I was lucky and was able to score a free flight to the east coast this weekend {with my credit card points} so I took it , and boy was I pleasantly surprised when I checked the progress of my east coast garden I planted in last August.
Garlic! It’s up and about 6 inches tall. Wahoooo! How about that. 
I also planted 2 packets of chives seeds as well. I don’t expect to harvest any chives until next summer but it was still pretty exciting to see a full row of them.
A 12 foot row of lettuce. Pretty nifty if you ask me. There was just enough for a dinner salad.
Okay, does anyone know what this plant is? The roots resemble parsnips and the stem of the plant has a nice velvety feel to it. Even though I didn’t plant this, I’m enjoying the pretty white flowers everywhere. 
The carrot seeds I planted about 60 days ago are growing like mad as well.
Right now we just have a bunch of baby carrots, but I suspect in about another month I’ll be able to start harvesting some nice fat ones for roasting. 
Turnips! I plan on roasting these too.
Check out the size of this beet. 60 days seed to harvest. Not too shabby.
I couldn’t resist harvesting a few of the root crops to bring home on the plane with me. If all goes as planned, we should have our oven back by the end of the week and I’ll be able to start cooking real food again. Won’t that be nice. 😉
Life is good.
How is YOUR garden doing? What have you been harvesting lately?
~Mavis
This post may contain affiliate links. These affiliate links help support this site. For more information, please see my disclosure policy. Thank you for supporting One Hundred Dollars a Month.
Ramona says
how are you able to keep the garden watered and weeded while on the west coast?
Tanya says
It probably doesn’t need watering on the east coast. They get plenty of moisture.
Mavis Butterfield says
I have done nothing but plant seeds and weed once. It’s amazing how it’s taking care of itself with just rain. Shocked!!! This would never work here in my Seattle area garden.
mari says
Mavis your mystery plant is DATURA aka Jimpson Weed, Moonflower. Its very pretty but also very deadly. Please remove it… and destroy. All parts of the plants are poisonous and in the wrong hands it is a killer. It is a very powerful hallucinogen which leads to death.
Connie Wheeler says
Yes, Mari is right one !! I was just about to post about the plant and saw her post .. You may have others sprouting around too so dig up any you can find and get rid of them.
Mavis says
WHAT? Holy cow. I had no idea.
Maggie White says
GET RID OF IT! It’s jimson weed. This plant is super poisonous…the drug atropine is derived from it and can be deadly to pets even in small doses.
Let your neighbors know, too! Especially if they have children.
Connie Wheeler says
Right on .. not one .. jeez.
Tonya says
Datura inoxia. Similar to morning glories (Ipomoea), but night blooming. Poisonous but beautiful. I grow datura metal in a pot for its beautiful flowers, sometimes called Devils trumpets, also toxic.
tc says
yes the plant Is Datura and it is a beautiful but deadly plant, I grow this and angel trumpets (same family but real name is Burgemisa), If you are careful and do not have children that will eat it or pets that will it is great as the deer will not eat it, this is a major plus in our garden. It smells beautiful at night, very intoxicating. I did have a kid steal some angel trumpet flowers out of my other garden in LA, he boiled/smoked them and got sick. When the police came round to ask me if I knew what the plant was I said yes and if anyone is stupid enough to trespass on my property and steal my flowers then I have no sympathy and told him and the case worker to tell the kid he is very luck that I am not going to pursue a lawsuit for trespassing.
My angel trumpet tree gets many admiring comments and people love the smell in the evening. There are so many poisness plants in nature we just have to be aware and enjoy the plants in their own environment. I would not plant them in my vegetable garden though. Also the one you have does not survive heavy frost or snow.
Peggy says
I agree with you tc. In the right hands, knowledgeable hands, a thing of beauty. In the wrong hands, or hands that don’t know, it can be dangerous.
Mavis says
Wow. What a story! Ha!
Elza Verona says
Mavis,
I agree with everyone else, get rid of these plants!! They might be pretty to look at but dangerous to have around!
Staci says
They are beautiful plant and it’s amazing – if you listen closely you can actually hear them open on a quiet evening. And I agree with tc – there is no need to remove them.
Mavis says
I’m going to have to be super careful if we ever bring Lucy around. Hopefully she won’t get into them!
PattyB says
After following the antics of Lucy the Puggle Princess, I’d say that she loves gardening and would probably get into them. then, maybe no more Lucy. I’d get rid of the darn things. Let someone else grow them. My dog means too much to me and I KNOW Lucy does to you.
Staci says
One of my friends has these in a night blooming/silver foliage garden and she has 9 cats, they seem to know these plants are not for them. They meander through all of the gardens and play in the plants, they just don’t have any interest in eating them. If Lucy has strong plant nibbling tendencies, that’s totally different and obviously reason enough to take the plants out. 🙂 Love all the info!
tc says
Thanks Peggy, you are right in the correct hands a thing of beauty, if we got rid of everything dangerous we wouldn’t have much left. Many medicinal plants are killers in large enough quantities, water, food and most everything can kill if not utilized correctly.
