Peas & Quiet!

Stopped at the garden for about 40 minutes today to try and get some pepper plants in and a forget-me-not that our friend gave us today and decided to weed the garlic bed.  As I was walking through the peas, I saw them.......glorious young peas......sugar snaps!  How fabulous! All this crazy weather has been good for the 8 25-foot rows of peas we have up there on the Ridge!  We're going to make a Szechuan Noodle Salad for Monday.  I don't normally say this but "Yummo!"

Gardening can be hazardous!

So last week Adam & I decided to start putting the posts in to trellis the peas.  He got it all done while I weeded the raised beds.  I thought I'd give it a go and use the 25-pound post driver to plow a post into the ground.  It seemed pretty easy. I got 2 posts in and then it happened. I must have gone too far up & the damn driver fell on my head. I was instantly shocked! And then a drop of blood fell on my glasses and I panicked!  Adam was awesome! He took off his undershirt and have it to me to stop the bleeding, which seemed massive at the time.  Fortunately, the bleeding stopped but I called my doctor anyway & went to ER to get it cleaned up.  After 3 hours of waiting at the Harrisburg Hospital ER, I got 3 staples put in my head (no anesthetic, just a squeezed of Adam's hand)!  A week later and they're out.  Just a little head's up if you're in your garden this year so really be careful or let someone else do the dirty work. 

Spring 2001!

It's the first day of spring and with the help of Grandma Britcher and Derek (Adam's 16-year old cousin), we got so much accomplished today in the garden.  First we got the strawberries planted.  They don't look like much right now but give 'em time.  Just give 'em time.  Soon there will be 18   strawberry plants with runners going in every which direction.  Adam got us both June bearers & Ever bearing varieties. 

The we got around to planting our first batch of red beets, radishes (including the  French Breakfast variety), turnips, and two kinds of carrots.  We'll plant the other half of the 5X8 ft raised beds in a couple of weeks.  The red beets and the regular variety of radishes were purchased at our local farm stand (Butcher's Farm Market).  The French Breakfast variety, Turnips (Purple Top White Globe) , and one variety of carrots (Nantes Scarlet Half Long) are from the Beekman1802 seed pack I purchased at work (Williams-Sonoma).  And the other variety of carrots (Kaleidoscope) is a certified organic variety from Burpee. 

Next we worked on our lettuce bed.  We put in some Arugula, a Burpee looseleaf Lettuce Blend, an Heirloom Four Seasons Lettuce, Baby Spinach, Baby Choi, & at Adam's mom's request, a strip of lettuce that apparently produces head lettuce.  Holy Cow!  We're going to have so much salad this year.  I briefly contemplated becoming a vegetarian but then I remember that a good salad goes great with a juicy delicious steak! 

Finally,  we worked meticulously to put our peas in perfect rows.  Spacing each row 36" apart, we successfully put in 4 rows of Sugar Peas & Snap peas.  We will work on trellising them this year so that we don't have to watch rows of peas grow on top of each other and into the rows.  We decided on 36" inches apart because our rototiller will fit between each row making it easier to weed. 

To Shell or Not to Shell, That is the Poll

So last year Miguel wanted to grow dandelions... and that was quickly put to a halt.  This year though, the subject item is more reasonable.

Miguel wants to grow the types of peas that you have to shell.  While I don't mind trying something new, i.e. rhubarb, I think we purchased one bag of peas in the last year.  Plus I am not one for the extra work of having to shell peas.

So the new poll is, should Miguel and Adam plant the type of peas you have to shell?

Which Came First?

So shortly after Miguel and I decided to start a blog about our garden, we discovered the Fabulous Beekman Boys.  The Beekman Boys are two city guys that moved to the country to start a farm and raise goats.  There are several parallels between the Beekman Boys and Miguel and I, and I still claim that we are more fabulous and pre date the Beekman Boys, but oh well.

Despite ranting there for a bit, we have decided to purchase their seed set that is being sold at Williams-Sonoma.  Mostly because Miguel likes to shop and he works there, but I guess because they are some good seeds.  Below is a link to the Beekman Boys website where you can get more information about the seeds.

http://beekman1802.com/garden/grow-with-us.html

Plowed!

