Posts Tagged ‘organic’
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Tuesday, June 14th, 2011
Sugar snap peas! Crisp and sweet with a tiny bit of tart and tangy mixed in. One of my very favorite veggies. So versatile. You can eat them as a snack, pod and all. You can chop them up to use in salad. They are the perfect complement to a stir fry. You can bake them, roast them, pop them on a sandwich. The possibilities are endless.
And they are so easy to grow. If you have never tried growing a veggie from seed before, sugar snap peas are a great place to start. We started our organic sugar snap seeds back in early April.
We planted just two rows of seeds in a raised garden bed, placing them about a 1/2″ deep and sowing a seed every few inches or so.
Within days the seedlings emerged, and within a few weeks, we had growing plants!
The key to growing successful sugar snap peas is to trellis them. Sugar snap peas are a viney veggie, and trellising the peas gives the growing plants the support they need. The sugar snap pea plants grow these tendril-like fingers that want to grab hold of a support (or else the plants will grab hold of each other!)
The trellis encourages the sugar snap peas to grow onward and upward. You can buy a trellis at your local garden center or big box store. The taller you can find, the better. And the trellis does not have to be fancy.
With all the rain we have had, the plants are so very happy! They started their gorgeous blooms of beautiful, intricate white flowers over the past week:
And all it takes is just a few days. From flower to full-length pea pod!
To harvest a sugar snap pea, you just twist it at the top until the pod comes off the vine. And as soon as you can pick a handful, a new harvest will be ready in another day or two.
Garden-fresh snack!
My local supermarket sells sugar snap peas imported from Guatemala for $3.99 a pound. Pretty steep (and carbon footprint heavy!) for such an easy veggie that you can grow organically right at home in a raised bed, in the ground, or in a pot.
Tags: gardening, organic, raised garden bed, spring, sugar snap peas, trellis
Posted in The Growing Season | 7 Comments »
ridiculously productive weekends rock!
Sunday, June 12th, 2011
How was your weekend? I hope it was relaxing and fruitful. We braved the on-and-off rain all weekend long, but we managed to cross soooo many things off of the to-do list. And we grilled and cooked. And we relaxed plenty. It was really awesome.
For starters, yesterday we finally moved most of our furniture back downstairs and back inside from having the floors redone over a week ago. We had mostly been living upstairs for the last two weeks. The computer is still upstairs, as are the bookcases. We shall see if they stay up there or migrate back down.
In addition, we cleaned off our screened-in porch because we are having it painted later this week! I am really excited about this next project. I had to move all of my houseplants back inside from off the porch (their temporary home over the last two weeks while we were having the floors done).
While Craig worked on wiping down all the porch furniture (pollen explosion!) and moving it to the basement, I cleaned the pollen off of all my houseplants and did some much-needed trimming.
Eek!
Ahh... much better.
I rooted some of the cuttings, and I will compost the rest.
Once I was done moving the plants back indoors, I wiped down all the curtain rods in the living room and dining room and put all the curtains back up. Then I moved on to putting our upstairs drain in the bathtub back together after its necessary semi-annual cleaning of my hair. Oh the fun! Oh the excitement!
Hey, it’s done. And I love having a free-flowing drain and clean tub!
Then it was off to tend to laundry and other Sunday chores like emptying the compost, gathering the garbage to put out, putting away clean clothes and linens (fresh, clean towels!), replacing the dish cloths, and making tomorrow’s lunches for work: roasted red pepper hummus sandwiches with garden greens and cucumber slices.
Meanwhile, Craig dragged our poor old couch to the curb for its pickup tomorrow. Our “casualty” from getting the floors done. Time to get rid of the ancient, sagging, icky couch. We are a little sad to see it go since we are now couch-less, but it’s time.
Finally I did my early evening garden walkabout and picked some radishes to use for dinner. I decided to roast some organic chicken thighs with green peppers, poblano peppers, onions, carrots, and radishes.
We started with fresh-picked salad greens from the garden, then topped the greens with brown rice followed by the roasted chicken and veggies (roasted with olive oil, garlic, black pepper, and herbs). A hearty and well-deserved meal after a long day of crossing things off the to-do list. It feels so good to start the work week knowing the porch is cleaned off, the plants are back inside, the laundry and cleaning are done, lunch is made, and my belly is full.
