Signs of Spring

Bulb bed by the back door, just beginning to color up

 
Some beautiful signs of spring are popping up all over the yard.

New garden bed on the southeast side of the house

The new garden bed is shaping up.  The bulbs I planted last spring are starting to pop up, R and I put in a row of pavers we found behind the shed, and I've been spreading coffee grounds when I can get them.  The soil test for this area came back clean, with low lead levels and a nice pH level - 6.0.  I'll be planting my potatoes here this year, and probably some sweet potatoes, too, if I can grow some slips.

 

 

 

 

Raspberry buds sprouting

Self-sown lettuce in the cold frame bed

My self-sowing lettuce struck again.  This little patch popped up last spring, along with a few others that I buried in compost to refresh the bed.  I took these 6 plants and separated them this week; if they survive I will leave them in place and let them flower again to make new lettuce last year.  I also saved some seeds from a plant last year and recently had 7 out of 9 germinate, so they will be my backup.

Lenten rose in bloom

Garlic sprouts

 Last spring a Japanese man from the community garden gave me some garlic plants and I saved four of them for planting in my backyard, but they didn't survive the transplant...or so I thought.  Then last fall all these little babies started popping up.  I'm not sure if I should now transplant them out the community garden where they'll get more sun, or thin them to a reasonable spacing and hope for the best.  Maybe I'll do both.

Flowering branch bud

While taking the boys for a walk the other day I encountered a pile of trimmings from someone's tree that just looked like they were desperate to bloom.  So I brought some home and put them in water, where they have proceeded to break out of their shells and color up.  Hopefully I'll have some blossoms to show sometime this week.  Even if I don't, though, it's been fun watching them progress.

January Garden

The sleepy January garden

It has been a long time since my last post, but not because the garden is done for the year.  I've actually written dozens of posts in my mind since last November (I've even taken pictures to go in these imaginary posts!) but none of them have actually been written.  In the meantime, we've continued to harvest from the garden. 

Lettuce and carrots picked just after Christmas

I'd planned to have carrots, lettuce, broccoli, and cabbage grown to near full-size by fall's end so that I could harvest through the winter (a la Elliot Coleman) but I found the timing for this to be really tricky.  Many of my cabbage seedlings didn't survive the late-summer heat; so far we've harvested one head, with two others left in the garden that haven't really headed up yet.  My four summer plantings of carrots have paid off - I have lots of carrots still in the garden - but I've only just finished pulling the carrots I planted last May.  Four of my July-planted broccoli made it, and produced heads and sideshoots galore throughout the fall.  (I really like the Pacman hybrid variety!)  Despite some pretty major cabbage worm action, we picked enough to make four plants worthwhile.  The second round that I planted has been quite happy under my makeshift crinoline / row cover (see Salvage in the Garden) and is just starting to flower.  Only three plants from the third planting round managed to get established under the onslaught of cabbage worms in the late fall, and they will not flower before spring.  The lettuces have done marvelously, though they've suffered some frost damage and I've pulled most of what's going to be edible before spring.  Clearly this fall garden thing is more challenging than I thought.

Store-bought (left) and home-grown (right) seed garlic

I tried my first experiment with re-planting my own garlic this year, and I have to say I'm pretty glad I didn't bet the farm on it.  The half of my garlic space that I planted from store-bought bulbs looks about right for this time of year.  The other half has only a handful of shoots.  I'm not sure if the saved garlic was just past its prime, or if it was damaged when I cooked it to prevent spreading nematodes (see Slowing Down in the Fall Garden).  I was very careful to follow the directions I found online, monitoring my candy thermometer closely the entire time the garlic was soaking.  I noticed yesterday a few more leaves poking through than I've seen in past visits, but I'm wondering if maybe I should just re-plant the whole space with something else in the spring.

