Category: Organic Gardening (Page 10 of 15)

Gazpacho & Garden Shopping List

August 30, 2011 / Lindsey / 3 Comments

I love this time of the year because meals can be made almost entirely out of the garden! Today I made one of my faaaaaavorite dishes, Gazpacho. How can a combination of vegetables taste so good?!

And since the gazpacho used up almost all the produce I picked last week at my garden, I was really tickled to be writing up a “shopping list” for the things I need to get when I go back in the next couple days. Going shopping in one’s own garden is way too much fun!

Late August Garden Tour

August 30, 2011 / Lindsey / 2 Comments

These photos are from my visit to the garden last week. It’s definitely not as much of a jungle this year as other years (or more accurately, the jungle isn’t as tall)…it was pretty late in getting going, but that’s all right. At least it’s not the worst year those raised beds have seen! That honor, I believe, went to Summer 2007. 😉

So what’s your garden been up to?

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In My Garden This Week

August 10, 2011 / Lindsey / 6 Comments

I spent a really lovely, though exhausting, day working hard in my garden yesterday. 93 degrees and burning sun! I really shouldn’t work out in the midday heat on days like that, and it reminded me what an indoor season the Summertime can be, unfortunately… which is probably why I prefer Autumn! But it’s summer and it’s supposed to be hot, and that was OK. I was really glad just to be outside in my beloved garden!

I harvested potatoes, jalapeños, a couple tomatoes, some herbs, cucumbers, lots of kale, some garlic, and all the onions. Almost 90 yellow onions from an area 3’x4′! Then I weeded some, added more mulch, and fertilized everything. Shew! I was so tired! I stayed for dinner (my mom made it — delicious!), and well into the evening…visiting with my parents and basking in the very balmy summer night…then rode my bike home. I love those peaceful night rides (and don’t worry, I have a really good strobe headlight…and three blinking tail lights…and a reflective triangle on my backpack….and reflective tape on each and every wheel spoke…and…yeeeaahhh…).

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What are you harvesting??

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Transitioning the Garden from Spring to Summer

June 8, 2011 / Lindsey / 6 Comments

I had a wonderful day in my garden yesterday! I haven’t been feeling well enough to do much garden work lately — and a lot needed to be done — but yesterday the stars really aligned because I felt good, I’d gotten all my “money-making” work done and didn’t have any meetings to go to, and weather-wise it was a million dollar day! Usually I like to do my spring-to-summer garden transition in late May, but that didn’t happen this year, so I’m a little behind. But that’s OK! You just have to say “oh well” sometimes.

So basically I have two different gardens each year — “spring” and “summer” — all in the same beds. (You can read more about how I plan my dual gardens here.) The “spring carryover” veggies will stay in the ground through the summer, so I don’t need to worry about those. But the spring veggies (like lettuce and spinach) are at their peak right now and will be pulled out soon (but not quite, because they’re still producing like mad), so I like to plant summer veggies in their midst. (Click here for a list of spring, summer, and carryover veggies.)

In the photo below, you can see that I’ve pulled out enough lettuce to plant a tomato. This works well because the lettuce provides a bit of protection to the tomato seedling, and by the time the tomato starts getting big, we will have harvested all the lettuce.

I did the same thing below by harvesting enough spinach to open up a circular area where I planted winter squash seeds. The spinach will shelter the seedlings, and by the time the squash gets big, the spinach will be gone.

I don’t have a picture to show you, but in another bed I decided to just pull out all the spinach (it was ready anyway) and plant my cucumber seeds. Since I like lots of cucumbers and plant several rows, it just made the most sense to pull out the spinach completely rather than trying to plant multiple seeds in multiple rows in amongst the spinach plants.

But I do have a picture of the laundry basket full of spinach I harvested from that cucumber bed! Look at it all! Gorgeous stuff, and so delicious.

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What’s your garden up to right now??

Mid-May Vegetable Garden Photos

May 14, 2011 / Lindsey / 4 Comments

I went over to play in my garden yesterday, and was astonished at how much it’s grown since last week! The beautiful vegetables have really taken off — the mere sight of them just feeds my soul. I never tire of watching my garden grow!

Here are some update photos:

As you can see below, the baby peach and plum trees that I started from seed almost 2 1/2 years ago are doing great! They grow very fast…

And now a photo of the salad I made yesterday. This was the best salad I’ve ever eaten in my life. You’d think a salad would be a salad, but this one — with everything picked just minutes prior — was the sweetest, tenderest, most incredible-tasting salad. My theory is that the two straight days of rain we just had made the flavor more incredible than normal. I’ve noticed that rain makes the grass a different shade of green than tap water does…rainwater is special stuff. Collect it and treasure it! My grandma would collect rain water to water her houseplants and rinse her hair with!

The best salad ever. Fresh from the rain-soaked garden: baby arugula, spinach, lettuce, radishes, dill, cilantro, parsley, and onion greens. Dressed with olive oil, balsamic & red wine vinegar, salt, and pepper.