jeninthegarden

[jeninthegarden]

2024 Seed List

Carry on!

There was no fall planting.  The summer’s deluge kept all things green growing and bushy, but nothing bloomed or fruited.  Timing-wise, the spring planting schedule was perfect and the garden was fully planted and mulched, and weed free!  The greens and peas flourished.  All the roots and brassicas germinated.  The companion planting was perfect.  The kale was prolific right out of the gate, combination of transplants, regrowth and self germination.  I purchased celeriac and cabbage and brussel sprout seedlings, got them in early and they were robust.  I managed to germinate 12 zucchini plants and nasturtiums. I had 4 different types of sweet potato slips successfully transplanted.  My lupines returned and even bloomed. And for a few verdant weeks all was picture perfect.  Then the rains set in, things got bigger and bushier.  All the root crops remained tiny threads with giant green tops.  The radish-turnip-pepper companion planting fell apart as the radish tops over-shadowed everything and the pepper plants rotted away.

Years past I have purchased predominantly from PineTree Seeds because their prices have been lowest. Not this year.  This year they are among the most expensive, and their assortment is not interesting.  Johnny Seed and Territorial Seed have historically been the most expensive but have the greatest variety, but this year Johnny Seed is in the middle range because they sell so many more seeds per package.  I like to get more seeds from Hudson Valley Seeds and Fruition Seeds because both companies are actually in my planting zone and offering seed varieties that grow here, and that I should therefore be able to grow here without too much difficulty. Fruition is in the middle range this year, and Hudson Valley among the least expensive. They do not, however, have a great variety.  Burpee always has something new that I fall for.  And to be fair, their new varieties are always good.  RH Shumway also always has something different, and I find their old fashioned newsprint, black & white catalogue charming.

The following seed list is comprised of just the edibles I am ordering.

Legumes:

Bush beans: “Velour”. A compact, bush-habit plant, very heavy-bearing bright purple, stringless pods over a long season.  This is my top choice for bush beans. Very heat and drought tolerant. This past season it was the only summer bean to produce.  Finding it can be tricky. This year, Hudson Valley Seed has them.

Fava beans- “Varoma” from Johnny Seeds.  Whereas last year there were 5 or 6 varieties on the market, this year only Johnny Seed has any variety besides Broad Windsor. I have had good success with Varoma in the past few years.  I had spent several years, a decade ago, trying to grow Broad Windsor without luck.

Noodle beans: May take a break from these this year.  Or plant what I already have. They are yardlong, shoestring pod, pole beans that have a very nutty flavor. But they require very strong support.

Pole beans- “Cave Beans” a 1500 year old heirloom from the southwest from RH Shumway. “Hank’s Xtra Special Bake Bean”, rare heirloom from Hudson Valley Seed.  These are random choices because they sound interesting.

Runner beans:  I have a lot of these that were never planted in the past two years so, maybe they make it into the ground this year. They are sweet and rich flavor, a bit like fava bean, but meatier, good in salad or soup.

Shelling Peas: “Dual Pea” from RH Shumway is a fast growing, medium sized shelling pea with 12 peas per pod.  Nothing compares to the taste of a raw, fresh shelling pea.

Snap Peas: “Sugar Daddy” is an award-winning snap pea from Hudson Valley Seed.  Fast growing and bush type. I also saved a bunch from the 2023 harvest, so will certainly plant those. 

Soybeans: “Panther” from Hudson Valley Seeds.  I only ever eat soybeans steamed, in the pods with salt as a finger food snack.

  Fruits:  

“Cardoon” I will buy seedlings from the local nursery – there were plenty available last year so hopefully the trend continues. Looks like aloe vera and tastes like artichoke. It is cold hardy and perennial – I have seen it in botanical gardens, in winter, here about alongside Salad Burnett.

Corn – “Kandy Corn” a sweet corn from Burpee.  This is a variety I have grown successfully in the past. It is an enhanced sugar variety making it exceptionally sweet.

Cucumber- “Double yield” double duty pickling and slicing variety from Hudson Valley Seed.

 Eggplant:  I will buy seedlings from the local nursery. Need a break after 3 years of germinating hundreds of exotics and getting no fruit.

Gourds- No gourds this year! Pinky swear.

Melon – “True Jenny Lind” aromatic musk melon from Hudson Valley Seed. “Olympic Express” from Burpee is a prolific, early maturing orange melon.

Okra – “Baby Budda” has proved to be the most successful – small, compact plant suitable for patio containers, super productive and early maturing from Burpee.

Pepper – I will buy seedlings from the local nursery. Haven’t had a decent harvest since I planted them in the orchard, so I’m taking a break from germinating them.

Tomatoes – I will shop locally for other seedlings.  Not starting my own this year.  Plenty of varieties of seedlings are available.

Watermelon: “Sweet Siberian” yellow fleshed, short season small from Hudson Valley. “Ambrosia” small, sweet and short season red flesh from Fruition Seeds.

Winter Squash and pumpkins: “Candy Roaster” winter squash from Hudson Valley Seed, a banana shaped heirloom from Apalachia.  And I still have a ton of unused seeds to try from the past two years.

Zucchini- “Cupcake”from Burpee – a new hybrid that is round like a bell pepper and supposed to be excellent for stuffing. Expensive.

Roots:

Beets: I’m refocused on cylindrical beets, for spacing purposes. “Cylindra” from Hudson Valley Seed

Carrot: pelleted seeds was a waste.  So back to regular seeds, I’ve ordered “Yellowstone”, a 9-inch yellow variety from Hudson Valley Seed.

Celeriac: I will buy seedlings from the local nursery. This worked so much better than growing from seeds.

Parsley Root: Not doing it this year.

Parsnips: Ordered “White Spear” from Territorial Seed which is a yard long(!) variety. I winter sowed some this past fall, in the front flower bed, with the garlic.

Potatoes:  Going back to growing them in containers. I will buy some from the store and sew them to avoid the horrible shipping costs.  “Makah Ozette” This looks like a fingerling variety of Occa, a small south American tuber predating the potato.  It is supposed to be nutty and creamy, from Burpee. I’m a sucker. 

Radish: like beets, I’m focused on cylindrical radishes. “Nelson” an improved French breakfast type, from Johnny Seed. “Shunkyo” a Chinese long, hot-sweet daikon, carrot shapped for spacing.

Rutabaga: Not doing it this year. Unless I plant the seeds I already have.

Sweet Potatoes: Growing my own slips over winter.  Will grow in containers since the floods stunted their growth in 2023.

Turnips: “Long Noir” a long, black-skinned turnip that is very sweetfrom Fruition Seed. “Scarlett OhNo Revival” a red skin, white flesh turnip with edible greens from Hudson Valley.

Greens:

Arugula: “Wild Arugula” the fast growing, heat tolerant, wild heirloom variety from Hudson Valley Seed.

