Cool Stuff

This evening I was out in the garden, transplanting jalapeno peppers and lemon basil plants into the space vacated by harvested spinach.  Afterwards, I picked some cool stuff.

We'll play the "What is it?" game again.  So, what are these green things that I'm holding?  Here's a tip - They are not peppers.

Sugar snap peas are slowly maturing.  They are so good right off the plant.  I'm unsure if any of them will wind up touching hot water in a pot.

One of the zucchini plants sorta split, almost like it had grown too fast.  A couple leaves and some immature squash broke off.  These squash were tiny, smaller than my little finger.  

Their big brother is doing just fine, though.  We'll be eating squash this weekend.  The zucchini isn't the only plant producing, either...

Here's some straightneck yellow squash that will be ready for harvest in a couple days.  Our favorite way to eat squash is a recipe I created two years ago.  We saute onions in butter until they start to caramelize while dicing up squash into small, thin pieces.  Then toss the diced squash in with the onions, add salt and pepper, and cook them just a little, until they are tender but not soggy.

Broccoli heads are forming on the plants I transplanted from the greenhouse.  It'll be at least a week before they are ready, though.  Broccoli is one of the few vegetables that gets eaten by everyone in our house.  Well, except for the dog.  I think.

Dude's Weekend

So Angelia was out of town Friday through Monday, leaving the boys and me to our own devices for 3 days.  This was my Saturday breakfast.  I picked arugula, chives, green onions, and dill from the garden.  I sauteed them in butter and threw in some leftover asparagus.  Whisked eggs with milk, added salt and pepper, and poured it over the veggies.  Let the bottom cook some, and then into the oven to broil the top a little.  Toss on shredded mozzarella.  Warm up leftover mushroom clam white sauce from the fridge, and spoon a little on top.

It was delicious.

I put out the signs on Saturday and today, with minimal results.  Angelia wasn't here to help market, for one. For another, I didn't have the word, "Free" on the sign.

Today I was occupied with getting ready for a little Memorial Day Cookout with the family.  Goodies from the garden were on the table.

We had a mighty salad with lettuces, carrot, pepper cress, and flowering tops of Chinese Cabbage, all home-grown.  I added cherry tomatoes and grapes that I did not grow myself.

I harvested a bunch of beets.  Nobody really likes beets much, but they have grown on me.  I love the color.

After the beets were washed, peeled, and sliced, I mixed in mint leaves and olive oil.  I made a foil package with them and cooked it on the grill.  I made another foil pack with turnips, rosemary, and butter.  After an hour, they were tender.  The beets were a hit.

One patch of spinach was done.  The plants were all bolting.  I pulled them all, and plucked the good leaves.  After a good washing, they got steamed, bagged, and frozen.

I wish there were other ways to preserve greens.  Freezing them after they've been cooked really is the only decent way, and we just don't have enough freezer space.

It was a good weekend in the garden.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Well, I have no silver bells or cockle shells, but I do have ladybugs.  They are good luck, especially in the garden.  Ladybugs are a beneficial insect because they eat other insects.  It was nice seeing this guy in the garden this morning.

The garden really is growing well.  I'm a little surprised by this.  I'd expected there to be some plants that just didn't do well.  Not the case.  Even the celeriac, which initially did not germinate, is growing now.  Still slow-growing, but it is growing.

Here's a shot of the other end of the garden.  Burgundy garden beans are in the right foreground.

Squash, started from seed directly in the garden, are already huge.  They will be throwing out blooms in a week or so.  Their leaves are the size of dinner plates.

Yesterday I set my homemade cucumber cages over the plants.  I made these cages last year, and stored them in the greenhouse over the winter.  It's a stick with plastic fencing attached to make a tube.  There are two varieties here, lemon cucumbers and "Straight 8" cukes.

Eggplant that I transplanted from the greenhouse this past weekend have flower buds on them already.

There are lots of fruit on the tomato plants, and even more flowers.  I'm stoked about these tomatoes.  Waiting for them to ripen is going to be tough.

These fruit are huge!  You can see the beginnings of unique coloring on them as well.  These look like Cherokee Purples to me.

Turnips and Brussels

I spent a lot of time in the garden this weekend.  The Saturday produce give-away was successful.  Most of the turnip greens went home with other people.  There were a LOT of greens...

Yes, that's a wheelbarrow full of turnip greens.  These turnips did not produce substantial roots.  We got some, but nothing like the giant softball-sized monster turnips we had last year.  I'm unsure if it was the variety of turnip or how I planted them.  While I did thin them, they may have been too densely packed together.  They produced impressive leaves.

I sold about $10 worth of other produce...dill, mint, and lettuce, mainly.  Probably 15 or 16 people came by and got leafy greens on Saturday.

Today, I thinned the patch of brussels sprouts.  I'm not really sure what I was thinking when I planted them, but there was less than an inch between most of the plants.  Since the ending plant spacing on the packet called for 2 feet between plants, I must have been on crack when I placed that seed.  A huge pile of thinnings resulted.

So, I was about to carry them to the compost pile, when I shoved a leaf in my mouth and chewed.  It tasted good, so I whipped out my phone and googled, "can you eat brussels sprout leaves?"  Survey says 'yes!'  I quickly found a number of recipes for cooked brussels sprout leaves.

I washed them, plucked them off the stems, and cooked them up with garlic, olive oil, onions, salt, pepper, chicken broth, beer, hot sauce, and a little apple cider vinegar.  They were good - Angelia and I both had seconds.

