Gardening Diary: Another Harvest & Pest Update

It’s supposed to rain most of the today, so this AM I went out and gathered a bunch of fresh veggies from the garden. Yum

Cut a bunch of lettuce & basil, just a few tender beet greens, a few pea shoots (I’m growing shoots in a separate container), bunches of pea pods, a few sprigs of oregano, and two very small green Carmen peppers.

This is my fourth harvest. Here is a photo of my last (third) harvest of greens from my garden:

harvested lettuce, basil, beet greens, peas, and shoots
harvested lettuce, basil, beet greens, peas, and shoots
harvested lettuce, basil, beet greens, peas, and shoots

Gardening Notes:

So far, the only pepper plants with fruit are the Carmens and the plants are still so short/small, the fruit is larger and starting to drag. I figured I’d try cutting off two fruits to allow the plant to maybe catch up and grow some more! I had heard that it encourages the plant to grow more fruit if you pick the peppers while they are green, as opposed to waiting until they turn red. This will be an experiment!

Yesterday, I caved and bought a bottle of BT-Thuricide (Bacillus Thuringiensis), which is an organic solution for cabbage worms/larva.

tiny cabbage worm egg larva
close up of tiny cabbage worm egg larva

It was very easy picking off the tiny little yellow worm/eggs from the cabbage outer leaves, see my photos above. But then I noticed there were a bunch of worms snacking on inner leaves and it’s a lot more difficult to get them out!

The organic experts say BT is safe, but I still am reluctant to use it, mainly because it can cause resistance if overused. It’s especially disconcerting that they are “weaving” BT into Genetically-Modified (GMO) cabbage plants, which will eventually make BT useless for caterpillar/worm control!

UPDATE: 2012-06-27 I returned the BT. I decided that I would keep trying to pick off by hand.

Other than that, most of my plants are doing very well, in-ground and in-containers.

The only plants with issues are the bell peppers. I guess it might be more difficult to grow in the North. Most of them are looking “black” and losing their leaves. It could be from overwatering and not enough “heat.” I don’t know if I’ll attempt to plant bell peppers again next season.

Life is good!

Gardening Diary: Garden Expansion Photos

I wanted to share some of the photos I took of my little veggie garden. It started off smaller, then expanded, and expanded.

For now, I’m posting wide angles, but soon, I’ll share more detailed photos to show the growth of each plant.

Last season, we started with a very small patch of garden, as you can see from notes on two photos. Our first expansion was adding a few more feet next to the fence, and another row with a pathway.

Here’s what it looked like on 5/24 (with notations for last season).

We’ve got (1st row near fence) snap & shell peas, a large perennial oregano plant, beet seedlings, more peas, pickling cucumbers, then (2nd row), carrots, lettuce, brussells sprouts, red cabbage, and eggplant. In containers, there’s red cabbage, potatoes, (2) lettuce, and (2) brussels sprouts.

Oh and we also have grape vines in the fence corner, and another vine in the middle area of the fence.
the garden started
The containers were placed on top of long metal fence posts to allow good drainage.
the garden started
garden diagram from last season

Continue reading “Gardening Diary: Garden Expansion Photos”

Fresh Herbs From My Garden

Ooh I just picked a sprig each of fresh oregano and basil from our backyard garden, and chopped them for my fried egg breakfast. I’ve never had fresh oregano and wow, it’s wonderful. I’m so lucky.

So, fried egg (fried in 1/2 tsp coconut oil in cast iron) with chopped herbs, garnished with a couple spoonfuls of salsa and topped with more fresh herbs. And a side of fresh baked rosemary whole grain bread. Life is good!

:)

Basil Turns Black in the Refrigerator

HA! I was so happy that I found a bouquet of fresh basil yesterday at the farm. I brought it home, stuck it in a glass of water in the refrigerator, only to find it turning icky black today when I wanted to use it to make fresh pesto.

Come to find out, you aren’t supposed to put fresh basil in the fridge! oh well! live an’ learn. I won’t do that again.

I did salvage a good portion of it and made my first homemade pesto sauce.