Chard: “Perpetual” a long season, heat resistant that regrows for several years from Territorial Seed. “Silverado” a large, silver chard from Hudson Valley seeds with short, tender stems, heat resistant and makes a good spinach substitute in the hot summer.

“Claytonia” from Fruition Seeds. It is a succulent green that looks like a bouquet of little lily pads.

Escarole: “Batvian Full Heart” from Hudson Valley Seeds. Good for braising and bean soups.

Lettuce: “Sunland” a heat resistant romaine with very thick, crisp leaves from Johhny Seeds.  Early varieties “Ithaca” NY State iceberg and “North Pole” from Hudson Valley Seed. “Wildest Mix” from Territorial Seed

Mache: “Mache” from Hudson Valley Seed. “NY Hardy Mache” from Fruition  Seeds.

Orach: “Ruby Red Orach” from Hudson Valley Seed; a violet red, velvet leafed spinach that grows on an 18 inch, upright stalk.

Radicchio: “Red Traviso” a loose leaf red variety from Burpee. The only radicchio I could find for less than $6 dollars a packet.

Spinach: “Giant Winter” from Fruition Seeds.

Brassica:

Asian Greens: “Tatsoi” fast growing 6-inch rosette from Hudson Valley Seed.  “Celtuce” Spring Tower, a tall lettuce with a celery like stalk, from Johnny Seed.

Broccoli: “Turkish Rocket”, a perennial broccoli raab from Fruition Seeds.

Chinese Cabbage: “Red Trumpet” a tall, fluted pink variety from Johnny Seed. 

Cauliflower: “Baby Hybrid” a small 3 inch heads with edible leaves, from RH Shumway.  Other than that, I will buy seedlings of “Fioretto” an open head, branching cauliflower, and for “Romanesco” a green, geometric looking pyramid crown hybrid that has a very nutty flavor.

Collards: champion from Hudson Valley Seeds

Kale: “Autumn Star Kalettes” from RH Shumway, are a cross between kale and Brussels sprouts that look like kale roses.  “Mermaid mix” from Fruition Seeds is a baby kale mix of lacy, frilly, purple, blue and green kales.

Mustard: “Wasabina” a frisse variety mustard that tastes like wasabi/horse radish from Hudson Valley Seeds. “Giant Red Indian” mustard, I don’t plant this anymore because it self-seeds everywhere.

And, because they seem to go with the brassicas in planting rotations, the alums:

Chives: still have seeds left from last year.

Garlic:  I planted several heads of both standard and elephant garlic in the front flower bed in the fall.

Leek: I have better luck with buying the sets instead of starting from seed.

Onion: I am doing the regrow project.  It works very well.

Scallions: I am doing the scallion regrow project.

Shallots: “Cuisse du Poulet du Poitou Shallot” from Fruition Seeds are shallots the size of a chicken thigh.  I’m obsessed and can’t let go.  Germinated it but never got it past yarn width sets because of the rain.

Flowers for companion planting:

Marigold:  “Mexican Mint” a Mexican variety that tastes like anise and tarragon, from Hudson Valley Seeds. Plus I have plenty of giant gold and orange seeds left.

Nasturiums: “Tall Trailing Mix” vining variety that grows to 6 feet long from Territorial Seed.

Herbs for companion planting:

Basil:  will buy seedlings to keep in pots and plant under the tomatoes

Borage: I have seeds left from previous years, and it self-seeds.

Dill: I can buy seedlings locally.  It is best to plant in pots or flower beds just to keep it away from the root crops.

Lovage:I have an established plant so I need to start harvesting the seeds to resow elsewhere.

Marjoram:  waiting to see if it re-grows in the garden where I planted it 2023

Tarragon: waiting to see if it re-grows in the garden where I planted it 2023

Angelica: “Holy Ghost” did not germinate so we will try again.

 Grains and Seeds:  

Amaranth:  Spinach variety “Cataloo” from Territorial Seed.

Quinoa: “Dejulis Pink Quinoa” from Hudson Valley Seed, rivals Love Lies Ableeding amaranth.

#backyard veg garden #hudsonvalleygardening

[jeninthegarden]

2024 Garden Plan

Somewhere, out there, in space and time.

2023: “Every season is an experiment.” 

It is true that every season is an experiment.  But, with that in mind, I do need to recognize some limits, namely space and time.  The plans are always grand, but I never plant everything I intend to, regardless of the elements.  2022 all was well, until we had no rain for 6 weeks. 2023 all was well, until we had 6 weeks of rain and no sun.  But in both cases, I never got my late summer sowing done.  Beans, corn, squash never got into the ground, and the weather was not to blame.  The fall greens and root successions were never planted, even though the prevailing issues of weather had subsided and the fall weather was mild.  The true issue was time.  2022 summer was eaten up by seeing Spawn No. 1 off to college.  2023 summer was eaten up by seeing Spawn No. 2 off to college.  There is no spawn number three, so will 2024 be different, in terns in terms of time??

And even if time allows, we still have to contend with the boundaries of space. Crop rotation is excellent for nurturing the soil. But space is limited and certain parts of the garden get more sun, have better drainage, and certain cultivars do better in specific locations.  There are also certain space hogs I must refrain from growing in the fenced garden area.  Brussel Sprouts!  Even if I grow them over the sweet potatoes, they take up too much space, need 4 months to mature and yield too little.  So, the solution for 2024 is to switch out the Brussel Sprouts for tree collards.  Tree collards are extremely high growing, so I can plant almost anything under them.  Corn cannot be planted in the fenced garden, or even the raised bed. It has to go in the orchard. But that requires that the orchard be very heavily mulched to keep the weeds and grasses down until it is time to plant corn – an issue of time.  Squash cannot be planted in the fenced garden unless it grows on a trellis. The root crops don’t like the high side of the garden.  The greens don’t like the sunny section of the garden.  The tomatoes are weeds and don’t care where they are planted, neither do the peas. The brassicas like the low side of the garden – bush and soy beans don’t.  This all has me questioning the value of the crop rotation. So maybe this year I just won’t rotate the crops (heresy!).

I’ve been so strict about rotation that not rotating the crops just seems out of bounds.  But the whole garden is sheet composted with kitchen scraps and chicken manure all fall and winters.  So, I don’t think any part of the garden has soil nutrient depletion.  That might explain why my root crops are always lousy – the soil is actually too rich.  Maybe it is time to test this theory.  I have not yet decided on the garden layout for 2024.  I do know that the corn and squash have to go in the orchard.  Not sure what to do with the raised bed.  It’s mulched down heavy for the winter and will require a brand new fencing system because our ground hog gets through the deer netting.   

