Herbs, vegetables, and glorious sunshine
Monday, July 4, 2011 Yesterday was green, blue & bright yellow from dawn to dusk. (And if there were a few clouds, I didn't notice them.) A perfect summer Sunday for crops to grow & gardeners to weed, water, inspect, repot and of course, view brilliant colour & light through the camera's lens.
Though most of the excitement & growth is in my community garden plot, I'll begin with the balcony's stars, all highly recommended for culinary, olfactory & aesthetic reasons:
Left pot: four varieties of thyme: 'Doone Valley', 'Golden Lemon', Tabor', Thymus fastinoi
Centre pot: 'Alma Paprika' Pepper
Right pot: Basil ('Red Rubin', 'Genovese' ), French Tarragon, Italian Oregano
Rosemary officinalis 'Blue Spire'
'Sea of Red' Lettuce - for those of us who eat with our eyes as well as our mouths
Now, on to Plot 6A, which totally astounds me when I visit it daily. I did not know plants could grow this quickly. Because light is limited on my balcony, I'm used to a much, much slower growth rate.
Front row, left to right: chard, spinach, cucumber, eggplant, tomato
Middle row, left to right: chard, tomato, beets, eggplant, pepper, tomato
Back row, left to right: peas, beans, carrots, beets, eggplant, tomato
In a future post, I'll describe the specific vegetable varieties as well as my planting strategy & design. I've held off because my approach has been evolving to what is now a "mash-up" of square-foot gardening & crop rotation following Mark Diacono’s sequence outlined in Veg Patch: River Cottage Handbook No. 4 (i.e., legumes -> brassicas -> roots & onions -> potatoes/Solanaceae).
Reader Comments (6)
ooo. i love that river cottage veg patch book. he's a lotta fun to read.
that summer light! SO good.
Yes, SO good for the gardens & one's spirits.
Your community garden patch is so wonderfully abundant. Love it. Plus it looks like you have a manageable amount of each vegie. It seems to have all grown so quickly, feels like it was only a few weeks ago that you were first planning and planting.
Hello, Kathryn. I agree -- the crops have grown quickly -- I'm surprised and thrilled. Tonight I harvested chard and greens. In a couple of days, I'll be harvesting the beets -- I'll have enough for soup, salad and frittata.
I love the light on your balcony, it makes your photos sparkle. Where do you buy your red lettuce seed? Interesting comment on the different growing rates – I think that would surprise me too. Looks like the raised beds are going to produce an exciting crop of vegetables.
Thank you, Kim. The 'Sea of Red' lettuce seeds are from Renee's Garden. Yes, the community garden plot has been exciting and gratifying. I tried to not have expectations because it's my first growing season & the weather's been poor so I've been happily surprised by the growth rate and yield.