Garden updates
The garden is going great! For a while we were drowning in weeds - we would spend a few hours clearing them, only to have them reappear with a vengeance about 5 days later. On the advice of one of our garden neighbors, a few weeks ago we put down newspaper and then straw in all of the beds. The weed problem is SO MUCH better now, it is amazing!
We've also been harvesting actual food! We've made pesto from the basil now several times, and the plants are really going crazy. We can basically strip all the big leaves off (about 2-3 cups) every weekend, so we've already started freezing it for the summer. Here's a photo of Steve in the garden harvesting our basil!
And, starting last weekend, we had GREEN BEANS!!
We're going to be drowning in green beans soon, we can already tell. We have two varieties: pole beans (which need something to climb on and get tall) and bush beans (which are bushier, only get about 2 feet tall and don't climb). Only the bush beans are producing so far, but we harvested them on Saturday (along with some basil)...
Then we harvested MORE green beans on Tuesday! As well as our first zucchini, which was exciting! We ended up freezing some of these green beans because there were just so many of them...
We also have several baby plants (a little growing eggplant!) and cherry tomatoes that are starting to ripen. We also have lots of big (non-cherry) green tomatoes, which should start ripening any day now.
Here's an example of a recent yummy summer meal - pasta with pesto, bruschetta with toasted bread (not our tomatoes yet though) and garlicky green beans. I have the book Animal, Vegetable Miracle to read soon, which is all about growing your own food (or at least getting everything locally), and as much as I love this, it would be really hard (or impossible) to do, I think. I mean, this meal included basil and green beans that we grew, and localish tomatoes from New Jersey, but what about all the other ingredients that are essential - pasta, olive oil, walnuts, all the ingredients for the bread, GARLIC (an essential ingredient in our house)... I don't know, it seems like even in the bountiful summer, getting that all locally or growing it yourself is a very tall order.
posted by Lauren @ 10:14 PM
3 Comments:
I love AVM!!!! I'm reading it now for my book club. As one of my friends told me, she makes it so it's not overwhelming. I love Barbara Kingsolver. She's amazing. Have you read any of her other books? I think you would like them, expecially Prodigal Summer. I'm so jealous of your basil. I went outside to harvest it for dinner the other night and the leaves were all chewed up!!!!!!!! I was so sad, I moved it inside. This has happened before, but not to this level. Anyway keep up the good work and I can not wait to see you!
There's definitely been a learning curve to gardening. Next year, we'll make sure the put the straw down very early to avoid having to do so much weeding. And we're learning what grows well and what doesn't. We knew basil would grow well, and I think I'm going to be sick of green beans by the end of the summer if they keep producing like they have been. :-). The tomatoes have grown well too, and I can't wait for them to get ripe. Other things like the peppers haven't done too well, and we may not plant them next year. But overall it's been great eating fresh food we've grown ourselves, which should be even more enjoyable now that we don't have to spend most of our time taking care of the weeds.
I went to our farmers market this weekend and found a vendor who is growing 7 types of garlic and other onion type items here in Greensboro. Boy was i surprised! I do agree with you that doing 100% would be nearly impossible, but I like the idea anyway.
On Steve's comment, I have tried peppers 3 times in the past and they have all failed miserably. I have had some luck with hot ones, but regular bell peppers are nearly impossible in my mind.
I too am jealous about your Basil because none of ours made it this year :( I am in the middle of a major weed fight myself and will try the straw / paper thing as soon as I can get them cleared.
Happy gardening!
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