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

Harvest Monday - 5/7/2012

I have been busy setting up my community garden and my muscles are a little sore from hauling compost and turning the old soil. Gardening is a great way to get some physical activity, and unlike being at the gym, I can be out there for hours at a time.

Last week I harvested some bok choy and kale (more like thinning than harvesting). I also have some wild arugula that are ready for thinning/harvesting. I grew this last year and it was really spicy. I thought maybe it was because I started them when it was already quite hot, so I sowed it earlier this year. There is a nice arugula taste in the beginning but pretty quickly the spice (beyond peppery) hits you.  I'll just let it grow out and cook it rather than eating it raw.

Bok choy, arugula, kale

My second harvest was included some red and green romaine lettuce leaves. The romaine lettuce is doing quite well and pretty soon I will be able to cut down on the amount of lettuce I buy. I also harvested a handful of sugar snap peas. They are very sweet raw, but I prefer to blanch them (they get incredibly sweet).

Snap peas, romaine, kale, bok choy

I'm joining Daphne for Harvest Monday. Please go and check out all the wonderful greens that are being harvested by gardeners around the world!

First harvest 2012!

It is getting warm and starting to feel like summer here in charm city. The early girl bush tomato is starting to flower and there are a few teeny tiny tomatoes. The sugar snap peas are also doing really well with healthy bushy leaves and greenish-white flowers. It looks like I will be harvesting some peas very soon! Can't wait!

Flowers on my snap peas

Tiny snap pea

Baby early girl bush tomato

For the first harvest of 2012, I got some pak choy and baby kale. I also harvested some snap pea leaves - some shoots, but mostly leaves.

Harvest #1 2012!!

I made a quick stir fry with garlic and oyster sauce. Everything was delicious, but I think I liked the flavor of the snap pea leaves the best. I will try to grow more snap peas this fall, since it will take A LOT of snap pea leaves to create one dish.

Super simple garden fresh stir fry

I'm linking to Daphne's harvest monday and Wendy's GTTC. Thank you both for setting up a place for us to share our garden accomplishments!!

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

Heat wave.

I had cut back a little on watering since I realized that I should feel the soil before watering to check whether the plant needs soil. I was down to watering every other day. I think I need to water them daily since this afternoon I cam back from work to this view on the balcony...

I watered them immediately and I think they will recover but it did give me a little scare. The heat is also doing a number on the peas. I'm sure both containers are well watered but the leaves are drying from the bottom and slowly traveling up. I might try to plant again in the fall. As for these two pots, I'll just let it go until it totally dies.

Slow death of the pea plants

Still producing peas!

I bought a very fun plant, the stevia, over the weekend. I don't know if this considered a herb, but the leaves are super sweet. The leaves can be dried and used as a sugar substitute. I believe it is used to make the sweetner truvia. I first saw learned about this plant in one of the "growing your greens" youtube video. The leaves are really sweet, it has a bit of a artificial sweetner aftertaste and it does taste green. Its so weird that the leaves are so insanely sweet.

-----------------------------------------update
Wow, while I was writing this blog post the plants quickly rehydrated. So resilient!

Harvest Monday!!!

I needed to separate this post from pest post to give me encouragement to keep going! I've been looking forward to joining Harvest Monday hosted by Daphne over at Daphne's Dandelions. It is really nice to see what others around the world are producing! Here is my contribution...for the first time:) Thank you Daphne for hosting Harvest Monday!!

First ever harvest - zucchini/summer squash, peas, mescluns

Some more summer squash...

Ichiban eggplant

and summer squash...

Mescluns and Peas!

The REAL first harvest!!

I have been happily watching my little veggies grow. With the zucchini and eggplant, I don't know how big they are supposed to be before harvest. I found information about the Ichiban eggplant pretty quickly (~10 inches) so this eggplant is almost ready for harvest.

The zucchini is a different story. The package says that this variety is called "Summer Squash Burpee's Bounty Hybrid" and it has zucchini on the top too. I found that zucchini is a type of summer squash. I know this is very basic information to most people, but I didn't know there were so many varieties of zucchinis. Here is the package:

The zucchini I'm growing looks nothing like the ones in the picture...So I am confused - do they change color as they grow, or what?

I tried looking for info on this specific variety but can't find anything. I did read that you shouldn't wait too long before harvesting since zucchinis can get bitter - and I've eaten bitter zucchini and it is nasty.  I figured I'll harvest the biggest one, just to see if they are good.
The peas looked ready too.

I really wanted to wait to share this with the boyfriend but frankly I couldn't wait. I tested one.

DE*LI*CIOUS!!!
Since the mesclun green was looking bushy, so I decided today was the day to harvest. Here is my FIRST REAL HARVEST from the balcony container garden. All of these I grew from seeds!!! WOW, I am really proud of myself.

zucchini/summer squash, sugar snap peas, mescluns/basil/arugula

Here is what the zucchini looks like sliced.

The harvest as dinner!

Zucchini sauteed & raw, steamed peas, salad (flower as decoration)

Zucchini/summer squash was DE*LI*CIOUS! It was good raw too (very sweet)! I sauteed it with olive oil with a little salt and pepper. Simple yet delicious. The peas were steamed a little (unfortunately some raw fruits and vegetables make my throat itch) which brought out their sweetness. I'm not sure I like the mescluns too much. They taste a little...well, green. It was good when mixed with some basil and arugula...and the dressing.

All done! Can you tell I am super excited? Gardening rocks!

Too hot for the dill

It is another blistering day here in Baltimore city. I really might have to think of getting some shade for the plants (how spoiled are these plants!). It seems that all the vegetable plants are doing well in the heat...all except the dill. The soil is well watered but the dill is drying up and turning brownish. The delicate foliage cannot take the heat! I tried to leave them under the table, but still they were burning up. I moved them off the balcony up in front of the house where it is shaded half the day.

I think I need to add some soil to support the plants

Sad Dill

The peas are almost ready for harvesting. I want to wait wee bit more but soon I will have a pea or two to nibble on. So excited!

Almost ready to pick...I think

Flowers on the peas!...and tomato leaves curling

The peas are growing very quickly and they are starting to outgrow the trellis. I'm not sure if I should build a taller support because I wouldn't be able to reach that high anyway. I'm wondering if I can coax the plants to grow sideways. I also noticed some flowers yesterday, I didn't notice it earlier because they camouflage pretty well with the foliage. I'm very happy to see the flowers because I was thinking it might be too hot for the peas to produce any pods. Looks like I might be able to harvest a couple of peas!

Super Snap pea flower

The peas shooting up above the trellis

I noticed that the tomato leaves were curling up. I was a little concerned but I read here and other sites that this type of curling is the plant adjusting to changes in the environment (it has been really hot the past couple of day). I know I haven't been over-watering so I definitely think the plant is adjusting to the heat (makes sense to try to reduce surface area by curling). I also read that sometimes if the foliage grows quicker than the roots, it curls up like this to reserve energy for root growth. I feel so bad that this plant is confined to this container so the roots can't really grow so much. Hopefully it will do OK.

 On a happier note, the arugula is coming back I think! I moved it from direct sun to a space under the balcony - I think it is much happier there.

Arugula on the top, mescluns in bottom container

I just love the flowers on the ichiban eggplant. I didn't know I was such a flower person, but I guess I am!