fingers, red on the outside but white inside. I planted more of them as well.

I’m getting ready to leave for Europe  in a couple days, going with my camera club. I’m nervous and excited at the same time, as I’ve never been to Europe. Australia and Japan, yes, plus Mexico and Canada, but I’ve never made it over the pond. Hubby is staying home to take care of the garden but my blog is going to get neglected for a bit. I’ve been anxiously watching the Iceland volcano, but our flight is supposed to leave as planned. Let’s hope it returns as well. This will probably be my last post until I return, as I’m really busy trying to get everything done that I want to get done. HA, like that’s going to happen.

Meanwhile, here is what I am (or have) grown in my garden so far this year. Some crops are all harvested already, but most are just getting started. I’m copying and pasting this from a Word document, so apologies for any formatting that is lost in translation. The dates in parentheses are when I planted them.

Artichokes

(planted 2009)

Arugula

(10/15/09, crop failure)

Beans

            Golden Wax (2/19/10)

Beets

Chiogga ( )

Golden (4/15)

Lutz Green Leaf (2009; 2/8/2010)

Bell Peppers

Five colors (planted 2009)

Bok Choy

Baby White Stem (2/8; 3/8/2010)

Broccoli

            Green (tiny heads, fed to hens)

            Purple (small heads, ate them)

Cabbage

Chinese, Fluffy Top Kaisin Hakusai (3/31)

Chinese, Loosehead Chiramen (3/31)

Red (transplanted Jan 2010)

Green Savoy (crop failed to make heads, fed to hens; plant 1 transplant that I grew from seed 4/22/10)

Carrots

Danvers half-long (1/10/2010, possum dug up; 4/22/10)

Kyoto Red (4/15/2010)

Cauliflower

Candid Charm

Cheddar (from seed)

Snow Queen (ate it already)

Violetta (from seed)

Chard

Lucullus (Jan 2010)

Rainbow (2009; 2/8/2010)

Ruby (Jan 2010)

Collards

Champion (2009)

Cucumber

Tendergreen Burpless (4/15/10)

Eggplant

Black Beauty (from seed, 2/19/2010)

Ichiban (planted transplant 4/22/10)

Millionaire (2009)

Pingtung Long (from seed)

Garlic

(11/?/2009; replanted 4/22/10)

Ginger

Silver Softneck (2/9/10; 4/22/10)

Horseradish

(2/9/10)

Kale

Chinese Ryoko (Kailaan) (3/19/2010)

Italian Lacinato (3/19/3010)

Scotch Blue Curled (2007; 3/31/2010)

Komatsuna

Green Boy Hybrid (4/15/2010)

Leeks

Blue Solaise (2009; 1/27/10, 3/8/10)

Lettuce

Black-seeded Simpson (10/15/09; 11/17/09)

Green Oakleaf (transplants)

Lollo Rossa (11/17/09)

Red Salad Bowl (transplants)

Red Sails (possum dug up)

Royal Oak Leaf (11/17/09)

Mesclun

(1/10/10, crop failure)

Mizuna

(11/17/09, crop failure)

Onions

Bunching Green seed (2/9/10)

Italian Bunching Red of Florence seed (4/15/10)

Red sets(11/17/09; 1/30/10)

Yellow sets (11/17/09; 1/30/10)

Parsnips

Hollow Crown (1/10/10, possum got all but three)

Peas

Mammoth Melting Sugar (2/19/10)

Snow Wind (3/24/10)

Super Sugar Snap (12/8/09)

Potato

Blue (2/15/09)

Radish

Dutch Redhead (3/24/10; 4/22/10)

French Breakfast D’Avignon (3/14/10)

German white icicle (2/20/10)

Pink Summercicle (4/15/10)

Spinach

Olympia (11/17/10)

Squash, Summer

2 Clarinette Lebanese (4/22)

3 Early Prolific Straightneck (4/22)

2 Gold Rush (4/22)

6 Patty Pan (White, Yellow, Green)

Sunchokes

(2/15/10)

Tomato

1 Better Boy (transplant, Jan?)

2 Black Krim (seed, 2/19/10)

2 Brandywine (seed, 2/19/10

1 Champion (transplant, Jan?)

2 Early Girl (planted transplants 2/10/10)

2 Mortgage Lifter (seed, 2/10/10)

1 Roma (planted transplant 4/22/10)

1 Yellow Pear (transplant)

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