2023 I was extremely methodical. The greenhouse boxes were planted in early February and I had a bounty of spring greens by mid March, partially due to the very mild winter.  Mild winter also meant an earlier thaw and I was planting by late March.  I learned my lesson about germinating too many seedlings, so I focused on fewer varieties and I bought seedlings.  I was very happy to find celeriac seedlings, and cauliflower, cabbage and Brussels sprout seedlings. Timing was everything.  I not only got in ahead of the weeds but also mulched everything.  Weeds were not a problem in 2023, at least not in the main, fenced garden.

I rotated the crops, as usual. And did some previously successful companion planting.  I also planted some permanent herb planting – 4 marjoram and 4 tarragon because they promote growth and better flavor is most vegetables.  

Then came the rains.  From the July 1 to August 15, it rained.  Lots of green, leafy everything, dripping wet, verdant green, mossy green to moldy green. Nothing fruited.  I harvested no honey this year from my hives, no just because bees cannot fly in the rain, but because the rain washes away the pollen. So, even though everything was blooming for an extended period, no pollinizing, no fruiting. No eggplant. No peppers except the ones that grew in pots on the covered porch. Tomatoes only started to form and ripen when the rain stopped.

This year I am scaling back on some of the crops I haven’t had much luck with, and decreasing the number of varieties of each crop. I’m also not going to follow a strict crop rotation.  This year’s objective will be to plant the entire garden by season and just plant over the previously planted crops. So, the whole garden gets planted with the earliest crops and overplanted with additional crops as the season/soil warms.  The added benefit is the whole garden will be mulched from the start.

Legumes (follow the Root crops)

Legumes need water.  We had water to spare so we had a bumper crop of sugar snap peas of all colors. I’ve given up cooking them because they are so sweet and colorful raw. I just chopped them into salad with some ricotta cheese and mint.  And I saved plenty of seeds when the season ended, but neglected to label which colors they were so it will be a mixed planting.  I’m thinking of germinating them indoors this year because they did start very slowly in 2023. The same goes for the shelling peas which did not have a good germination rate in 2023. I also need to stick to shorter varieties because with all the water the pea vines were falling over, nearly 6 feet long.  Fava beans, germinated well. It is a very economical, cold season plant, so 2023 I planted them closely in a double row for support.  It worked, but I think four rows deep would have worked better.  I also need to harvest from the tops to encourage bushing.  Oddly, this year, no-one is selling any variety of fava except “Broad Windsor”. Guess they are out of fashion again.  Fenugreek and lupine flowers are both members of the pea family and fix nitrogen into the soil. 2022 I planted lupines in the vegetable garden, because they are perennial, and 2023 they not only re-emerged, they bloomed. Very pretty. The fenugreek failed to grow again in 2023, so I’m taking a break from it for 2024.  It is a late spring/summer green and not a good use of space.  While I am on my way to mastering making the favas bushier, I failed to apply the same practice to the soy beans. I planted a single row, on the lower side of the garden, against the fence. They germinated well enough, in warm soil though, but then tried to climb, vinelike and yielded only 2 or 3 small pods per plant. I really like enjoy soybeans, so I will do better this year and plant them in a triple row. The purple bush beans did poorly. It’s a hardy variety I have settled on, but they need sun, and we had none.  The runner beans, pole beans and noodle beans did not make it into the ground soon enough.  Time was an issue.  But I don’t think it would have mattered because of the rains.  The pole beans I did plant flowered in October and were just starting to fatten in November when the frost got them.  Still very interested in beans, so will try again, 3 sisters method with the corn and squash, time permitting.  One thing concerning me about the legumes, and the perennial red clover and lupines is that my soil may be too high in nitrogen.  I think this year I had better test in the spring and apply some lime.   

Brassica – Cole - Green Crops (follow the legumes)

In February 2024 I started kale in the greenhouse boxes in early February, because the winter was so mild.  Everything germinated and grew.  It was ready to eat by mid-March.  The kale was prolific. A lot of it self-seeded in the garden, regrew because it is biannual and I even transplanted some. And then I actually germinated and grew some from seed. The red Russian variety is starting to pop up everywhere, sort of like the runaway red mustard. This year I am buying no kale seeds because I still have plenty of seeds leftover. Despite the giant India mustard having gone feral ten years ago, I found a green, cut leaf mustard that, aside from being cold hardy and eye-catching, is supposed to taste like wasabi.  I both grew from seed and purchased seedlings of cauliflower in 2023 and it did not mature. So, this year I will stick to seedlings, the Fioretto branching variety and green pyramid type Romanesco.  But I still want to try growing a multiheaded, miniature cauliflower the size of eggs, from seed.   The only broccoli I grew in 2023 was a long stemmed Chinese variety that was pencil texture and width. So, this year I will try boccolini, which should be a bit meatier, and I have found a perennial broccoli rabe from Turkey that I have to decide where to permanently propagate. The brussels sprouts were a disappointment, again, so taking a break this year, until I randomly buy seedlings again and have to find somewhere to stick them.  They are tediously long to maturity and need a lot of sun. The companion planting with sweet potatoes and bush beans was a success, however. I might plant them in the potato bags this year. I planted cabbage seedlings that only grew to the size of grapefruit, combination of not liking their location in the garden and too much rain.  The companion planting with celeriac and petunias was good, however. I will do seedlings again.  Escarole and endives, there is a difference – escarole being more loose-leafed and endive more cabbage like. They seem to have lost out in popularity to Asian greens.  Can’t find interesting seeds anywhere. I did grow some last year and was very satisfied.  It is like a bitter lettuce that can be sauteed with garlic. It is also cold hardy and long standing, and grows from seed. Collards I did not grow and I regretted.  This year I will plant them over the bush beans and sweet potatoes instead of brussels sprouts. Chinese cabbage is quick growing and early, so it should not be allotted any permanent space because it is done so quickly. I grew several varieties in 2023 but squashed them into a corner of the garden they don’t like so they were thin and straggly.  Claytonia was a fail again in 2023, due to too much water and shade.  It needs its own space and it does need some sun.  Like Chinese cabbage, I should plant it in all available space and then just plant over it. Arugula was one of the only greens that did well in 2023. It should regrow this year but because of the chickens (see below) I am going to plant a lot more. Purple orach , magenta velvet spinach that grows on tall spikes, I have found grows best in clumps, and is so beautiful I always want more. I am going to plant it with the lupines for color compliment. Chard needs a little more sun that we had in 2023.  I have decided I prefer the flavor of silver, rather than red. Red tastes too much like beets. So, I’m going back to giant silver heirloom.  Salad burnett, a fernlike perennial that tastes of cucumber, died out, helped along by the chickens (see below). I will plant it again, but not in the fenced in garden. I did manage to germinate cardoons, looks like alo vera and tastes like artichoke, but the seedlings died off. So I will buy seedlings this year.  It is perennial and grows to bush size so I will not plant it in the fenced garden. I am growing a short, spinach variety of amaranth this year, rather than the tall seeding type.

