Everyday I'm Harvestin'

With my Bloomfield urban yarden fully popping off as we roll through these lazy, hazy days of Summer, and Weird Al Yankovic releasing 8 new videos, I really wish the master of parody had turned Rick Ross's 'Everyday I'm Hustlin'" into 'Everyday I'm Harvestin'" so I could use it as my theme song this Summer...

Anyway, I have harvested three of these massive zucchinis already, and I can see at least 2 more fully developed on the plant. The zucchini plant went into the ground last and it has already produced a massive amount of fruit. Absolutely tremendous yield. I've sliced-and-grilled it, chopped-and-baked it, and cooked it in tomato sauce ... so far. What else lies in store for this classic Italian summer squash, a casserole perhaps, or maybe a loaf of bread? I went ahead and pulled out a carrot or two as well, although they will certainly grow larger over time.

My green pepper plant has produced two solid peppers so far. I'd call them larger than a baseball but smaller than a softball -- about the size of a standard coffee mug or a decent sized apple. Yesterday I chopped one up and tossed it in a salad. Now that I've picked it (and will soon pick the other one) the growing power will shift to the smaller peppers already starting to blossom at the top of the plant. This plant appears to have a great yield in store!

Oh, and lest we forgot the broccoli! I planted both seedlings and seeds this year, to spread out the yield, and it worked out well. I've harvested the seedlings several times already, and now the ones planted from seed have produced their first heads. This broccoli has gone on the grill, in the steamer, in tomato sauce, pasta dishes, and even a quiche (which turned out really well). Super high yield again on the broccoli this year. It has become my most tradeable item.

Broc and Zook from the yarden for tomato sauce

Now on to the herbs. I love saying herbs with a voiced H. I got a bit lazy with the cilantro and it all flowered. I think that means no more cilantro this season. I did just cut all the tops off so maybe it will restart the growing process? Thank god I put the mint into a pot, else it would take over the world. The oregano grows steady and wide so I can clips sprigs any time I need it fresh. Very high yield there. I usually tie up a bunch to include in my veggie giveaways since I have so much. 

I don't know exactly how to handle the stevia. I planted to seedlings from Home Depot early in the season and they have done quite well. Each one had a few stems growing so I have about 5 or 6 tall stems producing broad leaves. I clipped about 6-8 inches off the top a few weeks ago and let the leaves dry out. I'll probably do the same thing again this week, and then continue clipping the tops every few weeks. I don't really know. I plan on grinding the dried leaves into powder, which I can use as a sugar replacer. I highly recommend mojitos with mint and stevia from the garden!

top of stevia plants flourishing

cut the tops off the plants

what a lovely herb

dried and ready to grind into powder

Aloo Broccoli

Check out what my friend made by substituting my home grown broccoli for cauliflower in this recipe. Yih!

JoeSoGarden 2014 Bloomfield Edition, Part 3

I used faux bamboo and potted flowers
to cover the dilapidated fence.

Everything has begun to flourish in JoeSoGarden 2014. I've already started to harvest mint, oregano, and cilantro, and I harvested my first head of broccoli before June 1st. Before June! So let me list a complete inventory here and post some pictures of the yarden in bloom. 

• 5 broccoli plants in the planter box
• 3 in the triangle plot
• plus a row of broccoli seeds
• a row of carrot seeds
• a row of cilantro seeds
• a basil plant
• 2 stevia plants
• a green pepper plant
• a zucchini plant
• tomatoes from seed
• a random seed, maybe a bean of some sort
• potted mint
• oregano

Early season broccoli success! 

The triangle plot looks great with the red and brown mulch, flowers blooming, and broccoli, zucchini, and oregano spaced throughout.  

Everything else, especially the carrots and cilantro (both started quite early and from seed) has done well so far. I need to get some little army guys or something to live in the carrot forest. 

    I put grass seed in half a dozen spots around the yard and it came in well. As did this mystery seed, probably from next door, that started growing in the box. 

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