2009 Kitchen Garden Expansion Complete

After about a month of hard work and backaches, the kitchen garden expansion is finally done. All that's left now is to cover the paths in between the beds and finish planting them.

The dimension of the new area is 18 feet wide by 21 feet long. That was supposed to be reversed (21 feet wide by 18 feet long) but I made an error on my drawing and in my communication to the guys who were helping me remove the old Vanhoutte Spirea and the sod from the area.

When they alerted me about the error, I couldn't imagine removing any more of my flower beds to make the kitchen garden bigger, so I just went with it. But, because of the error, I lost the extra 3 foot compost space (now it'll just be a one 3 foot bin system) and the space for the two narrow 1 x 10 foot beds that I was planning to use for strawberries. Still, I love this size. I think it's perfect!

Also due to the measurement error, I have this wide space at the front of the garden. I'd like to build an arbor in the center for grape vines and either build a couple of small narrow strawberry beds, or place pots and a couple of benches there.

The dimensions of the raised beds are 2x8 and 4x8. They are all 8 inches high and I used 2x2x8 foot boards to make them. Did I mention I made these all myself? And that I purchased and used a circular saw which was terrifying?

If you've been following me on twitter you've probably already seen pictures of the new pie garden where all the plants that used to live in the now kitchen garden were moved to. If not, I'll be posting about that in the next few days.

Here's the before picture (left). What do you think about the transformation?

A Colorful Harvest

This is the most colorful harvest I've had yet.  It's red onions, lemon cucumber, tomatoes and bush beans. 

I love the heirloom lemon cucumber but I wish they were either way bigger or produced way more. 

They are also like porcupines with little prickly things on them.  I'll definitely be growing them again!

del.icio.us Tags: purple onions,lemon cucumber,tomatoes,bush beans,organic vegetable gardening,heirloom vegetable gardening

Romanesco Broccoli, Not Your Average Ornamental Vegetable

This is my Romanesco Broccoli plant that I started from seed indoors.  These seeds, along with the Lemon Cucumber, were sent free with my order from Baker Creek seed company.

As you can see, this thing is enormous.  It has never produced a single head of broccoli, probably because I planted it at the wrong time (as usual).  And, even though it is hogging nearly an entire 4x4 bed (I only have 2 beds, by the way) I can't bring myself to pull it out. 

I'm so in love with the big beautiful blue metallic looking leaves. 

I figure that, at some point this thing will either start producing broccoli, go to seed, or become a tree.  I'll be the only person on the planet with a broccoli tree!

Do you have something growing in your garden that makes absolutely no sense other than you like the way it looks?

del.icio.us Tags: romanesco broccoli,overgrown vegetable plants,organic vegetable gardening,ornamental vegetable plants

Baby Lemon Cucumber Alert!

Behold, my first cucumber ever!  It's an Heirloom Lemon Cucumber that I direct sowed after the great folks over at Baker Creek Seeds sent me free seeds with my last order. 

The taste is supposed to be "sweet and mild".  I'm not really sure what that means in cucumber terms but I'm thinking about trying these in a tomato/cucumber/onion salad like my mom makes. 

The Lemon Cucumber gets it's name from its shape and color.  It's rounder and yellow, like a lemon.  It was introduced back in 1894.

Have you grown Lemon Cucumber before?  What's your favorite way to eat them?

del.icio.us Tags: heirloom lemon cucumber,heirloom gardening,organic vegetable gardening,growing cucumbers,baker creek seeds

2008's First Tomato: Heirloom Sausage

Here is today's harvest which includes the first non-cherry type of tomato harvested for this season.  It's the Heirloom Sausage Tomato.  I'd never heard of this variety but I just couldn't pass it up, especially since I don't eat sausage.  Get the irony?

I had these Sausage Tomatoes on a salad for dinner and they are not nearly as interesting tasting as the name is.  I doubt I would be able to tell the difference between this and a regular hybrid Roma. 

I'm still planning to buy a dehydrator and try these dehydrated. Maybe they'll make better sun-dried tomatoes.

Have you harvested your first tomato?  What kind was it?

del.icio.us Tags: heirloom tomatoes,sausage tomato,first tomato harvest,sun-dried tomatoes,organic vegetable gardening

Black Krim Tomato

This is one of the tomatoes on my Heirloom Black Krim.  I rushed out and bought this plant from the grocery store on the advice of Margaret after all my tomato seedlings perished in the grow rack crash of 2008.  Damned Chicago wind!

So far I've not found the Heirloom tomatoes any more difficult to grow than the hybrids I've grown.  So far.  These tomatoes are really heavy so I've needed to keep a close watch on them making sure to tie up any limbs that are close to the ground. 

I wonder how much longer I'll need to wait for this little lovely to be ready for the pickin?  I've never had Black Krims before and I absolutely can't wait. 

