Garden produce nothing better

[street]

I enjoy this time of year so much with fresh produce. Red beet leaf's for salad and sandwiches. Been using banana peppers, red beet, green beans and carrots in a stir fry. Been also eating fresh potatoes and tomatoes.

What a great time of the year and a blessing. I'm sure most of you have been reaping the rewards also.

 

[Jerry1]

I'm sure most of you have been reaping the rewards also.

I wish. We can buy it, but no way to grow it without a fortress. There are so many deer and rabbits around here, there's no way to get a harvest at home. DW and I are thinking about building a fenced in area 15'x15' or so next year. We miss vine ripe tomatoes and home grown sweet corn.

 

[pb4uski]

Yes, the deer or rabbits enjoyed our garden lettuce this year... DW recently put up the fence so we may get some second crop.

 

[mountainsoft]

I enjoy this time of year so much with fresh produce.

I wish we could grow a garden but we just don't get enough sunlight. We live in a forested area and I selected the sunniest spot I could find for our garden. Unfortunately, because of all the trees, we only have a 2-3 hour window for direct sunlight.

I can't even get radishes to grow successfully. They just bolt without producing any radishes.

We've had minor success with green beans, but we haven't bothered the last few years.

We do have a batch of potatoes that keep coming back on their own every year. I haven't even been watering them and they still keep coming back. No matter how thorough I think I am digging up the potatoes, I'm obviously still missing some.

I've gone so far as to set up time lapse cameras around the yard to find the sunniest spot, but 2-3 hours seems to be the limit anywhere.

Cutting down our trees is not an option. I can buy vegetables at the store. I can't buy the trees...

 

[O2Bfree]

Oh yes, one of my favorite things in the summer is trotting out to the garden to gather some fresh greens or potatoes for a meal. This year I put in a small patch of purslane. It's considered a weed, but lo and behold, is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet!

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/purslane

Purslane is a green, leafy vegetable that can be eaten raw or cooked.

It is known scientifically as Portulaca oleracea, and is also called pigweed, little hogweed, fatweed and pusley.

This succulent plant contains about 93% water. It has red stems and small, green leaves. It has a slightly sour or salty taste, similar to spinach and watercress.

It can be used in many of the same ways as spinach and lettuce, such as in salads or sandwiches.

Purslane grows in many parts of the world, in a wide range of environments.

It can grow in gardens and sidewalk cracks, but can also adapt to harsher conditions. This includes drought, as well as very salty or nutrient-deficient soil.

Purslane has a long history of use in traditional/alternative medicine

It is also high in many nutrients. A 100 gram (3.5 oz) portion contains:

• Vitamin A (from beta-carotene): 26% of the DV.
• Vitamin C: 35% of the DV.
• Magnesium: 17% of the DV.
• Manganese: 15% of the DV.
• Potassium: 14% of the DV.
• Iron: 11% of the DV.
• Calcium: 7% of the RDI.
• It also contains small amounts of vitamins B1, B2, B3, folate, copper and phosphorus.

It grows best in dry soil, so this is a good year to try it since we've had unusually warm/hot weather and practically no rain at all this summer in the Seattle area. I'm thinking that our usual weather will keep it from spreading too much, as weeds tend to do, but I'll keep an eye on it and clip off the flowers before they seed.

 

[Ronstar]

I don't think anything will grow at our place - too much shade. We used to be part of a garden co-op. It was great while it lasted but the farmer isn't doing it anymore.

 

[4legsgood]

...

We do have a batch of potatoes that keep coming back on their own every year. I haven't even been watering them and they still keep coming back. No matter how thorough I think I am digging up the potatoes, I'm obviously still missing some.
...
Cutting down our trees is not an option. I can buy vegetables at the store. I can't buy the trees...

I have good luck with raspberries and rhubarb despite pretty shady even though recommended conditions are for full sun. The rabbits leave them alone, but deer might eat raspberries. The two together make for some nice desserts.

I've had success bringing in more light by pruning lower branches of evergreens. The trees don't seem to mind, probably would if over done.

