My Edible Garden

I've been gardening for most of my life and have been a devoted fan of organic gardening the whole time. It just makes so much more sense to work in harmony with Mother Nature than to fight her. Besides which it is better for the planet and better for our bodies. Here you can see what I'm planting and harvesting, with gardening hints and resources thrown in for good measure.

Monday, April 16, 2012

HARVEST MONDAY

lettuce, chard, sorrel, spinach, radish, chives, violas
Another Harvest Monday rolls around! I love visiting Daphne's Dandelions and hooking up with gardeners around the world!

 Well the lettuce harvest is lightening up again as some patches are turning bitter and preparing to bolt, while the newer patches are not quite up to speed yet. I need to figure out how to get a steadier supply going and not wait so long between plantings, especially now that the weather is warming up I don't expect a planting will give me as many cuts as when it was cooler. And soon it will be too hot and the seeds won't even sprout.

Mammoth Melting  on the left, Dwarf Grey Sugar, right
The peas in the greenhouse are falling all over the place and loaded with seed. I'm going to start drying them off. The Mammoth Melting Sugar peas planted out in the garden are starting to come on now. You can see how much bigger their pods are compared to the Dwarf Grey. I will probably keep growing the Dwarf Grey though, just because they are really pretty.

Of course I got eggs this week, all the girls are laying so I get 2-4 eggs a day.

Greens
I'm eating two or more dinners of greens a week now too. Red Mustard, chard, spinach and lambs quarters, usually mixed together and cooked up with bacon and onions. I have ripped out the last of the spinach and the lambs quarters in much of the yard are beginning to get tough and stringy, but so far the mustard and chard are holding out.

I finally found my calculator and tallied up March's harvests; 25.56 pounds of produce worth over $60. I don't have an exact $ amount yet as there are a couple of prices I need to check on first. I finally got my taxes finished so now I can maybe finish cleaning off my desk and finding my garden receipts so I can catch up my expense page.

9 comments:

  1. yumm! Love your radishes and edible flowers and just look at those peas! mine are only couple of inches tall so no harvest anytime soon.

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  2. Beautiful peas! I don't know what I'm going to do about lettuce this year either. It's going to get hot real fast. Maybe start them in pots every few weeks? That's so much work though.

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  3. I have been harvesting oranges and grapefruit during my Florida stay and juicing them on the spot.

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  4. Beautiful peas, mine is only about 1 inch tall. Stir-fry the mature lettuce leaves, takes away the bitter taste and gives it a sweet crunchy taste.

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  5. I haven't got the timing right for growing peas, it seems I'm always late in starting the seeds.

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  6. I have to say I generally sow mixed lettuce seed in summer as that way theres always something that will germinate and I don't have to try and keep track of exactly which varieties do beat when. It does waste seed but I do struggle to keep track of all the different varieties I grow.

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  7. Oh lovely peas, I'm like Mac never seem to get my timing right but last spring i was determined to grow some and finally was successful! I usually let a couple of lettuce go to seed and seem to always have little seedlings popping up in all sorts of places........then i transplant them where i want them.

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  8. That's a lot of harvest... I have yet to calculate our harvest the way you do... good practice, I must add...

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