Garden Share Collective - August Redux

The GSC has changed this month. It is now on the last Monday of the month instead of the first, so I've got my title as August again. Also it now has themes every month. This month is Size. For me I'll talk about the size of my garden. For me size of the garden is limited by the size of the yard.

Our shared backyard looking over the fence of the vegetable garden

I live in a fairly urban area in a townhouse that shares a yard. Officially our shared yard is 9000sqft (835sqm). It is landscaped with a mix of ornamentals and fruit. One apple tree is tiny as it just doesn't want to grow, but the other (on the far right) gave us about 30 pounds of apples this year. On the left are the raspberries which are grazed upon whenever anyone is out eating at the patio table.

Front yard in front of my door

The front yard has my two peach trees and just out of the photo are my three gooseberries, a juneberry, and a border of alpine strawberries. All except the juneberry and the one new peach tree has produced well over the years.

Since all of these are on our shared property, we share the harvests and upkeep too. Though in reality I tend to do more work than anyone else. No one else in the two townhouses is a gardener. Though they mow, edge, and weed, the reality is they don't always know what a weed or plant is. Occasionally things get left in that are weeds and things get pulled that aren't. Sometimes it just doesn't get done unless I do the work anyway. The perennial garden I wouldn't let them touch as it was just put in the spring and I didn't want them weeding out things I grew from seed.

What looks like a driveway across from the perennial garden is really a private road which dead ends here. Technically we don't own it, but those that live on private roads are responsible for the upkeep. Which means I get to upkeep the wall on the other side of the road. And when I say, "I get to", it means I have an agreement that the wall garden is all mine. I do all the work. I pay for anything I put in. But I reap all the benefits. In a way I like that a lot better, as I don't have to ask to change anything. I grow fruit trees there, with a front border of strawberries. I'm not sure how many feet it is, maybe 60 linear feet (18m) of useable space for my trees. It is about 2.5' wide. Though I've gotten plenty of strawberries over the years, all the trees are too young to bear yet. Maybe next year.

Though we technically share the yard, by agreement, the veggie garden is mine. Most of the vegetable garden is in the side yard. Much of it used to be paved, but we had the pavement removed to make more room. I have about 565 sqft (52 sqm) of raised bed. In the side yard there are eight raised beds, each 4' wide and 16' long.

Since the yard isn't that big, I made the paths between the beds very small. Just 19" (.5m). Sometimes the paths get so overgrown it is hard to walk down them. Especially when the squash grows big. There are a few small patches that aren't in the raised bed area. A small spot by the driveway fence has two of my currants and some cilantro and zinnia. On the left of the brick path are some mint pots (hiding the gas meters) and a plum tree. Also scattered in the corners are herbs like sage, rosemary, thyme, and tarragon.

August is all about cucumbers, zucchini, onions, melons, and corn in the garden. I have harvested other things like broccoli, chard, amaranth, and herbs. I know in most gardens solanums and beans are huge in late summer, but I can't eat those, so my harvests are more limited in scope.

Around the corner in the back yard by my back door is the circle garden. So named for the herb circle in the middle. I grow my heat lovers here. The sweet potatoes and the melons. The sweet potatoes won't get harvested until late September, but the melons are in full production right now. This space is counted in the 565 sqft of raised bed. On the left and out of the photo is my compost area. I have a four bin pallet composter. And two smaller black plastic composters that we use for composting kitchen scraps (the covers keep the pests out) and holding finished compost. A whole four foot deep section all along the back fence (maybe 30' long) is reserved for that and general storage and the very small garden shed. The compost gets the largest area as that is the most important. Compost keeps the garden growing.

August has seen a renewal on the preserving front. I've frozen about 11 cups of zucchini. I've cured, braided and hung the yellow onions and shallots. The red onions will follow soon. And I've frozen some cut up fruit for my morning smoothies - 2 gallons of peaches and 2 1/2 gallons of melon. Right now my favorite smoothie is a blueberry melon smoothie. I'll be sad when all the melons are gone. My biggest problem on the preserving front is about size. I really should have bought a larger freezer. I'm quickly filling up the available space. For some things size really does matter.

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This post is part of the Garden Share Collective hosted by Lizzie at Strayed From the Table.

