Harvest Time!

Yesterday, I decided that it was time to harvest another head of lettuce. I was going to follow some of your advice—taking a few leaves of lettuce at a time, so that the head can continue to grow. The only problem is that we have more than six heads of lettuce that are still growing in the garden. Way too much lettuce to eat at once! So I'm going to wait to try the other method when I'm down to 2-3 lettuce heads.

Below: A nice, large head of lettuce ready for harvesting!


The lettuce heads are actually starting to form a head. Cam and I have been waiting all summer for his development! But for this particular lettuce head, I was afraid that if I continued to let it grow any larger, it would begin to seed and get very bitter.

Plus, I was in the mood of creating my signature salad: caramelized shrimp, bite-size oranges, almonds, and refreshing lettuce tossed with balsamic vinaigrette. I know it's not amazing or novel, but I love this salad. It combines all my favorite ingredients. Plus it's chocked full of vitamin C!

Below: A few pictures of the lettuce head after it was harvested. Delicious!

You can tell in the picture that a few bugs got a mini-bite of the lettuce before we could harvest it. I think I should have sprayed the organic insecticidal soap on it, but most of the greens are edible!

At my parent's house, the plums are beginning to ripen. Because of last year's unfavorable weather, their fruit trees didn't fruit. The frost killed all of the flowers. However, this year has been amazing in terms of the fruit production!

Below: A ripe plum ready to be picked.


Below: See how pretty it looks in my hand?

This plum was juicy and delicious! I cannot wait until more fruit ripens, and I can learn how to make jams, preserves and more! It'll be a summer adventure!

Finally, I thought I'd show a picture of some unripe plums on the tree . . . plus a bird nest! It's too high up for me to see into the nest, but I bet there are some eggs waiting for momma bird to come back!

When little visitors decide to make their home in your garden, that's when you know that you're a successful gardener! My parents planted this plum tree about 10 years ago, and it's been home to some adorable baby birds and one rabbit!

Lettuce and Strawberries

Thank you to everyone who commented yesterday about the mushrooms. The advice was very helpful. I dug up the mushrooms to see what the soil underneath them looked like, and this is what I found:



Directly underneath the mushrooms, I found an ash-gray color in the dirt. I dug up the dirt where the mushrooms had not appeared, and that soil looked dark brown and moist. So I took it as a sign that those areas are safe from mushroom infestation. I'll keep my eyes open for additional mushrooms.

In the front yard, we didn't do the traditional SFG. We used the dirt that was there and added organic top soil to it. We should have probably done something else to the dirt, but we are beginners. Next year, I will probably need to figure out how to keep that area healthier. The front vegetable bed is also shaded for several hours in the afternoon, so this may have something to do with the mushrooms.

So far, the lettuce in the front is doing much better than the lettuce in the back. Here's a wide view of the front vegetable bed.


Above: We used to have spinach, but we didn't pick the spinach leaves until it was too late. The spinach plants had started to flower, and when it flowers, the plant basically dies for the season. Maybe next year we'll have better luck.

Below: More close-up pictures of our lettuce heads. They haven't formed into heads yet, and I wonder if they ever will. They are getting pretty large.


On another topic, Cam and I went to a nursery yesterday and found two everbearing strawberry plants. They were on sale, and one of the plants already had 2 strawberry fruit on it. I decided to do an experiment. I potted one of the strawberry plants (the one without the fruit), and I planted the one with fruit in the SFG box in the back. I'm going to monitor how each one does over the course of the summer.

Below: potted strawberry plant


Below: strawberry plant in SFG Box # 2. This was taken yesterday after it stopped raining.


I'd love to have tons of strawberries, but the season for strawberries (well, the June-bearing variety) is coming to a close. May is strawberry season, I believe. But we'll see. It'll be a fun and delicious (I hope) experiment.

Above: the strawberry plant today. You can tell one of the strawberries is gaining more color.

Does anyone have experience with growing strawberries? If so, I'd love to hear your tales.

Concord Grapes

When Cam and I bought our two grape plants last month, they looked dead. They were both on sale, but we didn't have much hope for them. They looked like sticks in a pot. We took a chance, and we planted them. Amazingly, they started to flourish within a few weeks. The below picture is of our grape plants 2 weeks after they were transplanted.



The right plant looks much healthier than the left with its beautiful green leaves. You can tell the left plant was starting to form leaves. (Bottom center of the photo: there's something green that's growing near the grape plant. We didn't know what it was, and we were afraid to uproot it. Does anyone know what this is? Is it a weed that we need to get rid of?)



In the above picture, the right grape plant continues to grow at a steady pace, and the left one is beginning to catch up.

Above: Our grape plants today. You can't even tell where one plant starts and another ends. Their leaves have overlapped beautifully. Unfortunately, there are no grapes yet.

Below: In the middle of the photo, we think that is going to grow into a grape bunch, but it's growing so slowly that we're beginning to get concerned. Does anyone know how long it takes before the grape bunches to start form?


The leaves on the grape plants are still climbing grape trellis, but only the left plant (the one that grew very slowly in the beginning) has started to form the grape bunches. I'm not sure if I need to be concerned yet, but I think I'll need to do more research. I really would love a productive plant.

In Vietnam (where I was born), my parents made and sold grape wine. I'm hoping that if these grape plants are successful, I can learn the trade and make my own grape wine. Not for commercial use, but it might just be something fun to learn to do.