Day 17: An Early Veggie Harvest

My garden on the back patio

You may have picked up somewhere along the way on the fact that I'm a bit of a hobby gardener. It all started when I was a child. I grew up in a household that included both my parents, three siblings, and my grandparents. My grandmother is an avid gardener. She can plant anything and get it to grow: mail order seeds; shoots and clippings from a friend's garden; cuttings from the side of the road; plants that others were getting rid of; even a handful of grape seeds that were left in an ashtray for weeks. Believe it of not she has a greenhouse with gorgeous grape vines that produce perfect green and purple grapes from those ashtray seeds! Her talent is unbelievable! From the time I was little, she has spent her spring and summer days out in the garden, weeding tending to her plants. Her focus is mostly on flowers and shrubs these days with a little veggie garden, but I remember a time when half our backyard was a veggie garden. We had a non-stop supply of tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, currents, gooseberries, potatoes, carrots, turnips, raspberries, and onions. Every since I moved out on my own, I longed for a property where I could have a similar space; however, we lived in a number of apartments without access to land. So when we finally bought our first house, I was super excited about getting a garden going! But how to do that effectively in a subdivision, on a building lot the size of a good postage stamp, in a neighborhood that was built on the side of a hill composed completely of rock?

Pumpkins

How about container gardening and/or raised beds and inside gardening? There is no rule out there to state that veggies can't be grown in a container! I've been growing and planning my garden for over two years now. I add a little every year and next year the garden will get even bigger because we will finally have a fenced back yard. My intention is to create an edible landscape. Every plant (other than a few maple trees for privacy and a hosta that has sentimental value) will have edible properties, everything from herbs, to berries, to veggies. How cool is that? Over the past two years I've added a raised bed in the front of my house where I grow carrots, beets, pumpkins, lettuce, arugula, onions, and broccolini. The neighbors think it's great! Especially if I keep them happy by sharing a small portion of my harvest. The great part about this garden is that it gets morning sun, which is the best sun for growing. It also means that the plants mature faster so I usually get an early harvest of food like lettuce, onions, and arugula. As the beets and carrots mature they need to be thinned out to make space. I posted a photo last week of the beets that I thinned and I will eat the greens yum! 

Green Beans

Dwarf Snap Peas

Purple Beans

My second location is on the back patio. I grow a number of items in containers. This garden gets late morning sun which continues into the evening. This harvest is a little slower to mature giving me a chance to eat the items from the front before harvesting from the back. This ensures a regular harvest cycle throughout the summer, especially for items like lettuce which will regrow after being clipped. This year on the patio I have: lettuce; arugula; green beans; yellow beans; purple beans; sugar snap peas; sabre peas; oregon dwarf sugar pod peas; strawberries; and, cucumbers. An early harvest of most peas and beans are ready to be picked. 

Strawberries

Sabre Beans

Cucumber Bush

My last location is actually inside the house. Some plants are not hardy enough to survive our normal Newfoundland climate so I keep them inside. At the moment I have 6 monet pepper plants, 5 jalapeno plants, and 5 early jalapeno plants. I also have a steady supply of basil, oregano, dill, watercress, and chives coming from a herb garden on the windowsill in the kitchen. I also have an aloe plant used for burns, and an avocado tree but that will not likely bear fruit. 

I'm excited to pick and eat my veggies as part of this Whole30. There is nothing better than the satisfaction of growing your own food and knowing exactly where it comes from! And believe me, it's not hard to have and maintain a garden. Just find some dirt, some seeds, a little water, some sunshine, and voila! 

Breakfast: 3 slices of pork belly and stir fried veggies
Lunch: leftover shrimp and curried broccoli slaw with green apple and almonds
Supper: oven baked chicken thighs coated in egg, ground almonds, basil and oregano (Barry drizzled his with honey and said it was delicious!), and stir fry