Seed Starting Set Up & First Sprouts

This year I decided I wanted more room for starting seeds. I loved the seed starting light my husband made but there was no room for expansion with it. It also took up a large floor space that is hard to find a spot for in our new house.

Thanks to some generous Christmas gifts I was able to buy a new metal shelf and outfit it with three light fixtures. Right now I have one fixture on each shelf with a tray in the middle of the shelf. In future years I can purchase more fixtures and put two on each shelf and use the entire surface of the shelf for seeds. The top two shelves are being used for storage.
After getting the shelf and lights set up in front of the window in my craft room (obviously a girl's bedroom for the former owners) and my seeds sorted last week I was eager to start some seeds. My spreadsheet doesn't have me starting onions and leeks until the second week of February and with all the snow we have out there I don't want to be dealing with leggy seedlings. So I decided to take my oldest packets of lettuce and spinach seeds and start some in hopes of indoor salads in two months. I sowed thickly and they have sprouted surprisingly well for 5 year old seed.
So here are my first sprouts of 2011. They're an encouragement in the face of the foot of snow predicted for Wednesday this week.

Harvest Monday 10/4/10

This week was a clean up week in the garden. Earlier in the week I cleared the squash vines and harvested the remaining butternut squash, another 5 pounds. I also picked the remaining pie pumpkins. I pulled down the tomatillos to make room for an experimental hoop house (more on that in another post). I picked my one and only red cabbage. All the others didn't form heads so I pulled them. They'd been in the ground since early May.
This weekend brought the threat of frost so the last of the pumpkins came in. With the pie pumpkins from earlier in the week they totaled 52 pounds. The largest of the Jarradale's was 15 pounds.
The heavy rain had taken a toll on the tomato supports and the tomatoes, and with the threat of frost, I picked the remaining viable fruit. The ones with any color went into my harvest total. (9 pounds) The green ones will get added as they ripen.
Other harvests this week include one eggplant, pepper, and bok choy for a stir-fry.
Also arugula, beets, and chard.
Total this week: 70.25 pounds
Total this year: 422.44 pounds
You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday 9/20/10

The tomatoes continue to ripen, but slower now with the cooler nights. This week I harvested 14 pounds of tomatoes. I'm not canning any more, but rather am freezing them whole for use in soups and sauces this winter.I also picked kale and a few carrots. I also harvested my second eggplant. There are a few more that may mature before the season is over. In all, the eggplants weren't much of a success this year with only 2 so far from 6 plants.
I shelled the dried beans that I picked last week and weighed them. They were just over a pound.
I also harvested my first and probably only sweet red pepper. There are some green ones on the plant finally, but they don't have time to ripen.
Ripe winter squashes were harvested and set on the front porch to cure. I picked 25 pounds of buttercup, butternut, and Delicata squash. I also picked one 15 pound Jarradale pumpkin. There are 3 more Jarradale pumpkins that are not yet ripe, as well as a few butternut squash that are still developing. There are also about 6 pie pumpkins that are turning orange and I hope to pick soon.
Sunday night's harvest was at dusk, hence the flash in the photo. I picked 2 oz of arugula and spinach to make a pesto, along with tomatoes and 2 very small melons. The tomatoes are all larger then the melons.I picked the melons because they smelled ripe, though they only the size of tennis balls. The larger one tasted alright, but the smaller one was bitter. I hope to do much better with melons next year.

Total this week: 58.48 pounds
Total this year: 297.7 pounds
You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday 9/13/10

The tomatoes are still coming this week with over 29 pounds of slicing tomatoes. I made another batch of Annie's Salsa this week and plant to make tomato sauce next week.
I also harvested more arugula, carrots, dried beans, leeks, chard, tomatillios and the first winter squash( a buttercup).
The large pile of dried beans have not yet made it in to my totals because I weigh them after I shuck them. The forecast calls for rain tomorrow so I figured I should pick them while they are semi dry.

Total this week: 36.12 pounds
Total this year: 239.2 pounds

You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday 9/6/10

This was the week of the tomatoes. Here's Tuesday's harvest. I've started picking some of the Amish Paste as soon as they get color because the slugs are getting to the low hanging fruit.
On Wednesday, I picked over 6 pounds of chard to blanch and freeze. It was a big pile but it cooked down to about 3 quarts once it was blanched. I also harvested over one pound of pineapple tomatillos because some of the plants fell over and rather than tie them up, I just cut off the plants. I didn't weigh the green ones because I'm not sure if they are going to ripen. I picked the ones that felt plump off the plants I cut down.
Thursday was even more tomatoes which allowed me to take my tomato photos. I harvested 32 pounds of tomatoes this week. This week I got enough tomatoes to make a double batch of Annie's Salsa. It made 11 jars. Mmmmm it is good. It looks like it will continue into next week at and I'll have enough to make some more salsa and even some sauce.

