Garden Updates

Today, we harvested the rest of the Carrots, (8 lbs!) We tilled in some compost and I sowed some hairy vetch as green manure for the Cabbage, Nappa(Hakusai) Cabbage and Kale that will be growing there next. Half of another bed is in preparation for a bed of Celery. The bed that grew Tomatoes was planted today with Shelling Peas(British Wonder). Hopefully the weather will keep cooler from now on, or the peas won't like it much! Here's some pix of the garden lately.

my Mom harvesting Sweet Basil

Most of the Garlic have woken up and are growing strong, the lettuce is coming along too, time for thinning.

Baby Zucchinis growing

Another try at Armenian Cucumbers. Hopefully this batch will be healthy and productive. It's a gamble whether the weather will not get too cold for these heat loving plants.

Green Tomato Salsa

This is what 20 cups of chopped green tomatoes look like!

Time for a bath!

Fin! Cooling down... chillin'

Harvest Updates

Peppers, Watermelon and Redleaf lettuce

Pumpkin, lotsa Zucchinis and a dinky watermelon

August 2009 Harvest Tally

Sorry this is so belated. Life has been hectic for me and tallying up these numbers do take a good chunk of time.

Asian Pear 25.25 lbs

Tomatoes 20.81 lbs

Figs 18.47 lbs

Carrots 06.13 lbs

Tangerines 05.50 oz

Zucchini 05.31 lbs

Komatsuna 04.94 lbs

Watermelon 04.63 lbs

Bulb onion 04.25 oz

Petit Gris Musk Mel 03.00 lbs

Broccoli Greens 02.88 lbs

Beans(green+purple) 02.29 lbs

Bittermelon 01.85 lbs

Green Tomatoes 01.81 lbs

Japanese Cucumber 01.72 lbs

Eggplant 01.11 lbs

New Zealand Spinach 13.00 oz

Kale 10.00 oz

Stevia 04.50 oz

Peppers 03.50 oz

Basil(sweet&purple) 01.80 lbs

Blackberries 01.50 oz

Myoga 01.00 oz

Strawberries 01.00 oz

Gifts:

Peaches 15.50 lbs

Foraged:

Limes 06.50 oz

Pounds tallied: 98.20 lbs

Ounces tallied: 36.30 oz =2.68 lbs

Total: 100.88 lbs

Some pictures of Harvest

Zucchini, Peppers and Tomatoes

Stevia drying in the shade

"Fall" Garden Updates

Peppers finally flourishing after the Pepper Weevil attack.

Red spider mites devastating our tomato crops. The leaves are turning gray because the mites suck out all the chlorophyll. We decided to yank all the tomatoes out even though most of them are green. Time for more green tomato salsa.

White Guavas starting to turn color

Navel Oranges growing big

Late season corn, about 4' tall, very short, but bearing fruit

Sunchokes blossoming.

Dwarf Cavendish Banana that was transplanted from the other house earlier this year is thriving in it's new location. Wanna know the secret? We buried chicken bones by it. Bones contain high levels of Potassium, which the Bananas love. Check out the first photo of the Dwarf Cavendish when we first transplanted it to see the difference!

White Hibiscus type flowers in full bloom

small jack-o-lantern pumpkin turning color.

This bed has some sleeping garlic bulbs, and a line of Romaine Lettuce.

Gerbera Daisies enjoying the sun.

Home grown/home made foods

Homegrown eggplant, carrots and peppers in this Coconut Chicken Curry

Homegrown carrots & zucchini in this tofu stir-fry

Home grown peppers, tomoatoes and zucchini in this fajita meal

Garden Updates

Here's some Corn, Beans and Kabocha pumpkins growing in the former pond area.

Tomatoes and Peppers...all being attached by Flea Beetles and Red Mites. ugh....

Very tiny Jack-0-Lantern Pumpkin

First Tomato/Egglant bed almost clear. We are thinking of planting Garlic and Carrots here next.

One of many harvests

Bug Action

I couldn't believe it when I found this Praying Mantis enjoying a wasp for it's meal! It's bug eat bug world around here!

Ladybird beetle laying it's next generation.

Garden Updates

We just cleared the Watermelons, Musk Melons and Cucumbers off of this bed, with the exception of the Cucumber plant on the far upper left corner. It's a Japanese Cuke. We're saving that one for seed. This bed got an ammendment of compost and a spraying of glacial rockdust milk. We've seeded it with bulb onions for next year. I spaced the seeds pretty close, about 4 inches apart. Pretty tight, according to the package you are supposed to leave 16" gap between the rows. I ignored that part and made it 4" apart on the rows too.

This area had Cabbages and Kale growing during the winter/spring months. We added lots of raw compost and now we're growing our second batch of Curcurbits: Zuccini, Large Jack-o-lantern pumpkins, Bitter Melon, Watermelon and more Japnese Cucumbers.

Close up on the bitter melons

Morning Glories

White Hibiscus

Orange Gerberas

Basil and Gerbera in our Herb Garden

One Day's Harvest

Some days we have more some days are less, this was one of the larger harvests

Updates

Homegrown fruit basket (mostly tomatoes...) and the pears are in the fridge & the figs are in the freezer, so there's actually more fruit than this!

tomatoes and strawberries cloning in water

drying basil for the winter months

first decent harvest of carrots

Homemade & Homegrown foods

Fajitas made with homegrown tomatoes & onions, the peppers were from the Farmer's Market since the Pepper weevils devastated our crop

Salsa with homegrown tomatoes, onions and cilantro

Homegrown potatoes, onions, tomatoes(some from friend), and homegrown onions. Peppers were bought.

Canned peaches(gift from a friend's backyard) and our Asian Pears

July Harvest Tally

July 2009 Harvest Tally

Asian Pear 20.30 lbs

Eggplant 08.38 lbs

Figs 08.25 lbs

Japanese Cucumber 07.64 lbs

Tomatoes 05.86 lbs

Orange 05.31 lbs

Watermelon 04.88 lbs

Beans(green+purple) 02.25 lbs

Kale 01.86 lbs

Baby Carrots w/grns 01.75 lbs

Jackbelittle pumpkins 01.50 lbs

Bulb onion 01.13lbs

Petit Gris Musk Mel 22.40 oz

Broccoli 19.80 oz

Strawberries 16.10 oz

Bittermelon 15.00 oz

Kyohou Grapes 11.25 oz

Basil(sweet&purple) 07.00 oz

Peppers 04.50 oz

Stevia 03.50 oz

Pounds tallied: 69.11 lbs

Ounces tallied: 99.55 oz =6.22 lbs

Total: 75.33 lbs

I stand Corrected! It's Edible!

According to Wikipedia: Celosia cristata is a member of the genus Celosia, and is commonly known as cockscomb, since the flower looks like the head on a rooster (cock). They are annual plants of tropical origin, and their leaves and flowers can be used as vegetables. They are often grown as foods in India, Western Africa, and South America.