Local Delicious

I am pleased as punch. My backyard garden on borrowed land — whether because of, or in spite of my attempts — looks awesome. I’ve been eating cabbage, kale, broccoli, snow peas, regular peas, and even the occasional yellow wax bean, with no end of tasty produce in sight.

I suspect that the soil, though clay-ish in some places and low lying (and therefore prone to pooling water) in others, is pretty darn good quality. That, or the manure and bone meal added in at the beginning has made a big difference. (Its nutrients certainly haven’t been depleted by anything other than weeds in the past 10+ years, so maybe it’s been stock piling!)

With all the other plant life in the area, the garden is prone to a multitude of weeds, but many of the crops do not seem to be affected. Plus, the straw mulch is doing its work rather handily in many spots.

There is a surge in clover growth along the edges of the garden, which I understand indicates good nitrogen content in the soil. This may also be why the peas are growing like crazy — they can’t get enough of the stuff. Clover was not in evidence in the yard at the beginning of this gardening experiment, so I’d be curious to know if it needed the cleared space that the walkways provide, or whether the improved soil conditions are to blame.

I haven’t had much success with some veggies, such as carrots and radishes, but I’ve discovered in recent weeks that’s due to my own ignorance and lack of attention to detail — when they first sprout, you’re supposed to thin them out. Some of my seed packets said not to, but the successful radish grower at the local farmers market set me straight. Better late than never? Maybe I’ll try some in my box garden, which is closer to home where I can keep a closer eye on things.

The spinach and all lettuce seeds have had a zero yield, despite a second planting at the height of warm weather — I have no idea what’s up with that. There is an ant nest in the area where most of the salad greens were planted and I do wonder if they wandered off with the seeds.

There are lots of tomatoes on the vine, but none have turned red yet. They are getting very plump, though!

Aside from 3 that reached maturity, the strawberries are a complete loss. There were about 8 little berries that something (Mr. Squirrel, me thinks) got a hold of and munched at the beginning of the season. This prompted the construction of a sophisticated mesh covering, but no further berries, or flowers for that matter, have appeared.

The weird thing is, the stuff that’s supposed to be the easiest hasn’t grown for me and the “difficult” plants like broccoli and cabbage, are coming along nicely. But, despite some challenges and no baby spinach in sight, I am inordinately pleased each time I am able to harvest and eat something out of the garden.

The harvest has begun! I’m very excited to report that the 2009 Bumbling Gardener urban gardening quest has at last resulted in some significant edibles. Patience pays off with these things, as does keeping a close eye on bugs and squishing them at every opportunity. (I’ve also been known to spray soapy water as insecticide.)

I think I’m the most pleased to have grown broccoli, which was never something we grew in our garden when I was a kid so has always seemed an exotic thing to find in a backyard garden. Some gardening books classify it as hard to grow too, so I wasn’t sure what to expect.

I hadn’t realized how tall the broccoli would get, and how quickly, so at one point I had to move the pepper plants out from behind the monsters. After a few more weeks, it seemed like all the plant’s efforts were going into producing huge leaves, but no fruit was apparent. That’s when I did a significant amount of pruning, cutting all the lower leaves off — this also gave the squash I’d planted nearby a fighting chance at getting some sunlight.

After a few weeks a single broccoli bud appeared at the very centre of one of the plants. My friend Babs had warned me to cut the first one that appeared so that more would grow, so I did — with some doubts. I mean, I’ve never seen a broccoli plant in full “bloom” so I didn’t really know how they grew. I thought each plant grew a single head of broccoli, like a cabbage — one plant, one head. What I discovered actually happens is that little heads sprouts from each “joint in the stalk where a leaf sprouts out. Then you keep trimming them and harvesting tender mini heads.

I’m not sure if it was the pruning, cutting that first bud, or just the fabulous stretch of sunshine and heat in June, but last weekend I harvested a huge bowl full of broccoli! I’ve used it in several stir fry dinners along with cabbage, kale, snow peas and a variety of herbs from the balcony garden.

