GTTC - kale, swiss chard and beets

Two posts in one day! I wanted to share some of the dishes my mom created with the harvest. She is a fantastic cook, so I am very happy that she is here to turn the home grown vegetables into great meals and snacks. First, with the kale, she made a smoothie. I tried this once but the kale didn't completely breakdown so I had bits of kale floating in my smoothie. She somehow got it all smooth. This smoothie had banana, mango, kale and milk. I couldn't taste the kale at all, so I guess this is good if you don't like the taste of kale.

Next up is a quick stir fry swiss chard with bacon and boiled egg. Not bad...but I'm not sure if I am a big fan of swiss chard. It tastes almost like spinach but more soil-y (if you know what I mean).

Now the beets. The beets (early wonder) are FANTASTIC. They are so sweet and just absolutely delicious. My mom made a wonderful salad.

With the beet greens, she made some stir fry with garlic and bacon with vinegar and soy sauce (I think). This too was delicious!

I'm really happy to be eating out of my garden! I'm linking to Wendy's Greenish Thumb for garden to table challenge.  Thank you Wendy for hosting GTTC!

Harvest Monday - May 28, 2012

It was extremely hot this weekend, but the veggies are doing wonderfully! In fact, I underestimated how large the greens get and the community garden is exploding with kale and collard greens. I may have to move one or two of the collard green out of the garden and into containers (I have 4 plants in the community garden). The swiss chard was also doing OK, but the caterpillars really love them so they are all chewed up.

Collard Greens and Swiss Chard (from community garden)

Kale (from the community garden)

The bok choy out on the balcony is starting to bolt so I harvested them all. I have one plant in the shade, this one is still going strong.

Bok choy (from the balcony) and spinach that has completely bolted

I pulled out all the beets. From the outside it looked like only one of the plant will have any beet root, but there was a good number of beets - small but beautiful. I also like the beet leaves so I am happy with the harvest. I will try to grow more next time around.

Last of the beets (grown in 5 and 3 gallon container)

I'm linking to Daphne's Harvest Monday - check out all the fruits and veggies being harvested around the world!

Harvest Monday - May 21, 2012

I was away this past week in a land far far away. My vegetables were left in good hands, but I couldn't help worrying about my babies. I missed tending to my vegetables and digging around in the soil - even if it's 5 minutes per day. I found myself looking at people's yards to check out what they had growing in their garden. I was very happy to be come back home, and even more excited to see that my beets looked ready to harvest. The beets were started as seeds on Feb 28, so its been about 3 months now. The seed package (these beets are called Early Wonder) says 48 days to maturity, but I can't complain. I had 2 containers of beets. I thought they would do better in the larger 5 gallon bucket, but the beets in the 3 gallon container are larger (same soil, same spacing). I harvested 2, and left the rest to grow some more.  I also was able to harvest a handful of snap peas, but I think the pea plant is about ready to die.

Freshly harvested beets

Beets all cleaned up!

Romaine lettuce and snap peas

I'm joining Daphne and gardeners around the world for harvest Monday. Thanks Daphne for hosting!! I'm closing this post with some pictures from my trip...I was in Iceland! It's a beautiful country...but COLD! And during this time of year, it never gets completely dark which was a very strange experience.

City of Reykjavik

Waterfall Gullfoss

Spacing and plant health

The kale and beets are growing steadily, but I think I may have overcrowded the container. With the kale, it is clear that the container with fewer plants is doing better. I want to thin out the crowded container, but rather than pulling the plants I plan to transplant them to another container. I am fresh out of containers, so I will either have to go buy more or use smaller containers and plant one per pot. Unlike the kale, the beets in the smaller container (presumably with less root space) is doing better than the larger container. The spacing is about the same and I also used the same soil so I don't know what's going on.

Container on the left is a ~3 gallon container and the right a ~5 gallon container.
The beets were started and transplanted at the same time but the plants are larger in the smaller container.

I also transplanted 2 mild jalapeno starter plants into self-watering containers (3 gallon) I found at Lowes. This is about the same size as the 13" Mainstay self-watering container I buy at Walmart. They are about the same price but I think the Mainstay container is better quality. Anyway, I've started a little experiment with the jalapeno plants. In one container (the middle) I used 100% new potting soil, and in the other I used recycled soil with fertilizer and cow manure.  It'll be interesting to see if there are difference between the two.

The grey containers are the new from Lowes. The white one is the Mainstay container that I have been using.
The middle container I used fresh potting soil. I used recycled soil in the container on the far right.

I have spotted some aphids on the pak choy plant from last season that is beginning to seed. The aphids are attracting ladybugs! 

I also spotted the first set of flowers on the bush early girl plant this weekend. I am a little concerned that it is too early to leave the tomato and jalapeno plants outside, but it has been quite warm so hopefully all the plants will thrive.

Bush Early Girl flowers

seedling update, month 1

I feel that my seedlings are growing slow. I found a heating mat that was pretty cheap (I'm also still looking into getting the snake lights) so I've been using that for the last 3 days. But I'm enjoying watching the seedlings grow.

Spinach, lettuce, kale @ 1 month

Swiss chard (no true leaves yet), pak choi @ 1 month

Romaine lettuce red and green @ 1 month

Beets @ 1 month - sown and grown outside

Kale @ 1 month - sown and grown inside

Arugula @ 3 weeks, sown inside and also left outside on the balcony

Cute purple flowers on rosemary 

This weekend, there is a sale at home depot for gardening stuff and starter plants. I'm gonna have to go and check it out! I'll see what I get and start a second set of seeds this weekend too!

Squirrels and insects, oh my!

I suppose gardening will always be full of surprises. I sowed kale, spinach and beets directly into containers outside. These have taken some time to sprout and just when they started to pop its head out of the soil, some creature attacked my containers! At first I thought it was birds (we have a whole bunch of birds that hang out on the balcony and poop all over my car) but now I think it is was squirrel(s).  I'm not sure what they were looking for but they pretty much ransacked all the containers.

Holes in the soil - probably squirrels?

Not all the seedlings were destroyed, but they did tear up a good number of them.  I figure out a way to keep the squirrels out using a grid I had from shelving unit I used to use in school.

Anti-squirrel!

This solved the squirrel problem, but then something started attacking the spinach seedlings. I have a good number of healthy looking seedlings that hadn't quite yet formed its true leaves. All of a sudden they just started to wilt and when I tugged it, it just fell out. Something ate through the stem, killing the poor baby spinach seedling. You can see the wilted seedlings next to the healthy looking ones in this picture. I did a little google search, and it seems it could be slugs, june bugs, cutworm...or anything else.

Look closely, these are 2 wilted seedlings near the front.
Couple days after this picture,some the healthy ones also got attacked.

To save as many as possible, I transferred the seedlings inside using a plastic lettuce container. I could only rescue 4 seedlings, such a bummer!! So far, they have not attacked the kale or beets. Fingers crossed.

Spinach seedling (the long leaved ones) transferred inside.
Other seedlings include volunteer lettuce (I think), and kale seedlings

Picture updates of the other seedlings growing at charm city garden presented below.

Swiss chard, pok choi, lettuce seedlings transferred to plastic container

Beets seedlings - I think I have sowed this too late...

Arugula seedlings (outside)

Snap peas