Sunday, September 27, 2009

Harvests

Harvests over the past few weeks have been abundant. Tomatoes were all over my kitchen. I made chutney, pickle, sauce, jam, puree, soup and not to forget the everyday tomato salad. And still I more tomatoes left. But I am not complaining. Recently I am freezing whole tomatoes (cherry tomato size). I just wash the tomatoes, lay them out in a single layer on stainless steel plate in the freezer and after a few hours I bag them up in them freezer after a few hours. I know I will savor these summer home grown tomatoes during the winter months.

Then there has been the green and yellow bush beans, so tender and flavorful that we could eat them raw. The beets are sweet and I am storing them for future use. And obviously the beet greens in stew with rice is another tasty heaven. I got a decent amount of okra specially after the wet summer we've had.

The greens did pretty well this year. I grew mostly Asian greens with some lettuce in spring. I got a good harvest of fenugreek greens, amaranth greens, sour greens and Malabar spinach.

But one which is has become a favourite at our house is the red carrot (Gajar in India). They look, taste and smell really carroty. I am going to grow lots more next year.

All in all, nothing and truly nothing comes close to the taste and joy of growing your own food.



Amaranth Greens


Onions, Carrots, Kohlrabi and Beets


Bush Beans


Eggplants, Peppers, Bitter Gourds and Greens


Look at those red carrots

End of Summer

Fall is here. The temperatures are milder during the day and nights pose a threat for frost. Pumpkins and mums are on sale, tomatoes have been disposed due to the blight, summer vegetables are winding down and the sunflowers are throwing giant shadows with their drying up flower heads. Its sad how fall can bring an end to the summer garden in a matter of days.

The more colorful side of fall is definitely the beautiful fall foliage. Winter will be here before we know it and everything will be buried under the cover of snow. So now you know I am
really not a winter person. And there are 25 weeks before the next spring. On that note, few pictures from my garden these past weeks.


Bee enjoying the sunflowers. You can even see the pollen on the bee.



White Japanese eggplant



Last of the yellow bush beans



Okra blossom




Carrots peeking out of the soil. Ready for harvest.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Summer Senses




This week truly feels like summer in CT. After endless rains drenched part of June and the whole of July, hazy hot humid (hopefully dry) days and nights are finally here. The sunflowers have started to bloom. The tomatoes are ripening on the plants that have been spared by the late blight. I see more bees this year than I did last year. Hope they survived the CCD. Great relief and joy to have them back. My vegetable patch infact is thriving, I must say, with vegetables, flowers, bees, butterflies, insects and ofcourse the weeds. I hardly visit the grocery store except to buy milk and bread. But I was saddened by the appearence of mums for sale. Well mums, to me, signify that fall is not far away, cooler nights leading to decay in my garden. I pull through winter with images and thoughts of spring and summer. One look at my tomato plants and I can see the impending fall, the tomato foliage is ripe with septoria leaf spot. This is a fungal disease which slowly robs the plants of its foliage. But thankfully I am still able to harvest all the ripe tomatoes.

Anyway here I am enjoying the sweltering summer heat and ranting about fall. So to revel in the present, I have posted some fabulous summer shots from my garden. Truly these engage your all of your senses- sights, sounds, tastes, touch and smells of summer.

Okra-sign of Summer heat




Tomatoes and Basil-Summer in Bowl



Blueberries waiting to be picked



Tree-ripe peaches



Female Flower on a Cucumber plant

Bitter gourd

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Nature's Bounty

Gardening is a very humbling experience. With a little effort one is blessed with the precious bounty, nature can offer us. With a few days of heat and sunshine, my garden has reaped me so many vegetables.

I have been harvesting peas, radishes, spinach, lettuce (though the lettuce has now turned a tad bitter due to the summer days), fenugreek leaves, beets, dill and a few yellow wax beans. For the first time I ate radish pods after I saw this delicious recipe. Between admiring the bounty and the beauty of my garden, weeding therapy, dreading the appearence of late blight on my tomatoes , I am thoroughly enjoying eating off the land. Though now I wish I owned a tiny farm (BTW check out the link of tiny farm, one of my favourite virtual hangouts). So enjoy the photos below.


Dill, fenugreek leaves, a few yellow wax beans, beet, radish


Peas, lettuce


Radish pods


This week's harvest

How beautiful is my garden

Finally a red ripe tomato



The first cucumber


Bush Beans

Flat Beans on the way


Nasturtiums


Looks like the nasturtium flower is capturing the sun


Peas ready to be picked


Lush Beet greens

Friday, June 19, 2009

Update



Lettuce, Radish, Fenugreek and Beets



Cabbage


Finally the peas are flowering


Bunching onion, Icicle Radishes, Lettuce-this week's harvest

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Ants, Aphids and The Ladybug

I dont know how aphids always find their way to my plants. The new leaves on beans were all dotted with black spots which were aphids happily sucking the sap. Well this time they are black in color. My tomato leaves have red and green aphids and the coriander leaves have only green aphids (clever camouflage).


