Purple Carrots

Photo: Lily Jenness [my oldest kiddo]

I have four sisters.  They are some of the most interesting people I've ever met.  This year, one of them decided this was her 'Year of Yes'.  Yes to new things, people, experiences.  A year to stretch that comfort zone.   This is remarkable because by and large we are a family of introverts.  Introverts with really great social skills.

My word for the year is 'Magnetic'.  It's a powerful word, full of import.  I have been careful to behave in a way likely to attract things that are long-term sustainable and healthy.   It has also really stretched my comfort zone.

I found myself trying things one more time.  Re-framing a problem.  Changing a mindset.  Looking at things in new ways.   Being brave.  Trying new things.  Trying again.  And again.  Sharing, sharing, sharing.

Which brings me to the carrots.   I have planted carrots a dozen years and gotten nothing but knotty, bitter, buggy, nasty things.   But I found a packet of seed for the purple ones this year when I was planting everything else and thought, 'Well.  I've got room for a small row in a new place.  We'll try again. One more time.'

Et voila'!  Some of the most beautiful carrots ever.  And get this....They're DELICIOUS, too.  

So here's my gift to you:  Whatever it is you've been thinking about - Try one more time.  Think about it in a new way. Say, 'Yes'.  You already are magnetic.

All my love to you-
R

Garden Bounty

Pea flowers are some of my favorites.  I like the shape and I like that pea flowers soon mean pea pods.

Yum.

Our favorite variety is Sugar Snap Pea.   They're prolific, last a long time and are delicious whole-pod small, large or as shelled peas.  [But don't kid yourself.  I never wait until they're ready to shell.]

We're starting to get peas now, but the early heat has slowed them down.  I'm still holding out hope that with regular watering, we can get a bunch more.  They're my favorite.

Waiting for Figs

My fig tree [bush] has loads of figs this year.   It's about 4 feet high with several branches coming out of the ground.   All are covered with fruit.    I'm hoping I get a good harvest this year.

I'm also hoping that my dog, Pepper, who has quite a sweet tooth, doesn't discover how delicious ripe figs are, because she'll eat them all.  

Pink Pea Flowers

We tried a new type of heirloom pea this year.   These are the flowers of Gray Pod Snap Pea.

They're pink!   So pretty.   I hope they taste as good as they look.

Garden Surprise

Last week we were surprised and happy to find a row of kale that has popped up.  I planted it last fall and am pleased to have it show up for a spring finish.   In my experience, kale does much better outside of a cold frame or hoop house.   At the end of the season last year, I dumped a whole lot of leaves on this garden.  The kale sheltered very well there during this mild winter. 

Asparagus, Year 2

Our asparagus bed is doing pretty well.   I mulched it deeply with leaves in the fall and everything came up!   Yay.  

The big question was this:   How much can we eat without stressing the plants?    The short answer is you can harvest one week for every year old your plants are for years 2-4.

Our plants are 2 years old, so we could harvest for two weeks.   We harvested for one week, then had a hard frost, which froze things to the ground.  I decided to let things go after that.

A hard frost will knock the asparagus back to the ground.   Next year, I will harvest every spear before those nights, no matter how much we've cut already.   We might as well eat it as let it die back to the ground.    

The plants shot up during that hot week we had early in May and we have a lovely little forest of asparagus trees again this year.    Claire planted cosmos in the middle of the bed - we thought the tall pink and white flowers would look nice later in the summer. 

Arugula Flowers

I plant arugula in the fall in every cold frame I can. Sometimes it languishes during the winter, but when it really gets going in the spring, it really gets going.   

I generally let them bolt and go to seed because they self sow nicely and will come up in every nook and cranny and shady spot in the garden - and we eat it all.  

Arugula is in the Cruciferae family - you can tell by the flowers: four petals in a cross shape. [Cresses and mustard are, too.]  They are a part of the brassica family and the only brassica that I can grow reliably without cabbage worms bothering them.   We've never seen a single cabbage worm on them ever.  

I like the flowers.  They're pretty and just as tasty as the leaves in salads. 

Potato Bed

The potatoes are thrilled with the weather - they've really taken off in the past couple of weeks.