Garden Share Collective - August 2015

Beds 1 to 3

We are in the depths of summer. July has seen a transition from spring crops to the summer crops. The fall crops have just been seeded as you can see in Bed 1 where the carrots are about 2" tall. In Beds 2 and 3 I have my two sisters beds and the squash is really trying to take over the world. It is hard to walk down my narrow and now almost nonexistent paths. Every day I have to go down them and tuck the squash back in their beds under the corn. The corn has just started to produce, and the butternuts, but not the Upper Ground Sweet Potato squash or the Thai Rai Kaw Tok, have set their first fruits. I do see little female buds on the UGSPS so those ought to set soon. And they had better give me a lot of fruit as that plant is a real pain in my behind. The leaves are shading the corn way too much and they can climb up the stalks with ease. Keeping it under control is impossible. The other two are pretty vigorous vines, but as not bad.

Beds 3 to 8

The rest of the garden is growing well, but it is the typical fight with the aphids on the brassicas. If I spray them with soap every week they stay under control, but you have to coat every single surface for that to work. And there are a lot of leaves on the broccoli and Brussels sprouts. The wilt has started in cucumbers, but hopefully it won't be too fast of a spread. There aren't a lot of cucumber beetles this year so I might get lucky. Powdery mildew has been spotted in the neighborhood, so it is only a matter of time before it hits the garden. And the flea beetles are keeping my turnips from growing well. I'm going to try again where the onions were. I'm thinking I might have to buy some yellow sticky traps, which I've never used before.

Circle Garden

The hot part of the garden is the circle garden. I plant my melons and sweet potatoes there. They seem to be doing well. I was worried about the melons as the slugs took a lot of them down early on and I had to resow in mid June. They have recovered from the late start. I see multiple little melons on the ones that didn't get eaten. Hopefully the others will start to set soon. I'm hoping for melons and corn when my mother and MIL visit on August 24th. So far it is looking good.

Behind the circle garden is my compost area. I've got the earlier of my storage onions and shallots curing there under the tarp. They will be done soon and more room will be available for the later storage onions.

July Completed

• Watered the garden three times
• July 4th planted lettuce
• July 7th pruned gooseberries
• July 8th planted fresh eating carrots 8E, planted turnips 4W, pruned raspberries
• July 10th planted storage carrots 1E
• July 11th pruned currants
• July 13th sprayed Brussels sprouts
• July 14th planted fall brassicas and turnips 4E
• July 26th reseeded bare spots in carrot bed, sowed lettuce outside in nursery bed
• July 27th sprayed broccoli
• July 29th sprayed Brussels sprouts
• Almost everyday - keep the squash, melons, and sweet potatoes in their beds
• Often enough - weed

Harvests

I harvested the following in July: sweet onions, bunching onions, garlic, beans, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, cabbage, celery, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, peas, turnips, zucchini. Of note were the carrots, of which I harvested about 20 pounds. They have taken over one vegetable drawer in my fridge and will keep me in carrots until the fall carrots start to produce. Also the yearly garlic harvest was picked at the beginning of July and cured and is now stored in the basement. It is a long storage variety (German Extra Hardy) and will stay good and last until next year's harvest is ready.

Herbs that were picked in July: basil, chives, cilantro, coriander, dill, fennel, majoram, mint, parsley, rosemary, and sage. Some of these were larger harvests to dry for the winter.

All in all the harvests went from greens in early July to the cucurbits at the end of July. The lettuce has petered out and is mostly bolting, though I keep planting more. I'm on my last cabbage and will really miss it when it is gone. I eat cucumbers and zucchini every day. The cucumbers are almost always made into a cucumber salad which I love. I've used some to try to ferment pickles, but so far no luck. As long as I get an excess of cucumbers I'll keep trying, but the daily eating comes first.

Preserving

Some varied preserving was done in July. I froze more kale when the plants were ripped up. I also made some gooseberry jam and some plum sauce. The jam was made from my gooseberries, but though I have two plum trees in the yard, neither of them are old enough to produce anything. So I buy them from the farmers market to make it. I cured my garlic and it is now stored in the basement. And I dried some herbs.

Tally of what is in storage from the garden:

Frozen

• Brococli - 13.5 cups
• Chard - 14 cups
• Mizuna - 23 cups
• Kale - 36 cups
• Spinach - 60 cups
• Chinese cabbage - 4 cups
• Turnips - 5 cups

Canned

• Gooseberry jam 6 cups
• Plum Sauce 6 cups

Basement

• Garlic - 7.5 pounds

August To Do

• Control the squash
• Plant fall turnips
• Keep seeding lettuce
• Spray brassicas every week for aphids
• Weed
• Harvest and cure remaining onions
• Transplant kale

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This post is part of the Garden Share Collective hosted by Lizzie at Strayed From the Table.

