Late June 2015 garden update (harvesting squash)

Several days ago we picked about five small yellow squash, then today, we harvested over 10 yellow squash. The squash seeds came from vegan seed company. Many of the vegetables I'm growing came from the seed sold at this company. I have been buying seeds from them for three years. I'm highly satisfied with the quality, germinate rate, and price of the seeds. I get the seed vault which contains thousands of seeds of a wide variety of vegetables and fruits. 
As you can see below, the squash garden is growing productively. We should be harvesting zucchini and yellow squash for the next month and a half. Especially if I continue to weed and hoe up dirt around the plants, this will grow healthy fruits. 

Next to the squash garden is the mountains of beans. The northern beans have made pods, but I'm not sure if the pinto beans have started. Spaghetti squash, acorn squash, and butternut squash are growing amongst the beans as well.

Other Acorn squash plants are growing amongst the Tomato and pepper plants. One acorn squash fruit is forming beautifully.

The Pumpkins are getting bigger by the day, of course. 

butternut squash

Greens going to seed & harvesting berries (video)

In last weeks post (Greens going to seed while vegetables begin to fruit), I showed some pictures of the pumpkins, tomatoes, and peppers fruiting. Actually we began harvesting tomatoes and peppers. We have been harvesting blueberries, black raspberries and blackberries as well (Mid to late June for foraging berries).

Also, I may have mentioned many of the cole crops are flowering and making seeds. The radish, arugula, and spinach are developing seed pods, so today I pulled up 10 or more Icicle radish plants to dry. Eventually I will take out the spinach and arugula for hanging to dry. Other plants like Radicchio, lettuce, and onions are flowering, and will take some time before they are ready to dry for seeds.

As I take out some of the cole crops, I will be crop rotating the spring garden. Beans are the best vegetables to plant after growing greens in the same area of the garden. This is because greens uptake a lot of nutrients from the soil, and growing beans afterwards will add nitrogen back into the soil. I will explain crop rotation more in a future post. 
I have saved many varieties of beans such as cranberry beans, lima, black, red, northern, and pinto which I intend to grow in the spots where I took out the greens and vegetables. Also, I will add cucumber and squash seed to this garden because these plants, including bean plants, grow quickly before the Fall frost.


Before I started pulling out many of the cole crops flowering and seeding, I made a garden tour video of the spring garden yesterday, which you can watch below.

The Daily Show - Charleston Church Shooting

Mid to late June for foraging berries

I was gone for several days, visiting my grandma and dad. I grew up in their neck-of-the-woods, and spent every weekend there for 15 years of my life. It's important to revisit the memories I have of this place where I grew up. In my grandma's front yard used to live a maple tree that I climbed often. I was very attached to this tree--I only wish it were still standing. 

Of course my grandma and my dad's wife had superb flower gardens, and I was able to take many photographs which you can see in this post: Flowers of June floral photography.

My grandma fed me lots of fruit while I was up visiting. She fed me black raspberries from her yard. The berry patch met the edge of the woods, and I encountered a deer coming to feast as well.

 

Actually I ate the entire pint of berries she harvested for me. So, I picked berries in the morning and evening for the last couple of days. I picked berries for her, but she insisted I take them home with me. I probably ate nearly a gallon of raspberries.

Instead of eating them all, though, I should put some in pots to get them to make plants. I would love to get those raspberry plants started around our yard. 

The beauty of fruit is that we eat the reward and plant the seed of the fruit to further its genetics--which feeds future generations. I think whether we realize it or not, we have a symbiotic relationship with fruit. We have the potential power to cover the world in fruit trees and fruiting plants. This simple process would feed everyone in the world...for free.

Later James and I took a hike with the dog in the woods behind the house. We foraged for berries, and found Dewberries, black raspberries, and blackberries. The photos below show you what we picked within an hour of hiking the woods. Of course this was nothing compared to the amount of berries we saw. Many of the berries were not ripe, so I expect a huge harvest of berries in the following weeks. 

foraged Dewberries, blackberries, and black raspberries

Greens going to seed while vegetables begin to fruit

This is the time for blueberries! For the last three days I have picked more than 20 berries. Some of them are sweet and some sour.

