Here I have 2 different types of lettuce: Romaine (in the front) and Butter Crunch (in the back). Lettuce is great to have in the garden because you can just pick off the leaves as you need them, and they grow right back in a week or two!
I've also planted Tomato Plants. I just noticed some buds on them so I should have tomatoes ready to eat in a few weeks.
Here's a tip on how to get more tomatoes from each plant: always pick the "suckers" off of the plant when you see them. "Suckers" are the the leaves that grow between the base of the plant and another stem. If you don't pick these off the nutrients will go to the green foliage and not to producing more tomatoes. In the picture below I've shown you what to pick off.
I have a few plants each of cauliflower and broccoli. Now don't be disappointed, but you only usually get one head per plant. Some may think it's not worth it, but I just love the way these taste fresh!
Below are my brussel sprouts. In the past I've been able to get enough brussel sprouts for a meal or two a week through out the fall and winter.
If any of your plants look like this, they are probably being eaten by either a slug or a caterpillar. Chances are if you go out to your garden and inspect the leaves through out the day you'll be able to find out what's eating them. Slugs usually come out at night and caterpillars during the day. If you find slugs, try breaking up some rinsed off egg shells and sprinkling them around the base of your plants. The slugs have a hard time crawling across them. If you're brave enough, you could also just put on a pair of gloves and remove them yourself. Even better, if you have boys you can just call them out there to handle them =)
Here's a few herbs you can plant now too:
Rosemary
Thyme
Sage
Green Onions Here's a tip: You can plant the green onions you buy in the grocery right into the ground because they usually have the roots still on them!
Oregano is great to plant as well. Mine got taken over this summer by my strawberry plants. After I trimmed those back, I noticed my oregano started to come back to life =)
Here's an update on my fruit trees! Below is my satsuma tree, which I just planted a year ago, and it already has fruit. They are ripe and ready to eat! The boys love being able to pick them right off of the tree when they are playing outside. I even caught my dog yanking one right off the tree and chowing down on one the other day! NICE!
Here's the grapefruit tree. We planted this tree a couple of years ago, and this is by far the best it's ever done! I've finally discovered the key to having an abundance of citrus fruit. You don't really need to do much watering when there are no grapefruits balls on the tree. After they appear, water only one time a week, but make sure it's a "good watering". This is the first year I've tried that and it definitely paid off! It has around 50 large grapefruits that should be ready to eat some time next month =)
