Second Year SFG in Canada

Things are really picking up now with the warm weather and some rain overnight.



The Kohlrabi is doing well.








The Sweet 100 Tomatoes in two of the SFG squares are not tall but they do have flowers.




Icicle radishes are coming along.




Tomatoes in the old style SFG (amemded soil) bed are growing nicely.




Small Roma tomatoes are beginning to appear.




Garlic scapes (picked some to sauté this evening).






Picked for dinner this evening.

Lookin' good!

OMG! You're getting the Kohlrabi to ball up. I've never been able to do that and end up eating the leaves.
Good for you!
CC

Harvested some Kale today.  Also removed the lower leaves on the Tomato plants. They were showing signs of problems ... brown areas and some curling. I've heard that it is OK to remove the leaves that are close to the ground to prevent disease caused by splashing up from the soil when watering. Hope I did the right thing.  As well I have some holes in the leaves of one of my Eggplants.  I think sanderson has a similar problem.

Tomato leaves ...



Eggplant leaves ...

You are doing wonderfully well, TD.  Are you keeping account of how much you are harvesting, number, weight?

The little bitty holes on the eggplant look like flea beetle damage.  I couldn't diagnose the tomato problem.

Kelejan wrote:You are doing wonderfully well, TD.  Are you keeping account of how much you are harvesting, number, weight?

So far I have not kept track of quantities, weights, etc. Some things would not be easy to track since I take a leaf here, a leaf there, etc. But maybe I should become more disciplined and keep better records.

yolos wrote:The little bitty holes on the eggplant look like flea beetle damage.  I couldn't diagnose the tomato problem.

"flea beetle" ... that is what I was thinking as well.

Yesterday  decided it was time to harvest some kohlrabi.  I only have four plants and I took the two largest.  These things have huge leaves.




I found a recipe for roasted kohlrabi and made it up to add to our dinner.

sanderson wrote:TD,  Do you eat the leaves?  

I should have set some of the kohlrabi leaves aside for eating but we already have so many other "greens" to eat from the SFG. There's still a couple of plants left so I have another chance.

sanderson wrote:TD,  I would cut up, blanch and freeze, seal-a-meal, and enjoy in the winter.

Thanks for that suggestion. I wonder if the leaves can be used in smoothies or maybe they would be too strong to the taste.

trolleydriver wrote:

sanderson wrote:TD,  Do you eat the leaves?  

I should have set some of the kohlrabi leaves aside for eating but we already have so many other "greens" to eat from the SFG. There's still a couple of plants left so I have another chance.

Great kohlrabi, TD!  Wonderful year for greens this year.  I've been blanching and freezing my greens  they're so prolific.  Also, I use every type of green in my smoothie. They are best if harvested in the cool of the morning though, not bitter then.

CC

Very Nice!

The SFG boxes are getting some colour.  We had some rain overnight and the drops of water can still be seen in some of the photos.


This is a Nasturtium flower in the corner square of the Strwaberry box.




The bees have found the flowers on the Cucumber plants.





Acorn squash flowering.




What remains of my Sugar Snap Peas (after the rabbits got to them) are finally producing some pods. They are reaching the 6 foot height.




I've allowed the Daikon Radish plants to go to seed.


Seed pods.




Sweet 100 tomatoes at the trellis.  There's a melon plant in the right hand corner square at the trellis but it just is not growing.




I'm wondering if I should pull up the garlic. The ends of the leaves are turning brown and I see I scape escaped (no pun intended) my attention.




Big Beef Tomatoes in the old style SFG bed.




Roma Tomatoes in the other old style SFG bed.




Marigold and Lobelia in a corner square of a new SFG bed.




After the photo shoot I picked some greens from SFG beds for an "everything in it" green smoothie. These greens include Swiss Chard, Kale, Swede Turnip, Kohlrabi from the SFG.  From the store I used Coconut Milk, Grapes, Banana and Blueberries. The green smoothie looked ugly but tasted very good.



Sitting in the Vitamix (like a flower arrangement) before being torn up by hand for the green smoothie.

Nice pictures. 

Is there any tomatoes set on the Big Beef yet?  I love those tomatoes but did not grow any this year.

I have been told to wait to pull the garlic until the bottom 3 leaves have browned.

Do you eat the green radish pods?  They can be pretty tasty.

Turan wrote:Nice pictures. 

Is there any tomatoes set on the Big Beef yet?  I love those tomatoes but did not grow any this year.

I have been told to wait to pull the garlic until the bottom 3 leaves have browned.

Do you eat the green radish pods?  They can be pretty tasty.

Thanks Turn. 

There are some tomatoes set on the Big Beef as well as the other two varieties.

I agree with the comment on the 3 bottom leaves of garlic. I'm not sure what to do. If I don't pull them in the next few days they will have to wait a couple of more weeks.

I let the daikon radishes go to pods so that I could try the pods.  I've eaten a few already and they are tasty as you say.

Great pics TD, I can't wait to post my Second year SFG pics next year. Learning so much. Going to try new crops and less of others. I swear my zucchini doubles in size daily...

Today I bought a bale of straw. I needed the straw for our 4x4 SFG strawberry bed. For the information of local SFGers I got it at Ritchies Feed & Seed's Richmond location in Ottawa for about $10 including sales tax. 

Here is what the bale looked like before I used any of it. Note the special mode of transportation, that is *the grandkids' wagon.




The strawberry bed is now covered with a thick layer of straw. While I was doing the straw I also removed most of the runners from the strawberry plants so that they will put their energy into producing fruit rather than new plants on the runners. I left a few runners because I need more plants to for some empty squares. The strawberry plants are an everbearing variety. There are Nasturtiums in the front corner squares. These will be replaced by Strawberry plants next year. The back row also has Icicle Radish, Turnip and Carrot (in the top hat).




This is what the bale looked like after doing the strawberry bed. Yikes! What am I going to do with all this leftover straw???




I decided to use the extra straw on the regular soil veggie garden ... around the Acorn Squash, Potato, Tomatillo, Ground Cherry plants as well as the path behind the Raspberry bushes.







Mrs TD thinks that when the wind gets up we will have straw scattered all over the yard!

Make sure you water the straw before the wind takes it, TD.

That's what one bale does!?   Wow! I could do all the paths around my sfg boxes! The blowing in the wind thing is definitely a factor around here.  I'll have to think about this. Thanks for the great photos, TD.

Sounds like a yummy gray smoothie you had there! And those daikon seed pods look perfect for eating right now.
CC

A few photos of the Table Top from different directions. This TT is a great producer.  I never did get around to staining/sealing the outside surfaces of the wood.







Note the ground level SFG beds in the top left corner of the photo.