The middle of June is a transition period in the garden. The greens go to seed, and the vegetables begin to fruit. The lettuce, kales, and collards are not going to seed because they can tolerate a little heat and scorching sun light. However, Radicchio, Onions, Arugula, Spinach, and Radishes bolted several weeks ago and are putting off seeds. Once they dry out naturally, I will collect the seed to plant them for a Fall crop. 

Radicchio flowering

The vegetables that are fruiting are pumpkin, tomatoes, and peppers. The melons are flowering of course and vining all over the place.

pumpkin 

The Cucumbers, birdhouse gourds, Luffa (or Loofah) plants have yet to flower, but I am working on a trellis structure for them to grow upon. The Birdhouse gourds are growing up a trellis arbor I added onto last night, which you can see below.

I wanted to show you some of the vegetables continuing to grow in the garden, and many of the vegetables that are fruiting. In the pictures below, you'll see Cauliflower making heads, tomatoes turning red, and peppers forming.

The pictures provided are from our main garden. I'm not sure what kind of activity is happening in the other two gardens. Because of the lack of rain, I'm not too sure any plants are fruiting. I have looked at the forecast for this region, which says we'll be getting rain for the next 10 days. I highly expect the squash and beans and early corn to produce in the next week or two.

Late May to Early June garden harvests + dinner ideas

For the last two months we have been eating many varieties of greens. For a little over a month now we have been harvesting a big salad every day to eat. The more you pick, the bigger the leafs get --the Collards especially.

This year so far, the collards and kale have out performed the rest of the salad greens in size and abundance. The lettuce has been plentiful too. I have been especially enjoying the Buttercrunch variety. I am definitely getting loads of Vitamin A and K.

In the following photos, I show you the greens we have been harvesting for the last two weeks. I also show you the salads I make with the garden greens.

May 31st 2015 harvest



May 29th 2015 greens harvest





Collard wraps with grated carrot, tomatoes, zucchini noodles, avoado

June 1st 2015 harvest

June 2nd salad harvest

Lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, avocado, sunflower seeds

June 4th 2015 harvest

June 5th 2015 greens harvest

Lettuce, tomato, peppers, avocado, squash noodles

June 6th broccoli harvest

June 7th harvest

I found it odd that the three large cauliflower plants have not started to make a head, but the three tiny plants have formed heads. At least these will be ready to harvest soon.

Besides showing the harvests, I wanted to provide a quick update on the rest of the gardens.

We have planted over 150 tomatoes, and many of them have fruits that will ripen in the next two weeks. I think we have over 30 Peppers plants, which also have fruits setting. The peppers will be growing and ripening around the same time as the tomatoes. It seems though I start harvesting Zucchini and yellow squash before I start harvesting Tomatoes and peppers. I wouldn't be surprised considering the squash garden is looking big and healthy.

I expect to harvest beans, corn, cucumbers in the next month, and the winter squash and melons will be ready to harvest later in the growing season.

The melon patch is flourishing with different varieties. I think the Hugelkultur mounds create the perfect growing conditions for melons. Hugelkultur mounds retain moisture in the decaying wood, which creates fungus that builds fertility in the soil. 

There are a couple watermelon plants and cantaloupe, flowering and setting fruits. Two weeks ago we added over 50 Golden Honeydew seeds within the melon patch, and they have their second set of leaves. And, several days ago I added Santa Claus melon seed. I also planted Golden honeydew, Santa Claus melon, and Canary melon seed in various places around the garden and yard.  

I really like this relationship I have with fruit. I eat the melons, and throw out the hundreds of seeds that came from one fruit which has the potential to grow a hundred more melons.

Growing Grapes, Papaya, & Figs in zone 6 (VIDEO)

In the video provided I give you a tour of my mini gardens which are growing Peas, Swiss Chard, Cucumbers, Potatoes, and Tomatoes. Also I show you that the Grapes are finally filling out, and will be ready to harvest later in the year. I was worried that the grapes had been eaten by birds, since it looked like they had been stripped.
The Fig trees are finally setting leaves and making new branches. To my grateful surprise, when I added compost to the new Fig, I must have had a lot of Papaya seeds added to the soil. So, Papaya seedlings sprouted up. I will take up the seedlings to transfer them to pots, then keep them inside during the winter months.

Luffa & Birdhouse gourds growing on recycled trellis (video)

Dinosaur kale with cabbage, lettuce, onions, arugula

In yesterday's post "Harvesting lettuce...& more from the Garden", I showed you what I had been eating from the garden, and the varieties of greens we have been harvesting. 