Technorati Tags: black krim tomato,organic vegetable gardening,heirloom tomatoes

Garbage Can Potato Update

Don't look now but I think there might be a potato plant growing in my garbage can!

A few weeks ago I posted about trying to grow potatoes in a garbage can for the first time.  I've never grown potatoes and I've certainly never planted anything in a garbage can.  I stole this idea from Marc over at Garden Desk. 

Well, just when I was ready to mark this project down as a total failure, I noticed this cute little thing growing in one of the garbage cans.  Is this a potato plant?  Please say yes! 

It looks like my success rate will be really low with this but even if I get one potato out of the deal I'll be jazzed.  I only see one plant in the garbage can where I planted the white potatoes.  No growth in the one where I planted the sweet potatoes.

Interim Lessons Learned

• Buy seed potatoes early because they sell fast and the grocery store ones are harder to use because they are often sprayed with a chemical to prevent sprouting. (I used Whole Foods Organic ones)
• Plant way earlier.
• Figure out how to protect from squirrels (they've dug up a lot of the potatoes already).
• Figure out how to properly grow sweet potatoes. According to a commenter on a previous post, you can't grow sweet potatoes this way.  I don't remember why.

Stay tuned for my July Bloom Day post coming later this evening.

Technorati Tags: garbage can potatoes,growing potatoes,organic vegetable gardening,container gardening

A Close Look At Squash Vine Borer Eggs

After discovering a Squash Vine Borer worm on my Yellow Zucchini yesterday I needed to try to save my plant.

I didn't do anything fancy.  I simply cut off the damaged stems.  I had no idea that squash stems were hollow! 

Here's what I found while performing surgery on the Zucchini (above).  See the little red dots?  I think those are Squash Vine Borer eggs.  Worse, they are not just on the one plant, I found them on all four Zucchini plants.   My homemade natural remedy failed.  Bummer.  I wiped away all the red dots I found but I'm sure I missed some.

So, I headed up to my new favorite store Green Home Experts (on Oak Park Ave. for you Chicagoland folks)where I found this natural insecticide, Sharp Shooter.  It's made with clove and peppermint oils.  I treated my entire kitchen garden today.  I'm hoping that the spray will get rid of the red eggs before they hatch. 

Stay tuned for regular updates on my war against the evil Squash Vine Borer. 

Technorati Tags: squash vine borer,organic pest control,natural insecticide,organic vegetable gardening,yellow zucchini,straight shooter bug killer

Looking For Evidence Of Squash Vine Borer Damage

Organic gardening sure can be stressful, and gross!

This year I'm trying to grow Yellow Zucchini for the Growing Challenge. Isn't the flower pretty? Well, don't get too excited.

The other day I spotted this ugly bug and was promptly informed that it's a Squash Vine Borer.

So I rushed out and hosed down my entire kitchen garden with this concoction that I made with cayenne pepper and proceeded to go into denial about the part where Gina in Ohio said it was probably too late and that this gross bug had likely already laid eggs that had hatched and were now inside the squash.

Then last night Carol at May Dreams Garden gave me a stern talking to over on Plurk about getting my butt out there to look for damage. So I compromised and snapped a few pictures so that I could investigate on my laptop, far away from the yuck.

Here are 2 of the plants (above) and they look pretty good, right? No obvious sign of damage.

Then there's this one. I noticed that it looks very dark (almost black) around the bottom.

Then there's that one stem over on the right that is brown and, well, dead looking. Take a closer look.

Holy Mackerel! That has got to be the most disgusting thing I've seen in a while.

The Squash Vine Borer eggs hatch and the baby worms (pictured on the left) bore into the stem of the plant where they grow into full size worms that literally suck the life out of the poor squash.

Apparently I can perform some sort of surgical operation on the plant to try to save it but I'm really inclined to just rip the entire thing out and throw it in the trash. I'm planning to sleep on this and decide what to do in the morning. I wish I knew if the dark blackish part meant that the entire thing is infested because that'd help me make the decision to compost it.

What should I do? Trash the plant or perform surgery on it? And please do not vote if you are only interested in picturing me out there puking and freaking out over the site of this disgustingness.

Technorati Tags: squash vine borer,organic gardening,vegetable gardening,organic pest control,growing challange

Name That Bug / Kill That Bug

Does anybody know what the heck this bug is?  I've seen millions of them in my yard over the last couple of days.  Can I assume that this thing is responsible for the spotted leaves on the plant its hanging out on?

Since I didn't know what this was I couldn't look for an organic remedy for it, so I made one up.  Here's what I did.

• Dissolve 325 mg aspirin in water
• Add 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• Add 1 tablespoon dish detergent
• Hose down entire kitchen garden

I sure hope I didn't kill my entire garden.  If you know what this bug is and you have them in your garden, how do you get rid of them and what kind of damage do they do? 

