I cleaned up my square foot gardens in February

I cleaned out the weeds and I raked the tops of each of my square foot gardens. I also cleaned out the  remaining carrots (half eaten by voles) from the west square foot garden.  I couldn't turn the soil yet, still frozen about half way down. Probably a good thing. I'm thinking of creating a wire mesh cage of some sort to keep the voles out. Any ideas? I will probably have to also cover the top somehow and let the plants grow through. The voles here don't just eat my plants from underneath.

Kiwi and Mambo joined me and got some much needed vitamin D. I kept them close to the house when I switched to the south garden so they were less likely to be prey for hawks.

Time to thin carrots

I let the carrots grow up a little bigger than normal because I have a difficult time just throwing away the thinned carrots. This way, my parrots get a tasty treat and I don't have a lot of waste. My daughter broke the tops off and they went into the garden, right now as mulch but eventually they'll make great compost. 

I did save the biggest carrots for me, because who doesn't love carrots. Little finger carrots are not as bitter as other carrots when they are small. 

After running them through the food processor, I gave some to Kiwi and Mambo right away and the rest I put in these small bags and they'll go in the freezer right away. 

Weekend Harvest

I harvested the tomatoes today.  I was craving something at about dinner time so I went to see if there were any tomatoes ready.  The early girls were looking good but as many were eaten by birds as I harvested.  I think I need netting.  And the Cherokee Purple were ready.  I ate 5 at dinner.  Don't worry, I offered to share but no one likes them.

These two bright red bumpy lumpy tomatoes are red beef steak tomatoes.  They are the smallest tomatoes on the vine. The rest are really big.

The cherokee purple really have a different color but are really tasty.  I loved them.

Some of the early girls are not quite ready but I brought them inside to get to them before the birds do. 

I picked a few carrots for snacks.  

And I roasted some crook neck squash seeds for Kiwi.  275 degrees for 15 minutes. Not what I expect but I added a little Emeril's seasoning and scarfed them down myself. I can't wait to roast some squash for dinner tomorrow.

Kiwi ate the squash guts for a little while.  Then I placed it outside for the wild birds.

My garden this week

The asiatic lilies that I purchased on clearance last year have bloomed and they are gorgeous.  I just wish that they lasted longer. The nice thing is that each year there will be more and more.

The ground cover is looking beautiful. 

The lettuce did really well.  The carrots are so yummy.  And this year is the first time I have harvested garlic scapes.

I added them to my roasted potatoes and it was a perfect addition.

They are delicious and by harvesting them from the garlic plants the garlic are supposed to get bigger. 

Putting the romaine lettuce under the floating row cover made for more tender and bug free lettuce. 

The snow peas were so sweet.

The Summertime lettuce is small but very tasty.

And Kiwi is enjoying the snow peas and making the biggest mess of my windows. I clean them every couple of days.

Harvest Monday - 18 June 2012

We arrived home after a last minute trip for Father's Day weekend.  A friend let us borrow their raft and so we took our children for a 7 mile float trip down the Green River on Saturday. And we also ran up to Dinosaur National Monument on Friday since we were already there. 

When we got home Sunday afternoon I had no idea what I was going to make for dinner.

One of the things we don't do is go shopping on Sunday.  We also don't do big chores on Sunday.  We do make beds and wash dishes but no scrubbing or washing clothes, etc. 

So I ran up to the garden and grabbed some snow peas which took 3 minutes.  

Then I peaked in the square foot garden and some of the Little Finger carrots were ready and they were delicious. No more trying to grow carrots in the clay.  These were ready faster and less bitter.  I will be planting more of those now.

I love the taste of fresh snow peas.  I pounded out 2 chicken breasts and cut them and made stir fry with all these veggies over glass noodles.  

And some tiny green bunching onions. I just never transplanted them.

And the last baby bok choy. I think next time I will grow the real stuff. Probably starting August 1st for a fall crop.