Garden Progress

Many long hours were spent in the garden yesterday, harvesting and aphid-destroying and fertilizing and digging and planting.  I've been just going one bed at a time... so far 2.5 main beds have been processed, plus another small raised bed on the other side of the back yard.

Here were the results:

An abandoned pterodactyl sprawls in the center.

Compared to the last photo, there's a lot less greenery.  Most of that was harvested and preserved, but some was abandoned due to an overwhelming outbreak of aphids and won't count toward my year's produce poundage.

So far I've put 8 tomatoes, 4 squash, and a peppermint in the ground.  Next I'll get some seeds nestled in amongst those seedlings... radishes, basil, calendula, etc.

Alright!  100 square feet down, 332 to go.  Progress.

Kale Juice Recipe

We've been juicing a lot of kale this week, about half a pound a day!

Mmmm, breakfast.

Here's the recipe:

• 1/2 lb kale chopped fine, including the tough midribs (this loosely fills one of my large salad bowls)
• 2 green apples, cored (put these through the machine with the kale to help it process)
• 1/2 inch ginger
• 7-8 carrots

It is pretty much the perfect balance for a really green juice, and fills 2 pint glasses to the brim.  The pulp goes straight into the worm composting bin, so it'll get recycled to grow even more kale.

I've been trying to empty out the "winter greens" raised bed so I can put the new batch o' plants in there, and didn't realize exactly how much produce was in there!  All those plants are bolting and scraggly after having been grown and harvested all winter, but it's still been slow going.  I can either spend another week juicing, or have a big blanching-and-freezing session, but I think we are done with kale salads for now.

I am really excited to have an "excess" of something so early in the season.  I'll just keep this recipe here, for the next time that we have too much kale and too little time. 

Those Little Suckers!

I fully planted the main tomato raised bed yesterday, and realized that some of those tomatoes had a little extra potential.  I trimmed off the suckers, and have been keeping them in moist soil.  If 25% of these make it, I wouldn't even need the tomato seeds to sprout.

Still alive after 24 hours... a good sign?

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed, and sacrificing lots of goat blood to make sure a few survive.  The two round pots contain the strongest volunteer tomatoes... no knowing what they'll turn into.

Now all that's left for the week is to plant the:  chard, calendula, cilantro, lettuce, nasturtium, red malibar spinach, sage, sunflower.  And replant kale, radish, turnip, beet, carrot, thyme.  And harvest the heck out of the kale that's starting to bolt.

*GULP*

36 square feet down, 386 to go.

The Best-Laid Plans

As you may know, I have plans for this garden. 

BIG plans.

432 square feet of raised beds and pots utilized.  465 pounds of produce... produced.  7 varieties of tomatoes, 4 types of squash, 18 herbs and greens.

Exotic and fun varieties like dragon's egg cucumbers, black Spanish radishes, mammoth sunflowers, Lakota squash.  And, get this - a zucchini plant that actually gives me zucchini!

This garden is gonna be awesome!!

Plans A, B, and C went really well.  I still have a photo of plan C's success.

The aftermath.  :(

This is plan D.