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Post by feather on Jul 9, 2019 0:51:47 GMT
So this is the garden we started years ago by layering lots of evergreen clippings and corn cobs, lime, and soil, and straw and manure.
We eat salad or greens. The logs and buckets and wheelbarrow are an obstacle course for the darn rabbit.
Radishes in the back, arugula (rocket) front right, and black seeded simpson on the left.
Cilantro going to seed in the back and on the left, some tango lettuce. and in the middle some butter crunch lettuce trimmed by darn rabbits, and on the left kale (you see, no one likes kale, not even rabbits and we eat it anyways).
come have some salad.
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Post by 1shotwade on Jul 9, 2019 9:24:05 GMT
Looks inviting Feather! Good job! Wade
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Post by Woodpecker on Jul 9, 2019 13:51:19 GMT
Sure looks lush and will be delish in your smoothies & everything else you use them in!!! Nice & neat, too. 🥬
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Post by feather on Jul 9, 2019 15:32:06 GMT
The rabbit went for a long sleep this morning. Sorry rabbit. I've been cooking down my kale. Steam for 5-6 minutes, until it is a beautiful dark vibrant green. That condenses it from quarts to cups. Three bales of kale, I mean, 3 bunches of kale will go down to 6 cups and I refrigerate it. I take out a serving, chop it, microwave it and chew my cud, I mean, I eat it with a few drops of balsamic vinegar and a tiny bit of salt. DH will not eat it. He says it's like chewing grass. I've never chewed grass, so I wouldn't know. I've read that the arugula aka rocket, is supposed to be good cooked down too. I'll be trying that when it gets bigger. Woodpecker, 1shotwade, thank you for the kind words.
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Post by mogal on Jul 9, 2019 15:44:36 GMT
Beautiful salad bed, Feather!
If that rabbit is anything like the ones here, he has plenty of relatives waiting in the wings.
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Post by susannah on Jul 9, 2019 15:46:23 GMT
Gorgeous garden! I am so envious - I miss my gardens!
I'm envious of the kale, too! I love kale (dh does not love it; let's just say that). I've had some really good kale based salads and I don't have to share them! Yay for me!
Hmm...if rabbits don't like kale (we don't have a rabbit problem up here; I've seen exactly one in the past 6 years) I wonder how deer feel about it? So far the deer eat everything except they leave fennel alone. And since I don't grow fennel anymore, I'm looking for something else they'll leave alone.
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Post by feather on Jul 9, 2019 16:02:03 GMT
mogal, oh we have a pretty large deck and bushes to the side of the garage, and I'm sure there are rabbit condos in there. susannah,we watched two deer the other night, from the patio window, we watched them hoping they wouldn't come into the yard and they didn't. The deer and sandhill cranes will pull up our garlic or onions, but only one and once they realize how much it stinks, they don't bother it anymore. Garlic keeps a lot of animals away. You can plant garlic anytime of year but up here in the north, if you want to harvest it, plant it in Oct-Nov and it'll be ready in July. We are just days away from harvest here. Thanks for the kind words.
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Post by katievt on Jul 9, 2019 19:33:26 GMT
Yum! We had taco salad on Saturday night using lettuce from our garden. It was so satisfying picking our own produce. Can't wait until more veggies are ready!
Then Monday morning, I took the bag of leftover taco toppings, a bottle of ranch dressing, and on my way to the truck, picked myself more lettuce for Monday's lunch! Talk about fresh!
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Post by solargeek on Jul 10, 2019 3:43:30 GMT
feather, Very excellent! Love how neat it is. Mine is currently needing attention as our heat has made the arugula bolt, and the leafy lettuce is looking peaked. BUT THE ROMAINE is spectacular. Still haven't been able to grill any - just not home or we ate the current bunch. Going to pick 5 heads tomorrow and lightly grill for several meals. Glad you got the rabbit.
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Post by Woodpecker on Jul 10, 2019 14:41:30 GMT
Yay feather, You and the "diet" you put yourselves on...really worked for your DH....what great cholesterol numbers!!!!! It's surely paid off .... good job taking good care of DH and you!
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Post by feather on Jul 10, 2019 15:07:47 GMT
Thank you for all the kind words and stories of your gardens. Glad to see I'm not the only rabbit here. I'm glad I got a picture of it before it starts to bolt. DH says the kale we put in the back garden (another one) has doubled in size since yesterday. My gardens get a little ugly once the bolting begins. We go from no greens, to too much greens, to bolting, to collect seeds, or pull them out and replant some other lettuces. I'm really happy about DH's numbers. I went outside to meet him when I saw the results online, to jump up and down with excitement, that gave me 2 extra steps on my pedometer, lol. It's no guarantee but he's lowered his risk of another heart attack. There are no guarantees in life.
