Harebells and daisies

Just as things started to dry out this weekend, the rain started up again. I haven't had time to do anything with the slugs except toss them one by one away from the garden when I find them. Youngest and I harvested veggies on Saturday morning before the day heated up. We harvested enough broccoli for a meal, some snap peas and more kale, chard and lettuce. The wild raspberries look like they will be ripe in the next couple of weeks. We have harebells and daisies blooming in the yard.

Tatopoes and the slug invasion

I received a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my youngest for Father's Day. I also planted 16 potatoes in squares formerly occupied by kale, spinach and lettuce. The potatoes were purchased at the Farmer's Market, since all of the seed potato suppliers sold their stocks weeks ago.

The garden is in transition from the continuous bounty of fresh greens to the beginning appearance of broccoli, peas and baby tomatoes. At the same time, the lettuce and kale are producing more slowly and the spinach is history. I am looking forward to the 26 new lettuce plants maturing over the next couple of weeks. We will need them to avoid buying lettuce at the grocery store.

With all of the rain that we have been getting, the slugs are out in force. I am planning to invite them to a beer party (I have heard they can't resist a good beer), then ship them off to a distant location. I also learned that they do not like copper. I may line the inside of my garden frame with copper tubing next year to see if that keeps them out. The gardens were pest free up to this point with more than one visitor commenting on how few holes were present in the vegetable leaves.

Rain, rain, rain

It has been raining off and on for the past three days. More to come tonight and tomorrow (1"-2"). It is nice to have a break from watering.

I noticed this morning that there are several snap pea pods ready to pick. It doesn't take long once the flowers appear.

I am hoping to get some potatoes, lettuce and carrots planted on Sunday after the rain.

Latest news...

This morning, I pulled the rest of the spinach plants that were bolting and several romaine lettuce that seemed near the end. This will free up some squares to plant Fall crops. I also harvested the first head of broccoli. It is only about three inches across. I didn't want to wait too long and miss the opportunity.

This past weekend, the extra lettuce that sprouted in the 8 places where I placed seed in frame 5 was transplanted. This gives us 26 young lettuce plants instead of the originally planned eight (see frame 5). It is one of the great things about SFG that when more plants come up than fit in a square, one can easily transplant them elsewhere. The soft, uncompacted soil ("Mel's Mix") is the key.

Regarding lettuce plants, we currently have 33 mature plants that have been providing cuttings every 2-4 days for the past several weeks (along with 9 spinach, 6 chard and 9 kale plants). This seems to be a good number of plants for our family of four, allowing us to have salad with dinners and healthy sandwiches and salads for lunch. It sounds like a lot of plants, but 32 lettuce plants will fit in eight squares or one-half of a single garden frame.

We are easily saving more than $10 a week with produce from the garden which has replaced the lettuce, celery, carrots and asparagus that we had been buying every week at the grocery market.

Surprisingly, the kale is sweet enough that we don't mind eating it raw in a salad. It is also good lightly sauteed with olive oil and garlic.

I have posted a before and after harvest image of frame two from this morning so that you can see how I trimmed some cabbage leaves to allow room for the lettuce and kale to grow and also to see how the lettuce and kale are harvested, leaving just a few smaller leaves to mature for the next harvest.

Roof raising

Well, I finished the new roof for the broccoli and as you can see, it really needed the room to stretch. It took until well after dark and the neighbors were beginning to worry about the strange noises in the backyard... I have also included a photo of our first pea blossom.

Trellis

Last night we finished the trellis for garden frame two. I can already see the tomatoes and peas stretching into the new space. Tonight, I am hoping to raise the roof on the broccoli another 18 inches. One of our basil plants wilted and dropped leaves after the latest rain storm. It had been struggling with some kind of insect or fungus. It is odd because the other three basil plants in the same garden frame are healthy and undisturbed. In other news, I noticed this morning that another spinach plant has bolted. Stopping by David's garden on the way to work, I saw some beans and lettuce popping up through the soil.

Bounding broccoli, bolting spinach

I made a quick harvest this morning and allowed the broccoli stretch it's legs for a few minutes. I didn't expect the broccoli to reach such a height... One of the spinach plants has bolted (gone to seed).

Eldest daughter and I attempted to build a trellis for frame two but ran out of daylight. We will finish up tomorrow evening, then the peas and tomatoes will have plenty of room to grow.

Note: the camera date is off by four days.

Got milk?

I noticed a quarter size broccoli floret on one of the broccoli plants this weekend. We haven't had time to do anything except keep things watered.

We started a milk share with a local farm this week. Our first two attempts to make butter from the cream failed miserably, but we will try again next week. We made farmers cheese (paneer) with the remaining milk and that turned out fine.

Morning glory

I spent some time in the garden this morning before work, pulling off the frost protection, harvesting greens and pulling some weeds. Everything looks healthy. I don't think it got quite cold enough to frost here.