Garden Update 16 June 2014

 

 

My first harvest out of the garden this year is radish Zlata. This is a Polish variety and the name means “gold”, although to me it looks tan. The radishes were beautiful, but fairly hot and not as juicy and sweet as the Cherry Belle radishes below, but I would still grow them again.

 

 

The next day my garden neighbor with the eagle eye pointed out the Cherry Belle radishes ready for pulling that I had missed. Along with those I cut some mustard greens. The purplish one is Dragon Tongue from Territorial and the green one is my usual Green Wave mustard. While Green Wave is its usual spicy, peppery self, the Dragon Tongue has more complexity and is not quite as assertive/hot. I think this is going to be a good choice. And overall, I’m happy with the relative lack of flea beetle and cabbage root maggot damage this year among the brassicas. The weather may suck, but it sucks for all!

 

 

Elsewhere in the garden, the tomato transplants are doing well. Above is Jaune Flamme, grown from seed and already flowering.

 

 

Sunkist, above, is an orange slicer developed in New Hampshire. The transplants are doing vey well and showing vigorous growth.

 

 

Blue Beech, above, is a paste tomato from Fedco. The seeds originally came from Blue Beech Farm in Vermont and are supposedly adapted to New England summers. The Striped Roman and Gilbertie I grew last year were duds, so I hope this one does better. These transplants were purchased from my neighbor, Jem Mix, and are beautiful.

 

 

Some of the radishes are ready to start harvesting. Above are Zlata radishes.

 

 

The bed above has Saffron shallots grown from seed. The previous year I tried planting shallots from bulbs, an expensive fiasco since every single bulb rotted over the winter. Seed shallots don’t multiply, producing a single bulb per transplant, but that is better than nothing.

 

 

Most of the beds are now planted out. Above are mustards and chard in the middle, with cucumbers along the sides with the trellises. All of these were started indoors because of germination problems last year with the lousy weather. I could have done a better job with the chard and mustard, but I think the cucumber starts done in peat strips were very successful. Now we just need some sun and warmth for the cukes, peppers and tomatoes.

 

 

On Friday, I checked on the garden and found the row cover on the bed above ripped open and pushed into the soil. Peering in, I saw something had been digging in the middle of the bed. Standing up, I turned and found myself 4 feet from a large snapping turtle, no doubt looking for a nice place to lay her eggs. I guess I’m flattered that out of all the acreage in the garden, she found my raised bed the perfect spot. I came back with my son, a big garden tub, and a snow shovel. While I was gone, she hoisted her self up into the tomato bed, which is about 10 inches above ground level, and plowed a furrow down that bed. We managed to get her into the tub and hauled her back to the brook. Now to figure out the spot in the garden fencing she got through.

 

See what other gardeners around the world are doing by visiting our host for Harvest Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions.

Seed Starting Update

I documented the kickoff of my seed starting efforts back in March. The results turned out to be  less than satisfactory. I managed to kill about half the starts, usually because I forgot to water them after coming home from a late night at work.. By replanting I was able to salvage the tomatoes except for Opalka, a paste, which I replaced with purchased plants of Blue Beech. The peppers, given their long germination time, didn’t fare as well, so I planted out without Padron, Jimmy Nardello, sweet Red Cherry, and Tiburon Ancho.

 

I used 3/4” soil blocks for the tomatoes, intending to put them in 2” soil blocks when they got their first true leaves. The trouble with that size soil block is it has very small mass and quickly dries out if not watched and watered frequently, particularly in the bone dry inside air during a New England winter. They are also annoying with their tendency to fall over and roll around in the tray, scrambling any attempt I make to keep them sorted and identified. The 3/4” blocks are attractive because they are efficient and conserve space on the heat mat. I may try to devise some type of physical barrier to keep them upright and stationary in the trays I use.

 

 

The peppers were an experiment. I tried starting seeds in a medium, planning to transplant the germinated seedlings into 1 1/2” soil blocks after they germinated. I used a diatomaceous earth medium called UltraSorb, an automotive product used as an oil absorbent for garage floors. This was placed in a Styrofoam egg carton with holes in the bottom for drainage. The contents of each cell is easily marked on the size with a ball point pen.

