It begins. Yesterday I picked a couple of [small] heads of broccoli. Today, a big basket of lettuce. This is a mix of Batavias - Nevada and Anuenue.
Earlier, I got some thinnings out of these rows, but from now on I'll be harvesting regularly - no more store lettuce.
Peas are setting pods.
This is the payoff.
I'm on my way to Illinois. What time is supper? ^_^ There really is a great feeling to going out and picking the day's salad and veggie, isn't there? By the way, I am a huge fan of the OXO salad spinner (as in your photo) and many of their other products.
Z
It was a muddy day. A good salad spinner is a necessity.
I had homegrown yellow squash for lunch. Zukes, cukes and tomatoes for supper. Last night was a wonderful pasta sauce with my onions, garlic, basil and tomatoes. I'm about to drop from marathon sauce making and looking at yet another big batch of ripe ones for tomorrow. The payoff is grand!
With this cold spring, we're a long way here from squash, cukes or tomatoes. But the lettuce is just fine!
I just started getting fresh lettuce from my garden this week too...mmmm....
My snowpeas are just starting to bloom, so not too long a wait for fresh pods!
My lettuce is doing so well, I can't give it away fast enough to keep it from going to seed. I harvested my green onions and am growing red onions in their place. Carrots are getting some size to them as is the garlic. Cukes are coming along well with lots of bloom and some 1" and 2" cukes. Peppers are blooming. Pulled a kohlrabi and a few radish. Bush beans are blooming. Yard peas are over my head but not blooming yet. Tomatoes are a bit behind. I have 1 plant with a couple of small fruit on and a couple more plants blooming. Heading broccoli is almost done. Had it a couple times. It was great. Got one head left for tomorrow. Swiss chard is growing good but still small. Chives are a loss. Just never did grow. Squash are growing but not close to blooming yet. Arugula has gone to seed as has the dwarf pak choi. I'm growing some for seed. Beets haven't done well. Rhubarb is ready to harvest. Potatoes would be doing better if they got more sun. I'll fix that next year. Eggplant is very small but looks like it is holding it's own if I can keep the bugs off. I'm having a great time with it all. Very relaxing.
Nice scallions! My first two plantings didn't come up, apparently last year's onion seed isn't very viable.
It seems that the salad gardener is always stuck between lettuce weather and tomato weather. This year, it's definitely lettuce weather here. All the summer crops are just sitting there, shivering and waiting for heat before t hey grow.
It is sad that all the salad fixins don't get here together.
Last year I pulled it off - barely.
I'm still picking peas "Wando" does well in the heat. The sugar pod peas are just about done. The turnips did well, although the beetles ate the leaves. Three carrots survived the slug onslaught! Soy beans have darling little white flowers - this is my first year trying soy beans. The turtle beans are strong healthy-looking plants, but no flowers as yet (turtle beans are black - my hubby's favorite.) Pole beans are just getting started. Still picking lots of strawberries. The garlic is going to be pulled this weekend - onions and shallots have a couple more weeks to go. Tomatoes have flower buds. Cucumbers are setting cucs - they usually do well for me. Melons are in bloom, they are hiding so well, I can't tell if they are male or female flowers. Sweet potatoes look happy.
Hubby and I have prepared enough room for a sixth raised bed for our winter crops - this one definitely will be filled mostly with coir.
We've had a dry spring here in Nebraska but so far I've gotten:
spinach (Space hybrid) - still putting out leaves while others varieties are going to seed
leaf lettuce
romaine lettuce
iceberg lettuce (first time I got it to head up for me)
green onions
dill
broccoli - despite doing a header into my broccoli plot
cauliflower - picked first head today - another first time vegetable I've gotten to bear for me
Coming soon:
kohlrabi
snap peas
Peas! Naturally, they're coming ripe at exactly the same time - shelling peas and sugar snaps. I always look for the earliest varieties, so that's what I get.
This is one of the sorts of vegetable where the difference between fresh grown-yourself and overaged store produce is profound. No comparison.
I have beans about 4"long but still very thin. I have 2 small tomatoes on my Money maker bush. I pulled all the lettuce today except what I am growing for seed and I planted some bush melons and canteloupes. Still have a few things to put out but I am desperately trying to find spots for them.
Tonight's salad to be. I'm going to cheat and use some store-bought cucumber.
We picked the first cuke of the season this afternoon. It was a pickiling cuke so it's not huge but it was certainly a star at our place. LOL
Beans and peas can't be too young or too thin for me. It's the reason I grow them, to pick them young and tender.
CajuninKy - I am growing some Moneymaker tomatoes, too. They are recommended for greenhouse growing, but I grew them successfully outdoors when I lived in Tennessee, so I thought I would try them here in N.C. My dad used to mail seeds to me from England, but he died several years ago and I only found the seeds in America this spring. So far the plants are doing splendidly. How are your's looking?
It is the first to have any fruit on it. The plants are not as large as some of the other varieties but it looks very healthy. This is the second year I have grown it. It has been very productive for me.
CajuninKy- the fruit on mine are still small - I got a late start. Yes, the ripe fruit is not large, but personally I prefer this size to the beefsteaks. I seem to remember that they taste good, too. I haven't grown Moneymakers since the mid-seventies, so you can imagine how much I am looking forward to tasting these. When we lived in South Florida, I grew tomatoes called "Tropic" - they stood-up to the Florida sunshine very well. I might try them here next year.
Snap peas. Sugar Sprint. Stir-fry today!
This message was edited Jun 16, 2009 4:13 PM
Cauliflower!
Three of my four heads - one sitting in the 9 x 13 pan I later roasted it in.... mmmmmmmmm
I'd also post a picture of my snap peas but, um, they didn't last long enough to photograph (I didn't take the camera out to the garden)
Picked my first batch of beans yesterday. A 5quart ice cream bucket full on an 8'x8' patch. Not too shabby. A friend brought me some new potatoes today so you know what we'll be having tomorrow!
Picked our second cuke also.