In November I made detailed plans and lists for a hypothetical second garden plot, but in the end I decided against getting one.  It would require me to ask one of my neighbors to go to the community center and register with the park service, then purchase the plot.  I'm sure I could compensate them with veggies, but it is unethical (no matter how many other people do it) and I have to accept that it would be really hard to take proper care of two plots without making my children miserable.  So, I suppose the new (small) bed at home (see My New Cover Crop) will have to do for this year.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Sandy

Mud puddles are irresistible for A.  Five minutes after our arrival we had to leave quickly.

The 6-8 inches of clearance under this board are full of water

 The day after the hurricane I packed up the boys and we went out to survey the damage at the garden.  Mostly it was just very wet out there.  The puddle at the top covered the front half of my neighbor's huge (3x bigger than mine) plot.  Luckily he doesn't really put in a fall garden, so it didn't look like he lost anything.  I have been working recently to fill in the ditch at the front of my garden (the "clumpwater" as R used to call it) with mulch, so the only flooded spot in my garden was where I left a small space under the former bridge for toads to hide out.  It seems so ridiculous compared to the pictures coming out of New York and the Jersey shore.

Tipped-over lettuce stalks

I did have a few plants knocked over, mostly the lettuces that had gone to seed, plus a few broccoli plants and some fading asparagus.  Hopefully the asparagus crowns will figure out that it's too late in the year and not bother to replace those fading fronds, which would have had to be cut anyway in a month or so.

Wind-blown broccoli plants near the edge of my plot

Broken asparagus stalks

All in all, Sandy really spared us.

Slowing Down in the Fall Garden

It's been a long time since I posted!  That garden bed I talked about in the last post is now finished, mulched, and has a bunch of little plants (sacrificial lambs) poking out of it!  More on that later, though.

(Mostly) Fall garden

Here's what the community garden plot looks like right now.  There are still three tomato plants, though they are definitely on their way out.  The watermelon vine, freed from the shade of the gazillion basil plants and the exuberant buttercup squash vine, is trying to produce three more fruits in the waning daylight.  Peppers are ripening left and right, and the bean plants are beginning to dry out.  I still have summer squash plants in the front bed, mostly just because I prefer that to bare soil - production has pretty much stopped.  I mulched the older carrots with shredded tree leaves, and am looking forward to picking them well into the winter.  The first round of lettuce (that light green strip at the very back) is already trying to go to seed, so I've been picking quite a bit of that, plus there are three more planting rounds that I expect will keep maturing throughout the winter.  There are a few heads of cabbage that I think will finish before winter, and several more (plus a lot of broccoli) that will probably not be ready until spring.  Anyone want some basil?  We still have a few plants that I just don't know what to do with.  I planted some parsley where the buttercup squash was, though I'm not really sure if it will make it through the winter, being planted so late.  I just miss having parsley in the garden so much.  (N practically clucks at me every time we have to do anything as ridiculous as buy parsley.  I really have to pay more attention to herbs next spring.)

I have mostly been cleaning up lately.  Now that there are fewer daylight hours and the days are getting cooler, I am starting to catch up with the weeds.  I decided to renew the great cardboard project - I've covered about 90% of the paths with cardboard and wood chips, which I hope will last well into next summer.  In the process I've weeded most of the beds at least a little, and removed many of the plant stems and branches that were leaning into the paths.  All in all, the garden is looking much tidier. 

I think I will probably add a path along the right side of the plot, where the park service turned over a whole plot to "community space", with a picnic table and regularly cut weeds.  Technically the path will be in the community plot, but I think it will be a relief to the gentlemen who trim the grass to have a little buffer zone between them and my garden.  They always leave the weeds right at the edge uncut (truly, I do appreciate their consideration), which means I have to either trim them or let them shed seeds on my garden beds - mulching a strip seems easier.  If I have enough time before the weather turns I'll try to build a small bed over there, too, where gardeners can plant/pick at their leisure.  Well...we'll see if that happens or not.  ;)

R and I planted a round of garlic on the first - Inchelium Red.  I had three large bulbs, which provided only enough cloves to fill about 1/3 of the space I have designated for garlic next year.  I want to fill the rest of the space with cloves I harvested this year, but I am a little concerned about them.  When the papers are removed they have what look like tiny little pimples on the surface, which the internet tells me means nematodes.  Nematodes are tiny little worms that live in the soil and feed on the roots and/or bulbs of many, many different plants.  Most likely my entire community garden plot is infested with them, but I think I will still try heat-treating the cloves before I plant them.  Supposedly soaking the cloves in warm water destroys the nematodes so that they don't infest the soil of the new garlic bed.  Assuming it isn't already infested.

