The Harvest Has Begun!

When we pulled into the driveway after our long weekend in Arizona, the first thing I did was go to the garden. It felt like we'd been gone for weeks and things seemed to have really grown. The first thing I saw was this gigantic zucchini! My first harvest of the season! I had another zucchini and two cucumbers ready to pick as well.

This year I'm keeping track of the number of vegetables I harvest as well as the weight of what I harvest. I'm wondering how much bang for my buck I get from various plants, and if I am planting the right amount of things for what we want.

Even a few weeks later, these plants are so much bigger now! I did have Aiden pull up all the Swiss Chard last week, though. It became absolutely infested with aphids. I think there were eggs and they all hatched at once. The ladybugs were terribly outnumbered.

This week I also pulled up all the kale. It looks decent here, but the white cabbage moths kept laying their eggs on them and every day I was out there pulling off dozens of little green caterpillars. They were eating my plants faster than I could get them off. Of course, I swore off growing broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage for this same reason. Why did I think I'd have better luck with kale, which is in the same family? It makes me sad, though, because this kale is expensive in the grocery store and I was so looking forward to having it in the garden.

I have three zucchini plants growing, and I think we're going to be just fine this summer.

The pretty lettuce has mostly bolted. I'm waiting to collect seeds from the Parris Island Cos (the romaine lettuce). The spinach has bolted as well, but we got some good use out of the plants.

The cucumber plants are trailing up the trellis. I've harvested several more cucumbers since this picture. These are pickling cucumbers, so I'm looking forward to trying that.

 Yellow squash! Conor's favorite. We've eaten several already.

And speaking of Conor, here he is watering the plants for me, well protected in case something dangerous goes down out there.

Gardens are good.

The Garden So Far

Oh, man, I really debated whether or not I was "up" for a garden this year. My life feels so different than it ever has since I became a working mother. I tried to give myself permission to just let it go this once, but the Spirit worked upon me, ever so gently, nudging me to the seeds and soil. 

"The prophet said to plant a garden. . ." The words to the Primary song entered my mind. I thought about my efforts to be self-reliant and prepared and frugal, and well, it just feels wrong to work toward those goals without using the seeds I already own to grow some of my family's food. So, even though I was months later than usual, I decided to just do it already, and trust that my efforts would be blessed.

On March 17th I planted my seeds. Talk about a green way to celebrate St. Patrick's Day! And new this year, I am using grow lights. I have wanted to do this for a few years because I always end up with "leggy" seedlings. 

On March 20th, the first seedlings appeared! The Lacinato kale! Interesting, since that is usually a very slow germinator for me.

One week after planting the seeds, nearly everything was up. The light is adjustable, so I kept it just about two inches from the top of the plants and raised it as they grew. And they grew fast!

This is a week later, two weeks after planting the seeds! These are the zucchini and squash plants, lettuces to the left.

Here are some tomato plants, bell peppers coming up to the left, spinach on the right.

Spinach, two varieties.

Amazing! When the plants were three weeks old, I started taking them outside for a few hours to harden them off. The first day I set them outside and went to sleep for a bit only to wake up and find all my Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce burned to a crisp (that's the lightest lettuce toward the very bottom of this picture.) It happened to be a record hot day. Oh well. I had plenty of other lettuces growing.

After a week of hardening off, and the plants were outside all day and night, I transplanted them into the garden.

I used the Square Foot Gardening spacing that I love so much, but without the grids this year since I'm growing so many tomatoes that don't really need the grids. I focused on planting what I really, really want, instead of a little of a lot of things. More favorites, less variety.

This translates to 9 San Marzano tomato plants (for the best sauce EVER), several other varieties of heirloom tomatoes, some spinach and kale, zucchini, crookneck squash, eggplant, red bell peppers, pickling cucumbers, and some lettuces.

Here's the kale:

A yellow squash plant:

Lettuces:

And now two weeks later, here's the way things look in the garden, six weeks after planting the seeds:

(The Fordhook Giant Chard is still growing from last year.)

Bed 1: Tomatoes, zucchini, and kale.

 A zucchini blossom already!

The kale:

Bed 2: More San Marzano tomatoes, kale, and another zucchini

Healthy and strong!

Bed 3: Yellow Pear and Cherry tomatoes (which I need to buy cages for), spinach, lettuce, squash, and cucumbers (back along the trellis).

Pretty lettuce.

Spinach.

Eggplant. This is an Italian variety. It's been very slow growing, so I hope it will make it. I grew three plants.

These are the pickling cucumbers (with little red bell peppers there to the left that also need cages). I have not had good luck with cucumbers, so I'm hoping for the best. You can see the leaves on the bottom turned white. That's because when I first transplanted them I was watering overhead and the leaves got sunburned. The new growth seems okay, so fingers crossed.

There's already a baby cucumber!

A baby red bell pepper.

And here's the Chard jungle still growing strong from last year, but which needs thinning badly.

So far, besides the Black Seeded Simpson lettuce that I fried, since transplanting, I've only lost one tomato plant and one pepper plant. Not bad at all, I think.

Gardening is good for my soul. I'm so glad I just went ahead and put those tiny seeds in the soil. Watching them grow reminds me of miracles and progress and bounty.

Three things I need to pay more attention to in my life.

Feeling Blue, or maybe Periwinkle

Maybe it's the approach of spring, but I've been dreaming about gardens. Specifically, I've been dreaming about a blue and white garden. I love the blue, blue-ish, periwinkle, and deep inky violet flowers. My front yard is pretty much desolate and I've been thinking and planning how to make it beautiful.

This morning I actually woke up refreshed. I'd been able to sleep (mostly) through the night, and so instead of going back to bed after taking the kids to school, as I usually do, I got up and showered and decided to make use of the morning hours and the sunshine. I headed to Lowe's. I had some empty pots and I thought that prettying up the porch with flowers was a good start.

I bought all of the blue (and blue-purple) and white flowers that I could find. I tried to find taller varieties, mid-height varieties, and low-growing clumping or trailing kinds. With the exception of two varieties (the ranunculus and freesia, that I just couldn't resist) I bought flowers that should bloom all spring and summer. Most of them are perennials, but some are annuals as well.

 Senetti Bi-Color Blue and White Persian Buttercup Ranunculus

 African Daisy. Hard to tell in this picture, but the centers are blue.

I planned to fill these three pots, plus the ceramic pot on my steps, but ended up having enough flowers to fill a fifth pot as well. Some of the flowers I divided. I didn't really have a plan, I just tried to put taller varieties in the center and then mid-level and low-growing flowers around the edges. 

The white flowers I used were: Persian Buttercup (Ranunculus), Freesia, Bacopa, African Daisy, and Alyssum.

The blue flowers I chose were: Techno Heat Lobelia, Lithodora, Blue Note Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa), Blue Marguerite, Pansy, Nemesia, and Senetti Bi-Color Blue.

So, here are the pots I planted. Many of the flowers are not blooming yet, so I'm hoping that they all will be happy and settle into their new homes and grow beautifully. They all love sun, and sun is what they'll get on my porch. Plus, they make my heart happy every time I open the door.

These colors look a lot more purple-y in photos, but no matter. I love them and hope I am able to do some more to brighten things up in the front of the house. Flowers do something magical for my spirit.