Transformational Gardening
August 2009 Garden Experiences
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July 2009 Gardening Experiences)
August 6, 2009
The Harvest Begins!!!
I harvested some Kale leaves, a beautiful Yellow Straight-Neck Squash (Summer Squash), a small
turnip and some Cilantro. Having a vegetable medley tonight! Jennifer got some of the mini-harvest
today as well. I will come back this weekend for a bigger harvest and give some of that away.
The rows are doing extremely well. Parsley and Cilantro rows are doing fantastic. There
is huge amounts of kale ready to be picked. The mustard greens and lettuce is ready. The
hay is keeping the soil slightly damp (without mold) so it doesn’t dry out.
Will take more pictures this weekend. I’ve learned a couple of additional ideas for
next year:
- Arrange the garden so that crops are harvested at different times throughout the year.
- Thin my crops more aggressively and use those thinnings in salads.
- In the same row of a particular crop, start harvesting some of the plants earlier when the
plants are younger to avoid having an overwhelming bounty all at once.
August 9, 2009
Overall, the garden is doing very, very well. The food tastes great, even
better than the organic produce at the Co-op. I’m not sure if that is
because of using the Ruth
Stout Method or just because it is being eaten within a couple of days of being picked.
The are many more vegetables than I can harvest and eat right now. I’ve been giving
some of it away. Next year, I’ll work on the timing so that crops are available to
be harvested from May until October. This week, I will pick some of the Rudolf Radishes
that were planting using the
Anastasia Planting Method and see if they look or taste unusual.
Below are updated pictures of rows doing well and then rows doing poorly.
All of the pictures were taken with my new iPhone 3GS which has a 3 Megapixel
camera with autofocus and the ability to select the area in the picture to
focus on. With a steady hand, it is possible to take good quality, up-close pictures!
Three of the rows that are doing poorly are just rows of weeds. Those plants
never came up. All of these were Pagano seeds. I am letting weeds grow there
as that will fertilize the soil.
Table 1: Rows Doing Well
| Radish (Daikon) (Row 1) |
Turnips (Row 2) |
Beets (Row 3) |
Carrots (Row 4): |
Kale Seedlings (Row 5-l) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Tomatos Plants (Row 5-r) |
Kale Seedlings (Row 6) |
Kale (Red Winter) (Row 7-l) |
Kale (Dinosaur) (Row 7-r) |
Cauliflower Seedlings (Row 8-l) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Kale (Red Winter) Seedlings (Row 8-r) |
Squash (Butternut) Seedlings (Row 9) |
Squash (Yellow Straight Neck) (Row 10-r) |
Parsley (Forest Green) (Row 10-l) |
Parsley (Forest Green) (Row 11-l) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Amaranth (Burgundy) (Row 11-r) |
Coriander/Cilantro (Row 14-l) |
Mustard Greens (Red Giant) (Row 14-r) |
Parsley (Italian Dark Green Flat) (Row 15) |
Leaf Lettuce (Black Seeded Simpson) (Row 16) |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
| Mustard (Southern Giant Curled) (Row 17) |
Collards (Georgia Green) (Row 18) |
Brussels Sprouts (Row 19) |
Radish (Rudolf) (Row 23-r |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Table 2: Rows Doing Poorly
| Zuchinni (Row 12): Row of weeds. Nothing coming up. Will replant next year. |
Cucumber (Marketmore) (Row 13): Row of weeds. Nothing coming up. Will replant next year. |
Onions (Golden Onion of Parma) (Row 20): Row of weeds. Nothing coming up. Will replant next year. |
Watermelon (Sugar Baby) Seedlings (Row 21-l): Not growing. Almost dead. |
Honeydew Melon Seedlings (Row 21-r): Dead plants (eaten by insects).
|
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 |
 |
 |
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| Pumpkin (Jack Be Little) Seedlings (Row 22-l): Not growing, but there are a couple of flowers. |
Radish (French Breakfast) (Row 23-l): Most of the row was washed away by 10 days of rain. |
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