May 31st, 2012

Kicking it Off in the Community Kitchen Garden

by Jonah Holland

Photos & text by Albert Brian Vick,  Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Community Kitchen Garden Coordinator 

We made our first 2012 deliveries  this week from the Community Kitchen Garden to FeedMore’s Community Kitchen. The current crop is Red Pontiac new potatoes & red beets. Total pounds delivered: red potatoes – 230, red beets – 108. We don’t have an exact ID on the beets yet, because the seedlings were donated to us by a local organic commercial grower, but as you can see they are red. Wow, that’s kind of continuing a “red is the color” theme from earlier this year, and soon we’ll be seeing red tomatoes and red California Wonder bell peppers. Never fear, we won’t be monochromatic, because we also expect to have yellow & purple heirloom tomatoes in addition to the green & yellow summer squash.

All is not golden in Camelot however. We’ve seen large numbers of squash bug eggs on the cucurbita leaves. Inspect your plants carefully – on the surface and underside of the leaves – rub off & squash the eggs with your fingers.

FeedMore asked for new potatoes, so we’re harvesting now. We planted these March 17th. The short period minimizes our yield, but it frees up the space – and don’tcha know these are tender & tasty.
132 lbs. pictured here, 98 lbs. harvested the next day, approx. 100 lbs. still in the ground.
The red beet greens are gorgeous, prompting many visitors to think the bed is Swiss Chard.
All is not golden in Camelot – sometimes copper or bronze is the color.
About Jonah Holland

Jonah Holland is Digital Content Manager at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, where she has worked for 14 years overseeing social media, the blog, and the website. She is also a mom, yogi, open water swimmer, gardener, and seeker. She's been known to go for a walk in the Garden and come back with hundreds of plant photos, completely inspired to write her next blog post.

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