Green Living
CarrieB.
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
garden updates?
in Green Living
what are you harvesting now and what are you making with it?
Its been hot in Wisconsin, so we are way ahead of schedule. I've been getting lots of lettuce and greens for salads and I just made this AMAZING coffee cake with rhubarb from our garden-
Re: garden updates?
I just cut a TON of basil yesterday and I'm going to layer tomato, mozzerella, and basil and drizzle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.
I also cut some spinach and I'm planning to make "Eggs in a Nest" from Animal, Vegetable, Miracle again. So yummy!
My garden is growing really slowly. DH and my brother dragged the boxes (we're doing square foot gardening, and we made them with bottoms so we can easily take them--and whatever is growing at the time--with us when we move) into a sunnier spot in the backyard, so hopefully that helps.
I finally gave up on growing tomatoes and jalape?os from seed (I've gone through three sets of seedlings...once they sprout, I can't keep them alive!) and bought some organic plants from the local hardware store.
I discovered the other day that some of my spinach was going to flower (it only had a few leaves! I really think it was the lack of sun), so I clipped it and I'm hoping it grows back.
Basically, it's a success in that everything in my two boxes is still alive...but a failure in that I don't have anything to harvest yet!
Wow, you are harvesting already? We just planted ours a few weeks ago. Last frost date here is May 15th, and we actually DID get frost during that week, so it's a good thing we held off.
This is our first garden, and I'm excited to see how it goes. We planted: tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, zucchini, acorn squash, sweet potatoes, onions, carrots, and some herbs.
Ours is only a few weeks old so we don't have anything ready yet. But they are all growing great (except the one tomato plant we lost).
What do you guys put around your beans and cucumbers to get them to grow? I read that you should let them grow up something?
See blog for recent photos.
Currently harvesting: lettuce, radishes
Ready but haven't picked: collards, kale
Getting close: spinach, chard
Soon: peas, bean transplants
food blog | garden blog | curly dogs blog
Cutes - some plants can be planted before the last frost date or as soon as the ground can be worked. Kale, collard, carrots, radishes, asparagus, beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, kohlrabi, etc. can all go in early - some direct seeded, some as hardened-off transplants.
For example, last frost date in WI is generally the same time (May 15), but we had some seeds (carrots, peas, radish, spinach, chard) in the ground in mid April.
food blog | garden blog | curly dogs blog
Well considering its still in the 50's, raining and nearly as dark during the day as it is at night (ok, not quite....but close)... not much.
I've got most of my plants in although I'll keep planting stuff through June, depending on what I come across. I'm desperately seeking lemon cucumber starts but haven't found any.
My lettuces and spinach are doing well but otherwise, everything is waiting for some sun. We don't really get to harvest most of our stuff until late August, September and early October.
BTW, CarrieB, have you seen the forecast for this weekend? More 80s, into the 90s.
I'm close to the lake, so at least we'll keep cooler. But I'm alternating between loving this and being very afraid. I really didn't expect to start having to blanch and freeze in early JUNE.
food blog | garden blog | curly dogs blog
LOL that's too funny, we're making "Eggs in a Nest" using chard!
We had a good spinach harvest, it started to bolt last week so we harvested it all and planted more peppers and eggplant seedlings in that space. Our peas are doing well, we don't have many plants so our harvests are small (like half a handful every few days), but they are yummy! Everything else is growing really well, we have potatoes, chard, carrots, onions, tomatoes, green beans, pickling cucumbers, sweet peppers, and hot peppers. We have some tiny grape-sized tomatoes (grow babies grow!) and lots of flowers on the peppers. We have several kinds of herbs which are all growing really well.
To those of you doing basil, did you start from seed? None of our basil seeds sprouted
I know they're a meditteranean plant, do you think it was too cold/wet and I should try again?
Cucumbers don't technically need a trellis, they're a ground crop. If you don't have the space to let them go everywhere (we don't), you can encourage them to grow up a trellis. There are two types of beans: bush and pole. Pole beans need a trellis, bush beans do not. That's what I've read anyway, this is our first year growing them. For our peas, which need a trellis, we did tomato cages wrapped in garden netting. I don't recommend that route, it's not working well. I want these next year, they're pretty:
This summer/spring is crazy for Wisconsin. I usually go pick strawberries in late June, but I just heard that they are here already, so I'm going this Saturday to pick. We're also pretty close to the lake, so I hope we avoid getting into the 90s.
Cukes - depends. I have a variety of climbing cukes that need support. They're being planted to trellis up our corn, along with my pole beans.
But, yes, pole beans need a trellis, bush beans do not.
We're using teepee trellises this spring for peas, with spinach in the middle for mild shading. They're working ok. The peas need some training, which I spent this weekend doing.
food blog | garden blog | curly dogs blog
Wow, I had no idea! Thanks for letting me know so we can plan ahead better next year. I was nervous about trying seeds, but feeling more confident now that the carrots have started sprouting.
I started all of my veggies in pots in April, either from seed or from organic seedlings. Finally this weekend we got our beds built, and today I planted (almost) everything in the ground! We made the beds out of our old deck stairs; they were falling apart and we had to rebuild them. I'm so glad we were able to re-purpose the wood!
From left to right, we've got: watermelon, Roma tomatoes, yellow bell pepper, green beans, zucchini, and lettuce (wildfire mix and Bibb). I have strawberries that will go in a separate box, and I'm growing basil in a pot.
So far, I've gotten tons of Bibb lettuce (what you see here is the second wave of it that I planted from seed two weeks ago) and lots of basil. There are tons of unripe tomatoes on the plant (15 or more), so I'm hoping they'll ripen soon.
My Lunch Blog
I'm pretty sure I have bush beans this year. I bought starts from the local tilth society, but the variety comes in both and it doesn't say!!
My problem with seeds is I often only want one kind of plant per variety, or at most 4. I guess I could start an heirloom tomato seed ordering club!
Ummm . . . I'm harvesting things from the farmer's market. : )
My peas were looking great, but they're looking a little bit sad now. I'll figure it out on Wednesday once finals are over. My green beans are popping up like little crazy guys. The two tomatoes I had in Walls-of-Water are HUGE! We took the Walls down on Friday and staked them. One of them has blossoms, so I'm happy about that. My peppers are looking OK, but I can't say that I have high hopes for them.