Mint too seems to do okay in lower light if moist, and it's fun to make tzatziki, add to salad, lamb burger, add to lemonade, tea.

YMMV

 

[O2Bfree]

I also gathered some salal berries from the big patch in our back yard and had some with my yogurt and nuts this morning. They're sort of like a cross between blueberries and currants, a little bland though, with an earthy note.

 

[street]

I also like to watch plants go through their life cycle. My garden is small runs on both sides of a 70 feet fence, 3 feet wide on both sides. So easy to care for and watering it is easy as turning on the pump. I have a swallow ditch that runs on both sides of fence so it waters from one end to the other by just laying the hose in the ditch. When it hits the end repeat on other side.

For the little effort I put into it the rewards are huge.

I also have picked about 6 gallons of wild berry that I enjoy all year long. The best reward of the berry and produce is being outdoors harvesting the product. The other morning the deer, turkey and all the beautiful sounds of nature was enough to make it all worth while.

 

[finnski1]

Just last night we had a fresh salad with lettuce, snap peas etc from the garden with some mixed up salad dressing using the apple cider vinegar. Followed that with salmon on the grill with a ginger teriyaki glazing, baked potatoes with sour cream, butter, chive, salt and pepper.

Life is good. I don't believe the whole meal was more than about $12 for two. Can't beat that.

 

[MichaelB]

This is definitely the best time of the year. All the fruit.

I tag along with my brother and his DW early saturday mornings to visit the Chicago Green City Market. It is a very large organic farmers market, most are there for deliveries to upscale Chicago restaurants and sell at the market as a side business. It’s a hard life.

It’s a real pleasure just to walk around, see and smell the produce, talk with the farmers. Just about everything is seasonal so buying is a bit impulsive, but there is nothing better than real fresh vegetables picked in the last couple of days.

 

[Chuckanut]

Alas, the rabbits got my very young plants a few years ago, so I have reverted to container gardening where I keep the containers up high and protected from rabbits, rodents and other critters. We seem to get more garden munching critters every year.

I live in a suburb about 10 miles from the big city and in a megalopolis. Freeways, shopping malls, high density apartments, and all the trappings of the big city abound. But, local cities have done a remarkable job of preserving parks lands, and green corridors, watersheds, and other 'natural' areas which often follow the paths of local streams. Amazingly, the deer follow these routes in the Spring and seek out our newly sprouting gardens. Mine took a bit of a beating from the deer. this year. But, it was nice to see them outside on my deck.

 

[RAE]

I love my vegetable garden. I don't use any pesticides, and I add only compost each year to maintain and improve the soil. I've had a huge harvest of broccoli this year, and have been cutting and eating broccoli for a few weeks now. Also got some nice snow peas and snap peas. And of course lettuce and other greens before that, but the lettuce has bolted to seed now. Kale and collard greens will get better as the weather cools down in late August/Sept.. Just starting to pick pole beans and zucchini now. And I will start digging a few potatoes this next week, probably. And tomatoes, my favorite, are green now but slowly starting to turn red. Oh.......and my hardneck garlic is mature enough to dig up and start drying it out for storage. Have to wait a day or two longer, though, as we got a lot of rain last night and it's better to dig it up when the soil is a little drier.

Definitely a great time of year! About 90%+ of the veggies I eat during the months of June through Sept/Oct come from my garden.

 

[Chuckanut]

The rabbits leave them alone, but deer might eat raspberries. The two together make for some nice desserts.

Grilled venison with raspberry sauce??

 

[4legsgood]

Grilled venison with raspberry sauce??

Heheh, but no hunting in residential areas and the deer know it!

 

[RAE]

I also have picked about 6 gallons of wild berry that I enjoy all year long. The best reward of the berry and produce is being outdoors harvesting the product. The other morning the deer, turkey and all the beautiful sounds of nature was enough to make it all worth while.

What kinds of berries are you picking, Street? I pick a lot of blackberries here, which will be ripe in about 2-3 weeks. And I also pick lots of chokecherries and black currants, mostly for winemaking. I have black elderberry bushes in my yard also, which are great for wine too, but this year they got defoliated by sawflies, so the crop of fruit on them is going to be pretty meager.


