Let's Get Our Garden On!
Inspired in part by the Hive community, I began reclaiming lawn space, building raised boxes, and blogging about my adventures in gardening. This might be year #5 of the ever-growing garden that officially launches this weekend every year.
In this update, I take a closer look at the garden to see if there are any veggies among the insane. early summer foliage.
Last week's smash hit of a #gardenhive post showcased the early blooms. My hydrangeas were a little shy but have popped this week among said insane foliage.
First stop is the hot pepper bed. shouldering up to eachother in this raised box are chili, Hungarian wax, habanero, ghost, moruga, carolina reaper and these jalapenos. These are my staple pepper as they have a moderate heat, good size and flavour I love. I think the habanero might be the ideal pepper as far as heat and flavour but those bloom a little later. I will probably pull a few peppers a week off this plant for use in sandwiches, nachos, and pretty my every food I can put it in. The rest will become hot sauce, along with the other hot peppers to be showcased in future episodes.
Speaking of peppers, I grow the sweet mild varieties as well. The pepper in the background started out like the flower in the foreground a couple weeks ago. It is still only about 3 inches long and will likely take a couple more to be worth picking. It will be the first of the year and will find a home in some happy salads and is FANTASTIC on a pizza from scratch.
On the theme of salad, we are growing plenty of that too. So much so that I have no clue what half of this is. Collectively it is arugula, red lettuce, mescaline, spinach, assorted lettuce, swiss char, radish, and I am glad it is the girls department to harvest and sort it all.
The ladies also enjoy their zucchini. These ones are yellow Italian squash and coming along nicely, along with a handful of smaller ones in close pursuit. We will let these grow a few inches longer, harvest them before they become too seedy, and use them for pastas and sliced like veggie pepperoni.
Our cherry tomato vines are now taller than I am. With the other strains going nuts in the bottom of the raised box, I knew I would have to build a trellis and help them climb up into the sun. Mission accomplished as they are over 6 feet tall and a closer look shows there are a few bunches of fruit! Excellent as snacks straight up, in salads, and, again, pizza toppings.
The long green bean vines started a little slowly this year, which they may have last year when I think about it. Anyhow, I have a few vines climbing up to the top of the fence, and I will strive to keep them on my side this year. These cute little purple flowers will each become the early green beans which are great steamed. Eventually, we will be over run with them and then it is pickling time! My favourite ones will go in with chili peppers for a little salty spicy snack.
We have harvested dozens of strawberries through June in year 2 of the strawberry patch. The leaves are now completely filling the garden box and the berries had actually slowed down this week. Upon closer inspection, the next round of berries are indeed growing and may be denser the second round. Cereals and pancakes and even soda water have been where the early ones went and if they boom, we will be giving away baskets and making jam out of them as well. I forgot to snap a shot of the raspberry buds but it looks like we will have many after a year of none last summer.
This is the last known status of the garden seeing as I was so close in on all the shots in this update. I will snap a picture in the morning (after enjoying the #morningbowl with @davedickeyyall) and post it in the comments to show you the growth in the last week of alternating rainstorm/hot as hell periods.
Mom started me along my path of growing stuff when I was a kid. Motivated by so many blockchain blogging gardeners, I figured I would plant and share and learn as I reclaim as much grass space as I can. It has turned out to be a fruitful experience and I hope to inspire others to sow and grow no matter what your location or experience level is.
Then, blog about it using #gardenjournal and the new #gardenhive tags as we network and curate the journals of other green thumbs, outdoor enthusiasts and fresh whole foodies.
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