2014 Veggie Garden Thread

I'll kick things off:

We are still about 6 weeks until the average last frost date, but...
Spinach, lettuce and kale <yuck> have been planted in the garden.
The rhubarb and garlic are popping their head above the think layer of straw mulch
Some seeds started indoors include 4 or 5 varieties of tomatoes, eggplant, various peppers and shallots

After this long, cold winter, I am Sooo ready to be diggin' in the dirt

[Robin Garr]

Mary has planted acres (well, square feet) of spinach in three varieties, but except for that we're mainly just waiting for this ridonkulous winter to end.

The crocuses and jonquils came out very late, but they were incredibly healthy and long-lived once they finally came up.

Put in a seed order yesterday, but with two feet of snow pack, can't imagine when we will get the garden started!

We have several types of spring lettuce growing well (pulled out the stuff from last year as it turned bitter) rainbow Swiss Chard, Russian Red Kale, Brussels Sprouts, cilantro, parsley, French Tarragon, three kinds of Thyme, Chervil, oregano, rosemary, lots of chives and garlic chives, sweet basil at my kitchen window, a type of purple bok choy, and radishes. I picked up a San Marzano tomato plant yesterday, (because they are grabbed up fast and I never get one) with the promise I would not plant it yet. Folks have been hounding the nurseries to bring out the tomato plants and a friend of mine has all his planted already. I don't put mine in until the overnight temps are steady at 52° or above. Waiting for a few weeks to purchase anymore tomatoes. We composted this year and all sorts of plants were coming up in the compost, which Gene had to disturb when adding it and organic chicken manure to the planting beds. It looked like they just might take root again and survive.

Plus, just outside my kitchen sink window, we have a Crape Myrtle tree that is as tall as the house and all the foilage is on top. Right at eye level is a forked branch, and some sort of seeding has sprouted. It looks like a veggie and has the second set of leaves. It is starting to trail. Not sure what it is, but it will not live long, I suspect.

It's gonna' be gardening in pots for me this year. Downsizing has substantially limited my space. We're not entirely settled in yet so it's going to be a few favorites. A couple types of peppers, beefsteak tomatoes, basil. Flower garden will include "Wave" petunias, dwarf gladiolus, geraniums all in hot colors, living in the very green woods as we do. An asparagus patch is planned if I can manage it.

[Jenise]

Rhubarb is out of the ground and about six inches tall right now. The stalks seem to grow about an inch a day. And that's it! Just pruned the grapes last week. Too early for anything else.

So far his has been a good growing season, with moderate temperatures and adequate rainfall. The greens (spinach/lettuce/kale) are yielding profusely. The tomatoes and eggplants seem healthy and happy with the first ripe 'mater still 3-4 weeks away. Green beans, peppers and squash are lagging, but suspect they'd appreciate some slightly warmer days than we've been having of late. The shallots we started from seeds seem to be doing well as are the various herbs.

The blueberries have been netted and we should harvest a small crop from our young bushes mid to late month.

The most important lesson learned this season is that I don't really hate kale. I just dislike the way my parents prepared it.

[Jenise]

Winger, that made me laugh out loud. I hope the list of other things you've been avoiding for 60 years because of your parent's cooking isn't too long.

I might actually have tomatoes by July 4th. What a summer this will be if I do! Picked my first beets yesterday for a salad. They were small, I picked only two, and shaved them unpeeled on a mandolin, then dunked them in boiling water for about 60 seconds. Dunked into ice water they were still crisp but cooked enough that my allergy to raw beets didn't activate. The rest of the ingredients in the salad were also grown by me, several lettuces and fresh tarragon. The toasted bread came from a local bakery and the to-die-for pork rillettes were made by a good friend here in the neighborhood--doesn't get much more local than that!

[Jenise]

Oops, forgot the pic.

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[Robin Garr]

Just down the hill and across the big river from 'winger, our garden is catching up fast after an unusually late and cool spring. The spinach and lettuces were bountiful but have now bolted. Herbs are fine. Tons of green tomatoes forming on a dozen plants of various heirloom varieties, predominantly the awesome Italian oxhearts that Mary has been propagating annually from seed for the past few years. Some tiny baby eggplants look dark purple and ripe, but we're thinking it might be good to let them grow a little before we pick. Okra coming along very nicely but, like the tomatoes, it's too early yet. Early July, we hope. And green beans, planted late, are just starting to get beanstalky.

It's been a great year for flowers, and even the crape myrtles and fig that we feared killed by the polar vortex are coming back.

[David M. Bueker]

Our first CSA share pick up is June 20. Of course we have been getting fresh greens (mostly spinach) from the farm every week since January. The best kind of garden is someone else growing it!

Strange spring here with frozen ground when the peas should have gone in but took a big risk and planted peas, beans and cucumbers at the same time and they all seem to be doing well. Waaay behind on lettuce, endive, spinach but had a salad of baby greens and herbs for the first time tonight.
Bonus from the compost....rapini senza testa ....somehow seeded itself in the compost and I harvested 3 beautiful turnips which I braised in butter with thyme and sauteed the blanched greens with a bit of onion. All to compliment lamb kabobs seasoned with dry harissa and grilled on a skewer. Sort of spring garden meal

We are doing about the same as Christina. All our transplants (tomatoes, cucumbers, squash) are in and doing as best as possible in this weather. We have one cherry tomato on. Still have to plant bean and lettuce seeds tomorrow.

