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.

Typical July Harvest

The victory garden is in full swing.  We have daily harvests of zucchini, yellow squash, beans, peppers, a variety of herbs, and cucumbers.  As expected, the harvests are increasing in size.  Today's harvest  (pictured below) produced a sink full of vegetables, strainer full of beans, and one lonely pepper.

I have some good news from the eggplant patch.  We officially have a SECOND GENERATION EGGPLANT growing in the garden! Woo hoo!  Remember my post, Transplanting and Mulch, about the eggplant that survived winter?  That eggplant has grown exponentially and is now giving birth to three eggplants.  There are over ten flowers on the plant and I hope to see everyone turn into a delicious eggplant by the end of the summer.

Second generation eggplant

All of the eggplants grown, from seed this season, have begun to push out flowers or fruit.  I envision lots of BBQ eggplants and eggplant lasagnas filling my table and tummy later this season. YUM!

eggplants are growing bigger each day

The strawberry pot is doing very well.  Each day I pick two to four large strawberries, rinse and freeze them.  So far I have 1 1/2 quarts of frozen MVG strawberries.  These frozen berries taste great in homemade slushy drinks or strawberry jam. I hope to have the second quart bag filled by the end of July.

daily harvest of strawberries