May brings plants, sprouts, and fruit to the main garden.

The main garden has seen the largest amount of growth this month. Over the past few weeks, my parents have planted a variety of plants and seeds in the main garden.

May 12, 2014 MVG Main Garden

The melons have taken over the corn field. We had a large corn harvest last year and decided to grow a different variety of fruits and veggies in the corn field. This year we have three types of melons, summer squash, and cucumbers growing in the corn field.

May 19, 2014 melon plants X 3

May 19, 2014 cucumber sprouts

My mother found bitter melon plants at our local nursery. We have used seeds in the past but finding plants will bring forth an earlier harvest (we hope... keep your vines crossed).

May 12, 2014 bitter melon box

bitter melon plant

My family loves to eat certain veggies and our victory garden would not be a garden without tomatoes, beans, peppers, and okra.

May 12, 2014 okra and tomatoes

May 19, 2014 peas and bean sprouts

May 19, 2014 bean box

May 12, 2014 sweet pepper box

The herb garden is growing quickly in the warm summer breeze.  The herbs are about ready to be used in soups, salads, and seasonings.

Fuyu survived the winter and is now pushing out small green orbs. Arn't they cute?! There are two orbs so far. My mother is hoping for many more this season.

persimmon

Here is the official list of veggies and fruit growing in the main garden:

Burpee Plants

Block Party peppers

Cherry Stuffer peppers

Golden Baby Belle peppers
SuperSauce Tomato

Tweety peppers

Plants from our local Nurseries

Bitter Melon

Cantaloupe

Egg plant

Honeydew Melon

Okra

Red Bell Pepper

Summer Squash

Thai Basil

Watermelon

Burpee Seeds

Blue Lake Bush Bean

French Filet Stringless Beans

Salad Bush Cucumber

Super Sugar Snap Peas

Additional Plants

Catnip

Fuyu Persimmon Tree

Lavendar

Lemon Grass

Oregano

Rosemary

Sage

Strawberries

Thyme

May 19, 2014 MVG Main Garden

August Harvest

The sun is out and the temperatures are heating up. The MVG is loving the warmth and producing lots of veggies this month.

We have baskets of tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumber, eggplants, bitter melon and hot peppers. We cannot eat them fast enough so most of the veggies are cleaned, chopped, and frozen in Ziploc bags. 

To date, we have 6 quart bags of frozen sweet peppers and eggplant. We also froze a gallon and a quart of bitter melon too. 

The tomatoes are in full bloom. The meat is super sweet and taste great in salads. We only have three tomato plants this year so we might not have enough to freeze for winter. Right now we are eating them faster than we can save them.

RIC - The Okra's reign in the MVG has come to an end. This was the first time we have grown Okra and we loved watching the flowers bloom and each Okra grow into maturity. I have pulled up all of the Okra plants. The stalks are drying out in preparation for chopping and inclusion in the compost pile. Rest in compost Okra.

Hot weather brings big veggies!

July 6th - biggest harvest of the season

We had a major heat wave pass through the Morrison Victory Garden. The heat brought lots of growth to the plants and also helped produce extra large veggies.  Additionally, I had to break out my big wicker basket to hold the larger harvests. So far, our largest harvest of the 2013 summer season includes 5 zucchini, over a dozen summer squash, over a dozen cucumbers, 10 okra, and a basket full of green beans.

The cucumbers and the summer squash endured a major growth spurt during the heat wave. I have included a side by side comparison of each vegetable. The smallest veggie is the regular size and can help you estimate the size of the extra large veggies. I don't want you to think I left the veggies on the vine for weeks either. I pick veggies every three to four days. I think the combination of super soaking the veggies a few days ago and our 90 degree temperatures helped increase the size of these two veggies.

The tomatoes are doing very well. All three plants have filled the tomato supports and are holding dozens of green oblong tomatoes.

Crescent Moon eggplant

Purple Rain eggplant

Nadia eggplant

The eggplants and bitter melon are showing of a variety of colors and textures. By August, both plants will be filled with ripe veggies for soups, stirfrys, and BBQs.

Bitter Melon

The ears of corn are plump and are showcasing brown strands of silk. It won't be long now. Depending on the size of the kernels I might start picking corn within the next two weeks.

Even the sweet peppers are enjoying the heat. We are proud of our Big Daddy plant. This is the largest pepper to have dangled off of a branch in the MVG. WOW!

