Big, Juicy Arapaho Blackberries

The garden is suffering some neglect of late, as I am busy studying for the NY bar exam. What joy! But, even if the rest of the garden is unfit for viewing, these Arapaho blackberries have ripened to a big, gorgeous black. I never really expected them to get this big, but they did, and are firm too. That is, firm enough for easy transportation and plucking without terrible squashing accidents, but still plenty soft for juicy smushing in one's mouth. I suppose they are the perfect blackberry for shipping in mass fruit production. The only drawback for this variety seems to be that far fewer berries grow on the canes compared to the Lochness blackberries. I had thought about removing them and replacing them with more Lochness, but now that I've tasted them, and enjoyed nice big fruit a full month after the Lochness were done, I don't think I have the heart to get rid of them. Maybe having a variety of plants is best, so I can enjoy a little bit from the garden throughout the entire season. Read the full post...

Big Bowl of Window Basil

I don't post about my indoor window boxes often, but that doesn't mean they don't manage to produce quite a bounty! Every year, every season, I can count on an enormous basil harvest. Maybe I'm just lucky and my southeast facing windows get plenty of sun, but I'm able to grow bumper crop basil from seed, even in the winter. The plants may grow a little slower in the winter, but they still grow pretty enormous. I like having a basil forest in my window, since it filters the light a nice shade of green through the leaves. Forgot to take a picture before plucking it bare though! This heaping bowl of basil's going to make some nice home grown pesto...
Basil grows better for me than indoor lettuce, or even arugula. In fact, I really struggle with indoor lettuce, as it always seems to be pale and straggly. Go figure! This all just goes to show that you never know what will or will not succeed until you try it. Conventional wisdom be damned! My only tip for successfully growing basil indoors are to pinch the leaves a couple times early on, to encourage bushier growth. Otherwise, the basil will just grows straight up on 1 stalk. I can grow 2-3 plants in a 30" window box, but all of this basil came from 1 bushy plant growing alone. One squirt of diluted fish emulsion fertilizer will help, though I only do this once or twice a year. Read the full post...

I'm Featured on AOL's Garden Site!

Several weeks ago, the woman who manages the AOL Garden site left a comment asking to work with me on a feature for their site. Of course, I'm always thrilled to get any press I can, so after e-mailing back and forth, we put together a list of tips for urban veggie gardeners!Check out the full article here: An Urban Veggie Garden. And, Welcome to any new readers from AOL! Read the full post...

Second Harvest of the Week

On this rare sunny day among all the rain lately, I couldn't resist going on the roof to check on the blackberries again. Monday's somewhat sour taste of nearly black blackberries had me craving some ripe ones! Well, to my surprise, there was quite a lot ready to harvest besides the blackberries! I got some more spinach, lettuce, peas, the last 2 strawberries I expect to get (unless the everbearing variety I planted makes some fall fruit, which I won't be around to eat) and a couple more amazing raspberries!

I know I said I love blackberries far more than raspberries, and I might just replace all my brambles with Lock Ness blackberries. But, perhaps that would be a mistake! I LOVED these raspberries! They're SO soft, they just fall apart. But they're incredibly tasty. It almost makes me heady, thinking about them. I wish more would grow!

Surely, that's not to say these blackberries weren't fantastic. And there were so many to pick today! You couldn't see them all in the bowl, as many were covered by my salad greens. Look at all the ones still to come!

The Arapaho blackberries also appear to be coming on. They look so interesting, as they ripen. Very firm. I wonder how they'll taste... =)

In pea news, I'm beginning to think that fungal innoculant really did it's job. The peas were loaded this year, and are making big juicy pods. Some of these are probably too big to sauté and eat as I normally would. On Monday, my guest taught me that I can shell these fatties and eat the peas inside! They were so sweet! But, I'll leave these on the vine so I can get some seeds for next year. I wasn't able to buy any Sugar Ann's in my latest seed purchase because Baker Creek was out of stock.

And, in this second year of peas, I have found some more stowaway snow peas. I'm not complaining! Snow peas are wonderful, and it seems like they develop a little later than the snap peas, so it extends my pea season. I wonder if it's possible that snap pea seeds sometimes just don't grow true? Were these seeds really from a sugar ann plant gone awry?

Finally, the showiest plant growing in my garden this year is starting to get interesting. I think this is a Yellow Straightneck Prolific Squash, but it is possible it could be a Black Beauty Zucchini. I planted both varieties but 1 didn't make it. This one has a nice female flower, which you can tell has a squash-making ovary. I had thought that the male flowers normally open first, but it doesn't look like they are ready yet. I hope that doesn't mean this female will go to waste. It helps to grow more plants, so the flowers can cross-pollinate and these kinds of problems don't happen. If only I had more buckets...

Here's a close-up of the squash flower. Pretty!

And here's my harvest, all separated out in my kitchen. =)

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Garden Guests and Dinner Party

Today 2 guests joined me for my first successful garden fare dinner party! Here, you can see part of the harvest, including some small strawberries in the background, and this big salad of spinach, lettuce, swiss chard, beet greens, and shelled peas. We also had a nice bunch of sugar ann snap peas that I sauteed for a bit. The first raspberries and (somewhat unripe!) blackberries didn't make it to dinner ;-)

It was really fun to have visitors up in the garden, helping me harvest our food. In the first 3 growing seasons I've had so far, there has rarely been a time when the garden was growing enough food for 3 people. But, I am finding that the amount and variety of produce I am able to grow increases every year. This year, I'm not even growing tomatoes or watermelons! The fact that fruit production is increasing also helps, as rooftop fruit is such a special treat =)

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