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Posts tagged ‘vegetable garden’

Sep 10

Vegetable Garden: Build a Fence?

I think about my vegetable garden a lot – what will have grown during the day and will be ripe to pick for dinner, how to make it better, if I should make it bigger (there’s a trend every spring of sod coming out and more plants going in), and how to keep the dog, rabbits and squirrels out. I also think about how to balance the way I want the yard to look (for eventual house resale) with how to keep it functional (backyard to table eating for example). When Frank and I do go to sell the house, I don’t want the backyard vegetable patch to be a turn off. At this point, because the fence is just the cheap wire kind you poke into the ground, it would be pretty easy to see that with some sod and a year’s time, you’d never know it was this:

Veggie Garden, Late July 2011

But if I go with what I want to do this fall, it becomes a permanent fixture, which would look more like this:

Or maybe just dig up the whole backyard for this effect:

Okay, that probably would never happen (I don’t have an acre of land, to start with…) but I do love the look of no sod, and all plants. A few examples of inspiration, from The Pantry at Delancey and their kitchen garden in Seattle:

I love this fence

I’m off today to measure and see if my more permanent veggie home is a possibility, and how much I’ll need to do this fall so it’s ready for planting in the spring (I can’t believe summer is coming to a close, and I’m thinking about next spring). Happy weekend!

Jul 18

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Triple Pepper Pasta

We planted plenty of peppers this year in the vegetable garden: banana, green bell, yellow bell and red bell, chili, jalapeno and ornamental. 48 pepper plants to be exact. We now have more peppers growing than I think we can eat, but this triple pepper pasta put quite a dent in Friday night’s haul. Read more

Apr 1

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Planning the Vegetable Garden

The snow has melted enough to uncover part of the vegetable garden, and we’re only thirty days away from the last Minneapolis frost-free date. I’ve written out my to-do lists to prep the yard, charted out where I will expand planting areas outside the veggie plot and of course, researched. Read more

Sep 1

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Veggie Garden Mistakes

September 1st! While I welcome the cooler weather here in Minneapolis, it was unexpectedly crisp this morning, like the Fall button had been pushed overnight. The good news is that we still have two more good months of farmer’s markets and a hefty supply of great fruits and vegetables to take home and devour or can (which I’ll be doing my first of tomorrow night!), plant garlic in the winter bed, and take stock of how the summer vegetable garden turned out. Read more

Jul 29

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BLTs and Homemade Mayo


Summertime evenings that are as hot as they are in Minneapolis during July, I routinely look for dinner options that won’t make us feel too full after eating and to our advantage lately, can be pulled from the vegetable garden. The veggies are full blast these days, needing to be picked at every night, which means a lot of pepper, lettuce and tomato eating. BLTs are created in short order, and help us get through the abundance. It’s also a really, really good excuse to eat bacon.

Food styling by Frank


BLTs:
Ciabatta bread (which I get from New French Bakery and keep well if refrigerated) – we fry these in the same pan that the bacon was in to get them crispy
6 slices of thick bacon
Tomato, thinly sliced
Handful of lettuce
Mozzarella (if you’re into that, we place on one of the ciabatta halves and place under high broil for 2 minutes until softened)

And if you’re into Mayo, which I am, here’s Jamie Oliver’s recipe:
1 egg yolk whisked with 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard; add 1 cup of good Olive oil in slowly (think drizzling) while whisking until pretty thick…then one pinch of salt and pepper, and fresh squeezed lemon. Whisk again and serve up.

Jul 7

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Vegetable Garden: First Pepper Harvest

Frank and I had our first pepper harvest of the season. The bananas are coming in fast, jalapenos right behind them and then the slowly growing habanero and green bell peppers. One of the more interesting aspects of the pepper patch is that Frank’s nephew (3 years old) helped plot and plant the peppers, which means all the pepper plants are randomly mixed. This is troubling because we can’t tell the difference between the bell pepper and the habanero (or, at least I thought I knew the difference, but Frank disagrees with my conclusion). We decided to let them sit on the counter and ripen, with hopes the habanero would show its true colors and would not force us to do a taste test. The rest of the garden is coming in nicely with few surprises (yes, we knew there would be a bunny eating the lettuce, but the entire bean patch? Hungry little guy…). The peppers, lettuce and basil are all we’ve been able to take at this point, but the tomatoes are looking great and the cucumbers should be coming in the next few weeks (once they do, you’ll know because I’ll post about making Tzatziki).

