Harvest Monday–15 July 2013

We got a break from the hot weather last week, with temperatures only in the 80s (°F), lower humidity and pleasant night time temperatures. I replanted some of the seeds that didn’t germinate (beans, squash and cucumbers) and most of them germinated quickly. Last Sunday I harvested the German Extra Hardy garlic and it is now hanging in the shed. Below  is some of the Red Chesnok, which got an extra week and was harvested on Saturday. It is now drying on the porch before being hung.

 

 

I let the cilantro go to seed (like I had anything to say about it). The bees love the flowers and eventually you get cilantro (aka coriander) seeds. If you harvest them green, they still have some of the cilantro leaf flavor but they also have a fresh citrusy taste and aroma. I got a good cup of seeds from this cutting, most of which I will freeze. Some of the fresh seeds will go into my refrigerator pickle jar, on the off chance that I actually succeed in growing some cucumbers this year. Another handful is being used to infuse some vodka for Cortinis. Got this idea from Willi Galloway’s Grow Cook Eat.  After a couple of days, the vodka has developed a sweet, candy or vanilla-like fragrance with some citrus overtones. I left some plants uncut so I get some brown, ripened seeds as well.

 

 

I picked what is probably the last of the fava beans. They are not liking the hot weather and I may remove them along with the peas to free up the bed. Some of the beans had some brown discoloration on the skins, but the brown spots were only on the skin and did not affect the bean itself. Some beans were used in a scafata of favas and chard, a good dish that did not require me to peel the beans and used up some of my chard. More beans went into a lamb tagine with favas and artichoke hearts.

 

 

The greens are about finished. Almost everything is bolting except the chard and mustard. I am getting a few heads of lettuce, mostly from volunteers or stray seeds outside the greens bed. See, it pays to be messy.. It will be a while before I get other vegetables because of all the delays in planting or poor germination, although the tomatoes and peppers are doing just fine. Tough year. Oh well, the fridge is still stuffed. My herbs are doing OK and  I need to start drying some herbs. I make a basil mix from Genovese, Siam Queen and Spicy Globe which is a lot more exotic than any purchased dried basil.

 

 

 

That’s what I harvested last week. To see what is happening in gardens around the world, please visit Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

Harvest Monday–8 July 2013

 

I was travelling last week so my family took care of the garden. They did a pretty good job. They didn’t have to water because there were frequent thundershowers, but unfortunately that meant they didn’t spray. The weekly spraying with copper was missed and when I got to the garden, I found my eggplants covered with flea beetles. Fortunately the damage is minor. I have just about given up trying to grow eggplant. This year I am trying Ping Tung, an oriental eggplant, in the hopes it is more resistant to the beetles.

 

Below are a head of radicchio, starting to bolt in this hot weather, my first fava beans, and my one and only kohlrabi. I am a little concerned by the black specks on the favas. They are not black aphids but spots that start as little blisters on the bean and then turn black. They have not penetrated the shell and the beans inside were not affected. Looking up fava bean diseases, the only thing I found was chocolate spot disease, but no leaves are affected on my beans, just the pods, and it does not look like the photos I have seen.

 

 

These are the first tomatoes of the year, a few Sungolds picked on the Fourth of July, so I met the NE standard for first tomato by the Fourth. I would prefer it to be a big beefsteak tomato, but the Sungolds were tasty. I also grabbed a few stragglers in the garlic bed for some green garlic.

 

 

The chard is coming to its own after being shaded by the now spent lettuces. I am cutting Orange Fantasia, Flamingo, and Bright Lights. I also pulled a Rosso Lunga di Tropea onion for a salad.

 

 

The New Red Fire and Green Ice continue to be bolt resistant despite the hot weather, but not for much longer. The radicchio is also bolting so I have been removing it as it looks close to bolting.

 

 

The garlic is close to being ready and will probably be harvested next week, along with the rest of the fava beans, which are suffering in the heat. I am reseeding all of the items that didn’t germinate, like my Jade beans. The Provider beans germinated nicely and are now almost a foot tall but Jade was a failure, 3 seeds out of 54 emerged (and two have been eaten). Only half the Summer Dance cucumber seeds germinated, so those were also reseeded. After two sowings of mustard greens failed to germinate, I finally started them indoors and now have Green Wave and Red Giant growing nicely and being feasted on by he flea beetles. And all of my squash, which I usually sow directly, have spotty germination and the leaves of those which did germinate are being shredded by something. The only good thing about this is I may miss the SVB hatch that is going on now.