Garden Share Collective - July 2015

June has been a very variable month. We have had highs in the 50Fs and highs in the 90Fs. But at least we are getting rain again.

The spring cool weather crops are almost done. Most will be pulled out in a week or two. Some like the broccoli will produce all year long, so they get to stay. Our hot is not the hot of the south, so some years they produce very well over the summer.

The hot weather crops are starting to grow. The corn and squash are doing well. The cucumbers have started to climb. The sweet potatoes are taking over their bed. Sadly though the melons were eaten down by slugs. They were replanted, but they are being slow to restart. I hope it doesn't end up being a melon free year.

June Completed

• June 3, planted second half of lettuce succession, planted corn and Sweet Potato squash 2W (third succession)
• June 7th, resowed failed turnips, seeded corn (fourth succession) and butternut squash in bed 2E, resowed 4 bean seeds (all I had) after the groundhog ate the others
• June 7th, planted melons
• June 14th, reseeded melons after being eaten down by slugs
• June 15th, seeded turnip succession
• June 16th, started transplants under lights for broccoli, basil
• June 17th, seeded squash bed 6W, reseeded more melons
• June 19th, planted corn seed 6W (5th succession), planted lettuce succession
• June 19th, ripped out sage plant in herb circle and replaced with rosemary
• June 27th, started transplants under lights for fall cabbages, kohlrabi, and amaranth
• June 29thth, seeded amaranth at ends of bed 7W and 8E
• June 29th, planted Broccoli, lettuce succession, basil
• June 29th, redid part of strawberry bed
• Netted peach and apple trees

Harvests

Harvests started out with greens, greens, and more greens. But by mid June the greens avalanche was over. I still am picking greens, but at a much more sedate pace.

Now my harvests are more varied. This month I've picked bunching onions, a few head of garlic, garlic scapes, broccoli, carrots, Michihili cabbage, bok choy, mizuna, tatsoi, cabbage, celery, chard, kale, kohlrabi, lettuce, spinach, snowpeas, pea shoots, and turnips. I've also picked a lot of herbs - chives, cilantro, dill, fennel, mint, oregano, parsley, rose petals, sage, and tarragon. All in all it was over a 100 pounds of veggies.

For fruits I've picked 16.9 pounds of strawberries, 2 pounds of raspberries, and 3.5 pounds of currants.

Frozen packet with 6 cups of spinach

Preserving

I've been busy drying herbs. I like to replace them every year. Most have been done already, though I can always use more of some things like parsley. I could use a truckload of that if I have the production and time to dry it all. I froze a good quantity of the strawberries and a few of the raspberries. I'll eat them up in my breakfast smoothies over the next few months. They won't last until winter. It would be nice to grow that much, but I just don't. I froze the currants as I'll make jam from them later this year when I get a chance. Most of my preservation though has been the frozen vegetables that I store for the winter. June, especially early June, is my biggest preserving month for greens.

Tally of what is in storage from the garden

Freezer

• Brococli - 13.5 cups
• Chard - 14 cups
• Mizuna - 23 cups
• Kale - 30 cups
• Spinach - 61 cups
• Chinese cabbage - 4 cups
• Turnips - 5 cups

I need about 180 cups of greens to get me through the winter without skimping. Right now I have 145. I need 35 more cups. I didn't think I'd get anywhere near my goal, but I'm making very good progress. Well as long as I don't have to eat any of those greens during the slim times during the summer. I have planted amaranth, but it should have been planted weeks ago. I hope it serves to fill in the gaps.

July To Do

• Seed transplants for fall kale
• Harvest and dry garlic
• Replant garlic section with mustard or more greens
• Weed and water
• Prune currants and gooseberries after harvest
• Plant two carrot beds
• Plant cabbage and kohlrabi bed
• Keep lettuce and turnip successions going
• Seed more cilantro

This post is part of the Garden Share Collective hosted by Lizzie at Strayed From the Table.

Garden Share Collective - June 2015

Beds 1 to 3 finally getting rain

May was a very dry month. As I'm writing this we are just under half an inch of rain (though we might get more this afternoon). It is usually our wettest month of the year at 4.5 inches. Everything is so dry that our town has seen numerous small mulch or brush fires and one big one that took down part of a condo complex and killed someone. Needless to say we need the rain that is predicted for the next couple of days.