Now that I am harvesting from my Spring garden, eventually these foods will be growing out of season as we enter into the hot summer months. The Spinach, cabbage, radicchio, and radishes are already going to seed. 

broccoli head

Towards late July and early August we will be replanting greens, broccoli, Brussels, cauliflower, and the many other cold tolerant vegetables. 

The Broccoli are finally come to a head which you can see in the photo to the right. 

The cauliflower are growing large which also should be coming to a head soon. 

spinach going to seed

Much of what I have been transplanting and planting now are herbs, squashes, corn, beans, tomatoes, gourds, and peppers. 

Several weeks ago I showed you the progress on the summer gardens at Beans, corn, & squash Summer gardens 2 + 3 & what I'm harvesting from Spring garden . I also showed you how I was growing birdhouse gourds and Luffas, but I wanted to give you a garden tour of the Luffas and Birdhouse gourds growing. In the video you can see the many varieties of plants we're growing on the Summer Hugelkultur mounds and raised beds. 

Harvesting lettuce, kale, collards, spinach & more from the Garden

We transplanted Brussels, Broccoli, Cabbage, and Cauliflower back in mid-March, and I'm finally seeing some broccoli heads emerge. Because the flea beetles devoured much of these plants, we cut back a lot of the plants, it's not until months later that I'm seeing big progress. The Cauliflower is growing large, a couple of surviving Broccoli plants are forming heads. The Brussels were cut off at the top because that was the area of the plant the bugs were eating. Of course the Brussels may not produce but a couple of sprouts, but I'm letting them continue to grow. At this point, many of these cold weather vegetables are coming to seed because of the hot temperatures. The Radicchio, Radishes, Spinach, Nappa Cabbage, and onions are flowering to go to seed.

Of course I have been harvesting onions, radishes, and many greens for weeks, so I wanted to show you some pictures I have been taking. Also we have been harvesting a strawberry or two every day for the last week. We have had two big strawberries so far, and the rest have been quite small. The small strawberries are packed with an intense sweetness you can't get in the stores.
The blueberries are almost ready to pick. They are large, plump fruits but have not managed to get color to them. I think the dry weather has prevented the blueberries from making their color.

May 14 2015 icicle radish harvest

May 12 2015 icicle radish harvest

May 22 2015 harvest  (strawberry eaten days later)

May 25 2015 lettuce & collard harvest

May 24 2015 lettuce harvest

May 21 2015 greens, herbs & radish harvest

May 10 2015 radish & greens harvest

 

May 14 2015 lettuce & onion harvest

May 17 2015 Greens harvest

May 17 2015 harvest

May 23 2015 greens & parsley harvest

How to Start a Small Permaculture Nursery and Grow 1000s of Trees by Yourself

FULL article at "How to Start a Small Permaculture Nursery and Grow 1000s of Trees by Yourself" written by papprentice. May 10, 2015.

 

In summary, several actions must be taken and research required to start a small-scale permaculture nursery:

 

Fruit Trees are propagated by grafting or budding a desired variety onto a suitable rootstock. Trees can be also propagated from seed, but then it will not grow “true” to the variety of either parent from which it originated.

You can learn about propagation by reading books, watching videos, attending workshops and learning from skilled orchardists.

Start by analysing what grows in your area and understand your local biome, consult other growers to see what works locally.

Think about what you want from your trees and what your goals are – is it for juice, jam, cider or fresh fruit?

Buy pre-grafted trees to take cuttings from, or get scion wood from other people’s trees and by trading with others.

Grow your rootstock from seed or buy just one and clone it. If you have capital buy rootstock in bulk.

Set up a small home nursery or plant directly on site, you can start as small as you want and expand gradually.

Start seeds in buckets, seed pits, nursery boxes or nursery beds, and, if needed, graft on later.

Use nursery beds and a standard nursery setup to grow vast amounts of trees and transplant on-site later.

FREE BOOKS: 100 sites to download literature

Original article at FREE BOOKS: 100 legal sites to download literature. Posted On 31 Aug 2014 By Stan

Some of the sites include: Banned Books, World eBook Library, DailyLit, Free Online Novels, ManyBooks.net, and Prize-winning books online.