We even found a couple of potatoes we missed in the bed that had been covered by the hoop house all winter.   They were sprouting nicely.   I transplanted them here.

There's a bit of space left in this bed.  I'll put some sweet potatoes in as soon as they sprout - they've been lollygagging around, waiting for it to really warm up and stay that way.   Soon....

Arugula

Arugula is one of our favorite greens.   It grows like crazy here and self seeds readily.   In mild winters, it stays good enough to harvest through the whole cold season.  

We planted this in the fall in a cold frame and it died way back when the temps fell to the minus teens.   However, once the days start to lengthen and the temps warm up a bit, it greens right up and soon will be big enough to start harvesting.

In the meantime, now's a great time to plant a few more rows for harvesting later in the spring.  If it bolts in the heat, let it go to seed and you'll find another row of it when the weather cools in August and September.

Spring Greens

Some of the baby lettuce coming up under the cold frame.   It's looking pretty happy about the [slightly] warmer weather. 

Me, too. 

Garden Huckleberries

I'm trying a new fruit this year in the veg garden - garden huckleberries, Solanum melanocerasum. [Pic:  Rareseeds.com] These are different from the wild huckleberries of the mountains, which are related to blueberries.  If you go to the link above, make sure you read the reviews carefully.  

My neighbor grows these regularly and has had good success so I thought we'd try them, too.   I'm planting them next to tomatoes and basil.    

Garden huckleberries are native to the tropics [Africa] and are grown as an annual here.   They are relatives of tomatoes and peppers and cultivation is similar.   The bushes get 3-4 ft high.  They like rich soil and sun to partial shade.  The fruit is frost tolerant and should be harvested after the berries turn soft and matte [dull] instead of shiny.  The bushes are reputed to be very prolific and self sowing.  These berries aren't very tasty unless you harvest them after frost.  Do not eat them fresh!

 Here's a method for preparing them that I've seen linked to in several places:

Via Sandhill Preservation:

"Garden Huckleberry Recipe:  Place 8 cups of berries in a non-aluminum one gallon size pan and add enough water to not quite cover the fruit. As they begin to boil add a total of 1/3 cup of baking soda (a little at a time) and stir continuously. As you add baking soda, green foam will appear. Be sure to watch this carefully as it will foam up quite a bit. After adding the baking soda, cook for 10 minutes at a low boil. The mixture will continue to foam quite a bit as the berries are cooking. After they have cooked for 10 minutes, drain this solution off and rinse with clean water. The berries will still be somewhat hard. Next return the pan of berries to the stove, add 1/3 cup water and 1/2 cup lemon juice. Watch with amazement as the mixture changes from emerald green to a royal purple color. Cook an additional 35 minutes until the berries are tender and then add 2 3/4 cups sugar, 1 1/2 Tablespoons lemon extract, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 cup tapioca. Pour the above mixture into two 8 inch unbaked pie shells, then add a top crust or lattice and bake as you would a blueberry pie. You can also omit the tapioca and just eat the sauce or use it as an ice cream topping."

Here's a page from Heirloom Organics with growing information.  And another post from Garden Web with some interesting information.

And here's another page with growing and harvesting info from Mother Earth News, with a couple of recipes thrown in.

I've got my seeds started in the cold frame now and I'm looking forward to our first harvest in the fall.  

Deep Mulch Gardening

The truth is that I'm a bit slow when it comes to gardening fads.   I'm totally clueless about most of that kind of stuff.    [That's true for life in general, actually.]  It's only lately that I've become aware of Deep Mulch Gardening.  So, I read up on it and was pleased to discover that it's not a new thing at all.

Gardeners who hate weeding have been doing this forever.   There are a couple of ways to do it.   The first is to get your straw/hay/grass and fluff it up and spread it out in a 6 inch deep layer and let it sit.  You can carve out your rows and hills inside it and plant.    Works great.

Another way to deep mulch is to separate the bales into sections. What I generally do is use the bales that I've had around my cold frames all winter.

In the spring, I lift the bales out of the bed they were in and then dig/prep the bed.  Then I separate the bales into sections.   You can see in the pic the sections/thick layers that form as they're making the bales.   The bale will fall apart or pull apart naturally at these places and leave you with a bunch of flat straw squares a few inches thick. 