Technorati Tags: squash bug,organic insecticide,organic vegetable gardening

Growing Challenge Update: Overcrowding

Is this a bean about to happen?  I've never grown these before so I have no idea what to look for.  It's the Bush Bean plant that I'm growing for the Growing Challenge.

Check out the picture (below) of the raised bed these are growing in.  Talk about overcrowding!  I built these 4x4 beds last fall and then divided them into 1 square foot sections with string that I nailed to the wood. 

I like the idea of cramming as much stuff as possible into a small space and I think everything is OK for now.  But, I'm worried that the Yellow Zucchini is going to take over the entire bed.

Be sure to check out the other gardeners who are participating in the Growing Challenge being hosted by Elements in Time. 

How long before I have beans to cook?

Technorati Tags: bush beans,vegetable gardening,raised beds,organic gardening,yellow zucchini

Garbage Can Potatoes

There is no question that potatoes are the most perfect food. In fact, if I was forced to pick one food I'd eat every day for the rest of my life, it'd be potatoes (spaghetti is a very close second).

Since I started gardening last year I've wanted to try growing potatoes but I'm rather grossed out by the fact that they grow under ground with all the worms and lord knows what slithering around them. I realize that's not rational - I'm just being honest.

So, when Mark over at Garden Desk posted about growing potatoes in a garbage can I nearly shouted out loud - EUREKA!

The concept is very simple and clean (for dirt, I mean). You take a cheap plastic trash can...

Drill holes in the bottom and around the bottom sides for drainage...

Put some dirt in the bottom...

Throw some potatoes on the dirt and cover them up with more dirt. Keep in full sun and water when you water your other stuff.

When the plant grows to about a foot tall, you add about 6 more inches of dirt around the stem. Repeat this until the plant turns brown. In theory, the potatoes will grow all along the stem of the plant the entire length of the trash can, safe from whatever it is that lives and squirms in the dirt.

As you can see I forgot to take the very important photo that shows the potatoes laying on the dirt. But, picture this; 3 red potatoes cut into pieces making sure to leave 3 eyes per piece. The other can is about the same only I used sweet potatoes.

Lessons learned already:

1. Buy the seed potatoes way earlier so that you are not forced to just go to the grocery store asking for rotten potatoes. That was down right embarrassing, and unproductive.
2. Potatoes are frequently treated with chemicals to prevent them from sprouting. (I learned this after planting, tisk tisk) Buy seed potatoes, not regular ole potatoes.

There is no growth so far and I'm really not that hopeful given my late start and potentially chemically treated potatoes. But if by some wild chance it works, I'll be able to dump the trash can out onto a tarp and there will be a big pile of delicious potatoes.

If you could only pick one food to eat every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Technorati Tags: growing organic potatoes,organic vegetable gardening,container gardening

First one: Husker Red Cherry

Thank you, Wordless Wednesday

Technorati Tags: wordless wednesday,husker red cherry tomato,organic vegetable gardening

Growing Challenge Update: Beans, Zucchini, Cucumber

This is the yellow zucchini which is growing nicely so far.  I'm pretty sure I have these too close together.

 

This is the cucumber lemon that I am growing because the great people over at Baker Creek sent me some free seeds with my last order.  I have no clue what these are or what they'll taste like but I'm pretty excited!

 

Bush beans today.  It's growing like crazy.  Are those holes from a bug or is that normal wear and tear?

Be sure to check in on the other peeps that are participating in the growing challenge. 

Technorati Tags: growing challange,yellow zucchini,bush beans,cucumber lemon,baker creek seeds,organic vegetable gardening

Harvesting Rapini (Broccoli Raab)

This was my first time growing Rapini. I fell in love with it when I tried it for the first time at my favorite Italian restaurant, La Piazza . It has since been moved and renamed Gaetano's after a long terrible feud between the property owner and the chef, but they make their own bread and pasta fresh at the restaurant so if you are ever in Forest Park, IL be sure to visit them. When the chef came over to our table he gave such a romantic description of it that we had to try it.

The heads on this broccoli are really small compared to the standard ones so when I woke up this morning to yellow flowers I looked it up and was really shocked to learn that this is as big as they get."To harvest, cut the budding shoots just before the flowers open. Harvest until shoots are too small and tough." Uh - I'm late. Here's what the tops look like. Now that you've seen what the opening flowers look like you can take a second look at the first photo and see that they are about to open any second. I hope they'll hold on until the morning so that I can harvest a few for dinner.

The Rapini plant has really pretty soft leaves and it's not nearly as big as the standard broccoli I grew last year.

Full frontal view.

Did I mention I have no idea how to cook this stuff? Anybody got any great Rapini recipes?