Monday, July 2, 2018

Green Harvest


Today I show you my first crop of green veggies that have grown in my greenhouse. As I wrote in February,  I bought many packs of flower and vegetable seeds. The sowing happened at the beginning of May, the days were hot and vegetables started to grow well.
Then I planted 20 large bulbs of onions and now have harvested a lot of spring onion. I guess I'll freeze some for winter. I also sowed lettuce of different varieties, it turned out the best is the "Curled" green lettuce. The whole leaves of lettuce I use to decorate the plates with meal.


Today I've gathered a nice set for green salad. It's arugula, parsley, cucumbers, basil and lettuce.


I love arugula and planted it in different places. I noticed that in the greenhouse it grows quicker, leaves are larger, with the tangy flavor. It provides many of the same health benefits as other vegetables as broccoli, kale, and Brussels sprouts.


Parsley actually grows poorly in my garden soil, because it's originally from the Mediterranean region. So I added sand and ash to the soil when I planted parsley seeds. Here is the first harvest, parsley is still young and has pleasant smell. It is consumed in many different ways, including garnishing, salads, and sandwiches. Parsley contains several antioxidants and unusual components that provide unique health benefits.


Basil is a rare plant in my garden because it always lacks more sun and heat. In the greenhouse Basil 'Lemon' variety has grown tall and sprawling, so I tear off the side leaves. I learned it contains beta-carotene, powerful antioxidants, vitamin A, K. I especially love adding basil leaves making tea. It has pleasantly lemon flavor.


Now the first cucumbers are, I gathered them in the greenhouse early in the morning and have immediately tasted one, it was sweetish and crispy, it's good for salad and to make pickles.



Well, I've told you about my green harvest. Do you love spicy herbs and cucumbers? How do you use them?

50 comments:

  1. Yum, I love those little cucumbers.

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  2. Your efforts are obviously yielding very good results and I envy the fact that you can simply pick these items and eat them fresh. Well done! We used to pickle beets, cucumbers and baby corn but haven't done it for a couple of years. It was quite a bit of work but we had pickles for the whole year and they tasted wonderful.

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    1. I agree, David, the homemade pickles have wonderful taste. I've never pickled beet, I should do this for using in borsch.

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  3. ¡ Estas teniendo buena cosecha ! Los pepinillos, yo los suelo poner en vinagre. Besos.

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    1. Me gustan tambien los pepinos en vinagre, Teresa. La receta buena.

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  4. What a great harvest from your greenhouse! Such nice fresh vegetables and herbs. I have not tasted arugula. I should look for seeds to grow for next Spring. I love cucumbers and can imagine that tasty crunchy flavour picked freshly in the morning. I used to make pickles from green tomatoes, cauliflower and beans.
    Your photos are very good and I love your new header. Beautiful colour. What is the flower?

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    1. Betty, yesterday evening the sun was behind Geranium (Geranium Himalayense Plenum) and I took photo for the new header. I'm glad you liked it!
      Sure you will like arugula, it's easy to sow and grow.

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  5. What a fantastic harvest from your greenhouse, Nadezda! It must be very nice to eat them :)
    Homegrown cucumbers taste so very good!
    I wish you a wonderful week!

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    1. You're right Marit, homegrown veggies tastier than these from supermarket :-)

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  6. Надежда ,прекрасный урожай! У меня тоже уже есть огурчики в теплице.Зелень морожу,,и много ее кушаем.
    Про "василия"даже и не слышала,заинтересовало...

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    1. Надежда, это неправильный перевод. Конечно вы знаете "базилик", у меня сорт лимонный. Вы молодец, много выращиваете для семьи.

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  7. I love fresh herbs, it makes all the diference to a meal. I'll try the tip about basil in tea.

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    1. This Basil variety 'lemon' has smell and taste of lemon in tea, Jenny. I love it.

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  8. Such a wonderfully delicious and beautiful harvest, Nadezda!
    Happy July to you. Do you follow football? :)

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    1. Sara, I'm not a football fan but I read about wins and losses in World Cup. Soon in St. Petersburg will be one more football game.

