Weekly Harvest

I didn't harvest much this week, but that's because it's been a busy week (and I've been kinda lazy). I should probably get out there and check to see what's ready to go. I know there are tons of beans out there, and probably some other stuff.

Here's what I harvested this week...

Latest harvest

July 24th:

• 2oz Purple bell pepper

July 25th: 

• 4oz Peas
• 1oz Jalapeno

July 29th:

• 6oz Tomatoes
• 5oz Green beans
• 6oz Sweet Banana peppers
• 12oz Lemon cucumbers

With this harvest, I made a lovely veggie tray for a party I went to this weekend. It was delicious!

Fresh picked veggie tray

What have you been harvesting, and what have you been making with those harvests?


My totals so far (starting on 7/1 and excluding the greens):

• Cucumbers:  8lbs, 10oz
• Banana peppers:  6oz
• Bell peppers:  10oz
• Green beans:  9oz
• Jalapenos:  2oz
• Kohlrabi:  5oz
• Peas:  1lb, 1oz
• Tomatoes:  2lbs, 2.5oz

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When To Call It Quits On Cold Weather Crops?

Last week, a reader asked me...

How do you know when to call it quits on peas, lettuce, cold weather stuff. What should take its place?

Swiss chard starting to bolt

Great question and something I wasn't sure about when I first started growing vegetables.

The quick answer, which applies to many cold weather vegetables is When they start to bolt.

Easy answer... if you know what it means.

But if you're unfamiliar with the term bolt, then it my be confusing.

What does "bolting" mean:

To say that a vegetable or herb is bolting means that it is starting to flower. After flowering, it will likely develop seeds.

Heat, longer days, and less water are all triggers for the cold weather vegetables to start bolting. 

Bolting lettuce

For most vegetables, when they start to bolt, they will no longer taste good.

Lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens will be tough and bitter; radish, turnips, and other root vegetables will become hard and woody.

Cold-weather herbs, like dill and cilantro, are also bolting and setting seed in my garden right now.

Unlike the leafy vegetables, I haven't noticed a flavor difference in the leaves of these herbs when they're bolting.

I continue to harvest these herbs until the leaves are gone, and they have seeds.

Peas don't bolt, but they do start to look pretty sad this time of year. Mine are still producing enough to harvest every week, so I will leave them in for now. If the pea vines are mostly dead and have stopped producing, it's time to call it quits.

Pea plants looking sad in the heat

 

What to do when your vegetables are bolting:

Once vegetables and herbs start to bolt, most gardeners will pull them out and toss them into the compost bin. I like to leave some of mine in until they set seed, which I collect and use to start future crops.

Onion flower spike

As for what to replace them with, your best bet would be more cold weather vegetables for a fall crop.

Last year, I shared the types of seeds I started for fall crops.

I got a late start last year, but I still had some stuff to harvest in October and November.

I plan to do even more this year, and will write about that in a future blog post (coming soon).


There's no set date, or a way to predict when spring crops of cold weather vegetables will be done, it's different every year. Hopefully knowing the signs to look for will help you figure out when your cold weather vegetables are done for the season.

Thanks to Matt for the great question! If you have a question, or a gardening topic you would like me to write about, please let me know.

Lettuce starting to bolt

 

What's Blooming

Wow, the summer is officially flying by! I can't believe it's going to be August next week. Whew, soon we will be overwhelmed with harvesting and preserving. Fun stuff though!

I haven't shared what's blooming in my gardens in a while, so I thought I'd share some pictures on this fabulous Friday afternoon!

Here's what's blooming in my gardens today. Hello sunflowers!...

Sunflower

Phlox, Black Eyed Susan and Yarrow

Dahlia

Sunflower

Water lily (with frog in pond)

Sunflower

Zinnias

Liatris and black eyed Susan

Sunflower

Gladiola

Rudbeckia, purple coneflower, black eyed Susan and var. Yucca

Sunflowers

What's blooming in your garden?


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Last Weeks Harvest

Last year I kept track of the weights of all vegetables I harvested. I have the totals, but didn't keep track of each individually. It would be fun to be able to look back at this information from year to year, so I am going to start logging it here on my blog.

Cucumbers, tomatoes and bell pepper

Here's what I've harvested this past week...

Kohlrabi

July 17th:

• 1lb 10oz cucumbers
• 2oz bell pepper
• 4oz tomato
• 5oz kohlrabi

July 19th:

• 5oz Tomatoes
• 5oz Peas (can't believe I'm still harvesting peas!)
• 1oz Jalapenos
• 1oz green beans

July 21st:

• 2oz peas
• 4lbs 8oz cucumbers (made pickles!)