The Asian greens were a fail this year due to cramping them into a dark corner.  I will plant them everywhere this year because they are early and fast growing. Green tatsoi is the best – nice crisp rosettes of spoon shaped leaves, neither too peppery nor bitter. I always grow it from seed.

Fruits (follow the Brassica and Greens)

Sweet corn is a terrible waste of time. Either I plant it and the groundhog digs it up, it germinates and the crows pull it out, it grows and does not fruit, it fruits and the squirrels knock it down and eat it.  Why do I bother?  Because fresh picked sweet corn tastes sooooooo good! And Burpee seed company does a centerfold of garden porn sweet corn.  I resisted their new, bubblegum pink sweet corn because I have not liked the taste of any vegetables that have red color bred in.  Red seems to impart a more earthy, dirt flavor that does not go well with cauliflower, romaine, carrots or chard. The sweet corn has to be grown in the orchard. There isn’t space for it anywhere else.  I bought some decorative “gem” corn last year that is popping corn and failed to plant it.  I will grow that in containers this year.  I do have a better track record with popcorn.  Tomatoes did okay this year because they were in the part of the garden they do best in.  And they flowered and fruited after the rain, so they weren’t edible until late September.  I scaled it back last year to just six varieties and I will do the same again.  Really liked the “evil olive” cherry tomatoes – green on the outside and red inside.  But I am buying seedlings this year instead of starting my own. Eggplants, although they germinated abundantly, did not get enough heat or sun. So, this year I am buying plants instead of germinating seeds.  Peppers, even though they like a little less sun and a little more water, did not fruit in the 2023 deluge.  The exception was the few I grew in pots on the front covered porch.  I’m buying a few plants and germinating a couple interesting varieties to grow in pots. The okra was a failure this year as well.  It needs light and air.  Everything that grew, overgrew so the okra didn’t have a chance.  The one plant that produced anything was in the back of the garden with the tomatoes.  Since I am not doing crop rotation this year, I will interplant the tomatoes and okra. And I will stick with a small, dwarf variety meant for short season so I actually harvest enough at the same time to pick them very young and tender. Melons did germinate directly sown and the vines did grow up to 6 feet.  But the rain killed their pollination so they never fruited.  I am going to try again with one or two small varieties that I can grow under the okra.  Zucchini, I germinated and grew quite successfully. Enjoyed the blossoms and the fruits.  Interplanting with nasturtiums is a must.  The patty pan summer squash on the other hand rotted out fast. Winter squash, watermelons and pumpkins were never planted due to the miss on the corn planting. Going to try again this year, in the orchard. Focusing on small, short season watermelons and a few favorite varieties of squash and pumpkin, except that I have so many seeds I may just plant them everywhere.

Alliums

For the alliums, the garlic crop was again terrible.  I have moved it to the front flower bed by the driveway, but the weeds overtook and when it was time to mow down the spent daffodils, the entire bed was mowed.  This past fall I replanted 3 rows of standard garlic, and a row of elephant garlic, interplanted with parsnips.  And this spring I will stake and mulch the rows to they are not mowed down.  I was so happy with the big purple globe alliums growing in the hugle that I bought a new variety that grows close to the ground and is the size of a cannon ball.  I planted about 20 of them in the front flower bed.  Egyptian walking onions made it through the winter but never bloomed. I suspect they may have drowned.  I should probably order new ones.  The chives did not germinate, probably washed away.  I need to focus on planting them in other places, like flower beds.  Every bunch of scallions I get in my organic garden box I replant the bottom ½ inch with the roots and it re-grows. So not going to start from seed anymore.  Likewise, I just regrow onions from the bottom ½ inch piece of every one I use. Leeks needed more sun– no leeky dance! I only planted seedlings instead of growing my own from seed. But they never grew more than the size of scallions. They also don’t like that side of the garden, so I will by seedlings again and plant them elsewhere – companion planting with carrots does not work. Nor does intermingling them with nasturtiums. I will plant them along the border of flower beds.

Roots (follow the fruits)

            Root vegetables were a bust this year. I think it is a combination of soil being too rich for the spring varieties and the summer being to wet and cool for the later varieties. This doesn’t excuse the fact I never planted the fall succession, however.  Beets, I still stand by the long, tapered variety because they save space, but they did not germinate well this year. Thin roots, straggly tops. I don’t think they like that side of the garden.  Turnips are usually reliable and preformed as poorly the beets.  I had plenty of the long, carrot-like, purple Japanese turnips in succession plantings, but can’t find any seeds for sale this season, so I’m going to try long, black skinned, sweet tunip with very tasty tops, and a red-skinned variety that has very sweet and tender tops.  Radishes were like a pile of twisted green snakes that smothered and rotted all over everything near them.  The tops were stringy and 4 feet long. I even tried cutting them back but they regrew and their roots stayed slender threads. Again, overly fertile soil and they don’t like that area of the garden. This year I am planting an improved French breakfast type, that tastes like a bloody mary, and a Chinese sweet-hot daikon. Carrots, germinated and then just died off, under the rotting radish tops.  They also don’t like that side of the garden, right next to the chicken coop.  Too much nitrogen leaching into the soil. This year I am planting one variety only and will focus on timing succession planting with rows of lettuce.  Celeriac (celery root), I found seedlings and interplanted with cabbage and parsley did really well. However, cabbage did not like that location, and because celeriac is cold hardy and holds in the field, I delayed harvest and the chickens destroyed them (see below). The lovage, a “cutting” celery which is actually a carrot relative, is perennial and grows untouched by deer or rodents, never made it into the ground, so I still have the seeds and the space. But how much lovage do you actually need?  Parsnips I planted in the late fall, with the garlic, and it did germinate, so hopefully we get a harvest in the summer. I am also buying more seed to continue planting next fall.  This year I discovered caramelized roasted parsnips.  I did end up planting some salsify in the front flower bed last spring, but it was mowed down with the garlic.  But it is perennial, so hopefully it comes back. The milk thistle was likewise planted and mowed. It is not perennial so I will re-plant.  I very successfully germinated rutabaga, the one root crop that likes nitrogen, which is why you plant it with the peas.  It would however have done better with more sun. The roots were only the size of lemons and before I could harvest them, the chickens destroyed them.  I am not sure I will grow them again or where, but I do have leftover seeds. Parsley root, I did not bother with, and will not this year.  I prefer to focus on parsnips, flat lead parsley and lovage which sort of covers the flavor category of parsley roots. Potatoes: did much better in bags on the patio where they had better drainage and heat. I will use the bag method again.  I’m being tempted by Burpee into buying a small, nubby south American potato cousin variety called Ozette. It is grown very successfully in the Northwest so hopefully wet, cloudy weather doesn’t bother it.  Sweet potatoes:  I had huge success germinating slips from store bought, exotic sweet potatoes. But like every other root crop in the garden, got just red roots instead of tubers. We certainly germinate my own again and potentially grow some in bags on the patio. Maca (the Peruvian radish with ginseng qualities), did not grow any because it is a space hog.  I might germinate a few and try them in the front flowerbed.

