One of my Facebook friends asked recently if I’d do a garden update post soon, and it was a good reminder (thanks Megen!). I went out and took some pictures this morning, but I was strategic in what I photographed. That means you’re going to see only the good parts of the garden. Not the carrot bed that is half weeds or the onions that have been infiltrated with marigolds (we planted them a couple years ago in most of the beds to keep bugs away, and they reproduce like bunnies every year). But trust me, there are plenty of weeds out there! Next year, we’re hoping that the basement will be finished and so will the giant irrigation/sprinkler project we tackled this summer. So we should have more time for weeding. We shall see.
One thing we did this year that has been very successful was black plastic on the beds with holes cut for the seedlings. We did that on five of our ten raised beds, and not only did it cut way back on weeds, but it also seems to have made the plants grow like crazy. Maybe because the plastic heated up the ground early in the season and gave them nice warm soil for getting their roots going?
This is the pepper bed, but you can’t tell from this picture because of the ONE tomato plant that ended up in the front of it.
I had an extra tomato plant back in the spring, and some extra spaces in the pepper bed. So I figured they could share. Only the tomato plant has grown to about eight feet in diameter and is taking over.
But it doesn’t seem to bother the pepper plants, and they’re still producing like crazy in the shade of the tomato.
I harvested all of these in about three minutes a few days ago.
And then I made them into quinoa stuffed peppers (and my husband picked me flowers from our yard). Some for dinner, some for the freezer – they work great in the crock pot. You just freeze the raw stuffed peppers and then when you’re ready to cook them, put them in a crock pot with spaghetti sauce and let them cook all day.
Anyway, back to the garden. We have lots of greens out there, including collards and even a few new small greens that I planted in July after tearing out the early spring crop that had gone to seed.
And lots of basil! I think I have seven plants, and they’re all huge.
We also have tons of tomatoes. Not all of them are giant garden-eating plants like the one in the pepper bed, but they all seem to appreciate the black plastic and the new drip irrigation system we have out there this year.
I love seeing a plant all covered in cherry tomatoes! It makes me smile. Especially since we can eat handfuls of them anytime we want, without any plastic cartons (or $4 price tags for a little pint!)
There are plenty of big tomatoes too, and I’ll be starting the canning and/or roasting and freezing process soon.
We scaled back our garden this year. Instead of 27 beds, we have 14, one of which has a drip line (currently turned off) but was allowed to remain fallow this year. In a couple other beds (potatoes, and another crop of early greens that we didn’t replace) we’ve already finished the harvest and have been able to turn off the water to those beds. The drip system is much better than our previous overhead watering system. The grass in between the beds has gone dormant since it’s no longer getting watered, which means we don’t have to get out there with the reel mower and mow it all the time. And the black plastic was such a success that I think we’ll add it to a couple more beds next year.
Any garden stories to share? I hope all my readers in the northern hemisphere are having a great garden season!
Meg says
I love it! Thank you so much for posting this.
This year, we have had the best garden ever, which is odd considering our state (Ohio) is being hit with the drought. Our area has had rain at least once every week, and our garden has done extremely well. We have only had to water 4-5 times earlier in the season. We tried straw bale gardening to try to garden without weeds but everything except a few cuke plants died in the straw bales. (What a waste of $60!) What we planted in the ground is doing awesome. We picked many pounds of green beans this past weekend, and there are alot of tomatoes. The pumpkins (for our chickens) are doing well and we have had more zucchini this year than we have had in the past 4 years combined. Oh, and the plant I am most excited about this year and look forward to planting alot more of next year is the yard long green bean. They arent really yard long (because they get seedy), but they are a good 12 inches long! A handful of them is enough for several side dishes.
Next year, I will definitely be using the black plastic or wet newspaper to keep the weeds away.
Our goal is to grow enough to last us through the fall, winter and spring, but this year hasnt been THAT successful. We will try again next year. :-)
Thanks again for posting the status of the garden.
I love seeing how other’s gardens are doing…even though I feel a little tinge of jealousy every time I see other’s gardens.
Sense says
Awesome!! and YUM. Great job!
Redshikari says
How did you get so many peppers? Each of my plants has produced only one and don’t seem to be growing any more. Also, how do you keep bugs off the tomatoes? Half my crop this year has been bad because bugs got inside. It makes me sad. Thanks!
Frugal Babe says
My peppers always seem to do well, but with the black plastic under them, they’ve done especially well this year. Each plant has its own drip emitter for water, and the plastic means they get nice and warm and don’t have to compete with many weeds. Our tomatoes were covered in little tiny black bugs at the beginning of the season, and their growth was very stunted. I sprayed them with a mixture of water and a little bit of Dr. Bronners peppermint castile soap, and that did the trick. The tiny black bugs were gone and the plants have done great ever since. Unfortunately that trick didn’t work for my zucchini!
Economies of Kale says
I am so jealous of your garden and all those yummy veggies! We live in an apartment so I have a small container garden on the balcony. However, we are lucky enough to live somewhere in the southern hemisphere where it’s warm enough to grow stuff all year round, so it’s not just your northern hemisphere readers who are gardening at the moment :)
My tomato plants still have tomatoes on them even though it’s almost the end of winter. Not a lot of tomatoes, but that’s probably more due to lack of watering than the temperature. At the moment the garden is mostly herbs and greens, and supplements what we buy at the supermarket, but one day I’d like to grow most of what we eat.
Frugal Babe says
Sounds like you’re making great use of a balcony garden! And I forgot about all the tropical places where gardens grow all year round! Sometimes in the middle of February, I find myself fantasizing about moving to one of those places :-)
Rachel Campbell says
I used something similar this year for weeds – we found some black weed-stop fabric at a closeout store for cheap and used it instead of the plastic. The plan was to add soil over it, but we never got around to it. We haven’t weeded AT ALL this year, it has been great!! I might try the plastic route next year in the spring though to give it a head start.
Jason says
Coming in late on this, but.. I’m curious about the quinoa stuffed peppers. Would you be willing to post a recipe or link to how you make them?
Frugal Babe says
Sure! They’re different every time and I don’t really follow a recipe, but I can explain the basics. I make a big pot of quinoa and then add in whatever I have on hand that sounds good. I just made a big batch of Mexican style peppers by mixing in cooked black beans, Mexican Field Roast, cumin, Mexican seasoning and sauteed onions, garlic and corn. I make an Italian version with Italian Field Roast, oregano, basil, peas, onions, garlic, pesto and chopped tomatoes. You can add whatever sounds good! For the Italian version, I cook them in the crock pot with a jar of pasta sauce. My plan for the Mexican version is to cook them with a batch of homemade enchilada sauce, although I haven’t tried it yet. Have fun with this! It’s a great way to preserve extra garden peppers.
Jason says
Sounds great – thanks for the suggestions! We’ve been getting a lot of peppers in our farm share lately, this sounds like a great way to do something new with them. And I love the idea of being able to make extras to freeze and just heat up later in a crock pot..