Showing posts with label productive raised beds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label productive raised beds. Show all posts

Wednesday 8 August 2012

Beans

Yard-long beans, greasy-cut beans, Italian Romano beans, and French filet pole beans have been on the menu for weeks, but the supply finally overwhelmed our ability to eat them in a timely fashion.

So, it was time to start blanching them to freeze, and this nice assortment has ended up as freezer packages ( hmm, but more beans are coming).

Bean harvest
I roasted some red 'Pizza' peppers, too, and froze them. This has been a year for early ripening of abundant peppers as well as an unusual number of tomatillos so far, with more to come. They're often a no-show harvest for me. I've already harvested a gallon-size bag of them (now roasted and frozen).

The tomatoes are slowing down, except for the small plum tomatoes and the cherries.

And I sowed some early beets, kale, arugula, spinach, and cilantro this afternoon. It's always a bit of a juggle between warm season and cool season veggies. In this case, I pulled out a lavender that was in decline due to the warm wet summer, along with some accompanying thymes, so had some 'new' space to plant. But I've also pulled out some spent tomatoes in the lower bed, so it'll be ready for greens, too, as are the beds back in the Piedmont.

It's amazing how productive these small beds in the mountains are, although admittedly I've expanded the original raised beds to include a number of border beds between us and our neighboring apartment. (These have been flourishing with beans and squash.)

 

Thursday 14 June 2012

Productive raised beds

mid-June, 2012, WNC
My raised beds in the mountains have been amazing.  Filled with commercial compost, topped up with bags of mushroom compost, and enriched with Espoma organic slow-release fertilizer, they've continued to produce. This spring, it was greens, snow peas, sugar snap peas, and lettuce.  I'm harvesting beets and leeks now, along with greens (uh, you see that Tuscan kale plant in the center of the photograph!)

raised beds in the mountains
 But tomatoes are coming along nicely, along with squash plants and beans.  Soon, there will be a switch in our 'local food' diet.  It'll be welcome, too.

sunset from the front door