            Certain herbs and flowers are really beneficial to the vegetable garden so I planted tarragon and marjoram in the garden.  They are both perennial so I have some hope they will regrow and spread.  However, the garden flooded several times this past fall and the chickens did a job tilling, so may have to replant.  I have found the variety of Marigolds I like and save the seeds. They are large yellow and orange, imperial chrysanthemum shaped. I will plant them with the okra since marigolds repel harmful nematodes like the ones that are attracted to okra. Nasturtiums are one of my favorite plants that I always plant. The leaves and blossoms taste like bell peppers. They are good in salad ad on eggs. I always companion plant them with squash and zucchini. this year I am trying an extreme vining variety that grows to 6 feet.

            Herbs in the garden of course include basil, and I had very good luck with the basil I grew in pots on the covered front porch.  It likes a bit of shade and this year I will plant it under the tomatoes.  Borage attracts pollinators and is a decoy for aphids. I have not planted it in several years since it self seeds and has regrown randomly in my garden.  The flooding may, however, have washed it away so I am going to get more seeds, freeze them a day or two before planting them as soon as the soil can be worked.   

And then, there is the rest of the property.

      The Front Acre. No rest from the daffodil project.  Another 300 bulbs planted in November, all at the front of the property.  But I also planted 100 more fairy crocus (called “tommies”) up near the house, and more “glory of the snow” and blue bottles.  The primroses I planted near the house bloomed until Christmas, so I picked up six more around New Year’s, to keep as house plants until spring. I re-seeded the front bed with garlic and parsnips.  Will mulch in the spring so they aren’t accidentally mowed again.  Also planted some large, cannonball like alliums in the front.  Every year I get a single chanterelle mushroom growing just outside the front bed, so this year I saved it, blended it with milk and molasses and spread it back on the lawn, hoping to get a bunch of them in the spring.  The Japanese barberry bushes have been removed from around the mailbox. Ripped all six out with ropes and a truck.  Now there are just the 6 in the lower side woodline to remove. The iris are flourishing in the swale.  The buttonbushes were doing well until they got mowed.  Have to plant some more button bushes, to replace the barberries. And identify some more wet/sun loving shrubs.    

The Orchard.  This year, despite a mild case of curly leaf fungus (makes the leaves bubble like toad skins), the peach tree fruited massively. The peach tree was branches bowed to the ground with fruit. I think it produced 4 bushels of fruit which all ripened on the same day and dropped and rotted in a week! I lost both plum trees to black stem rot fungus. They have to be removed, entirely, and taken away from the property. All the apples and pears had orange rust fungus again. Lost my new yellow pear, the sugar pear and white pear survived.  I’m concerned the lower half of the orchard is not draining sufficiently, so I need to fix that and order another pear and 2 plum trees. The comfrey is flourishing in the orchard and the chickens love to eat it because it is a high protein, low fiber green. The chives did not.  The blackberry patch limps along.  My quince and a medlar trees in the back corner got mowed down.  The weeping persimmon I planted 4 years ago is still alive but not growing.

Bee-Keeping. Both sets of bees (call them B5) are dead.  These hives didn’t even make it to Christmas. They arrived strong and healthy, were immediately installed. The blue hive had already begun making wax combs in transit so their queen was obviously ready to lay eggs.  I figured that hive would move right along. The lilac hive bees had not done any building in transit and their queen looked suspiciously skinny, so I figured she had not yet taken her mating flight and that hive would be a slower start.  The opposite ended up being the case. The lilac hive got up to full population of 10,000+ by June. The population of the blue hive looked low, all summer and they struggled to fill the two deep hive boxes. Regardless, it was such a wet summer we harvested no honey from either hive.  And although they both had sufficient honey and pollen going into October, by Christmas, both hives were dead.  Planning for this year, I think Carolinian breed bees, while very docile, as not hardy enough for the Northeast. I also don’t enjoy fretting while they are in transit through the postal service.  So, this year I intend to buy and pick up 2 overwintered nucs (a five-frame brood and their established queen) from upstate NY (B6).       

Hugelkultur. (You have to say that word with guttural gusto!) What??  It is the method of building a raised bed over buried logs. I ignored the hugle this year because I was focused on other things and once the thistle starts growing, weeding gets prickly. Timing is everything. The whole hugel must be heavily munched with cardboard and woodchips in the spring. To date we have the following survivors: 2 viburnum, 2 rhododendrons, one hydrangea tree and 2 grey dogwoods.  Both pagoda dogwoods and sunrise redbuds died, as well as the azaleas and elderberries.  The goldenrod, wormwood, yarrow and thistle all persist. I want to plant another hydrangea tree and some New Jersey tea bushes. I also want to plant a couple of holly trees for short, evergreen privacy barrier.

Chickens. This is year 8 of keeping chickens.  Went into 2023 with 6 chickens. It was perfectly clear I would need to buy new chickens, but not before getting rid of our murderess Rhode Island Red (a.k.a “Red”). Our blue favacuana suddenly developed wry neck and passed away within a week – helped along by Red attacking her while she was down.  That was the last straw. I advertised Red on the local poultry website as a good layer who needed to be part of a large, free-range flock preferably with roosters to referee (Roosters don’t let the hens kill eachother). And a farmer from north of here was glad to take her into exactly that type of flock. So suddenly it was June and I had only 4 chickens left: our beinefelder, speckled Sussex, black copper maran and salmon favarolle. I was about to start looking for new chickens when the bienfelder hen went seriously broody. I immediately ordered fertile eggs online and got them under her, except that she moved nests. So I ended up splitting the 12 eggs between 4 nests and she eventually settled on 4. Then she broke two. The 3rd one hatched and 3 days later it was squashed. The 4th egg was rotten.  Then suddenly our salmon favarolle hen went broody and I ordered 6 eggs to put under her.  She sat on them but a few days after, when she left the nest to get water, the bienfelder sat on the eggs and for the next 15 days both hens were sitting in that box at the same time. None of those eggs hatched.  Buy the time the broody hens were finished, it was September.  And I panicked and bought 8 new, four month old hens. I meant to get just four more, but impulsively bought double. I got 2 olive egg layers, 1 buff Orpington, 1 lavender Orpington, 1 blue splash ameracuna, 1 black splash ameracuna, 1 black astrolorp and 1 cream legbar.  With Red gone, the new chickens integrated easily.  In November when the weather finally turned cold, some of my new chickens, still light enough to fly, started hopping the fence between the run and my garden.  And since they were not smart enough to get back over at bed time, I decided to cut a door in the fence at ground level and let the flock clean the garden for me.  In just 60 days they have in bare and scratched like a newly tilled field.  Standing crop of celeriac and rutabaga gone.  I’m thinking the lupines, tarragon and marjoram may not have survived either.  Ground is frozen now, so the chickens are just spreading the straw, leaves, manure and compost around.  I will have to close up the hole before spring, and let them into the orchard instead.       

