Scarlet runner beans

I've got a boy that eats beans and these pink ones are so cool. Not so pretty after cooking... We'll see how they taste!

Beet Seeds

Last week I soaked beet seeds overnight, then set them in a wet paper towel for about a day and a half. The first root shoots were poking out when I planted them and they were up in 2 more days. Definite time saver.

So I planted around September 1, they should be ready by November 1? We'll see!

January 27th update: Forget about it. I don't know if it was the temperature or lack of light or groundhogs, but those things never got taller than 4 inches. September 1 is way too late.

Nightshades

Freezing Tomatoes

This week we got some surplus tomatoes, 1/2 bushel, for $7. Half of them went into spaghetti sauce and half just became diced tomatoes. So for $7 we got approximately 5 jars of spaghetti sauce and 10 16 oz. cans of diced tomatoes. Totally worth it.

Vegetable bouillon

So, supposedly if you dry soup vegetables and then powder them in a blender you can add them to soups, scrambled eggs, etc. Here, tomatoes, leeks, and kale. I'll let you know how it goes.

First tomatoes

First ripe tomatoes came in a week ago. They are trickling in slowly as slugs and rodents get the lower first tomatoes. But there are plenty on the bushes and we will have a pretty good harvest despite the blight on the lower leaves.

First Tomatillos

Last year the first harvest was August 16th, this year August 19th. I planted later this year, but it's interesting how close to the same date the tomatillos are coming in. There are five plants this year and they are all flowering like mad. It could be a very good year for salsa verde. Gotta stock up on limes.

Compost

You know you are processing the harvest when you park the wheelbarrow on the back porch for the trimmings. Huge kale and chard harvest today. Funny thing is that the kale that I harvested today was all the weeds. Self-seeded kale from the tomato patch and as far away as 20 feet from the seed source. The kale that I actually planted this year still needs to be harvested. I can't even walk past it.

KALE

On horse manure. There were two heads like this crowding my tomatoes. They are blanched and frozen now.
The photo shoot was a blast. A two-year old with new knowledge of an iphone camera button. It's hard to say if he was shooting still or video. : )

Random Updates

Whoa. Chard on horse manure.

OK, on the left is a parsnip, on the right are some chioggia beets. So what the heck is in between? Hint - It was in the beet rows.

Yep. I grew cauliflower. Think I let it go too long, it's a little too cabbagy - but it's the first cauliflower I've ever grown and I'm very pleased. There are 3 more heads out there.

This is what the tomato bed looks like. This is one heck of a solar energy collector.

Dad-gum-it! Ground Hogs! Or, if you are my two-year-old "Hot Dogs!" (He knows what a hot dog is but since it's the closest thing to ground hog that he can actually say I guess he decided it was close enough.)

Oooo.. Edie, don't get too close! That guy is MAD!

Mmmm... I didn't do a good job with potatoes this year. But these are the harvest from the ones I didn't find last year. They grew happily in the garlic patch.

Jimsonweed. Poisonous. Note to self.

The July 8th Garden

The perennial end. From left, lemongrass, sorrel, horseradish, dill in front of rhubarb.

Raspberries were a little weak in the June crop. Hoping for better in August.

Here you can see garlic almost ready for pulling (it's pulled now, sugar snaps climbing strings outside the fence and beans just starting inside the fence.

The garden helper is watering beets and onions.

Foreground, brussel sprouts, then a row of leeks, then enormous cauliflower plants (no heads), two huge nappa cabbages and parsnips behind the bench (that you can barely see).

Chard was planted too close together, but is otherwise doing well. Small, but healthy, okra is smashed in the corner and the first of 5 tomatillo plants is looking good.

Kale comes up everywhere with enormous leaves that shade out tomato plants. Lettuce has bolted, but isn't pulled yet (ask the manager - I don't know why.)

Just another view of beets and onions. The onions have all fallen over and haven't been weeded very well. It's going to hurt that crop.

May State of Affairs

The front of the garden. I stacked some rocks around the base of the sink. It was always our intention to rock face it but I don't know when we will get around to it.

New perennial bed. (Sorrel, horseradish, rhubarb, dill.)

Rhubarb was transplanted from elsewhere and I had NO idea how deep the roots were going to be.  So they broke off and the rhubarb definitely suffered the transplant. But this spot will be much better for it than where it was and I expect it to bounce back fine by next year.

Sorrel, and horseradish, with a border of basil.

Green house lettuce, center, two rows of the second attempt at carrots, under burlap for more even moisture. Next to the burlap will be tomatoes, and along the fence is peas. There's not exactly a lot of space for the 'maters, but the carrots and peas should come out by the time the tomatoes need the space.

Snow peas

Kale mix. It's actually about doubled in size since this photo was taken last week.

Strawberries! Last year there weren't this many and the birds got them all. So maybe a net this year?

Out of sight, below, is a parsnip patch, then you can see the Daikon radish doing well, then a Nappa Cabbage too small to see the starts, and then Cauliflower, but the bunnies munched most of them after this picture was taken. Ames and I seeded cilantro around there too, and then you can barely make out two rows of leeks.

