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Grow baby, Grow!

June 10, 2009 in garden | No comments

Over the last few weeks the garden has really been taking off.
In the backyard garden the peas are waist high and showing no signs of stopping.  The mustard greens are starting to bolt and we are debating letting them, to collect the coriander mustard seeds (confusing the mustard with the cilantro that keeps going to seed in the kitchen).  The lettuces are all doing well and the cooler weather vegetables are holding in there despite some unseasonably warm weather.
In the front container garden we have several varieties of tomatoes growing.  The ones I started from seed got fried in the greenhouse on an unusually hot day so these are from starts we picked up from a random person selling them at the end of their driveway.  They were a stellar deal at $1.50 a plant when similar ones were going for $4+ at the farmers market.  We also have fennel, eggplant, sage, orange mint and two peppers in containers.  Unfortunately slugs got to two of the peppers before I found organic slug bait, but the remaining two and all the others are doing much better now.
We installed a drip system in the container garden that is fed by a rain barrel, although once we got it up we got one or two more rains and it hasn’t really rained since.  So right now it’s hooked up to the well spigot.  I plan to install drip in the backyard garden too but just keep procrastinating it.
My strawberries continue to do very well in the greenhouse so I haven’t bothered to move them out.  We’ve been snacking on them each evening when we close the chicken coop and take the dogs out.
We’ve also have tarragon, 2 kinds of cilantro, and oregano growing in a pot on the kitchen counter for some time.
The salmonberries are coming in all over the property right now and as always it’s fun to watch the chickens eat them.  Even the new chickens go crazy for the berries when I toss them in their yard.  The goats enjoy the berries too.
Much to our shock and pleasure while weeding around outside the backyard garden fence we discovered a little patch of morels growing.  After much research and disbelief we confirmed that they were indeed morels.  I can also confirm that they caused no ill effects when eaten either.  We have no idea what we did to encourage the morels to grow, but we are hoping that it continues in future years.
I still need to plan squash if it’s not too late and start succcession planting the radishes, carrots, and peas.
Currently in the garden:
Head and Leaf Lettuce, Mustard Greens, Brussel Sprouts, Red and Yellow Beets, Radishes, Carrots, Walla Walla Onions, Cauliflower, Sugar Snap Peas, Shelling Peas, Green Beans, Potatoes, and Cucumbers
Currently in the container garden:
Tomatoes, Peppers, Eggplant, Fennel, Sage, and Orange Mint
Currently in the greenhouse:
Strawberries, Basil, Oregano, Dill
Currently running wild:
Salmonberries, Alpine Strawberries, and Thimbleberries

2008 Garden Recap

May 1, 2009 in garden | No comments

I’ve been meaning to write this up for some time. I actually had written something up for a gardening mailing list I’m on, but then couldn’t find it again and so I kept procrastinating starting all over again. So last year I started almost everything from seed. I also *completely* over purchased seed, in my excitement for a real garden.

Last year’s order from Seed Savers Exchange (all certified organic except the Fish Pepper). Those in italics with comments are the ones I actually attempted. Those in bold I’ll try again this year along with the new seeds:

  1. Pepper, Chervena Chushka
  2. Pepper, Thai Hot – Started okay but didn’t get enough light
  3. Pepper, Rooster Spur
  4. Pepper, Healthy – Started okay but didn’t get enough light
  5. Pepper, Fish – Started okay but didn’t get enough light, I’m just partial to them – don’t know why.
  6. Pepper, Jimmy Nardello’s – Started okay but didn’t get enough light
  7. Cucumber, Snow’s Fancy – Indoor starts only did moderately well (many rotted due to moisture), indoor starts that survived started producing sooner, but direct sowed plants were healthier. Not a high yield.
  8. Cucumber, Bushy
  9. Pea, British Wonder – Indoor starts did okay, but direct sow did much better so why waste the energy to start indoors? Produced well, needed more trellis.
  10. Melon, Early Silverline
  11. Melon, Noir des Carmes
  12. Melon, Minnesota Midget – Small plants that eventually died off, not suited to this area
  13. Watermelon, Chris Cross
  14. Watermelon, Moon & Stars Yellow
  15. Tomato, Austin’s Red Pear
  16. Tomato, Current Sweet Pea – Did great despite the poor summer! Lots of fruits and held over in the greenhouse (making up for the poor summer) until November!
  17. Tomato, Nyagous – Poor summer and not enough light took its toll. Will move to a sunnier location and try again.
  18. Tomato, Hungarian Heart
  19. Tomato, Crnkovic Yugoslavian – Poor summer and not enough light. Produced later than the Nyagous. Probably won’t try again until I have better luck with tomatoes.
  20. Radish, Helios – Okay, grew well but actual radishes were small and very, very hot. Had a tough exterior texture.
  21. Radish, Philadelphia White Box – Grew well and more balanced flavor than the Helios. Larger size and no weird texture.
  22. Bean, Boston Favorite
  23. Bean, Good Mother Stallard – Grew, well… like a bean, but drying beans on the vine proved hard with the moist fall/winter coming in.
  24. Bean, Fin de Bagnol
  25. Bean, Ideal Market – Did great! Would definitely plant again and even more. Probably one of the most productive plants in the garden.
  26. Soybean, Fiskeby
  27. Spinach, Monnopa
  28. Lettuce, Green Oakleaf
  29. Lettuce, Grandpa Admire’s
  30. Lettuce, Gold Rush
  31. Lettuce, Tango
  32. Lettuce, Baby Oakleaf
  33. Herb, Genovese Basil – Did well, held in through the fall in the green house with the tomatoes.
  34. Herb, Cilantro – Died during starting
  35. Herb, Grandma Einck’s Dill – Died during starting
  36. Herb, Chives – Died during starting
  37. Herb, Sweet Marjoram
  38. Carrot, Danver’s Half Long – Didn’t get much. Seemed very slow to mature and never amount to a useful size. Suspect this is soil/light and not the seed itself.
  39. Corn, Golden Bantam Improved – Transplants mostly rotted, direct sow did well but I planted them too late. Didn’t get anything out of it.
  40. Corn, Stowell’s Evergreen
  41. Corn, Tom Thumb Popcorn
  42. Leek, Giant Musselburgh – Died during starting
  43. Onion, Australian Brown – Did well but didn’t realize that onions need to overwinter so were harvested as green onions.
  44. Onion, Borettana Yellow – Did well but didn’t realize that onions need to overwinter so were harvested as green onions.
  45. Squash, Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck – Small plants that eventually died off
  46. Squash, Summer Crookneck
  47. Squash, Fordhook Acorn
  48. Beet, Burpee’s Golden – Overwhelmed by weeds and died out
  49. Ground Cherry, Aunt Molly’s – Did okay but probably needed more sun. Didn’t produce much.