First pickles of the season

What have you been harvesting?

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Why Do You Grow Vegetables?

Yesterday, I posted a question on my Facebook page. It was so much fun reading through all the answers, that I thought I would share them here too. So the question was...

Why do you grow vegetables?

Emberley: To upgrade my life

Vegetable garden

Lisa B:  Its rewarding
Lisa B:  Its cheaper than store bought

Lisa B:  I love to garden
Lisa B:  Home grown is safer
Lisa B:  more flavor in homegrown veggies

Lisa T: ‎ ^All of the above^
Lisa B:  Its tradition
Emberley:  Give my husband something to do during the work w/k(pick veggies)

Jennifer:  Grew up with gardening and I remember being full of wonder over expanding watermelons, cherry tomatoes turning red, climbing peas and beans - I wanted that for my daughter. It's also the cheapest and best therapy in the world. For some reason, spending all day barefoot in the dirt, even if it's just weeding, just puts me in a super happy place! Not to mention that it's the tastiest vegetables ever in the end.

My Gardener:  My garden is all perennials but I have always grown veggies & herbs in containers on my patio. I like to grow them in pots & having them right outside the kitchen door on the patio makes it easy to grab when I'm cooking. I've grown tomatoes of all kinds, peppers, carrots, green beans & broccoli all in pots.

Vegetable harvest

Bonnie:  lived most of my adult life in apts/condos, now have a real yard and can't stop digging and planting, digging and planting because i LOVE it. agree with all the other reasons, but i do it for the love of being outside watching things grow

Laine:  All my veggies are in containers, I live in a unit, I like the idea that know matter how little room you have, you can still grow food ;-)

Darcy:  So I have freshly picked, all the while knowing what I am actually eating produce. No GMO< all organic > food!

April:  I do it to see the wonder I the eyes of my 4 boys when seeds turn onto food. I have read too, that if you let your children help garden, they are more likely to eat the foods they harvest. My favorite story to tell is that I never have beans or peas to harvest as they eat them off the vine while playing outside. And I just love to garden, veggies perennials, herbs.....

Susan:  It's relaxing. It's rewarding. It's tasty. It's Wonder-Full. But it's also frustrating. Weeds, too much sun, too little sun, plant too early, plant too late. It's a dance of time and space. Plus, I'm a tomato snob and really only like fresh off the vine tomatoes. Last year sucked for tomatoes. This year seems better but my crop seems thin. One day I'll get it all right.

Sharolyn:  Fresh taste, save cash, did it myself feeling
Trish:  Because Amy taught me how to do it !

Brad:  Because I spent all that money getting "Product of Chanhassen" stickers made to put on my veggies.

Bonnie: it just thrills me to put a little bity seed in the ground and then watch a plant grow..

*****************

Now it's your turn... why do you grow vegetables???

Vegetable harvest

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Grapevine Beetle

The other day my neighbor found a beetle she's never seen before and sent me pictures. After doing some searching, I found out this bug is called the Grapevine Beetle.

Grapevine Beetle

Well I've never seen this beetle before either and, of course, I was immediately concerned about our grapevines. Ugh, it seems there is a specific pest for everything!

So, I set off to do some research and find out exactly what to expect with this new (potential) pest. I did a LOT of reading about it, and here's what I learned...

First off, these beetles are hard to miss; they are HUGE. They're two-three times the size of a Junebug, YUCK!

Apparently they're not normally found in this part of the country. We had a very mild winter this year, so I wonder if that's why they are here this summer. Either that, or they are migrating. Great! 

They are related to the Junebug, and are sometimes called a spotted June beetle. Like a Junebug, the grapevine beetle is nocturnal and is attracted to bright light. Their lifecycle is similar to the Junebug as well; they overwinter as larvae in the ground, and they emerge as beetles in June/July.

Grapes on the vine

The adult grapevine beetle feeds on grapevine foliage and fruit.

I read that they can feed on other types of fruits too (like apples and raspberries...etc), although I didn't find much information about this.

The damage they cause is similar to the Japanese beetle; they skeletonize the leaves.

The recommended control for the adult grapevine beetle is hand picking the pest from the plant.

The larvae feed on rotting organic material, so they are said to be beneficial. Grapevine beetle larvae do not feed on grapevines. Learning this was a huge relief, my biggest fear was they would be a vine borer.

Even though the adult feeds on grapevines and other stuff, everything I've read about this beetle says that they don't cause major damage. They aren't considered major pests in vineyards, at least not that I could find. A large infestation of these beetles could cause damage, but it's pretty uncommon; one or two beetles in the neighborhood doesn't seem to be a concern. Whew, I feel much better.

