Fall Report: The Final Harvest

Fall is officially here.

We've pulled in the meager offerings from the garden and are getting ready to till the ground in preparation for next year.

We waited too long to plant, so some of the produce didn't mature before the first frost.

It was a learning experience.

All in all we got a gallon and a half bag of carrots, which is about 1/2 to 3/4 less than expected, because not all the seeds sprouted.
The two Big Boy tomato plants produced a few tomatoes, just enough to satisfy a few toasted tomato and basil sandwiches (any excuse to make fresh bread), but the grape and cherry tomato plant kept us in just enough tomatoes for delicious salads...paired with artisan lettuce, that despite the frost, and light snow-fall today, continues to persist in the garden (along with the Swiss chard, in abundance and a lone small head of broccoli...the brave little thing).

Sadly only one of the potato plants made it, and its entire offspring will be in tonight's dinner.

We planted too many radishes, far too many...and they all came up. And got giant. And weird shaped. You could tell where they bolted in high heat, and then got stunted, and then bolted again. Ugly.

The garden, overall, kept us in various produce through mid-July - beans, Swiss chard, zucchini (SO MANY ZUCCHINI) - until we pulled out the last of the melons, and small amount of squash, this past Friday. The overall strange combinations of what did and didn't grow is likely attributed to both the late planting, and the poor weather conditions this summer.

Considering our first garden was as successful as it turned out, we're already looking forward to next Spring, we'll be starting some pants indoors, planting on time, and adjusting the quantities, adding some new items to the list, and crossing our fingers. Maybe next year there will be enough of something to can (the cantaloupe got dehydrated for winter porridge),.

Tonight, tonight we feast!
A 100% home grown dinner of:
Roast chicken (raised and slaughtered by dad), with roasted garden fresh potatoes and carrots, sauteed Swiss chard, and baby beets. Garnished with fresh basil.
Of course the flour in the gravy, and butter, were store bought, but the chicken stock in the gravy is from scratch.

Garden Update

Today we picked the second yellow zucchini, and the first green zucchini, the first 2 cherry tomatoes, a few more grape tomatoes, and an another arm-full of Swiss chard.

The big boy tomatoes are taking their time getting both big, and red.

The onions don't look promising, but the lettuce is the king of the garden, so far.

The snap peas have a few blossoms. We're keeping our expectations low. Pretty sure a rabbit had ravished half of the tops of the plants.
The beans are all flowers, hopefully soon they give-way to something we can eat.
The potato plant has some flowers.
The carrots are getting bushy. (the row that decided to make an appearance)
The melon plant is lush with flowers, but the beans are taking their time.
We'll have late-season spinach (after replanting in the second garden, because the first attempt did not show)
The radishes all look weird when we pick them, but they taste spicy and delicious.
The beets are plugging away...
The kohlrabi that we thought was done for is making a second attempt at growing.
The late-season squashes are in bloom...can't wait to see the first one!

So far we have put in nearly 10 solid hours of weeding this season.

All in all it's been an interesting learning experience.

Next year will only be better...but we're trying to stay focused on this one.

Vegetable Garden In Bloom: Photos

To be honest we are tickled pink that anything is growing out there. Of all the times in life we've tried to grow plants, or keep them alive, it's always been a terrible fail...

Our first garden is becoming a happy success. The second one was planted a couple of weeks ago and is doing well. We ended up not being able to full all of the space, but we're trying not to be too upset about it.

The thing about gardens is they need weeding..yeah...we'd forgotten about that...so today we hit the dirt and helped our budding plant babies out.

Garden Number 2 (didn't need weeding yet)

Located in Garden #2 these are the gourmet beans;
they are being pretty successful with growing.

Located in Garden #2, one of two cantaloupe hills.
They are also being very well behaved...so far. 

Other things in garden #3 are growing, but just not as impressive yet.

Garden Number 1

Garden One, a couple rows in of weeding and we decided to take a before picture

After weeding 

Out of all the squash plants the most successful ones were the spaghetti  and either the green or yellow zucchini.
At least five of the sixteen plants didn't materialize so we planted four replacements today *fingers crossed*

Only one out of five hills of potatoes sprouted...amazingly the one that did was the store bought potato that went to seed, and it's growing with a disturbing vengeance. Maybe the others are just taking their time??

Sugar snap peas becoming all beautiful

Leaf lettuce!

A baby Big Boy tomato!

Grape tomato buds ready to turn into juicy tomatoes!

...hopefully we'll have more photos soon.

Working in the garden is relaxing...for the first couple of hours...then the mosquitos find you, the sun burns you...and if you are unlucky with arthritis and carpel tunnel everything becomes swollen and sore.