I have a few blueberry bushes in my yard also, and the fruit is ripening now. But we usually go to a pick-your-own blueberry farm not far from here to get larger quantities of blueberries, which we mostly freeze for use during the winter.

 

[DayDreaming]

Oh yes, one of my favorite things in the summer is trotting out to the garden to gather some fresh greens or potatoes for a meal. This year I put in a small patch of purslane. It's considered a weed, but lo and behold, is one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet!

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/purslane



It grows best in dry soil, so this is a good year to try it since we've had unusually warm/hot weather and practically no rain at all this summer in the Seattle area. I'm thinking that our usual weather will keep it from spreading too much, as weeds tend to do, but I'll keep an eye on it and clip off the flowers before they seed.

I purposely let my purslane go to seed in one of my raised beds last year. This year it's making a very nice, edible ground cover in that bed. It grows well and does not look weedy at all.

 

[street]

RAE >>> Juneberry/Service berry, Black Current, Goose berry, Blue berry and there are tons of wild choke cherry and plum.

The other morning the deer were grazing right around and the wild turkey were heading back to the cedars. That is part of the fun also for me.

 

[pacergal]

Love fresh picked fruits and veggies. This year is not a very successful one for us, the unusually hot weather just fried everything.
We do go to the local Farmers Market

 

[lrip]

We have lots of wild rabbits. Buried some chicken wire about 6 inches around the base of the fence. Problem solved...for them. Had to construct a cage around strawberry beds for the birds. Took care of that. Squash beetles killing the cucumber vines now. Always some new challenge with a garden.

 

[RAE]

We have lots of wild rabbits. Buried some chicken wire about 6 inches around the base of the fence. Problem solved...for them. Had to construct a cage around strawberry beds for the birds. Took care of that. Squash beetles killing the cucumber vines now. Always some new challenge with a garden.

Lots of cottontail rabbits in our neighborhood also, but rarely do they attempt to get into the garden. I think that has happened twice over the years, and a live trap solved the problem both times. Woodchucks are the critters that concern me. Every year we have a family of them somewhere in the neighborhood, and every year I have to trap and relocate at least one, if not several of them (it was 6 one year). I've had them get into the garden before (dug under the fence), and they can destroy most of the garden in just one or two days. We have plenty of deer here also, but I have a higher fence that usually deters them. Chipmunks often want to eat my garden seeds as I am planting them in the Spring, so I usually have to trap a few of those guys also, until the plants germinate and get bigger. I did have a deer jump the fence one year, and then panic........she destroyed one section of fence trying to get out, which she eventually did.

 

[daylatedollarshort]

I wish. We can buy it, but no way to grow it without a fortress. There are so many deer and rabbits around here, there's no way to get a harvest at home. DW and I are thinking about building a fenced in area 15'x15' or so next year. We miss vine ripe tomatoes and home grown sweet corn.

We also have too much wildlife to make outdoor gardening worthwhile for us as well. We have spare bedrooms these with the kids moved out so I would like to learn how to grow food indoors. I have a converted wet bar turned into an indoor garden area under LED lights that is showing promise, so I'd like to expand on that.

 

[Chuckanut]

Lots of [-]coyote food[/-] rabbits in my area also.

And blackberries. But the blackberries are considered an invasive species and should be rooted out. Nevertheless, it's a rare year where I don't get enough for a few cobblers.

 

[gwix98]

I grow cherry tomatoes, green beans, snap peas all in containers. It gives me a lot of pleasure. We are well fenced here so 4 legged critters can’t get in. Our biggest problem is a short growing season and temperatures/rain which have not been a factor this year.

 

[audreyh1]

Enjoyed fresh garden produce for about 10 years. It was absolutely the best! But retiring and traveling put an end to that. The back yard had gotten mostly shaded by then anyway.

If I think about it I drag myself to a farmer’s market. Too hot here for a summer market, but spring can be very good.