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Enjoying the modern conveniences of life in a sustainable manner through technology, resourcefulness, and Zone 8a (North Texas) Gardening.

Monday, March 26, 2012

Herb Harvest

This week brought a bountiful harvest.

First there were collards. My boys allowed me to use their dump truck to haul them in. I only expected to do usual garden maintenance, but I noticed that one or two were starting to bolt, so I picked all of them clean. No need to lose them in hopes of getting a few more leaves.

Next was the lettuce. They were pulled to make way for the sweet potatoes; which will be planted in a week or two. The weather here is getting warm fast, so I decided to pull the lettuce before they joined the collards at the Bolt party. While clearing out the bed, we even found a couple of carrots that over wintered nicely. The green lettuce is actually a bumper crop. It grew from the base of a lettuce I pulled earlier this year.

Lastly, I took a pruning knife to my crowded herb garden. I was able to harvest a pretty large bunch of Borage, Cilantro, and Dill....shown left to right below. I also harvested some parsley. I found it under the borage; there is more to get and I will do so later this week. All of the herbs, not used this week, will be dried.

A lot more work has been done in the garden and I will share that with you later this week. Check out more harvests at Daphne's Dandelions Harvest Monday.

12 comments:

  1. You had a good harvest week indeed! That's quite a bounty of herbs, lettuce, collards, and that surprise carrot harvest is always a nice treat.

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  2. You must be gearing up for full blown gardening shortly. Do you get frost being zone 8? Hopefully the greens will come on now that you picked them and maybe not bolt so fast.

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  3. In most winters, we get some frosts and maybe one or two freezes a year. Our ground never freezes. Here foundations are only required to be 4" thick...yea that's inches. Our challenge is our spring/summer. It gets hot here really fast and while most want tomatoes by the 4th of July; our tomatoes need to be done by then because it will be too hot for fruit set after that. We may get a few more cold fronts but they will bring lows in the high 40's at worse (usually).

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  4. Do you overwinter dill? I am in zone 8 and I thought dill was to be spring planted. It looks like there is still so much to learn.

    How do you use your borage? I have been wanting to plant some.

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    1. I planted the dill in September and it did overwinter this year. I am not sure that it will overwinter every year though. I think it was protected because it basically grew smashed between some cilantro and the borage. I didn't even know it was there until it started to warm up and it grew taller than the other two. There was also some parsley growing under the Borage. I planted the borage as a nurse plant and it appears to have done just that...nursing the dill and parsley through the winter. I want to try the slowers in some ice cubes and salad. The leaves are hairy, so I don't find them appealing. But I will keep growing borage as a nurse plant.

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  5. Hi! Hopping over from the Garden Harvest. Happy to see another Texas gardener! I looked at some of your other posts and enjoyed them, so adding you to my blogroll (my way of following...cause I actually check there!).

    texifornia.blogspot.com

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  6. Nice looking herbs! except for tea plants I usually use most of mine fresh, although I do make a lot of pesto to freeze when I have a bumper crop of basil.

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  7. Great looking collard green. Beautiful herb harvest. I have to wait until June 1 before I put my sweet potatoes in the ground.

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  8. I love borage for some reason that I can't quite fathom. Maybe because the bees love it or the small but pretty flowers. I've never actually eaten borage so it can't be that.

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  9. I love borage, I only grew one plant this last summer since i just learned of it but I hope you grow more this year. Its beautiful.

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  10. Beautiful herbs. Love that you used the dump truck to hail the collards in. :-D

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  11. I've just started my first garden and am thrilled to find somebody in my area blogging. I will definitely be reading your older entries and following your new ones!

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