Eating from the garden

[CalG]

First of June and here we are at the supper table out on the back deck, fire blazing in the pit, birds chirping and puffy clouds passing through a cool blue sky.

Salad greens picked from volunteers between this years garlics. Shredded beets from storage, mint leaves fresh from the front lawn patch.
"Off the grill" was complimented with cream sauce over rice, flavored with "garden grown" wine cap mushrooms, sauteed with home grown garlic.
Rhubarb sauce, as a cleansing desert, set the evening repast.

I do enjoy "eating at home"!

All credits to my wife, though I did clutter her kitchen a bit.

 

[Oaktree]

A little early for my garden...just put it in last week. Peas (planted mid-May) just sprouting now. Milkweed just coming up, leaves should still be tender...maybe have some tonite.
Been a cold, rainy spring for the most part.

 

[Engineer42]

Early here as well. We've had romaine lettuce and spinach on the table for the past two weeks tho. Yellow squash and tomatoes soon I hope.

 

[EddieWalker]

Our garden is producing better than it ever has in the past. My wife went to Master Gardner school, and after that she changed how she was planting everything. The difference has been significant!!!

Just about every meal has something out of the garden. The one thing that has really surprised me is the onions. Her eyes do not tear up when cutting them, and the flavor is so much better than what we've bought at the store.

Another surprise has been planting potatoes in grow bags. They taste great, and there are a lot more of them in each bag then we expected!!!

 

[Jrasband]

I drink milk from my cows, and eat meat from my animals every day. Cows eat my greens for me

 

[MossRoad]

Strawberries and rhubarb here.

 

[dougtrr2]

I have a niece that used to eat from the garden, literally. Her vegetable of choice was onions. It was funny to see someone pick up this sweet little girl and have her breath knock them over.

Doug in SW IA

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

Summer squash, lots of squash, only 12 plants but getting about 8-10# a day right now. Romaine's have about done their deed starting to bolt now. Gonna feed what's left to the chickens. Gonna harvest some cabbage today/tomorrow, harvesting garlic now too.

 

[Oaktree]

Almost forgot, asparagus. Getting toward the end on that now.

Summer squash, lots of squash, only 12 plants but getting about 8-10# a day right now. Romaine's have about done their deed starting to bolt now. Gonna feed what's left to the chickens. Gonna harvest some cabbage today/tomorrow, harvesting garlic now too.

Wow! How early do you plant down your way? Squash & cabbage are mid-late August crops here (hard squash not before mid Sept).
Rule of thumb here used to be to put in your garden Memorial day, though lately you can push it a week or so. Always that late-May frost that'll getcha.

 

[part-time-Farmer-NC]

Our last frost date is around April 15th. These were planted from seed and put in the ground mid April or so best I remember. Unless the squash bugs get em they will produce until mid October (our first frost date is the 15th).

 

[EddieWalker]

Wife pulled some potatoes from the grow bags this morning.

I gave her two dozen grow bags, a dozen sacks of top soil and a dozen sacks of compost for Valentines.

This is her first time growing potatoes!!!

 

[MossRoad]

I gave her two dozen grow bags, a dozen sacks of top soil and a dozen sacks of compost for Valentines.

Beats roses and chocolate!

 

[jyoutz]

Asparagus is the only thing I have at this time of year. The cool season greens were destroyed by hail a month ago and replanted. The warm season veggies are still too small and growing.

 

[drumminj]

Our garden is producing better than it ever has in the past. My wife went to Master Gardner school, and after that she changed how she was planting everything. The difference has been significant!!!

Eddie, what is she doing differently after the Master Garner class? Sounds like there's good knowledge to be shared!

 

[Jstpssng]

Right now I have a nice crop of black flies, with mosquitoes coming fast. It's going to be a small garden this year, I am trying to do too many other things.
If I get cucumbers and tomatoes, everything else is a bonus.

 

[drumminj]

Right now I'm just eating peas off the vine while I'm out there. We have gotten kale and lettuce but lettuce is bolting at this point. Got two decent harvests of strawberries too.

Most excited about the peppers.

 

[MossRoad]

I've got a little patio behind our small garage/shed near the pool. It's nice and secluded with very tall arborvitae hiding it. Maybe 10 x 16. Nice place to sit and read or dry off after a dip.

Along the south facing shed wall I have my little hot pepper garden.... I removed half a patio block every two rows and plant the peppers in the pockets. Habanero, Hungarian hot, Jalapeño, Red Chili and Cayenne. They look nice back there. I dry the peppers, grind them up and make my own hot powder every fall.

 

[CalG]

I've got a little patio behind our small garage/shed near the pool. It's nice and secluded with very tall arborvitae hiding it. Maybe 10 x 16. Nice place to sit and read or dry off after a dip.

Along the south facing shed wall I have my little hot pepper garden.... I removed half a patio block every two rows and plant the peppers in the pockets. Habanero, Hungarian hot, Jalapeño, Red Chili and Cayenne. They look nice back there. I dry the peppers, grind them up and make my own hot powder every fall.

I can see that "remove a half block" working on the flat, and on a south facing wall.
I'm not mentioning it to my wife though......;-)

 

[ponytug]

I can see that "remove a half block" working on the flat, and on a south facing wall.
I'm not mentioning it to my wife though......;-)

Because it is a half blocked idea?

I thought a half block idea sounded like it was a clever way to get more heat in to the peppers.

Just don't plant hot peppers anywhere near other peppers!

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

I can see that "remove a half block" working on the flat, and on a south facing wall.
I'm not mentioning it to my wife though......;-)

Wife and I installed the patio together about 30 years ago.

It's just the 16x8 concrete rectangles. We put them in on an angle. Over the years, they held up pretty well, except I planted some giant reed grass near it, and one year it spread under the patio and lifted and broke a couple dozen blocks.

One of the blocks cracked in half and I saw it made a neat little diamond shaped hole in the pattern. So I trimmed up several of the broken pieces to be 8x8 and that was that. Some years we put flowers in there. Others hot peppers.

We're re-doing the area now, because once again the giant reed grass poked into it and swallowed a butterfly bush and moved more blocks. A lot of stones to re-level and power wash the whole thing. New lighting, flower pots, hanging baskets, etc...

So I used my forks to dig out the reed grass and transplant it outside of the fence, move a rotted 8x8, and bring in the giant clam shell that's been in our family for 75 years to be made into a water feature. This is what the area looked like several weeks ago.

Rotted 30 year old 8x8 set to the side.
Lots of dirt where the reed grass was dug out.
Lots of patio blocks out of place due to ground hog last fall (he was encouraged to leave ).
Giant clamshell waiting for some TLC.



Love the articulation of my little machine. Made it very easy to fork out that 8x8 and get that shell in there.



After it's all redone I'll post some pictures. It's a mess right now.