Fall Garden

Fall is here

Fall Garden

Carrot Flowering

Pea Flower

Pea Pod

Tomato and Jalepeno

Fall has reached eastern NC. I have not forgotten about posting. I have not forgotten about gardening. With three toddlers, homeschooling, making food from scratch, no babysitters, cleaning house, ect. ect. I end up having to choose what gets my utmost priority which is the kids.
Yesterday, we finished repotting all of our banana and citrus trees. The kids had a blast. Just hoping we didn't wait too long. :/ It is hard to find the potting soil for the citrus plants so they didn't get any soil in spring and they suffered greatly. They are all yellow and did not bear fruit for the first time in three years.
Back to the Fall Garden. Not sure if I planted the pumpkin seeds to late or too early. Either way the pumpkin seeds grew beautifully right before a gulley washer of a week rained them out. They turned yellow and died. I thought for sure the rains had destroyed all the lettuce and kale I had planted, but they survived. The spinach, broccoli, and cabbage did not survive.
The other night it got down to the 30s which destroyed the greenest tomato plants I have ever seen. The Tomato plants were planted from seed and finally took off. They were vibrant, lots of leaves, fruit, ect,  even a caterpillar pillaged one, but it took them all summer to take off from seed so the above picture is all I got after the frost. I'm going to harvest the seeds and try planting them in pots this spring since they did so well. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what kind they were.
The peas as usual are flourishing. Peas seem to be the only crop I can consistently grow. Beginning to think it has something to do with my soil prep since I make my own soil so to speak.
That wraps it up for fall. We had over 3 lbs of carrots.....from what I can tell they are simply a root that continues to grow. When you get into the different kinds of carrots it basically is referring to how soon you can pick them and they have flavor and size when you pick them. My petite carrots left for a year in the ground have turned into monstrosities. Gorgeous even with a ton of caterpillars eating them stems last months they continued to produce stems and some even budded. Just have to learn how to harvest their seeds now!

Basil Results

Basil

I can add Basil to my meager list of plants I grow successfully. So far, the easiest crops for me here in NC are:

• Peas
• Beans
• Basil

Quite a small list, but at least it is better than no list! Basil is great companion for many plants in the garden. From experience, I can tell you to pick off that big leaves. This is key to getting a big plant. Basil likes to be pruned continually.
The leaves you pinch off can be dried and stored for spicing up your pizza sauces and such. I love sweet basil because it has such an aromatic smell to it.

Pea seedlings

This post was drafted June 15th. From this knowledge, I will say peas are ready to harvest for seeds by the end of the summer. Harvesting pea seeds is pretty simple. Once the pod begins to yellow, you can pull the pod up and hang it upside down to dry. The pod will become brittle like dried out paper. You can pop open the dried pod and discover the above seeds inside all wrinkled because they are ready to be planted once again. This is when you can store them in a dry place for future planting.

Blog posts and Harvesting Lettuce Seeds

A short note on blog posts is in order. I have not forgotten to post. The next few days there will be a ton of posts from spring and summer on here. It's hard to believe it is time to prep for the fall garden almost. For my fourth year of NC planting, I must say I've been more successful. Still a lot of mishaps, disappointments, and triumphs, but I am happy with everything I have learned.

I did want to write what I did today though. I immediately fell in love with harvesting lettuce seeds, when I learned how. To me, the experience was like finding a wonderful surprise, uncovering a puzzle....not sure how to describe it. As below, you see the plant bloom in yellow flowers, much like a dandelion does. These petals will fall off leaving a white fuzz, much like a dandelion once again. It is with this flower fuzz that you find the seeds.

• Pinch off the white, fuzz of flower with it's stem.
• Carefully  pinch off the stem along with the bottom part of the flower.
• As you pinch from the bottom of the flower, you will discover the seeds fall from the white fuzz

Lettuce in bloom

harvesting lettuce seeds

Inside the floral pod

Carrot Harvesting

Lettuce Head

Carrots enjoy well drained soil! As the soil temperature warmed up the carrots sprouted. They took quite a bit of time because I planted them too early.When carrots are ready, their tops push through the top of the soil. You see this carrot top is slightly green. When the carrot top is orange in  contrast to its green leaves, it is ready to pull.
I tried cutting off the tops an inch below the leaves and replanting the tops, but I was unsuccessful. Instead, I left a few carrots in the ground as it takes two years for carrots to produce their seeds.So far the heat of summer has not bothered them a bit.

Harvesting Lettuce

Romaine Lettuce

I read the trick was to pick them first thing in the morning before the heat of the day wilts them. This is true. I picked them from the stem and stuck them in a bowl of ice water. They last a week at room temperature in the early spring. As the house warmed up they would wilt inside at around 75 degrees, after two days.