Perhaps we should look at educating ourselves more and those around us. I believe that nature gave us every plant for a reason and we should enjoy Mother nature as much as possible and especially enjoy her fruits (just in the right place and the right quantities) Pick those plants out of your vegetable garden, put them in a pot or even a large hanging basket.
Most animals have a sense about plants that are dangerous to them and won’t touch them, that is why Deer won’t eat them not even a nibble just as they don’t eat daffodils.
Remember deadly nightshade, lovely to look at, medicinal in tiny quantities but lethal in large doses. See below on other plants whose fruit we eat but the leaves are toxic, wisteria is toxic but beautiful to view and the scent amazing
many people don’t realize is that the nightshade family includes common food plants, including potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants and chili peppers. In fact, all of these plants contain toxins — usually in their foliage — that can be harmful. In particular, humans and pets should avoid potato and tomato foliage and vines in the garden. Olleander, daffodils, monkshood. European yew and even apple seeds are toxic.
PS,. it is nice to share and learn from others on this site, I love seeing all the comments, I have learned quite a few things from Mavis and her readers/
Traci says
Oh I have been so curious about your east coast garden. I live in Washington state too, so I am very familiar with your garden experiences, weather, slugs, etc .But I follow a couple of homesteader bloggers on the east coast and they have the craziest growing season. I know there are many different variables, but they plant a good month later than we do here and harvest sometimes a whole month earlier. It will be very interesting to see your experience next spring. Can hardly wait for January seed catalogs and I haven’t even put this years garden to bed yet.
Caryl says
Not sure where on the east coast you are, but here in Virginia Datura is a problem…. if you don’t control it, it will sprout up everywhere. It’s commonly called Devil’s Trumpet (and yes, there is an Angle’s Trumpet too). I think that the plant smells incredibly horrible & I’ve been on a mission to rid my property of it completely (this is still in the works lol)! I wrote about my first encounter with it last year on my blog >> http://www.agrowinggarden.com/blog/angels-trumpet-flower-or-devils-trumpet-flower/
You can also get more info about it at the International Brugmansia and Datura Society >> http://ibrugs.com/
Lori says
Mavis–I love your blog. I subscribe to many but a new job has made my work life crazy. Now, yours is the only one I look forward to and actually read. Thanks for everything you share with us. The real reason I am writing…have you ever made carrot green chimichurri? You have all those beautiful carrots and the chimichurri is DELICIOUS on tortillas or with chicken or fish. Just thought I’d share of you hadn’t tried it yet!!
Mavis Butterfield says
I have never heard of chimichurri before. I’ll have to look that up!
Lori says
It’s a lot like pesto, but is usually made with parsley instead of basil. You can do. A quick search and find a lot of different variations. The carrot greens can be substituted for the parsley and it’s a great way to use up something you might otherwise discard.
Lissa says
Ugh I must have done something really wrong this year! I’m in the Seattle area and this year was my first garden. I have large (24″x24″x24″) containers that I filled with a mix of potting soil, and compost. I planted radishes, beets and carrots from seed (in late April and again in late July) and got hardly anything. The first round the radishes sprouted quickly and the leaves grew ok, but never developed actual radishes and the leaves definitely didn’t get big like they should. The first round of carrots took FOREVER to sprout….like a month and then grew slowly slowly slowly for something like 3-4 months before I harvested—-baby carrots. The beets sprouted, got 3-4 inches high, and stalled out. Eventually something killed them, the leaves just wilted right away – (fungus?). The 2nd round the radishes barely sprouted when they died and the carrots sprouted quicker but never really grew beyond a couple inches tall. Any hints? I watered daily to keep the soil moist since they are container-grown and there is reasonable sunlight — maybe 6-8hrs/day? I thought these were supposed to be the “easy” veggies?!
Laura Fernald says
Noteworthy. Native Americans used parts of this plant for Out of body journeying. About ten years ago a few teenagers from some town in western Massachusetts tried to mimic this. Of course they had no experience, had no clue what they were doing and sadly two of them died.
tc says
Yes it is sad that they died but they were acting stupidly, they didn’t read enough first and were looking for some escape. I believe some parents are not teaching enough about responsibility for one’s actions. As I have said before there are many, many plants that toxic in large enough quantities. Many people have advised Mavis to get rid of it but should she get rid of every potential toxic and deadly plant in her garden? I have been growing these for 10 years and have never had a problem myself or with pets and children that visit my house, only with someone who trespassed on my property to steal part of the plant and experiment with using it as a drug.
My feeling is that if they are stupid enough to do something like that then they need to accept the consequences as you cannot legislate against stupidity nor can you protect everyone from everything that might harm then. Lets face it, cars are deadly to people and animals if misused?