Going to the market

Tomorrow is the grand opening of the Festival Way farmers market. Deb and I will be there with a boatload of lettuce, lots of greens, assorted herbs, and some cool things like miner's lettuce and New Zealand spinach. I will post actual harvest results results afterwards. 

Deb had to work, so I spent half of my day off at the big garden (mostly picking weeds). I found more spinach going to flower. Luckily none of the lettuce has begun bolting yet. I've tasted lettuce that is flowering and it's not pleasant.  The peas are beginning to step up their game. I picked 1/3 lb of young snap peas(and a few more that didn't make it to the scale). I hope to be able to harvest this much every couple days. The pea vines are over 8 feet tall now. If they keep growing, I'll need a step ladder to pick the peas!

There were four more ripe strawberries today. I don't know what we'll do if we can't get over to the big garden on any given day. We've had strawberries ripening up every single day. The strawberry plants are shooting out runners. I suppose next year will mean a bigger strawberry patch will be in order. 

This evening, Deb and I attended an informative class at Longwood Nursery with a guest speaker from the DR EARTH company. We watched a Power Point presentation on organic farming, and the advantages of probiotic plant foods. It seems like a good product that will probably improve our soil, so we bought a big bag of the Organic vegetable fertilizer and it was mixed in the top soil at the home garden about 15 minutes later.

Lots of lettuce

Beautiful beet greens

A couple ugly trellises waiting for
squash and cucumbers to start climbing

8' tall pea vines

I had a little afternoon snack

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Total produce count for the year:

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

lots of spearmint

lots of lemon balm

lots of dill

9 strawberries

1/2 lb carrot roots

1 head of garlic

2/5 lb snap peas

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

6.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

13  1/4 lb assorted lettuce

1 5/6 lb spinach

3/4 lb turnip roots

5/8 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb young dark greens

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

It's about time for a shift from greens

The big garden presented a bountiful harvest today. The snow peas are in full production. Only the first pods are of eating size, so the pea harvest was small today; only 1/16 lb. There were three more strawberries glowing red, begging to be picked. I found some beautiful medium sized turnips popping out of the ground, so they came home as well. I noted two or three spinach plants beginning to flower, so I decided to do a quick pick of spinach. Today's spinach harvest was 1/2 lb of adult leaves. The radishes are beginning to flower as well, so I pulled every radish remaining that was of decent size. I left some smaller rooted plants to flower and produce seed for the fall. I ended up with 1/4 lb of tasty red (and purple) roots. I pulled a carrot from the ground to test for size. It was about 3" long, 1/2" diameter. This one didn't make it to the scale to be weighed, it was a mighty tasty and sweet carrot. The store bought carrots just don't compare to home grown heirloom varieties.

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Total produce count for the year:

5 stawberries

1/4 lb carrot roots

1 head of garlic

1/16 lb snap peas

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

lots of spearmint

lots of lemon balm

lots of dill

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

6.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb baby radishes/greens

1/4 lb mature radish roots

13  1/4 lb assorted lettuce

1 5/6 lb spinach

3/4 lb turnip roots

5/8 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb young dark greens

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

Gave the neighbor some lettuce today

Gave the neighbor 1/8 lb lettuce. Updated produce count.

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Total produce count for the year:

1 stawberry

1/4 lb carrot roots

1 head of garlic

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

lots of spearmint

lots of lemon balm

lots of dill

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

6.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb radishes/greens

13  1/4 lb assorted lettuce

1 1/3 lb spinach

1/8 lb turnip roots

5/8 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb young dark greens

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

Too much of a good thing is a .. not good thing.

Deb and I estimated last week around 15 pounds of lettuce still remained in the ground. There are two things I'd like to mention concerning our estimate.

1: We were greatly underestimating. We picked just a small fraction of it, and totaled 8 lbs.
2: The lettuce was growing so tightly packed that we found three areas under the row cover where air flow was reduced, and some mold killed a few lettuce plants.


When we found the problem, we decided to thin out the plants. Our "thinning" was 8 lbs worth of assorted lettuce. The problem was not evident anywhere except for when the bottoms of the lettuce stems were close to one another, and only underneath the row cover.  In the future, we will include earlier thinning of the lettuce, especially if it is in an area of reduced air flow, like a low tunnel or row cover.

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Total produce count for the year:

1/4 lb carrot roots

1 head of garlic

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

lots of spearmint

lots of lemon balm

lots of dill

3 trays of wheat grass(inside)

6.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb radishes/greens

12  5/8 lb assorted lettuce

1 1/3 lb spinach

1/8 lb turnip roots

5/8 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache/corn salad

5/8 lb young dark greens

3 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

The greenhouse is open for business

We took a gamble and decided to remove the plastic covering from the greenhouse. Deb & I removed the 20' x 28' piece of 3mil plastic and neatly folded it up.  To protect the now exposed ripening strawberries from bird attack, we covered the blue strawberry bin with ultralight row cover.

At the moment of our decision, the weatherman forecasted 45 degrees on that Thursday night. Later, just before dark, the forecast called for 39 degrees.  Mid 30s (without even touching frosty conditions) can kill tomato plants, so Deb & I jumped into action, scavenging the house for any containers that could be used for mini tomato greenhouses (in the back yard/small garden, and at the greenhouse/big garden). About two hours later, we finally rested our heads in bed, knowing our little tomato plants were safe.

