Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Got my first tomato today!

Wuhoo! That's a beauty.

Nice harvest, mars! And nice tomato, Isa!

Brace yourselves for my awesome haul....


I had to pick it because it was starting to flower.
Jewy, why is my broccoli flowering (second year in a row) instead of getting nice and big?

woo hoo another cantaloupe! I haven't been taking photos lately, because it's the same old stuff. but now I kinda wish I'd been keeping better records of all my harvests, like how many eggplants I got this year, just because that's the kind of nerd I am, and also it'd be interesting to know if I made back the money I spent on seeds and gardening supplies.

There's a blog - Daphne's Dandelions -that outlines how to figure out whether or not you have the "$64 tomato". For example, organic eggplants at our local Whole Foods go for $2.99 a pound (and they don't even look as pretty as mine!), but after seeds, fertilizer, and watering 2 times a day with city water (hasn't rained here in 3 months)... maybe I'm ahead, and maybe I'm not.

Anyway, cantaloupes were $5 at the farmer's market today, and I plucked this bad-boy from my garden for free! Yum!

AmandaMelanie- that was why i stopped growing brocco!!!! it is happier in our winter here, so i think you have to get it in the ground super early, and it likes richer dirt than i can give it.

i picked a bunch of snow peas today, and weeded only chickweed, which is the guinea pigs' favorite treat. a lot of my stuff got frost damaged a month or so ago, so it's mostly recovery at this point. the parsley, chard and cilantro are very happy though.

Jewy- i've always had ^much^ better luck with tomatillos than tomatoes- at least pest and blight wise. pollination was never a problem. did you have some weird weather thing where the flowers got knocked off from a storm or something?

Pandacookie came by and we ate our first ripe tomatoes on some nachos! We each had one yellow pear cherry tomato.

Harvests are a bit small when your landlord won't let you use the land that's available and you didn't plan for it to all be containers....

Otherwise, we've had like 10 beans and a handful of peas.

Ok, I've used the rosemary and pineapple mint and stevia quite a bit and I <3 my hot pepper plant that I kept alive all winter (if anyone ever wants a good small potted pepper plant I could send you some seeds! Its really pretty actually)! My green thumb girlfriend did the appropriate resuscitation.

We have an eggplant growing though! Eggplant plants are pretty! We had 2 cups of blueberries too. And 2 cukes.

That's a great tomato, Isa! The first one of the season always tastes the best.

I checked on the babies this weekend and the toms are heavy with fruit. No fruits on the tomatillo yet. Harvested more chard, kale, and one green pepper.

I have been harvesting tons of raspberries this year, and kale, which I have in the ground at my new place. My strawberries haven't produced that many berries - lots of red barely developed ones. Is that from incomplete pollination, Jewy? I've also had a few sieglinde potatoes, snap & snow peas, just harvested my first two beets. and have 3 small romanesco zucchinis (which I just found out are not zucchini, but cocozelle squash).
Still waiting on cukes, tomatoes, and sweet peppers.

I've taken pics, but need to upload them from another computer.

Are these first year plants, Ms. Magpie? If so-(according to my boss) you're supposed to pick the flowers off so the plants develop more. The second year is when they grow and your first crop will be on the small side.

That is one plant I've just never bothered growing because we end up with a bunch of free berries from the food bank.

This is their second year. I didn't pick the flowers off the first year, cuz...well, I just find that hard to do. I feel like I got more berries the first year, but that may be a slight exaggeration. I did move the plants in the spring to a tower-like structure that I macgyvered together to save space. I guess next year will be more bountiful.

I love that you are taking the time to answer our questions. Thanks, you rock!

No problem. I'm glad I have a job that allows me to be a gardening nerd. How awesome is that?

I found this picture of my strawberry tower from earlier in the year.

Did you make the set up yourself? That's impressive!

I did, with all free finds (except the landscape fabric). I would put a large pvc pipe down the centre and drill it with holes next time to help with watering it, though.

Here are some of my harvests.

raspberries


garlic


beets


cocozelle

Mmmm raspberries. I totally grabbed a raspberry from someone's bush that was right beside the sidewalk and right when I put it in my mouth the person who lives there comes out. Bah! Caught in the act! I was all, "Thanks!" and then walked away.

Don't laugh!

I would never laugh at someone who is growing their own food. Now, I've laughed at an eggplant that looked like Nixon, but that was a long time ago.

I'm so jealous of everyone's hauls, seriously! We need to find our friggin' USB cable so I can download pics.

It meant it tongue-in-cheek! I know you're not all crassholes. I'm really jealous of everyone's stuff though! I'm exciting I finally got something I could eat, even if it was just one mouthful.

I've been seriously neglecting my garden for the past week or so, but last night, I picked a pint of raspberries, a handful of strawberries, and 1.5 pounds of snap beans. Mostly Dragon Tongue. We're FINALLY at the point in the year where huge portions of our meals come straight from the backyard!

I gave some of my extra tomato plants to my next-door neighbors, who stuck them in a pile of crappy-looking dirt next to their parking slab maybe two weeks after I planted. They have like a dozen ripe tomatoes. I have ZERO.

Isn't that an awesome feeling, Stephanie? The less I have to go to the store, the better.

The guy who bought our home doesn't like vegetables. Whuuuuut? He called to tell me he had spotted our cat, so I came out to look for Maury. He was a no-show, but I harvested 8lbs of chard, kale, turnips, and basil. We're good with those, so I donated them to the food bank because they have helped us so much! That's how I found out the harvest weighed so much. 8lbs! That's a mess of greens.

Baby greens! Various lettuces, kale, collards, and watercress.

Nice. I love the peppery flavour nasturtium flowers give to greens.

True Dat! My love affair with nasties happened about 8 years ago when they were in my salad. Yum! They are also good companion plants.