When I plant a row, I lay these out right next to the row to form paths.   Here you can see the path next to the arugula. 

Row planting:  I plant all my rows one straw square apart.   That is a good distance for growing most things.  the straw paths are plenty wide for careful walking. The straw sections have already been pressed down so much in the baling process that they are an effective weed barrier.    I don't fluff them at all.  Works like a charm for weed control.

Hill planting:  I plant the tomatoes and squash much further apart, but still separate the straw into squares and place them around instead of fluffing everything up.  

Bed planting:  When I plant greens in the cold frames or hoop house, I put a straw path down the center and then scatter the seed in two broad beds on either side, like this.  [Since this is a winter bed, I've stuffed some extra straw around the edges where the cold might creep in.]

One caveat - If you get seedy straw [and there's no way to tell until it's too late],  you'll get grass or wheat germinating around the edges of the squares.    The good news is that these are easy to grab and weed and they'll come right out with little effort.   I generally don't have to do that more than once a season.  

A Few Garden Goals

Every year I bite off more than I can chew in the garden.    I can't help it.   I am seduced by the descriptions and the pretty pictures in the catalogs.   I always think I can squeeze one more type of winter squash in that bed.    Or a couple more tomato plants.

And then one more type turns into four more types.  

It's ridiculous.   

I'm ridiculous. 

The truth is I have very little garden discipline.   Seeds are cheap and I just have to try a couple more new types of whatever every year.   And then I look at my old seeds and can't bear to toss them.   In fact, no one will notice if I tuck a few of the old things in this year's garden.   Maybe I'll have better luck with that one variety that didn't do so well in bed #4.    If I try it with the eggplants this year and put in some more chicken dirt, it won't take up much room.   And if it dies, no one will notice. 

And then in July, the garden is a jungle and I am growing things too close together and then it rains and rains and the fungal wilt starts and the tomatoes sulk and the pumpkins take over everything.  

The point is, I need to scale back a bit in a couple of places.  

So.

This year I am only going to plant 6 kinds of winter squash.    I said that last year, too and ended up planting 12, but this year I really mean it. 

I really do.

Really.

Only 6.

Stop laughing.   

Winter Garden Soil Amendment

I miss the garden in the winter and whenever the weather is warm enough to work comfortably, I'm out there fiddling with things.  

And thinking.  

Sometimes I just walk around and look and think.  

In between the thinking, I do what I can to improve the soil.  It's my favorite winter chore.

We have clay here.  Lots and lots of clay.   It's great for brambles, but not tomatoes. 

So I built raised beds [see above link] and every now and then we toss some extra organic material in there.   We use a lot of straw mulch, leaves, chicken dirt and sand to break up that clay.  

This is the rhubarb and pea bed.   I can't move the rhubarb to rotate the bed, so I just make sure to put lots of sand and leaves and chicken dirt in it.  It makes for happy rhubarb.   And peas.   And turnips.  I grew some fabulous turnips in this bed last year.    We just dumped a whole lot of leaves in there.   I can hear the rhubarb smiling already. 

What I grew in 2014

Beans

• Fava Beans - Broad Windsor   Didn't happen.
• Red Chinese long beans - Got original seed from BC.  Now I use our saved seed from 2012.
• Green Chinese long beans - Got original seed from BC.  Now I use our saved seed from 2012.
• Dragon Tongue [our saved seed from 2012]  
• Freshette green bean.  Got the seed from Rural King.

Beet:  Detroit Dark Red.   Rabbit got them at about 4" high.
Carrot

• St Valery
• Purple

Cucumber

• Telegraph
• Sikkim Cucumber
• Boston Pickling Cucumber

Eggplant:  Another bad year for eggplant.   Flea beetles devoured them.

• New York Improved eggplant
• Ping Tung Eggplant

Fennel:  Di Firenze - likes cool weather.   Plant in fall for December harvest and in late Feb for spring harvest.

Flowers:  zinnia (liliput), calendula [and probably some cosmos.  I love cosmos.]

