2018 In My Southern Utah Garden

February 2018 Almond Tree in Bloom. Pruned in January.

Broccolini producing continuously in April 2018.
Planted end of March.

Beets.

Large harvest of Broccolini. June 2018

First tomato! April 10, 2018. Costco plants, harvested tomato
one week after planting.

Yellow pear tomatoes and Sweet 100's.

Roma tomatoes.

Figs and other harvest June 2018

Blackberries June 2018

Cauliflower and assorted tomatoes. June 2018

Celebrity tomatoes.

Roma tomatoes

Swiss Chard.

Spinach

Yellow squash

Fall Harvest in the Garden

I planted these Zinnias from seed under grow lights then transplanted them into pots in October.
We were able to enjoy the blooms for about a month before freezing temperatures were threatening, and I cut the stems for an indoor bouquet.

I should be able to harvest Swiss chard all winter. I cut the larger leaves, and come back and cut again as I need to. I made some Low Carb Lasagne out of this bunch of chard. Delicious!

Grape tomatoes were also harvested and enjoyed before I pulled up the plants a couple of weeks ago. Can't wait to plant some peas or other cold weather crops to enjoy in early spring!

Vintage Pottery

Fall Harvest of Soft Shell Almonds

Soft Shell almonds

I was able to pick a small harvest of almonds from my dwarf almond tree on Saturday! It was fun to show my granddaughter how to break them open and eat them. She loved eating them, too! I was also able to pick some of the pomegranates from the bushes in the yard. Will get some pictures and put in another post.

Have you been harvesting anything from your garden? Share in the comments.

Spring Garden in Southern Utah

Even though I haven't had a blog post in a while, I have been keeping up with my garden. I continue to harvest Swiss Chard, carrots, parsley, and chives.

 

Chives

 

Parsley

Swiss chard

I've been putting in some raised beds, and I'm hoping to get away from all of my containers/pots. Hopefully I'll get a better yield at harvest time because of the switch.

snap peas



snap peas



I'll post more pictures this weekend. I have lettuce and spinach seedlings to plant, as well as blueberries and blackberries.

Today's Harvest: Baby Carrots

baby carrots

I've been picking these small round carrots since fall. We've had a hard freeze, but fortunately, they made it through unscathed. They are actually growing in a self watering pot out in the yard. They have a sweet taste, and it is kind of like eating a sweet treat in the afternoon. Love these!

In the garden I have Swiss chard, baby carrots and parsley that are ready to harvest. That's it.  I've grown more items in the Winter in past years. I did plant some peas this weekend, and hope to get some radishes and more peas planted by Saturday. I also have green onions under grown lights as well as sunflower greens.

Last Tomato Harvest of 2012

Cherry Tomato Harvest Dec. 7, 2012

Sorry for the picture quality on the tomatoes above....used my cell phone and it was nightfall so the lighting wasn't great. But, on the positive side, I still have tomatoes fresh from my garden. I harvested the remaining tomatoes last Friday (Dec. 7th). I had to protect the tomatoes from frost in November once or twice, but I'm glad I made the effort.

I grouped the tomatoes according to ripeness, using the ripe ones to make fresh salsa to serve with dinner. Yes, it was delicious!

The green tomatoes from last week are now turning red. I think I'll have enough cherry tomatoes to last me through the week.

I'm already starting to think about tomatoes that I'm planting in 2013! I had a horrible problem with tomato horn worms, so I am definitely going to use some kind of organic treatment on my plants this year. The horn worms were getting more tomatoes than I was at one point in the season!

I still have parsley, chives, mint, Swiss Chard and carrots growing in my pots. It's been raining today, so they are all getting some water.

Are you still harvesting produce from your garden? If so, I'd love to hear what you have on hand!

Delicata Squash in my Container Garden

Last fall, I was in Las Vegas and stopped by Whole Foods, looking for delicata squash. I was able to purchase some, and we absolutely loved it! I saved the seeds so that I could try my hand at growing it.  I've been somewhat frustrated trying to get it to grow past what you see in the above picture. It is growing in pots, so if I don't get the water just right, the little squashes just shrivel up. Image my happiness when I noticed a huge delicata squash growing!

I've finally picked it, and I'll serve it with dinner tomorrow. I will make a post tomorrow on how to prepare it in a simple, delicious way.

Have you had success growing delicata squash? Post a comment if you have and let me know how successful you've been growing it.

Today's Harvest: Lettuce

I've been enjoying lettuce (Simpson Black Seeded Leaf Lettuce), Swiss chard and beet greens from my garden over the last several weeks. Above, I cut enough to fill a heaping amount that came way over the top of my large Tupperware mixing bowl.

Leaf lettuces are considered greens. They are a good source of vitamin A and C, calcium and fiber as well as essential minerals such as potassium. Here I am chopping up some washed lettuce for a salad. I also will add some of the Simpson Black Seeded Leaf Lettuce to smoothies. It has a sweet taste.

