The Greens Are a Coming In

Went to the Oakland County Greenhouse this afternoon to trim, thin and harvest. I also had to water both the growing and newly seeded bed. Spent Sunday laying out and seeding the second bed and sowed 17 varieties of greens and herbs. I still need to clean my recently harvested parsley seed and sow that soon too. 

 The first bed is growing by leaps and bounds. When you can watch the bed and track it carefully, you very nearly see the daily growth - something I usually don't observe in the outdoor vegetable gardens as closely. The beans seem to put on 6 inches a day and are starting to twine around themselves up the pole. As you can see, they've hit the tops of their poles and would probably grow to twelve feet if I had the trellis or head room. They've just started flowering so I expect we'll have beans in a couple of weeks.

The lettuces and arugula are planted tightly, so they've been developing long stems that need to be picked off before they go into a salad. The leaves are good and sweet, one friend I gave some to said the lettuces tasted just like butter.

The radishes, now 5+ weeks old, are getting almost too big to pick. Joe, on the greenhouse staff, suggested roasting them with a bit of olive oil and salt and said it takes away any bitterness. I think I'll put them into a mixed root vegetable roast that I plan to do tomorrow.

Love taking pictures of the nasturtium leaves, their variegation is so pretty. This variety is 'Alaska' and I'm hoping it will trail like the ones I planted last year. Haven't tasted these yet, am waiting for some more foliage before I harvest.

Here's an exciting shot of bed #2 . Well, exciting to me anyway. Nothing like a blank slate in which to sow some beautiful seeds. Amended the bed with composted manure as it is a straight peat-perlite mix and added some soil moisture crystals to keep the peat moist. Once that peat dries out, it is hard to get wet again.

Here is that blank slate - not quite so blank anymore. 2 kinds of radishes, 2 kinds of spinach, more dill and broccoli raab - and of course, my favorite - arugula. Had trouble last year with aphids on the arugula and had to rip most of it out. So far we are aphid free but that is subject to change.  Have sowed the new bed at new moon so I expect it will take a few days longer to see the seeds sprout. The first bed I sowed at full moon and the seeds were up in a hurry. So we'll see if the tidal pull has any bearing on the timing.

Just love the bright lime green of the Black-seeded Simpson lettuce played off the dark greens of the beans and other plants. Definitely a candidate for outdoor landscaping - maybe using it as an edging for a flower bed?

As I said - the beans are flowering and here's the proof. First flowers I've seen with lots to come. We'll have to see how well the vines hold up with a load of beans on them. I've been twining them around each other so they can  use the other plants for support.

First small heads on the broccoli raab. So far I've just been eating it raw in salads but the stems and soon-emerging buds will make their way to the skillet in the near future. I probably will saute it in olive oil with a touch of fresh garlic and a splash of good balsamic vinegar. This is the first year I've grown it and so far it's a success.











That's the indoor veg garden tour for today. Have been eating salads daily and enjoying them immensely. Nothing like growing your own food!