Beds 3 to 8

All the sun and abnormal heat has been great for the garden. I've had to water a lot, but the growth has been amazing. I've already harvested more than twice what I did last year at this time. And because of our heavy snows and cold weather over the winter, it was the latest start I've every had for the garden in spring.

Circle garden

The fruit is setting well too. It looks like it will be a great apple and peach year. I've thinned out the apples already, but I still need to get to the peaches. Even the two year old peach tree tried to set a few peaches. I took them off so that it can get stronger. It has really burst into growth this year and I've already had to prune it once this month to keep its shape. The smaller fruits are also setting well. It is looking to be a great strawberry year and the currants, gooseberries, and raspberries are doing well too. Sadly the blueberries suffered from all the snow crushing them. Hopefully they will recover.

May Completed

• May 2, transplanted last succession of Asian green 2E
• May 3, transplanted zinnias, Brussels sprouts 8W
• May 6, transplanted lettuce 7E, basil 7E, by driveway, and in front perennial bed
• May 7, seeded peas 7W, corn 3W, cilantro by driveway
• May 10, seeded chitted Thai Rai Kaw Tok 3W
• May 16, planted purchased herbs, 2x Arp rosemary, 2x Hill Hardy rosemary, Berggarten sage, Mojito mint
• May 18, seeded parsnips turnips 4W
• May 19, stared rooting sweet potato slips
• May 20, seeded corn 3E
• May 21, put footies on Ginger Gold apple to protect from insects, and thinned
• May 24, reseeded one Thai squash 3W, one broccoli 1W
• May 24, seeded butternut 3E, coriander 8W, beans 6w
• May 24, transplanted sweet potato slips CE
• May 25, seeded second succession of turnips 4W
• May 28, seeded cucumbers 7W, zucchini 7W
• Watered 7, 12, 16, 24, 28
• Weeded all the time
• Continually tied up espaliered apple and pear trees

Spinach before harvest

Spinach after harvest, tub in the background with four pounds of spinach

Harvests

Oh the harvests. I've harvested a lot of greens - spinach, bok choy, mizuna, tatsoi, choy sum, chard, kale leaves, kale blossoms, pea shoots, and lettuce. The roots have started to come in too - radishes and turnips. And best of all are the fruits. I've harvested rhubarb. But my heart is stolen by the strawberries. The squirrels and I are competing. The bird netting helps a lot, but they always get some.

Preserving

I've been very busy preserving this month. For some it might seem strange to prepare for the winter in the springtime. But some harvests are very much spring harvests. Many herbs get dried in May. I've dried thyme, oregano, sage, and tarragon. Spinach is a major spring harvest. This year I had one overwintered bed that got pulled in the first half of the month, but the three spring planted beds have overwhelmed me a bit with all the harvesting, blanching and freezing. In addition I've frozen mizuna, kale, and chard. Though the small bit of chard I froze somehow got mixed in with the spinach. So it is all labeled spinach in my freezer.

Upper left are frozen vacuum sealed packets of greens, lower right the spinach is getting frozen

I'm freezing in a different way this year. Before I've done individual packets. But this year I'm doing packets that have twelve half cup blocks. They take up less space this way and I seriously need more space in the freezer. They are also easier to organize. I freeze the blocks in my mini loaf pan. And the packets are vacuum sealed. This will keep them good for a year. And I need about a year's worth of storage as if my green hold out through the winter I'll be eating them in April still. The garden doesn't really feed me until May. You might notice that my greens packets are brown. I use parchment paper to keep the greens from touching the plastic. I wish I had a good way of storing massive amounts of greens without plastic, but stainless steel is too expensive and glass is too bulky. I use glass to freeze things that are rotated through a lot, like broth or frozen meals, but greens get stuck in plastic still.

Tally of what is in storage from the garden for 2015

Freezer

• Kale - 14.5 cups
• Mizuna - 17 cups
• Spinach - 36 cups

Canned

• Rhubarb butter 5 half pints

June To Do

• Plant successions of lettuce (every two weeks) and turnips (every week)
• Start plants of broccoli and other fall brassicas
• Figure out what fall brassicas I want before I have to seed them
• Continue freezing greens
• Pull spinach, baby Asian greens, and the early lettuce and radishes to make way for summer crops
• Plant corn, squash, and melons
• Stake outside rows of corn early before they blow over
• Thin peach tree
• Pull oldest strawberries when they finish producing
• Build trellis for the cucumbers once they start to run
• Pull sage in center of herb garden and put rosemary there, add parsley
• Weed!

