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Harvest Fridays & Happy Easter!

April 3, 2015 by jessfuel 17 Comments

Hey all. Happy Harvest Friday! I’ve got a busy weekend ahead, so I’m going to jump right into it. Also, Happy Easter! Hope you have a great weekend filled with candy eggs and carrot cake.

Aquaponics Updates

We had a bit of a tragic incident last week. We’d been trying to lower the pH in our fish tank by adding a little bit of acid buffer each day. This finally caused the pH to drop drastically, very suddenly. Nick went to feed the fish one morning and no one came up for food. I’m sure you can see where this is going…

Alas, this is why we started with just a few 32-cent goldfish. We had a quick memorial service for Captain Blackfin and his friends, and then got to work on trying to fix the pH. Once we got the levels under control, a couple days later, Nick stole a couple carp from his uncle’s pond and put them in the tank. So far, so good. Our tilapia should arrive next week, and now that the water levels are stable, we should be able to keep them alive.

We’re having a few issues with yellowing plants and we think it’s because there aren’t enough nutrients in the water yet (in other words, not enough fish poop). Hopefully once we get our tilapia in, that problem will fix itself.

We also have some aphid issues, so we bought a bunch of ladybugs, who have been helping to control them. We’re also still using the dish soap spray I mentioned last update, along with using neem oil very sparingly.

Ladybug eating aphids

This is all a learning process! But we are definitely having some successes. Check out how big the tomato plants have gotten.

Growing tomatoes aquaponically

We want them to turn into tomato “vines” snaking along the ceiling of the greenhouse, so we have them strung up and are removing the lower leaves as they grow so that the plants get taller and taller.

Our cucumbers are also getting pretty big. We strung them up, too, and they are climbing like crazy. There are even tiny cukes all over them. They’re pretty much the cutest thing in the world.

Growing Cucumbers

After we planted these, we realized we aren’t sure if this breed needs to be pollinated or not. Apparently some do and some don’t. There aren’t any bees in the greenhouse for pollination, so we will have to wait and see if the cukes mature or not.

The raft beds with the lettuces and other greens are still doing well, and we are eating tons of salads. All of the radishes I planted matured and most have been picked (see the harvests below). And check out the sweet potato that we had sitting in a solo cup of water. It sprouted! Soon we’ll start removing the sprouts and planting them (outside in the dirt).

Sprouted Sweet Potato

Traditional Garden Updates

As for the outdoor garden, our biggest accomplishment over the last couple weeks was getting our potatoes planted. We planted potatoes last year and they were such a success that we decided to devote an entire garden bed to them. We bought these seed potatoes (you don’t want to use sprouted grocery store potatoes because they may have diseases).

Seed potatoes

For potatoes, you want to plant them deep in a trough and cover them up with dirt as they grow. This will produce the biggest number of roots… aka potatoes.

Planting Potatoes

Our potatoes have already grown quite a bit.

Growing Potatoes in the Garden

To make room for the potatoes, we had to pull out a bunch of plants. As suspected, our Brussels sprouts ended up not producing. The tiny sprouts all flowered as soon as the weather got warm. I guess it’s just one plant (there aren’t many) that won’t grow here! But… look how big the plants got!

Brussel Sprouts Plant

So sad. We probably won’t try Brussels again until we live somewhere cooler.

The Harvest

Aside from the pounds and pounds of never-ending kale…

Garden Kale

My biggest harvest lately has been radishes! I had planted some French breakfast radishes in the aquaponics system. Despite not being in dirt, they grew like crazy. Some of them had to get creative about growing around the pebbles.

Growing radishes in aquaponics

I also harvested some regular round radishes, which were a result of overgrown microgreens. (Microgreens are actually a mix of different regular greens, apparently including radish greens!)

Garden Radishes

You can eat both the roots and the greens, and I used both to make these Honey Roasted Radishes.

Honey Roasted Radishes

Check out this gorgeous salad. It included (from the garden) kale, red leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, some assorted overgrown microgreens, radishes and chives… plus strawberries from the local stand and hard-boiled eggs from our quails. The only thing store-bought was the chickpeas.

Garden Salad

And speaking of quail eggs… now that it’s spring, the quails are laying like crazy. I had a major egg backup (despite eating omelets nonstop), so I hard-boiled a ton of them and made some killer egg salad.

Quail Egg Salad

Last, but not least, I picked a whole bunch of beet leaves. We had some stunted beets that had been in the garden for almost a year and never really produced roots… but they kept the greens flowing. Since we needed to make room for the potatoes, I pulled them all after harvesting all the leaves. I blanched them and popped them in the freezer, and they’ll go into a quiche some day, used just like frozen spinach.