Garlic:

• Elephant:  Died during the winter.
• California:  Died during the winter.
• Chesnock Red:   Made it through the winter.
• Music:   Need to try these 2014-15

Greens:

• Arugula
• Bibb Lettuce

Herbs, Annual:

• Basil, Genovese
• Genovese red basil
• Basil, Lettuce Leaf
• Cilantro, Slo Bolt.  Got original seed from BC.  Now I use our saved seed from 2012. Mostly it self sows.
• Dill.  Self sows now
• Thai red roselle

Herbs, Perennial [planted several years ago]

• Lavender
• Thyme
• Sage
• Horehound
• Chives
• Anise Hyssop
• Hyssop
• Chamomile [self sows]
• Alpine Strawberries
• Clary Sage
• Winter savory
• Lemon balm
• Sorrel

Leek:  Autumn Giant Leek

Melon

• Charentais [cantaloupe] - old seed.  Didn't come up.
• Uzbek Sweetness Melon  ducks got in and killed it.
• Sweet Passion:  got 4 small melons before it succumbed to vine borer.
• White Wonder watermelon ducks got in and killed it.

Onions

• Egyptian walking onions - mostly died during the winter.  I think I have one left. [Fingers crossed it makes it.]
• Yellow of Parma onion:  Nice!!  from seed.
• Wethersfield red onion
• Ishikura onion:  Nice!! from seed.

Parsnip:  Half Long Guernsey Parsnip:   Nice and huge.

Peas:   Sugar Snap.   Heat tolerant.  Lasted through July
 
Peppers -We're shooting for sweeter, meatier peppers this year.

• Golden Marconi
• Red Marconi
• Melrose pepper
• Jupiter pepper
• Golden California Wonder pepper [beautiful!]
• Purple peppers [early]
• Banana peppers 
• Little Snacking Pepper [orange]
• Pimento [thick flesh!]
• Carmen [long]

Potatoes:  Kennebec,  early ones were great.

Radish:   Early Scarlet Globe - the regular red kind.   Nice!
Rutabaga: Laurentian Rutabaga  [First time with rutabagas]

Sweet potatoes:  Georgia Jet.  From our own starts.

Squash, Summer

• Zucchino Rampicante - No new seed this year, so we'll try planting last year's seed and keep our fingers crossed.  Died fast.
• Golden Marbre Scallop [pattypan]
• Lemon Squash:  borers got them.
• Castata Romanesco [zucch type]:  Early set of fruit. Light.  Striped.  First one, June 30.

Squash, Winter  [The last three are new, the others are from last year's seed.]

• Australian Butter:  Good in hot climates.   Too cool this year, no fruit.
• Black Futsu
• Greek Sweet Red
• Golden hubbard
• Honey Boat Delicata:
• Musquee De Provence
• Queensland Blue:   Good for hot climates.  Too cool this year, no fruit.
• Rouge Vif D'Etampes
• Boston Marrow squash 
• Galeux d'Eysinee squash 
• Delicata squash:  Poor fruiting this year.
• Baby Blue Hubbard - old seed.  Didn't come up.

Strawberries

• June bearing [from May's]
• Ever bearing  [from May's]

Tomato

• Amish Paste:  Good standby.  Roma type.  Does OK with septoria.
• Amana Orange:  Didn't fruit this year. 
• Belize pink heart tomato:  Nice but vulnerable to septoria.
• German red strawberry tomato:   Cute!  Nice fruit, but vulnerable to septoria.
• Uncle Mark Bagby tomato
• Pineapple tomato:  Nice yellow tomato!
• Mortgage Buster [from May's]:  Nice, but lost half the plants to septoria.
• Black Cherry [grape tomatoes]:   Nice!   Prolific and tolerant of septoria.  

Turnip: Boule d'Or turnip

Garlic

We planted some Chesnock Red garlic and some German Red garlic this year.    The German Reds have popped out of the ground already.   I don't know if that's because the bulbs were fresher or because the variety is better, but I'm impressed. 

The bulbs came from a friend of a friend who grew them last year and they did well even with the polar vortex.

The Un-Parsnips

This is not a parsnip.

It grew in a row, where I'm pretty darned sure I planted parsnips.  

I  watched them get bigger and bigger - especially this one.  And I was so happy because I was growing parsnips!   A new food to try!

