Harvest Monday

Golden Ball Turnips

I"m a bit late getting in this Harvest Monday post, have had a crazy few days at work. Harvest Monday is sponsored by Daphne's Dandelions. Join in the fun seeing garden harvests from around the world!

In addition to the usual mix of salad greens, which I'm sure you are getting tired of looking at, this week I harvested some of the Golden Ball Turnips planted last fall. The plants had gotten off to a rocky start, showing a lack of iron &/or nitrogen, but a couple of feedings of fish and seaweed helped them along and they are finally sizing up.

I also harvested another bunch of carrots, but I forgot to take a picture of them. I cooked up the turnips with their greens and some of the carrots in some chicken stock then added some shredded chicken. The turnips especially were sweet and tender.

The chicken stock was made by boiling up a 10 pound bag of leg quarters that I got on sale, removing the meat, then boiling up the bones with some bay leaves, onion and a a bit of celery from the greenhouse. This is my first experiment in growing celery and I was afraid that I planted it too late and that it would bolt before getting big enough to be useable. Celery is a bog plant and the four best looking plants are in a large tub

Celery

of peat based potting soil in the greenhouse. (I mixed potting soil and compost together and added some rabbit manure to it). Plants in other containers and in the greenhouse bed have not grown as large nor are they as dark a green. These large plants are making little offshoots and that is what I am harvesting right now. I tend to use celery more as soup seasoning than as a vegetable, so for future reference will probably continue to grow just a few plants in large tubs since that seems to be the best.

Do you remember that Yellow Marble tomato plant that gave me tomatoes in Dec & Jan? Well it's still hanging in there, putting out a bit of new growth and some blossoms. (If you are just joining me, you can see pictures of it in this post)

Yellow Marble tomato lived all winter

The other day I cut out the other, dead plants from the pot and clipped off the dead branches off this plant. That clump of leaves in the middle of the pot is a Stella d'Oro daylilly.  I gently loosened and removed it, I filled in the hole it left with some vermicompost then curled the tomato stem back up and around into the pot. Tomatoes will root all along their stems if they are touching the soil. I actually covered part of the stem with more vermicompost to encourage it to take root. We'll see how it goes.

The Yellow Marble after trimming

In addition I've been starting seeds in the house on the heat mat; tomatoes, peppers, lemon mint and others; I"ll try and do a whole post on that later this week.

Harvest Monday

lettuce, kale, tatsoi and one lone mache plant

Welcome to Harvest Monday, a great blog hop hosted by Daphne's Dandelions. Stop over there and enjoy visiting with gardeners from around the world!

This week has been warm (for Feb.), dry and very windy. Also very crazy at my work and this week isn't much better. Going on 8 days straight tonight and the past two being graveyard. Looking forward to having 3 days off at the end though. Also looking forward, they are forecasting rain around Wed. and we sure need it badly.

Mostly harvested the usual salad greens this week, many types of lettuce, kale, cilantro, sorrel, chickweed, spinach, along with a couple of tatsoi and one lone mache plant. I did discover that I have mache volunteers in one bed, but they are tiny yet.

Here's a few more pics from inside the greenhouse. You can see some construction details in my post from the other day, Simple Homemade Greenhouse.

Blue bellied lizard

I have several small lizards and a couple of spiders running around in the greenhouse. This lizard fell into one of the big tubs and couldn't get out so I rescued it. It's belly is like electric blue.

The strawberries are beginning to bloom

Salad Bowel lettuce

This 24 inch pot of Salad Bowl lettuce gave me 6 oz in one picking.

tomato blossoms

The crazy Yellow Marble tomato is blooming!




And now I am off to bed; one more night of graveyard....

Harvest Monday

Yellow Marble Tomatoes, Radish

Well this has been a bit of a crazy week with my work and getting ready for my first art showing (more on that over on Artists Way, my art blog) I did do a little harvesting, but the lettuce growth has really slowed down. I've already made a note to plant a lot more salad fixings this fall!

And of course our lovely Harvest Monday blog hop is sponsored by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions, stop over and visit with gardeners from around the world!

Besides the usual salad greens I did harvest a few more little Yellow Marble Tomatoes. I am still amazed by this plant still going strong! There was one little red radish ready to pull and a golden turnip. (I'll have to check up on the actual variety name).

golden turnip

Overall things are looking great in the greenhouse. The peas are going strong, the violets are blooming and I saw a blossom on one of the strawberry plants. Of course there are no bees out yet to pollinate, so it will be a bit before we actually get any fruit set. I'll try and get out there this week and get some photos for you.

Over the weekend I was at the opening reception for my show on Sat. Then Sunday morning had about 3 truck loads of hot horse manure delivered. Later in the day I picked up a couple of waterlily roots of unknown color from a lady giving them away. I potted one up and took it to my mom for her pond. Now I have to get my tub fixed up and put the other one in there.  I also have a lot of other work to do around the yard.

And of course it's time to get paperwork sorted out and in order, to get ready for filing my taxes. That means cleaning off the desk along with lots of housework back log. And Yikes! It's Monday and time to go back to work already!

Harvest Monday & Seedy Saturday Winner

Pak-Choi

Welcome to Harvest Monday, hosted by Daphne at Daphne's Dandelions! Check it out and see what gardeners around the world are harvesting, some of them are pretty amazing.

This week, besides the usual mix of lettuces, I harvested a few other goodies, like this pretty little baby pak choi.

