Final Harvest - Leeks

The last thing out of the ground were the leeks. Started from seed, they took forever to look like something worth picking. I would have never chosen to start from seed, but then again these weren't my project so I won't complain. They were nowhere near the size of leeks from the grocery store, but as an experiment any produce is worthy of praise.

An ambitious expansion

Okay so this year's garden grew from 4 to 6 to 10 of those 4x4 boxes as the spring planting inspired us. This is on top of a 2 wide foot wrap around the deck that is to the right of this picture. In addition we had two long bean rows out to the left of the square boxes just in the ground. As you see there are now three long boxes....4x12 basically. And you may not see them in the right background, but there are two more 4x4's. That brings us to 12 of the squares. With the wrap around bed it all comes to about 396 square feet. That is really only 20 x 20, but remember we are not doing traditional row gardening with huge walkways between rows of vegetables. To put that in perspective if I planted it all in green beans I would harvest 222lbs (using last year's results). At upwards of 4 dollars a pound at the farmers' market, that would be $888 in produce.

Part of this expansion is because I went bought that extra scoop of compost. With that much, we don't even have to worry about mixing the horrible clay crap in with the good stuff, but we did a bit anyways. Actually the long box to the left there we just put the compost straight on top of the grass. All the boxes are set 2-3 inches into the ground, but with no weed barrier. The other 4 new boxes received the tender loving care of me hacking out clumps of sod, shaking, and removing as much roots and rocks as I could. I guess this will be a bit of an experiment to see how many more dandelions come up through the first long bed.

I should have taken pictures of the dandelions I pulled. The tops were small and puny, but they had roots up to 9 or 10 inches long and some of them I wasn't even getting the whole thing. I always knew dandelions were survivors, but I assume they really dig deep to get through the cherty clay that was used to level the lot 25 years ago.

I don't know how Kyle is going to manage to garden that much garden. He likes the idea of doing a little bit of everything in the garden. That makes for a lot of work with things needing started at different times, different sun and water requirements, confusing crop rotations, and different harvests. I prefer to do fewer items that I like to eat more of or that I had a good harvest of last year. I would love to have extra to give to friends and family.

We have basically done square foot method or variations of it. Kyle suggests he will run long rows in those long boxes, but not give them space between. I am not sure what I think of that. I say if you have a large group you want to plant, do it in a 4x4 block.

Garden Journal #13

First the vegetable update, but then the really exciting news.

Parsnips. Like carrots but white and a stronger flavor. They were gnarly. Could have left them in, but needed to make way for......

THE COMPOST!!! A water bill, a borrowed truck (my dad's), and $20 plus tax bought me 2 cubic yards of the finest compost the City of Fayetteville provides it's citizens. And not knowing that each household is only allowed one scoop, I went back for a second. To give you a sense of how much 2 cubic yards is, my father's Ford F-250 was overflowing with the single scoop. Big thanks to Fillan for helping unload the first scoop and Gayathiri for helping unload the second. If Gayathiri's father knew that she came to the United States only to end up shoveling compost for a gay man I am sure he would reconsider his investment.

Don't you just love the way it crumbles?

Using the crappiest plastic wheelbarrow known to man, much of it ended up in the backyard in the many raised beds. Gentle turning in...not too deep...still leaves a good 8 inches of good soil work with in the spring. After some rain and some settling I filled them even further.

One little problem....some glass pieces in several of the boxes. Oh well..the compost is made from yard waste from citizens and I am sure random bottles end up in their curbside bags. I am still grateful to the City and her citizens who don't compost their crap in their own yard.

Garden Journal #12

Late October (and a mid-November edit)

So October 28th seems late for a garden, right? Especially considering I didn't plant winter squash or pumpkins or brussel sprouts or cabbage or beets. It really should be over with, right? Nope.

As late as just September 3rd the experimental sweet potatoes were shorn off by rabbits. And all the guides say sweet potatoes need a long season, like 120 days at least. I think they went in July 1st and got eaten off twice so they got far less than 120 days of foliage. Well guess what? Booyah! I am totally doing these next year, but the proper way...earlier and way more of them.

That's right...ever-bearing strawberries put on just a handful late in the season.

But the biggest surprise came 19 days later...nearly Thanksgiving folks. What was it?

Wait for it...

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Wait for it...

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A Thanksgiving surprise! When I went to mix in some primo compost (you'll hear about that in a minute) I found the lost little guy.

Garden Journal #11

Mid-October Harvest

These three pictures of radishes do my heart well. The fall radishes were a whim...I realized there was still plenty of heat and there was leftover seed. They went into the ground mid-August (or was it late August?). Anyways, they performed very well. Of course they were bitter and nasty and spicy, but a beautiful nonetheless. I ate the greens though and those were nice and spicy.