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  9. Your post has made me hungry. The greens all look so pretty I am sure they are tasty. I usually eat cucumbers cut up in salads or just slice them long way and dip them in salad dressing and eat them. Or I make a dish my family call Thunder and Lightening. I cut up the cucumbers, add tomato and onion. Make a vinaigrette of apple vinegar, sugar salt and pepper pour over the veggies let it soak all day and then eat them. Yummmy. You are getting good use of your greenhouse.

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    1. Lisa, now your recipe of 'Thunder and Lightening' made me hungry! I should make this salad, I often use apple vinegar. Good idea!

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  10. Yes, growing your OWN veggies taste much better ! Groetjes Hetty

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  11. What a great harvest! We don't vegetable garden anymore, but we used too. Always lots of fun to try out new crops.

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    1. Yes. it's fun to taste new veggies, Rebecca. Basil was new herb to me too.

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  12. I really love all these vegetables and herbs of you. I do grow a lot of basil in the greenhouse from sowing, use it mostly in tomatoe salads and make pesto of it. Tonight I made me a salad of cucumber, arugula and iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, finished with a raspberry dressing, delicious.
    Wish you happy gardening in July,
    Janneke

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    1. I do love tomato & cucumber salad Janneke. I've never done pesto of basil, I should do it, I have much of it. Thanks for recipe!

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  13. Delicious harvest, Nadezda! The garden gives great satisfaction.
    Happy week!

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  14. I had my first fresh potatoes this Sunday. On the other hand, cucumbers were planted out Saturday and crop is long away! :D

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    1. Tistou, I have no potatoes, sure they tasty delicious. I planted cucumber seedlings in May.
      Happy week!

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  15. That’s a tremendous harvest of cucumbers. I’ve never frozen spring onions, does the texture change when thawed.

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    1. Sue, I put frozen spring onions when cooking soup, they give pleasant smell of spring. I think you're right the texture changes if you want to eat it defrozen.

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  16. Gracias en el blog hay un traductor por si te puede servir para seguir leiendo.
    Gracias por tu paso significa mucho ya que un personage que me hace la vida imposible diciendo que le copio poemas y muchos seguidores se han ido
    Besos

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  17. Your harvest is impressive and looks delicious. Happy gardening, my friend.

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    1. Thank you Peter,
      happy belated 4th of July!

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  18. Fresh herbs and vegetables, you are living the good life Nadezda. ps cant wait for the Russia - English final

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    1. Yes, I try to have more fresh vitamins in summer, Alistair. This match will be held on July 7th, I guess you are a fan of what team :-) Good luck!

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  19. Hi Nadezda,
    It must be very good and pleasant to be able to plant and harvest.
    I live in the city and I just have a few pots with flowers on my balcony.
    Have a happy Sunday.
    Greetings from Portugal
    Maria
    Divagar Sobre Tudo um Pouco

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    1. Hi, Maria.
      You're right it's a pleasure to have fresh veggies in the garden.
      Happy Sunday!

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  20. Un ottimo raccolto, verde e rigoglioso :) Buon appetito e buona Domenica!

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  21. Oh, I meant to ask if you might be able to identify a plant which has self seeded in a flower pot. :) I love it but I am surprised because there's nothing else like this in the garden and I am not sure I have seen anything like it in the wild. Or if I have, I don't remember it. Obvously don't visit my blog unless you have a reason to, but if you go again in the future, the post title is "Slowing"

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  22. Que ricas verduras Nadezda, están estupendas. Besos.

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  23. Amazing! Your garden is turning out great. I hope to get mine as nice as yours, thanks for the share. Hope you have a nice rest of your week, keep up the posts.
    World of Animals

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    1. Thank you for stopping by my blog, World of Animals

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  24. Your lettuce is beautiful. I can grow onions here -- the spring onions and the bulbing onions -- but lettuce is more troublesome because we have too many ultra warm days even in winter. Try the really long cucumbers -- their seeds are very small even when the cucumber is 12 inches long.

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    1. I love long cucumbers as well, when I've grown them I could cut the part for eating and the rest of a veggie stayed in the plant :-)
      Lettuce needs low temps at night, yes it's not for warm climate as yours is.

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