First Harvest and Mulch!

Although I never got around to posting about it. We've already eaten from the garden.

Back on March 16, I harvested a radish that seemed loose. We cut it in half and ate it. Besides looking perfect, it was juicy and had a nice bite!


On the 24th we harvested the rest. Unfortunately, in one of the squares, the radishes hadn't formed radishes at all or were small and rotten. Maybe they were too crowded? In the other plot I only lost a few that looked inedible. In total, I harvested 13 radishes. Less than half. Oh well, at least they're delicious. I've replanted, so hopefully round two will be more successful.


I also didn't get much out of the broccoli. One small head was about to flower so I harvested both. They were about a quarter or less the size of a full head of broccoli, so they were just a single serving. We steamed them and they turned the darkest green I have ever seen on a broccoli! And they tasted great! Both of us wished there were more. Oh well. There will be secondary heads and the stems later, which you can see in the second picture.


I also got around to buying mulch this weekend. No one had the coir mulch that comes in a cube that I really wanted, so I just bought native mulch from Houston Garden Center instead. The dark color really makes the green of the plants stand out and they should be much happier now that the soil won't dry out and get a hard crust.

I took a bunch of general pictures.


I hope more basil seeds sprout. It will be pretty sparse in the square if they don't.

Late Update

The weekend was terrible. It was cold and rainy, then cold and very windy. Some of the plants were showing cold damage today, like the basil and the watermelon seedling.

Nevertheless, I finally managed to find a "Texas tarragon" (also known as Mexican mint marigold, since real tarragon won't grow well here) at Ace Hardware, and bought that along with a lemon balm, so my mostly herb plot is looking slightly better. I'm still waiting for the strawberries to come up. There's no sign of green on them yet.

The full plot, lemon balm, texas tarragon, cucumbers, loofah gourd


Here is the plot with the tomatoes and peppers. The basil has a bit of a brown tinge, but you can't really see it. After that are a basil seedling and zucchini seedling.


Here another plot with progress of corn, salad greens, scallions, greenbeans


Almost all the squares of the asparagus plot have shoots now.


The watermelon in this plot is a little yellowed from the cold. The cantaloupe seeds were eaten? by ants, but I put ant bait out today and reseede both those and more watermelon seeds in case this one doesn't make it.

From left to right - watermelon, whole plot, purslane


And last but not least, the cool weather crop patch! The broccoli is looking about ready to harvest, and some of the rest of the crops got a little battered by the wind and rain. The potatoes on the right-hand side are really pretty.


Oh, and we ate our first radish a while back, but I'll post about that later. It was delicious!

Harvest Dates

For my reference...

swiss chard - harvest when leaves are 4 to 5 inches long, full flavor at 60 days
kale- 70- 90 days for full maturity, but harvest lower leaves earlier over longer time
spinach- 45-50 days
carrots - 75 days
cucumber - 45-50 till flowering
loofah- sept to nov
yellow squash/zucchini - 60 to 70 days for bloom
potatoes - 90 - 110 days
cantaloupe - 85 to 100 days
corn - 80-100 days
okra 65 - 75
onion 90-130 days
pepper - 70 - 100 days
watermelon 80-100 days

planted beg of feb-
radish- beginning of april
swiss chard - mid april
kale- end of april
spinach- mid april
carrots - end of april
potatoes - may

planted beg of march
cucumber - bloom in may
loofah- sept to nov
yellow squash/zucchini - bloom in may
cantaloupe - june
watermelon - june
corn - june
okra - may
onion - june- july
pepper - may - june

Mid March

Wow, lots of seeds sprouting in just a week! A couple I didn't take pictures of include lemongrass and basil!

First, I'll start with the box planted in February. The potatoes are coming up nicely and I've already started mounding the soil around them. Unfortunately, it looks like I'm not going to get any broccoli, the weather warmed up too fast. Radishes should be ready for harvest at the end of this month! Next time, I'll plant each square 15 days apart for two small harvests rather than one huge one.

From left to right- potato, radish, chard, broccoli, kale, spinach



Here's a view of the farthest left-hand bed. I bought a tomatillo today and there is also lemongrass sprouting that is not pictured.

From left to right- whole bed, okra, tomatillo


More asparagus is coming up and leafing out.


Here are pictures from the middle right-hand bed. All the corn is coming up. In the morning, they just looked like sprouts, by the afternoon, they looked like they had leaves!
From left to right- salad greens, green bean, green bean, summer squash, corn


Also today, I bought genovese basil for the nearest right-hand bed. Chives are sprouting and also some basil, probably thai.
From left to right- whole bed, basil, chives


I've got cucumber sprouting in the nearest left-hand bed.