An Indian Summer Harvest

I hope my fellow gardeners here in New England are enjoying the warm weather as much as I am. It's not often we experience temperatures in the 80's this time of year. After a long stretch of cold and rain, I'm sure our fall veggies appreciated it as well.

This past week, I picked the first of our fall turnips. This Asian variety called 'Tokyo Market' is milder, sweeter and not as tough as your average supermarket turnip. (Thanks again for the seeds, Mac!)


This batch was the best I've grown so far. My prior attempts at growing Asian turnips produced golf-ball sized roots. This year, I upped the spacing between each plant to 4 inches and got much better results.


Spinach is a great cut-and-come-again veggie in our garden. I snip leaves every few days to use in soups and pasta dishes. The cooler than normal August we experienced this year probably had a lot to do with why our spinach is thriving now.


Another carrot harvest - still no signs of rodent damage. Hopefully, the mice will stay away this winter.

I've yet to master growing fall beets. These are on the smaller side. I just don't think there is enough light in our garden is time of year to encourage the roots to fatten up.


Our leeks this fall are much better than the previous. We have good-sized white stalks that are at least a foot long. Since I've yet to grow a decent crop of onions, leeks are a great alternative this time of year.

Fall Garden Tour

Now that summer is coming to an end, here's a preview of this year's fall garden. All in all, I was good about getting our fall crops started on time. In a few weeks we'll have to break out the row cover at night, but nonetheless, I'm hoping that we'll be able to harvest continually from the garden until at least early December.

In no particular order, here is what we'll be eating (hopefully) during the next few months:


The fall beets (lower right) are slowly sizing up while the fast growing Tokyo Market turnips should be ready in a couple of weeks.


The spinach is practically ready for us to harvest. The winter carrots (right) on the other hand will be pulled in December and January, that is if the voles don't get to them first.

Red russian kale in the background and gai lan (Chinese broccoli) in the foreground. I have another bed of gai lan that should be ready in a week or two.


Here's a bed of Asian greens.


I am growing a ton of leeks this year and they are looking really good. They are much fatter than last year's crop.

I have two Jade Cross Brussel sprout plants that survived the groundhog attacks earlier this year. Can we defeat the cabbage worms and actually get a harvest this year?


My fall carrots should be ready in another month or so.


The Bonanza broccoli is doing well and should be ready soon. On the other hand, I'm worried that our cauliflower won't head up in time.


This will most likely be my last year of growing Napa cabbage. It's impossible to keep the slugs away from this plant. Also, our fall crop has bolted prematurely due to the sudden change in temperatures. I think I'll stick to other Asian greens that are easier and faster to grow.


I don't expect much from our fall snow peas but that won't stop me from trying to grow them.


Finally, I have several varieties of winter lettuce this year. These will have to be harvested by early December their quality quickly diminishes after that point.

In addition to this, I sowed some mache, claytonia and French Breakfast radishes the other day. What's growing in your fall garden?

The End of May Harvest

It's only fitting that the end of May harvest should coincide with the end of our Spring greens. During the past few days, temperatures have reached into the high 80's and as a result many of our cool weather greens have started to bolt. This seems rather sudden considering that we were experiencing nightly low's down in the 40's only a couple weeks ago. Yesterday, I harvested all of our spinach and as much of the mizuna as I could salvage. I'm really happy with how the spinach performed this spring. The plants grew huge and we ended up with a ton of leaves to freeze.


I also ripped out all of our Asian greens. These will last in the fridge for a long time...hopefully until the snow peas come in. Some of the outer leaves are a bit hole-y from the slugs but these should be fine once trimmed up.


Our lettuces are coming in strong right now. We have to eat as much as we can before they begin to bolt as well.

Finally, the radishes are ready for picking. They are tasting spicy already. Most of them will go to Jonathan's grammy. Unfortunately, I've haven't been able to develop a taste for them.

This Week's Garden Update - Salad in a Box

The fava beans are a bit late this year.


It's time to pick a few spinach leaves.


The lettuce is teasing me at the moment. We should be able pick some outer leaves any day now.