The Herb Garden.  I did not even attempt to save the rosemary this year. The excess water had the herb garden severely overgrown so the lawncare guys decided to mow it at the beginning of August and that really set everything back. The rosemary did regrow somewhat. The Egyptian walking onions did not.  The thyme was low to begin with. The sorrel and chives rebounded, as did the oregano.  The sage disappeared. The basil was happy on the covered porch, as was the parsley. The lemon balm rebounded somewhat but I still see some black spot fungus on it, so I need to treat the area with more neem oil.  The catnip has turned into bushes that need to be relocated. The mint seems to be rebounding as well, but only along the patio edge, uphill from the bed that has black spot fungus. I did not plant the angelica. Cumin never germinated. I want to plant hyssop and winter savory. I am thinking of growing more herbs in pots this year.  The oregano needs to be divided.

#zone 5b backyard gardening

[jeninthegarden]

2023 Seed List

Up, up and away!

There was no fall planting.  The summer’s drought really killed the fall harvest and depressed my gardening spirit. So, there will be no rest this spring! Timing is everything, particularly in the spring. The trellises must go up as soon as the soil can be worked.  The peas and pea fences must be removed promptly so that they do not shade over seedlings and so the rutabaga can be planted in their place.  The root crops and spinach and lettuce must be thinned sooner. The corn has to be planted sooner so it is strong enough for the beans. The tomatoes/eggplants/peppers must be separated and repotted sooner so they get bigger before they are transplanted. The greenhouse box greens have to be eaten sooner.  The plants need to be fertilized at the correct time. The fences and gates must be secured, and stay secured so that the groundhog doesn’t get in.  Some plants (corn, squash, sunflowers) must be germinated inside so the squirrels do not dig up the seeds and sprouts.  Some plants (eggplant, peppers) must not be transplanted out until June because the sun’s angle will burn them in the spring.

Note that if I can, I purchase from PineTree Seeds because their prices are the lowest, always. This year, Johnny Seed has been the most expensive, so I have limited my purchases from them.  I’ve also tried to get more seeds from Hudson Valley Seeds and Fruition Seeds because both companies are actually in my planting zone and offering seed varieties that grow here, and that I should therefor be able to grow here without too much difficulty. Note to self: many of my seed orders have come with a “10% off your next order” coupon, so I’m being rewarded for forgetting to order certain seeds, or for impulse shopping after my seed shopping is done.

The following seed list is comprised of just the edibles I am ordering.

Legumes:

Bush beans: “Velour” – no surprise.  A compact, bush-habit plant, very heavy-bearing bright purple, stringless pods over a long season.  This is my top choice for bush beans. Very heat and drought tolerant. This past season it was the only summer bean to produce.  Finding it can be tricky, but this year I ordered it from PineTree Seeds.

Fava beans- I have a pack of Pinetree Seeds “Varoma” left from last year. “Sweet Loran” from Territorial Seeds is a fall sown variety that takes 250 days to germinate, so I’m committing to some fall sowing this year.  But I am also buying “Aquadulce” from RH Shumway, which is the fastest growing variety, ready in just 80 days.

Noodle beans – I bought the delicious, nutty flavored. “Yardlong Red” from the Vermont Bean Seed Company last year and never got them in the ground. So will work on getting the trellises up early, since these are too heavy to grow on the corn stalks.

Pole beans- Not getting the corn planted meant none of these were planted. I still have Vermont Bean Seed Company’s “Tarbais” a small white, pole bean from a little village in the south of France of the same name, which are cassoulet beans, and “Succotash”, a marble shaped, black, pole bean that can be dried, which is thought to have originated in Rhode Island by the Narragansett Indian Tribe. “Winged Bean” aka asparagus bean was weird looking and weird tasting and I have grown it with limited success, so, yeah I bought some more (from PineTree Seeds).

Runner beans: Likewise, the runner beans were never planted. So, I have 2 packets of “Black Coat”, an ancient heirloom from Pinetree (which is a red-blossomed, black bean) left to be planted this year.  

Shelling Peas: Going with “Alaska Early” again, from Territorial Seeds, just 57 days to maturity. And “Wando” from Eden Brothers which is both heat and drought tolerant.

Snap Peas: These produced well and were very tasty. We will plant all these again. “Sugar Magnolia”, which have violet pods, and “Spring Blush” a pink-tinted pod, and “Opal Creek” which are a golden green color, all from Pinetree.

Soybeans- I ordered “Karikachi” soybeans from Pinetree seeds, which are supposed to be tall and prolific. They certainly germinated well last year, but the groundhog was the only one to enjoy them.

 Fruits:

“Cardoon” from Fruition Seeds – they are perennial, so I thought I’d attempt them this year.

Corn – “Sweetness” a fast-growing robust stalk sweet corn, and “Kandy Korn” a taller, standard season sweet corn, both from Territorial Seeds.

Cucumber- “Early Cluster Russian” from R H Shumway is a prolific, climbing cucumber. “Double-Yield” from Territorial Seeds is a vigorous and hardy variety good for pickling and slicing.

Eggplant – I decided to go with a Japanese fingerling “Ping Tung” and a standard globe Italian “Black Beauty”, both from Fruition Seeds because they are cultivated successfully in a nearby location.

Gourds- No gourds this year! This statement will be revised later when I impulsively buy gourd seeds.

Melon – They all germinated last year, but none grew or blossomed.  Bought more “Iroquois Cantaloupe” (standard sized, thickly netted skin, good northern grower) from Hudson Valley Seed. And I bought “Navajo Gold” (a smooth skinned, yellow fleshed melon) from PineTree Seeds.

Okra – “Jambalaya” from Territorial Seeds is a cold hardy, compact plant.

 Pepper – “Pica Chile Mix” (a mix of hot pepper seeds) from Hudson Valley Seed Company.  “Fish Hot Pepper” an African cultivar, and “Monster yellow” an 8 inch bell peppers from Baker Creek. I still have a lot of saved seeds (also hot peppers) from making cowboy candy in the fall, so I will start some more.  I don’t want to talk about Datil peppers of Saint Augustine, Florida right now; like the gourds, impulse buying is not hard to imagine.