Black aphids on spinach blossoms

Aphids are plump creatures, sizes ranging between poppy and mustard seeds. Obviously with all the sap sucking, they will grow bigger(size of a small mosquito) and have wings. These winged aphids will try to play tag with you, leaf hopping but you ultimately can crush them. These aphids seem to be infesting both potted plants and those that are on the ground.

My best way to "crush" these plump pests is literally to crush them between my fingers. So I run the leaf (with aphids feasting on the back of the leaves) between my thumb and index finger, and crush the juice out these pests. Sweet revenge. Your finger may turn green, red or black depending on the color of the aphids. Just wash your hand and job well done. Sometimes I make a soap solution with dish washing liquid and spray away.

Now this time the issue was more with ants adding to the problem, ants emerging from different points on my plot. Then I saw ants on the leaves infested with the black aphids. Now I didn't know for sure if these black spot-like things were aphids, ant eggs or ant droppings. Until I read this post. So what was shrivelling the new leaves on my bean plants was definitely aphids fiercely guarded by ants. What a symbiosis. So I decided to deal with the ants first after reading ( and laughing) this. This post is really informative, instills confidence that you are back in the battle again and you can win.

So I made a stinky garlic-chili powder spray (1 cup hot, not boiling, water + 2 crushed garlic cloves + 1 Tbl spoon cayenne powder. Let this solution steep for 2-3 days. Ready to spray). The ants I think didnt seem to like the heat of the chili powder but came back after a few days. And the rain seemed to dilute and wash away this spray. So the whole aphid-ant marriage was going strong again. Until I spotted a ladybug yesterday on an aphid infested spinach flower. (Yeah the spinach bolted inspite of the cooler weather here in CT).


Look who is having a party? Beautiful Ladybug

I found the other spinach flowers, the new bean leaves were clean and green again with all the aphids gone just like magic. Thanks to the beautiful ladybug, the aphids are gone for now. Hail the ladybug. . But the ants are still there and I think the aphids will be back again. Dont worry, the ladybugs are here. And the witch is here too, busy brewing more soap and stinky garlic-pepper potions for you my dear aphids and ants.


Monday, June 15, 2009

Lettuce Harvest


This week lettuce was ready for picking. There are 2 ways to harvest lettuce-pick the entire plant from the soil or pick few leaves. I opted for the second method. So I picked mostly the outer leaves. This way you can get 2 or 3 harvest out of a single lettuce plant. Fresh picked lettuce is so much more rewarding than store-bought ones.

This lettuce was from Burpees seed packet-Gourmet Lettuce Blend.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - June 2009

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day happens on the 15th of every month and was started by Carol of May Dreams Garden. This is my first Bloom Day on my blog. Check out her blog for all the blooms in the bloggers' gardens.

I am starting off with some pretty golden-hued tomato blooms.




The annuals and some perennial plants in my garden are in bloom now.


Beautiful violet daisy-like blooms of Brachycome



Blue flowers of Lobellia Hybrid


Fuschias-My favourite blooms. I love the way the petals look like delicately draped cloth.



Violas in bloom but some are already forming seeds. I hope some of these self-seed for next year.



Viola Seeds


Sweet smelling Alyssum.




The red and pink of my garden-Dianthus and Salvia. Hopes of attracting some beautiful butterflies.




Veronica "Royal Candles. I love the blue candle-like blooms. This a summer blooming perennial which does not mind a little shade.




Perennial Iberis-This plant is a real survivor. I had planted this last year and it did well. But during winter, while clearing the snow it got uprooted and I didnt notice that until all the snow had melted in early spring. I replanted it with little hope and it didnt show any signs of life until a few weeks ago. And behold, there are blooms now. Kudos to the power of nature, thanks Iberis.



And finally the proud stately Columbines. Last of the blooms, I think they maybe a spring blooming perennial.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Black Gold

Compost is called black gold in some books. I dont make my own compost (though I would love to make some. Any suggestions welcome, I live in a condo).  I buy Long Island Organic Compost from my local nursery. It feels like chocolate cake crumbs and smells equally heavenly, like rain drenched earth. I applied a 'side dressing' to all my vegetable plantings today. Side dressing is exactly what is means, apply to the base of the plant as if you were mulching it. The compost will gradually leak into the soil and feed the roots of the plants. Side dressing of compost is specially recommended when the plant is flowering, fruiting.  



Lettuce grows well and fast if fed with compost regularly. Lettuce taking a long time to grow is said to taste bitter but compost can hasten its growth. These are gourmet lettuce mixture from Burpees seeds.



Lush green spinach



Rows from top to bottom: Beets(row1), Fenugreek and lettuce(row 2), Fenugreek(row 3), Icicle Radish(row 4).



Kolhrabi



Row of dill between two rows of spinach