 

That is what happened in my garden last week. To see what other gardeners around the world are harvesting, check out Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

Garden Progress 3 Jun 2013

It was a wild week with cool weather to begin, rain on Wednesday, then four days of 90F+sun and heat. I decided to plant my tomatoes on Tuesday, figuring a cool, rainy day on Wednesday would help them settle in before the heat. They were  hardened by being out in the sun for days prior to planting and  I watered them everyday during the heat wave, so they are doing fine. Three of the tomatoes are grafted onto a special rootstock. I have also planted ungrafted versions of the Big Beef and Juliet tomatoes for comparison.

 

On the left above is the grafted Big Beef, with the ungrafted transplant I bought from Applefield Farm on the right. The ungrafted plant is stocky and very healthy, the type of plant I look for when purchasing a transplant. The grafted tomato has improved greatly since it was potted after removing it from the shipping carton. Right now I would bet on the ungrafted plant, but we still have the whole growing season ahead.

 

Again on the left above is the grafted Juliet tomato, with the ungrafted tomato on the right. The grafted plants are tied to a bamboo stake to give some support to the joint of the graft so it is not excessively stressed by all the wind we are getting.

Above is a grafted Cherokee Purple. I am hoping the vigor and disease resistance of the rootstock will give me a healthier plant and more fruit than I usually get from this heirloom. I have planted Cherokee Purple for years now because of its great taste.

On Sunday, which did not reach the extreme heat of the three prior days, I decided to set out the peppers, with rain and moderate weather forecast for the following week. I planted 22 pepper plants, seen below:

 

On the left of the box are four Aconcagua peppers, an heirloom cubanelle-type from Argentina. I tried growing them last year and failed, so here goes again. Next are two Tiburon Ancho and two Jalapeno. On the right side are four Jimmy Nardello. The row of onions in the back is Copra, with tomatoes behind them.

 

This box has three Padron and a mystery pepper on the left. I started the peppers in 3/4 inch soil blocks which tend to move around in the tray. I’m hoping the mystery pepper is my missing Padron. To their right in the front square is Red Cherry. The plan was for four of these but I had poor germination. Behind it is an heirloom pepper from Baltimore called Fish that I bought from Jem Mix, which should be fun to try. To their right are four Lipstick peppers. The onions behind the peppers are Red Bull and those are tomatoes along the back row and wrapped around to the right.

 

The fava beans are getting tall and I placed unfolded wire tomato cages along the sides of the box to keep them from flopping. Even more exciting is they are now flowering and they are pretty heavily loaded with buds. The flowers are white with black spots, which is quite unusual but attractive. So far no aphids, just a spittle bug or two, but I keep watching and waiting for their appearance.

 

 

 

On the harvest front, I cut a lot of salad greens before the hot weather. Below is some nine ounces of spinach I clipped. The spinach survived the heat and now we have a week of cool weather so I am hoping I will get more. I also clipped a large bag of lettuces I didn’t photograph, including my first head of escarole. I thinned out the Buttercrunch lettuce by removing a couple of heads to give it more room. I also noted the need to re-apply the Sluggo, since the slugs have really enjoyed hiding out in the cool of the lettuce bed. The lettuce will have to washed carefully.

 

 

 

 

To see what other gardeners around the world are doing in their gardens, visit Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday

Garden Progress 13 May 2013

Still no harvest from the garden but this week should be the turning point. So far it has been a very dry spring, and very windy. The wind made the drought situation worse by evaporating water from plants and the beds, and it beat up some of the tender transplants. The dry spell was broken with two days of rain Wednesday and Thursday, sun on Friday, and two more days of gentle, soaking rain on Saturday and Sunday. Since there was no need to water the garden and nothing on the planting schedule, I didn’t get to the garden until Sunday. It appears all of the plants enjoyed the cool, wet weather and are finally showing some life.

 

 

The garlic has been growing slowly and steadily but I think it enjoyed the rain.  It seems to be taller and the stems are starting to thicken a bit. That’s German extra hardy on top and Red Chesnok on the bottom.

 

 

The Di Ciccio broccoli is looking really good again and is definitely growing. The transplants were damaged by a freeze a week after they were set out which then made them susceptible to what looked like flea beetle damage. I haven’t actually seen a flea beetle yet, but what else peppers a leaf with pin holes?  Now they have recovered nicely and I won’t be needing the backup starts I planted.

 

 

The Beedy’s Camden kale was less affected by the freeze and is now starting to grow.  I don’t have a photo of the collards in the same bed, but they are also appreciative of the change in weather.

 

 

The endive and escarole  in the top two rows were least affected by both the freeze and the flea beetle attack. The Win-Win choi in the bottom row however was seriously affected. It has a more succulent leaf with higher water content so it doesn’t take well to freezing. You can still see the bug damage on the leaves of the choi but once it gets going it grows so rapidly, I hope it can outpace the pests.

 

 

The lettuces are doing well and really like this weather. They probably have at least doubled in volume in the last 4-5 days so I think salad is on the menu this week from my first harvest. That is New Red Fire on the right and Green Ice on the left.

 

 

These lettuces are buttercrunch on the right and Forellenschluss on the left. The Forellenschluss is an heirloom Austrian romaine with specks of red on the leaves. The parsley obviously also likes this weather.

 

 

The Tyee spinach has germinated from seed and is adding leaves. It remains to be seen if I will get any before hot  weather. In the same bed, turnips have sprouted but not a single kohlrabi seed germinated in four squares of them. Are they really that hard to start? The seed catalogs all claim they are easy to grow, but I have not had any luck each time I have tried them.

 

 

The fava beans and snow peas are taking off. Some of the favas grew 3 inches in a couple of days. It’s time to put up the supports. I bought a couple of 12 inch tomato towers, which are 4 feet when unfolded. Those will span the long dimension of the bed, supported by some garden stakes at the ends,  and I will use some burlap twine to enclose the sides. Hope that is sturdy enough.

 

 

Finally, the onions are perking up after looking sad and droopy for the past few weeks. The stems have thickened and the greens are now standing up.

This week I need to reseed the kohlrabi, the mustard greens, and set out the Swiss chard. The chard was originally lost in the mass of brassica seedlings I started in 1.5 inch soil blocks. Chard germinates slower and grows slower than the brassicas, so the seedlings were shaded out  and I did not notice until too late. So I had to restart them. Meanwhile I am juggling pepper and tomato starts between my single grow lamp and the back deck on sunny days, waiting for the weather to stabilize and warm up. This has been a wild spring and they are predicting overnight lows in the mid-thirties for the next few days.

 

That’s what is growing in my garden this week. To see what other gardeners are harvesting from their gardens, head over to Daphne’s Dandelions, our host for Harvest Monday.

 

Fava Beans are up

 

 

I planted my first ever fava beans on April 7 along with snow and sugar snap peas in the same bed. The peas have been slowly emerging for the past week but no sign of the favas until this weekend, three weeks later. I only soaked the seeds for about an hour and did not try pre-sprouting them. Given the large size of the fava seeds, I expected an event when they emerged and I was not disappointed. These things are huge, no chance of mistaking them for a weed. I now have to get some supports in place since these are Windsor favas and are supposed to get at least 4 feet tall.

 

A lot of work is going into the garden but not much to show for it yet. I have been working my way around the beds, preparing them for planting according to the schedule for what is going in each bed this year. The beds are filled with Mel’s Mix, a blend of equal parts peat moss, vermiculite and compost. The mix is very light and friable, but it does compact during the season and especially the winter. The beds are prepared by stirring them up with a trowel and adding additional compost, which supplies all the nutrients the plants will need for the season.

 

 

This weekend it was time for the carrots to go in. I am trying the seed mat technique from Annie’s Kitchen Garden to plant my carrots. The seed mat is made by unfolding a 6 inch paper napkin, marking seed placement, and then placing a seed on each mark and covering it with a tiny drop of white glue. I spaded the carrots 16 per square a la Mel’s book, but I see I could have fit in a fifth seed per quarter. Next time I’ll try that if I remember.

 

 

The key to making the seed mats work is to cover them with a thin layer of soil. I used some Mel’s Mix I have left over from filling a bed. The mats were covered with the Mel’s Mix and watered well, then mulched with chopped straw. One of the attractions of using seed mats, which should work for most kinds of small seeds, is you can prepare them ahead of time, say during the winter after the seed orders have arrived. Something to do in front of the TV, then store away in a plastic zipper bag for Spring.

 

 

On April 17 I set out all of my brassica and lettuce starts and I was happy to see how healthy and vigorous they looked. . This was after the scheduled planting date of April 12  for most, but a week early for the broccolis. About a week later we got a very cold night in the mid-twenties and all the plants were damaged. The escarole and endive above have rebounded, but the broccoli, tatsoi, and choi look very sad. I expected they would rebound but haven’t. Sunday I took a close up look at them and their foliage is totally perforated with pinholes, like flea beetle damage. I haven’t seen any flea beetles yet (although the black flies are definitely out). I’m not sure these plants will make it, so I am going to start some more plants to replace them. There is plenty of time and it makes no sense to try to nurse an ailing plant back to health.