Fresh from my Garden

Monday, June 3, 2013

Garlic Harvest & a tiny carrot

These are the garlic cloves that I planted last fall (Sep 2012)

Harvested them & put them out in the shade to cure.

Also found a tiny carrot from the garden...

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Gardening - its pleasures & challenges

If you look at the pictures of my garden on this blog, it might seem like a perfect garden flourishing well with absolutely no problems. But like any gardener, I face a lot of challenges in my garden.

My backyard is a place where I LOVE to spend a lot of time. Every morning after my kids are off to school, I spend some time in my garden, walking thru each & every part of it, inspecting all my plants to make sure that they are growing well. What can give you more joy & pleasure than seeing your plants growing & producing for your family? After school hours, my kids join me in helping me around my garden. They love to see when new changes have occured in my garden - for eg: a ripe tomato or beans & okra that are ready to pick.

But with all the pleasure, comes a lot of challenges. First, the weather - sometimes the extreme heat & at other times, the sudden drop in temperature are obstacles preventing the plants from producing well.
Second, the bugs - In several occasions, I've had seedlings "disappear overnight"....nice healthy seedlings of spinach, carrots & other tiny seedlings which grow nicely until they are about 2-3in high & then suddenly disappear overnight. This is in spite of having a 3 ft chicken wire around them. Its so frustrating to wake up in the morning & see that ur seedlings have been eaten up by bugs. On the advice of my local garden store associate, I used diluted dish wash soap to spray my plants. It didn't work. Neither did spraying them with Neem oil...the bugs just kept getting at my plants anyway. Now I've almost given up on my spinach & carrots.

The third & worst of all - A "rabbit". I had mentioned in an earlier post about a rabbit getting into my vegetable patch. It keep happening often & keep damaging my plants. My garden store associate suggested spraying the plants with diluted hot pepper sauce. I'm going to try that & see if it works with the rabbits.
There was an instance where beautiful my store bought Marigold plants with lots of flowers on them were completely chewed down by these rabbits. Now only the stubs remain.

But even with all these challenges, I love my garden & am planning to expand it a little more next season hoping that Mother Nature with bless us with lots of produce for our family.

I hope this blog post has not discouraged anyone from starting a garden. Despite all the challenges, gardening is a wonderful way to use your time fruitfully. Nothing more rewarding that see your basket fill up with all the vegetables & fruits picked fresh from your own yard.

If you don't have a garden space yet, start one right away & enjoy ur produce Fresh from your Garden!!!

Here are some pics of my beautiful plants still producing....& some Marigold plants started from seed...I have placed them on the window ledge to protect them from the rabbits.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Fall Planting - Growing Garlic

I had mentioned in an earlier post about "Fall Planting" - vegetables & herbs that like the cooler weather are planted during spring & fall.

I planted some sugar peas, spinach, carrots, cauliflower, onions & garlic in late summer-early fall ( end of Aug - early Sep). Unfortunately my cauliflower seedlings were eaten up by bugs & I couldn't find more seeds in my nearest garden center. When I found some beetroot seeds, I decided to try those & they germinated beautifully, but soon they got eaten by bugs too. Same thing happened with my spinach too.

I tried using Neem Oil & diluted dish wash soap to spray on the plants to get rid of my bugs. Both neither of these helped.

Anyway, this post was about growing garlic. Garlic is a wonderful bulb that enhances the flavor of your dishes. I use a lot of garlic at home in most of my dishes. So I decided to trying growing some this year.
They are very easy to plant & grow. They hardly require any care.

Garlic should be planted in well drained, rich soil in a sunny location. Choose some big & healthy (without any black spots) garlic from your grocery store. The bigger the cloves, the bigger the garlic bulb produced. To plant, separate a garlic pod into cloves with the skin intact. If the skin is damaged it could lead to fungal infections. Place each clove into a hole or furrow with the root side down & pointed side up. Loosely cover with soil, water lightly & watch the sprouts grow. You can see the sprouts in a week to 10 days. Each clove will produce a whole new garlic bulb.

This pic was taken 7-10 days after the garlic cloves were planted

Spacing : Each clove should be placed 6-8 inches apart to help the bulb spread out & grow big.

Bittergourd plants spread on the chicken wire around my garlic patch

Water lightly once the sprouts appear. Over-watering can promote fungal growth. The garlic shoots must be fertilized in spring when most of the growth occurs.

In spring the garlic shoots will start to flower. Wait for the flowers to die & the leaves to die (turn brown) back a little around June - July. This is when the garlic is ready for harvest. Carefully dig up your bulbs without damaging them.

Then tie the garlic together in bundles & hang them to dry for a few weeks in a shaded, drafty area.
When the garlic is dry, trim the roots without damaging the skin. Store in recycled onion or garlic bags.

Monday, September 24, 2012

My veggie patch & a rabbit!!!

Guess what I found inside my fenced in (with chicken wire) vegetable patch when we came back after a 2 day vacation - a baby rabbit!!!!
I was eager to see the changes/developments on my plants after ignoring them for two days & what do i see? A little bunny scampering inside my vegetable patch. I wonder how it got in there. We have protected our vegetable patches with 2 ft high chicken wire, but I guess it found a small gap & burrowed under the wire to get in there. It took us almost 20-30 mins to get it out of there. We didnt want to touch it coz it was a wild rabbit & we were not sure how safe it would be to touch them....kept chasing it till in desperation it jumped & climbed over the chicken wire & escaped.(didnt get a pic of the rabbit...we just wanted it out of the patch ASAP!!!)

Anyway, am glad none of my plants were harmed, neither was the rabbit. The only idea was to get it out unharmed so that it wouldn't damage any of my plants.
But am happy to have got a good produce from my plants in these days.

Sharing some pics...