Fall is Here. The Last of the Summer Harvest.

It's time to embrace the beautiful Fall. Many trees are turning color and the air seems a little more crisp. The ground is soaked with rain and the plants are thriving. It's hard to believe it truly is Fall, such a short summer we had... But somehow I am still catching up with the summer harvest.  I feel so lucky that my garden was as successful as it was this year. There was some major concern for all of my warm weather plants, because summer hit so late and didn't stay around for very long. I am very happy with the summer harvest nonetheless, it turned out to be quite beautiful.

I think I have picked the last of the Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Summer squash, Basil and other herbs. I still have some green beans growing on my deck as well as some peas and a whole new line up of Brassicas to hold me through the winter. I have also decided to take on a new garden at my house. The back deck! Lots of sunshine and soon to be many containers. It's a new challenge in some ways, figuring out what I can grow in containers and how much space everyone will need, but it's also going to eliminate many pests and weeding hours! I'm excited to come up with a new plane to figure out a way to extend the railing upwards so I can trellis my tomatoes and beans for next year! I'm already looking forward to the spring months to plant again!

For the first time I have dived into saving tomato seeds! I'm very excited to save my seeds from the Italian Tree Tomato and Silkey Tomato to share with friends next year!

Preparing the Fall Garden

It's hard to think about all the Fall veggies to plant when it's 95F out! Another hot day in Eugene, there truly hasn't been enough this summer, in my opinion! I wish the summer to continue, but I also know that if I don't get some fall veggies in the ground now I will lose my chance.

Parts of the garden look like a wild weed jungle... I've let some of the plot go knowing that I will be covering it all up with cover crops for the winter. My mother visited the garden with me today. She reminded me that the reason why I have so many weeds is because my soil is in good condition. Ahhh ha! There it is. A great excuse to use when you are embarrassed by the amount of weeds in your garden. Thanks mom!

Today I planted some Chidori Kale, from starts, a beautiful purple Kale.

Some Peacock Purple Broccoli/Kale, that's right! I got some starts from Log House Plants. It is a Broccoli plant with Kale leaves! I'm very excited to check out this best of both plants Fall crop.

Another round of Southern Comet Broccoli Starts. So that I can have a continual harvest of Broccoli as long as possible!

Today's Harvest:

A very large bag of Hops! It's smelling up my kitchen as they dry to put in a batch of beer soon!

Loads of Winterbor Kale, yumm my favorite! I don't think it is possible for me to get sick of Kale.

A few Portofino Zucchini  and Papaya Pear summer squash.

Some All Red Potatoes, I have been "storing" them in the ground.

Tarragon, Stevia, Mint, Basil and  Shiso to dry and save for seasonings.

And a few more beets, I'm almost done with all my beets! I can't believe it.

The summer days with fresh veggies every night are my favorite!

I've also been planning more of a container garden at my house, since I have moved and now live with a sunshine filled deck!

Happy Gardening to you all!

The First Tomato

It's August and I just got the first tomato from the garden last week! I can't believe they have been so slow to ripen. I am finally eating cherry tomatoes fresh from the garden! I have a hard time eating store bought tomatoes ,so when I took my first bite, it was like a burst of sunshine in my mouth. I had almost forgotten what tomatoes taste like!

My Sungold cherry tomatoes are the only ripe enough tomatoes to eat. The Italian tree tomato has lots of small green fruit that will hopefully ripen soon! It certainly feels like Summer these days, day time temperatures of 82 F but the night time temperatures have been a bit colder than usual. The other night it was down to the 40's.  I don't think the Tomatoes are liking this.

I also harvested a handful of Sheepnose peppers, and one beautiful Jupiter pepper. I wonder if I will get any more of the Jupiters this year:) I don't spend a ton of energy on my peppers. I mostly just like to see how they will do, if I get a few from each plant I am happy!

Lots of Kale, Zuchinni, and Onions have been on my dinner plate this month. I'm excited about my bounty of beans that are here and hope to make some dilly beans soon!

After a day in the woods, hiking up to a lookout, swimming at the lake, and even picking some blueberries, my roommate, Melissa, and I made some Gyoza. We wrapped Kale, Ginger and Onions and pan fried them. They were delicious! Complimented with some perfectly seared scallops, by Melissa, and a kale salad (of course!).

Summer time cooking is the best! Fresh from the garden veggies after a day of adventuring is hard to beat!

July Harvest

July has been an interesting month for the garden. Our summer season so far has felt like spring. Many days of cloud cover and some days of rain. The tomatoes seem happy but they are just sitting pretty waiting for the hot summer days to come. The last week or so has given them a boost as the temperatures have been rising to the mid 80's.

