Tiny Fruits

We are just beginning to see tiny cucumbers, beans, tomatoes, and yellow zucchini in the garden. What a wonderful time of year! We are passing the mid-season mark, and the garden is really kickin in to high gear. Get ready to roll up your sleeves and harvest, harvest, harvest. Our hard work and patience is beginning to bare fruit.



Here is a peak (above) at the Paris Island Cos (Romaine) we will be harvesting this week. Sublime results this year!


Have you ever had the experience of 'voluntary' plants coming up in your garden? We've had many this year, including many melons, squashes, and sunflowers, likely brought in as we spread our compost throughout the garden. Here is a shot of 4 such plants that came up this year, which are actually doing far better than any of the same family of plants we seeded (above). They are at least four time the size of those we seeded. It will be interesting to see how they perform throughout the season. We tend to just let them run free and enjoy seeing nature take its course. Please share with us your favorite voluntary plant stories.

May your garden continue to flourish as ours is!

Marty

Turnips, Peas, Lettuce in July?

Our bountiful harvest continues to gain speed! We began harvesting turnips last week, and are overrun by the two rows we planted. (Photo above: Garden member Karen pulling turnips)


Snow peas are delectable, and our short row of Drawf Greys (about 15 feet) are producing a pound to a pound and a half every other day. The few beets that survived the deer invasion are just perfect.


Surprisingly, lettuces (Black-seeded Simpson and Bibb) continue to give, with only a slight hint of occasional bitterness beginning...bolting is happening in select areas of the row. The Romaine heads will be harvested this week. (Photo above: Gardener members Karen & Carol harvesting lettuces)


The garden is becoming more beautiful every day. I find myself wandering through it just taking in the beauty. Come out for a tour soon!

Marty

The Joys of Summer

Every day the landscape of the garden changes. Something new is in bloom, developing fruits, or ready to harvest. The garden is now about 9,000 square feet, packed full of veggies, flowers, and herbs (more photos soon, I promise!). I have been so busy with the garden project, that blogging has been last priority. Now that planting season is (mostly) past, and we are mainly on maintenance duty until harvest rolls around, I hope to be a more consistent blogger.

I am pleased to report that we have implemented the 'Three Sisters' planting method this year, which is the inter planting of squashes, corn, and beans. The beans feed the corn, the corn provides a 'pole' for the beans, and the squashes (mostly pumpkins in our garden), provide shade to retain moisture and discourage weed production. We followed the planting guide found in Great Garden Companions by Sally Jean Cunningham.

We also followed the advise of Eliot Coleman (from his book Four Season Harvest) to place 6-8 inches of straw over and around our potato plants to deter the potato beetles, and it has worked very well. Although there have been 20-30 beetles visiting so far, they have been manageable, with a couple of walk-through each day and checking for eggs every other day, we have (so far) averted disaster. The potato plants are lush! Best success we have had here with potatoes.

Here is a shot of our first spinach harvest. We have enjoyed five cuttings, ranging from 23 oz to 18 oz. This week will be our last cutting, as the spinach has bolted. Next week, we will sow the Fall harvest, and continue to grow spinach year-round in cold frames, following Eliot Coleman's instructions (same book as mentioned above).

The lettuce harvest this year has been phenomenal. Bibb, Black Seeded Simpson, and Paris Island Cos (Romaine) have all stood up to the heat without bolting or becoming bitter. This is my first experience with BSS, and I love it!

The communal aspect of the garden continues to be full of joy. We are enjoying getting to know one another while working together for a common goal. A very rewarding experience.

Garden on!

Marty

Chilly Spring Weather

It has been a very, very cold Spring. And, the weatherman has been predicting last-minute frosts, which has taken out over half of our tomatoes and peppers that were set out a couple of weeks ago. Fortunately, not all of the tomatoes and peppers were put out early, but we did lose a significant portion of our heirloom tomatoes. Rumor has it that after Sunday's full moon, the cold weather threat will be over...I certainly hope so, the plants are getting impatient to spread their roots and fly.