Of course, now that I know they are here, I will continue to keep an eye on our grapevines and other plants they may harm. We will also continue to cover our grapevines to protect them from this and other pests. But, right now the Japanese beetle is my nemesis and the grapevine beetle seems like a minor threat. (Wouldn't it be great if the grapevine beetles ate Japanese beetles?)

Grapevine Beetle

Since learning about the grapevine beetle, I have seen a few of them flying around. They look like they're drunk when they fly, but they move pretty fast. The other day, one flew right into the side of the garage and almost fell on me. (GASP!) Their size and clumsy way of travel makes them easy to spot when they're buzzing around.

Since making the discovery, my neighbor reported spotting the bug to Dave's Garden, and Minnesota has been added to the regional list. Now I see Minnesota also shows in the list on Wikipedia. Wow, word travels fast!

After doing all this research, I feel like I can breath a sigh of relief. Since we cover our grapevines, I don't think I have to worry.

Have you ever seen this beetle? Has it caused any damage in your garden? 

Photo Credits: The pictures of the grapevine beetles in this post were taken by my neighbor, and used with her permission. Forgive the blurry photos, these bugs react to the light from a camera flash.

Rain Garden Done!

As I mentioned in my to DONE list blog post, the rain garden is DONE! I am so happy, and love the way it turned out.

If you haven't been following along, it all started when I received a grant from my city to install a rain garden on my property. First I went through a few design sessions and came out with a plan for my rain garden. Then I had to have the site inspected, approved and staked out. After all that, we went to work building the rain garden.

Once we were done building the rain garden, we had to have it inspected again. There were a few adjustments we had to make, plus we had to add the dry creek bed for the inlet. The inlet is the area where the water flows into the basin of the rain garden.

Rain garden dry creek bed

A dry creek bed isn't necessary for the inlet. We chose to add one because it's decorative and also helps keep the soil from eroding. We used the same rock as we used for the adjacent rock wall.

Once that was done, I was finally able to add the plants. I had a $300 budget for plants, and no problem spending it all. It's amazing how fast $300 goes when you start buying plants!

I was a bit overwhelmed with the number of plants I needed and the time it would take to plant them all. I was also worried that I bought too many plants... or not enough.

Laying out the plants

Picking out the plants was a bit complex. A rain garden has three different planting areas; the top of the berm, the basin, and the inside slope. Plants that like average to dry soil moisture go on top of the berm. Plants that like moist soil conditions go in the basin, and plants that like average soil conditions go on the slope.

Since the rain garden is directly in front of our rock wall, I had the added challenge of finding plants that were short so I wouldn't hide the rock wall.

Rain garden planting done

The hardest plants to find were ones that would work in the basin. Most of the plants I found were either invasive or too tall. Hopefully the ones I planted will survive and thrive.

Here's the list of plants, I chose to use a mix of natives and non-natives (for extra color and interest)...

Berm:

• Ajuga
• Arenaria montana
• Aster 
• Creeping phlox 
• Dianthus 
• Edelweiss
• Evening primrose 
• Golden centaurea montana
• Lilium 
• Poppies
• Silene uniflora 'variegated'
• Sedums
• Russian sage 
• Veronica (dwarf golden)

Inside slope:

• Astilbe
• Coneflowers 
• Prunella

Basin:

• Chrysanthemum
• Liatris (blazing star)
• Trollius (globe flower)
• Variegated water iris

After adding all the plants, all that was left to do was add the mulch. It's best to use hardwood mulch for a rain garden. Most types of mulch are too lightweight, and will wash away easily. Hardwood mulch will last longer, and it stays in place.

Hardwood mulch for rain garden

My rain garden is 150 sq ft, so I needed one cu yd of mulch (according to the design worksheet). As it turns out, this was way too much mulch. I put the mulch on really thick, and still had a bunch left over. I guess it's better to have too much than not enough.

Whew, it's been a long time coming, and it was a LOT of work.... but I finally have my rain garden. Oh happy day! Here it is, what do you think?

Rain garden after adding mulch

Completed rain garden

Completed rain garden

Follow my progress:
1. April 25th, 2012 - Rain Garden Please!
2. June 30, 2012 - Rain Garden Plan Complete
3. June 5th, 2012 - Building The Rain Garden
4. June 12th, 2013 - Rain Garden Update - one year later

 

My To DONE List

If you follow me on Facebook or Twitter, you know I was overwhelmed this spring trying to complete a bunch of projects I left undone last fall (why did I do that?). It's been very stressful, but also very rewarding.

Someone suggested I create a “what I’ve done” list, what a great idea! So, I decided to put together a list to make myself feel better.

