Broccoli Still!

Mid October and still getting significant broccoli harvest!

Simple Baked Zucchini Recipe

Just want to write down this really simple healthy zucchini recipe. You just need zucchini (chopped into cubes about a half inch square) plus a fat (butter or oil) and a bit of flavor (even just a few shakes of salt and pepper). Chop the zucchini into small pieces, toss it with the oil, salt, and pepper -- maybe throw in some chopped onion or garlic, or sprinkle some parmesan cheese on top -- and bake for 15-20 minutes at about 375 degrees, until the zucchini pieces reach your desired tenderness. I like them to cook pretty much all the way through but not completely soggy. Use a decent amount of oil/butter/salt for a stronger flavor if you prefer. Use this little starter recipe with whatever else you want to throw in -- tomatoes, red peppers, fresh basil, etc...

chopped zucchini

tossed with oil, salt, pepper, and chopped onion

glass baking dish, about 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes

done, super easy, less than 5 ingredients, from the yarden to the table

served with steamed homegrown broccoli and a pizza from Donatelli's

JoeSoGarden 2014 Bloomfield Edition, Part 2

Last week I finally posted some pics of the "yarden" in progress. For those of you portmanteau challenged individuals, yarden = yard + garden. Last Summer, my first in this apartment, I got to tend a yard for the first time in my life. Now, I don't necessarily mean extreme Hank-Hill-riding-mower-style lawn care -- I just have a small urban spot tucked in between an alley, a one-way side street, and crowded little Bloomfield houses with rusted chain link fences -- but I have a yard nonetheless. Take a look at the vegetables, herbs, and other plants I started in late April. I'll do a Part 3 of this post soon to show how everything has come together, with the herbs and veggies flourishing, and all my new ornamental annuals and perennials finding their homes in the Earth.

Who knew mint grows like a weed?!? I mean, I love a fresh mojito, but this herb will take over your life if you don't keep an eye on it. Last year I had it growing in the corner of the triangular plot, but this year I dug that sucker up and contained it. In Style class I learned you should always use the verb rather than the nominalization of it, so yeah, I didn't put it in a container, I contained it. Nice, job, Joe, that's why you TA'd that bitch as an undergrad.

From ground to pot to budding to flourishing in less than a month

I even planted grass seed, the bane of my athletic childhood existence, for the first time in my life. Trying to play soccer or wiffle ball without stepping on the goddamned grass seed sucks! Now I find myself standing on the edge of the lawn with my arms crossed yelling at Chance, don't pee on my grass!!!  I put the seed down in the corners of the yard and edges of the garden beds where it had gotten worn out. The areas I kept really wet have grown well, and I'll get those pics up in Part 3. In this particular spot, the mint had grown from the garden plot down under the brick and out into the grass.

In the last picture you can see last year's oregano starting to poke back out from underground. I didn't know this before, but oregano, mint, and thyme, will return annually. I'd love to know what other herbs do so as well...

In the next installment I'll show how everything has really started to grow throughout May and how I finished up the yard stylistically with a bunch of ornamental annuals, and perennials, and get this, a layer of mulch to cover it!

JoeSoGarden 2014 Bloomfield Edition, Part 1

Spring has arrived! Between April 20th and May 1st I got the yard all cleaned up and put several seedlings, seeds, bulbs, and even rocks into the ground. First take a look at the yard before I got to work. It didn't look too bad, but I had plenty to do.

I needed to clean out all the vegetation and debris from the back sidewalk/corner; dig out (and replace) all the rocks in the small rock bed along the fence to the right; till a few spots and plant grass seed; and rejuvenate both planter bed areas with fresh soil and compost. The one on the left also needed some minor reinforcement around the corners.

Redoing the rock bed took several hours over several days. Someone must have put these rocks in a few years ago, but without any plastic tarp or fabric underneath. So the weeds and soil had reclaimed most of it, and would have overtaken the remaining rocks by year's end. I had to do something!

So I got down there and dug out all those rocks, put down a few layers of plastic, and left the rocks out on the sidewalk for the rain to clean them. If the sun ever comes back out, I'll take a picture of the finished rock bed. (...Ok, a week later the sun did return!)

In my old apartment on Penn Ave we had a second floor deck that opened off the kitchen out back. In those close living quarters, though, we had no privacy from all the houses behind us, so I bought these 3' by 10' faux bamboo screens to run along the deck railing. I tried it here above the rock bed, but ended up moving it down further to cover the other neighbor's dilapidated wooden fence.