And I planted a row of turnips on the other side of the bed so we could try those, too.

But when I was reading up on the best time to harvest parsnips, I noticed that the leaves on those pics did not look like the leaves on my parsnips.   And then I realized that the leaves on my parsnips looked an awful lot like the leaves on the new turnips I had planted.

Someone had obviously made a mistake somewhere along the line.   Or vandalized my planting.  

This is what I'm pretty sure happened:  Someone came along after I planted my parsnips and carefully pulled up every seed and replaced it with a turnip seed.   Yes.      

That must have been what happened. 

So I harvested my row of un-parsnips and sure enough, they are Boule d'Or turnips, just like my new row of them.   Quite lovely, if I do say so myself. 

We chopped them and roasted them with carrots, two ways.   Savory:  with garlic and olive oil.  Sweet:  with a little butter and generous amounts of brown sugar.    We roasted in the oven at about 300 for an hour and a half or so - until they were fork soft. 

I liked the sweet ones the best and will probably chop up a handful of candied ginger to roast with them next time.  Mmmmm.

Here's another recipe I just found for Turnip and Parsley Patties that sounds pretty tasty.  [Great blog, too!]  They're turnip fritters!

We'll also put some of them in pasties to freeze for winter dinners.   It's so exciting having a new veggie to try.

Garden Yields

Those are last year's squash blossoms in the pic.   I love squash blossoms.
 
While I was researching yesterday's post on How much should I plant to feed my family, I found a couple of great related links that list estimates for how much yield you can expect from your garden.

• This is a great post from From Scratch Magazine on How Much I Need to Plant to Feed My Family. There is a downloadable pdf chart.  Read the whole piece and note that these are fresh food estimates.  She multiplies by 5 to cover both fresh eating and preservation amounts.   The chart includes estimates of how much seed you need, estimated yield per 100 ft row and an average amount suggested per person.  It's geared toward big time gardens.

• Another interesting list at Bonnie Plants is here. Their list includes approximate yields per 10 ft row - geared toward backyard gardens.  I like this list a lot and it includes lists for cool season plants as well as warm season plants.    With a bit of planning, your garden can do double duty and with a bit of protection you can garden 12 months of the year even in the northern US. 

• Here's a great collection of information for beginner gardeners.   This page has all kinds of great information for you to get started. 

How Much Should I Plant?

Every once in a while I wonder how much food I would need to plant in the garden every year if my family depended on that alone to feed us.   It's an interesting question and one I'm very glad I don't have to answer definitively.    We like the grocery store.

However, I thought you'd find it interesting and helpful to have a few of these lists handy for reference, in case you ever want to know just how much garden we're talking about.  As you read through the lists, notice the large differences.

In the end, just like everything else in life, the answer to How much should I plant? is  .....it depends.  

Note:   I don't grow nearly this amount of food and if you're just starting out, don't be overwhelmed.   Remember, two tomato plants is better than no garden at all.   Gardening is about learning growing skills just as much as it is about final yields.  

Start small and build.

Some of these sites plan for rows, but many are adaptable for square foot gardening.

• The Well Fed Homestead has a good list here.
• Here's a list from New Life on a Homestead. 
• About.com has a list that suggests significantly smaller amounts of plants. 
• Here's a site all about planning the veg garden.

Companion Plants, Part 1: Vegetable Companions

I just got some asparagus for a new asparagus bed.   The thing about asparagus is that it's done in the spring and then sort of a 'waste' of space the rest of the garden year, so I've been wondering what I should plant in the bed with it so I can get the best use out of the space all year long.

Which brings up the issue of companion plants.  Some plants do better when planted next to each other and some don't.   But which?   I found these two great charts online while I was researching. 

Both of these charts are excellent and focus only on what vegetables to plant together.  

Mysquarefootgarden: color coded vegetable companion plant guide.  I liked this chart because the colors make it easy to find plants that work well together.

Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_companion_plants.  I know a lot of people roll their eyes at wiki, but this is a real gem.  It's a fantastic list of plants to use together and plants to avoid and most things are referenced with footnotes in case you want verification.  

I'll talk about companion planting with herbs tomorrow.