I tried uprooting a plant and sticking it in a glass of water inside.....not sure if the vent dried out the leaves or what, but it did not work for me.
The romaine lettuce survived through 90 degree weather, surprisingly.I covered the lettuce in six inches deep worth of wood shavings and the heat did not bother this plant. The romaine was also planted on the shaded side of the garden where it only received 4 hours of direct sunlight from 10 am to 2 pm.

End of Spring garden

Spring Harvest

This spring garden turned out decent. The lettuce surprised us and produced to the very end of spring! I will note that although, the lettuce has not bolted it taste bitter. I believe temperature has some control over the taste of lettuce.
 We harvested quite a few carrots. I learned that although the idea of a cutting an inch off the top of the carrot to replant, is a nice idea they wilted for me. Instead, I kept a few carrots in the ground to harvest their seeds next year, hopefully.
Peas grew beautifully! 60 plants is still not enough for a family of five. I will plant another variety this spring. I was able to harvest two quarts and over 20 seedlings. They even tried to produce a second time! The problem with peas in the summer in NC is that the humidity rots the pods before they finish developing.
I planted the celery too late or they only grow around here during the fall. I am not sure. I just know they bolted well before they were ready due to the heat.
Onions are still growing beautifully. I'm beginning to think they take over a year to grow. I will say you do have to continue to had dirt as they grow because they enjoy pushing through the top.

That is all I can think of. I know I planted a few more plants, but they were either unsuccessful or escape my memory at the moment.

Spinach Seedlings

Spinach Seeds

I was able to discover some plants with seeds. Apparently not all plants turn to seed. The first plants I picked were nothing but golden pollen of sorts. You can either slip the plant into a paper bag and let them fall off in the bag or let them dry on the plant and fall off.

Now the test will be to plant them this fall and see how well I harvested them!

Seed Saving Spinach

I am so excited to reach this part of my vegetable gardening. I have never saved seeds prior to two years ago. The first seed saving endeavor I attempted was peas and it was so successful! I was hooked after that.

My goal is to save seeds from everything heirloom I plant. I will not only save money but also I will ensure  my garden will have the healthiest plants.

bolted spinach

My first attempt at saving spinach seeds turned out to be a disaster. This is the plant I harvested. More about my harvesting disaster in my next post. So far, I have discovered that seeds not inside the plant are hard to determine!

Harvesting Peas

I am harvesting the last of the peas. This is about the only plant I am truly successful with. You can plant them in the middle of February and harvest them by the end of May.

I am successful planting peas and saving seeds from peas, harvesting peas is another story. Peas aren't fussy. They love water, but can stand lack of water. They enjoy 8 hours of sun.

When you want to open a shell. You can pop it open by squeezing the end of the pod. You can pull up the entire plant at the end of the season with on pod left and let it turn light brown. This ensures the peas are dried out. You can store your dried peas in a dry area for next planting season.

I will say it takes a lot of plants to harvest enough for more than one person. I will plant these again for the fall garden.

Lemonade

Of the 13 lemons, 3 survived. I'd say that's a pretty good survival rate considering the amount of moving the plants indoors and outdoors as well as the kids running into it. Either way it takes 12+ months for a lemon to grow.

One dream has been fulfilled. Drinking fresh lemonade from our back yard.
One lemon in an 16 oz glass made the perfect taste of lemonade. I saved the seeds to plant more lemon trees. I am just a little nervous to plant them, but when I do. I will blog about the process.

Beyond Excited

May 9th I discovered the first dill pickle cucumbers popping up. I am beyond excited and hopefully I can fill a few mason jars full of cucumber goodness!

Spring is winding down. With Spring, comes the spring crop harvest. The peas have beautiful pods on all the plants. I am waiting for the pods to fill out before snapping them off for harvest.

Lessons learned from this year's gardening:

• Companion planting and crushed egg shells have truly kept the bugs from chewing any leaves.
• Lettuce can be planted close together to encourage its growth upright.
• Companion planting encourages beneficial insects?

We have had weather in the 90s this week and the lettuce has been doing well. I think it is because of the 6" mulch layer. The soil has not dried out from the rain back in April. I continue to water it once in the morning and once at night. 

Garden Bed 3

Garden Bed 1

Garden Bed 2

Growing Greens : How to Pick Spinach Off the Plant

Our Spinach looking beautiful!

My spinach is beginning to take off!!!! It looks so beautiful. I've never grown spinach before so I had to research how and when to harvest the leaves. There are many great places online to learn about gardening. I just went to youtube and pulled up this youtube tutorial.