This post is part of the Garden Share Collective hosted by Lizzie at Strayed From the Table.

Garden Share Collective - May 2015

At the beginning of April my garden beds looked like this.

At the end of the month that same bed looked much better. Above is my overwintered spinach. The Winter Giant never got to be giant and has started putting out those arrow shaped leaves which means it is bolting already. The Space is doing much better.

Spring sown spinach

Overwintered spinach is a very nice early harvest, but it is never as prolific or as tasty as the spring sown kind. I have three 4'x 8' beds that were sown April 6th and April 11th. The date depend upon when the beds thawed enough. All of them had some frozen soil in them when they were sown, but not much. I do have some damping off problems in the beds. So far it isn't a big issue, but it is almost always a problem here in early spring. With so many beds I ought to still get a good harvest.

Baby Bok Choy and Tatsoi

Besides spinach, I get early spring harvests from my baby Asian greens (including bok choy, tatsoi, choy sum, and mizuna), lettuce, radishes, and sometimes turnips. This year I started some indoors and potted them up into larger pots and a window box because of how late the melt out was this year. I've harvested the first of those already. What you see above is the last planted set on April 14th. Baby Asian greens grow very quickly in the spring which is why I give them a whole bed. This is food for May.

Kohlrabi

The later maturing brassicas are all doing well this year. Last year I lost some, but so far all the transplanted broccoli, cabbage, kohlrabi, Chinese cabbage, and kale are holding up. I've planted three kinds of early spring cabbage. I want to see which does best here. I don't do any long maturing types as this bed will go into carrots in the summer.

Of the non brassicas planted this spring all the onions (behind the overwintered garlic) seem to be growing well. I ordered starts instead of growing them myself this year to see if they do better. I also have some shallots that I grew myself. I've only grown shallots from bulbs before. After seeing others do so well last year with shallots from seed, I thought I'd give it a try. I've also got some peas, celery, celeriac, and parsley planted.

The herbs are mostly doing well. In the circle I've planted out some marjoram and winter savory. The garlic chives haven't come up yet. I can't remember if they are just late starters or not. I hope they are alive. My Mojoito mint is also a no show. The other two mints are up, but barely, so maybe it will still come. The mints are in pots to keep them contained. In other spots around the yard the tarragon is doing well as is the French thyme.

Buds have started to show on my trees and bushes. Above is the Dwarf Ginger Gold apple. Last year it only put out a few blooms, but this year it looks to be putting out too many. I'll have to thin. The Dwarf Honey Crisp tree which is just as old as the Ginger Gold might have its first good harvest this year. Maybe. It is only about 4'-5' tall in its fifth year. I know the tree in general isn't as vigorous as other apples. But it is supposed to be on a more vigorous root stock to make up for it. But still it seems pretty stunted for a dwarf tree.

My espaliered apples and pear in their third year are not blooming, which is probably good as they aren't really large enough to support fruit. The Red Haven peach has a million buds on it like normal. I always have to thin this one by getting rid of 80% of the fruit it sets. The new peach from last year is growing well, but as you might guess still small. As is last years planted weeping plum. This month I planted three new trees. A 2-in-1 plum (Redheart and Shiro), Ichi persimmon, and a Pink Lady apple.

Pink Champagne currant

And last but not least, the smaller fruit. The Invicta gooseberry is starting to flower like mad. The Hinnonmaki Reds are struggling as I'm trying to make them into standards and they don't want to be. I have three currents most are flowering well. The one that I'm trying to grow along the fence is struggling. They really don't like to be trained, but I'll persevere for a few years before giving up. The low bush blueberries by the road got slightly cracked by the heavy snow load this winter, but are mostly perking up. The highbush blueberries in the rock wall didn't fare as well. The plow pushes the snow from the road over it. I'm not sure if they will survive here or not. And last but not least are the strawberries. One precocious plant has put out the first flower. I'm sure the others will follow soon. The plants look vigorous this year, so maybe I'll get a good yield for the first time in years.

