Harvest Time!

My garden is jamming and I am enjoying the fruits of my labor! Nick and I threw together a quick dinner the other night with a nice ribeye steak on the grill and veggies. He was the one that noticed the Asian snap peas were ready for harvest. I quickly plucked them from their vine, boiled them until tender and seasoned with a touch of butter, salt, pepper and a little garlic powder. He wanted some corn as well. It's not fresh, but soon enough it will be ready!

Also flourishing is my lettuce, though for some reason my other greens, the arugula and spinach, are not doing as well. I've been eating a lot of salads lately with my greens, with some of my radishes chopped and tossed in. I make a couple salads at one time, that way I can just grab and go in the morning before work.

So everything is growing, including the weeds. I guess that's the downside to gardening, but the key is to just stay on top of it. I was shocked the other day when I came out and found the weeds had sprung up so high that they were almost as tall as the string beans! I've read numerous tips online to help keep the weeds under control, but really, the best method is to get to plucking!

I'm also happy to report that it seems the pesticides have worked and the cucumber beetles that were decimating my crops have moved on to greener pastures. 

Peas, potatoes and pests

I'm happy to report some of my garden is flourishing, but unfortunately it is also under attack by the so-called cucumber beetle.

First the good news. I'm attempting to grow potatoes for the first time this year and they are doing great! As you can see in the picture, they are already over a foot tall and growing more every day. As with all root vegetables, I always have a hard time figuring out when exactly I should pull them out of the ground.

Also doing well are the Asian snap peas, which I'm also attempting for the first time. I'm quite proud of the trellis I built for them to grow up on. For all you who need instant gratification, peas are a good vegetable. They germinated in just a few days and have quickly grown to about two feet tall.

I came out to do some weeding over the weekend and that's when I spotted my cucumber seedlings, totally eaten away. That's when I threw the idea of my organic garden right out of the window. This is war! The cucumber beetle can flourish in compost, which is exactly where I found the little mother bleepers.

But the cucumber beetle doesn't just like cucumber, oh no, he also loves similar seedlings like melon (check), eggplant (check) and squash (check). They also seem to have a penchant for my radishes, which as you can see are also all chewed up.

So bring on the pesticides! I've been eating them for so long anyway, what's the difference?

Cool weather crops

It's finally time to get planting! The ground is good and soft, the weather is getting warmer and it's time to get some seeds in the ground.

There are many types of vegetables that thrive in the cool, spring weather and can tolerate a frost. Some of the cool weather crops that I planted last week are:

• radishes
• arugula
• lettuce
• spinach
• potatoes
• peas

This is first time that I'll be growing peas and potatoes. I decided to go with the Asian snap peas; you can eat them raw or cooked, and you don't have to shell them like traditional peas. I just couldn't see myself spending the time to shell the regular peas. As for the potatoes, I bought the "special" potatoes at Agway where I bought my seeds this year. The guy at the store told me that they do differ from the potatoes you buy at the grocery store, but I'm not sure I'm buying that. I'm going to try and plant some regular potatoes from the store and see what happens. Either way, the method is the same: Quarter the potatoes and make sure they are buried under a good mound of soil. Each quarter should yield one potato. For the most part, because of my very rocky soil, root vegetables that take a long time to grow don't do very well in my garden, so we shall see...

Radishes are also a root veggie, but they grow very quickly. If you're turning up your nose at the thought of radishes, you really should give them a try. They add a nice crunch when sliced thin and tossed in your salad and are a really tasty addition to a stir-fry.

Remember when you're planting to pace yourself. You don't want to plant 10 rows of radishes or 8 rows of lettuce -- at least not all at once. The key to a vegetable garden is spreading out your crop so that you are not inundated with one type of veggie. For example, I planted two rows of peas last week, four potatoes and one row of everything else. Next week, I will repeat that and plant the same thing again. By the time the first batch is ready for harvest, it will be time to plant the warmer weather veggies, like cucs and squash.