End of July Records

Last week in July
-Transplanted six broccoli sprouts into garden... probably too early, but have 6 more as back ups
-Sowed into pots: beets, kale, carrots, garlic SEED, radish
-Moved prior planted garlic seed into garden - single cloves growing are roughtly the size of my thumbnail. Since these are from seed rather than clove, I expect to leave them in at least until spring... actually I have no idea what to expect... all the information on the net is for planting cloves, not true garlic seeds.
-The purplette onions on the deck are ok. I have let a few shrivel, but there are still about ten that look healthy.

Salad Experiments

My amaranth is finally taking off with beautiful green and purple leaf production. I tasted my very first nibble just a week or so ago. I definitely had mixed feelings. I keep reading that it is sweet and spinach-like... not so (maybe I didn't water frequently enough?). The initial taste is good, however quite strong. Then there is a sneaky little subtle aftertaste that is quite bitter. This sent me into a sour mood as all I can grow mid summer is bitter greens. Yet I did not let my grumpy disposition last. Instead, I decided to take on the challenge of finding ways to enjoy eating everything that I was growing, including my amaranth. So far I have come up with two salads that I quite enjoy, with hopes of finding more. The greens mostly don't matter... I have been using the last of my cabbage, a little store bought lettuce, lots of swiss chard, and a modest dose of amaranth. Top that with whatever beans are ready to be picked. Then for the salad dressing, what makes or breaks it for the bitter afterbite. I tried Farmgirl Fare's cabbage and swiss chard salad dressing... incredibly good despite my dislike for cottage cheese. In this recipe it was subtle enough to allow the greens to come through. Yet with the amaranth it didn't quite cover the aftertaste. Last night my husband and I made a sweet egg yolk based dressing. It was wonderful! You could still taste the distinct differences between the greens, yet there wasn't a hint of bitterness. I am overjoyed... I can now harvest greens to my heart's content without worry of fearing the eating process.

Giant Swiss Chard Photo

Taming the Tomato Jungle

Earlier this month I finally got around to staking all the tomatoes (except the caged one). I am definitely learning that certain varieties, primarily the determinant ones, would be better caged. Oregon Spring variety loves to flop all over the ground, but is hardly two feet tall (but producing very well). On the other hand, my sungold is already past the top of the stake with no intentions of stopping. There are lots of green tomatoes now and I am starting to get impatient. I am more than ready to eat my first ever own-grown tomato!

The jungle pre-staking

After staking and a slight trimming

Baby green tomatoes

Color has arrived

My small area for sun loving perennials is finally in full bloom. Last fall I scrounged the dead and dying (discount) rack for any and all salvageable flowers. Those finds, along with hand-me-down plants from friends have filled up my full sun areas to the brim. There are shady areas-a-plenty still to be filled, but I am sure enjoying the color that I've got!

Early July Record of Events

July 1
Purplette Bunching Onion - sowed in planter on deck. All of the previously sown ones either didn't germinate or quickly passed away.
Purple Carrots - Sowed in largest planter pot on the deck. One sole survivor remains in the garden. The rest shrivled.
Beans - direct sowed more bush and pole beans. Current ones look great, but I want more!

July 2
Staked and pruned tomatoes (FINALLY)

July 3
Broccoli - direct sowed for fall harvest
Amaranth - transplanted from pots to garden
Eggplant - transplanted the one seed started plant

Pulled off the last of the sugar snap peas and removed plants.
Pulled out bolting spinach, lettuce, and pak choi (left a couple of each for seeds).
Harvested second (and sadly last) cauliflower.

What are these things?

Just today I noticed these small green egg clumps(?) at the base of my cabbage leaves. My cabbage just started forming heads about a week ago. There isn't any harm to them at this time (just a few little holes munched in some of the open leaves), but I don't want to just let these things sit there if they are going to hatch into an army of pests. Searched the web... didn't find anything. I don't know if it is related or not, but some wasps have been hanging out in the same area of the cabbage... maybe eating these things?

Bolting and Harvest

Over the last two weeks a great deal of bolting has occured in the garden. Almost two weeks ago the spinach started to go. By the end of that week, even the newly sprouted baby spinach was trying to set seed. The buttercrunch lettuce bolted last week and the bibb lettuce 2 days ago. The Bok Choi was on a similar schedule to the spinach. The heat has definitely picked up. I don't know if it was that, or if I missed watering too many days while at work. Either way, yesterday would have done them in with our 100 degree heat. I pulled up quite a few heads of each. It is so sad to see it go to waste. I left a few in place for seed collection.


On the up side, I harvested the larger of my two cauliflower yesterday. We ate it with steak dinner. Yum!




Amaranth is finally growing... apparently it likes the heat. I now have 4" tall plants with 3-4 true sets of leaves each. The final attempt at direct sowing also seemed to work... they are starting to show a set of true leaves. Next year I will winter sow and keep in cointainers, then can put in the place of other salad greens as those bolt. They definitely don't need to take up space in the garden before then.




I have one lone purple carrot sprout. I will try more soon in containers.

The bush beans are showing flowers. Now that the bak choi is out of that area, I wish I had planted twice as many beans... is it too late?

June Photos

The salad bed just keeps on growing. I've been taking the outer leaves of the lettuce heads several times now and they just keep looking great. The swiss chard has finally gotten a break from whatever pest was mining through its leaves. Now they are looking like really healthy plants. I don't even know what to do with all the spinach. A couple of them have gotten to be over a foot tall with huge leaves. Will they still be good eating or should I chop them down to make room for the babies? Who knows.
One of the Cauliflowers has become a mammoth of greens, but the small white head has just started forming. The other one is even smaller in both aspects.


