Lettuce, Beets and Carrot Harvest - 2/28/2012

Gathered some fresh veggies from the garden to make a delicious meal!  I pulled 3 beets, a lot of baby carrots and 4 heads of lettuce (2 Bibb & 2 GRTBP). Total weight of today's harvest: 1.94 lbs!

HARVEST!

Lots of baby carrots.  They were delicious!

Beets!  We roasted the beets and sauteed the beet greens!

Lettuce!!!

Fresh salad with carrots, oranges, roasted beets, organic sirloin, pepitas and a sprinkle of mozzarella cheese.  Served with a side of sauteed beet greens.

Spinach Harvest, Turnip Harvest and Seed Sale

On 2/16 I harvested the first of my spinach.  Total weight was 6.6 oz. While not the biggest harvest of spinach, it will probably be the last.  Sadly, aphids and caterpillars have INFESTED my spinach and there isn't much out there worth salvaging now.  Too bad because I used this to make a fresh spinach dip and it was DELICIOUS! I think I'm going to pull it all and toss it into the compost.

I pulled 1.5 lbs of turnips for my mother.  She was in a hurry and I didn't get time to take a picture, but she said they are the best turnips she's ever had!

As a side note, Walgreens had seeds on sale for $0.20 each this week.  I spent $4.20 on vegetable and flower seeds and have added that to my total out of pocket cost.

Turnip & Lettuce Harvest

Today I harvested 5 turnips and a big handful of lettuce from the garden.

Radish Harvest #2

Swiss Chard Harvest

I picked a bunch of my container grown swiss chard for dinner.  It weighed in at 6 oz.  I stir fried it and put it over rice, served with a side of sweet potato balls.  Yum!

Onion Bulb Update

One week ago I planted several onion bulbs.  This evening while playing in the garden with my toddler I saw 6 or 7 little onion sprouts popping up through the soil!  So far the bulbs are promising!

Using Fish Emulsion in the Vegetable Garden

After a great start to my garden I noticed my veggies were no longer growing by leaps and bounds.  Quite frankly this happens EVERY time I try to garden.  Everything takes off in the beginning, but halfway through the growth the plants stunt and start looking unhealthy.  Honestly. My garden hasn't changed appearance in 2 weeks!

After speaking to my husband about my concerns he informed me I have to feed my plants throughout the growing season.  REALLY?!?!?  I honestly had no idea.  I mean, it makes perfect sense.  How would a plant thrive without nutrients?  Sure we have good quality organic topsoil, but now that the plants are big enough to start producing, why wouldn't they need a nutrient boost to keep them growing?

After doing some basic internet research I stumbled across a few articles talking about using a foliar fertilizer made from fish emulsion to give the plants a quick boost.  A fine mist of a spray is preferred, but since I don't have a sprayer I just mixed it in the watering can and gently poured it on top of all my vegetables.   Eventually I will have a misting sprayer that I can use and I think it will help with vegetable production.

Using Fish Emulsion in the Vegetable Garden

• Mix 2 TBSP fish emulsion in 1 gallon of water
• Pour into sprayer (or leave in watering can)
• Mist onto leaves of plants
• Repeat every 3 weeks

Planting Potatoes

Last night I picked up some Russet Seed Potatoes at my local garden center (only cost $2.98).  I cut the seed potatoes in half and planted them in a reusable grocery bag this morning.  I can't wait to see how well they grow in the reusable bag.  :)

Potatoes growing in reusable shopping bag - Day 1

Growing Potatoes in Reusable Shopping Bag

• Acquire seed potatoes
• Cut them to "egg size" (if needed), making sure there are at least 2 eyes per piece
• Mix compost and peat moss and put 4" - 6" in bottom of bag
• Lay potatoes in soil, cut side down.  (I planted 4 halves in this bag)
• Barely cover with soil
• Water thoroughly, until water seeps from bottom of bag
• Add more soil (or pine needles) every couple weeks, half way up the plant growth.
• Harvest when tops yellow and die back (but you can begin harvesting as soon as the plant flowers if you can't wait)