Homegrown radishes


Six weeks ago we planted radish seeds in the front garden. And according to the packet I should've picked them three weeks ago - opps! I suppose that explains why you can see them BURSTING from the soil. These radishes are the MOST peppery radishes I have ever tasted. They taste more like horseradish then radish. To cut the intensity (and make them edible) I'm going to mix them with chick peas to create a hummus with an extra kick! 

Honey I shrunk the garden...

The frigid temperatures snuck up on us. After weeks in the 50's I wasn't even following the weather. The second night with unexpected (to me) temperatures in the teens shriveled the garden greens. In particular the bibb lettuce, bok choy and pepper plants. The romaine lettuce and kale look like they might pull through. It's disappointing that we didn't get to eat them but at least we learned. To be honest, part of me believed these little plants would pull through until spring! 


As I said to Oliver after I realized what had happened "It's a good thing we can go to the grocery store. We'd make terrible pioneers." Live and learn! I don't think I'll make this mistake twice.

Fall Planting: Final update

Three more days until the official start of winter. The fall garden has done well - but I do wish I'd have started everything a few weeks sooner. I don't want to eat the kale until it's had a chance to grow at least twice as big as it is now. The lettuces we grew from seeds are still too little to be anything - but I am happy they've gotten this far. They reassured me that I can grow from seeds; I don't have to purchase baby plants. The pepper plants mostly died during one unusually cold night. The leaves a withered but the fruit is still holding on. We pick them as we need them. The onions? Well they are still anyone's guess!


Overall, the fall garden went well enough that I'm eager to try it all again in the spring. Perhaps on a larger scale too.

 

Topher wishes you warm blankets for cold nights and a spot of sunlight to rest in everyday. Bring on old man winter! We're ready!

Fall Planting - Round Three

As I write this post about my fall vegetable garden the "historic October snowfall" is just getting started in Philadelphia and NYC. If I lived there I'd be so disappointed to see all my work disappear so early in the season! Thankfully the weather here in Atlanta is still conducive to growing and my only challenge seems to be squirrels.

The chicken wire cage I improvised on Tuesday night is successfully guarding my plants from whatever animals might like to eat them and I think the bok choy will eventually rebound. The lettuce sprouts are delicate but growing quickly. And I added two kale plants from a local nursery. I can't tell a thing about the onions.

There is still a good amount of room for more vegetables so I'm on the look out for more plants to add.






Fall Planting - Round Two

Wow. So there is currently a lot going on in our little garden. I'll start in the back of the house with the fall salad greens.


The bok choy, romaine and bibb lettuce plants we purchased at the Grant Park farmers market are doing great. They're getting bigger by the day. When we returned to market two weeks later for more the vendor wasn't there (he was probably at the Field of Green's Festival). Instead of waiting another week for plants we decided to try a row of seeds. I'm very excited to report the seeds have sprouted! Yay! We may even need to thin them a few weeks down the road.


On the side of the house the peppers and tomatos are going nuts. If you read the "Fall Planting - Round One" post you might remember the fish emulsion fertilizer we used when planting the salad greens in the back. Well we used the left over fertilizer to water the tomatos and peppers. BOOM. Almost overnight we had triple the number of tomatos that we've over the last five months. There are at least two dozen tomatos on the plant right now. But of course, it can't possibly be that easy to have and keep such a profilic plant. Now the tomato plant has caterpillars.


Before you scroll down to the tomato photos (and the rest of the tomato/caterpillar story) I want to admit that our tomato plant is ugly, unkempt and out of control. New branches are resting on (and blocking) our stone pathway. It wasn't always like this... but we also weren't expecting it to go on into October.

 
 

We've had tomato caterpillar problems before. But it was a different sort of destruction (think locust-type annihilation). So when we began to notice green tomatos with small chunks missing I thought it must be squirrels. The damage seemed like just the right size for a rodent snack. Every few days we'd notice another tomato had been ruined. This morning I spotted what I think is probably caterpillar poo. (Ew, caterpillar poo!) I took a photo of the poo and the ruined tomato and came inside to upload them.


It wasn't until I had the tomato photo enlarged on my computer screen that I noticed the teeny tiny, camouflaged caterpillar. The little pest was eating my tomato while I watched and I didn't even see him! I ran back outside with a bottle of Ortho Max. Our tomato plant is no longer organic but hopefully we will eventually get to eat a few of these late season tomatos before the little caterpillars do!


Fall Planting - Round One

Fall planting has begun! This year we're trying a few new things. For starters, we're planting our leafy greens in bi-weekly waves. The last few seasons we've found ourselves with more ready-to-harvest greens then we could eat while they were ripe. After the perfect month of greens had passed there wasn't much left in the garden to eat. By planting new greens every few weeks we will hopefully spread out the harvest time thus providing garden fresh greens throughout the fall and into the winter. We're starting with Bibb lettuce, Romaine lettuce, and bok choy. We'll be adding kale, arugula and spinach.

We're also trying a new fertilizer recommended by an organic vendor at the Grant Park Farmer's Market. It's a liquid fish emulsion. Smells terrible but supposedly produces great results.

And finally, onions! We've never tried growing root vegetables because frankly - how are we supposed to know when they're ready to be picked? These onions were an impulse buy at Home Depot. They were cheap so we decided to give them a try.  Oliver planted them in the raised bed that previously held cucumbers.