My salad box is working out well this year. The lettuces seem to be growing normally. Last summer, I couldn't get anything to grow in it. I figured it was due to a lack of fertility. This year, I used a mix of 50% organic potting soil, 50% compost and a bit of organic fertilizer for good measure. It seems to be working. On the left, I planted some mesclun mix and will sow some more in the middle. I have an extra box in the basement that I will need to break out. Hopefully, it will continue to do well in the shade this summer.

Transplanting Spring Greens

This past Saturday, I decided to clear out some bed space in the hoop house and transplant some Spring greens. While temperatures only got up into the high 30's by noontime, the hoop house was a balmy 80 degrees. It felt nice to soak up some sun and do a bit of gardening.


From left - Shanghai bok choy, tatsoi, mizuna and mini Napa cabbage. I reserved a bit of space on the right for a couple heads of lettuce. Something told me it was still a bit too early for them.


My instincts were proven right as it got all the way down to 25 degrees that night. The bok choy and mizuna were virtually unaffected but the tatsoi and Napa cabbage suffered some frost damage to the outer leaves. Hopefully they will bounce back as the weather warms up. Otherwise, I'll have to sow some more seeds.

I also transplanted out some spinach - yet another invincible green this time of year.

First Harvest of 2011

It felt good to kick off 2011 with a fairly decent winter harvest (by New England standards of course). Today I picked a good amount of mache (aka corn salad), which we prepared lightly dressed with a simple vinaigrette for dinner. If you've never grown or tasted mache, I'd highly recommend it. This hardy winter green is very delicious and simple to start from seed. The leaves are mild and have a slightly floral flavor reminiscent of rose petals.


I also harvested a bit of spinach, which has proven to be very disappointing this winter. I haven't been able to harvest nearly as much as I did last year. The plants seem completely unfazed by the cold but are not growing at all (probably because I've been too lazy to cover the bed with some fabric row cover). Plus the voles have been taking much more than their fair share.


Speaking of voles, they are having a field day with my Red Russian kale right now, toppling whole plants and scattering stripped stems everywhere. They've already done away with my winter carrots and Swiss chard. I never thought in a million years that they would become such a problem this time of year. Building one of those industrial-sized 5 gallon bucket mice traps is definitely on the top of my list of things to do this spring. Anyway, I harvested as much kale as I could (no sense in leaving it for the little bastards) and some thyme to store in the fridge.

On a side note - I love the look of Red Russian this time of year. The leaves are so beautifully tinged with shades of purple.


And yes, more Meyer lemons. I'm sure you're all sick of seeing them in my harvest posts but considering the climate we live in, every single one is so very precious to me.

Finally, I've decided to forgo weighing my homegrown produce this year. I'm glad I did it last year but after a while, the effort began to feel tedious. I'll still post about my weekly picks and envy your harvest totals though!

The Winter Garden - An Update (Part One)

Since it has been a while, I thought I'd do a quick update on what's happening in the garden right now along with some general winter gardening observations.


First off, this is the patch of spinach that I have growing under a quick hoop. All that is separating it from the harsh elements is a single layer of 6 millimeter plastic. I took this picture when the outside temperature was in the high 20's F and as you can see, it looks pretty comfortable underneath.


I have another patch of spinach growing inside one of my mini hoop houses. This one is also protected by an inner layer of fabric row cover. The difference between the two is pretty drastic. Although both seem unfazed by the winter conditions, this patch has been much more productive. In fact, while the other patch has stayed seemingly in a state of suspended animation (I did my first cutting this past weekend), this patch is actually growing through the winter months. In the span of 30 days, I've been able to get 2 cuttings from this one. As a result, ALL of my winter veggies next year will be grown under a double layer of protection.


I sowed these pak choi seedlings in late November. As you can see, they've done absolutely nothing during the past couple of months. But what's interesting is that they look perfectly healthy desperate the cold. Next winter, I will experiment more with Asian greens. I have a feeling that if I can get these to size up before December, I can have Asian greens to harvest in December and January.


The Red Russian kale is growing back slowing but surely. I've been able to get a couple of cuttings from last September's sowing. This variety is definitely a keeper. For some reason, I didn't think that Red Russian would be as hardy as other types of kale, like Winterbor. I think the added protection has a lot to do with it. Next winter, I'd like to start this kale indoors in August, plant them out closer together in September, and harvest the leaves at a younger stage all winter long.

