Summer Bounty

It's been a busy gardening summer, so busy that I haven't really blogged about my garden at all. On top of weeding, cleaning and reseeding, I water every day, which alone takes 30-40 minutes. It is a labour of love, and the time spent in my garden is my personal therapy session.

There is nothing more satisfying than walking out my back door and picking my food, and nothing compares to the taste of fresh, homegrown food. Recently I had a greek salad for dinner at a restaurant and it tasted bland compared to what I could make at home.

Every summer I am reminded about the true cost of our food. I am much less prone to wasting food when I have grown it with my own hands because I understand the effort that went into growing it. When I walk around farmers markets and groceries stores I'm astounded at how reasonable the food actually is, even though people complain about the high cost of fresh, healthy food.

I have four raised beds and multiple containers around the beds. Here is a selection of photos of my summer harvest:

For a family birthday party: greens (kale, chard, lettuce, beet, arugula),
cucumbers, carrots, dragon's tongue beans, tomatoes, peppers.

I tried something new this year: potatoes in grow bags. It was successful,
but next year I will go back to the garden beds to get a higher yield.

Asian greens, so good! I am currently starting new greens (sui choy and
bok choy) for my fall garden.

This mini harvest turned into pesto.

It has been a pretty good year for tomatoes, despite a rough start. The hot
summer has provided the perfect conditions for them. Now to pick them
before the squirrels eat them all! 

I like growing heirloom varieties too, like these yellow pear tomatoes.

The pride and joy of my garden: garlic! It was a bumper crop this year.

Speaking of bumper crop, my cucumbers have been amazing!

I'm trying four different varieties of hot peppers this year: jalapeño, habenero
yellow and red.

My beautiful yellow peppers, so sweet with a little kick.

My beets did very well too. There were a few gargantuan sized ones, but
these ones are so pretty when sliced.

It was my first year growing spaghetti squash and I have enjoyed it. This
is my first squashed harvested, and it was delicious.

My first successful year with onions, and the difference was buying the bulbs.
I have learned a lot this season, such as not planting onions with garlic.

Perhaps the hot, dry season wasn't as good for my zucchinis, which
did not produce as many as previous years.

Another first for me: edamame (soy beans), and I will definitely be growing
these again. 

Finally, the harvest today. I gave much of this to my neighbour who
has helped me so much by building my raised beds and fixing
my fence. He's so awesome.

My Garden This Season:

basil, thyme, cilantro, sage

arugula, salad bowl lettuce, mustard

chard

four varieties of kale

three varieties of beets

zucchini

spaghetti squash

two varieties of potatoes

yellow onions

four varieties of carrots

multiple varieties of sunflowers

cucumbers

multiple varieties of heirloom tomatoes

edamame

green beans and dragon's tongue beans

four types of hot peppers

radishes

bok choy 

celery

horseradish

hard neck and soft neck garlic

snap peas

blueberries

raspberries

strawberries

The Benefits of Bolting

We are approaching the dog days of summer and in the heat many vegetables are starting to flower. I am always surprised when I see people pulling up all their plants that have bolted, to make way for new plants. Of course once some plants have bolted their greens are bitter to taste and we need to remove them so that we can have a continuous supply of plants to eat. But those plants that have flowered are great for the garden. I would like to make an argument for intentionally letting some vegetables flower and go to seed.

Seed Saving

Leaving plants to go to seed, and then collecting the seeds, may not be on the list for novice gardeners, but I believe that it is important. It provides free seeds for subsequent years' gardens, which is always a good thing. It also preserves a diverse living history of plants so that we can maintain and grow plants that we do not typically see in the grocery store. There are many other benefits to seed saving, but an important one is that it takes the control of seeds out of the hands of corporations such as Monsanto and their terminator seeds.

Kale seed pods drying.

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Late Fall Garden

This year I expanded my fall garden to include more greens that we enjoyed in the summer (mustard, kale, chard), as well as some new ones to try growing (gai lan and pak choy). I also did some carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and turnip. The last item into my garden was garlic. My fall garden is somewhat limited because it is in a north facing backyard with very little direct sunlight.

The broccoli, cauliflower and gai lan are not faring very well. Maybe when the warm weather returns in the spring the broccoli and cauliflower will give me a nice early harvest. Fingers crossed. I hope whatever ate my gai lan enjoyed it.

Although I am not going out into the backyard frequently enough, I am pleased with how things are going. The kale and chard from the summer are still going strong and we use these whenever we remember to go out before dark. With the early evening in the northern hemisphere in November, I had to go out with a flashlight this past week to get some greens for my pasta sauce.

I planted red mustard in the early fall and it is doing well. I am pleasantly surprised to see that the green mustard that I let go to seed in the summer reseeded on it's own as well. 

The Brussels sprouts are filling out and getting big and round. I harvested some for our Thanksgiving dinner in October but made sure to leave the stalks growing so I can harvest the rest for our Christmas evening dinner with the family. It always makes me proud to have homegrown food for such a special family dinner.

My turnips and pak choy are the surprise hits of the fall garden this year! I shouldn't be amazed, yet I am delighted at the difference fresh pak choy tastes compared to the store bought variety. It tastes perfect sautéed in some oil, garlic and ginger. And oh the turnips! I realize that they aren't to everyone's taste, but they have so much flavour when served garden to table. I was raised with them either boiled or steamed, then mashed with cooked carrots, but I want to try roasting them, as an Instagram friend suggested.

Next year I want to remember to add cabbage to my fall garden.

I regularly post in-process photos of my garden and its results on Pinterest, as crustyroll35.