November 10, 2008

November harvest – carrots

Yesterday I harvested a big bunch of carrots. My only harvest this week. I still have so many vegetables between my gardens and my half winter share from Belmont CSA. My vegetable drawer is full to overflowing. We eat a lot of veggies, but there’s a limit. The nice thing is how well most of the winter vegetables keep. I noticed these carrots are kind of hairy. This can happen in soil that is too fertile (too much nitrogen) or waterlogged (not recently). Hmmm. I thought my N was low…

September 21, 2008

radish – easter egg mix

Here’s one of my favorite varieties of vegetables this year! Nicely shaped, beautiful colors, mild flavor, crisp texture. Yummy!radish (Raphanus sativus)

August 26, 2008

big fat Oxheart carrots

I pulled the last of my spring crop of carrots. These are the big guys – Oxheart. They are very tasty. Round and fat like and orange. They make a very nice “chip” when sliced horizontally. I still have a big bagful of early carrots (Mokum), a more traditionally shaped and sweeter variety, in my fridge. I took out the bagful for a photo next to the newly pulled Oxhearts. I planted a few more rows of carrots seeds for a fall crop a couple of weeks ago. They sprouted…

August 26, 2008

weekend potato harvest

With a bit of help from my 15 year old son, I harvested a nice box full of potatoes on Saturday. I suppose if we were a bit more careful we wouldn’t have pierced so many of them with the digging fork. We did our best. I have mostly white fingerling potatoes, but also some big Russets and reds. They are delicious now – crisp new potatoes. I’ll hang these in a paper bag from the rafters in the basement. I think they will last us a few months. A…

August 7, 2008

onions drying

I pulled all of my onions a couple days ago. I have noticed other gardeners are drying theirs in their gardens, though with all the rain, I’m not sure why. So I have half my crop on a counter in my kitchen (bottom left photo) and the rest in the sun in my garden (top photo). I’m hoping to find Gino in his garden (his onions are the bottom right photo) so I can ask him if its important to leave them outside.

July 28, 2008

lots of carrots

I have been pulling alot of carrots this past week. They are ripening fast. I planted three varieties this year. In the top photo, Mokum is the bunch of five or so on the left, Oxheart is the two fat ones in the middle (also the sliced ones in the second photo with the giant cores), and two Coreless Amsterdam are at the right. Mokum is an early variety that has been really nice. I recommend it and will plant it again next year. Nicely shaped bright orange roots. Gretta,…

July 25, 2008

my first potato harvest

I dug my first first potatoes today. I have a very large patch devoted to potatoes this year. About 5 x 15 feet. I am happy it seems successful so far. The plants grew nicely, flowered, and then this past week or so they started to die back. With all the rain, they got soggy (rotten stems, etc), and so today I chopped off all the stems and cleared the patch. Before and after photos are above. I pulled a handful of potatoes that were up near the surface. Some…

June 11, 2008

weeds and parsnips

The photo above is my parsnip bed. Parsnips were my new plant challenge this year. I’ve never grown these before. Not even sure what the seedlings look like. I’ve seeded them twice now in this bed. I’m afraid to pull the weeds because I’m not sure if its a parsnip. Can anyone spot a parsnip seedling here? I think the seeds probably did not sprout. Its just amazing how fast weeds grow in my sunny garden! They grow several inches just overnight. And some of them are very nice looking…

May 27, 2008

flea beetles on my potatoes

I just got back from a quick check of my community plot. LOTS of flea beetles on the potatoes! I didn’t notice them yesterday. They have chewed lots of tiny holes in the potato leaves making them look like fine lace. It seems the recommended organic control for flea beetles is to either use row cover before the pests emerge (too late for this) or companion plant with marigolds and beans. This I can do. It will look pretty! Solanum tuberosum

May 18, 2008

carrot seedlings

After three weeks, I have carrot sprouts! All three of my varieties. Lots of very tiny seedlings. I put my macro lens on my camera to get a photo. We got nearly an inch of rain last night and they have a bit of mud on them today. But they are looking good. No sign of parsnip seedlings yet. Since I’ve never grown them before, I’m not sure what to look for. I’ll keep watching….Daucus carota

weeks and counting until my last spring frost

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