I also tried putting some of the planters in the rock bed, but I didn't like that either. I think I'll just leave the rocks to rock out on their own in their little spot along the fence. I mean, who really gives a fuck at this point, I just need to fill up a bit more text on the left side of this post to balance out the pics on the right. Alright, that'll do, pig, that'll do.

With the rock digging underway I focused on restocking those garden beds and eventually getting some grass seed down and this year's seedlings in the ground.

I went to Phipps Conservatory's used bulb sale a couple weeks ago also, and got some tulips, hyacinths, and something else I can't remember. Those will return in all their glory next year. I don't know whether to keep them in planters or put them in the ground.

I also planted broccoli (from seeds and seedlings), carrot seeds, cilantro seeds, a basil plant, and a stevia plant. Last year's oregano and mint plant have also returned. I'll get those pics up soon... 

Yesterday I picked up some more decorative shrubs and flowers. Dude at Home Depot cut me a sweet deal, too, because he couldn't get it to ring up at the advertised price of 3 for $10. And then when I thanked him, he said, "any time." Now, maybe he just says that all the time, but I wonder if he actually meant he would hook me up with a deal "any time." I'll have to go back and see. I wonder what I could hook him up with in return...

JoeSoGarden 2014 Edition Part 2 coming soon

JoeSoGarden Update -- Poppin' Off

The garden has really exploded over the last month. I need to reign in the tomatoes before they destroy the onions. The broccoli has sprouted nice, large, dense heads. The carrot row looks like a little forest, and the triangle plot got some transplants and a row of yellow and pink flowers. I've made mojitos twice with the mint. The cilantro has turned into coriander and the basil looks fantastic. Take a look!

broccoli head

broccoli plants

carrots

onions, crushed by tomato plants! 

cilantro, grown from seeds, very easy and fast

basil

cilantro from seedling that flowered into coriander (I guess?)

need to figure out how to handle those tomato plants in the middle/right...

the other little plot with some flowering plants

broccoli transplants from the other side ... need a splash of water

this will have yellow and orange flowers in the fall

mint for mojitos

JoeSoGarden Update: Cilantro/Coriander seeds in the ground

Yesterday I planted a handful of coriander (cilantro) seeds next to the already grown coriander (cilantro) plant. (I <3 the shit outta cilantro.) 

I only see one carrot plant sprouting so far from the seeds I planted on April 16, 2013. I expect about a 15 day germination time on the carrots, so they should start poking their little stems through pretty soon! I do feel a little nervous that they won't come up at all. "Wool Sea."

JoeSoGarden, Bloomfield Edition, in the Ground

I moved into a first floor apartment last Fall, and this will be my first Spring and Summer here. I'm the only one who uses the backyard -- the upstairs neighbors don't even have a back door, so it's all mine. There's a nice planter box on the left side along the fence. Until today it had a few weeds and about a dozen 2 year old onions scattered across one side. But I cleared that sucker out and started my Garden 2013, Bloomfield Edition!!

A week ago I went to Home Depot and bought several seedlings and seed packets:

• 3 (4-packs) of broccoli (so, 12 plants)
• a red pepper plant
• a banana pepper plant
• a cilantro plant
• a basil plant
• a tomato plant
• cilantro seeds
• broccoli seeds
• carrot seeds
• and a bunch of onions

So today I cleared out the planter box, plus this other triangular area that had these old, 2 foot tall, dead plants in it. The soil in the box seemed really nice. I planted the broccoli plants in 3 rows of 4. It should be hearty enough to withstand a frost. I also put in the cilantro plant -- maybe a little early, but I think it should be fine. Then I planted one row of carrot seeds. They're also hearty enough to survive a light frost. Getting the broccoli and carrots in this early miiight allow me to do a second harvest of each. 

When I used to do a garden on Beeler I would always end up with too much of one thing at the same time. All the tomatoes would be ready at once. I remember playing cucumber dodge with dozens of these fat round cukes. When I grew zuchini, I had like 3 dozen huge zuchini all at the same time. So I want to try and stagger things this time. Do less of each item, or half-and-half a month apart.  Also, for the broccoli and cilantro I got seeds in addition to the seedlings, so those will be separate crops if I end up doing both.

cleared out this planter box

broccoli, cilantro, carrot seeds ... planted April 16

2 kinds of broccoli plants

triangular section ... cleared out!
(tried to save these tulips I dug up from the box)

cilantro is in the ground ... maybe too early?
(plus an herb that was leftover ... see that? what is it?)

digital macro mode on camera for close up of cilantro!