Harvest Monday 6/4/12

This week I had a first time ever harvest: garlic!  I've never grown garlic and as the tops started browning and dying, I thought it was not going to be a successful crop.  I thought they would take longer to grow and perhaps because of the super warm spring they grew quicker than normal.  They definitely aren't breaking any size records, but for a first time crop I was happy with 19 oz of garlic.

The onions were also dying back, so I pulled them (8.7 oz).  They were not very big, which I'm assuming they haven't liked the really warm temperatures either.

Also this week was 6.3 oz of lettuce,

 a pathetic 0.7 oz of strawberries,

 

and the peas (8.4 oz) are on their way out, but the cucumbers (3.6 lbs) are picking up the pace.  The basil has also been growing rapidly.  I've been good about weighing veggies this year, but not herbs.. perhaps next year.

I also harvested my first squash of the season! (10.5 oz)  I'm growing tromboncino squash this year because it is suppose to be resistant to vine borers.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the vine borers stay away from it!

And then there are the potatoes.  You may have read about my Solanaceae woes with wilting potatoes.  I dug up two of the dead potatoes and was happy to find at least a few potatoes.  There was a total of three medium potatoes and a few tiny ones weighing 10 oz.  It's not going to be a fabulous potato harvest this spring, but at least there's a few.

Weekly total:  7.6 lbs

Yearly total: 50.63 lbs worth $113.42

That's all the harvests coming from my garden this week, to see what others are harvesting check out Harvest Monday at Daphne's Dandelions.

Happy Gardening!

Revisiting May Garden Goals

I never actually posted garden goals for May, so this means I get to list what I did and I will never know what I should have done ;)

• Plant sweet potatoes: After constantly asking the Farmer's Exchange when the sweet potatoes come in, they arrived mid May.  The sweet potato slips were tied up into bundles and when I inquired about how many were in a bundle.  The answer: about 100!  I don't have room for a hundred sweet potato slips! I was thinking about ten since this is my first attempt growing them.  We then went hunting for packs of nine that were potted, but were never found.  After following people around for about 30 minutes in the search for potted sweet potatoes, they finally ended up breaking up one of the bundles of 100 for my tiny ten slips.  Then they didn't even charge me for them!  So if I don't get a single sweet potato I will have lost no money. 
• Plant seeds: corn, peanuts, carrots, lettuce, inside: cabbage and Chinese cabbage.  You may remember last month I had cutworm problems with my corn, so I had to make collars and they did much, much better.

• Plant herbs: dill, sage, lemongrass.  I did not get ginger started this year.  Oh well, guess I'll try next spring.
• Weeding!: Right now the garden is surprisingly weed free.  Nothing like visits from some garden loving friends to inspire me to weed.  Now if only I can keep up the weedless look!
• Mulch: I've used straw to mulch some of the beds.  I need to get more and mulch more.  It looks like it is going to be a hot and dry summer, so the more mulch the better.
• Finish plant labels: You can check out the plant label project here.

• Paint potting shed shelves
• Make potting shed burlap skirt- the inside of the potting shed is all done now.  I will posted photos of it soon.

Project: Chalkboard Plant Labels

I've been needing a way to label my veggies in the garden.  I have been using little plastic labels, but the writing always fades away.  I wanted a label that wouldn't fade, but that was reusable.  Searching online led me to decide on Cakies chalkboard labels.  These are perfect because they are cute, easy, cheap, and reusable! 

I got cedar shims and cut them into thirds.  I was very proud for using the table saw all by myself instead of making J do it for me!

Then I got some chalkboard paint and painted away.  I highly recommend painting them on something plastic.  I first tried newspaper and it stuck to the paint.  Then I tried cardboard and it was no better.  Let them dry for at least 30 minutes before painting the other side. 

The chalkboard paint said to let dry for 72 hours before using.  I only waited 48 hours.. oops!

You may be thinking how in the world is chalk going to stay on a label in the rain?  The trick is to use a white china marker to write on them.  I found one at Hobby Lobby in the drawing supplies section.

When you do want to remove the writing, you can use baby oil and reuse the label.

Now I have labels in my garden: