My Garden, 2008

My Garden, 2008

I know it doesn’t look like much is happening in this picture.



In the square foot garden, there are a few squares of microgreens, Big Seeded Mache, Black Seeded Simpson, Arugula Mediterranean, and a number of leafy greens I’ve never heard of (courtesy of Seed Savers Exchange):

• Amish Deer Tongue
• Australian Yellowleaf
• Bronze Arrowhead
• Forellenschuss
• Lollo Rossa
• Pablo
• Red Velvet
• Reine des Glaces

Against the back fence, I put in some Christmas Limas today (so called, I think, because they’re speckled with red); tomorrow, favas.

Throughout the day, I’ve taken to looking out of my third floor window at the garden, where nothing yet is actually growing. Even over a hundred feet away, the scent of the moist earth hits me, it’s heavy and sweet and I love what it says, it says: winter is over.

I know it doesn’t look like much is happening in this picture, but if you were here, you could really smell a lot happening. That’s The Wife in the BG, driving by in her anniversary auto, admiring the garden-to-be.

Mixed Beets

A new crop for me this year is mixed beets:



I snapped this picture right after the rains this afternoon, and these beet greens (and reds, and magentas, and purples) look so delicious that I'm tempted to snip off a few for dinner. However, I'm concerned that this might interfere with the growth of the buried vegetable. If anyone has experience harvesting beet greens before actually harvesting the beet itself, I'd be interested in hearing from them.

David Hammond wrote:If anyone has experience harvesting beet greens before actually harvesting the beet itself, I'd be interested in hearing from them.

The square foot gardinging book says that leaves can be harvested at any time, but not to pick more than one or two from an individual plant at any one time.

David,

A beet "seed" is actually a cluster of seeds that will produce 3-6 plants. So you should thin them, quite a bit. If not, you will get all greens and no beet, as the beets will not have room to form.

Quite a few years ago I ordered beet seeds that were developed by Dutch horticulturists that were single seeds, not clusters. Made for quite a bit of time savings. I believe it was the old Shepherd Garden Seeds. Renee's Garden is run by the woman who started Shepherd's, which apparently no longer exists. Renee's doesn't have this beet. I think the name was Monopole, but I can't find anything by googling.

annieb wrote:David,

A beet "seed" is actually a cluster of seeds that will produce 3-6 plants. So you should thin them, quite a bit. If not, you will get all greens and no beet, as the beets will not have room to form.

Quite a few years ago I ordered beet seeds that were developed by Dutch horticulturists that were single seeds, not clusters. Made for quite a bit of time savings. I believe it was the old Shepherd Garden Seeds. Renee's Garden is run by the woman who started Shepherd's, which apparently no longer exists. Renee's doesn't have this beet. I think the name was Monopole, but I can't find anything by googling.

Hey annieb, excellent to hear from you.

I got my seeds from Botanical Interests, and they didn't seem to be "clusters," but they very well could have been (I'm a novice with this stuff).

Last year, in my square foot garden, the beets were very dense, and I got very tiny little beets. Maybe they were just too crowded. This year, they're much more spead out, but the little patch of them is quite packed.

David,

You might consider thinning the herd to get the spacing you want for other beets to mature. Fortunately this means you get to eat your beet greens without concern for preserving plant.

Regards,

David:

Thanks - I have three heads of Reine de Glaces lettuce that I picked up as seedlings after a chef's demo at the Botanic Garden a couple of weeks ago, and I've been racking my brain trying to remember the name of the variety for passersby of my courtyard garden. I transplanted them into a clay pot about a day later, and they are going great guns - the weather of late has been perfect for lettuce, evidently. One of the best things about being a volunteer there is having great armloads of seeds, produce, and plants pressed on you by garden personnel, sponsors, and chefs. And food. Oh, lord, the food!

Finally went out and snapped some pics - first, the back 40 (inches)


That's a few herbs (oregano, the aforementioned cilantro delfino, marjoram, dill, chives) shallots, spring onion, leeks, broccoli rabe, swiss chard and celery. Towards the sprinkler is a mixed bag of lettuces.

Here's the rental plot:

In front, you can see that the peas are unmolested by herr hausenpfeffer - the rabbit fence seems to be holding (though my unfenced neighbor's lettuce also hasn't been bothered, so maybe he just lost his taste for gourmet food)
Baby pepper plants in newspaper mulch:

Beets are also doing well (they're unmulched because they were direct-seeded and several plantings haven't come up yet)

Cucumbers, also direct-seeded - next to be mulched, but you can see the soaker hose snaking it's way to the tomatoes...


I bought a few tomatoes from the Farmer's Market, but several I grew on my own from seed - those are struggling a little bit, but seem to be perking up. Note to self: Jiffy Peat Pellets were a bad idea: not only were the root systems not what I'd hoped for, but in some cases the netting around the pellet was actually choking the stem of the plant. That being said, the plants survived, and we'll see how they do!

So, in the plot, I've got peas, haricots verts, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, corn (for the first time) beets, carrots and raspberries - and some cilantro that volunteers and refuses to go away. Phew!

David,

The beet seeds don't look like a cluster, but they are. Once I learned that, the whole business of growing beets made much more sense to me. Per Cathy's suggestion, you do need to thin them to the spacing that will allow the beets to mature. Otherwise you get all tops.

This year, I didn't get my act together to order seeds. One day at Home Depot I found seed tape for beets and carrots (also lettuce, Black-Seeded Simpson) which I planted. And radishes. Seed tape is fabulous, it cuts way back on the thinning. I wish you could get a greater variety of cultivars, but thems the breaks.

First harvest (not counting the lettuce)

I have lucked into some seedlings for Padron peppers - those Spanish ones that we've all been craving? I have 6 but really can only use 2-3. I'll be happy to share the others (free). PM me. They are not yet ready to go into the ground, but seem healthy.

Edited to add -

Plants are spoken for, thanks all!

Mhays wrote:
Note to self: Jiffy Peat Pellets were a bad idea: not only were the root systems not what I'd hoped for, but in some cases the netting around the pellet was actually choking the stem of the plant. That being said, the plants survived, and we'll see how they do!

I have to agree with you. I used those Jiffy Peat Pellets for the first time this year and never again. I found the same issue with the netting seeming to choke the stem of the plant. Some of mine actually didn't make it and the ones that did seem a bit stunted. I'm hoping that they'll manage to catch up.

I'm a big fan of the pellets, but you need to tear open the netting before you transplant. Sometimes that will disturb the roots a bit, but that doesn't hurt the plants.

Also, if your plants are so big that the stems were threatened by the netting, you should have transplanted to a bigger pot before then. The pellets just save a few steps in the pricking-out phase. They stand in for six-packs, not the larger pots that are the next stage.

I always found the plants I started in pellets ultimately did better than those started in flats, and I was spared all that tedious pricking out.

LAZ wrote:I'm a big fan of the pellets, but you need to tear open the netting before you transplant. Sometimes that will disturb the roots a bit, but that doesn't hurt the plants.

Also, if your plants are so big that the stems were threatened by the netting, you should have transplanted to a bigger pot before then. The pellets just save a few steps in the pricking-out phase. They stand in for six-packs, not the larger pots that are the next stage.

I always found the plants I started in pellets ultimately did better than those started in flats, and I was spared all that tedious pricking out.

I did it both ways this year. I did flats and the pellets. I ultimately thought that the pellets would have given me a better result but they didn't. It wasn't as though the roots of my plants were getting impacted from the netting or the fact that I left them there too long before transplanting. It seems as though they stimied the growth and I had a better result in my flats. I started them both at the same time and treated them to the same routine as well. I was surprised at the outcome I had with the pellets.

I use peat pellets to start tomatoes, peppers and eggplant. The trick is to remove the netting once a few roots are sticking through it and then transplant into an 8-ounce yogurt cup with a few holes in the bottom or other pot of similar size. Pulling the netting off is the functional equivalent of teasing the roots loose when planting from a pot into a larger pot or the ground and encourages the roots to spread into the larger soil volume.

Usually I would plant into the ground from the 8-ounce pots but this year many needed to go into a larger pot before going into the garden. This way I was able to bring the plants indoors on the coldest nights.

For germination I place the peat pellets on the dining room radiator in a tray with a clear plastic cover. If by some chance we don't have the heat on, the trays go in the basement on a heat mat. In any case the trays go on the heat mat under fluorescent lights as soon as seed leaves emerge. Tomatoes usually need transplanting about two weeks after initial seeding. Bottom heat really speeds germination and early growth for most plants.

Been a while since I updated, but although we're at a lull between harvests, the garden is going gangbusters:



(by depth: sunflowers, beans, broccoli, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and basil, corn, beets and carrots, raspberries)
Cucumbers are just starting, peas are decisively done and beans are almost gone. I've got several green tomatoes, but none are ripe yet, maybe have another week or two: many of them are late because I started them a bit later than I should have at home, but everybody seems to be happy. Yes, I've got some signs of the dreaded septoria leaf spot and need to get out there with the bordeaux, but oddly, it's not on the heirlooms!