Here are the projects I've completed over the last two months, in order of completion (yah, I've been busy!)...

Bullet edging

The black plastic edging in the back of the house was starting to heave out of the ground, and we kept chopping it up with the lawn mower. It looked terrible so we decided to pull it out and replace it with bullet edgers.

Bullet edging in progress (I forgot to take a before picture)

Bullet edging completed

Perennial relocation project

The perennial relocation project was necessary because the neighbor's trees have matured enough to turn my formally full sun garden into an almost full shade garden. I started the new full sun garden area last fall with the lasagna garden method. I think I moved about 50 perennials from the old garden to this new area. I got it all done in one weekend though (I was motivated!). Here are the before and afters...

Perennial relocation project - before picture of new garden

Perennial relocation project - after picture of new garden

Join two garden areas into one

When we put up our fence a few years ago, it created a couple of areas that I call "dead corners" or "paths to nowhere". It's kinda depressing to have a path leading to a wall, so I decided to combine these two gardens into one. I used the grass area in between to move some of the overcrowded plants from other areas. I also started this new garden area last fall with the lasagna garden method.

Two separate garden areas before

Two gardens combined into one (after)

Perennial garden cleanup and steppers

This project went hand in hand with joining the two garden areas. Before we had the fence, I used to be able to walk around my gardens, which made maintenance easy. But I can't do that anymore, and now that the garden is much larger, I needed to add another path through it. I also had a bunch of plants that were over crowded and needed cleanup. Finally, we decided to add bullets to the entire front border of this garden rather than the black plastic edging that was there. It looks much nicer now!

Perennial garden before cleanup

New path in perennial garden

Perennial garden after cleanup

Area next to deck 

After installing the garden path and bridge a few years ago, there was an area next to the deck that I didn't know what to do with. I didn't want to fill it with plants because I use this as a walkway off the side of the deck, and to access my rain barrel. I finally had a vision this spring (again, I was motivated!) so I moved the plastic edging and added a step in front of the deck out of concrete block. Then I added pavers in an arch around the dry creek bed to make access to my rain barrel easier. I don't have a good before picture of this area, but it looked really bad. I love the way it looks now, and it's very functional.

Before picture of area next to deck

After picture of area next to deck

New shady corner w/tiered planter

This area used to be overgrown with ferns. When we put the fence in, we decided to rip out the ferns since they were becoming invasive. After the ferns were gone and the fence went up, it became another dead corner. I wanted to do something cute here because it's the first corner you see when you walk through the gate. I just planted annuals for now (which haven't quite taken off yet). I'll add a few perennials once I know the ferns are gone for good. I added the tiered planter in the corner to give the corner extra color and some height. I think it turned out really cute.

I don't have a good before picture of this area either, but picture it overgrown with ferns in the top half, and the rest of it empty (well, except for the weeds). Here's the after picture...

Shady corner with tiered planter

Zen garden and cement planter

Last summer I decided to turn this overgrown ugly area into a succulent garden. I started out strong, then lost inspiration (and motivation) last fall. I knew I wanted something tall in the corner, but couldn't figure out what would work. Over the winter, I found inspiration again when I got the idea to build a cinder block planter in that corner and plant it with cascading succulents. Read more about my succulent zen garden project. I love how it turned out!

Zen garden before (can you say ugly?)

Zen garden and cement planter completed (much better!)

Back sitting area (future blog post)

Here's another dead corner created when we installed the fence (I don't have a good before picture of this, but it's basically the whole corner behind the bench and arbor). This corner annoyed me all last summer, but I couldn't figure out what to do with it. I was thinking about putting in a sitting area, but decided to wait. This winter, I decided I was going to extend the existing path through the arbor into a new sitting area.

It's not quite done, I still have to get some furniture back there and a few other things. Stay tuned, I'll tell you all about it later this summer when it's done.

Future back sitting area (behind bench)

Path through arbor with sitting area behind

New shady sitting area

Rain Garden

And last, but not least, the project of the summer... my rain garden. I wanted to get this done before the heat of summer so the plants wouldn't suffer too bad. I was a bit late since the heat kicked on early, but got it done. I'm working on a blog post, so I'm not going to spoil the surprise with finished pictures. You'll have to stay tuned to see the final pictures of my completed rain garden.  Update: here's a link to the completed rain garden project... Rain Garden Done!

Rain garden in progress

Ahhhh... it really does feel good to look back at this list. Wow, I've gotten a LOT done so far this summer. Now I can relax a little.

So, what do you think? Which is your favorite?

(BTW, my husband helped me with some of these, so it's his to DONE list too!)