After washing the lettuce, I like to use the lettuce spinner to remove any extra moisture before cutting it up for a salad.

After washing and spinning the lettuce leaves, I store whatever I'm not using in a dish towel, and then placed in a air tight plastic container. The leaves are then ready to go when ever I am ready to chop them up for a salad, or put them into a smoothie. They will stay good for 10-14 days this way.

Bountiful Baskets Jan. 28, 2012

In Winter, when the garden is growing slowly, I like to take advantage of Bountiful Baskets, a co-op here in the Western states. Your contribution for a conventional basket (5-6 fruit items and 5-6 vegetables items) is only $15.

I ordered both a conventional basket (not strictly organic) and an Asian pack from Bountiful Baskets this week. I was very pleased with the offerings. My refrigerator is pretty well overflowing with vegetables, which is always nice. I'll be making stirfry for dinner tomorrow night!

Pictured below, the Asian pack included an eggplant, 2 yellow onions, celery, bok choy, napa cabbage, green onions, basil, garlic, ginger (small piece next to the onion), fresh water chestnuts and peas. The quality was very good.

Asian Pack $8.50

 The conventional basket had lots of braeburn apples, tangerines, a clam shell of blueberries, green beans, bell peppers (green and red), cabbage, asparagus, tomatoes, romaine lettuce, green beans and a bag of red potatoes. The tomatoes have a bit of ripening ahead of them, but they should be ready to use later this week.

 Conventional Basket $15

Garden Report Jan. 5, 2012

If you are trying to get more vegetables into your diet, the best way is to grow your own. Not only will they be fresh with better nutrient values, but they just taste better. Fresh vegetables are better in any recipe. You can grow most vegetables in pots if you don't have space for a large garden. Gardening is also a great hobby!

 Garden gnome from my friend, Char watches over my vegetables!

I've always enjoyed gardening. I remember as a 5 year old, visiting our neighbor in Escondido, California who had a wonderful garden. He allowed my siblings and I to pick cherry tomatoes off of his plants, and we'd pop them in our mouths. Delicious! Perhaps that is when I caught the gardening bug!?

I have a year round container garden. Here is how the plants are looking as of today:

These are beets. I have two pots of beets and they are doing very well. I might clip some of the greens for our stir fry tonight. I am so tempted to pull up a plant and see if I have any actual beets.

Swiss chard. I love this stuff. Great for smoothies and in stir fry. I will definitely be clipping some of this for tonight's dinner.

Peas. I have 2 pots of peas. Since the garden is covered in plastic, I think that these took a bit of a hit. Too hot under there. I took the plastic off for the day. Temps are in the 60's daytime and low 30's nighttime. Fortunately, they are making a come back.

Here are the sunflower greens I'm growing in the kitchen. I love sunflower greens. Awesome taste and so nutritious! They are delicious on salads, sandwiches and scrambled eggs.

This is a picture of the black oil sunflower seeds I get from Sprout People. 

Winter Container Garden 2011-2012

Another Winter, another container garden! I am really hoping to start tearing up my back yard in February and begin putting together my raised bed garden. I think I will get better yield from my plants with the raised bed garden.

However, what I have currently are a half dozen very large pots that contain Swiss Chard, Beets and Peas.  Here is one of the pots of beets. I will be using the beet greens in a stir fry this week. I like using the beets in smoothies.

I have Swiss Chard planted in several pots, by itself and along with other vegetables.

The lighting is a little strange because all of these pots are in a mini greenhouse of sorts that I created. This is last year's set up. This year I have a larger space.

Here in Southern Utah, our day time temps in the Winter are in the 50's and the evening temps are in the 20's to 30's. The plastic greenhouse allows me to grow all kinds of crops such as Swiss Chard, Spinach, Kale, Bok Choy and Peas. I haven't tried lettuce in my green house, but I'm starting some from seed this week, and I'll pot some up here in a few weeks. I'm also starting more spinach.

Today's Harvest

Today's harvest is.....a bunch of green onions! I clipped these out of a pot in my container garden. I washed them, then chopped them. I'll be using them tomorrow for dinner in Roasted Zucchini with Green Onions, Feta Cheese and Basil from Kalyn's Kitchen. I'm serving this with oven baked, marinated chicken thighs.

Favorite Garden Spots!

I'm putting my garden together for the season. This year will be bigger and better. Hopefully it will be more productive as well! I was doing some blog hopping, and came across some pictures that gave me garden envy. Hope you'll love them too! The first one I found on HGTV website. I love how lush that raised bed looks.

A pot of lettuce seedlings from HGTV website. Here is one from Hazelbloom, and I just love how she turned a small corner of the yard into a garden spot. Here is a raised bed garden from Better Homes and Gardens. My garden is full of pots...a container garden. I'll take some pictures tomorrow.