The greens in the garden look beautiful. Lots of healthy lettuce, kale, beet tops and spinach have found there way to salad creations. This has been the best season for my lettuce, no hot days to encourage them to bolt!

Beets, Onions, Garlic, Carrots, Potatoes and loads of Broccoli have been harvested and there are plenty more root veggies to come!

I have made two batches of Pesto a week for the past three weeks! Basil is doing exceptionally well with this summer weather.

I have also been continually harvesting lots of herbs. Plenty of Parsley, Rosemary, Epazote, Basil, Oregano, Dill, Thyme, Tarragon, Lemon Verbena and Lemon Grass.

An assortment of Mint has graced me in my potted garden on the patio including, Spanish mint, Silver mint, Orange mint, Moroccan mint and Banana mint. All of them combined make an excellent mint tea, hot or iced!

I have been picking Calendula flowers for tea and home made treatments for my skin. Coconut and Calendula salve has thus far been my favorite. I have been drying the petals and stocking them up for other healing tinctures, any ideas?

I look forward to the coming days of hot summer! so do the tomatoes, peppers and Okra!

June 2011

June 1st. It's finally  time for tomatoes!

Planted Tomatoes:
Italian Tree, suppose to get up to 12' tall!
Sungold Cherry  tomato, one of my all time favorites.

I planted these side by side to espaliar up my hog wire fence archways. I will be tying them up as they grow taller.

Also I planted a Silkey tomato, given to me by one of our regular customers at work. He has been saving these seeds and enjoying the cherry tomatoes for years! An Heirloom Variety.

Aunt Molly's Ground Cherries. This is the first time I have planted these. They are small little cherry tomatoes with a Tomatillo  like husk around them. They fall to the ground when ripe and taste like candy.

I'm experimenting with a couple tomatoes. I have the Carmello and Green Zebra planted in some black plastic pots with no bottom. The bed was still heavy with clay so I tried to amend it the best I could and then fill the pots with good soil and fertilizer with a bamboo stake.

Planted Peppers:
Anaheim Sajuaro, a tasty mild pepper.
Jupiter, a beautiful classic green bell.
Lilac, my favorite last year, a purple blush bell.
Sheep nose Pimento, small red, I planted two, because they are an earlier variety!

Planted Basil:
Mammoth sweet
Italian Large Leaf

Planted Kale:
Winterbor

Planted Eggplants:
Lilac, Golden and a mystery one.

Planted: Portofino Zucchini.

Planted: Papaya Pear Squash.

Seeded: Cherokee Purple Trail of Tears Beans and Blue Lake Pole Beans.

May 2011

Mild temperatures still persist! Which means the greens are growing wonderfully!

Harvested some Bok Choy. Had to be quick before the slugs devoured it!

I planted my Potatoes using a method called the Trench method. I dug a trench about 6" deep and placed the seed potatoes with their eyes facing up. I then covered them with a mix of soil and compost. I have been adding some more layers of loose compost, soil and leaves to keep it very loose around the tubers. I will hill around the potatoes until I start to see flowers come on.

Seeded: Baltimore Hybrid Carrots and Merlin Beets.

Planted some herbs to fill in my herb row: Russian  Tarragon and Mexican Tarragon, Stevia and Yerba Buena to make some tea!

Also divided some Corsican Mint to fill in the border.

Everything is looking good in the garden plot!

April 2011

We have been lucky enough to have a few days of sunshine. This Spring has been so wet it has been hard to get much done. The soil still seems to be drenched, but I'm planting anyways and things are looking good. If anyone is healthy it's the slugs! There are so many of them at the garden, it's like I am feeding a small army!

Nonetheless the planting must continue! As well as the sprinkling of the Sluggo...

Planted: Packman Broccoli and Chinese Cabbage.

Planted some Pretties:  Purple Verbena, on the end of a bed and Purple Erysium on the border of the garden. I am filling the space around the faucet with "stepables" including, Corsican mint, Lime Thyme, Whooly Thyme and Blue Star Creeper.

There are some Sedums that have  also been stuck throughout the border of the garden. I'm trying to create a buffer between my garden and the neighboring plot, so that I don't have to combat the weeds and grass as much.

March 2011

Early March:
It's March and it's time to start thinking about our spring season! Even though it still feels like the dead of Winter.


Seeded Potatoes: German Butterball and All Reds.
Seeded Peas: Snap Peas and Snow Peas.

Bryan helped till the beds,spread bark chips in the pathways and haul leaves from our giant leaf pile to spread throughout the beds.

Mid March:

Planted some Baby Bok Choy
Bryan completed the construction of our pea trellis. We used Bamboo rods with twine  spun like a spiders web.

It's starting to look like a veggie garden again. The Garlic looks happy and healthy, Onions look great and the beds look wonderfully rich with nutrients!