The Herbangardener

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Tag: gardening (Page 10 of 14)

Transitioning the Garden from Spring to Summer

June 8, 2011 / / 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 / / 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.

Vegetable Crop Lists: When to Plant What

April 17, 2011 / / 6 Comments

In this post about how to plan your vegetable garden, I talked about Spring Veggies, Spring “Carryover” veggies, and Summer veggies. A couple days ago, I got an email from Val, who asks: “…Would you mind posting a list or resource for what you define as spring, spring carry-over, and summer vegetables?? THANKS!!”

Sure, Val! Great idea. Since I don’t know of a resource for this info, I’ll post my own list.

I garden in Zone 5/6, in Colorado. Our growing season is about 110 days…our last average Spring frost is mid-May, and our first average Autumn frost is early October. So this list won’t apply to you lucky folks who garden year-round in mild climates. (Don’t know your zone? Enter your zip code at the Arbor Day Hardiness Zone Lookup.)

The following list is based upon my personal experience in my own garden, where I grow almost everything from seeds sown directly into the garden (except tomatoes & peppers, which I start indoors a month or two ahead of time). Often there is overlap between Spring and Summer gardens, but it works out OK because the mature Spring stuff will protect and shade the Summer seedlings for a while. By the time the Summer stuff is up and running, the Spring stuff has been pulled out.

Also, you’ll notice that some veggies are flexible and can be included in more than one category.

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Spring Veggies – Plant in early Spring (usually two months before the last frost…March 15 for me), and harvest before the intense heat of Summer (usually up to a month after the last frost…late June for me). Spring veggies are pretty much in-n-out before the main Summer season.

Arugula/Rocket

Beets/Beetroot

Broad Beans/Fava Beans

Broccoli

Broccoli Raab/Rapini

Collards (can also be a carryover veggie, where you leave it in all Summer)

Green Onions/Scallions (can also be a carryover veggie, where you leave it in all Summer)

Kale (can also be a carryover veggie, where you leave it in all Summer)

Lettuce

Peas

Radishes

Spinach

Swiss Chard/Silverbeet (can also be a carryover veggie, where you leave it in all Summer)

Turnips

Spring Carryover Veggies – Plant in early Spring (usually two months before the last frost…March 15 for me), and leave in the garden all Summer long.

Cabbage

Carrots

Cauliflower

Cilantro

Collards

Dill

Garlic

Green Onions/Scallions

Kale

Onions

Parsley

Potatoes (planted a month before last frost — mid-April in my garden)

Swiss Chard/Silverbeet

Turnips

Summer Veggies – Plant only after the last Spring frost (late May for my Zone 5/6 garden). Leave in the garden all Summer long.

Basil

Beans, all types

Brussels Sprouts (harvest after frost in fall & winter)

Carrots

Celery (probably will want to use seedlings, since starting from seed can be difficult)

Cilantro

Corn

Cucumbers

Dill

Eggplant/Aubergine

Gourds

Melons

Malabar Spinach (Basella rubra)

New Zealand Spinach (Tetagonia)

Okra

Peppers/Capsicum

Pumpkins

Rutabagas

Squash, summer & winter

Soybeans

Tomatoes

Tomatillos

Turnips

Watermelon

Zucchini/Courgette

Mega Weekend in the Garden!

March 15, 2011 / / 3 Comments

Just finished seed planting! ...What? You can't even see your hand? Me neither.

Well, in what has become a bit too much of a yearly tradition, I finished planting seeds yesterday in the pitch black.

Every year this happens! I get too late of a start, and then I’m outside trying to get it all in the ground…it’s freezing, I’m barefoot, and I’m sowing cabbage seeds by feel because I can hardly see the garden anymore let alone the seeds.

I’m feeling good and satisfied though, because seeding the beds is the culmination of a whole heckuvalotta work: clearing out the raised beds, turning the soil, carting soil around the yard, getting a truckload (1 cubic yard) of compost from a landscape place with my dad, loading it into the wheelbarrow, distributing that into the raised beds and mixing it into the annex pots, digging in the compost, mixing in organic fertilizer, smoothing the beds, and then finally planting the seeds. Shew! I’m bushed, but it was invigorating to be outside moving my body! We were even blessed with *perfect* weather the entire weekend which is no small miracle in the fickle month of March in the Rockies!

I planted lettuce, spinach, radishes, arugula, broccoli raab, beets, onions, garlic, scallions, carrots, cabbage, cilantro, dill, and parsley.

Here are some photos from the weekend:

Getting started: clearing out the beds & turning the soil.

Dug up this very disoriented bumblebee. It's stretching its legs in the picture after taking a good 5 minutes to get its wings flapping again!

Schlepping

Dumping

Mixing

And look at that, I forgot to take an “after” picture in the daylight. Ahh well, you can easily use your imagination because the beds pretty much look like…absolutely nothing. But just wait! In a few months it’ll be a jungle!

Did you have a mega garden weekend? What are you planting?

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