Garden Beet Greens

I’m pretty excited that summer is just around the corner and gardening season is coming into full-swing! We’re working on a few other things in the dirt beds and even filling up a whole bunch of extra pots with things.

I know spring has sprung around much of the country now, so… what are you planting??

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Filed Under: Gardening Tagged With: gardening, vegetables

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Comments

  1. Amy says

    April 3, 2015 at 6:57 pm

    Great post – I enjoyed the updates on your gardening. Thank you!

    Reply
  2. Ashley | The Recipe Rebel says

    April 3, 2015 at 7:22 pm

    I’m just so jealous of you and your garden! We got snow again this week. I dream of starting a garden! Sorry to hear about your fish πŸ™

    Reply
    • jessfuel says

      April 6, 2015 at 8:18 pm

      Aww man! No more snow!! Maybe some windowsill herbs?!

      Reply
  3. Denise | Sweet Peas & Saffron says

    April 3, 2015 at 7:28 pm

    Wow, your garden must keep you super busy!! I love hearing all of your ‘mad-scientist’ projects…so fun! Sorry about your fish, but I’m totally intrigued about your aquaponics system: so the fish provide the nitrogen for the plants? So cool πŸ™‚

    Reply
    • jessfuel says

      April 6, 2015 at 8:19 pm

      Yep! The fish poop fertilizes the plants and the plants filter the water for the fish… it’s pretty much self-sustaining once you get all the levels right. All you have to do is feed the fish!

      Reply
  4. Gayle @ Pumpkin 'N Spice says

    April 6, 2015 at 5:14 am

    Hope you had a great Easter, Jess! That’s too bad about your fish, but at least it’s a learning process! And your garden looks like it’s off to a great start! I love those potatoes, too!

    Reply
  5. [email protected] Whole and Heavenly Oven says

    April 6, 2015 at 5:42 am

    I am seriously so jealous that you already have veggies popping up! We’re getting ready to put in our spring veggies around here and I’m totally pumped!

    Reply
    • jessfuel says

      April 6, 2015 at 8:20 pm

      Woohoo!! Glad it’s finally warming up for everyone! πŸ™‚

      Reply
  6. Natalie @ Tastes Lovely says

    April 6, 2015 at 10:18 am

    I love reading these posts! Sorry about your fishes. But I guess it’s part of the learning curve and balancing out the PH. Thanks for the potato tips! Definitely planning on planting potatoes in one of our garden beds. And that brussel sprout plant is HUGE! Your quail eggs are so cute : )

    Reply
    • jessfuel says

      April 6, 2015 at 8:21 pm

      You should definitely plant some potatoes! We were really amazed at how easy they were and how well they grew. Plus it’s so fun digging them up– it’s like a treasure hunt! lol!

      Reply
  7. Lily Lau says

    April 6, 2015 at 2:38 pm

    I hope you had a really lovely Easter, Jess! I’m sorry for your fish, but let’s welcome the carp, the ladybugs and the potatoes!

    Reply
  8. Mariah @ Mariah's Pleasing Plates says

    April 6, 2015 at 9:20 pm

    I love your garden! So fun! You are making me want to plant one!

    Reply
  9. Kelly says

    April 6, 2015 at 10:58 pm

    Your garden looks gorgeous, Jess! Love everything you’re planting so far! Wow, that brussels sprout plant is huge! Sorry to hear about your fish πŸ™

    Reply
    • jessfuel says

      April 7, 2015 at 11:34 am

      Thanks, Kelly! I couldn’t believe how big the Brussels got… wish they would have produced!

      Reply
  10. marcie says

    April 9, 2015 at 1:04 pm

    Sorry about the brussels sprouts! I can’t believe how big those plants got! haha I love your garden, Jess — you’ve got some great stuff growing on!

    Reply
    • jessfuel says

      April 10, 2015 at 12:32 pm

      Thanks, Marcie! πŸ™‚ It’s such a fun little hobby.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Harvest Fridays – The Great Cucumber Harvest | Flying on Jess Fuel says:
    May 1, 2015 at 5:49 pm

    […] how we sprouted a sweet potato? We planted a whole bunch of the sweet potato shoots! Since we were out of garden space, we ordered […]

    Reply

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ABOUT JESS

Jess is home cook, foodie and proud Navy wife. She grew up in Boston and now lives on the West Coast. She loves to blog, travel, read and write. When she's not working or blogging, she can be found running or relaxing with a glass of wine. Read More…

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