How Fast They Grow

 

It’s amazing how fast the plants in the garden grow. The weather has been pretty good so that helps. The right amount warmth with the right amount of rainfall. The new Radishes that were planted a couple weeks ago are almost ready to harvest. The new Beets, Lettuce, and Fennel that I planted at the same time by seed have sprouted and growing well. The eggplants that I thought were pretty much dead have started to grow a bit and I even have some blooms on them which mean fruit is not far behind. The Broad Beans are waist high now but no fruit just yet. All the Kopfsalat has been harvested and the new ones are about halfway through their cycle before harvesting. However, the Peas have tons of pods all over. The Spitzkohl is ready for harvesting but I will leave them for as long as I can. The Green Beans are pretty small but they already have blooms, I am hoping they grow bigger. Everything else is coming along just great. The Zucchini and Cucumbers are producing fruit.
To continue on the Garden Plan I posted before, here is the next batch:
Broad Beans
These have grown really fast and as I said before are waist high. They have has some problems with aphids but luckily with a few squirts of organic bug spray they seem to have gone away. I am not a huge fan of Broad Beans but I am excited to try some new recipes with them and hopefully acquire a new taste for these fast growing vegetables.
Swiss Chard
Another vegetable that I am not a big fan of but if I don’t like the taste of them I can always juice them which I absolutely love. These too have had some problems with aphids but unlike the Broad Beans they don’t seem to be going away. They have grown quite large in recent weeks and look beautiful.
Spitzkohl
I am not quite sure what it is comparable to in English. Online it says pointed Cabbage but I have not heard of that before. Either way, it’s a white Cabbage and actually taste quite good. I use this vegetable in soups and stews. The Spitzkohl is ready for harvesting but as I stated before, I will wait a bit longer to do so.
Rotkohl
Red Cabbage is what Rotkohl is translated to. Pretty much everyone knows this vegetable. It has grown to a very large size, however there doesn’t seem to be a center developing yet. Which is ok considering this is a cold season vegetable.
Broccoli & Cauliflower
I planted both with seeds and those are growing nicely though rather small so far. I have purchased 7 jungpflanze of Broccoli and they are rather large. Like the Rotkohl these have not developed any centers yet and I don’t expect them to for quite some time. Very easy to maintain though.
Wirsing
This is another one I have not heard of in America but its Savoy Cabbage. In Germany it’s quite popular and they Roulade with it. They make a hamburger mix and roll it up in a leaf and steam it. The Wirsing has also grown rather large and the centers have developed a bit. Not too much care needed here either.
Kohlrabi
Yet another vegetable I have not seen or heard of in America. Kohlrabi is actually one of my favorites however. It reminds me a bit like an Apple because of the texture but the taste is indescribable. You peel them, cut them up and steam them or put in soup. You don’t want them to too big or they become woody and don’t taste good. They need plenty of room to grow and you can also use the smaller inner leaves for flavoring soups and stews. The larger outer leaves you will want to throw away as they are also woody and won’t taste good.
Kopfsalat
A tip I gave in one of my post awhile back is that you can harvest the outer leaves before harvesting the whole plant. This will prolong the vegetable. However, as soon as the salat has reached its peak you need to harvest the plant soon. It will start to sprout upwards and it will start to decay.