It’s trash day which means looking up and down the street to see who hasn’t filled their green bin! LOL Yes, I do compost but this time of year I have far more yard waste than is possible for me to compost. I’ve been frantically trying to finish pruning the fruit trees and elderberries. I ended up filling up three of these bins this week:
I am also bidding a fond farewell to my raspberries this week. I’ve grown them for 12+ years in containers and I will miss nibbling on them while I’m out watering. But the amount of water required to produce such a small volume of low calorie food is simply not worth it. Especially since I can buy an entire season’s production for about $5 in the freezer section of my grocery store! I was able to find good homes for almost half of them. 🙂 The large pots and trellis system will be planted with purple sweet potatoes, a much better bang calorically and nutritionally for my limited space and watering restrictions. It’s a bit early, but I am impatiently waiting for the organic sweet potatoes I purchased to start sending out slips. I couldn’t find any locally so I ordered a case (50lbs) from my local grocery store for$48. We’ve been eating lots and lots of sweet potatoes lately! I’ll post some of our favorite recipes in the recipe section. The sweet potato brownies were surprisingly good – even my husband ate them! And forget oatmeal for breakfast, try roasted purple sweet potatoes and apple sprinkled with cinnamon and chopped pecans. YUMM! I’ll miss my raspberries but I’m looking forward to my sweet potatoes!
Part of the challenge of gardening on an urban lot is tucking in as many veggies as possible in whatever spots are available to you! This area, roughly 9’x3′ of useable growing space, has been my compost area for several years. Using the “slow method”, I had three separate piles going at all times. But due to limited space, I decided that the slow method wasn’t giving me maximum results and took up valuable dirt space that could be used for growing edibles. So, last year I chopped down a shrubby useless tree-thing (you can see the stump being used as a hose holder), shoveled out 5 wheelbarrows of awesome compost into my garden beds, and planted some veggies.
Then life happened. Do you see the back fence? On the opposite side of the fence is where the air conditioner lives. After 42 years, our air conditioner went out. Pretty good life-span for an ac unit, especially here in Central California where we get several weeks of triple digit days during the summer months. So, the fence came out and the ac crew trampled my lovely kale, grape tomatoes, chives, and even the beans climbing up the fence, back into compost. But, losing a few kale plants was a small price to pay for having air conditioning!
So, I got the area cleaned out and re-planted a few weeks ago. I did cheat and planted a few dozen bean seeds along the fence but I doubt they come up. February is too cold for seed germination. So I will be planting the climbing areas in earnest in another month or so. I was smart and bought my purple beans early this year. Last year I waited too long and had to plant regular green beans. They tasted great but I missed half of them because they hid so well among the leaves! In the past, I’ve always kept my own bean seed but due to life interfering with my gardening ambitions, I haven’t been able to save any for a few years. So, I’m starting fresh this year!
I also have to confess to buying kale and brussel sprouts starts from the nursery. I did start several dozen kale seeds that I had saved from last year. They were growing great until they weren’t. I watered them one day and the next, slugageddon! One of the drawbacks to living where we have fairly mild winters is that a gardener is doing battle with the slimy hoards 12 months out of the year. Sigh, so instead of being self-reliant, I supported our local economy, which is also a very good thing! LOL
2/12/19 All planted! Kale, Brussel Sprouts, Chives, and a few bean seeds against the fence.
Two weeks later, and all is growing well, except the beans! LOL It’s hard to see, but I’m using weed eater cord for the beans to climb. We had two spools from our now defunct weed eater that wouldn’t fit into our new one. Waste not, want not, right? Today’s pictures below:
2/25/29 The brussel sprouts have grown a few inches and are really loving all the rain we’ve gotten in the past two weeks. But I should probably put some more Sluggo out . . .
2/25/19 The kale, chives, and weeds are really taking off. Even though we’ve had some light frost, this area of the yard is fairly protected. In another two weeks, I should be able to start using a few kale leaves in our salads.