First February Harvest

This past weekend, I decided to brave the frigid temperatures and do a bit of harvesting. It feels nice to be able to participate in Harvest Monday again. I picked this spinach from two different beds in my garden. About half came from one of my plastic covered quick hoops. I'm amazed by how well my spinach has fared this winter. It has definitely become a reliable veggie for this time of year. Note to self...next year, grow more winter spinach!!!


The carrot harvest is finally starting to wind down. As you can see, I'm putting up mostly (weak) baby-sized carrots right now though there are a few good-sized ones left. More importantly, they are still tasting great. Hopefully in a few weeks, my carrot beds will be cleared out and replaced by some early spring veggies.


I ended up harvesting about 0.75 lbs of spinach and 0.91 lbs of baby carrots for a total of 1.66 lbs this week. Hopefully, these numbers will slowly creep up as this year progresses. If you'd like to see what others are harvesting or show off your own, visit Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.

The First Harvest of 2010

I don't know about all of you but we've had well over a foot of snow during the past few days. I was lucky enough to get out into the garden yesterday afternoon to do a bit of harvesting before the major storm hit last night. This is officially my first harvest of this year- some carrots, a big bowl of spinach and some of my neighbor's parsley that I'm housing for her. If only I had put off last week's big harvest until this weekend; it would have been nice to start the year off with a bang. Oh well. This week's pickings are a bit meager and aren't expected to get bigger anytime soon. I'll be lucky to even get one next week.


I decided that I would start weighing my weekly harvests this year in part to determine whether or not my home veggie gardening is "paying off" (economically, that is). Not that it really matters since I'd still grow my own food even if it costs me more to do so. The way I see it, there are just some things that you can't place a value on and growing your own food just happens to be one of them. This week, I harvested 1 lb of carrots and 0.55 lbs of spinach. I will keep a running total on my side bar. Since my goal is to garden all year around and to have at least one harvest per month, I will organize the numbers by month. Hopefully, this will be a bountiful year for all of us!

If you'd like to see what other people are harvesting or show off your own, go to Harvest Mondays at Daphne's Dandelions.

December Garden Update - Hoop House Tour Part 2

Last week, I did a post on the winter veggies I have growing currently in a couple of my mini hoop houses. In a nutshell, this one is about what I have in the remaining two. In no particular order:


In one of my taller hoop houses, I have an assortment of winter greens. I haven't looked inside my homemade slug trap yet. (Gross.) Maybe this weekend.


I had done initial cuttings of my lettuce mix in late October and all throughout the month of November. This is the regrowth. As you can see, the quality has diminished a bit, but still, it looks pretty good. I'm hoping to get one more cutting after this before the plants get turned over.


Interestingly enough, I feel as though the growth of my spinach has sped up since I first harvested some of the outer leaves. Maybe it's just my imagination or the cooling weather inside the hoop house, all I know is that if the slugs stay away, I might actually get a decent harvest in a couple of weeks.


The wild arugula is going strong still. I have to admit that I've been a bit remiss in harvesting it. I don't know why since I'm sure it would be delicious in between two slices of artisan bread with say some goat cheese and bacon (yum). Maybe I'll do that this weekend. In the meantime, I've given my neighbor free reign over it.


In a bare spot where the Hakurei turnips had been, I finally got around to sowing some more lettuce mix...


...and pak choi. It'll be interesting to see what will become of these sowings (if anything).


In my remaining hoop house, I have primarily a bed of winter carrots (Napoli), which I have yet to touch (aside from the random sampling). Hopefully with a bit of added protection, I can harvest these all winter long.


I also offered my neighbor some space inside this hoop house to overwinter her parsley...


...and chives. I love the thought of fresh herbs during the coldest months.


Aside from the Chinese flowering kale, spinach and carrots I have housed under quick hoops, the only other thing growing in my garden right now is a couple beds of green manure. Hopefully these nitrogen-fixing plants will help to enrich the soil in time for next spring's plantings.

Finally, if there are any other gardeners attempting to grow a winter garden in zones 5, 6 (where I am) and 7 this year, please raise your hands! I'd love to read about your experiences!