Hello, all! Thank you so much for popping into my little corner of the world. I hope you and yours are faring well.
A while back, I shared in this post my DIY raised garden beds,
and in this post, the sowing and planting of those beds.
Now that we are past the season for my first attempt at a garden and fully into the winter garden season, I would like to share my experiences, as well as my mistakes. I hope you enjoy the post!
I am happy to say that for the most part, this initial foray into edible gardening has been a success for me!
Out of all those I planted, the crop that bore the most fruit and had the most success was definitely my tomatoes. Here's a peek right before they ripened.
They were sweet with just the right amount of tanginess...and absolutely delicious!
The herbs bore such an abundance! The basil, (both the Thai and Sweet Italian) varieties performed extraordinarily well. The rosemary and oregano both provided lots of lovely edible foliage, and the cilantro really blossomed!
The cilantro grew so large as a matter of fact, I had to cut it all the way back.
A plentitude of Sweet Italian Basil
Trimming.
Yours truly clipping the beautiful bounty of Thai Basil
Clipping the Rosemary. This was earlier in the season, and this herb went on to bloom quite generously.
Clipping the oodles of Oregano.
Mountains of Chocolate Mint.
On to the other beds.
The broccoli and cauliflower yielded excellently!
Copious Cauliflower.
Big, beautiful heads. Sidebar: these cauliflower, especially the leaves, were soooo delicious, especially in chopped up and added to ramen or steamed and used for wraps!
Bountiful Broccoli.
Broccoli is one of my favorite veggies, and these were so yummy!!
The red potatoes yielded approximately 10 potatoes per each plant, and I planted four I believe. I likely could have had more, but unfortunately, I harvested some of them too soon...lesson learned! I will work on not doing that next season.
I can't wait to plant more, as they were creamy and quite yummy!!
The onions did well...I only wish I planted more!
Now, onto the crops that did not fare so well and why...
The most prevalent problem was the hot, hot California sun which either caused my crops to bolt, or overgrow. The lettuces, basils, and broccoli (later in the season) all bolted. This even occurred with my cilantro, because we were only eating so much of it, and it grew too fast!
The strawberries, though I planted them in the shade as suggested, only bore three or four, likely also due to the hot, hot sun.
They seem to be doing much better now that the heat has relented a bit. This pic is from later on in the season when it was much, much cooler. The strawberries seem to enjoy the colder temps. This excites me so much! Even though we only had a few this summer and they were miniscule in size comparatively speaking to the huge hormone-induced varieties you might find in the grocery store, they were the sweetest, most delicious I have ever tasted!
The blueberries and raspberries really did not produce at all. I may have gotten only a sparse handful...again, the heat must be the culprit. They are designated as a full-sun shrub, but I am assuming that the heat here was a bit too much sun.
Look out for those brambles!!
To cultivate and reap my wonderful plants, I made sure to use super-sharp herb scissors and cut-resistant kitchen gloves. I love that the scissors I purchased have an herb stripper!
The lettuces were absolutely divine, but as I mentioned, I did run into a snag.
When they first grew in, they were delicious and plentiful!
The same can be said for the spinach!
Wonderful! However, the aforementioned caveat again reared its ugly head. The California sun is so unrelenting, that these all grew too fast for us to eat them, and they ended up bolting! I had to learn this as a gardening neophyte: bolting is what occurs when your edible plants flower, and this can cause them to become inedible. The flavor can become bitter and the leaves can toughen. I have to practice my harvesting method here, and cut back earlier on, and whatever we don't eat, will go into the compost bin I installed.
The bell peppers did quite well, however, I lost quite a few to rot expecting them to grow into the GIANT varieties you might see sold at the grocery stores. These were much, much smaller (likely due to the lack of added enhancements). I had to learn to reap these earlier on. The good thing is, they tasted MUCH better than what you buy at the store.
My cucumber vines did very well, but the fruit had a tendency to become water-logged and go bad before harvest (me realizing most of these "bad" outcomes are due to my human error, 😂). Going forward, I will be investing in either a small trellis or cage so that I can avoid the fruits laying directly on the soil, which caused this issue.
The lemon and lime trees seem to be thriving, but bore no fruit. I now know that this is the norm.
The eggplant bore no fruit all summer, but really took off in winter...so not really a "bad" result per se. I must surmise that they also did not like the heat.
The garlic is the only crop that did not take off. I have no idea why, especially when the onions did so well. I suppose more research is needed.
Overall, I have to rate this as a success, and I am so elated I decided to give edible gardening a try!
Here are photos of some of the delicious food I prepared from my bounty. If you would like to read the recipes, you may do so by clicking the indicated link.
The Italian basil, oregano, and onion were used along with store-bought garlic to make a fabulous bruschetta.
If you would like to view that recipe, click here.
The potatoes, tomatoes, onion, and rosemary along with store-bought garlic were turned into a hearty dish with sausage.
If you would like to read that recipe, click here.
What I made the most was gobs of homemade salsa, using the fresh tomatoes, and onions (though I again used store-bought garlic and lemon).
If you would like to see the recipe, you may do so by clicking here. This was addicting and so very delicious!
Lastly, we also enjoyed a very simple ratatouille using my fresh tomatoes and eggplant. The additional squash varieties and garlic had to be purchased, but it still turned out wonderfully.
If you have made it thus far, thank you for joining me in my new endeavor! I was such an exciting excursion! Do you like to garden?
If you would like to read that recipe, please click here.
If you have made it thus far, thank you for joining me in my new endeavor! I was such an exciting excursion! Do you like to garden?
Until we meet again,
--Y
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