On a high note, all but one small segment of our first garden is planted. Potatoes are thriving. The garlic is loving the straw mulch. Turnips, arugula, green onions, carrots, and lettuces are at cruising altitude. The corn is up, and is tolerating the brief cold snaps well (although the growth is slow, almost timid or unsure); we are planting using the 'Three Sisters' method this year. Peas are ready for trellising, the brussles sprouts have taken, and onions abound. We have reseeded the Mache twice, with no luck...any hints? We have been eating radishes out of the garden for two weeks now, and we plan to enjoy our first harvest of baby spinach leaves next week.

Last week there was a minor weed overtake, but thanks to a handy new weeding tool, and a lot of hands-and-knees weeding time from our garden members, and things are looking ship-shape! If you are looking for what I think may be the world's greatest garden tool, check out the weeding hoe through Johnny's Select Seed. I am ordering this one soon, and am using an older model for now...which works wonders, so I can't wait to see what this new version can do!

One of our neighbors was kind enough to give us raspberry suckers, which means next year we will be enjoying a raspberry patch!

We have a busy week ahead. All the live plants and remaining seeds will be sown, putting garden season at full throttle. Many hopes that your gardening efforts are going as well, if not better, than ours.

Come visit us soon...

Marty

Plant Sale this Saturday, May 23, 2009

Please visit our booth at the Menominee Farm Market (streetside in front of the Bandshell - open Sat 9 am-1pm). Our booth will be manned from 10 am to close and will feature live plants, including the following:

Spaghetti Squash
Broccoli
Herbs
Tomatoes (Heirlooms + favorites)
Peppers (Bells and Banana)
Summer Squash
Zucchini
Cucumbers (Heirlooms + favorites)
Okra
Eggplant
Brussels Sprouts
Asparagus
and a few Perennial Flowers

The communal garden will sell only live plants this year, but I will be bringing fresh flowers, plants, and produce to market all season; if you are looking for inexpensive foods grown using organic practices, stop by the market!

The Farm Market will continue through October 11, every Saturday as above, Thursdays from 3-7 pm, and then in the parking lot of Harbors (corner of 10th/10th, beside Holy Spirit Church) on Sundays from 8 am to Noon.

Happy Gardening,
Marty

Sprout It Out

There are hundreds of tiny sprouts covering the garden (most of them weeds!). Since the last post, spinach (pictured below), garlic, carrots, green onions, turnips, peas, and more radishes. The abundant rains have been welcome, as watering the garden is very cumbersome and time consuming.


The second wave of potatoes, spinach, turnips, and peas went in last week. This week, tulips, daffodils, blue bonnets, and violets blossomed. We have enjoyed wonderfully warm temperatures, with several days hitting 75 F.

Here is a shot of how the garden looked last week, if you look closely, you can see radishes inside the cold frames (which will be removed this week), and directly beside the row of cold frames is a triple row of garlic with 6" green tops already!


This week will be transplanting more Brussels sprouts (our first wave of Brussels sprouts are not doing so well), and seeding another wave of carrots, radishes, and potatoes. As if that weren't enough to keep our hands busy, we are in full swing preparing for the upcoming plant sale, May 23, and weeds are so abundant after these few rainy days that the garden appears to have a green carpet!

Wish us luck!

Marty

First Transplants

The first transplants (brussels sprouts) went in on this sunny but oh, so windy day. This is my first experience growing brussels sprouts, and have enjoyed watching them thrive as seedlings, and look forward to learning how to cook them when they are ready to harvest (after first Fall frost).

Arugula and Mache Corn Salad were sown yesterday, both of which will add a nice variety to our lettuce mixes this season.

Tomorrow's forcast looks decent, partly cloudy with temps in the 50s...looking forward to another day of communal gardening. Feel free to come any time between 10 am and 4 pm.

Marty