The Modern Victory Garden

Harvest Monday

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what everyone else is harvesting from gardens in so many different regions.     Check it out and join in!                       

The garden is really producing a steady stream of crops available for harvesting now, however I was away on a trip to Spokane most of the latter part of this week, so the harvests were fairly minimal.   I did cut a nice bunch of chinese cabbages early in the week, and then cut some pac choi and rhubarb after I got home on Sunday afternoon.   The rhubarb went into a lovely rhubarb crisp that was served warm with some vanilla ice cream. Delicious!                                   

Harvest totals for the week of May 2nd through May 8th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Chinese Cabbage 1.00 lbs
• Pac Choi 1.00 lbs
• Rhubarb 1.00 lbs

Total For Week 3.00 lbs

Total Year To Date 17.50 lbs                        

Eggs harvested this week – 31                                

Friends, Family, and Home Again

On Thursday I drove to Spokane to spend a few days visiting with my mom and one of my sisters.   Annie’s Granny (Carol), who lives in the Tri Cities area, was kind enough to drive up and meet me in Ritzville for lunch and some garden chat.   I had a wonderful time visiting and laughing with her and will definitely try to talk her into doing that again on a future trip.   She is as fun in person as she is on her blog!                        

The next several days were spent in Spokane and the only gardening I did during that time, was to grub out and plant up my mom’s front flowerbed.   That was my mother’s day gift for her this year.   Other than that, we were busy taking care of some business, eating lots of good meals together, and visiting alot.    I made the long drive home on Sunday, but left early enough and made minimal stops along the way, so that I was able to get home around 1pm.    It felt good to get out into the garden and move around after so much windshield time driving home.   The only task I actually attended to on Sunday afternoon was to side dress the bed of cabbages, kale, swiss chard, and onions with some balanced organic fertilizer and then cultivate the bed lightly to work it in, as well as loosen and break up the soil and remove some weeds that were trying to get established.                       

The Alcosa cabbages are looking good. This is a savoy type of cabbage that I am trying for the first time this year.                          

Right next to the Alcosa cabbages, are some Toscano kale plants.   They are young yet, but starting to grow some nice upright vegetation.           

Looking down the bed from about mid way, you can see the Bright Lights swiss chard, Beira kale, Toscano kale, and at the far back of this picture is the Alcosa Cabbages.                              

In the other half of this bed, there is some onions, kale, two kinds of cabbages, and some broccoli.   I lost a few of the broccoli plants shortly after I transplanted them, but the majority grew out nicely and are starting to get some good foliage developed.                

The Gonzales cabbages growting next to the broccoli are starting to form heads.                     

In the week ahead, I need to similarly cultivate and weed the onion and garlic bed as well.    It is a much smaller bed and will take a short amount of time to attend to.   Otherwise there is not that much that needs attention right now, so I will just enjoy hanging out in the garden and watch how it grows.                                 

It was lovely seeing friends and family this past week, but it is also good to be home again.                                  

Laura

kitsapfreedomgardener