Big Daddy Pepper

Due to our large bi-weekly cucumber harvests, my mom canned dill pickles on 4th of July. Ten quart-size mason jars were sterilized, packed, and filled with yummy dill pickle goodness. I cannot wait to try them out next year. Yum!

canned dill pickles

The hot weather has subsided but we hope the warmth will return soon. We definitely like the increase in the size of the harvests and the size of the veggies.

Herb row (L-R): Sage, Oregano, and Rosemary

Let the 2013 summer season officially begin!

The seeds have sprouted and flowers are beginning to show themselves to the world. I am very excited for the Morrison Victory Garden's 2013 summer season. We have the following planted and growing in various sections of the MVG.

IN THE FIELD

Illini Xtra Sweet Corn

corn is almost as tall as Solo

IN THE MAIN GARDEN

Supremo Cucumbers

Pic-N-Pic Summer Squash

French Filet Stringless Beans

SuperSauce Tomatoes

Fairytale Eggplant

Purple Rain Eggplant

Crescent Moon Eggplant

Cherry Stuffer Peppers (sweet)

Block Party Peppers (sweet)

Big Daddy Peppers (sweet)
Lady Bell Peppers (sweet)

Cheyenne Peppers (spicy)

Biker Billy Peppers (spicy)

Habanero Peppers (spicy)

Tabasco Peppers (spicy)

Chile D'Arbol Peppers (spicy)

Yatsuifusa Peppers (spicy)

Thai Chili Peppers (spicy)

Okra

Champion Radish

Bitter Melon

Thai Basil

Sequoia Strawberries

English Lavender

Lemon Grass

cherry stuffer pepper plant flower bulbs

IN THE FRONT GARDEN

Super Sugar Snap Peas

Asparagus Beans

Dark Green Zucchini Squash

Space Master Cucumbers

Crimson Sweet Watermelon

Early Yellow Crookneck Squash

French Filet Stringless Beans

lemon grass

IN THE HERB GARDEN

Garden Sage

Oregano

Rosemary

Thyme

 

strawberries are eaten faster than we can pick them

IN THE TREES

Plum

Fuyu Persimmon

lady bugs in the plum tree

All items listed in green were grown from seed. All items listed in orange are perennials.  All other items were bought as plants. I purchased my seeds from Burpee and Lake Valley Seed. I purchased my plants from Burpee and local nurseries.

November starts with a mound of greens

The victory garden is still enjoying the cool fall rain and warm rays of sunshine. The frost has not hit yet. This means the bitter melon is loving the sun and grown into a large curtain of green leaves. We are harvesting as much bitter melon as possible. We hope that the sun will stick around so that the thumb-sized fruit can mature into bitterlicious lumpy green 6-inch or longer fruit. Once the frost hits, the entire plant will wilt and die within a week.

a green curtain of bitter melon leaves

The greens are doing very well. Our recent harvest produced a mound of southern giant and giant red mustard greens with a small bouquet of Russian and dinosaur kale on the side. The greens will be put to good use. My mother loves to stir-fry the greens with pork and steam a small batch to eat as a side dish. I personally like to stir-fry the greens with chili oil, garlic, mushrooms, eggplant, and any other veggies from the garden.

variety of eggplant and peppers

The warm fall weather has kept the eggplants producing purple and white fruit in all shapes and sizes. The pepper plants are still pushing out green bell peppers, jalapenos, and habaneros which add a certain zing to any stir-fry or soup dish. I hope to harvest a few more eggplants and peppers before retiring the plants to the compost piles.

habanero pepper... spicy goodness

While working in the garden, I was greeted by a mantodeas elder. The mantodeas are plentiful and I have seen over twenty mantodeas when peaking behind the bitter melon curtain. The biggest mantodeas are living in the herb garden. They are roughly 4-5 inches in size. I still remember when they were the size of my pinky finger nail. They must be keeping the herb garden and bitter melon bug free.

However, we still have a few causalities from time to time. We laid the swiss chard to rest in the compost last week. We had a terrible aphid infestation that would not go away. I saw many mantodeas elders fighting the good fight but the chard was too weak to survive. I have taken additional precaution and will be using an organic bug killer (Captain Jack's Deadbug Brew) to help keep the evil invaders away during the colder winter months. Once the frost hits, most of the mantodeas warriors will retreat, lay egg sacs, and die. Without the warriors to protect the garden many of the greens, cabbage, and brussel sprouts will not survive the winter. Rest in compost sweet and delicious swiss chard. You will be missed in our winter soups and stir-frys.