April Completed

• Shoveled snow off the garden
• 6th seeded carrots Bed4E, spinach Bed7E
• 7th seeded radishes, turnips BedCW
• 7th transplanted lettuce BedCW, transplanted Asian greens2E
• 9th seeded indoors Mizuna, bok choy, tatsoi, Brussels sprouts, zinnias, basil
• 11th planted trees in wall garden - Pink Lady apple, Ichi-ki-kei-jiro persimmon, 2-in-1 plum Redheart and Shiro
• 11th seeded spinach Bed2W, Bed6W
• 12th seeded peas Bed8E
• 12th transplanted lettuce BedCW, Asian greens Bed2E
• 14th transplanted Asian greens Bed2E, celery, celeriac, parsley Bed7W
• 15th seeded indoors lettuce
• 15th transplanted cabbages, kale Bed1E, Michihili cabbage, kohlrabi Bed8E
• 15th seeded turnips Bed1E Bed8E
• 16th transplanted shallots, onions (Dixondale), Bed5W, Bed8W
• 16th transplanted Bluestone order for front perennial bed
• 17th transplanted broccoli Bed1W
• 17th seeded turnips Bed1W
• 18th transplanted bunching onions Bed6E
• 19th planted ramps, strawberries wall garden
• 23rd weeded and mulched garden paths
• 24rd weeded and mulched yard
• 24th transplanted rudbeckia and gaillardia to front perennial bed
• 26th planted Lee #8 saskatoon foundation planting
• 28th seeded radishes BedCW
• 29th turned over compost - or at least all that was unfrozen
• lots of hardening off of plants, watering, and weeding

Harvests

April doesn't have a lot of harvests. I do usually get a touch of some things. So far I've picked lettuce, mizuna, bok choy, and spinach. All in all it was about a pound.

Preserving

No preserving is done in April. But I did finish eating up most of my stores. I do have some herbs and frozen corn left. A few canned items. But not much else. April is definitely my hungry gap. Though in reality is my grocery store gap. My spending at the grocery store has gone way up as I buy all my vegetables there now. But considering that I live on a small city lot (9000 sqft, 830 sqm, split between two fairly large townhouses), I do pretty well most of the year. I shouldn't complain. But I really do miss my own produce. It is so much better than the store bought stuff most of the time.

May To Do

• Keep up succession sowings of lettuce
• Seed more peas for shoots
• Plant the first of the corn and squash
• Transplant basil, Brussels sprouts, and the last succession of baby Asian greens
• Freeze excess spinach for next winter
• Thin and put protection on my apples
• Thin peaches
• Protect the strawberries from the squirrels
• Harvest!
• Weed!

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An InLinkz Link-up

Garden Share Collective - April 2015

Circle garden with overwintered spinach in the foreground

We still have a bit of snow on the garden. It would be a lot worse but I was shoveling it from the beds to the paths. It melts quickly on the paths. And shoveling lowers the albedo of the garden so it gets warmer faster. My garden is a very urban garden. The neighboring houses and trees block the sun rather effectively during the winter. As the sun gets higher in the sky, more and more of the garden sees the sun. This means that the parts of the beds near to my house melt out much faster. I can stick a shovel into at at the nearest part. But the parts near the neighbor's fence are a big block of ice. They do see some early morning sun at this time of the year, but the warm afternoon sun is still blocked.

This makes for some interesting planting times here. Last year our last frost was April 18th. I couldn't plant the peas until April 4th, and I could only plant part of the bed as the rest was still frozen. The rest of the bed didn't melt out until April 10th or so. Peas really aren't my main issue though. They have time to produce no matter how late they are. But the spinach needs to get out of the bed it is planted in by June. It needs enough time to grow. This year I'm going to try to make three beds of spring planted spinach (plus I have one of overwintered). Two of these beds are closer to the fence so might take a while to melt out. I'm just hoping they will have time. Last year was pretty late too and they got in April 10th. There weren't a lot of pickings and my harvest tally was low.

One bed however is going to be by the path which is warmer and sunnier. Hopefully that will do well and the harvests will be faster. I'm planting cucumbers and zucchini after it so they need to be out by June, but late May would be better. I always worry during late years if my successions will work. But with four beds of spinach I'm probably going to be inundated and have to start giving it away.

Brassica starts

March Completed

• Shoveled snow off the garden
• Started sweet potato slips Purple
• Starting to take slips off of Garnet to root
• Start indoors flowers, Asian greens, chard, herbs, broccoli, and cabbage
• Potted up some lettuce and baby Asian greens into window boxes for early greens
• Hardening off green onions and shallots
• Pruned fruit trees

I'm getting pretty low on my stores. Most of the vegetables that I'm eating are from the supermarket now, though there is usually something I grew too. I've decided to grow more greens this year as they were the first things to be used up. And I LOVE my frozen greens. The only thing I hate about frozen greens is washing the spinach. 5 pounds of spinach takes a long time to get clean if it is really dirty.