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Post by feather on Jul 14, 2019 1:34:37 GMT
We're harvesting kale and light green and dark green lettuces, and a few radishes. And a couple leaves of rocket/arugula, I tasted it, and it is hot. DH wanted some for a salad, so I suggested he taste it first. He tasted it and said, 'no way in hell'. I don't think we'll be growing that for salad again. I'm going to try to cook it with kale and see how that goes.
And the radishes were pretty delightful, and I'll cook the leaves with the kale too. Are you harvesting those lately?
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Post by Weed on Jul 14, 2019 14:56:39 GMT
feather, I'm not big on salads or an arugula fan, but my wife makes 3 or 4 different versions of watermelon salad with arugula. Seems they're always a little different each time she makes it. My favorite has goat cheese, candied walnuts & a few other things, topped with champagne vinegar dressing but she's also made it with different cheeses (blue, feta) and balsamic dressing...they're all good. It's good enough to grow arugula every year IMO, even though I'm not crazy about it
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2019 15:30:48 GMT
A favorite cool meal in hot weather is Jello on fresh washed leaf lettuce with a little cottage cheese on the side.
Mom used to make a warm mustard dressing to put on leaf lettuce, as a kid. Wasn't too fond of it then but have grown to like it, once in a while.
We eat a lot of greens but usually make a meal of it, taco salad or topped with chili, tuna, salmon or in taco's. Fish taco's being a favorite summer meal....James
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Post by midtnmama on Jul 15, 2019 13:37:34 GMT
feather , I'm not big on salads or an arugula fan, but my wife makes 3 or 4 different versions of watermelon salad with arugula. Seems they're always a little different each time she makes it. My favorite has goat cheese, candied walnuts & a few other things, topped with champagne vinegar dressing but she's also made it with different cheeses (blue, feta) and balsamic dressing...they're all good. It's good enough to grow arugula every year IMO, even though I'm not crazy about it Going to hijack this thread here (sorry) and mention that some folks will grow arugula and other slightly spicy, bitter greens because they taste excellent in a salad, but will not eat lettuce after it gets a little bitter in the heat. Not you, weed, just an observation. I like bitter taste in my salads.....
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Post by midtnmama on Jul 15, 2019 13:40:05 GMT
feather, Your salad garden is just gorgeous! I have never been able to make a pretty garden. Something is always nice, next to something struggling, next to something I let go to seed for pollinators and seed.....
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Post by feather on Jul 16, 2019 21:48:32 GMT
DH had a $5.32 check from a rebate from Menards which was burning a hole in his pocket. He's off to buy some dirt and I saw that Menards had their 11% sale again, and seeds were marked down (assorted various), so he's going to look at those too.
We have 2 new rabbits. One he calls the black rabbit, a small black rabbit and another great big fat rabbit. DH's been sneaking around the yard armed late as the sun sets, and scaring them up but he hasn't gotten rid of them just yet.
When planting the lettuce, we planted way too close together, especially with kale. About 2 weeks in to it, we moved a bunch of them out to another back garden. Since we've never grown kale before, we don't know if it will run it's course with constant picking then we replant or, then bolt, or can we pick through the bolting and have it continue into fall? What usually happens?
I plan on canning cooked kale, pressure canning it. Is that a mid-summer activity or a fall activity, or both?
We picked kale, tango, black seeded simpson, and butter crunch for salads today.
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Post by feather on Aug 2, 2019 17:14:29 GMT
It's starting to get over grown and we can't keep up with picking it. This is the left side, with the kale, leaf lettuces, and tall celery.
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Post by feather on Aug 8, 2019 0:59:20 GMT
The radish area came out, not many good radishes. Replanted in some new bib lettuce which is coming in nicely. We are still picking kale and leaf lettuces, for me to cook and for salads.
The arugula started to go to seed, so tonight I said, let's just take that out. DH won't eat it raw, I don't know that I could. I planned to cook it. DH said, why not cut it and then let it grow more. So I agreed and we did. He brought in a large bucket and 1/2. I cleaned it up, stripped off the stems, cooked it lightly (6 minutes steaming), and put it in containers. WOW it smells so strong and bitter. It isn't terrible, or too bitter...cooked with some vinegar and a little salt. I had some. It isn't nearly as bitter when it is cooked. I can eat that. I'm amazed. I think I might have earned an eagle badge or something, just for bravery.
