Another Typical Day

that looks like a meal right there

As we plow through these, the dogs days of Summer, and start to feel Autumnal clues in the air, the Bloomfield backyard urban garden aka yarden still keeps putting out hits! Like the Summer of Love, 1969, you can feel the love produced by my two little herb and veggie plots all Summer long. Broccoli continues to flourish. Tomatoes have begun to ripen. The basil, oregano, dill, and, of course, mint only get bushier as time goes on. Now, some fat little yellow worm ate through the stem of my zucchini plant, so that motherfucker died. The plant I mean, not the worm. Fat little worm gorged him or herself long before I figured out what happened. Oh well. The carrots turned out great, and the green pepper plant continues to put off nice little tennis ball sized fruits. Yarden 2014 for the win.

fat little worm destroyed my zucchini plant

Huge Batch of Garden Spaghetti Sauce

I just used 50 tomatoes from my garden to make a huge pot of spaghetti sauce! I pulled up my tiny little red onions that I grew -- none larger than a golf ball -- and used them as well. I also used fresh oregano and basil from the garden. I bought a couple pounds of local, grass-fed ground beef at the Phipps Farmers Market and included that as well. 

• 1 medium to large red onion
• a dozen cloves of garlic
• 8 Tablespoons of olive oil

• about 50 tiny tomatoes and 2 or 3 small ones, diced
• 5 cans tomato paste
• 5 cans of water
• 1/2 to 1 Cup sugar
• 10-20 leaves of fresh basil
• 5-10 6 inch stems of fresh oregano 

• 2 pounds of grass-fed ground beef

1. Cook first three ingredients (oil, onion, garlic) for about 5 minutes and add to large pot.
2. Add diced tomatoes, tomato paste, water, sugar, and some of the herbs. Simmer over low heat for 2-3 hours total.
3. Brown ground beef and add to the pot.
4. Add more herbs throughout cooking process.

I got those 3 black cherry tomatoes on the left from Tricia's garden
BEFORE I got chumped (not recently).

Daily Harvest

Just went out and grabbed this handful of goodies to make an omelette!

Yard to Table

I've had the great fortune of harvesting a lot of herbs already, and now several heads of broccoli have reached their flowering point. Although the tiny little yellow broccoli flowers do look nice, you should eat it before they bloom! I harvested my first head last week and made the grilled broccoli that I've posted about on here. Then I harvested a monster head, bigger than mine, and steamed that over the last few days. Yesterday I harvested another big one and gave it to JJ, along with some fresh mint. I still have a stalk or 2 from the monster head, and a couple of the other plants already look ready. Some friends proposed a raspberry / broccoli swap, since they have a ton of raspberries. Awesome.

To prevent my herbs from flowering I need to constantly harvest some of the leaves and stems. If they start flowering it will end the growth cycle. I think that may have already happened with my basil. Oops. So I figure I should keep cutting and drying some of the leaves/stems. I have oregano, mint, cilantro, and oh so much mint. What they hell can you do with mint besides make mojitos? 

mint in the middle

cilantro on the right

First harvested head of broccoli

looking great

and from the other side

about to bloom, harvested just in time

marinated, grilled, and topped with goat cheese

love it

that's a big boy

yeah buddy

great looking tray of green stuff

maybe a good facebook cover photo

aaaand one more from the backside, baby

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!

I need to give an update on the garden. A month has passed since I first planted a few seedlings. Things look good overall, but it seems like a slow start. It really just warmed up this week, so I expect things to take off a little bit soon. But I've noticed that the box doesn't get full sun -- close buildings casting shadows, etc -- so we'll see...

The broccoli -- slow going at first -- has started to flourish. 

The row of carrot seeds has sprouted nicely!

My neighbor gave me a big chunk of mint -- need to make sure it doesn't take over the area -- and a chunk of oregano. They both rooted nicely in that little triangle section I have. It has pretty rocky soil, so I don't know.

She gave me some flowering plants and a flowering shrub -- orange and/or yellow or something like that. I planted those in a little pattern in the triangle part as well. So far it looks great -- healthy leaves, new growth, etc.

Back over in the planter box, the coriander/cilantro seeds I planted have sprouted. I only need a few of them to supplement the plant I put in originally. 

from the seeds planted a couple weeks ago

original plant

The row of onions looks fantastic! I keep loosening the soil around them. I think I'm doing it right.

Nicely organized!

I planted a banana pepper seedling and a red pepper seedling, and neither of them has grown at all. I mean seriously nothing -- not a single new leaf. They look fine, but they just look the same as they did the day I planted them. So I had this red pepper that I was about to roast on the grill. I collected the seeds from it and planted them next to the slow-growing seedling -- just in cast. Then I had a banana pepper that I got to make Italian sandwiches, and I did the same thing - -collected and planted the seeds. We'll see how that turns out...

red pepper seeds on the left,
banana pepper on the right

Is this growing at all?

Showing no signs of growth...