Vegetable Gardening

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Call me lazy, but no way I am doing all that stuff to start seeds in my basement! Our basement is fairly well used already, space wise.
Me, I get intense satisfaction from picking up some great heirloom tomato plantlings from my local nursery a little before Memorial Day weekend. It's fun to pick them out!
I do like planting faster growing things from seed though!

I think if I planted corn I'd have every raccoon in the neighborhood climbing over my fence! (at least that's what the locals tell me)
Happily, organic corn is fairly obtainable and reasonably priced around here now.

Made tuna salad for dinner tonight, which we'll have over a bed of our own lettuces just picked an hour ago.

[short cut sally]

CA in NC
I can tell you what's in my pesto, I just can't give you specific measurements as I just throw it together
Basil, pine nuts (some people use other nuts), olive oil, real grated parmesan cheese, and garlic (use either whole cloves or that chopped stuff from a jar)
I usually put my pine nuts in the food processor first, then add the rest of stuff with the grated cheese absolutely last. You can add as much oil as you like. you want it so it spreads fairly nice but not runny.
From what I hear, in order to make good pesto, basil is to be picked before it flowers. I've used it both ways, When I set up to make pesto, it all goes in the processor. I can't tell one basil leaf from another.
Good luck, it really is simple. Once you get the hang of it..store bought just isn't the same.

[OakLeaf]

I've read that you shouldn't add parmesan to pesto that you plan to freeze; instead, mix it in after it's thawed.

Honestly, I've frozen it both ways and haven't really noticed a difference.

What I do get is a lot of oxidation and discoloration on the top couple of mm. Doesn't seem to affect the flavor though, if it's not too ugly we'll go ahead and eat it.

Any opinions on either of those?


Also, electric fence is mainly for groundhogs, but it keeps the raccoons out too. That's why I have a ground wire between the two hot wires, in case they try to climb it. They did walk off with most of my tomatoes one year. I tried to get a picture of two raccoons raiding my bird feeder last night, but it was too dark to shoot through the window, and when I opened the door, they took off. A friend of mine is having trouble with crows stealing his sweet corn seedlings this year - says this is the first time in years of gardening that that's happened to him. So far they've left mine alone, touch wood.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

This morning I took a few pix of my little tomato patch- that has now become way more than tomatoes!
Thanks to suggestions here, I rearranged the stone path to take up less space and planted quite a few rows of new seed up and down along every single available space...lots of lettuce (leaf and romaine), 3 kinds of radishes (cherry red, white, and French Breakfast), bok choy, scallions, and more chard. As you can see, things are happening!
We've been eating some lettuce and chard in salads already, and I'm now thinning radish seedlings. Today I saw a 1" toad hopping around under the lettuces.
I am so pleased with how much more I am growing (and hope to harvest) from my little space now! It's been about 20 years since I last grew my own lettuce, in Puerto Rico. Interestingly, the same variety- Black Seeded Simpson!

Here are some "Before and After" pictures:

From May 9th (pre-redesign):


From today June 4th:

(Some of the seeds like the scallions and bok choy have not come up just yet)

Views from the other end:

[tulip]

Looks great, Lisa! If you want to squeeze even more room out of your space, you could remove every other stepping stone and plant low things (lettuce) in between each stone. Or you could remove some of the stones and space the remaining ones farther away from each other and plant lettuce or mesculn mix in between them. Or thyme. Or creeping oregano. Or all of the above.

You could also plant pole beans and/or cucumbers to grow up the fence, although the critters might get the low hanging fruit.

You may not need to bother with that big garden in back after all!

PS: is that rainbow swiss chard that I spy in the last photo? I love that! So colorful and delicious.

[Jolt]

Yesterday my roommate and I spent the afternoon weeding and turning the soil in the part of our garden that doesn't have anything planted yet. I wish we had taken before/after pictures because you should have seen the weeds!! There were quite a few dandelions so I took the greens and cooked them up last night with olive oil, lemon juice and garlic--not bad. Now we need to plant tomatoes, squash, carrots, lettuce, arugula, eggplant and peppers, set up the watering system (sprinklers and soaker hoses) and put the fence up around the garden to keep out the critters. I'm enjoying reading about everyone else's gardens!

[smilingcat]

Lisa, your garden looks beautiful. And getting a lot more use out of it too. Raddishes all around the stepping stone?

Lettuce looks yummy.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Looks great, Lisa! If you want to squeeze even more room out of your space, you could remove every other stepping stone and plant low things (lettuce) in between each stone. Or you could remove some of the stones and space the remaining ones farther away from each other and plant lettuce or mesculn mix in between them.

Can't do it I'm afraid. I'm already having a hard time balancing myself without tipping over on the path while I work over the plants as it is. I can't space the stones further apart without losing my footing or my balance. The photos make the garden look a bit larger than it really is, I think. I feel like a bull in a china shop when I'm in there!

Hey, wait a minute!... If I hoist myself up on a pulley system hovering over the garden like Peter Pan (or "Bruno"!) then I can get rid of the stone path completely by tending to the plants while suspended over them in the air. I could plant more lettuce! ;D

You could also plant pole beans and/or cucumbers to grow up the fence, although the critters might get the low hanging fruit.

I'm afraid that would cut half of the day's sunlight out for all the plants inside, considering how they are so close to the shed and the sun mostly comes in from that fence side.

You may not need to bother with that big garden in back after all!

Awww...but I want to grow more food! Waaaaaaah, waaaaah!!!!!

PS: is that rainbow swiss chard that I spy in the last photo? I love that! So colorful and delicious.

Yes sir-eee- you can see it along the right fence in the first two photos, closest to the camera. I love swiss chard, both raw and cooked. There are 'normal' white stemmed, yellow, and red stemmed.

[jobob]

Wow. Nice.

You have me dreaming about heirloom tomatoes now.