 

 

This scheme did not work very well, but I am impressed with the UltraSorb. The major problem again is keeping the seeds/seedlings moist. The quantity of UltraSorb in the cells is small and coupled with its great aeration properties, the cells dry out quickly. It would be nice to use the carton lid for a tray to bottom water the cells, but the style of carton I have has the projection you see above to protect the eggs from crushing that interferes with that.

 

The other problem with the egg carton method and starting 10 types of peppers and eggplant is the wide range of germination times. With one grow light, a lot of space was taken by all the brassicas so there was no room for the heat mat. Once some peppers in the carton started germinating, they had to go under the grow light (without heat), so that extended the germination time for the rest. The big plus from trying this was the amazing, bushy root structures that the seedlings developed in the UltraSorb (which I did not photograph). That’s why I am going to try this again, hopefully with some better techniques to keep the medium from drying out.

Biltmore

The end of May my son and I did a road trip to South Carolina to visit my daughter in the Clemson area and celebrate my birthday. We did a day trip to Asheville, North Carolina and spent a pleasant day at the Biltmore Estate, admiring both the mansion and the magnificent gardens. Since the estate features a large working farm with an extensive kitchen garden display, I was hoping to tour that. Unfortunately, they decided it was too much work and discontinued it. But they still have an active vineyard, so as retaliation  we spent a pleasant hour plus in the tasting room sampling every single one of their wines, which are very good.

 

 

The tour of the mansion did not allow photography inside so I have no pictures. But I do have a picture from the balcony in the back, looking out over the lawns to the distant mountains. What a view! I can just imagine myself in a lounge chair with a mint julep or a sweet tea, enjoying the mountain breezes on a warm summer afternoon.

 

 

After touring the mansion, we walked around the gardens. Frederick Law Olmsted  was the landscape architect and he designed a magnificent setting for the mansion. The conservatory was the focus of many of the gardens.

 

 

Orchids were prominently displayed around the mansion and the greenhouses of the conservatory had many examples.

 

 

 

Next we toured the extensive grounds, walking through the walled (or Italian) garden.

 

 

Some of the water lilies and koi in the garden pools.

 

 

Next we walked up the hill to the gazebo sheltering the statue of Diana, the goddess of the hunt.

 

 

The picture is somewhat ruined by the large tent in the background. Understandable, since this is a popular spot for weddings. Just imagine your wedding under the gazebo with this for a view.

 

 

What a great day. We went back to Asheville and had dinner at the Lexington Avenue Brewery. Asheville is a hotbed of craft brewing and has spawned dozens of local breweries and brew pubs. Sierra Nevada has built a brewery in the area and New Belgium is building there as well. We got great seats right in the window where we could view the street scene while enjoying a couple of locally brewed frosties and some good food. 

 

On Saturday afternoon we went to Greenville, SC for my birthday dinner. We spent a pleasant day on the Reedy river walk and found a nice place for cocktails. Then we staggered over to Soby’s for a delicious dinner. I did not get much gardening done that week but I had a great time.

The Garden Is In!

I have not been posting lately but at least I have been gardening. It was a tough winter and a tough tax year (I worked 800 hours in 3 months), so I was kind of burned out. A cold, fairly wet spring with a lot of gray, overcast days did not help. Helping me along is the fact I’m now the coordinator for the Bolton Community Garden. Even if I wanted to ignore my own garden, I have to make sure everyone else gets off to a good start this year.

 

 

My seed starting efforts this year produced mixed results. I killed half my pepper starts, so that means no Jimmy Nardello, Padron, Tiburon Ancho, or sweet Red Cherry peppers this year. Those are plants I can’t find locally, which is why I start my own. At least the Shisito survived, which I was hoping to compare to the Padron, so that’s good. I found some Ancho Poblano starts which should be a good substitute for the Tiburon Ancho, But the Jimmy Nardello is a real loss. This is a great pepper and I can’t understand why it is not more widely grown around here.

 

For the tomatoes, I salvaged most but killed the Opalka starts. I reseeded them and they didn’t germinate! For Opalka I was able to substitute Blue Beech, an heirloom paste tomato from Vermont which I hope will be a more than adequate substitute. Here are my modified planting lists for peppers and tomatoes (and they are all now in the ground except for Trinidad), and the Blue Beech already has flower buds.