Tally of what is in storage from the garden last year:

Frozen

• Celery: 1 cup (5 cups)
• Chinese cabbage: 4 servings, 3 soup packet (10 servings, 4 soup packets)
• Corn: 9 cups (14 cups)
• Zucchini: 2 cups (? cups)
• Carrots: 8 cups (20 cups)
• Burritos: 5 servings (11 servings)
• Basil: frozen leaves
• Cilantro: frozen leaves
• Parsley: frozen leaves
• Kale: 0 servings(43 servings)
• Broccoli: 0 (19 servings)
• Chard: 0 (17 serving)
• Mizuna Soup: 0 servings (4 servings)
• Spinach: 0 servings (24 servings)

Canned

• Peach cobber filling: 4 half pints
• Peach preserves: 3 half pints
• Dill Relish: 5 jars

Basement

• Carrots: 5 carrots left (25 pounds)
• Parsnips: 0 (4 pounds)
• Onions: 0 (11 braids about 45 pounds)
• Garlic: 8 bulbs(3 pounds)
• Waltham Butternut: 3 avg. 3lbs each (27)
• Sweet Potatoes: 6.7 lbs (45 pounds)

Early greens window boxes

April is one of the busiest months in the year. A simple line on my todo list says "Clean up the garden". Four simple words. Hours and hours of work. Hopefully I'll get it all done.

April To Do

• Finish shoveling the garden
• Start indoors zinnias, basil, Brussels sprouts, more Asian greens, more lettuce
• Seed peas, carrots, radish, turnips, spinach
• Transplant brassicas, chard, onions, herbs, lettuce, etc
• Pull the plum and figs out (one is so sick and the others don't produce)
• Clean up the garden
• Order mulch
• Plant all ordered plants: onions, strawberries, plum, apple, persimmon, service berry, ornamental grass, and lots of flowers for the new front flower bed

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Garden Share Collective - March 2015

Not much is happening in the garden proper with several feet of snow still on the ground. But that doesn't mean I haven't been working on getting things ready for the garden come spring. Seeds and trees have been researched and bought. Planning has been done.

The earliest and slowest of the plants have been sown indoors under lights. I'm just hoping the snow melts soon. This has been the coldest and snowiest February in Boston's history. We are less than 6 inches away from being the snowiest year recorded. Tonight we have 4-6" predicted, so we might make that mark pretty soon. March here can sometimes be pretty snowy too. Or not depending on the weather patterns. I'm anticipating a very late spring this year. The soil here unfreezes usually in the last half of March. I expect early April with all the cold weather and snow we are still getting.

January and February Completed

• Ordered Pink Lady Apple tree, Ichy persimmon, and a plum with both Shiro and Redheart grafted on
• Ordered onion plants
• Ordered most of my seeds
• Started the first seeds: shallots, bunching onions, parsley, lettuce, bok choy, mizuna, celery, and celeriac
• Started sweet potato slips Garnet
• Sat in the sun drinking tea, reading books, looking out into the snowy garden, and dreaming of the spring to come

Preserving

Nothing was preserved over the winter. Winter is my time to eat it all up. Did I preserve enough to keep me to spring? Well the answer is always no or at least not for everything. But it is always fun to see how far I get on my stores. The first number is the amount I have now. The number in parenthesis is what I started with in the list below.

Somethings like celery I didn't have much of. So I have been buying it from the store when I think of it. And weirdly I totally forgot about the corn for a while. I don't usually have enough corn to freeze for the winter, so I don't think about bringing it out. I will endeavor to be better about that. In addition this is the first year I've frozen the Chinese cabbage so I have the same trouble with that. I'll work on it though. I still have a couple of months before I get anything out of the garden. The frozen carrots haven't been used as I still have fresh. I'll eat them once the fresh carrots are gone.

The sweet potatoes and squash have been walking their way up my basement steps. The basement is too cold for them right now. The upstairs is too warm. So they sit on the stairs at the top. Right now they are at 54F which is just barely warm enough for a sweet potato.