So, brussels sprout leaves are edible, and they taste good.  Who knew?  

Pro Bono Produce

Tomorrow (Saturday, May 19), I will be removing large quantities of greens from the garden.  Turnips greens and arugula have all got to go.  We also have way more lettuce than we can possibly eat.  So, I'm going to put up my signs and try to get rid of some stuff.  

If you are reading this, and you know where the Givler Garden is located, just show up sometime on Saturday between 9 AM and oh, maybe 3 PM and I'll give you free turnip greens, arugula, and lettuce.  You'll be doing me a favor.  I need that space in the garden to put in peppers and eggplant.  

If you don't know where the garden is located and you live in the Richmond Area, (and you're not a scary stalker-type or an abuser of gnomes) send me a message and I'll give you directions to the Great Greens Give-away.

Sven

A couple weeks ago, I did a little arts and crafts project.  Last year, a small orange gnome showed up in my garden.  He stayed there all year, even in the snow.

As a result, he faded some.  The orange, in some places, had faded to white.  The little guy was splotchy, and we couldn't have that.  Not at all.

So, I bought some paint and some clear spray sealant.  Over a couple of weeknights, I slowly added new color to the original orange.  I think Sven's a good name, especially since my son named the one he picked out for me "Steve."

Angelia and the boys say his eyes are creepy.  I'm very happy with how he turned out.  There's also another new addition to the garden, this mailbox.

How I acquired this mailbox is a bit of a story, but the gist of it is that I had to replace this lightly damaged mailbox with a new one, and I'd read in a gardening book about keeping a mailbox near the garden to store tools.  So, I did that.  I'm keeping a pair of gloves, trowel, knife, and a few other things in it.  It's watertight, and my most used tools are right there when I need them.

My Big Fat Green Garden

Tonight I took some pictures of the growth in the garden.  We've had regular rain and good temperatures, so these are happy plants.

Foreground to background, this seedbed has lettuce, kohl rabi, carrots, brussel sprouts, and pole beans.












This one is blondie type peas and two types of sunflowers.

This bed has 3 varieties of squash including yellow straightneck and zucchini, califlower, chinese cabbage, and broccoli.









This one had green slicing cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, burgundy snap beans, and cauliflower.

This is the seedbed that was planted last.  It has borage, curled cress, summer savory, dutch caraway, radishes, watermelons, and banana melons.

Ok, we've got German chamomile, celeriac (which initially did not germinate but now has), more Chinese cabbage, and more snap bush beans.

The lower end of the garden.  Arugula, carrots, onions, summer lettuce mix, sugar snap peas, turnips, beets, mustard greens, spinach, green leaf lettuce, more carrots, hot peppers, and in the back, tomatoes.

The two seedbeds next to the tomatoes.  All this stuff is ready to pick, cook, and eat.

Two beds of tomato plants.

This is a Ildi tomato plant putting out a ton of flowers.  It will produce yellow grape tomatoes.

Today's big garden victory...4 free bales of hay.  It makes incredible mulch and is also a great addition to the compost pile.  If I can, I plan to score 4 more bales tomorrow.

Harvest Numero Uno

This past Sunday I harvested radishes, turnip greens, arugula, and Chinese cabbage.  I pulled all of my sparkler type radishes...they were starting to bolt.  I also grabbed some of the more developed icicle radishes.

I love mutant veggies.  Here's another freaky looking radish to go along with the six-fingered man.

Here's the complete harvest.  From right to left, arugula, Chinese cabbage, turnip greens, and then the radishes.  This week I was away at a planning retreat for work.  I did most of the cooking, and I prepared these greens on Tuesday night.  I seasoned them with butter, salt, pepper, a little vinegar, and a new secret ingredient that I found at Kroger...smoked pork jowls.  Yes, it sounds gross, but they delivered substantially more flavor than bacon or ham.  The greens were very good, if I do say so myself.

I got back home today, and was greeted with ripe strawberries.  The strawberry patch has been producing, but this was the biggest batch yet.

Yes, that's a dinner plate full of strawberries.  Will had some at supper, and I ate some as I picked.  They're good.  The problem is bugs and birds.  As soon as these things turn red, they are attacked by ants and birds.  I don't like the thought of spraying pesticide on them, and even if I did, it wouldn't solve the bird problem.  Oh well. I really don't mind sharing as long as they leave some for the rest of us.

Tomato Insanity

The garden is now fully planted.  All 12 seedbeds have seeds or plants in them.  I still have some plants in the greenhouse, but I will slide them in as current crops are harvested and space becomes available.

Above is a picture down the length of the garden.  At the far end are the tomatoes, planted in the two seedbeds that I covered with black weed-blocking fabric.  It's not plastic, but a fibery fabric that water can pass through.  It absorbs sunlight, warms the soil, and makes tomato roots happy.

I have put 73 tomato plants in the ground.  Yes, I know.  That's a crazy amount of plants.  I have a problem.  I have put in 14 different varieties, one of which was a unknown volunteer tomato that came from some compost I used to fertilize some other seedlings.  Here's the cheat sheet I created as I was transplanting them.

Most of these are types that I have not grown before, so I'm expecting a few surprises.  I'm happy with the mix of different varieties, and I'm really looking forward to the peak of the season.  These all went in the ground a week or two ago.  Tonight we were out in the yard and Angelia noticed a small green fruit on one of the Park Early Hybrids.  Many of the tomato plants are putting out flowers.  I see a lot of canning in my future.  Salsa anyone?