Well, can you believe it....summer already? Where did spring go? It just flew by here. Now it's time to take stock and relax a bit. For starters, we are eating a fair amount from the garden, including carrots that were planted out last fall. Yes, it is zone 6 here in our garden in Nova Scotia, Canada, but the seeds germinated last autumn and sort of chilled out under the row cover all winter. Spring came and they started to grow...time to harvest now. The neat thing is, I didn't harvest all the carrots in autumn last year, leaving one to grow to seed this year. See that bloom by the carrots..well...last year's mature carrot. Under the soil, it is rough, woody and inedible, but above ground, in it's second year, growing a fantastic bouquet of bloom.
I'm pretty delighted to be having some success with the Windsor Beans I put out, under the cold frame cover in February. Sprouted some inside for winter greens but couldn't get all the seeds in the pot, so, scraped a little soil aside in the raised bed cold frame and pushed them in to see if they would grow. Well, they did! Well, eventually they did. Firstly, they sort of sat there, but once they liked the new digs..they took off. So, the last few days we've started to harvest them. Only yesterday, did I notice the black aphids at the plant tips, that seem to plague broad beans but they don't seem to be causing any problems with the beans. By the way, not to confuse anyone, these are called Windsor, Fava or Broad beans, depending on where you grew up, as far as I can make out.
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| Add Strawberries to Your Summer Salad |
You are doing really well for harvesting - we have only had strawberries, rhubarb and left over spring cabbage!
ReplyDeleteOh Sue, your allotment is wonderful! Strawberries and rhubarb doing well here also. Thanks for your comment.
DeleteLook at those lovely carrots. Weather is that wet here in Dublin my carrot seeds have been washed out of the ground 3 times already.
ReplyDeleteHave a good weekend.
So sorry to hear about your carrot seeds. They can be a bother sometimes. Our new rows just germinated so fingers crossed they will make it to adults ;-) Thanks so much for coming by my blog.
DeleteIt's been very cool out here and not much is very far along. The sun will come out and summer will come in July, but for now it's weeds, weeds and more weeds!
ReplyDeleteThat little bean looks delectable!
Thanks for coming by the blog. Agree with you about the weeds..seem to be everywhere now.
DeleteYour kind comments are always appreciated.
Oh, my, everything is growing well and looks so tasty! Why does food from the garden always seem to be more tempting than the grocery store!! Nancy
ReplyDeleteYes, food from the garden can't help but be tastier and look better. Thanks Nancy, I know your garden is very productive. Keep puppy away from the carrots ;-).
DeleteBrenda it looks wonderful. Are those your strawberries? I picked four today. :) My fortex beans germinated the past couple of days. 100%. I'm so impressed...and anxious to try them. They are only two inches tall, so I'll be patient. Everything is super slow to get going. It is supposed to be rainy all week I think. It just isn't warm. How about there? You look very far ahead of us!!
ReplyDeleteI hope you have nice gardening weather this weekend.
Erin
Heh Erin, so pleased to read your comment. Thank you. Yes, our strawberries. Have no idea what variety but a few ever bearing in there. Plants were bought end of season and were LOLA's (lost labels). Thank you for your weekend weather wishes...grey grey grey..with rain. ;-)
DeleteYour carrots look so delicious! I don't have any carrots yet, but my peas started to bloom 3 days ago.
ReplyDeleteI too, had the issue with the highlighted text...I was able to remove it by going into HTML editing mode and removing the code that was causing it, but haven't been able to figure out how to remove it in the normal editing mode as yet.
Thank you for your kind comments and for visiting the blog. I am so thrilled you told me about the highlighted text..will see if it will work. Thank you!!
DeleteWell I couldn't do it the way you suggested but I saw there was the option of background text color and changed it to green..so that has worked..green is a pretty close match!! Thanks again.
DeleteWhat kind of carrots are they and what month did you put them in your cold frame?
ReplyDeleteHi. Thanks so much for visiting the blog. These carrots were put in the veg garden last fall and were kept alive under a row cover. They were not in the raised bed with the cold frame cover but I have had success with them grown that way as well. I will check my past blogs and see if I can post a link in a further reply to when and where I planted the carrots I harvested for this blog post, okay. Note..these carrots germinated last fall, and were not very big when the winter came. So, I covered the whole bed with remay, then sprinkled it with straw and then the row cover, which is just plastic over hoops. You can do this!! I've learned so much from Niki Jabbour's Year Round Vegetable Gardener.
DeleteThe variety, is King Midas from Rene's Seeds and another variety that I haven't harvested yet and doing equally well is Atomic Red.
Here is the blog post showing the beds with the plastic row cover which I would have put over the bed on colder nights and then, totally tucked in for winter as described above. The carrots are in there.
Deletehttp://gardeningbren.blogspot.ca/2011/10/were-not-only-harvesters.html
Wow, I don't think I've ever seen someone overwinter carrots and get flowers before. I really thought that was for people in warmer climates. We're just starting to pick strawberries here and I agree, definitely put them in salads, they are so wonderful.
ReplyDeleteAwesome flower, I must say. Like Queen Anne's Lace only huge and more round, not as flat. It was fun to see but am not letting it go to seed as I don't have the room.
DeleteI don't know what it is about that raspberry vinegar that just brings out the taste of the strawberry but it does. I bet any fruit vinegar would do the same thing.
You can't beat broad beans picked fresh from the garden. We never seemed to plant enough though when we grew them in the past. Your salad sounds delicious, I can almost taste those strawbs with the raspberry vinegar wow!
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul for commenting. Broad Beans are new to me this year so I was really excited to find the flavor so fantastic. Am allowing the rest to mature a bit more. Next year, will plant more!
DeleteEverything looks just beautiful! I wish I could grow carrots like that. I don't think I could overwinter them successfully because voles would be underground looking for them, especially in winter.You make me want to try broadbeans someday; I've never had them, but they do look good!
ReplyDeleteVoles..never thought about that. We used to have a lot of mice around but the population has declined, along with the rabbits. Please do try the broadbeans, They were a first for me this year and hope to grow more next year. Plant early..they can take it!
DeleteHi Brenda. New guy here. Do you buy or make raspberry vinegar? It sounds awesome. Raspberry is my favorite flavor. What can you put it on. Salad and ...?
ReplyDeleteErin, thanks for commenting again. I bought this raspberry champagne vinegar but sure would like to try making some. Sounds like fun heh. I am going to try the one at this site as she says one can use any berries:
Deletehttp://www.themotherhuddle.com/homemade-strawberry-vinegar/
I do mostly use my vinegars on salads, especially this time of year. I remember my dad adding malt vinegar to the stove top toffy he used to make..just a titch at the end of boiling. Why it worked I don't know but it kinda made it zing!
I want to come for meals at your place! You make everything sound so fresh and delicious. Can you believe that I have never tried fava beans. Hmm...I wonder if they will have any at this week's Farmer's Market. I want to try them. Have a great long weekend!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations for your vegetables!!
ReplyDelete