I may have discovered something, though: I had long stakes from last year, and decided to try each plant between two stakes about 4 inches apart. Mostly, this was just to bulwark the single stake, which seemed to be unable to hold an entire plant up last year, but thus far, this has worked fantastically. I don't even need ties: all I have to do is weave the plants between the stakes - the branches keep them there. Admittedly, when the plants get big enough to top off the stakes, this may all go to heck, but it's working for me so far, and has none of the drawbacks cages do (air circulation, no "ladder" for squirrels)


I've never grown corn before, and appear to be having quite the success: I think next year I'm going to interplant corn with my beans and peas, and thus avoid the big annoying bare spot after they're done. I didn't think it would work, so I didn't plant successively - we're going to be having corn for breakfast, lunch and dinner in a week or so!
(not quite high as an elephant's eye)


Whatever the varmint is that likes beets has returned, but fortunately it doesn't like adult beets - so only my successive crops have been eaten. I'm not sure if the fence (which doesn't appear to have been breached) was a help, or not. I wonder if the coyotes just overate...

I'm glad to see everyones garden doing so well this year!

I've had the best turn out that I've had in years. I have no idea why but I've had excellent luck with the little varmits staying out of my garden.

So far I've gotten tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, lettuce, green onions all of my herbs and it seems as though my peppers are just starting to come in as well.

My watermelons and pumpkins are not doing as well as I'd like, and my kohlrabi isn't quite ready yet but I'm having the best garden year in ages.

It has been a good gardening summer, hasn't it? Good moisture intervals, some heat, but not of the blast-furnace variety, and lots of lovely sunny days. My basil - all four varieties - is going great guns, my first Yellow Pear tomatoes are nearly ready to pick, and I'm going to be awash in serranos shortly. The habanero has been surprisingly sluggish so far, but how many do you need, really?

I've learned a lot this summer: that sage grows way, WAY better in the ground than in pots, and spreads beautifully, not wildly; that Anise Hyssop is a wonderful thing to have in the midwestern garden (for the lovely flavor, the ardent love that bees show for it, and for the complete lack of care it requires, while looking great all the while - we'll see about its hardiness); and that lemon thyme, grey thyme, oregano, and marjoram are are herbs that can be depended on from the day you plant them - decorative in either borders or pots, bee magnets when they flower, and good eats. Oh, and that although borage is also a bee favorite, it's pretty much useless otherwise, as it is 1) not overly attractive, 2) has a tendency to tip over (!), as it's tall, top-heavy, and hollow-stemmed, and 3) starts dying off in early July, making for a LOT of painful pruning (the leaves are covered with skin-iritating stiff hairs - ick!). Unfortunately, it self-seeds like mad, and has a rabbit-like gestation period, so I have a new hobby.

I'm really pleased with both the container garden in back, and the public garden in front of our building - it's neat how curious everyone is about the somewhat offbeat things that I'm growing out there, especially the little kids and their grandmas. Some of the things I'm growing are very old-fashioned, like larkspur and forget-me-nots; the grandmas remember seeing these things in their grandmas gardens, and they like telling the little kids about the memories. Reminds me of my grandpa, too, and it's nice to share that.

Erzsi wrote:My watermelons and pumpkins are not doing as well as I'd like, and my kohlrabi isn't quite ready yet but I'm having the best garden year in ages.

I've never grown watermelon before, so this year was an experiment, and although there are flowers and healthy vines, I'll be a little surprised if I get much fruit. Incidentally, this month's Saveur has some outstanding watermelon recipes, including an intriguing curry that I intend to make with or without homegrown melons.

I have some tomatos plant that must be at least 7 feet tall...though no ripe ones yet (at least none that I have seen; I found one red one on the ground, eaten before I even saw it on the vine by a rapacious squirrel).

Local beets. Oh man, how excellent it is to pluck such living things from the earth...and eat them.

Those look great - I have about 30 beets I need to harvest as well. What type did you grow this year ?

Wheattoast wrote:Those look great - I have about 30 beets I need to harvest as well. What type did you grow this year ?

The "jewel-tone" beets are from seeds from Botanical Interests and the long purple-red ones, aptly called cylindria, are from Seed Savers.

We also boiled the greens, cut them chiffonade and layered them into macaroni and cheese (blue, cheddar, etc., from last week's Kendall College cheese sale). I find the interior of mac n' cheese to be kind of dull, so I like to weave something more visually interesting into the center.

David I truly would love to see a photo of that mac & cheese!

razbry wrote:David I truly would love to see a photo of that mac & cheese!

The Wife actually made two trays; one of which we froze. I will do my best to remember to photograph it when it comes out of the freezer and gets heated up in preparation for entry into my tummy.

David,

Beautiful beets. Mine didn't turn out so well this year and I am in envy of yours.

Right now I am overloaded with tomatoes and Hungarian wax peppers. I've had a good run on zucchini and cucumbers too.