Verdict: Delicious!

Along with the bounty of broccoli the first week in July, I also harvested a huge bag of kale (my new favourite stir fry veggie), more snow and regular peas than I could carry in two hands, a single raspberry, and my first ever cabbage.

Confession, the peas didn’t make it out of the garden. The only thing better than fresh raspberries, warmed by the sun and fresh off the vine — is plump, juicy, fresh green peas, warmed by the sun and fresh off the vine. Really, it was just efficiency; the pea pods went straight into the compost bin. Consider it the circle of life — and a very delicious circle at that.

The cabbage I harvested was a full 6″ in diameter once all the outer, ratty looking leaves were removed. That’s bigger than it sounds! The thing that surprised me is that it’s crisp, juicy and crunchy compared to the ones I buy at the supermarket.

The kale is amazing. I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again. Yum, yum! I still haven’t gotten tired of the sauteed in butter with fresh lemon kind, but quite a few people have mentioned other options, including tossing it in olive oil and baking it in the oven until it’s crisp and crunchy like chips. That sounds interesting, especially if I sprinkle a little seasoning on it. I’ve also heard it’s good in soup and stew, so I’m sure I’ll be checking online for additional recipes, once I’ve tried every possible combination of herbs from the balcony (thyme, sage, lemon basil, regular basil, green onions, chives, oregano, cilantro, and parsley).

What I really love about the kale is that in one day from 4 plants, I harvested what would cost est. $24 at the farmers market. And it just keeps growing!

I opened the vegetable drawer in my fridge yesterday and found this fellow feebly waving his legs, going nowhere fast. I think he traveled home with me in a bag full of freshly harvested kale and broccoli leaves. My first reaction was to slam shut the drawer, despite his slow moving efforts.

Have I mentioned that I do not have any warm, fuzzy sentiments for bugs whatsoever?!

With some fear and trepidation lest he be a quick recovering, flying big brown bug — yes, I am fully aware of our difference in size, thank you — I grabbed my phone camera and snapped this pic. THEN I slammed shut the drawer.

Can you tell me, is he a good bug or a bad bug? If the former, I will put on a couple of pairs of gloves and attempt a capture and release like I do with spiders (but only because they eat nasty bugs). Otherwise, he’s there till he dies at which time I will put on a couple of pairs of gloves and attempt a capture and flush.

The mutant radishes were a bit of a bust. They sprouted like crazy, then started going to seed, but hadn’t turned any shade of pink let alone red.

I pulled one really big round one, but the rest were pretty thin and many had been attacked by worms that left trails (and poo, I think) throughout. Overall, not a great harvest.

I’ve now pulled out the whole lot and re-seeded. Before I put the seeds in, I added some manure, blended it in with the existing soil and then topped that with some new topsoil. I’m hoping that will encourage the little blighters to grow like the picture on the package this time.

Hey, maybe that’s why people sometimes put the seed packet at the end of the row, so the seeds know what they are supposed to look like when they grow up!

Not sure what, if anything, I can do about the worms.

I had my first ever, fresh, homegrown kale for dinner and it was delicious! Okay, I’m a little over-excited, I’ll admit. But I didn’t expect it to taste so good.

I’ve only ever had kale once before, at a restaurant, and it was slightly bitter. I didn’t dare tell the Scientist, who has a severe aversion to anything that might have even a remote chance of being bitter.

Recipe
The kale was so easy, I can’t believe I’ve never cooked it before. I went to my garden, cut a few big leaves, trimmed out the stalks, rinsed, chopped. I sautéed sliced garlic in butter, tossed in the kale, added salt, sautéed till just softened, then served. It took about 5 minutes. And did I mention it was delicious?!

When I decided that maybe there was a little too much salt, I added a squeeze of fresh lemon. Even better.

In fact, I assured my table mates that I wouldn’t be offended if they didn’t want to any more than try it (because I could happily have eaten the whole thing myself).

For the skeptics, let me tell you, the Scientist even ate some and didn’t hate it.