Easter Egg Radishes

There were some little Easter Egg Radishes. These were a bit hotter than the ones I pulled before, I think maybe they are a bit too warm in the greenhouse with the crazy springlike weather we've been having.

Baby carrots; there are beets hiding underneath them.

I pulled the last of the beets and carrots that were planted in August. They haven't grown much lately so I figured a fresh start would be good. They were in half of a small bed, so I loosened up the soil and added some compost and fertilizer to it so it will be ready to plant.

Yellow Marble Tomato in January!

I got a few more yellow marble tomatoes from the plant in the greenhouse. It's been warmer lately so it is doing well. We'll see what happens if we get another deep freeze.

Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas grow in tubs in the greenhouse

The Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas are beginning to vine in their tubs in the greenhouse, they should start blooming soon.

greenhouse growing bed

In the raised bed in the green house there are some strawberry plants, an odd onion, some little marvel peas and way down at the end, some cilantra and sorrel sprouting up.

And now I know at least one person is anxiously awaiting......Seedy Saturday's Free Seed Giveaway goes to Jennie M.! congrats Jennie!

Around the Garden & in the Greenhouse

pea plants broken down by snow

Today was nice and sunny so I did a bit of work around the garden and in the greenhouse. I surveyed the damage from the snow storm last week.

The Bleushokker peas (in this photo) as well as the Sugar Snaps had some stems broken over by the snow and ice but peas are hardy plants and don't die from freezing. I'll probably just trim off the broken bits and feed them to the rabbits. Rabbits  happen to love pea plants.

freeze damage on lettuce

A lettuce bed covered with Agrobon frost blanket suffered freeze damage where snow sat for days on top of it and the leaves froze to the material.

Lettuce in the Snow

Another bed of lettuce which had been picked to ground level a couple of weeks ago had no frost blanket and so far shows no signs of damage. I think the thick layer of snow that was over it the first few days insulated it from the 22 degree nights.

Beets & carrots after the snow

The beets and carrots looked a little sad after the snow melted off of them, but they tasted just fine when I pulled them up. You can see there is still a little snow at one end of the bed (upper left corner of photo) and the soil is still frozen in some parts.

Dwarf Grey Sugar Peas in a tub in the greenhouse.

The greenhouse did get down below freezing some nights last week with the storm. Some little nasturtium seedlings froze to death. But almost every else is doing well.

Many things are sprouting up and growing. It gets in the 70's when it's sunny, though it can freeze at night, lately it's been just above freezing while outdoor temps have been just below freezing. One thing that seems to help is that the soil picks up a fair amount of heat during the day the surface is warm to the touch. I think this has helped the seeds sprout and the plants to grow. At this time I don't have any heat sink in the green house mostly due to lack of space, tho I'm thinking about at least using plastic milk jugs full of water.

Little Marvel Pea seedlings in the greenhouse bed

The Little Marvel Peas are sprouting up as well as a few other things.

onion seedlings in soil blocks

An onion plant left from last year and some radish seedlings.

Sweet Alyssum started in soil blocks and moved to plastic pots

Purple Pansies in the greenhouse

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old fashioned violet

Yellow Marble Tomato survives

A big surprise was to find that one of the Yellow Marble Tomato plants did not seem to have been frozen. It does lay over a couple of big rocks and perhaps they helped keep it warm enough, I'm not sure, but tomato season may not be totally over yet.

Don't forget to stop by and comment for Seedy Saturday's free seed giveaway. This week I'm giving away old fashioned hollyhocks, so if you have been wanting some for your cottage garden or to hide the compost pile, go on over and comment on this post to be put in for the free seed drawing.

Today's Harvest: lettuce, beet, tomatoes

Harvest 11-11-11, baby lettuce, yellow marble tomatoes, a yellow beet

Today's harvest is small compared to how much food I actually eat, but things will get bigger and better as I go along. I picked 8 ounces of mixed baby lettuce, 4 ounces of Yellow Marble tomatoes and the biggest beet in the patch. The beet & greens together weighed in at 1 pound, 3 ounces. The root alone weighed 5 ounces.

The root really is that bright of a golden yellow. When cooked it loses most of the color and is a very pale yellow, almost white.  The ratty outer leaves and the tough stalks went to the rabbits; the tender leaves were part of tonight's dinner along with the root which is super sweet and not quite as earthy as red beets I grow.

I don't know the name of this beet and I'm not sure but it might even be a cross between a couple of kinds.You see I bought a mixed package of Heritage beets from Bountiful Gardens probably about 8 years ago. There were several really huge white beets in the mix, which I let go to seed. There might have been a yellow one in there too, I really don't remember now. That would have been about 2005. I still have more than half a pint of seeds left, but germination is beginning to drop off a tad. Most of the seeds sprout, but instead of several plants from one seed ball, they are tending more to just one. Which is OK, it means a lot less thinning for me.  I will probably let some of them go to seed next year, just to replenish the supply.

Also I'd like to draw your attention to the tabs across the top of the page. These are extra pages I've added to the blog which I'll be updating from time to time, especially the amounts harvested and worth of produce but also the varieties I'm growing. That page will eventually be in alpha order, but for now it's a little random. The worth of produce is the price I'd have to pay for a comparable product at the local market.

And since I didn't harvest anything else since Friday, I'll list this post for Harvest Monday over at Daphne's Dandelions, a great place to connect with other gardening bloggers and what they are harvesting from their gardens.