 

Peppers

• Aconcagua (Cubanelle type Argentine heirloom)
• Carmen
• Shisito
• Lipstick
• Jalapeno
• Ancho Poblano
• Revolution (bell)
• Trinidad (spice pepper, Habanero-type without the heat)

   

Tomatoes

• Esterina (yellow cherry)
• Jaune Flamme
• Juliet
• Chocolate Pear
• Big Beef
• Sunkist (yellow slicer from NH)
• Blue Beech (paste from VT)

 

 

The garden is now almost completely planted, save for the cucumbers, which go in those unplanted squares. Since I had such germination problems with direct sown cukes last year, I have started them indoors in peat strips. Those will be planted this weekend, when the rain stops and warm weather returns. It is 61°F/16°C now, so I hope the bean seeds don’t rot until warmer weather returns tomorrow. It doesn’t look like much but I am equal to or ahead of other plots in the community garden. The raised beds are a big advantage, particularly in these weather conditions.

Seed Starting 2014

It is officially spring now. The days are growing longer and the sun is definitely stronger and higher in the sky. A boy’s thoughts are supposed to turn to starting seeds, forgetting the winter that would not end. I have already started my onions and the seedlings are doing great. While I still felt like hibernating, this week I did get my tomato and pepper seeds planted.

 

 

I am starting the tomatoes separate from the peppers because the peppers take so long to germinate. I used 3/4” soil blocks for the tomatoes and will plant up to 2” soil blocks when they get some true leaves.. This year I am using a bag of McEnroe’s Organic Potting Soil I saved from last year to make the blocks. Compared to Johnny’s 512, it is much finer and has fewer twigs and rocks to pick out. I added some horticultural grade vermiculite, since it is lacking that. I covered the seeds in the dibbles with some UltraSorb, described later, and put the tray on the heat mat.

 

For the peppers and eggplant seeds, I decided to pre-germinate them in a medium and transplant them to 1 1/2” soil blocks when they get some true leaves. The medium I am using is UltraSorb, a product from Moltan and sold by Autozone stores in the US as an oil absorbent for garage floors. UltraSorb is granular diatomaceous earth, not at all like food grade DE or the powdered DEs used in swimming pool filters. It is very popular and extensively discussed on the Tomatoville forum, where it gets rave reviews.

 

 

To hold the UltraSorb, I used a Styrofoam egg carton with slits cut in the bottom for drainage. The idea is to provide enough opening to drain (and bottom water) the tray without allowing the UltraSorb to leak out. I used a razor knife to cut the slits, but found I needed a few direct holes in the bottom (made with a toothpick).

 

 

I used a Sharpie to mark each cell with the pepper variety. Each cell was filled with UltraSorb and moistened with water. I then used a pencil as a dibble to make planting holes, planted the seeds, and covered with a little extra UltraSorb. If you want to try using UltraSorb, make sure you get the product by that name manufactured by Moltan. AutoZone sells another absorbent that is made from calcined clay and it’s pH isn’t suitable for seed starting.

 

 

With that done, next step is to get some of the brassicas going, broccoli, kale and collards, and then the lettuces. This year I am also going to start the kohlrabi seedlings indoor rather than direct sow. I keep forgetting they are not a root vegetable. Indoors at least, spring is happening. Outdoors, a lot of snow has melted but we are still getting single digit nighttime temperatures. Everyone around here is tired of winter and can’t wait for warmer weather.

February Gardening in New England 2014

 

This was gardening in New England in February, 2014.  This is the path to the compost bin where I walked in my slippers every morning, risking frostbite, to deposit the kitchen scraps in the compost bin. Gardening is all about optimism, the belief that the future holds promise, that this frozen mess will eventually thaw and the compost bin will heat up and yield some black gold to enrich my (now frozen) garden beds. We hope, we trust, we pray to our gods, but just realize, summer does not always come.

 

My maternal grandmother, Eva Weinert Thess,  came to the US from Hungary in 1905. Her ancestors were ethnic Germans who emigrated to the Batschka in the eighteenth century after several years of unending winter in the Rhine river valley. Valentin Weinert arrived in Tschonopel about 1786 with his first wife, Anna Catharina Schinck. None of their children born in their native village of Niederburg came with them, so it is assumed they died of starvation before the Weinerts emigrated to Hungary. If Valentin had not chosen to make that long but optimistic journey to a better land, I would not be posting here.