Well, this post is getting long, so I think I'll sign off and write more another time.  Hope all is well with all of you and your garden clean-up (or gear-up) is going well.

Late Summer Garden

Late summer garden photo

With my planting window for the fall garden rapidly closing and the summer harvest starting to taper off, I thought I'd do a status update for the community garden. 

Squash vine borer hole at the base of my mystery squash

The summer squashes are still producing, despite evidence of both borers and squash bugs in the garden.  They seem to prefer attacking my mystery squash, which seems to be able to take the abuse.  It is also still producing, though I've cut it back a lot in the hopes of squeezing another watermelon out of the season.  The watermelon vines got a little overrun by mystery squash and basil, so they are limping along.  The basil has outperformed my wildest expectations; there is still some left in the garden after two large harvests!

My peppers are still doing well, but are under attack by some sort of stink/soldier beetle.  I've really never had problems with pests on my peppers before, but I suppose there's a first time for everything - especially bugs.

I've got five rounds of carrots in the garden right now.  Some that I planted in the spring, some from my June planting, and three rounds that I planted for the fall. The spring ones can be picked whenever I like, and the June carrots are filling out.  I planted an entire bed for the fall garden, hoping to grow some to leave in the ground for winter like last year.  It's been challenging keeping them watered, even with the weather's cooperation.

The cucumbers are just about finished, but I've been putting off pulling them out because I don't have anything else to plant in their bed and I'd rather not leave the soil bare.  The onion bed is mostly bare, and the soil there is as hard as a rock, even with all the rain we've been having.  The eggplants are just limping along as well, still under attach by the flea beetles.  It looks like I'll get at least two more rosa biancas, though.

Broccoli plant - see the half-eaten leaves?

I transplanted several broccoli back in July, and they have been under pretty serious attack by cabbage moths.  Four or five have survived, but comparing their size and vigor to the ones we had in the spring, I think any heads they produce will be disappointing.  I've transplanted a bunch more and covered them, so we'll see.  According to the almighty HG16 it is too late to plant broccoli, but I think I'd rather plant them and have them not produce anything until spring than leave the soil bare.

Tall tomato plants

I've pulled out four of the tomato plants, hoping the others would have a better chance at ripening their remaining fruit.  We've reached the part of the season when I pick a large bowl of tomatoes every time we go to the garden, and they sit on our table waiting to be turned into sauce.  There was something very odd about the way the tomatoes grew this year - when I look at them from the main path, both beds are shortest on the left, then get progressively taller and bushier as I look to the right.  Why?  I don't know.  Maybe the left gets marginally more light?  Less wind?

A wide row of beans

The green beans R and I planted in July are putting out their first beans!  Yay!  I do like planting these later much better than watching them rust and struggle through the heat and dryness and not produce anything.  It's also nice to have something just coming into crop at this time of year.

The snap peas are up - the first generation are about three inches tall, while the second are about 1 inch.  I've transplanted a whole lot of lettuces into the former potato bed, some simpson and some valerie, and one little romaine has reached survivable size, with more little ones to go in the bed this week.

I'm glad the fall planting is almost finished.  It feels like the fall weather is coming early this year, and I'm anxious to start cleaning and packing things away.  I've also decided to convert more grass to garden at the house, so it will be nice to have some more time to work on that.  (Funny how I'm even looking forward to picking less!)  But more on that project another time.

