Thursday, June 27, 2013

How are the Veggies Doing?

I haven't posted much about the veggie garden this year, but there is a large veggie garden at The Lents Farmer.

I mostly grow heirloom tomatoes (I think there are 15 varieties this year), but I feel like I should grow other things too.  Seems silly not too.

We've had a lot of wet weather recently, but everything seems to be doing good and the lack of warm weather has kept things from bolting.

The first couple rows are lettuce mix, mustard greens, radishes, and turnips.  The radishes got away from me a little and the turnips seem to be on the verge.  Not sure how many turnips I can eat and I have 3 rows of them!
Brussels sprouts
Extra protein?
I appear to be growing a bumper crop of aphids on my Brussels sprouts. There may be more aphids than sprouts at this point. Need to find a good way to get rid of them - any suggestions?


The mustard greens and lettuce mix are going to town.  Can't eat it all fast enough!

Some of the tomatoes are up to the 3rd rung on the cages. I'm not sure I will get my first tomato by July 4th this year, but there are plenty of green ones out there.  


The red celery starts I planted late have settled in. I planted green celery seeds but they didn't germinate - I probably planted them too deep and they didn't sprout. Here at the Lents Farmer, we sometimes forgo reading the planting information and consequently have mixed success. Isn't gardening fun?!?  The red variety is supposed to taste better than the green. Right now it looks like tiny rhubarb.
 

It's amazing how many yellow squash you get from just a couple starts. In a couple weeks, I'll be handing these out at the freeway ramp just to get rid of them. Stop at the red light and get a squash.


I love to grow Scarlet Runner beans. The hummers like the flowers and the beans are very tasty.  Some people don't care for them being fuzzy, but I think the flavor is good, especially when they are on the smaller side.

 

Kale is growing on me, figuratively, not literally.


Can't wait to eat this Romanesco!  It's like eating a cross between broccoli and cauliflower. The spiral geometry of the flowers is so cool too.

There are several types of eggplants, hot peppers, basils, pumpkins/squash and a few other things intermixed, but I didn't get pics of them.

Hopefully in 2-3 weeks, I'll be enjoying my first tomatoes and my first BLT of the season.


3 comments:

  1. I gave up on growing my own Brussels sprouts because of aphids. Mine were absolutely covered. Soooo disgusting. I've heard that celery is hard to grow from seed, so don't feel bad. I always use starts. Your mustard greens are very pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love to grow scarlet runner beans too! And I too, am falling in love with kale. Your vegetable garden is looking great!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had terrible aphids when I grew Brussels sprouts too. Now I've got them on my cabbages. I've decided to plant buckwheat in the hope of attracting hover flies, whose larvae eat aphids. I think it may take a while to get a good population established. :)

    ReplyDelete