We see cauliflower!

Warming up to fall...

We started off the fall season with a mini heatwave. We saw an entire week of 75+ degree weather. Most of the plants loved the sun.

My family and I pick the eggplants, joi choy, and Russian kale daily. I like to steam the kale and choi too. They are a great combo and are excellent as a hot steamy side dish to any meal.

joi choi (4 bunches)

The warm weather helped one pepper plant push out a handful of large green peppers. These will be great in soups, stir-frys, or roasted on the grill.

bouquet of kale, mustard greens, and swiss chard

Most of the eggplants have been frozen for use during the winter months.  I love eggplant in soups.  It adds a creamy texture to the soup broth.  Yum!

The sugar snaps sprouts are climbing to the sky.  These plants are very easy to grow and grow extremely fast.  Check out the before and after shots below. Sugar Snaps are located in the back against the trellis.  You can also see the quick growth of the six gold mark cabbage and the two red cabbage.

before - September 11, 2012

current - October 11, 2012

RIC - Rest in Compost
A group of renegade squirrels dug up and dispersed the Napa cabbage and spinach seedlings last week.  I tried to salvage as many of the seedlings as possible. However, the seedlings shriveled up and died. The seedlings were then laid to rest in our compost.  I will replant the spinach and will replace the cabbage with radishes, carrots, and beets.

Eggplants and tomatoes are finally here!

Variety of eggplant

The eggplant harvest is upon us.  So far I have used the eggplant in breakfast dishes such as scrabbled eggs and omelets. I like to shred the eggplant and sprinkle it on the eggs like shredded cheese.  Most likely, I will use the remaining eggplant when BBQing or making soup and stir-frys.

garlic pepper veggies

Canning is still in full swing.  I have recently canned 10 quarts of garlic pepper veggies. I followed a canning recipe for dill pickles but made the following changes:

• Instead of dill, I use 3-5 cloves of garlic and 5-10 hot peppers.  I prefer to use Thai Dragon Chili Peppers but you can use any amount or type of pepper.  Just make sure you can handle the heat.
• I use a variety of veggies in place of only using cucumbers. This season I used cubed or sliced cucumbers, squash, and zucchini.

Our Juliet turned out to be a grape.

We also have ripe and juicy tomatoes peaking out from behind the long green tomato vines.  We have a variety of Romano, Early Girl, Grape, and Big Mama tomatoes to cook and eat.  I thought I had lost all of my Romano seedlings in the spring but to my surprise one plant survived.  Additionally, what was thought to be Juliet tomato seeds were actually grape tomato seeds.  The big difference between Juliet and Grape tomatoes is the way the fruit hangs from the plant.  Juliet tomatoes grow all over and are picked one at a time.  Grape tomatoes hang in a group, like the purple and green grapes you buy at the store.  I began to notice the clusters of tomatoes after a few harvests. They taste like small tomatoes so we are not bummed that the seeds produced a different type of tomato.  Actually, this is my first time growing yellow tomatoes... YEAH!

I did not expect much from the tomato plants because of the cool temperatures in June and July. We have harvested 20 tomatoes so far and will have at least 60 more to harvest.  But we need more heat and fall is upon us. We still have a few gallons of frozen tomatoes to cook from our 2011 season.  The frozen tomatoes should hold us over for winter but I will definitely be planting more tomatoes next spring.

The victory garden is winding down.  The yellow squash, all of the beans, melons, and zucchini have been pulled.  The vines, roots, and leaves will be chopped up and composted for next season.  The two large melons that were harvested a few weeks ago were sweet, juicy, and filled with flavor.  I will also be planting more melon next spring.

cubed Crenshaw melon

As the seasons change so does the victory garden.  Over the past month, I have begun to uproot the summer crop and prepare the soil for our fall and winter seasons. My family and I have our sights set on cabbage, kale, onions, brussel sprouts and a whole-lotta greens this upcoming season.  Stay tune for this will be the first time the Victory Garden stays open for growth during the fall and winter seasons. Keep your roots crossed!