Tomatoes – “Black Beauty” a blue/black beefsteak tomato, “Evil olive” a black, red and green cherry tomato, “Big Rainbow” a yellow, red, orange striped beefsteak tomato, “Bread and Salt” red, beefsteak tomato, all from Baker Creek.  I have several varieties left from last year: “Climbing Triple Crop”, a red beefsteak that climbs 10-15 feet, “Pineapple” a beefsteak heirloom that is yellow with red blotches, and “Pork Chop” which is a large beefsteak yellow with dark green stripes. And I stumbled on a new hybrid from Fruition Seeds called “Finger Lakes Long Paste” that is a prolific and cold hardy paste tomato developed by Cornell University.

 Watermelon: “Golden Midget” from Eden Brothers which is small and early fruiting with a yellow rind and pink interior. “Blacktail Mountain” from Baker Creek, smaller and cold hardy, green rind and pink flesh, easy to grow.

Winter Squash and pumpkins: “Cornell's Bush Delicata” (a bush variety delicata – I love delicata because it’s thin skin is edible when roasted), “Violina Rugosa Butternut” (a skinnier, elongated butternut with a very small seed cavity), “Long Island Cheese Pumpkin” (a very meaty round, orange squash) from Hudson Valley Seed Company.  I have leftover also bought “Baked Potato” winter squash from Burpee. “Jarrahdale Blue pumpkin” a blue, dense pumpkin with meaty flesh for savory dishes, and “Marina de Chioggia” a warty, green pumpkin that is best for sweets and pies, both from Baker Creek.

Zucchini- I still have leftover seeds: Vermont Bean Seed Company catalogue “Vermont Hybrid Medley” pack of 4 types of zucchini: green, green-gold, gold and yellow, that are all compact bush varieties that grow well in the Northeast; a round green, French heirloom variety called “Rond de Nice”; a pale green, patty pan summer squash called “Peter Pan” from Burpee which is described as much meatier than other patty pan squash; and “Scalloped Blend” from Eden Brothers, of 6 different colored patty pan squash.

Roots:

Beets: “Brilliant Beet Blend” from Hudson Valley Seed Company. But then, because I want beet greens, I bought “Early Wonder Tall Top” from PineTree Seeds.

Carrot: pelleted seeds was a waste.  So back to regular seeds, I’ve ordered “Oxheart” a round ball carrot and “Chanteney” a long variety, from PineTree Seeds.   And I ordered “Rainbow Mix” from Eden brothers.

Celeriac: “Balena” from Johnny Seed, a larger and bolt resistant hybrid.

Parsley Root: “Arat” from Pinetree is a long, slender root that tastes like a cross between carrots and celeriac.

Parsnips: Ordered “Warrior” from Territorial Seed which is a foot long variety.

Potatoes:  going back to growing them in containers. I will buy some from the store and sew them to avoid the horrible shipping costs. But am wanting to try Row 7’s butter flavored potato.

Radish:  “Karami Green” is a green radish that is supposed to taste like wasabi.  “Cherry Bell” is a 3-week radish good for spring or fall panting. Both are from Territorial Seeds. “Red King” a large, sweet daikon radish from Johnny Seed.

Rutabaga: “American Purple Top” from Eden Brothers, a good winter keeper with orange flesh.

Sweet Potatoes: “Japanese Marasaki” growing my own slips over winter.  Will grow in containers.

Turnips: “Hinona Kabu Japanese” from Pinetree, these look like pink carrots and are specifically for pickling. Very good crop so I bought them again. “Purple Top” from RH Shumway, a traditional white globe, sweet turnip.

Greens:

Arugula: “Arugula” the fast growing spring variety from PineTree Seeds.

Chard: “Silverado Chard” large, white from Hudson Valley Seed Company.

“Claytonia” from Baker Creek. It is a succulent green that looks like a bouquet of little lily pads.

Escarole:  “Bavarian Broadlead” from Eden brothers.

“Fenugreek” from Eden Brothers. Not popular – nobody else is selling them.

“Ice Lettuce” from Pinetree, which is not actually lettuce. It did not germinate last year, so I will try again.

Lettuce: “Flashy Butter Oak”, “Buttercrunch Bibb”, and “Blushed Butter Oak” lettuces from Hudson Valley Seed Company. “Chicken Lettuce” from R H Shumway is a lettuce that re-grows quickly and can withstand nibbling from chickens.

Mache: “Mache Green” from PineTree seeds because it was on sale.

“Mitsuba” from Pinetree. It’s Japanese parsley, or Chinese celery. It tastes like parsley-celery? Did not germinate last year so I bought it to try again.

Nettles: “Stinging Nettle” from Hudson Valley Seed Company, never made it into the ground.

Orach: “Red Orach” from Baker Creek; a violet red, velvet leafed spinach that grows on an 18 inch, upright stalk.

Purslane: “Goldberger” from PineTree Seeds.

Radicchio: “Fiero” a green with burgundy edges, upright radicchio that looks like romaine lettuce from Johnny Seeds.

“Saltwort” from Pinetree, a succulent that actually tastes salty.

Spinach: “Bloomsburg Long Standing” from Eden Brothers is a bolt resistant, upright meaty dark green leaf.

“Watercress” from Baker Creek.

Winter Mache: “New York Hardy Mache” 250 Seeds from Fruition Seeds

Winter Mesclun: “Winter Green Mesclun Mix” 400 Seeds from Fruition Seeds

Winter Spinach: “Giant Winter Spinach” 175 Seeds from Fruition Seeds

Brassica:

Asian Greens: “Tatsoi Greens” from Hudson Valley Seed Company.  The gold standard for large rosettes, spoon-shaped leaves, tenderness, mild flavor.

Broccoli: “Noble Jade” a Chinese broccoli kale, “Bonarda” a purple, sprouting broccoli that can over-winter,  both from Johnny Seed.  For standard broccoli I will buy local seedlings.  

Chinese Cabbage: “Tokyo Bekana” is a Chinese cabbage that looks like a very pale, lemon-lime chard.  “Miss Hong” a red Chinese cabbage that is tall and pointy leafed like romaine lettuce.  Both from Johnny Seed.

Cauliflower: “Baby Hybrid” a small 3 inch heads with edible leaves, from RH Shumway.  Other than that, I will buy seedlings of “Fioretto” an open head, branching cauliflower.

Collards: “Morris Heading Collards” from RH Shumway is a bit like Portuguese Kale. “Hen Pecked” from Fruition Seeds, looks like Russian Kale – a bit lacy, maybe thinner and easier for the chickens to eat.

Kale: “Sea Kale” perennial seeds from PineTree seeds.  “Thousand Head” a monster kale with smooth, 3 foot leaves from Baker Creek.

And, because they seem to go with the brassicas in planting rotations, the alums:

Chives: “Common Chives” 400 more seeds from Fruition Seeds to start right after Christmas.

Garlic:  Will purchase seed garlic locally and plant in the fall.

