The Franz (Mostly) Edible Garden

sunday garden update!

first, the harvest...i have actually had a GREAT harvest. from this past friday, i have harvested about 15 cucumbers, 15 zucchini, 2 handfuls of sweet 100 tomatoes, 14 jalapenos and this...

finally! the edamame were ready! actually, i didn't realize to really look very closely to these plants until i was skimming over a seed catalog and it stated that the harvest period for edamame is a very small window and if you pick it too late, it will lose its "sweet, nutty flavor". well, i also read somewhere that all the beans would ripen at the same time. so whenever i saw some flat pods, i thought "it still needs time". well, after reading about the short harvest period, i jumped up and went for a closer look. and good thing i did!

how do you figure out if edamame is ready to be picked? if the seeds are almost touching eachother in the pod and there are plump. these are very light green, almost yellow (yellow color also is a possible color is the beans being too old, but in this case, it wasn't - thank goodness!!!). there was already one pod that was old, so i am glad that i got to them as soon as i did.

well, that part about all the beans maturing at the same time is BOGUS. i picked only about a fourth of what was available on the plants, although i think i will have to keep a closer eye on these plants the next few (available) days.

what did i do with these? i immediately washed them, set a pot of salty water on the stove and boiled them for 5 minutes (that's all you need to make them yummy tender!). i was popping them in my mouth like a crazy woman. it was just delicious! even the birds in my home loved it (except for barney). the husband didn't care for it very much...well, more for me! i also have a co-worker who will also love these. so i stopped myself from eating all of them in one sitting, placed the rest in a baggie and in the fridge it went. i will bring them with me to work tomorrow.

ok...next....(i LOVE edamame!) *controlling myself*

eww...i just realized i didn't look at one of my edamame plants..the one planted next to one of the cages used for the cucumber plants. i need to check that tomorrow morning! anyways...

seedlings and newly planted seeds! these are the fall crops. im not sure if this is too early yet, but it will take over 2 months for some of these to be ready for harvest, so i thought i'd start now. i planted more broccoli, swiss chard (fordhook giant), touchstone gold beets, more carrots, snow peas and more sugar snap peas.

and look! im finally getting around to labelling the pots. sheesh, i really should have started out doing this. i dislike having to wait till the plant actually gets its true leaves to figure out what they are and where i will place them. what are these labels made of? i cut up plastic cups - resourceful, huh? :-) next week, i think i will do more planting...michihili cabbage, pak choi...i think the last i will plant will be the onions and the lettuce - they don't take much time till they mature.

okay, here goes...

the left garden.

my recovering bush bean plants.

one of my recovering bell pepper plant

left garden overview, with my newly constructed compost bin. the one thing i didn't realize is that in this position, this bin needs a lot of water. i find myself wetting the contents twice a day. well, it has been extremely hot this weekend, but it really does get steamy in there. if i don't keep the compost contents wet, it can't decompose and the ants will come and take it over. i have already seen a lot of ants in there. i wet it pretty well, place new newspaper in there to cover up any food scraps (and ants) and rewet that layer. i go back to this bin and i am happy i didn't see any ants moving around. keep it damp!

the top garden

the trimmed zucchini forest. it doesn't look trimmed, you say? i can only thank the hot weather for that. its very happy and healthy (which is great!! what more could i ask for?) but it really takes up a lot of space. note to self - the top garden should only hold one row of squash, and each squash plant should be planted about 3 feet apart - at LEAST!.

do you notice the missing sugar snap pea plants? i do miss eating them...but i'm starting their seeds again! i was lucky to even get any after planting them during late spring.

the cucumber jungle. it truely is...one day i would harvest a few cucumbers and think i harvested them all, and the next day i would harvest 10 (!!) more. that forest likes to hide its vegetables.

jalapeno plant growing wonderfully with lots of flowers and small jalapenos. grapes are also thriving...i just think my setup for their growing vines are very faulty...i have to buy more trellises for them.

the sweet potato plant is living the good life. whatever was put into the soil back there was extremely fertile...i dont know what it is. could this really be due to just planting beans and peas all over the place?

a blue lake bush bean plant (this is how big the bean plants should be in the left garden (which are now recovering its dark green color) and carrots.

sugar baby watermelon plants. they are branching wonderfully. i have two larger plants and one smaller one growing here.

a close up on a female flower and growing watermelon!

the all-in-one almond tree got a "haircut" today. it is just beautiful, but i want to see it a bit more bushier.

top garden overview

the right garden

here is my flower garden. i have not seen any changes to my tangarine plant. im wondering what is going on with that plant. maybe it needs more organic fertilizer? i think i will try that tomorrow. i dead-headed the dahlietta and i was surprised that there were numerous buds waiting to open up. beautiful!