I had a good weekend garden-wise and completed the following tasks:
1) Harvested most of the beets - including the golden beets. I can't believe they worked out.
2) Pulled up all the arugula which bolted long ago.
3) Planted lima bean seeds and new Beet seeds where the arugula and Beets used to be.
4) Weeded (of course)
5) Watered
6) Cooked all the beets and the beet greens - I put the red ones and golden ones in a container together with a paper towel in between so that the golden ones wouldn't get red but, that worked for about 5 minutes.
7) Made my first small jar of pesto for the season (from basil given to me from someone elses farm share though)
I have also made the following discoveries and decisions:
1) The "bee balm" that was given to me isn't bee balm but, lemon balm. It smells good but, has no crazy, fun flowers on it.
2) The general layout of the garden seems to be working and I am very pleased.
3) The seedlings from the women's shelter really were just so-so this year. The basil is just now starting to look ok. The eggplant didn't grow at all and the tomato plants look healthy and are growing now but, I've only just started to get flowers while most of my garden neighbors have big, green tomatoes on their plants and they're about twice as big as mine.
4) The sink needs something new in it. It's basically a bunch of weeds now with one california poppy. I'm thinking it might be the perfect place for mint (or maybe the lemon balm) actually.
5)Some of the plants near the sink -- like the lavender -- are too crowded and shaded. I need to move things around a bit.
6) The purple coneflower looks great and the black-eyed susan is enormous and should be blooming very soon. I need to remember to divide it though otherwise it's likely to take over completely.
13 comments:
Thanks for the link about lemon balm. I use the leaves to make herbal tea - but only the leaves, the stalks tastes, well, stalks if you don't remove them. The tea is easy to make, just cut a branch from the bush and then cut down the leaves into a cup of hot water, wait for a while and drink. Tastes good cold too.
Oh yum ... I love beets and beet greens. Your garden looks wonderful. Lemon balm is great fun to have in the garden.
Mint or some other takeover plant would be awesome in the sink - to keep it all contained therein. I might just install one myself....
I planted some lima beans in the USA last year, and planted them this Spring with my pole beans. Can you plant them this late in the year for a second crop?
I can see that you must be good in gardening or anything you put your heart into. Is there a difference between beets and beet? We know beet (dark red)and we love to eat the greens too.
Growing veggies in our dry hot summers is just not on the cards. Our winters are not too bad as we get winter rain and no frost. That is when we grow beet.
I do not know if you would like to see our water saving garden with
aloes, but you are welcome to drop in
Wow, just stumbled across your blog today - your garden is beautiful!
Did you have a hard time getting a plot in a community garden? Around here (Philadelphia) there seems to be a long waiting list.
Those beets look so tasty. I almost licked the screen of my computer! About how deep to the beets need? I grow out on apartment patio and want to plan for a future raised beet bed.
Wow your garden really did well this year!!! We had loads of tomatoes and cukes. That pink sink is really awesome too!!!!
Fantastic garden you have there...and the sink is a nice touch. I'd heard about using toilet rolls as seedling planters but might give that idea a miss, thanks for the review on it.
Hmmm. You have a sink in your garden, and "lavender" in Latin means "to wash." Food for thought!
For the toilet paper rolls, I cut them along the roll to be able to stretch them around the seedling post-planting. That way the roots were in the ground and OK, and i just shimmied the roll deeper into the ground around the 'stalk' of the seedling. It worked OK, but was a little bit of a hassle.
Hi Susan,
I checked out your blog the other day, and saw that you do book and product reviews. I work for Chelsea Green, an eco-friendly publisher located in Vermont—we publish books on “the politics and practice of sustainability”—and I was wondering if you’d be interested in reviewing any of our books. A few titles that might interest you:
Sharing the Harvest: A Citizen’s Guide to Community Supported Agriculture; by Elizabeth Henderson; http://www.chelseagreen.com/2007/items/sharingtheharvest2
The Flower Farmer: Revised & Expanded; by Lynn Byczynski; http://www.chelseagreen.com/2007/items/flowerfarmer2
I’m also including a link to our catalog http://www.chelseagreen.com/about/tradeinfo/DownloadCatalog —we’ve got a ton of fantastic titles in print and would love to get the word out on them! Take a look, and if you think you might like to review any titles, let me know and we’ll send you review copies. Thanks so much for all you do!
Best regards,
Laura Cherkas
Chelsea Green Publishing
lcherkas@chelseagreen.com
I have just finished planting, the weather over the last few days has been great, I weeded the lawn and cut it and bought some lovely homebase garden furniture to enhance the lawn, I love my garden and my veg patch, this year I am going to try parsnips I have never grown them before so it will be an experience.
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