Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Spinach bolted.

Oops...I waited too long. I ended up harvesting (and composting a lot of) the spinach two days ago. Most of it had bolted. Some of it was still edible, but about a third of it went straight to the composter. Ugh! Next year I'm going to try planting Bloomsdale Spinach and see how it does. Whatever variety I planted this year was lame. Tiny leaves, took forever to germinate...not good.

I'm still waiting to see if I'm going to get any broccoli or brussel sprouts, too. The plants are huge, but there's nothing resembling brussel sprouts or broccoli attached to the leaves. Not sure how that's supposed to work since I've never grown them before. The carrots and parsnips seem to be growing well, as is the cilantro. The basil's kind of sorry, but I think it will get better in the next week or so. The tomatoes have lots of flowers and a few have actual green tomatoes -- a good sign, I think.

We got a bunch of lettuce and spinach in our CSA box this week, so we'll be having salads for dinner for the next few days. We've eaten about half of the lettuce out of our garden and it was great. Alice Waters talks about how wonderful lettuce is when it's still practically alive. She's right. Crispy and sweet...yum.

3 comments:

3boys247 said...

Um, did you know my brother owns Greentrees Hydroponics? They have a website,http://www.hydroponics.net/

I would have told you sooner, but I didn't know you were using grow lights for anything. If you need anything from his store, let him know you are my friend, I am sure there is some kind of friends and family discount available. If not, there should be! : )

Bev said...

Hillary, this year I planted waaay to much lettuce and spinach and it all matured at once. Just can't eat all of it. I planted 2 new kinds of heirloom spinach from Baker's... "Merlo Nero" and "New Zealand." Merlo grew fast and bolted fast but it was sure good. New Zealand has been slow to bolt and I still have a lot of it, although it certainly has a different texture, kind of thick. Good cooked. I have already replanted some lettuce and more spinach for a fall crop. I should have followed the sage advice of just planting not so many seeds 2 weeks apart. But no, I'm always in a hurry to have some fresh veggies.

Gary said...

I planted some spinach with some hydroponics once. I hadn't done hydroponic gardening since I did a class in high school, but it worked out so well. Seriously, I'd do hydroponics any day!