Despite the chilly temperature this morning, we got the garden plowed.  The soil looks amazing and tomorrow we will sow our peas.  We're only a few days off from the traditional St. Patrick's Day date, but the garden was too wet to plow and yesterday's 70-something weather helped bunches.  Adam & I got the onions in their bed today as well as some leeks.  Surely, these beds will allow our root veggies and onions to be the best they can possibly be.

2011

So let's try this again.  2010 Garden was very successful and we will be giving updates in future posts.  Unfortunately, the weeds started to take over right around the posts stopped.  This was due to the fact Adam had to study for the PA bar.  He passed so I guess the garden suffering some is an ok loss.

We've already started some things inside for 2011 Garden and we built some new raised beds to try some new things.  Our future posts will show some of these new experiments.

Good luck to all the other gardeners out there and hopefully we will have a great 2011 season.

Reward for Our Visitors

So in order to thank our garden helpers, Adam created this muy delicioso dinner.  The main course was a pizza with sliced potatoes fried in garlic and olive oil, chorizo sausage boiled in our Chimay clone homebrew beer, caramelized onions, and goat cheese, and then drizzled with a olive oil / butter sauce infused with garlic, thyme, and oregano.

For a side dish, Adam's mother gave him a recipe for Cool Cucumber Salad.  This is similar to other cucumber salads that we have made except this does not require sugar, and it has penne pasta in it and some mustard.

Potatoes, Onions, and Cucumbers all came from the garden.

Visitors to the Garden

During a much needed break from bar preparation, our friends Kate and Becca came with us to help weed the garden.  In addition to weeding, we had quite a few things to pick including onions, red beats, cucumbers, zucchini, and potatoes.

We also had our first two ripe cherry tomatoes and our tomato plants have even more buds on them than last week.

Graduation Gift?

So in order to make weeding a little bit easier, my parents purchased Miguel and myself a graduation gift... in the form of a rear tine tiller.

It actually makes weeding a great deal easier, and when we start to do the second round of plantings, this will help tear up the ground much easier and in a more precise manner than the tractor or by hand.

Miguel is just demonstrating... I'm the one that actually uses it.  ;-)

Cup o' Joe

Sometimes Miguel needs a little pick me up in the mornings...

Apparently picking potatoes works just as well....

A Different Perspective

Sometimes it's hard to describe exactly how big our garden is this year.  One way of describing it is that it's twice as big as last year.  That's only helpful if you saw it last year.  So in order to help visualize here is a picture.

That's me and our car at the far end of the garden.  Part of the reason the garden is bigger is the addition of new types of plants.  Last year we only had tomatoes, peppers, beans, zucchini, pumpkins, and cucumbers.  This year, we have branched out into mammoth sunflowers (apparently they grow to be 12 feet tall)...

Corn (yellow, white, and bi-color)....

 

Potatoes (pictured are our blue potatoes that we purchased at Wegman's because Adam saw that the eyes were growing so he thought they may be good seed potatoes... they were)...

 

Tomatillos (pictured below).

Squash (such as spaghetti squash pictured below)...

and eggplants.

Another reason the garden is so large is that some of our plants got destroyed after a hail storm.  On the day of Adam's graduation from law school, Carlisle had a big hail storm and some of our plants that we had in containers got hit pretty hard.  So as soon as graduation was over Adam started some more plants from seeds.  Turns out our original plants were just fine and those are the ones giving us vegetables now.  The ones Adam started after the storm are just now giving us vegetables so it looks like we (and our friends and family) will be eating well all summer long.

 Below are some pictures of the hail after it stormed that day.

Some Recent Meals

We recently had an opportune day where there was a nice variety of vegetables ready.

So we decided to have a feast.

 

Our delicious meal included grilled zucchini and yellow squash; cucumber, tomato, and onion salad; roasted new potatoes; and zucchini bread for dessert.

Earlier in the week.......
 

Raspberry Ice Cream with fresh raspberries from Adam's parents' house.

 

Potatoes and Sugar Peas cooked in milk.

My Bad.....

Jack was upset that we left him out and wants everyone to know that he helps out too.

Father's Day

Even on his special day he still helps out in the garden.

 So does Adam's mom.