Food Garden Friday - Rough Around the Edges

As I've said many times over the last few months, Southern California has received quite a bit of rain - much more than usual. This is absolutely wonderful for my garden but coupled with recovering from my surgery, I haven't been able to keep up with it!

Oh my, what a mess! There's so much over grown, dead and alive and so little time! However, now is the time I return to my garden. The dead things need to be removed, the live things need to be tamed and there needs to be some method to this madness!

The photos above are of the same area. The left is when I first created the area and planted so many lovely edible greens for salads back in January of 2018. The photo on the right shows what has died (they lived fulfilling lives) and also plants that reseeded themselves because I did not plant anything new in this area. As you can see, the swiss chard is thriving! I actually cooked up some of it for breakfast a few days ago and it was delicious - much better taste cooked than raw!

My plans for the food garden this year are to expand the area to include the many seeds I received from my Seed Bank Box subscription that weren't able to make it into the ground last year. I hope to share more of my home-made, home-grown recipes as well!

What are you planting in your garden this year? I'd love to hear about it.

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Unboxing - Seed Bank Box - September 2018

King Richard Leek - Depending on how much you love leeks, or how impatient you are, these leeks can be harvested at 3-4 inches or you can wait until they reach their full length of 1ft. Whenever you choose to harvest, they suggest trying your new leek in mashed potatoes, soup or even roasted.

Walla Walla Onion - Mild and extra sweet, these are not your typical onion! People have been known to eat them "like an apple" but I'm not sure how I feel about that. These along with the leeks will be the first time I've ever attempted growing onions (if you can believe it)!

Touchstone Gold Beets - Have you shied away from cooking with beets because they are known for staining kitchen ware that you do not want stained? Unlike other beets, the Touchstone Gold Beet is notorious for just the opposite - NOT staining things! This fact coupled with their mild flavor makes me more likely to attempt this root vegetable in my garden and hopefully have my mind changed on my dislike of beets.

Green Zebra Tomatoes - If this light green fruit with dark green stripes doesn't catch your attention, the bold, sweet taste surely will! This unique addition to the garden will have visitors requesting to take a few home to try and you'll be able to oblige because this plant is a heavy producer! 

Jewel Mix Nasturtium - This edible flower blooms in beautiful clusters of red, orange and yellow and I'm very excited to plant these in my garden since they are one of my favorite flowers.

Royal Burgundy Bean - I was just getting ready to plant some beans the week this box arrived so this is pretty exciting. After I'm done with that I'll need to sweep my house for cameras and microphones because I don't know how this company keeps knowing exactly what I'm planning to plant!

White Gold Mighty Mustard - To add to my list of "I've never grown this," this particular mustard plant is a jack of all trades! The plant serves as ground cover and suppresses weeds, attracts beneficial insects, the leaves are edible and its deep roots enrich the soil. What a power plant!

Surry Arugula - This fast-growing plant has a spicy kick to it which will be a punchy surprise to add to a salad. Potassium, Calcium, vitamins C, B, K - what a great addition to my garden and with great timing, I'm preparing an area to grow a salad mix already.

Seed Bank Box continues to impress me with their unique plants and vast variety. Like I always say, if I won't eat it, someone I know will (although of course I am willing to give every plant a fair chance). If you'd like to subscribe to the Seed Bank Box and have a mystery box of edible future food delivered to your door, please follow THIS LINK and let me know how you feel about what you receive. If you send me some pictures of your Seed Bank Box garden, I'd love to spotlight it here on my blog.

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First Salad Harvest of 2018

Last month we took a look at the beginning of my food garden, specifically the area where I started my salad garden. This was how the main area looked back in February. 

These young cherry tomatoes grew quickly and have been thriving (unlike some other plants).

By April, my salad garden had filled out significantly, including the cinder block area and three separate pots for leafy greens.

When it came to harvesting the salad, I just couldn't keep up! My granddaughter would come over once or twice a week for a full bag of salad but could have easily made an extra trip each week at the rate my garden was replenishing!

This full salad is made from butter lettuce, red romaine and cherry tomatoes, all from my very own back yard!

These baby carrots are also from my garden - very few grew but they were delicious. Unfortunately the heat of June killed off all the leafy greens (the spinach held on the longest). The tomato and carrots are still holding strong thankfully.

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Food Garden - Beginnings

This past weekend was packed with vegetables! June 16 was Fresh Veggie Day and June 17 was Eat Your Vegetables Day according to the Days of the Year calendar. In honor of that I'm finally ready to introduce my food garden to My Fairy Folks. I began my second venture into the food garden journey in January of this year. There's a lot to catch up on, so lets get started.

What a disaster zone!

I first cleared up all the old, dead plants. I zoned areas with cinder blocks and added new soil. (L to R) Ornamental cabbage, "Garden Salsa" pepper, (I'm not sure what this plant is because it's actually not there anymore), Jalafuego hot pepper, salvia, a dead thing I didn't want to give up on yet, red bell pepper and petunias. I've planted garden peppers before but they didn't do well due to lack of sun, so I'm hoping this second go-around will work out better for them. 

Off to the right of my cinder block area is this large container of salad variety. It includes romaine, red mustard and red leaf lettuce.

I have planted Swiss chard in the past but surprisingly had never noticed how purple the roots are! How beautiful.

I thought I'd put up a diagonal barrier to separate the chard and flowers.

This area looks cute and maintained for now. I really enjoy the addition of the ornamental cabbage. This gorgeous vegetation comes in a variety of colors including purple, pink, red and white. It's labeled "ornamental" because they have a very bitter taste and are typically only found on a plate as garnish. I chose white to allow the edible plants to grab the attention. The questioning plant (shown as an empty space in the photo above) didn't do well so I replaced it with mustard greens.

After only three weeks, we were ready to start picking lettuce from our own salad garden!

The butter lettuce (center with yellow flowers) grew very full and took up more room than I set aside for it. It was a surprise since I discovered it "hitchhiked" it's way into my garden, but I plan to get some more in the future because this stuff is so good! I'll be sure to show you some more photos from my growing food garden soon. Do you grow any edibles?

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