Welcome to my Community Garden, year 2015.
Also welcome to my picture post. The garden is so big and there's so much to show and explain about it that I'm breaking it up into two posts. This first post which is a HEY look at the garden post, and then another post next week which will be a HEY look at the garden post. With more words and different pictures. It'll explaining why I did certain things, how I did certain things and how much certain things cost.
But for now it's just a show and tell. Actually that's not true at all, it's just a show. Tell will be next week. Well, there's a little bit of tell right now but it won't be funny or entertaining. It will be the kind of words you'd find in a regular blogger's post where they actually do things efficiently and get right to the point.
Left side of the garden
(carrots, red onions, bunching onions, red and yellow shallots, potatoes, broccoli, red peppers, jalapeno peppers, flowers)
Centre of the garden
(swiss chard, fennell, Kelsae onions, cauliflower, rutabaga, dinosaur kale, sweet potatoes, potatoes)
Right side of the garden
(beets, cabbage, cauliflower, zucchini, radish, peas, green beans, pickling cucumbers, corn, flowers)
I tell everyone who wants a neat tidy garden to grow cabbage. They fill out quickly so no weeds grow underneath them and they always look perfectly round and ... perfect.
Rainbow swiss chard. Slightly more tender than the traditional white stemmed variety.
And way nicer to look at. I mean seriously, LOOK at that. That's a pageant vegetable if I've ever seen one.
The sweet potato bed. As you can see the near end has bigger, fuller plants. The far end the plants are about ¼ the size. The near ones are slips I started myself, the far ones are slips I ordered online.
Cutting broccoli.
The broccoli. It had cabbage worm. If you can still stomach the thought of eating a vegetable that may or may not be infested with caterpillars that are the exact same colour as the thing you're eating ... just soak the vegetable in cold water with a handful of salt for at least 20 minutes. The worms will come away from the broccoli.
That's in theory anyway. I did it to my broccoli when I got it home and the bottom of my sink had about 6 cabbage worms when I was done soaking. Yet ... the head of broccoli still remains in my fridge where it will probably die a slow death due to my dreaded worm fear.
I've already picked jalapeño peppers and I'll keep doing that until the fall at which point I'll pick ALLLL the jalapeño peppers and then make these to keep in the freezer over winter.
One of 3 potato beds in my community plot. I. Heart. Potatoes.
This is the russet bed. There are also Kennebecs, Chiefton reds, Banana fingerlings and Peruvian Purple potatoes planted prior to picking the peck of peppers.
Zucchini. Zucchini plants always croak, so I planted 4 to help make sure I get more than 5 zucchinis. They're susceptible to wilt, rot, and vine borer to name a few.
At the back of my garden on both the left and right side, I have raised bed cutting gardens. I grew all the flower varieties from seed so I could have control over the colours and types I grew. This is the first pink/purple Zinnia.
And this weedy looking thing is the flower I've been meaning to grow for a few years now.
Big Hairy Balls.
Lime green zinnias.
A place to work.
Bulb Fennel from Cubits. For making Apple/Fennel salad.
Tomatoes. Hmm. Smaller than a field, larger than a patch. My tomato fatch.
16 San Marzanos for making sauce in the fall and 5 heirloom varieties for eating tomatoes.
San Marzano is the "in" tomato right now. The reason I'm growing it is I'm a sucker for testing whether something that's "in" is actually worthy of being "in". What probably makes a true Italian San Marzano tomato great is the fact that it's grow in Italian soil and climate. Growing it here probably produces a tomato pretty much like any other tomato. Although it is an heirloom which a Roma is not and it is supposed to be less acidic ... both things that I like.
Now get the hell out of my garden. I have work to do before you come back next week.
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I grew the most beautiful flowers from Burpee seed this year. The zinnias are mauve and green. I was surprised how prolific flowers from seed are. I've never had much luck with flowers I bought at the store for cutting but these are amazing!
If you are taking orders for tea towels.....I'm In!!! And the garden is dreamy! Good work.
Absolutely beautiful Karen!! You are an inspiration
I have such a terrible time getting anything to grow well in the Houston heat. I would love to have a garden like yours. Thanks for the pictures. They really could be in a book. So beautiful!
Anita
Thanks Anita! Yes, Houston would be a struggle for some things. What would probably love it there are sweet potatoes though! I have to add plastic to my soil to heat the soil up so they *think* they're somewhere like Houston. :) ~ karen!