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Post by feather on Aug 9, 2019 4:31:17 GMT
After making pickles and all my regular stuff, I laid down and fell asleep for 4 hours. 4!!! I woke up and there's a bushel of kale (maybe more) and two more buckets of baby kale and lettuce. I'm just too tired to clean it all. We put it in a cooler and covered it in water until tomorrow. We had extra cucumbers and I asked DH if he wanted to offer them to the neighbor next door or a different one. Now we never know from year to year if this will be a happy exchange or not. It was great and they wanted cucumbers. They've been having health problems (near our age) so they cut back on meat and they reduced dairy and stopped eating pizza. They felt their diet was difficult but once DH told him that we gave up meat and all dairy, they felt happier and not as deprived as the 'neighbors next door'. Glad to have made their day. We are the anti-Joneses, mr and mrs feather, they can say, we have it better than they do. I asked DH if he wanted me to make them a pizza someday, a healthy pizza. One with a no-cheeze sauce and all the veg toppings. He told me, that he didn't think they'd appreciate it as much as he does.
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Post by midtnmama on Aug 9, 2019 13:42:15 GMT
Anti-Jones! LOVE IT!
Wish I were your neighbor. And your husband is wrong. Everyone likes pizza--your pizza, I'm sure is great!
Edited to add: I believe we ARE keeping up with the Anti-Jones. Ha!
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Post by feather on Aug 9, 2019 15:49:57 GMT
midtnmama , I wish you were my neighbor too. I could share my kale with you. I used to feel quite uncomfortable making my shopping list: 4 bunches of kale, which only lasted a few days. DH was getting looks at the grocery store. I have one bushel of kale to deal with today. I was thinking, clean it, cook it, maybe I ought to take out the pressure canner and can it. It's a nice day, I could do that.
EDIT: I just realized that the horror show of growing 11 zucchini plants, so far, none, but just wait until we are overloaded with zucchini--has an answer. The neighbor mentioned they gave up the carbs in pasta and now eat zucchini noodles instead. So I know where to pawn off dozens of those. So out of the potential 700 zucchini, I know where 36 of them can go. Start small, work at it.
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Post by willowgirl on Aug 10, 2019 16:24:04 GMT
That looks great! Lettuce is one of the most economical things to grow as it's so expensive in the store, and who knows what's been sprayed on it or how it's been handled?!
Regarding the rabbit problem, I grow my lettuce in old dryer drums filled with compost. They're about 20" high and I put 18" wire mesh rings on top to keep the cats from jumping in and using them as litter boxes. This set-up also seems to deter the bunnies as we haven't had a problem with them here.
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Post by feather on Aug 10, 2019 16:37:28 GMT
willowgirl, it's growing like crazy here. Salads and greens every day. Your idea of dryer drums, great idea. Nothing in the big traps today. One chipmunk in a rat trap. There was a bunny out there this morning, but he ran when DS went outside with the gun, ran right under the deck. So we are on rabbit garden watch today. And if you guess, you might guess where it was. In the beans, again.
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Post by feather on Aug 20, 2019 18:20:18 GMT
We previously tore out a bunch of lettuce/arugula on the right side of the salad bar, then replanted. In the back the big plants are basil. Then another new lettuce, and a small area in front, new arugula coming up. Then more arugula in the back garden.
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Post by feather on Apr 3, 2020 21:37:08 GMT
Beginnings of our salad garden. Under the cover frame with our mild winter, our 2020 kale is coming back. And on the other side the parsley is coming in strongly. We took the winter sown mustard and planted that in the back on the right. Cover frame will go right back on it, since this is Wisconsin and we could get cold nights.
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Post by feather on Jun 6, 2020 13:22:10 GMT
On the left in the salad garden, you can see some of the kale that has gone to seed. I'm letting it go and then I'll collect the pods and dry them, using the seed for kale for the rest of the year and next year. On the right, this is where I pull out lettuce from the roots, tear off the roots throw them back in. The whole area will be empty within the next week or so, and we'll move on to a new lettuce area and replant this with new stuff. This lush patch is arugula with the parsley in the back. A little too early to pick but when it is just right, I'll pick it all, steam up the arugula, and plant new kinds of lettuce, some butter crunch heads (or so the seeds say). After the lettuce in the first picture is gone, this new patch should be about ready for eating. I'll pick our salad from here. The bare space behind it will have some blue kale, and right directly behind it some radishes.
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