Harvest Notes

The good news is that the harvest this year is really great so far.  The bad news is that it's really been all I can do to pick it, clean it, and fit it into the fridge.  Weighing and even counting have been out of the question!  Here is my best guesstimate about what I've picked since the last harvest note:

• 12 broccoli heads (20 total for the spring), plus several small side-heads
• 14 spinach plants (I planted 27 total for the spring, but 1 died after transplanting)
• 5 heads romaine (12 total for the spring, minus 1 still in the garden)
• 14 heads loose-leaf lettuce (I planted 27, lost 5, and still have 8 in the garden)
• 4 gallon-size bags (cleaned) of pac choi
• 3 bowls of sugar snap peas

I remember when N and R helped me plant the loose-leaf lettuce.  It took up such a small space in the garden, I was tempted to plant more!

Harvest Notes



Celeriac, romaine lettuce, loose-leaf lettuce, spinach, broccoli, and strawberries

The harvests the last few weeks have been great!  I'm starting to clear out the spring crops to make way for summer ones, so suddenly we are eating fresh produce every day and not keeping up with it.

8 broccoli heads

1 celeriac root (small)

12 spinach plants

6 heads romaine lettuce

3 heads + lots of trimmings loose-leaf lettuce

handful of strawberries

1 sugar snap pea (of course this didn't make it home)

There is another round of spinach in the garden still, plus more lettuce and broccoli, and the peas are just starting to produce.  The strawberries are not doing well this year.  I've done a lousy job keeping the irises under control in the bed, so they aren't getting much sun or breeze and the botrytis and slugs are running amok.

Good Things in the Garden



Some really good things have been happening in the garden lately, so I thought I'd share.

1. R picked the first ripe strawberry from the bed in front of our house this afternoon.  It's fun to see how much he likes picking them, and exciting that he seems to actually remember it from last year.
2. 

   

   Happy grapevine (background) surrounded by floppy asparagus

   The new grapevine is growing!

3. 

   Broccoli plant, meet foot.

   The broccoli plants are huge!  And we picked the first head today, several times bigger than last year's disappointing pickings.
4. 

   

   Romaine lettuce head

   

   Valerie lettuce, and weeds

   The lettuce deluge continues.  But in new news, the romaine appears to be making heads after all.  After consulting my guinea pig - I mean taste-tester! - I have decided that commercial growers must discard those thick outer leaves I was picking before.  Which explains how they get the lettuce heads so darn clean!
5. 

   

   R really likes to help with picking

   

   Happy spinach, with interplanted peppers

   The spinach is looking great - better than I've ever grown, thanks to the lovely long spring we've had.  R and I picked a bunch on Tuesday and used it to make yummy pizzas.  This was the first time we've tried any of it outside of salads, and it was really tasty!  It has a very spinachy appearance, and I was expecting it to be too bitter or overtly spinachy, but it is lovely.  We definitely want to grow this kind again next year.  (If I know what it is; I think it's Melody.)
6. 

   

   One large celeriac - the rest are 2 inches tall

   The celeriac that sprouted last fall is quite large and is starting to make little flower buds.  Celeriac is a biennial, like carrots; it grows a bunch of foliage during the first year of its life, storing the energy produced by the leaves in a large root.  During the second year it uses that energy to produce flowers and seeds, so the best time to pick it is at the end of the first year.  (Don't ask me why I thought this was a fall crop, I honestly don't know!)  At any rate, I think I'm going to pull this one before the flowers go much further.  I don't know how much root it could possibly have grown over the winter, but I guess we'll find out!

7. 

   R helped find and photograph this ladybug

   I'm seeing so many ladybugs at the community garden this year!  R is fascinated by my claim that I like them because they eat other bugs.  He points them out to me every time we go and asks me if they eat other bugs.  When I say yes he replies, "I don't know why, dough," which is his way of asking for more information.  What can I say?  I don't know why, either!
8. 
   Another gardener at the community garden, M, planted a row of strawberries about this time last year.  It was too late to get any berries out of them then, but boy are they doing well this year!  I am definitely thinking about investing the time and space to plant some of my own.
9. I saw the first pea blossom on one of the plants at the community garden this morning. Mmmm...

