Organic Garden

yard werk.

Pacific Northwest garden, raspberries, blueberries, potatoes

Top: Stella checking out our potato crop. Bottom (left to right): the first ripe raspberry, blueberries coming in strong.

We came back from Sasquatch and everything in the garden seemed to be busting at the seams! Our peas were all squished up against the netting, arugula had bolted 4 feet into the air, green beans had popped up and even the squash I planted less than two weeks ago had sprouted. It was insanity out there.

And then yesterday I saw it…the first ripe raspberry of the season. OMGee. It’s barely June! According to last year’s garden journal (yeah, I’m strange and document it all) we didn’t have raspberries until June 28 to be exact. Whoa. I suspect everything is going to be earlier than last year. Our three year old blueberry bush is looking quite good too. I think we’ll get a lil harvest out of that bad boy this year. Oh to be knee deep in berries – that is my version of heaven!

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this dog.

 I don’t know whose more excited, Stella or myself! We had a good haul this week. The green beans are on their tail end, but bringing up the rear are plums, tomatoes and squash. It’s been interesting to watch the evolution of our garden. You have tender peas and baby lettuce in the early spring, raspberries in early summer, then come zucchini by the truckload and green beans. Tomatoes pop up right when you think there’s nothing exciting left and peeping through the leaves are starts of delicata and acorn squash right in time for a September harvest. It’s almost, do I dare say? Romantic. I know, I’m strange. Sigh. It’s just such a cool ebb and flow to witness day after day.
I’m not much of a plum fan so hit me up if you want to come and grab some! Speaking of grabbing, am I the only one that steals fruit off of their neighborhood trees? I just hate seeing good fruit go to waste!
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Zealous Zucchini.

The first of the season!

As most gardeners know, zucchini is just one of those “plug and play” veggies in the garden. They don’t need a ton of TLC or babying and they produce like a mo-fo. It’s a total ego booster, so if you’re new to gardening, def plant one or two! Even after trading and giving most of them away, I’m still left with a few each week. I’ve been trying out a few new recipes lately with these green monsters and here are the ones I’ve liked the best!

Zucchini Corn Pancakes
Oh ma gawd! These are good! Great flavor and interesting texture though they don’t re-heat very well so eat them all while they are hot off the stove.

Three Cheese Zucchini Rollups
Easy to make so double the batch while you are at it! They freeze well too.

Zucchini Bread
Duh. Like a total no-brainer. I like mine heavy on the cinnamon and nutmeg. This savory bread looked pretty delish though too…might have to try it out this weekend!

What are your fav zucchini recipes?? Care to share?

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Before/After.

Gosh, what a difference 4 months and a lil love makes! And to think that I wasn’t sure if I could fill the entire space…sheesh. I’ve learned many a lesson thus far and I still have a good part of the growing season left.

Things I’ve learned lately:

  • Birds love peas. Birds eat peas no matter how big or small. Peas get annoyingly netted for life.
  • Weeding for 5-10 minutes per night is better than taking up half your Saturday to do it.
  • Weekly visits to the farmer’s market are only necessary for fruit now. Yay!!!
  • Squash trading with co-workers rule! (I can’t believe that just came outta my mouth – who am I?)
  • You actually need to water your compost pile too.

I’m hoping to get both a pear and apple tree planted this fall along the fence line. I dearly miss having fresh apples like we did back in the day. Nothing was better than those tart apples from the yard! And once those trees get a bit bigger, they will give us a bit of extra privacy from the neighbors.

I’d also like to try my hand at a winter garden but this year isn’t the year my friends. With a wedding quickly looming, I know I’m just not going to have the bandwidth for that. BUT, I’ve been reading up on it and will be fully educated and ready to go come the summer of 2015.

How’s your summer gardening coming along??

Early March of 2014
Mid-July of 2014
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Harvest.

You guys, my mind is seriously blown. I can walk outside to my garden, pick a few things then have dinner side dishes and dessert going just minutes later. I know that’s how a garden should work, but this newcomer is totally in awe these days! I suspect the fiance is sick of me yelling to come outside and take a look at how big (fill in the blank…with veggies you dirty minded people) got!

I sauteed these snap peas and carrots in a lil butter and made fritters with the zucchini, which is growing a mile a minute. I swear, each time I’m out in the yard, there’s another huge one waiting for me. I’m starting to give them away because I just can’t eat that much zucchini. I’m all too happy to share!

We also have a bunch of blackberry bushes behind our house in an overgrown alley and they are already plumping up. Since no one can access them but us, I know they haven’t been sprayed with chemicals and have been eyeballin’ them all summer. Jams, pies and blackberry mojitos fill my dreams – yum.

I quickly picked about two cups the other night to make this slab pie thing to get my fill though I did cheat and use store bought pie dough (organic of course so that counts right?) A girl has her weeknight limits, you know? A friend and I are picking this weekend and plan on making some wicked jam. Can’t wait!

My harvest from the other night. So freakin’ awesome!

 

I rounded up just enough blackberries for this rough lookin’ pie thang.
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