If that looks like a lot, (it rang in at ~$150) that’s because it WAS! I was completely out of control. I only ended up planting a fraction of it and a lot of them were not suited to our region at all. We ended up being gifted lettuce starts and I don’t recall if I tried starting any of ours from seed. The starts did wonderfully though so I’ll probably try to start some myself again.
Ordered new for this year from Territorial Seed Co. a PacNW based company (I don’t think any are certified organic this year and several are hybrids – generally not my style but I want to take out some of the variables until I get better):

  1. Squash, Cavili – summer squash that is early maturing.
  2. Lettuce, Miners – Actually grows wild here so should do very well.
  3. Cabbage, Parel – Didn’t grow cabbage because I didn’t see much value in it. Now that we eat seasonally the fact that it stores for extended times is a big bonus.
  4. Bean, Soleil – A French style bean in yellow. It looks pretty when canned with green beans.
  5. Peas, Super Sugar Snap – We wanted to do more peas this year so I needed more seed.
  6. Kale, Winterbor – I didn’t think I liked kale until we kept running in to it as a winter veg. Have since realized if it’s cooked right I really enjoy it and it keeps well through the winter and in the fridge.

I still plan on planting potatoes, but there’s a local farm that provides most of the garden shops around here with seed potatoes and I now know I don’t need that many, so I’ll just pick them up locally.

Our backyard plot is something like 15 by 30? I was so afraid of crowding that I planted most everything really spaced out and therefore wasted a lot of space. So this year I’ll work on planting things closer together and thinning when necessary. We also realized that our front yard gets a lot more light. My husband wants to build raised beds out there, but I don’t know if that’ll happen this year. We want them to look nice so they can be used as flower or garden beds and not detract from the appearance of the property, which means they’ll be a little costly and we have to think it through a bit. It just may not happen early enough this year and it’s not our highest priority project. Either way I’ll definitely be moving some of my zillions of large pots out front for tomatoes and things. We just have to keep the chickens out of them.

This year we also have the greenhouse. I may try to grow some tomatoes and peppers in the green house specifically, but it does get quite hot in there during the summer so I’ll have work on that a bit.

Next weekend I plan to start a flat of seeds for the herbs and things to get started. I’ll update you on how that goes.

Mistress Mary, Quite contrary…

April 27, 2009 in garden | No comments

How does your garden grow?
With Silver Bells, And Cockle Shells,
And so my garden grows.

We made great progress on the garden this weekend!  We got the sugar snap peas, shelling peas, and green beans in the ground and the pea trellises up.  I took a lesson from last year and have planted the peas and beans more heavily this time around.  I also plan on doing some succession plantings of the peas in particular.  In the backyard garden the cool vegetables are happy for almost the entire summer so I’m going to try to use that to my advantage.  With the pea tendrils as well as the the actual pods being edible it would seem arguable that one can never have too few pea plants.  We were also very happy with the harvest of green beans we got last year and have coveted the garlicky beans we canned through out the winter (only one jar left!).

The seed potaotes are on the kitchen counter to start sprouting and my husband pulled out the potato boxes, disassembled them, and put them in their spots.  In doing so he discovered a secret clutch of chicken eggs hidden inside one.  We had simply been storing the boxes on the far side of the house under the eaves for the winter.  This puts them out of sight and doesn’t use up space in the garge or greenhouse.  It also puts them very close to the dryer vent and across a small patch of grass from the compost pile, both favorite roosting spots for our free range chickens.  We had noticed the egg count drop after the winter passed but just chalked it up to other changes.   We don’t think the hen that left the clutch is still with us unfortunately, or I’d try to encourage her behavior.  There were only five eggs and they were clearly undeveloped.  We are honestly surprised that they weren’t in worse shape considering the cold nights we still have some what frequently.

There are still kale, cabbage, and herb starts on the kitchen counter waiting for a few more leaves before they can get transitioned out to the garden as well.  The tomato starts in the kitchen need to be potted up and moved to the greenhouse.  The hops my husband planted last year have come back as have the chives, blueberries, and columnar apples.   In the way of wild/forage around the farm the salmonberries and alpine strawberries are starting to bloom and the dandelions are out in full force.

Currently in the garden:

Head and Leaf Lettuce, Mustard Greens, Brussel Sprouts, Red and Yellow Beets, Radishes, Carrots, Walla Walla Onions, Cauliflower, Sugar Snap Peas, Shelling Peas, and Green Beans

Currently in the greenhouse:
Strawberries

Currently running wild:
Salmonberries, Alpine Strawberries, Dandelions