Organic Vegetable Garden: Ojai

Well, it was a busy weekend but with some really nice rewards. 

 The vegetable gardens are now really producing and we are never without some greens for a salad and then some! 

 Grab a fork and some bleu cheese dressing 

I pulled up some of the radish a bit too soon, but they were still great and we threw the tiny ones in with the greens attached.  

These are called "cherry belle".

I have planted a wide variety of lettuce; freckles romaine, oak leaf, endive and asian greens and many heirloom varieties which are more available these days. 

The garden did pretty well, in spite of some hard rain and very little sun for about a month.

Above is green garlic.  

It can be planted and harvested like a spring onion.  

You can saute it or chop it up in a salad and it has a similar flavor to a shallot.

The beets are called Choggia and are as delicious as they are beautiful!  

I picked these young too, but they are much sweeter that way and you can saute or quick cook them off in just a few minutes. 

The  spinach and oak leaf lettuce just keeps on coming

Say good bye to the sweet pea's. 

 I know...... I am pulling them out too soon, but I did a terrible job with the supports and the soil really wasn't amended correctly.

So.... in go the green beans on both tuteurs. 

 I planted a total of 20 of this interesting yellow and green mix.

Intermixed are squash; 4 or 5 varieties and new potatoes; yellow, red and purple.

The swiss chard has really taken off and is so sweet and

 I actually prefer it to spinach.

Some other interesting items we started are:   tomatillos, white eggplant and green zebra tomatoes,  honey sweet  mini watermelons and last but not least banana peppers.

All of the starter plants were grown locally and all are organic.

The salad mix above is one that I started by seed. 

It's a great mesculun mix that you can  sprinkle directly on to the soil and let it grow en-mass.  

Simply clip off what you need and it keeps producing! 

 Hence the name" cut and come again"  from Shepards Seeds

All of our beds are organic with no pesticide use or synthetic fertilizers.  

We are working hard on our own  compost  but since it isn't ready to add to the garden just yet, I really like Kellogg products.  

A couple of these bags will really make the veggies take off, in about a months time. 

 I added a similar product to the flower gardens too, but soon we won't be needing these at all.  

I know you can't wait for the compost post! 

 Stay tuned...yawn... 

Your comment 's have been so wonderful lately

I will catch up this week I promise!

~*~

kelley