This Red Sunflower has a cute little curl in it.

Peppers, Tomatoes and Tomatillos are showing their first signs of flowering!



Overall, things are looking pretty good. I still need to finish staking or caging the tomatoes. I am pushing it later than I should, but hopefully won't cause too much damage because of it.

Partaking from the garden, finally!

This week we have had multiple salads from the garden: spinach, bibb lettuce, and buttercrunch lettuce. Buttercrunch is a definite favorite. Spinach isn't bad, but I think I need to keep looking for the perfect variety.

Stir fried bak choi with ginger and garlic was pretty good, but a little bitter. Jared loved it because it brought back memories of Indonesian meals (bitterness and all). Tonight I steamed swiss chard and poured peanut sauce over it. The peanut sauce definitely helped since I am still getting used to steamed (aka wilted) leaves. Growing up that was never something I ate. While I was cooking I tried a few nibbles of the swiss chard fresh... I was shocked at how salty it was. Who would've guessed?

The most exciting eating thus far has been the few sugar snap peas that we have munched on. Yum! Next year I will plant at least twice as many of those for sure!

The Deck Planters

I finally planted all three of the main pots for the deck. I want to keep the deck mostly herbs, but there are a few veggies and flowers thrown in for color or due to lack of space in the garden.

Leftmost Pot: Mini Yellow Bell Pepper, Gypsy Marigold, Sweet Marjoram
Middle Pot: Purple Sage, Lavendar, Lemon Verbena
Rightmost Pot: Several Large Leaf Basil, Dianthus


Clockwise starting with the largest:
Catmint/Spearmint, Sweatleaf, Chives, Oregano from seed, Sage from seed, Oregano from last year

Vegetable Explosions

I had no idea vegetables could grow so quickly! Every time I go outside I am astounded by another growth spurt. The last two weeks I sowed many a seed and transplanted the rest of my indoor grown starts.

MAY 20

Transplanted into garden:
Tomatoes - Still need to decide on staking or caging... maybe some of both.
Peppers - Cubanelle, Hungarian hot wax, Hot Thai, and Mini Yellow bell. One of each into garden, still have a back-up of each inside in 4" pots.
Japanese Eggplant - May have started indoors too late, but planted into corner of the garden anyway, will try growing on trellis. Who knows.
Lemon Cucumber - from winter sown container. None of the babylon sprouted, so I sowed some seeds around the lemon cucumber. They are all probably too close together, so I may cut out a few once they are stronger. Again, will try to train to a trellis.
Pole Beans, Blue Lake - from winter sown and added more seeds as only had three sprouts.

MAY 21

Direct sowed more seeds:
Carrots - Cool purple ones. Garden soil is pretty rocky, so they may be small and deformed. I hope to plant a shorter variety into a container with better soil.
Spinach
Pak Choi
Buttercrunch lettuce
Cabbage
Amaranth - One last ditch attempt at direct sowing these guys. The winter sown and indoor sown that have survived are finally putting out decent sized true leaves. There may still be hope.

The Salad Area - Marigolds just added to hopefully deter pests

Bibb Lettuce

Buttercrunch Lettuce

Pak Choi - Harvested the first batch of leaves this week! Used raw as salad and it was okay, but not great. The leaves were a bit old as the plants were slow to grow indoors and then outside in the cold. I am hoping the next batch will be a little sweeter now that the weather is warming up. I plan on trying lightly steamed or stir fried.

Oregon Spring tomato

The first tomatillo bud!

Lemon Cucumber

Borage Blooming

Exotic Additions

About a week ago Jared and I took a trip about an hour south to One Green World, a nursery specializing in exotic and rare plants. We went for the kaffir lime tree, the leaves of which are used in our favorite thai soup. The tree is more than two feet tall and already has lime buds! I definitely didn't expect it to fruit this year.

We also came home with a male and female arctic beauty hardy kiwi. The fruit are the size of grapes and fuzz free, but definitely still taste like kiwi. Someone brought a bunch in to work last fall and I ate more than my share... yum. These are great because they live outside in the shade... which we have plenty of. We don't have to worry about bringing them inside in the winter (the kaffir lime tree is a little higher maintenance in that regard).

Continued Growth

Rapidly growing veggies
Plants mom kindly dug up to share last fall



The indoor only cats took a tour of the overgrown grass

May - Week One

Once again, I have neglected to keep track of exact dates for transplanting and sowing seeds. When will I learn? However, this month I did take lots of pictures, so here is my best guess at the garden calendar based on the photos and my memory.

May 5

Transplanted winter sown veggies and plants:
Sunflower
Pak Choi
Bush Bean, Burgundy
Bush Bean, Roma II
Bibb Lettuce
Amaranth into pot on deck
Basil into pots on deck

Transplanted indoor sown:
Red sunflower
Oregon spring tomato x 1
Sage into small pots
Oregano into small pot

Transplanted store bought:
Dill
Cilantro
Basil, siam queen and large leaf italian
Marjoram
Rest of swiss chard into pots and replaced few in garden that wilted

Space hybrid spinach

Burgundy bush bean after transplant

Tomatillo hardening off

Potted swiss chard bright lights

The garden bed starting to show some growth