Harvest!

[janestarz]

It's pretty amazing to eat vegetables that are home-grown from your own garden. True, between May and August you need to spend a few hours each week in your garden just to keep the weed ghetto under control, but there are certain benefits (i.e.: fruits and vegetables) to be reaped.

This year we had a lovely harvest:

• Radishes
  These were sown in the windowsill and a few weeks later in the ground as well. They need about a week to grow up, and within three weeks you've got a pretty serious harvest. Re-seeds itself if you don't. Tip: sow a few seeds every week, and you'll never run out. Lovely in salad, as a healthy snack, or to bring to larps for re-planting in a herb garden.
  
• Raspberries
  We snuck out after dinner every night to find the latest raspberries, picking and eating them right from our own garden. Harvest season lasts only a few weeks, but nothing beats the true feeling of summertime than going out in the evening while it's still light and warm and sunny and eating fresh raspberries, am I right?
  
• Spring onions
  Slightly overgrown by both pumpin and courgette plant, they have not been getting the light they needed, but even though they were on the smallish side, they were very good indeed.
  
• Peas
  Though the summer wasn't warm enough for the string beans, the peas were happily growing until the end of July and we mixed them with our rice for some extra filling and bite to any stirfrying dish.
  
• Tomatoes
  Tender love and care from my dad from February gave me a hardy bunch of tomatoes that were having a field day as soon as their roots touched wild Tilburg soil. Some of these plants grew nearly as tall as me, which was only visible after I strung them up properly. We ate tomatoes in salad, in pasta and in soup from only five plants
  
• Strawberries
  My strawberries were a fluke. Only two made it to fruit-shape and one was rotting before it was even ripe. The other one was fed to NoKey, who was a sore puppy at the time. My strawberries are suddenly putting forth flowers again, so perhaps they were suffering from drought.
  Currently I am also replacing my mock strawberry with several plants of wild strawberry. Hey, if it's going to take over the garden, it might as well be edible.
  
• Blackberries
  Only two bunches bearing fruit, but we're anxiously awaiting them being ripe.
  
• Pumpkin
  Long tendrils and lots of flowers, but so far only one pumpkin which is being converted to a day spa by various insects and invertebrates. The snails appear to love it. It also takes over the garden like world domination is its only purpose under the sun.
  
• Lettuce
  Bought 4 small plants at the market and only harvested one, which my dad ate. The other three pined away under the courgette plant and died a slightly moist and rotten death.
  
• Garlic
  As an experiment I pushed three cloves that were showing green shoots in the soil, but after they came up they and some of the second generation radish seeds got lost somewhere under the pumpkin, and haven't been heard from since.
  
• Apple
  Year one of the apple tree. It brought forth flowers, but didn't bear any fruit. If we're lucky, next year will be better. They say apple trees need two years in the soil before they do.
  
• Bell pepper
  One plant (store-bought) that has been living in our Southeast-facing window sill and yielded a few small peppers NoKey munched happily. I'm hoping it will survive the winter indoors. It is already in bloom again.
  
• Courgette
  After moving the courgette plant it took a while for it to acclimatise and set forth root again, so my harvest is small in numbers (but not in weight, luckily) and rather late. Yesterday I harvested the first, largest and very big courgette. Three more look to become edible although they might not make it before the cold front hits us. Their big brother was indeed 40 cm long and weighed 1,67 kilo. It made us 4 liters of soup.
  
  
  Next year, I hope to do some strength training with these.
  
  And as for the rest:
  
• Herbs: 2 kinds of thyme, sage, parsley, chives, marjoram, 2 plants of mint
  
• Dye plants: Tansy (euthanised due to mildew fungus), goldenrod and pokeweed

Stuff is already dying or will soon be, and in the next month or so I will need to overturn the compost barrel and mulch my garden so the new nutrients have all winter to get ready. And then it is time for the plans for next year to unfold.

Comments

[anemoona.livejournal.com]

Ik heb ergens gelezen dat een courgette niet groen hoeft te zijn om te kunnen eten.
Je kan ze dus ook meteen oogsten en opeten als ze nog klein zijn
(maar het kan geen kwaad om dat even te verifieren met google).

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

De kleintjes zijn ook al groen, net als de stronk van de plant die dezelfde spikkels heeft als de courgette, dus technisch gezien ziet alles er eetbaar uit.
Ik houd het weer in ieder geval in de gaten, want zo gauw het (te) koud wordt moet ik oogsten.

[https://me.yahoo.com/maladignia#6d2f0 (from livejournal.com)]

Wow, indrukwekkend!
Wij hebben ook wat eetbare planten in de tuin staan, maar volgend jaar zullen die echt meer ruimte en aandacht moeten krijgen want er is bijna niets van gelukt. Alleen de tomaten en de aardbeien.

Ik heb 2 paprikaplantjes in de tuin staan, uit zaadjes van een supermarkt-paprika, maar ze zijn de hele zomer bezig geweest met bloemetjes maken en deze ook gewoon loslaten. Er hangt nu zowaar (ik had de hoop al opgegeven) een mini paprikaatje aan van ongeveer 3 cm lang. Ik ben alleen bang dat het nu al te koud is voor het vruchtje.

Wat is jouw geheim? ;-)

[janestarz.livejournal.com]

Paprika is een plant die heel goed gedijt in de Nederlandse kas, maar niet in het Nederlandse klimaat. Wat dat betreft doen tomaten het al snel ietsje beter. Mijn paprika woont dus gewoon in de woonkamer achter een raam waar hij een lekker zonnetje op zijn knar krijgt! :-)