Tags: cleaning, compost, gardening, gratitude, herbs, home improvement, housework, laundry, lettuce, onions, organic, peppers, radishes, salad, spring
Posted in Household Management 101, The Growing Season | No Comments »
good june pickings
Friday, June 10th, 2011
We are already enjoying many treats and delights from the garden this year. Here’s a peek at the front bed, filled with lettuces, baby spinach, radishes, beets, broccoli rabe, carrots, and garlic.
We’ve been feasting radishes for a few weeks now. And the lettuces are wonderful. Fresh, tender baby romaine and an assorted mezclun mix. Mixed with baby spinach leaves, we are loving garden-fresh salads!
Lettuces on the left, baby spinach on the right.
The sugar snap peas are starting to go crazy. They are trellising away.
And now they are blooming and beginning to form actual sugar snap peas! By the end of the weekend, they will be ready to pick.
Such delightful white flowers that bloom to make way for sugar snap peas.
Meanwhile, I can’t seem to pick the cilantro fast enough.
We have been clipping cilantro to use in garden salads, a red quinoa salad that I made, in marinades for roasted chicken thighs… cannot get enough! Soon the cilantro will begin to flower, and then I will clip it all back. I will use what I can and freeze the rest to use all summer long while I plant the next round and wait for it to grow.
What’s coming next? Garlic! The scapes are about ready to burst forth from the garlic plants. Garlic scape time is the best time of year! I’d say we are about a week away.
And it just wouldn’t be right to talk about good June pickings without mentioning WEEDS.
What should I do with this bed? This is where I planted potatoes last year. But I didn’t get my act together on time this year to get starter potatoes to plant. Hmmm… I am thinking I will plant a fantastic herb garden here perhaps. Or I could use the space for flowers. Indecision. But clearly the weeds have got to go!
Weeding this bed is one of this weekend’s projects. And eating well. Weeding and eating. The perfect way to celebrate good June pickings in the garden!
Tags: baby spinach, beets, broccoli rabe, carrots, cilantro, gardening, garlic, garlic scapes, gratitude, herbs, lettuce, organic, radishes, raised garden bed, spring, sugar snap peas
Posted in The Growing Season | No Comments »
what’s blooming in the late may garden
Wednesday, May 25th, 2011
The last of the Spring tulips are finishing their show right now.
I also got just a few grecian wildflowers to come back this year.
My lilies are up, up, and away! Every year they are a sore spot for me because they come under attack from red lily leaf beetles. You can check out last year’s escapades here.
This Spring has started out no different:
I have encountered at least 4 red beetles. But my tactic this year has changed considerably. I now seek and destroy, grabbing the bugs and smashing them out in the street. Gross and rather violent I know, but those red lily leaf beetles are so sneaky!
In the side garden we planted 4 blueberry bushes first thing this Spring, and they are doing their really cool blueberry bloom thing!
And out front, our dogwood tree out front never disappoints this time of year.
As we try to get our new lawn to come up, we are doing our best to manage weeds and sundries. This means we are no match for the violets this year. They are everywhere. But at least the violets are pretty when they bloom!
Tags: blueberries, dogwood, gardening, lillies, organic, spring, tulips
Posted in The Growing Season | 2 Comments »
the radishes are ready
Friday, May 20th, 2011
After 6 days of rain, the garden and yard are pretty water-logged. But as soon as I got home from work, the most wonderful thing happened… the sun came out! Yeah! Hello, sun! Oh, how we have missed you. Actually, let me clarify: I have been very thankful for the rain because that means I do not have to water the lawn we are trying to grow. But seeing the sun again was quite wonderful after so many days.
I puttered around the garden and realized that the radishes are ready!
I see you!
So I picked!
First 2011 garden radish
This radish is an organic french breakfast variety. It was one of the first seeds I put into the garden back in early March. And finally, the radishes are ready for consumption! I cut this first radish in half, splitting it up between me and Craig. I sprinkled my half with a little sea salt and popped it in my mouth. It tasted fresh and tangy and blissful.
More radishes to come! Perfect for salads. I cannot wait!
Tags: gardening, gratitude, organic, radishes, raised garden bed, spring
Posted in The Growing Season | 3 Comments »