First Harvest 2013

Last week I went ahead and planted seeds from last year's Pinetree order: carrots, beets, lettuce, radishes, and kale. It's been alternating between beautiful warm spring weather and rain here in Northern New Jersey, so ideal for seeds to take off. And some radishes are already up, as of yesterday.

And, the purple sprouting broccoli has finally lived up to its name. Yesterday I harvested a big bunch of purple florets and leaves and made a tasty broccoli slaw for dinner. It only took a year to get the florets. Now that the plants are huge, I'm expecting several more harvests before they're removed to make way for something else. Hopefully Josh won't grow tired of this broccoli bounty.

While the seeds are just getting started, the garlic I planted last fall is thriving. I'm hoping to have a dozen home grown garlic bulbs by late summer, early fall. It's amazing what can happen in the garden over the winter. Now if I could just get a cold frame I'd really be in business.

Harvest!

Everything is big and bushy in the garden.  I've managed to stay on top of the cabbage looper invasion and harvested lots of broccoli greens today for Mao Mao and I.  The cherry tomato plants are full of blossoms and a few fruits and my Cherokee Purple is flowering.  The shuyo cucumber has several 5" long fruits on it but they are about as thick as a pencil at this point.  The beans are just beginning to produce and look like they could be a prolific variety.  I threw a few more carrot seeds into the ground in the bare spots despite the unfavorable moon planting conditions.

The harvest today was surprisingly bountiful: garlic, kale, broccoli greens, carrots, purple onions, beans, and peas.  I enjoyed most of it for lunch.  Ahh, the sweet rewards of my gardening efforts!

New Border, Stinky Kitty

I forgot to mention the half row of English Peas that I planted last Thursday under the trellis. Today I added some sprouted garlic that I had in my kitchen. Although my original 2011 garden plan called for onion sets, I never got around to buying them so garlic will have to do.

Miss Cha Cha crammed herself into a 12 pack box a while back and looked positively pleased with herself.

Sometimes she spends hours contemplating what it means to be so fuzzy and to have such a big pink nose.

Other times she explores her relationship with her environment: What does it mean to be "in"?

Eggplants

I picked the last two eggplants today in the garden. I also grabbed a handful of escarole and beet greens for a salad and noticed that I have some lettuce and spinach sprouting. I'm hoping some of that matures before frost. There isn't any frost in the forecast this week but we will be getting temperatures in the forties at night. It's time to start thinking about cleaning out the plot, adding compost, and planting garlic bulbs for next year.