I heart your work bench.
Broccoli leaves make good kale chips. My broccoli always has way too many aphids for my comfort level, but the leaves are just as tasty and can be used any way you use kale or chard.
Thanks Evalyn! I love it too. More on the bench next week. I only just discovered you could eat broccoli leaves this year! A gardener from Zimbabwe told me to eat them. I really like the young ones raw. ~ karen!
Wow Wow Wow! What a beautiful garden.
Thanks Theresa! I love being in it. ~ karen!
Amazing!!! How is the front yard garden? We need to see photos!!
I know we're in a different zone, on the other side of the country, but MAN is the Peace Country a different type of gardening! I have never once in 30 years heard of a zucchini plant ever dying without significant brute force help. Same thing with planting carrots, every last one will come up no matter what you do.
Funny about your broccoli though, I was thinking it looked so very pristine compared to mine, my leaves look like lace!
Zucchini plants die from a multitude of things. Vine Borer, Bacterial wilt, powdery mildew, downy mildew, cutworm ... and the list goes on and on. :) Vine Borer and bacterial wilt (which is carried by cucumber beetles) are the number one killers of most zucchini plants round these parts. ~ karen!
I've just come in from running around with a child's butterfly net 'catching/killing' the white cabbage moths. I look like a crazy woman out there, but it's WORKING. Maybe you could have one 'on guard' at your community garden and whoever sees those white moths hovering can do the dirty deed! Once ya got worms....you're sunk.
About the jalapeno poppers... lol I am totally going to make those... I've been stalking you for years... how did I miss that?! lol Anyway..... can I just stick them in a container and put them in the freezer? Or do I have to do something special before freezing? Also, how can I get an Art of Doing Stuff Tea Towel? Like I said... I've been following you for years.... it's about time I buy one. Some people read the newspaper everyday... I read The Art of Doing Stuff.
Hi LisaS. Just make them up and stick the all in a good quality freezer bag. They don't stick together so you can just pull a few out when you want to cook them. My tea towel isn't for sale yet. Once my new site is up and running (sometime around when we have a colony of people living on Pluto) my tea towels will be for sale. But there won't be a lot of them. I screen them myself so I can only do so many in addition to the blog. If they go over well I'll farm them out to a professional. ~ karen!
You just amaze me girl...seriously...One question...What does one do with Big Hairy Balls???..which is not the same as What does one with Big Hairy Balls do???...
any tips you have for leaf spot on tomatoes would be appreciated. we got so much rain, it's defoliated about half of each plant. since they should start to mature in about 2 weeks, I haven't sprayed anything....
Beautiful. I'm very impressed. We're growing our own vegetable garden for the first time this year, and we're loving it. Any tips for peppers? We bought sweet red and jalapeno seedlings and none of them are doing very much. They still look basically like seedlings!
Oh, and tips for harvesting, storing and cooking rutabaga, please. I asked my husband what he wanted to plant in the garden, and he couldn't think of anything so he jokingly said rutabaga. Of course, I bought a packet of seeds. And of course they're growing the best of anything in the garden. We're going to have lots and lot of rutabaga.
jeezum woman, you are insan- incredible i mean. holy molly, what a stunning garden.
Just a wonderful garden! I'm enjoying you so much. Great information and such a way with words! You have to be good to make me "LOL". Love it!
I am stressed - and a little envious. The stressed part - that's a lot of work to reap what you've sown - and can and stew and pickle (and eat!!!) And envious - because I've always thought it would be cool to have a vegetable/cutting garden.
Agree with you on the swiss chard - don't particularly like eating it, but LOVE looking at it!!! Looking forward to next week's explanation post!
Karen, you are such a JOY and inspiration in God's Gardens! I am going to imitate the raised beds with lumbar perimeters because I am now fed up with my "Earth womb" gardening technique, where I have battled beetles, aphids, etc, because of my stalwart decision to keep it straight on the soil...SO BEAUTIFUL is your work and your soul-spirit..THANK YOU!
I like broccoli leaves a whole lot more than I like the florets... more worms for you. :D
Your garden is beautiful!
seriously impressive. Ok, maybe I just don't have a good grip on amounts, or produce shopping in general, but how much of what you grow would you say you actually personally eat/use/freeze/save all winter vs have to give away or trade?
Oh to be a cabbage worm in your garden! If it weren't so gorgeous they would not visit you. I know what the THING is. Nah nah nah boo boo. I am so envious Karen.