garden – Page 2 – monadnock mama

admin / July 7, 2014

garden 2014 // weeks 4 & 5

We were on vacation last week and I didn’t have an opportunity to post a weekly update on our vegetable garden so this is a two-fer. My dad kindly agreed to take care of our vicious cat (he has scars to prove it — bad, bad Ollie!) and also to keep an eye on my gardens and water them as needed while we were gone. I was really worried that, with all the heat NH had last week, I might come back to a wilted pile of plants. Boy, was I wrong! Our garden is literally in bloom. There are blossoms galore on most of the plants, and some are even starting to look like, well, vegetables! We have a jalapeno pepper that is almost ready, and the start of some pretty tasty looking zucchinis and squashes. All four tomato plants have little yellow blossoms and grew about a foot while we were gone. I’m really glad I put the cages around them before we left. The cucumbers are now growing out from the main plant and, unfortunately, attacking anything they can reach. I’ll have to keep my eye on them! My neighbor also donated a couple more raspberry bushes, so we actually have a little raspberry patch now. I don’t know how well they will do this year, but I’m crossing my fingers, and the worst case scenario is that we have to wait until next year for berries. The only thing that suffered was my cilantro, which is now about 2 feet tall and has flowers — probably not much good as an herb anymore.

We’ve been trying to use up our explosion of rainbow chard by making green smoothies. I like to chop up a fresh pineapple, which I divide into four sandwich bags and freeze. Then, when I want to make a smoothie, I combine a whole banana, a bag of frozen pineapple, and about four leaves of chard and blend it with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water with an immersion blender. It is delish — toddler & husband approved.

Follow:

admin / June 27, 2014

garden 2014 // week 3

This update is a couple of days late, but with all the rain and just life being busy in general this is the best I can do. So…the garden has exploded. I’m amazed! Our beans sprouted and are really thriving, which makes me so happy. Pole beans are so satisfying to have in a garden because they grow really fast. Also, I finally got the raspberry bush planted in the ground (it is not exactly thriving, but I still have hope!). I noticed that a bunch of my pepper plants were producing buds already, even though they are not very tall (maybe 10 inches?). I read a bit online about what to do, and several people suggested removing the buds so that the plant would put more energy into growing taller. So, I plucked off all of the buds and I am hoping that the plants will grow some more and then try flowering again later in the summer. If I destroyed my chances to have peppers by meddling with the buds I guess that’s a lesson learned!

Follow:

admin / June 18, 2014

garden 2014 // week 2

Two weeks into this garden experiment, and things continue to grow, especially the zucchini! I’m worried that I might not have allotted enough space for it as it’s kind of overpowering the butternut squash. We also got a few new plants this week: a raspberry bush and some heirloom pole beans from my neighbor across the street (thank you, Rebecca!); and a bit of mint that I acquired from the garden at the Primary School. Their mint is completely out of control, so I’m sure it won’t be missed. Having battled a mint infestation at one of our prior homes, my one word of advice is that you should NEVER plant mint outside of a pot, unless you want it everywhere. We also had our first “harvest,” though it was really just a broken chard leaf. I fed it to Zane. (I also sampled the basil — time to make pesto!)

Follow:

admin / June 10, 2014

garden 2014 // week 1

I’m pleased to say that, despite the trials and tribulations involved in getting everything set up, our vegetable garden is doing great! We purchased plants that were already started, but even after just a week I can definitely see a difference. Some of them have grown a lot! We have both beds planted now and I’ll include a garden plan in my next post so you can see what we planted and where. I ended up putting some chicken wire over the tops of the plants (I cut holes for them, which was a huge pain) because we have so many free-roaming cats around here (5 of them!). I don’t want any kitties to think my raised beds are their personal toilets. So far it’s working great and the cats haven’t bothered my veggies. If anyone local has the same problem, I have a ton of chicken wire leftover and you’re welcome to have some of it.

Follow:

admin / June 3, 2014

garden 2014 // the beginning

Sometimes simple things aren’t so simple. Take, for instance, our vegetable garden. It all started with my parents’s raised beds that they just built this year. They are beautiful. Although I didn’t know where, exactly, I would put them I knew I had to have some of my own. I thought it would be a great summer project for all of us, especially the kids. My parents are always incredibly generous, and they came up on a rainy afternoon and built us some beds of our own.

I picked what I thought was the perfect location. The backyard doesn’t get enough sun to grow vegetables, so I knew I needed to put the beds near the front. I picked an out-of-the-way location on the side of the front lawn, not too near my neighbor’s property. The first major obstacle occurred when the loam delivery guy took it upon himself to be “helpful” and dumped a ton of dirt directly into the beds…which I hadn’t prepared yet. So, I spent that whole afternoon shoveling the dirt out of the boxes, putting down the landscape fabric, and then shoveling it back in. I was pooped.

A couple of rainy days and a week of dance rehearsals and performances kept me from getting anything planted for the rest of the week. Then, yesterday, I finally made it to the store and picked up some already started plants (cheating, I know, but I’m doing the best I can here). Zane and I hauled all of the plants over to the beds, and set them in the dirt where we wanted to plant them. Then, with Zane literally holding the trowel in mid-air ready to dig the first hole, my neighbor came over and started giving me a hard time about where the beds were located. Long story short, in the end Damian and I decided that it was best to move the beds (the situation is complicated by several factors and I’m not going to go into detail). Being a good neighbor means knowing when to fight and when to compromise.

So, last night my whole family came over and helped me to dig up the beds and move them to the other side of the house (I had previously asked the neighbors on that side if it was okay with them, and they were so understanding and supportive, which was wonderful). This morning, Zane and I planted most of what we bought (we still need a little more dirt for the second bed, since we lost some in the move). I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will turn out to be fun for the kids, and we’ll get some yummy veggies to eat, too. So far, despite the obstacles, so good. I’ll update the garden’s progress throughout the summer.