 

OK, OK, summer is definitely coming this year, I promise. It is now March and Daylight Savings Time has arrived. The sun is much stronger and there is still daylight when I drive home from work. The snow is melting. The oil truck finally made it up the driveway so we have heating oil. And the onion seedlings have sprouted under the grow lights. I have my seeds in hand and the 2014 gardening season has begun!

 

My choices for 2014

 

This is a particularly busy time for me. I have a seasonal job doing taxes and I am very busy from mid-January to the end of February, and again the first two weeks of April as the filing deadline looms. At the same time, the seed catalogs have arrived and I have to do the planning and seed ordering for the upcoming gardening season. I did get my seeds ordered and they are starting to arrive. Given the winter we have had so far, it is nice to be able to think about warmer weather and gardening.

 

Each year I go through the same process, deciding what to grow next season. I have my own experience growing vegetables in my own garden, but the catalogs are very enticing with their color photos and descriptions. I’m also influenced by bloggers who are enthusiastic about a particular variety, and by the kitchen garden at Tower Hill Botanical Gardens, where I can see the variety actually growing in similar conditions to mine. So here is an annotated list of what I am planting in 2014, with an acknowledgement of what/who influenced the choice .

• Bean Bush – Provider and Jade are my reliable standards and I will be planting them again. The good news on Jade is a new grower has decided to continue to provide seed for the original, so seed vendors can still offer Jade rather than the replacement Jade II, which no one liked.
• Bean Pole – I will probably still grow some Fortex and Trionfo Violetto, which did well for me last year and are terrific beans. I am going to have to find some room and construct another trellis because I decided to also try some Romano beans, Musica and Gold Marie. These are grown by bloggers I follow and I was envious of  their harvests of these beautiful beans.
• Beet – I’m growing the red beet Boro again, but will substitute a new variety, Boldor, for Touchstone Gold beet. Here I was influenced by catalog descriptions of Boldor’s better germination rate and vigor.
• Broccoli – Last year was a tough year for broccoli in our area. We had a hard freeze after I set out the starts, which damaged the leaves and attracted a flea beetle assault. That was followed by weeks of heavy rains, followed by weeks of temperatures in the high 90s and drought. Not ideal weather for broccoli. This year I will try growing Bay Meadows, which is supposed to tolerate some extremes in weather, according to the Fedco catalog.
• Cabbage Chinese  - Haven’t grown cabbage before because it takes too much room, but have admired some of the Napa cabbages grown by various bloggers. Soloist is a miniature type Napa cabbage that hopefully will fit nicely in a square and even better in a dumpling.
• Carrots – I had poor results last year with carrots for lots of reasons. I will try again this year and will be adding Yaya to my choices, based on blogger reviews.
• Cucumber – I will grow Summer Dance and Jackson Classic pickling cucumbers again, based on my own experience with them. I will also grow Crystal Apple again, which did pretty well last year despite horrid conditions. I am adding Richmond Green Apple and Poona Kheera heirlooms to the mix, both impulse buys after reading catalog descriptions. Just have to find some room.
• Kale – I will be planting Beedy’s Camden again, a great Siberian-type kale that is robust and hardy. Nothing bothers it. I decided to try Nero di Toscana, a kale everyone except me seems to grow, just to see what it is all about.
• Kohlrabi – I tried kohlrabi last year and it was a failure, just like every other time I tried in the past. Going to try again this year growing Winner, a Fedco recommendation. I was blown away by the Azur Star kohlrabies growing at Tower Hill, but seed is apparently limited by crop failures, so maybe next year if I actually succeed in growing Winner. And this year I will start seeds in soil blocks and transplant to avoid the germination problems I had last year.
• Mustard – Green Wave will be in the garden again. New this year  is Dragon Tongue, a purple mustard from Territorial.