The tomatoes coming in:

A month ago, early June:

As of early July:

Jun 8

Backyard Project

Two years in the making, I finally have a visual story of the progress (slow, but steady) in the backyard.

THE BACK, OF THE BACKYARD:

When I first moved in...


While the yard was cleaned up a bit, there was still that wire fence...


So we took out the fence, but it was accompanied by taking out a brick hearth. Messy.


New fence. Much better. Time to tackle the brick and planting some good stuff in the dirt.


Some well distanced planted perennials, that will explode next year (fingers crossed)


A little mulch helps in the back bed, and planted cornflowers and irises along the walkway


Some pretty blooming things


More pretty blooming things

VEGETABLE GARDEN:

The 5'x5' french vegetable garden


Vegetable garden expansion to 6'x20'


First veggie plantings, mid-May. I like the square pavers a lot for some reason.


Early June progress...it's coming in!


The grapevine really coming in, on the fence


Lovely little porch pots


And some potted herbs

May 18

A New Obsession: Gardening

This time last year I was planting Karl Foerster and Little Bluestem around the perimeter of the house, and in the front boulevard. My planting was not lacking imagination – rather, lacking confidence – and I was comfortable staying pretty minimal; I also planted a 5′x5′ vegetable garden that quickly spilled out of it’s wood panel confines. I wanted to stay small for practice, until I knew I could go big. I summoned the courage over the winter months, and come the first peek of sustainable 50 degree weather, I made my plan: tree in the front, trees in the back; large vegetable garden and perennial flower garden by the back fence; new patio furniture and sitting areas in the yard to read. We “broke ground” two weeks ago, and I have neglected nearly everything (including this blog) until today. Yesterday was the last of the big overhaul days, though there is always more to do. As I found today.

Over my lunch break, I went to Home Depot for some metal hoops, a mesh drain thing and some fertilizer. I found myself in the flower seed and bulb section for nearly half an hour, inspired by memories of my mother’s garden. I was fortunate to grow up around her green thumb, and beautiful landscape of crawling morning glories, leafy trees and ornamental bushes, the towering gladiolas and delicate bleeding hearts. I walked away with another bulk of projects to last me through the week, slowly picking away at planting in the evenings. The snapdragons, gladiolas and cala lilies I picked up make me feel like I can finally create a landscape for the front yard that will feel as much like my home as the interior, and a backyard that after work I will putter around in or sit down and admire.

My body is sore, and covered in crazy welt-like bug bites and long scratches from trees, but it’s been a good two weeks to look back at. While there’s always more to do, here’s a good recap:

Vegetable Garden

Planted from starter plants: jalapeno, habanero, banana, green and yellow peppers; sweet onion and garlic; broccoli and cauliflower; basil (lots, and lots of basil); roma, big boy, early girl, beefsteak and sweet 100 tomatoes. From seed: mixed and bibb lettuces, green beans, snow peas, cucumber. Along the fence is an old grape vine that starts to flower in June – it creates an unbelievable barrier between yards.

Perennial Bed

Planted from starter pots: Yellow Lupine, Siberian Iris, Elfin Pink Penstemon, White Gloria Astilbe, Strawberry Candy Daylily, Eveline Salvia, Visions Astilbe. Snapdragons line the edging.

Fire Prarie Tree

Also planted a white blossom Magnolia and Mulberry tree in back (!)

Little Bluestem on the boulevard

I will be planting Calla Lily and tall Snapdragon-like flowers throughout the grasses in the front. Won’t bloom for quite a while, but I’ll update with images. Hoping for some good results, to cut and bring inside.

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