Monday, August 23, 2010

Planted This Week / Harvested This Week: Huckleberries / Salad


This week we planted
  • a couple of huckleberries in the shade of the fence where formerly we had sword fern
  • a chocolate mint in the mint patch on the north side.
This week we harvested our first cherry tomatoes (illustrated) and about half a bowl of salad greens. Our salad green system is now up and running, with a variety of pots at different stages of the greens lifecycle. I'm gradually moving the pots to the shadier areas as even this cold autumn is scortching them somewhat. We probably won't group enough this year to displace a whole lot of shopping but it's a very nice supplement to the farmer's markets and Samway. 
We also have hope of a lot of tomatos cycling in; they're at all stage from bud to flower to early fruit and ... now ... to ready to drop off. I'm experimenting with various ways to tie them up as they seem to want more sun; perhaps next year I'll install some sort of grid on the south wall to help them out.

Our ground vine veggies (1 zuchinni, 1 squash, 1 pumpkin) are also starting to produce and demanding more room. Next year we'll start them a lot earlier and a lot farther apart; let them take over the front yard if they want; they have very nice flowers and so far we're not tired of fresh zuchinni!

Our ROI on these is not great, especially considering the labor, but we're learning a lot and most of our investments are for the longterm, e.g. dirt, so I suppose we should consider them capital investments.