Our Vegetable Garden – Part 2

Our Vegetable Garden – Part 2 is an expansion of the existing lot to include 2 more vegetable beds for fall planting of corn and green beans.

Vegetable gardening is a great way to relieve stress and can be very rewarding. Nothing beats picking those juicy fruits of your labor at the end of the day. No doubt it is hard work, especially so when starting from scratch. Plowing the land and building the vegetable beds are sheer sweat. Fortunately, they only need to be constructed once (if done correctly) and perhaps updated occasionally.

So far, both Ro-Ri San and I are delighted that Our Vegetable Garden has been doing relatively well. We have harvested several rounds of green onions and sugar snap peas. We are leaving the rest of the green onions to grow into onions and there are definitely more sugar snap peas to come. The plants are again totally covered with flower buds.

I used some of the green onions in this delicious Sausage, Potato, and Egg Skillet topped with shredded cheese and green onions. It made a wonderful weekend breakfast for the family. We managed to harvest 1½ pounds of sugar snap peas and I used half a pound for this super quick and easy Sugar Snap Peas and Squid Stir Fry. There will be more sugar snap recipes coming up soon.

Growing well but not quite ready to be harvested yet are these purple potatoes, shishito peppers, tomatoes, and yellow squashes.

Taking their own sweet time are these Brussels sprouts, Japanese cucumbers and zucchinis, Shikou eggplants, and okra.

This past weekend, we were able to harvest some broccoli heads. Shortly after that we had a 17 hours power outage which resulted in the heads turning a little yellow and maturing without proper refrigeration. Still I was able to do a broccoli stir fry two days later which turned out to be quite tasty. New heads of broccoli are already emerging from the sides of the main cut-off stem. Can’t wait for another harvest.

This was the Broccoli, Cauliflower, and Sausage Stir Fry I made for dinner. The recipe will be posted soon.

The herbs on my patio are also doing very well. I have only harvested them once for a pasta dish. I should harvest more soon.

Here is the Pasta with Fresh Herbs, Sausage, and Tomatoes I made using some of the spicy globe basil and golden thyme. I snipped off the tops and they have all grown back. Soon I should be able to use our own homegrown tomatoes.

Perhaps the vegetable that did not fare as well are the green and purple cabbages. There was an infestation of most likely cabbage worms or loopers which almost totally destroyed them. In a desperate attempt to save them, we lightly sprinkled some salt onto those pesky worms. The salt managed to kill the worms but unfortunately, some of the outer leaves close to the heads were burnt as well despite being sprayed with lots of water. The green cabbage heads are pretty solid but the purple cabbage heads are only just beginning to form. Some may not even be able to do that. Still, we are hopeful as the plants appear to be strong. Since cabbages grow inside out, the outer leaves can be peeled off if they survive.

All in all, we are pretty encouraged by our new endeavor and have decided to expand Our Vegetable Garden to encompass the little plot of land between the then vegetable garden and the old shed. This would give us two additional vegetable beds. On Sunday, we worked furiously to plow the land and straighten part of the fence so that it would stretch across both sheds. It was crucial for the fence to be up or the rabbits which have been multiplying “like rabbits” would have a garden party on our expense. I’m telling ‘ya, their population around the neighborhood has really increased and they can be seen at all times of the day.

On Monday, I was able to construct the other vegetable bed (the 6th in all) which is slightly smaller to accommodate the second gate. While I was at it, I decided to expand the other smaller bed which had to accommodate the then curved fence. I sowed some corn in the larger bed and green beans in the smaller bed. I think Our Vegetable Garden project is pretty much done for this season. Now, it is time to sit back, relax, and enjoy the fruits of our labor. At least that’s the plan for now. 😉

Here is the link to Our Vegetable Garden – Part 1 if you are interested.

Enjoy…..and have a wonderful day! 😎