Dahlia

I cut my second dahlia today. It is a gorgeous one (not sure what kind, it is neither one of the three varieties I ordered back in the spring), and I paired it with asparagus and mint.

I also harvested a ton of Swiss chard, three carrots (apparently only the yellow ones have made it so far from my rainbow carrot mix) and some tomatoes. Still growing are eggplant, some zucchini, leeks and the winter squash as well as much more chard and kale. There are also still a few tomatoes on the vine. All the seeds I sowed about a week ago (radish, arugula, fall greens) and the beet transplants have come up. Fingers crossed the bunny will leave them alone.

Mid-July Harvest

Yesterday’s harvest: five cucumbers, Swiss chard and basil. I had harvested two cucumbers a couple of days earlier, so I used some of them up in last night’s dinner: I made a big Greek salad and served it alongside Mediterranean steak tips (marinated with fresh herbs from the back porch) with yogurt sauce, roasted garlicky eggplant, tahini sauce and rice. That still leaves four cucumbers 🙂

4th of July

Cosmos

Spent some time in the garden this beautiful Saturday morning harvesting almost all of the remaining lettuce and planting pole beans, more rainbow carrots (some I sowed earlier have actually come up, yay!) and three more tomato plants (Paul Robson, Jaune Flamme and Black Krim). The garden plot is getting there, but most plants are still small because I did not really plant anything until we had water about a month ago.

The plot today
Left side: dahlias, rhubarb, cucumbers, nasturtium, lettuce, pole beans, butternut squash, zucchini, onions, Swiss chard, kale, eggplant, carrots, borage, leeks
Right side: cosmos, dahlias, asparagus, tomatoes, marigolds, nasturtium, basil, parsley, kale, hot pepper, delicata squash, garlic, leeks, beets
A lot of lettuce that I washed and dried and now store in the fridge to use over the next few days

June Harvest

I harvested a nice bunch of overwintered leeks, a big head of lettuce and some volunteer hard-neck garlic that grew in the wrong spot. The strawberries are from a plot neighbor.

I spent three hours in the garden this morning weeding and pulling the mint that had taken over the better part of the back of my plot. I tied the asparagus and planted more Chiogga beets and a few dahlias, marigolds and cosmos. I also had meant to sow pole beans, carrots and more lettuce (in between the tomatoes so it can grow in the shade) but forgot, ha!

The garlic will be ready in a few weeks and I will need to harvest all the lettuce very soon. I also need to take out all those volunteer onions. The squash and cucumbers have settled in nicely, the chard and beets are looking good as are the new leeks. The kale is being eaten by something, but seems to manage to survive. Quite a few nasturtiums are coming up as well. The tomatoes have some flowers but not very many. I am worried that I overfertilized again, despite only using seaweed emulsion (once!) and sparingly so. Fingers crossed.

Planting

Front yard columbine

Finally! Two days ago, the water was finally turned on in our community garden. Yesterday, the kids and I spent two hours in the garden weeding, planting and watering. We needed to pull a large amount of onions to make space. They are currently curing on the front porch much to the chagrin of my daughter who has to live with the smell as her bedroom opens to the porch. I planted most of my seedlings: 6 tomato plants, 3 basil plants plus kale, chard, different lettuces and leeks. I also sowed nasturtiums.

We harvested some of the radishes. The peas never came up, not a single one but I know that some of the seeds germinated. I suspect the birds, which have been very active in the garden. The carrots sadly also never came up.

Not much to look at yet but lots of things in the ground.

Garden update

Tulip “Blushing Apeldoorn” from my garden plot.

Not much happening in the garden yet. It has been a cold and wet spring so far, we even had snow on April 18 and night frost just a few days ago. The radishes are beginning to show, but none of the carrots and only a few of the peas. I reseeded sugar snap peas and rainbow carrots yesterday. The previous carrots were likely washed out, and my guess is that the birds got the rest of the peas. Fingers crossed for this batch. It is supposed to warm up to the sixties in the next few days.

Arugula and lettuces on the back porch

Meanwhile, the porch plantings are making progress, the spring greens are coming in nicely. I also have growing radishes (and hopefully mache), and I sowed chard, kale, cilantro and chives. Of those, only the kale is coming up. Very slowly.

Grape hyacinth on back porch

The seedlings are looking good. Pictured above are tomatoes, lettuce and basil. Under the grow light I have going: tomatoes, lettuce, parsley, kale, hot pepper, eggplant, cucumbers, zucchini and winter squash (butternut and delicata).

Porch Updates

Garlic (and overwintering leeks)

Above you see some garlic from my plot today as it is much more photogenic than sowing seeds in pots on your porch. Today I direct-sowed Swiss chard (Bright Lights), Tuscan kale, cilantro and dwarf peas (Dwarf Grey Sugar) in containers on the porch. The radishes and spring greens are coming in nicely.

Spring greens
Current (indoors) seedling situation.
Front porch plantings (from left to right): peas, Astilbe, some other flower, and the future home for lettuce. And the summer home for the palm tree.

Seedlings

Today it will be hitting 60 degrees here in Boston. Spring is in the air. I repotted some seedlings, namely basil and head lettuce. My seedlings are doing fine, everything sprouted except, sadly, the eggplant. I reseeded some a couple of days ago, but the seeds are from last year so maybe that was the reason. Under my grow lights, I currently have basil, tomatoes, lettuce, hot peppers, kale, parsley (it final sprouted!). On my porch I sowed spring greens, arugula, radishes and mache. The spring greens are coming in nicely and some growth is starting to appear in the pot with the radishes/mache. Very exciting. Also, this is happening right now on my back porch:

I also went to the community garden to plant more peas, radishes and carrots.