On the outside of the strings are two bands of beets, Chioggia (a concentric red/white beet) and Detroit Red short top. Those were planted in two phases, with a month in between. Down the center of the strings are yellow and red onions, over a hundred altogether. The path is filled with grass right now, and beyond it is the awesome garlic bed. I forget how many are in there but they are growing really well.

Asparagus, started last year, is doing fairly well.

Here's the herb garden. These have been moving around the yard. We haven't settled on our best spot for them yet, but this will be fine for this year.

Our new trailer! Hauled a HUGE load of horse manure for the garden over a month ago.

A view from the east end of the garden. Potatoes will be planted here if I ever get around to it. Beans will go in along the inside of the fence.

From the west end, the new beds along the outside front of the fence will  have scarlet runner beans on this west end, and sugar snap peas along the east side. In front of those climbers I'll seed a special beneficials wildflower mix from fedco.

Asparagus!

Comfrey

I had to clear out a front bed where a sewer line is going, right through a patch of comfrey. We weren't crazy about it in that location anyway so I pulled it all out, transplanted a few, and cleaned the rest of the roots to dry them. All kinds of herbal concoctions could result, mostly for hair and skin treatment.

First planting

Well, with the weather as it's been, most of my friends started a month ago. Nevermind. I would have had to skip the manure haul and ammendment, and I was dead-set on getting a good solid charge of organic fertilizer and organic matter, into this garden this year.

I'm thrilled that I did. My beds really look like they can grow SOME FOOD!

Today I direct-seeded:
~25 chioggia beets
~45 detroit dark red short top beets
~25 parsnips
~120 rainbox mix carrots.

Rye

I'm about to turn this strip of rye in. It's at least a foot high. Then there will be the poop to add. I'm going liberal with it.

Garlic

Garlic got top-dressed with a manure compost tea.

Poop #2

One can not help but be hopeful after turning in 4 inches of horse manure. Check out these beds!

Poop

Almost done unloading a trailer full of horse and donkey manure. It'll be about 25 wheelbarrow-fulls, which covered about half the garden 3 inches deep. It's a hefty amendment of organic matter and nutrients on a garden that hasn't seen that much love in years. I can wait to see this years produce! Waiting for the manure gave me a little later start than some of my friends but I doubt it'll hurt too much, it was a very early warm year but planting now I'm right on time for almost everything, if you go by frost dates. We will try for another load to love the rest of the garden before everything is in the ground.

State of the Garden, March 19th

So, it's an incredibly warm winter. Hardly any snow, all rain. March 19th and we are already at 74 growing degree days. Average would be 0. Even two years ago, which we thought was a remarkably warm and early spring, was nothing like this.

I am a climate change scientist - not of the weather prediction type, more on the side of observing and predicting impacts. I would hardly ever say that one extreme event was part of the global climatic change, but I am really starting to wonder. These strange winters we have are more directly explained by changes in the ocean currents that bring warmth and precipitation to different parts of the land. But 2 years, this warm, almost back to back? It gets hard to call that "rare" or "extreme" - it starts to be normal. So I don't know if this is climate change or not - but it's just exactly what it will look like.

OK, into the yard. Tulips, really responding to three days of over 70-degree temps.















This is the state of the raspberry canes. We'll have to move them at our neighbor's request (ug) so I don't know how this year will go for them. I'm hoping to get a good June crop at least before the relocation.















Here's the garden. I'm expanding out from the fence this year, about 3 feet. Last year, newspapers worked like a charm to kill the grass and make the sod turnover much easier. I'm not sure I got it down early enough this year, but who knew I needed to do it in January? Likewise, I kept the hoop house out all winter, planning to cover it a couple weeks ago for earlier spring planting, but there's really no need for a hoop house right now!















Garlic, always love it in the spring. Already 5 inches high!















From the east end. The foreground large square will be potatoes and sweet potatoes. Then the garlic. The next bed will have beets, onions, and maybe some carrots. Those two beds will all be harvested mid-summer, and then I can put the fall crops in, and build a PVC hoop house arched over the two beds. (That's the plan anyway.) The next bed will have some random experiments. The bed inside the small fence with the hoop over it will have lettuce and carrots, with tomatoes interplanted. By the time the lettuce and carrots are coming out, the tomatoes will be taking over, again, that's the plan. Tomatoes haven't grown in this space for at least 3 years - a rotational success that is rare in my garden and only possible because I had a fallow year and then didn't move them for two years. Peppers will be in a row to the left of that small fenced area. Along the far fence will be the new perennial crop bed (asparagus, horseradish, rhubarb), and the tomatillos and okra. The whole front fence will be covered with bush and pole beans and peas, and a band of flowers to attract beneficial insects. (http://www.fedcoseeds.com/seeds/search.php?item=6333&listname=Bachelor)















The state of the overwintered sage - looks like it made it.















Can't wait for lemonade off this phenomenal mint. I LOVE the flavor of this one.















Kale's shooting some new leaves.















And this will be the first year of sorrel harvest for us. I may move this into the perennial bed of the veggie garden too.















Oregano, back for the third year.















Chives are back of course, ready for harvest, and the huge rosemary we transplanted in last summer doesn't look great, but it is definitely still alive after this most gentle of winters.

So that's it. March 19th, and I'm already behind on planting. A friend has already put peas, beets, onions, and potatoes in. Gotta get with it!