Garden Update 2017

Spinach, Red Romaine and Salad Bowl lettuce

Rainbow colors in the Chard

The garden continues to grow, because of, or in spite of all the rain we've had this spring.  We had our second harvest from the salad portion, last night.  The first time, I just harvested some Swiss Chard to sautee it in garlic and olive oil.  It was pretty good.  Last night though, was a regular salad.   Red romaine leaves, Salad Bowl lettuce, spinach and Swiss Chard.  It will be a while yet, before any sweet peppers or tomatoes are ready.  Still, it was a tasty salad.

A note on Swiss Chard.  This is the first time I've ever had Chard.  I got yellow and red stem varieties.  Coupled with the dark green leaves, it is very beautiful.  It is also growing like gangbutsers!  Some of the leaves I used last night, were the size of mature catalpa tree leaves!

Now that's some BIG Swiss Chard!

I plan next harvest, to use the leafy portions in a green salad, and the stems will get chopped and sauteed in butter and soy sauce.  That's how I cook asparagus, and the chard stems are very asparagus-like in flavor and texture.

Part of the tomato jungle

The bush variety tomato plants are doing better than I expected, in the hay bales.  They are already very bushy, and are setting tomatoes.  Good thing we like salsa here, or I might be overwhelmed with tomatoes in another month or two!  Sadly, for the proposed salsa, the peppers, both green and hot varieties, are not faring so well.   In the straw bales, only 4 of a total 12 plants are thriving, 6 died, and 2 are barely hanging onto life.  The 4 though, are setting peppers, so there is some hope.  And the hot peppers planted out front in the dirt, are looking a little moth-eaten.  I may have to spray them with Sevin.  At least they didn't die though, and theyre setting a few hot peppers too.

The Bell peppers

I must add that I am thrilled with our blueberries!  Despite this being their first season in ground, they have all set fruit, and we will get a decent harvest, considering how young the plants are.  I hold out hope, that they will all survive, and produce lots of berries in the future.  We are just a wee bit fond of blueberries here...!

Blueberries!

The fruit trees have all leafed out.  One little peach tree, set a ton of fruit in early spring, but we culled it all, so the tree could devote its time to root growth, not fruit growth.

Red Romaine