But at the end of the day, the things we eat from this garden are trustworthy. There have been no chemical sprayed on them, we know the dirt it was grown in, and the hands that have touched them. It will all be worth it.

Our First Garden

By now we're over the fact that the property (farm) we had been trying to buy last October fell through. The house and yard we have now is adequate for our needs, very homey, comfortable for the most part; and as we've rolled with the punches and paved a new plan for our future, it's turned out to be a perfect situation.

Of course not getting our 40 acre dream property doesn't mean we can't follow through with some of our dreams; like having a nice garden, raising some of our own food, and canning and preserving them for fall.

It almost felt like we weren't going to get around to starting our first garden this year because of lack of the proper tools, time, and weather situations.

After much anticipation we finally go the neighbor to come over and till the old garden spot that appears to have been growing over for a couple of years. When all was said and done we ended up with a 30' x 12' garden full of wonderfully dark and moist soil. We can only imagine that it's the best soil people can ask for in this day and age of stripped-down topsoil in planned communities. This stuff is quality soil.

Hopefully that means we'll have good luck with it actually producing...something.
We've never had good luck with plants of any kind, so this year is a complete experiment.

We have another spot picked out in the backyard for a 30' x 10' plot, but have to wait until at last three days with no rain before breaking new soil (says the guy with the machine we have to use to do it).

Eager to sow seed to ground we paced around the yard gripping seed packets in our hand after plotting out on paper the design of the garden. You can't just throw sees anywhere. Some things need to be plated 36" apart, some seeds need to be planted 6" apart, and every variation in between. Peas need to be in a double row a few inches apart, and then the consecutive pair of rows need to be even further apart. It's not as simplistic as you'd think.

So after hours of measuring, and James digging and more measuring, we got our very first garden planted.

It doesn't look like much now but from closest (the west side of the garden) to the farthest today we planted:

GARDEN ONE

• 4 plots Spaghetti Squash
• 4 plots Acorn Squash
• 4 plots Green Zucchini
• 4 plots Yellow Zucchini
• 5 hills of Potatoes (1 of something random from the grocery store that went to seed, and 4 hills Red Potatoes from mom that sat in the basement for see)
• 2 double rows of Sugar Snap Peas
• 2 - 1/3rd row Garden Blend Lettuce
• 1 - 1/3rd row Salad Spinach
• 2 - 2/3rd rows of Searlet Nantes Long Carrots
• 1 - 1/3rd row of Short and Sweet Carrots
• 1 - 2/3rd row of Spanish Sweet Onions
• 1 - 2/3rd row of Evergreen Long Green Onions

and then we transplanted 4 tomato plants we bought a couple of weeks ago

• 2 Big Boy Tomato Plants
• 1 Cherry Tomato Plant
• 1 Grape Tomato Plant

Hopefully later this week garden two will go in so we can plant some of the rest of the seeds (and buy a few more plants, and more seeds, because we realized that we didn't start some of the ones are supposed to be transplanted, like the tomatoes and peppers and eggplants.

At least we'll know for next year.

Spring Is In the Air

So, we didn't get our farm. That's old news at this point.
But what we did get is a big backyard for a wicked garden. Hopefully wicked, anyway. Our thumb isn't exactly green.

We've already got our wishlist ready to go to shopping cart on Burpee.com, it's massive. Now we just wait until the snow melts. It's happening!

In the meantime, we're going to learn about ladybugs. Our new house has an infestation. When we first moved in the massive amounts of carcasses told the story, but today we woke up to a window sill with at least 8 of them crawling around, and have seen them here and there over the last month. It's warming up, and they're waking up.

We've heard from some people on Twitter and Facebook that they are actually really good for plants, they eat aphids, and they may end up being a life-saver to our lettuce plants. Some people actually order them online to put in their gardens! So, after we get the garden planted and little green shoots peek out, we'll be herding the ladybugs into the backyard. We're fine with them taking up space in the walls, or wherever they are sleeping on the southside of the house through the winter, if they're going to be helpful in the summer.

Dreams on Hold

So, our farm dream is on hold. The market just didn't work in our favour quick enough, after losing our Dream Property in October, and so we settled for a more local property. It's has a giant lot, fit for a giant garden. No animals allowed, of course, being within city limits...but we can wait.

So, our farm adventure, is now more gardening, recipe creation and renovation. House type things.
Not that this property needs anything in the way of renovations. The kitchen and bathroom could use an update at some point (soon, if we have our way) and we need to built a garage.
And the floors and stairs (all original oak) will be refinished.
Plus, painting.

It's pretty exciting.

The closing date is February 28th.

Photos coming soon.