Monday, June 29, 2015

Midsummer update

Well, the days are already getting shorter, time for an update. We have been harvesting a lot of lettuce, basil, peas, and kale, but there is still so much left to harvest. I will try to space the planting of lettuce better going forward so that we do not have too much at one time. We have been busy with high school graduation and guests for the past three weeks, so I was happy to spend some time this weekend before the rain started in earnest, to fill another two garden frames with soil and transplant the cherry tomatoes. Below are some progress photos taken June 22 to show how things are filling in.

Frame by frame, we have the original lettuce and kale frame bursting at the seams, but providing delicious salad greens and smoothie makings.

The second frame is something of a hodgepodge. It became a holding area for garlic and onions brought over from our previous garden as well as strawberries rescued from the area where we laid the new garden frames, and a place to put cherry tomatoes until another frame became available. Also, included are plantings of cilantro, parsley, lettuce, beets and carrots.

The third frame is a more traditional square-foot layout with lettuce in the corners and alternating beet and carrot squares. In the middle are several chard.

Next, we have a container of basil which is growing new sprouts exponentially as we pick the tops. I believe that we have enough to make some pesto. Finally, the container which started with peas and now includes two large tomato plants.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Three more frames built

This weekend I built three more garden frames and partially filled one. It will take another couple of trips to the old garden to gather enough soil to fill the rest. We continue to harvest lettuce and kale and had our first strawberries. We also harvested some basil for dinner last week. The pea pods are just beginning to grow.

I hadn't visited the Southtowns site for a couple of weeks and missed peak viewing time for the peonies and iris. Roses and dame's rocket are now blooming and the one poppy that I managed to protect is almost there, with daylilies not far behind.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Second harvest and third frame planted

On Friday, my daughter harvested more lettuce and kale. It was enough to fill another large container which will last us for a week, but there is a lot more left to harvest (and share with others). The lettuce in frame two is almost of harvestable size and the coriander seeds yielded several starts (maybe parsely as well, it is difficult to tell them apart at this stage). On Saturday, the third frame was topped off with soil and planted with (18) lettuce starts, (12) ruby chard, (64) carrots, and (64) beets. The basil has finally recovered from transplant shock and we should be able to harvest some soon. We also purchased two large tomato plants which were transplanted into the pea cage and (4) smaller tomato plants that will go into the next frame that is built.