Tally of what is in storage from the garden:

Frozen

• Celery: 2 cups (5 cups)
• Chinese cabbage: 9 servings, 1 soup packet (10 servings, 4 soup packets)
• Corn: 10 cups (14 cups)
• Spinach: 1 servings (24 servings)
• Zucchini: 6 cups (? cups)
• Carrots: 20 cups (20 cups)
• Burritos: 8 servings (11 servings)
• Mizuna Soup: 2 servings (4 servings)
• Basil: frozen leaves
• Cilantro: frozen leaves
• Parsley: frozen leaves
• Kale: 0 servings(43 servings)
• Broccoli: 0 (19 servings)
• Chard: 0 (17 serving)

Canned

• Peach cobber filling: 4 half pints
• Peach preserves: 4 half pints
• Dill Relish: 6 jars (10 half pint jars)

Basement

• Carrots: 2.9 pounds (25 pounds)
• Parsnips: 0 (4 pounds)
• Onions: 0 (11 braids about 45 pounds)
• Garlic: 10 bulbs(3 pounds)
• Waltham Butternut: 13 avg. 3lbs each (27)
• Sweet Potatoes: 13.7 lbs (45 pounds)

March To Do

• Hope the snow melts earlier than expected
• Start indoors flowers, Asian greens, chard, herbs, broccoli, and cabbage
• Start sweet potato slips Purple

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Garden Share Collective - December 2014

As you can see the beds are almost empty. Bed 3 has my bamboo poles stored in a tarp waiting for spring to come.

Beds 4-8 have few things in them. I do have the kale that is getting over wintered. There is some mache below it. Bed 7 had Asian greens and a bit of chard. Well that was taken out earlier in the week. We had a thaw and I figured it wasn't getting any better with all the freeze thaw cycles, so it is now in the fridge. The bed has since been cleaned up and covered in compost like most of the others.

Around the corner in the Circle Garden I have some spinach. Like the other photos it was take earlier in the week. Since then I've picked some of the spinach. The rest will overwinter and will provide early spring greens in late April.

November Completed

• Planned next year's garden
• Went through my seeds and see what I need for next year
• Cleaned up beds as they were harvested
• Covered empty beds with compost for the winter
• Winnowed the mustard, fennel, dill, cilantro
• Stored 8' bamboo in tarp
• Harvested and stored the carrots
• Harvested and stored the parsnips
• Collected leaves for next year's compost
• Put excess compost into small bin for use next year

Harvests

Harvests in November included bunching onions, broccoli, carrots, parsnips, turnips, radishes, bok choy, kale, celery, celeriac, chard, spinach, cilantro, mustard seed, parsley, sage, and beets. The total weight was 84.3 pounds, almost half of which were carrots as they are a big storage crop for me.

Preserving

Not much got preserved this month except the carrots and parsnips, which are now stored in the fridge and in the basement. I did add a couple of kale packets to the freezer, but used up a couple of chard packets. So that was a wash. And I've been eating from the winter stores already especially from the orange vegetables - carrots, squash, and sweet potatoes. I've mostly had plenty of greens still from the garden. But now it has all been picked. And the garden is put to bed for the winter. I won't be picking anything more until April. Well maybe a bit of kale, but maybe not.

Tally of what is in storage from the garden:

Frozen

• Broccoli: 19 servings
• Celery: 5 cups (Oh how I wish I had more)
• Chard: 17 serving
• Chinese cabbage: 10 servings, 4 soup packets
• Corn: 14 cups
• Cucumber juice: 2 quarts
• Kale: 43 servings
• Spinach: 24 servings
• Zucchini: 9 cups
• Carrots: 20 cups
• Burritos: 11 servings
• Mizuna Soup: 4 servings
• Basil: frozen leaves
• Cilantro: frozen leaves

Canned

• Rhubarb syrup: 4 half pint jars
• Gooseberry jam: 2 half pint jars
• Peach cobber filling: 4 half pints
• Peach preserves: 4 half pints
• Peach rum sauce: 6.5 half pints
• Dill Relish: 10 half pint jars

Basement

• Carrots: 25 pounds (some in fridge)
• Parsnips: 4 pounds
• Onions: we ate 10 of the 11 braids that were stored already, just 1 left
• Garlic: 3 pounds
• Waltham Butternut: 24 (avg. 3lbs each)
• Sweet Potatoes: About 45 pounds

December To Do

• Sip tea under a blanket and read seed catalogs
• Plan what fruit trees to buy to replace the figs
• Order next year's seeds

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