• Onion – My Copra and Red Bull onions were pretty successful last year and the few remaining in the basement are still  in good condition. This year I am going to try Patterson, a yellow storage onion from Johnnys, and Red Wing (which was unavailable last year after a crop failure). Add to that the Saffron shallots, which I will try to grow from seed after last year’s expensive failure with fall-planted shallot bulbs. And I am trying Pride bunching onions from High Mowing, another impulse catalog purchase.
• Pea Snow and Snap – The Oregon Sugar Pod II snow peas will be in the garden again. This year I am trying Sugar Daddy snap peas, which have short vines and good flavor, according to the catalogs. I prefer to grow the peas in self-supporting blocks rather than trellis them, saving precious trellis space for pole beans and cucumbers.
• Peppers – Did I mention that last year’s weather conditions were horrid? A late Spring, cold weather including some freezes delaying planting, torrential rain storms and flooding, disease and pests, and weeks of weather near 100F made gardening here a challenge and affected my peppers. Still I had a fairly successful pepper season. I think some  of the success had to do with my new pepper protocol. Peppers I will surely grow again this year include Jimmy Nardello, Pimiento di Padron, Tiburon Ancho, Lipstick and Red Cherry. Two new ones I am trying are described as “spice” peppers, Aji Dulce and Trinidad, from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. These are supposed to have the aroma and flavor of hot peppers like Habanero without the heat. Trying the first one should be interesting, who’s volunteering?.
• Radish – With the crappy weather, radishes didn't do well for me last year. I will probably try some again this year. New to the list is a radish I saw growing at Tower Hill, called Bora King. It is an elongated radish with a beautiful purple color and purple flushes on its foliage. I also bought on impulse some seed for Zlata. a Polish heirloom with a brown skin.
• Squash Summer – The PM was horrid last year and the strain we had was resistant to most methods of controlling it. Even resistant varieties like Dunja were challenged. Hope this year is better. I still think Dunja is an excellent variety, but this year I convinced myself to try Desert, an exclusive from High Mowing. It is similar to Dunja but can still produce during extremely hot weather like last year. I was put off by the price of $7.50US for 10 seeds but decided that was just the price of supporting local seed companies who develop new varieties that suit my climate. Another experiment this year is substituting Y-Star for Sunburst as my yellow patty pan. I’m still a big fan of Sunburst but wanted to try Y-Star. Costata Romanesco and Tromboncino will still be in the garden.
• Swiss chard – I’m trying Magenta Sunset this year, which I admired in the garden at Tower Hill. I will still be growing Orange Fantasia with it.
• Tomatoes – Tomatoes are a big topic. In my SFG, I am growing indeterminate varieties 1 per square, a single leader trained up a trellis. This works but I have had limited results, a topic that will be covered in Part 2 of my What Works, What Doesn’t blog, if I ever get around to writing it. Meanwhile, I have plans to grow 7 varieties of tomatoes this year: 1) Juliet is a favorite that did very well last year in horrid weather. I considered trying Verona, a Johnny’s variety that claims to be Juliet-like with larger size and better flavor, but decided against it this year. 2) Sungold is another favorite but prone to cracking. This year I will try Esterina instead, a yellow cherry  from High Mowing that claims to be sweeter and more crack resistant than Sungold. 3) Jaune Flamme, a French heirloom grown by Michelle and other bloggers, will be given a chance. Another impulse decision, 4) Sunkist, an orange medium-sized slicer from High Mowing that was bred In New Hampshire, will hopefully produce some tasty tomatoes. 5) I saw Opalka growing at Tower Hill and was very impressed with the plant and the fruit. This is a Polish-origin heirloom paste tomato that will replace Gilbertie and Striped Roman in my garden. Hopefully it does better than those two, from which I failed to get more than a single tomato last year. 6) I love the flavor of Black Cherry, but the last two seasons have produced a meager harvest from plants that struggled with weather and disease. This year I am trying Black Pear, an impulse buy from Baker Creek Seeds. 7) Finally, I am going to plant Big Beef again for a main slicer tomato. I hope to buy plants locally so I don’t have to start these myself.
• Turnips – I had some luck with Golden Ball last year but this year I will be growing Jaune Boule d’Or, a French heirloom from Baker Creek. Add to that the Japanese white turnip, Hakurei, from Johnny’s, in place of Tokyo Cross, which didn’t even germinate last year.