Because we want backyard for dog and parties, we've had very limited garden in past. PLenty of herbs, but not great turnout from our few tomato plants- not enough sun.
But our neighbor bought a house near her daughter, and will be away most of the summer, and has given us 3 beds in her yard. We've been eating lettuce for weeks (microgreens from thinning at first). Watching Swiss chard, tomatoes, squash, peppers, spinach and beans. Replanted cukes yesterday, think squirrels got seeds.
Yesterday was first CSA pickup, but limited for now. No fruit, just purslane, chocolate mint, hydroponic tomatoes, lettuce (!), kale.

On Monday 16 June I picked my very first aubergine. I didn't even notice it until a few days previously as it was mostly encased in its dead flower and hidden behind a leaf

I am dead chuffed at being able to grow this exotic vegetable at home.

The aubergine was used in a pasta sauce that evening and I also picked my first four tomatoes to go in the salad.

Damn Peter. That aubergine bears a striking resemblance to an eggplant.

I'm still a few weeks away from the first tomato and probably a bit more until the first auber..err, eggplant is ready for harvest.

This vegetable has many names...

I never understood the eggplant name until I saw one growing by the Mediterranean and when small it was white and oval and did look like an egg growing.

So I used to think - up to now - that they all started off white and turned purple, but this purple one starts off purple - I have another fruit growing and it is tiny but purple, so I think the one I saw growing is a white version of the vegetable. I have, every,now and again, seen white ones in Asian shops, but the common one here in UK is the purple one.

Ref the name - from the excellent worldwidewords.org

...for the most extraordinary example of shifting names we must go to the aubergine, once known also as the brinjal in India. The story starts with Sanskrit vatin-gana “the plant that cures the wind”, which became the Arabic al-badinjan. This moved into Europe, again via Moorish Spain: one offshoot — keeping the Arabic article prefixed — became alberengena in Spanish and on to aubergine in French; another transformation became the botanical Latin melongena through losing the article and changing the “b” to an “m”; this then turned into the Italian melanzana and then to mela insana (the “mad apple”). Another branch, again without the “al”, became bringella in Portugal, whose traders took the plant, and their version of the name, full circle back to India, where it became brinjal in Anglo-Indian circles (the usual term among English speakers in India today is the Hindi baingan, or aubergine). In another branch of its history, the Portuguese word turned up in the West Indies, where it was again, but differently, corrupted to brown-jolly. All names for the same plant.
my emphasis

source http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/rose.htm which also documents artichoke, avocado and more

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Second picking of courgettes today -- why grow ordinary green ones when these will add such colour to ratatouille. More on their way.

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Picked 5 lb 5.75 oz of gooseberries on Saturday, nearly twice as much as last year.

3 lb will be made into jam today, I'll also make a crumble and freeze rest.

Had my first tomato from my garden yesterday. It's was from a determinate hybrid variety called "Better Bush." Not great, but better than anything in the supermarket.

[Jenise]

Peter said:

why grow ordinary green ones when these will add such colour to ratatouille. More on their way.

Peter, I had to laugh at this. Your sunny courgettes are quite lovely, but over here in the past few years the stores have become quite enamored of the yellow version of a pale green squash known as a patty pan. The pale green ones that nature designed, and that I grew up on, have all but disappeared. And the yellow patty pans are absolutely flavorless to this green patty pan fan. SO, I bought green patty pan starts this year and planted them--the tag in the box clearly showed pictures of the green ones.

So I planted them. And what have I got? YELLOW! ARGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Our first CSA share pick up is June 20. Of course we have been getting fresh greens (mostly spinach) from the farm every week since January. The best kind of garden is someone else growing it!

David, what is your annual cost in the share (crop)?

First cherry tomato yesterday. It will be a long time for anything else (only grow peppers & tomatoes). If the frequent rain keeps up the tomatoes will all be cracked and definitely "water logged". The locally grown strawberries are small and "water logged" i.e. very little/subtle flavor.

First cherry tomato yesterday. It will be a long time for anything else (only grow peppers & tomatoes). If the frequent rain keeps up the tomatoes will all be cracked and definitely "water logged". The locally grown strawberries are small and "water logged" i.e. very little/subtle flavor.

A very tough Spring and early Summer for farmers and gardeners in the upper Midwest. At NJ's family farm in Northern Iowa they recorded over 16" of rain in June with more in the last week. The wettest June since records kept. They were fortunate to get their crops in the ground but really need some dryer, hotter days or else it will be a difficult year.

Our gardens here in the mid Ohio Valley continue to do well. Squash, beans, kale, peppers, and 'maters doing great. Blueberries just about finished for the season and the lettuce and spinach are bolting in the heat as is normal. Garlic and shallots will be ready in the coming weeks. This is the first year I've tried growing shallots from seed and the results so far are nice. Getting my rhubarb plants established has been a challenge, but we're making some progress...the shade cloth has helped a bit.