Out of the Garden Salad

Assorted garden lettuce
Couple baby carrots (tiny ones)
Sliced kohlrabi
Snipped garlic chives
Baby pea pods
Nasturtium leaves and a flower or two
Lawry's garlic powder
Minced onion bits
Use kitchen shears to cut up carrots, chives, and nasturtium leaves. Throw pea pods in whole and slice kohlrabi in thin slivers. Toss with small amount of honey-dijon dressing. Awesome!
Young kohlrabi http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/kohlrabi1.html

Square Foot Gardens

I built three raised garden beds. Two are 4'x4' with a grid of sixteen 12-inch squares in each bed. The third bed was a bargain! The wood only cost $2. I bought left-over cut wood at Lowe's and had the four pieces cut into 3.5' pieces, so this bed is slightly smaller and I adjusted the spaces according to what I planted in each.

In Bed #1 I've already harvested a bunch of radishes (cultivars: Sparkler and Cherry Belle), broccoli, and kohlrabi. Now there are two tomato plants - a Big Boy and a Big Beef, pole beans, bush beans, green pepper plants, still have a broccoli which brings in just enough to add to salads. I planted some store-bought brussel sprout plants five months ago and they are just now starting to product brussel sprouts!

In Bed #2 there is a Better Boy tomato, green peas (delicious picked young and added to salad), lettuce, mesclun, nasturtium, chives, marigolds, and a cantaloupe plant.

Bed #3 has two Early Girl tomato plants which I started from seeds, sage, bush beans, beets, three sunflowers, cosmos, margarite daisy, and lobelia. Two bell pepper seedlings bit the dust. They just weren't strong enough to withstand the gusty winds we've been having.

Container Garden

In November 2008 I started my container garden. After taking two Garden Workshops at my community college I was gong-ho to get started! First, I bought some 5-gal and 3-gal paint cans to plant a cherry tomato and Patio tomato plant in; followed by a six-pack of brussel sprouts and broccoli. Every time I'd go to Wal-Marts or Lowe's I couldn't resist buying some vegetables, seeds, or flowers. Finding the right size containers posed the most problem: Is it deep enough? Wide enough? Now, five months later, I can say my lettuce did really well in its 5-inch high bus pan container. The broccoli and some radishes were planted in 10.5 quart pails. I think maybe they were too deep, or not wide enough; anyhow, they didn't produce well. The radishes I had planted in regular shallow planters produced healthy, delicious tasting radishes. This spot on my patio only gets about four or five hours of sunlight which also may be the reason production wasn't the best for the sun-loving vegetables. This was the first time growing brussel spouts and I was very disappointed in not seeing any sprouts - only big ole leaves - which were very tasty steamed. But now -FIVE months later! Two of the brussel sprouts are actually growing little sprouts all up and down the stem! And the tomatoes that went dormant when the weather became cold starting flowering as soon as the weather warmed up. So, the lesson I've learned in gardening is: it ain't over till it's over! (meaning when the plant is all shriveled up and very obviously Dead!) In fact, today a friend was telling me that she has had tomato bushes that lasted a number of Years! And here I thought they just lasted one season!

The petunias, my all time favorites, were profuse in their flowering. Two zonal geraniums took off once the weather started warming up. I managed to kill the sweet basil and the Thai basil, probably too much water. The lavender and oregano are doing well (once I stopped overwatering them). The vegetable that I have enjoyed harvesting the most (like a little kid!) is the carrot. There is just something about pulling these little carrots out of the dirt - awesome!