Covering up the tomato plants at night

As you can see, we used whatever we had!

Over the weekend, Deb & I stayed at a bed & breakfast in beautiful Loudon county, VA. The county is very much about vegetable and livestock farming. We got a chance to stop by some gorgeous local community gardens and a master gardener demonstration garden.

Art made from old shovelheads

I made three trellises for the climbers, including squash, cucumbers, beans, and melons. They aren't pretty, but I was able to reuse materials that I found on the property. The cukes and other viners are only a couple inches tall, but I can already picture them climbing all over the structures.

In other news, tonight Deb and I planted a wall of garlic cloves around each of our raised beds at the townhouse/small garden. If each clove grows, we should have a barrier of garlic plants surrounding each bed. Garlic smell is said to deter many nuisance insects, so it will be a good test. The idea was suggested to me from the owner of the b&b this weekend.

We have more lettuce than we can eat!  We estimate around 15 pounds of lettuce still remain in the ground at the big garden, and a pound or so at the small garden. There are more greens than we can enjoy as well, so we have decided to take a trip to the Waldorf farmers market on May 7th, assuming I can get off work.

Containers everywhere! Apparently four raised beds, and a 30 x 30 garden wasn't enough for us. We filled every single container we could find with bulk compost/soil mixture and stuck a plant in each. Many of them are full of flowers to attract the polinators. Some are full of food crops. Some are full of both. It was pretty much a random filling and planting by Deb and myself.

This is the coolest water fountain I've ever seen. We found this at a nursery in VA. Don't worry, we didn't buy it.

Here are some photo updates of a few of our plants:

We just transplanted these shoots into a 50 gallon trashcan full of soil

Nasturtiums about to vine

The strawberry bin, just before covering with row cover

Peas have started flowering!!

One of our three white potato plants

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Total produce count for the year:

1/4 lb carrot roots

1 head of garlic

lots of  parsley

lots of peppermint

2 trays of wheat grass

1 handfull dill

5.5 lb assorted dark greens

7/8 lb radishes/greens

4 5/8 lb assorted lettuce

1 lb spinach

5/8 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache (corn salad)

5/8 lb young greens

2 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

Produce update

Yum!

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Total produce count for the year:

2 handfull parsley

2 handfull of peppermint

2 trays of wheat grass

1 handfull dill

5.5 lb assorted dark greens

5/8 lb radishes/greens

4 5/8 lb assorted lettuce

1 lb spinach

5/8 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache (corn salad)

5/8 lb young greens

2 trays micro  greens(grown inside)

1/3 lb arugula

3 asparagus spears

Surprise Kale harvest

Sunday, Deb and I finished building and filling two 4' x 8' raised beds for one of her coworkers. The beds took four tractor buckets worth of compost/topsoil mixture to fill. She (the coworker) has already planted spinach and beans, and has several seedlings about to settle into their new cozy home.

Later this week, I learned that Kale is not a perennial, it is a biennial. I found out because our four overwintered Russian Red(aka Ragged Jack) Kale plants have started producing florets. When the florets turn to flowers and go to seed, the plants are useless as edibles; the taste becomes wild and bitter. A quick decision Tuesday yielded 2 pounds of kale greens in the fridge. We cut the kale just above the lowest leaves, so that they can continue flowering and we can harvest the seeds for our fall crop.

The plastic is off each of the cold frame tunnels. The smaller one now sports a lightweight material row cover, to keep the bugs looking from the outside. The wider tunnel doesn't have any cover whatsoever now. So far, a few days later, we haven't noticed any bug damage yet.

We have too much lettuce! I may have to make some lettuce smoothies to help us consume all of it.  Today I picked 1.75 lbs of lettuce and you can't even tell. Also harvested today was 1/2 pound spinach, 1 3/4 pound lettuce, 1/8 pound mache,  and 1/2 pound miners lettuce. We've got dozens of strawberries growing. Most are as big as a pencil eraser, but the largest is up to 1" and growing.  Since the strawberries are still in the greenhouse, the birds and bugs won't get them.

The mostly-self watering bucket system is finished. The Starbucks cups have holes which (if it works) let water soak into the soil inside the cup, which wicks it up to the rest of the dirt and the plant's root system.

We have a new worm composter! After purchasing a manufactured worm farm in February, I realize just how simple the structure is. With the help of Deb, we created another one from two five gallon buckets. When the working tray gets full, we will purchase another bucket, and then another one. The store-bought worm farms come with three working trays already. The worm tea nozzle was easy, we used a threaded hose nozzle faucet. Total cost with one tray, not including worms is $12.00. I can add two more trays for $3 each. To buy a 3 tray worm farm is $79.99.

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Total produce count for the year:

2 handfull parsley

1 handfull of peppermint

2 trays of wheat grass

1 handfull dill

5.25 lb assorted dark greens

1/2 lb radishes/greens

3 3/4 lb lettuce

7/8 lb spinach

5/8 lb miner's lettuce

3/16 lb mache (corn salad)

5/8 lb micro greens

1/3 lb arugula

2 asparagus spears