On Friday I picked some nice large beets, over 2 pounds. They'd been forgotten for a while and sure have grown in size. Not all the ones out there are this large though. I also picked some shelling beans, and of course, more tomatoes. I ended up with two photos because I didn't pick enough beets for the recipe the first time ;)
Saturday's harvest has some arugula hiding at the bottom, with a few cucumbers, and tomatoes.The hot peppers went into my salsa.
Sunday brought more tomatoes and some dried beans, both black and scarlet runner. The light brown are from the dragon tongue beans.
The weather has turned this weekend and it feels like Fall. I'm tempted to go out and pick some winter squash. However, the season in my garden is still summer for just a few more weeks. The peppers are finally setting more and more. The eggplants are blooming again and setting also. The tomatoes will bear heavily this next week too. We have just a few weeks until our first frost date. Winter squash will have to wait their turn.

Total this week: 47.08 pounds
Total this year: 203.12 pounds (Yay! I crossed the 200 lb mark!)

You can see what other gardeners harvested this week at Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday 8/16/10

This week I harvested my first and only eggplant. The plants are just starting to bloom again.
The zucchini and cucumbers slowed down as the dry weather has hit and they have some downy mildew as well. Only 2.6 pounds of zucchini this week and just over a pound of cucumbers.
I dug the rest of my All Blue potatoes ( 5lbs 4 oz) and some Yukon gold as well (2 lbs 5 oz). The rest of the Yukon gold will stay in the ground until we need them or later this fall.
The cherry tomatoes continue to increase in production with almost 3 pounds of them this week. I made fresh salsa with some of them and the tomatillos (3 oz). I also got my first red zebra tomato, which isn't any larger than the cherry tomatoes. It also had blossom end rot at the bottom. :(
We enjoyed some nice large carrots. They were short but thick,and very good.
Here is arugula, slicing cucumbers, carrots, basil, tomatillos and cherry tomatoes.
I picked over a pound of chard, some leeks, dragon tongue and romano beans, a green zebra tomato, zucchini, tomatillos, and cherry tomatoes.
Total this week: 19.36 pounds
Total this year: 116.75 pounds

You can see other gardeners' harvests at Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday 6/14/10

This was a week of more and more lettuce. I harvested 11.25 oz of lettuce. I slowly pulled my oak leaf lettuce to create room in the cold frame for starting fall seedlings of broccoli and cabbages.
We finished the first plant of radishes, 2.75 oz. The green onion isn't counted in my total because I bought green onions at the store back in late April and planted them like Annie's Granny does.

I also pulled my arugula which was going to seed and harvested 4 oz of it.
I harvested 2 oz of peppermint and hug in the attic to dry. I drink peppermint tea almost every day so it makes sense to start drying my own. There is a lot of peppermint and spearmint in the front garden.
Total this Week: 1.28 pounds
Total this Year: 4.79 pounds

You can see what other gardeners harvested at Daphne's Dandelions.

Harvest Monday 5/31/10

The harvests are growing slightly larger each week and a bit more varied too. You can see what other gardeners are harvesting at Daphne's Dandelions.

On Tuesday I harvested 6.25 oz of lettuce, spinach and arugula for a salad. We had some friends in town from Singapore and they joined us for dinner that night. I harvested a bit of rhubarb (and forgot to weigh it), and then bought more at the farmers market to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie. This weekend I harvested 2.75 oz of lettuce thinnings, 4 oz of arugula for an asparagus/arugula pesto, and 1.5 oz of the first radishes. Harvests this week: 14.3 oz
Harvests this year: 2.3 pounds

Here's the pizza we made with the arugula pesto topped with zucchini, pepperoni, mozerella, asparagus, and our radishes. Before baking, Ready to eat! We enjoyed it.

Harvest Monday 5/24/10

The heat this past week sent the tatsoi bolting. So I harvested 6 oz of it and sauteed it with sesame seeds. I'm leaving a bit in the ground to see if it will put out side shoots.We harvested Arugula twice, totaling 4.5 oz. It is getting close to bolting as well.
Harvests this week: 10.5 oz
Harvests this year: 1.4 pounds
You can see what other gardeners are harvesting at Daphne's Dandelions.