Spring Progress

 Some (more) not-so-quick bullet points:

Potato seedling peeking out at the world

Happy broccoli

Pea seedlings at the community garden

• The broccoli is looking utterly fabulous.  Even the poor little sacrificial lamb that didn't fit under the cover looks beautiful, no sign of cabbage worms since I picked off some eggs a few weeks ago.  I put coffee grounds all around the plants, hoping to mask the scent - maybe it's working?
• The potatoes are up.  I have some rogue viking purple potatoes at home in a recycling tote, plus German Butterball and Yukon Gold (N's choice) at the community garden.  The ones in the tote are already a little nibbled in one spot, but I can't see anything that might be causing the damage, and it seems to have stopped.
• Peas are up at home and at the community garden.  I actually replanted some of the empty spots at the community garden last week, so hopefully those will be coming up soon, too.
• Last week I went ahead and planted seven of my poor little tomato seedlings at the community garden, filling one of the two beds I'd planned to use for tomatoes this year.  They are not looking any better out there than they did in pots, so Tuesday I went ahead and planted the second bed with seeds.  The trouble is that now I don't want to re-plant the first bed with tomatoes this year, in case it's contaminated.  Sigh.  I'm working on a plot to rearrange the garden, but it's going to take some significant machinations, since I planned everything so well in the first place.  Drat my cleverness and my black tomato thumb.
• I planted some  ginger in my home garden.  I don't know if it will come to anything, but I had the space and thought I would try.
• I have given up weighing the lettuce.  There is so much of it!  Yesterday when N saw the salad bowl on the table he gave a deep sigh, then sat down manfully and began dishing it out.  I grew a lot this year, thinking that I just wanted to use all of the garden space during the spring, even if that meant giving away a lot of it.
• The romaine leaves seem very thick to me, compared to those I've grown at home in the past, and even compared to the ones I buy at the store, although it's hard to tell because mine are all open, with shorter leaves.  (Am I supposed to be doing something to make them grow in a tight head like the store-bought ones?  I don't know!)
• I'm trying to diversify the herb garden, which has been somewhat neglected since I installed it.  (Herbs are just never a priority, but really they should be, since they are so easy once started!)  I transplanted some lemon grass that I grew last year, and some potted chives that have been on my back step for at least three years.  (They promptly tried to bloom.)  I also added some lemon balm and a new cilantro seedling.  (More on cilantro in a later post, I hope.)  In the home garden I also planted cumin, basil, and dill - just a little of each.  I think this year I'll try to plant a new round of basil every few weeks, rather than try to prevent the plants from flowering all summer.
• Over the last two months I've been stealing 30 minutes here and there to work on a major undertaking by the back fence.  There is an area there where we have been letting volunteer trees and at least three different kinds of ivy just take over.  I've been working to clear it, which has taken a lot more effort than I expected.  There is still a stretch behind the shed that needs to be done, plus a lot of little volunteer trees on the other side of the fence that I need to go around the block to cut.  But I can finally set all my little potted plants and seedlings over there and imagine how it will look when they're in the ground.

Good Bugs That Eat Bad Bugs

A couple weeks ago I noticed that a few of my romaine lettuces were looking a little yellow. On closer inspection I could see that they were under attack by aphids. The aphids have been worse than usual this year, I think because we haven't had much rain to wash them off of the plants. When I got home I mixed up a bottle of my recently purchased neem oil to spray on them at my next visit. Neem oil is an organic insecticide/fungicide/bad-stuff-icide that has been highly recommended by other gardeners I trust, but this was my first time using it due to the fact that I'm cheap and it's not.

Then, as I was bent over trying to squirt the darned stuff under the low-lying romaine leaves, I saw an even better reason to stop spraying: ladybug larvae. At the time I couldn't even remember their name, but I knew them as friends. Good bugs, as Mercer Mayer would tell us - because they eat aphids. I found two on the lettuce and one on my asparagus (also under aphid attack), enjoying a nice little picnic.

Supposedly neem is not toxic to ladybug beetles themselves, but I'm not so sure about the larvae. Here's hoping I didn't kill them, because I sure doubt I managed to spray all the aphids. (Note: The image above was blatantly stolen from Chikblog.)