Update 3/12/2019
The beans are up! Wow, it’s too early but they don’t seem to have been held back by recent frost and heavy rains! Depending on which chart you use, our last frost date is anywhere between February 20 and April 12. Personally, in my adult gardening life, I can’t remember a frost after March, so chances are good that these beans just might make it! If not, I can replant! I should also note that this is in a fairly small, sheltered corner of the yard.
The kale have many more sets of leaves!
Egyptian walking onion babies that I rescued from the lawn and tucked into this section.
One of my winter garden chores is to re-do my Jerusalem Artichoke beds. After twelve years of triple digit summers, the plastic planters have started disintegrating. I’ve also been lazy about harvesting them as often as I should which has resulted in crowded planters. So, Jerusalem artichokes have been on the menu more often than not! Usually, I simply slice them raw into our green salads. They are a sweet crunchy addition, a bit like a carrot, and work well during the winter months.
Last night, I roasted the sunchokes pictured above with garlic (from the garden), 1/2 of a chopped yellow onion, salt, pepper, and thyme. My husband was a bit surprised at the first bite – he thought he was eating a potato! But once he adjusted his expectations, he put a dent in his portion!
Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes
Directions:
Scrub the Jerusalem Artichokes/ Sunchokes and remove any dark spots. Cut into uniform pieces. In a roasting pan combine Jerusalem Artichokes, fresh chopped garlic cloves or powder, 1/2 of a chopped onion, and seasonings of your choice – I used salt, pepper, and thyme. You can also toss them in olive oil if you prefer. We avoid oil in our house. Roast at 400 for 45 minutes, stirring halfway through. You can also use an air fryer to make them extra crispy although I’ve found I get the best results if I boil them first. Enjoy!
Wow, where did the time go? So sorry I’ve been neglecting this blog. I started it so that I would have an online journal of when I planted things, which recipes work best when I have an overabundance of an herb or vegetable, and a place to record some of the crazy meanderings of my mind while weeding a garden bed!
Nope, didn’t happen quite as planned this year. But then, when do things ever happen according to plan? I won’t bore you with details but once again health issues and family obligations got in the way of my blogging ambitions. But not to worry, just because I wasn’t writing about gardening, doesn’t mean I wasn’t gardening! And frankly, most days I either had the energy to write about gardening or take care of my garden. So mostly, I took care of the garden although this years Fall garden was pretty much a failure. I did get in 200 garlic and 100 onions. As soon as I finish searching them out from under all of the weeds, I’ll let you know how they are doing! And the 36 kale plants I started and never got around to putting in the ground became slug food. One day they were there happily growing in their tray and a few days later, slimeageddon! LOL
Last year I also started gardening a new section where I had previously been slow composting for the past 10 years. It was growing great – pole beans, kale, chives, a couple of volunteer cherry tomato plants, and a few wandering herbs. Then our air conditioner died and that little bit of yard I had reclaimed was laid waste by the air conditioning crew traipsing back and forth to remove the old unit and put in a new one. Sigh . . .
The good news is that the area is cleared up and I’ve started replanting. I’m looking forward to harvesting significantly more green beans than I did last year! And remember the cucumber overload? The garlic dill slices I made last year have been a huge hit! I will definitely be planting too many cucumbers again this year as well as increasing my Egyptian Walking Onion Beds. The dried onion powder is the absolute bomb in my spice cabinet! But there were also a few failures. I’ve made garlic powder in the past and thought it was too much work and not worth the effort or electricity. This year I read about roasted garlic powder and thought that might take less time in the dehydrator and be tastier than store bought garlic powder. Nope. Definitely cheaper to buy garlic powder in bulk than to make it myself. The roasting before dehydrating didn’t magically transform the process. So, I continue to live and learn. Projects planned for the next few months of 2019 include:
Finish pruning the fruit trees.
Downsizing and replacing my Jerusalem Artichoke beds.
Removing the raspberries and replacing them with more sweet potatoes.
Finish my ornamental sitting area in the back corner of the yard. (It’s too shady to grow anything edible in!)
Find a dedicated area on the back patio for my tropical fruits!
Trying to limit my plantings to things/quantities that we can use!
It’s good to be back chatting, planning and hopefully, tracking my progress! Here’s to a very productive New Year!