One last carrot and one last eggplant.

Remember that huge pepper-fest? One more round had to come off with the first frost.

Garden Journal #10

Edition Peppers! Some known as chilis, chiles, capsicums. Spicy peppers. Red peppers. Everyone seems to call them something different.

Our peppers produced all summer and into the fall. We basically planted one box with a huge assortment and we got a little of everything. Look at the spread we picked last week and then a few examples of each kind:

Anaheim: we only had one plant and it barely produced.

Mystery peppers: we have no idea what they are but they have NO SPICE!

Jalapeños: they just keep coming. They start green and turn red on the bush.

Cayenne: we think....or Mexican chilis....not sure....either way, plenty of spice for dried seasoning, whole or crushed.

Bell: did not produce very well, before they got big they turned dark and had thin flesh.

Bananas: surprising good producers but we had little use for them.

Garden Journal #9

Compost. Homemade. My heaven.

This batch is the first one that truly is what compost is supposed to be. It was a long slow batch sure to be full of seeds, but those can be turned into the soil easily.

That cage was over the strawberries to keep the rabbits out. It worked fine for a screen.

A good barrow full...isn't it beautiful?

The dill and fennel came out of here earlier. Now for the treatment and garlic to be planted later in the fall.

See how much darker and nicer the compost looks?

Mixed well with the existing soil and ready for a late fall planting of garlic.

Garden Journal #8

Late summer in the garden has been a little slow compared to some of the busy weeks in midsummer. I will try to post some pics from back when the produce was really cranking.

Learning: I never would have thought that okra plants would grow 5 feet tall. They started out as the tiniest little things and it took until the heat came on for them to really start growing. They ended up being quite woody and had a very well developed root structure.

Confusion: I have no idea what kind of peppers these are. They have absolutely no heat to them but they don't look like any of the others we grew. It was a mix called "salsa peppers" so who know what they are. Do you know?

Fall Reprise: The idea of a fall garden sounds neat but it terrifies me. I went a head and took a leap of faith and emptied out the packet of radish seeds leftover from the spring. They popped right up and continue to grow. (I was able to use some of my second batch of compost in the soil!)

An Old Enemy Returns: The rabbit(s) that live(s) under the deck previously feasted on the soya beans though we got a good crop out of them. Now the food of choice is a fall batch of Kyle's "granny" bean and my very late experiment of sweet potatoes. I worked in some of the second batch of compost into this late planting.

Fall Surprise: We pulled our onions after heavy rains when the tops started looking really bad. One box had some onions that a friend planted and they never got as big as the others, but they just kept growing. The tops had rotted off and I decided to pull whatever remained. Most small, but a few bulbed out. I was not expecting them at all!

Garden Journal #7

Carrots and soil conditioning

That's the same bunch twice. This is the first harvest of anything that grew in my own compost. The deep soil was good for growth, but these babies were shaded out by huge and leaning asparagus that will actually be harvested next spring.

What do you do when stuff starts coming out and you have nothing to do? Go ahead and condition the soil. This was a little bit of compost that was almost ready.

Half a bag of manure left over from this spring.

Dog Days of Summer Garden

August...hot..lot's of stuff coming out of the garden.

Yes, these are supposed to be yellow...beautiful.

Okay, those five beauties on the right did not come from the garden...here's to hoping for next year!

Crap...I should have a recipe for those eggplants....like the baba ganoush I made with them. Then again it's pretty simple. Roast, fry with olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and a dash of salt.

That apple tree didn't do that well but there is one. Bananas did well but were useless.

Chili Mac

So...chili-mac. Someone told me that every knows how to make this. I disagree....if everyone knows how to make this, why don't more people cook it? It seems everyone has some bad memory of too much of this as a kid, but there is probably a reason: it's easy, and if you try you can make it pretty healthy as well. My chili-mac is never quite the same, but I am committed to two absolute things: add vegetables and spice.

Sometimes the base of my recipe is a box of store brand macaroni and cheese. Sometimes its dry noodles. Either way, I always add Velveeta as well. I know it isn't real cheese, but this is one of only two dishes I ever eat Velveeta in. Give me a break.

This time, I had whole wheat shells to start with. The homegrown contribution to this meal was tomatos, garlic, bell pepper, jalapeno, and cayenne. I am kicking myself for not having grown more onions! So this is what the ingredients looked like:




Peppers (of all sorts) and garlic started off in just a bit of olive oil.

Then fresh tomoatos.

This is where my method probably breaks from others': I add the chili and cheese to the vegetables. (yes, I know, it looks like a typical chili cheese dip)

If you can't cook noodles, you have a problem.

Then it all comes together for a hearty meal. I recommend more onions and bell pepper, but I was short on these. If you eat it with a nice salad and keep the portion small, it really is a nice, healthy meal.