Little Susie Homemaker

Tag: beets

  • Garden Update – December 2024

    Not much to add here but wanted to wrap up the year with the final post about the garden.

    The Oca and Mashua tubers were harvested in early December. We had a light frost earlier, but it didn’t kill off the leaves above ground until about three frosts in.

    My husband took care of it as he’s the one who planted them. He really likes having unique things growing in the backyard. Hence the variety of berries we have! I did help him a bit, but the digging was all him!

    He had ordered 3 different colors of the Oca tubers. We assumed the white with red creases is a mix of the other two.

    These little guys can be eaten raw and are supposed to taste like water chestnuts. My husband said that’s true (I didn’t try it!).

    We got a bit over 3/4 of a pound of the Ocas. There are several that he’s keeping in the fridge to use as seed for next year.

    The Mashua tubers did really well. We ended up with a bit over 3 1/4 lbs of these. (The above picture was obviously taken prior to washing. The weight was taken AFTER the dirt was removed)

    He cooked a few of these up like potatoes and they turned out pretty well. We have enough left for a couple more meals to have a side of tubers.

    The rest of the garden is a sleep for the winter aside from 4 beets that I haven’t pulled yet. Now that it’s too cold for snails and slugs, they’re doing great! LOL

    I put 6+ inches of compost over all the growing areas and then covered with a few inches of leaves. I’m also throwing our used coffee grounds into the growing areas to help add more to the soil over winter.

    The one crop I haven’t addressed in a post, but did harvest was the sweet potato. I’ll just say it was beyond disappointing. Not one was bigger than my thumb and all total the harvest was less than 1/2 lb.

    All total; the backyard produced 133.87 lbs of food. Not too shabby but thank goodness for perennials!

  • Garden Update – November 2024

    Alas, the garden has been put to bed for the winter. The time had come.

    As you know, I had planted some things for fall, but those things were not thriving if they were even growing at all. The slugs around here were feasting, so it was more frustration than anything.

    There are still a few things waiting for the first frost which should be any day now. The two types of tubers are dug up after the frost. And the sweet potato will get harvested this weekend frost or not. The leaves on that are starting to die off, so time to dig those up. (or since they’re in a pot, turn the pot over and sort through the dirt)

    Sweet Potatoes
    Tubers
    Tubers (other kind)

    Surprisingly, I’m still getting some raspberries. About every 2-3 days, I can go pick a small handful and get about a half an ounce.

    1/2 oz of berries
    still growing berries

    There are still some peas, beets and kale growing in the main garden. I’ll keep an eye on those and see what they do.

    Beets
    Kale
    Sleeping garden bed

    But for the rest of the growing areas, I have added about 6+ inches of garden mix soil (mix of compost, fertilizer [horse apples] and fertile mulch) and covered everything with leaves.

    My suspicion has been that the soil is not nutrient dense enough for growing vegetables. My hope is that with a good amount of amendments this fall and another good amount in the spring, next year’s garden might do better.

    I have also put some leaves around the base of the strawberries (which are also still growing berries, just not ripening) to put those to sleep for the winter. I’ll get a bit more of the Japanese maple leaves and bulk that up this weekend as well.

    Alpine Strawberries
    Leaf Mulch strawberry bed

    It amazes me what is still growing in spite of little sunlight, tons of rain and colder temperatures.

    This year’s harvest from the backyard has come to 129.2 lbs. Tubers and sweet potatoes still to come!

    Winter is coming!! Time to start planning next year’s garden.