Leek: “Tadorna” from Fruition Seeds. 75 Seeds to start right after Thanksgiving. But just to hedge my bets, I ordered 50, pencil width seedlings of “Lancelot” from RH Shumway.

Onion: I am doing the regrow project

Scallions: I am doing the scallion regrow project.

Shallots: “Cuisse du Poulet du Poitou Shallot” from Fruition Seeds are shallots the size of a chicken thigh.

Flowers for companion planting:

Cosmos:  I ordered the Park Seed “Cups & Saucers”.  

“Edible Flower Mix” from Hudson Valley Seed Company

Marigold:  benefits so many things in the garden. I not only grew the bigger “Mission Giant Yellow” which looks like an imperial chrysanthemum, blossoms 3 inches across, I saved lots of the seeds and will plant them again this year. It is also taller so it can be planted with taller plants. And I bought the orange version “Spun Gold” from Baker Creek.

Nasturiums: “Tall Mix” from Eden Brothers.

Zinnias: “Benary Mix” from Eden Brothers.

Herbs for companion planting:

Basil: “Queen of Siam” Thai basil, and “Mammoth” lettuce leaf sized basil, from Eden Brothers

Borage: I have seeds left from previous years, and it self-seeds.

Dill: “Elephant” long standing, bolt resistant from Eden Brothers.

“Lovage” a 6 foot, perennial cutting celery from Baker Creek.

Marjoram:  I will purchase locally

Tarragon: I will purchase locally and interplant some with the Rosemary.

Angelica: “Holy Ghost” by Eden Brothers.

Grains and Seeds:

Poppy Seeds:  “Breadseed Poppy” flowers from Hudson Valley Seed Company.  Because.

Amaranth: “Red Garnet” from Pinetree, profuse edible leaves.

Millet- The chickens love millet. “Red Millet” from Fruition Seeds.

[jeninthegarden]

The Grand Experiment

2022: “I am going to narrow down the scope and plant more but with less variety.  Enough experimenting.” (???)  

Did I really say I was going to stop experimenting? Upon reflection, I don’t think that is possible, because I think every season is an experiment. It doesn’t matter what you “know” how to grow.  The natural elements are never the same year to year so the results are never the same. Things I have never grown successfully suddenly bloom, while things I take for granted suddenly don’t even germinate.  Then there are those stubborn cultivars that fail no matter what, which brings out my stubborn streak and I plant them year after year. Finally, there are new hybrids being created all the time and they are always in the front few pages of the seed catalogues.  Sometimes I get the crazy idea I should just buy and plant the newest hybrid of every vegetable, every year, and abandon every tried and true variety. Now, Cornell University has started creating its own hybrid seeds, for sale through the Row 7 Seed Company. Their mission is to specifically improve the taste of vegetables. I am particularly interested in trying to grow their butter flavored potatoes, that you would presumably be able to eat without added butter.

This past year I was extremely methodical. I planted the leeks at Christmas.  I started spinach and arugula and kale in the greenhouse boxes in February. As soon as the soil could be worked, I planted the greens and sugar snap peas and fava beans. Timing was everything and I had excellent success with using gardening row covers to hold moisture in the soil and increase germination.  I did better with directly sown seeds than with transplants. I was inspired by Petra, from Fruition Seeds, who advised planting tomatoes, eggplants and peppers in go cups in clumps of 10-15 seeds.  It worked wonderfully – every single seed germinated.  But then I tried to repot and propagate every single seed and ended up with far too many to handle.  I need to not do that again.

The garden layout was a masterpiece.  I rotated the crops, and I got it all planted and mulched. The spring harvest was excellent.  Lots of greens. I successfully grew and transplanted lots of kale from the greenhouse boxes.  Do not bother transplanting lettuce and spinach – it bolts.  This year I will just harvest and eat the tender greens right from the boxes.  Kale, however, and to a good extent the orach (which is upright growing anyway), arugula (biannual) and parsley (biannual) transplant from the greenhouse boxes to the garden very well.  

Then came the drought.  From the 15th of July to September 1, we had no rain. Nothing grew. I got green tomatoes, in October. No eggplant. No peppers.  The cabbage heads are the size of oranges. Kale grew 6 feet tall. No okra. No melons, cucumbers or squash.  I lost a couple fruit trees and planted a couple more.  The lack of rain led to a lack of clover which led to a lack of honey. Half our lavender field failed.  I lost 6 of my chickens and bought 4 more.

Not only was our groundhog present this year, it had a hoglet this spring so there were two of them. I fortified by chicken pen fences to keep the fox out and the groundhogs kept breaking in to get to the kitchen scraps and the cracked corn, so to save the fence I built a cinderblock tunnel under the fence, just big enough for the groundhogs but too small for the fox and the groundhogs can now come and go as they wish.

And then a skunk moved in. Close call - I arrived home late one October evening and hustled across my back yard in the dark, just wanting to grab the eggs from the chicken coop. Miraculously I managed to stop my headlong charge about 10 feet from a skunk that was directly in my path.  I did a lightening U-turn as it started to raise its tail and dashed back to the safety of the porch. And to think I was having uncharitable thoughts about the person sitting next to me on the train that evening and their too sparing use of deodorant.  While it was a near thing, and I was very glad not to be boiling myself in tomato juice the next morning, I am fine with our resident skunk, as I am with all the wildlife in our neighborhood (we don’t have a bear, yet - a bear would not be a happy addition).  I alerted all the neighbors who have dogs they walk after dark. But generally speaking skunks are friendly animals. They are rather smaller than raccoons, and slower, and don’t climb. They cannot knock over your garbage cans.  Their main diet is grubs, in the lawn, particularly in the fall when grubs are nice and fat and burrowed in for the winter, but the ground is not yet frozen.  Skunks are nocturnal but do not hibernate.  They don’t like snow however, so they do hunker down in their dens for warmth during period of extended snow cover.  When it comes to dens, while they are excellent diggers, they prefer to move into existing fox, rabbit or groundhog dens and will even cohabitate with groundhogs (while they force foxes and rabbits out). Their main predator is the owl (which cannot smell), and automobiles.  Their lifespan is 5 years.  So very likely our resident skunk lives on our cul de sac (as opposed to in the adjoining nature preserve) because it likes grassy lawns, and does not need a lot of water.  And it has two magnificent groundhog burrows to choose from (one on front lawn directly across from mine and one in my orchard).  So, have to be careful stumbling around in the yard after dark, but otherwise we have yet another beautiful addition to our healthy neighborhood habitat.

  Legumes (follow the Root crops)

Legumes need water.  Last spring there was plenty of water so we had a bumper crop of sugar snap peas of all colors – green, lemon, burgundy, blush. I prefer them raw or blanched to preserve the color, flavor and texture. We even had good shelling peas. And, while I am lazy and like eating the whole snap pea pod, there is still something nostalgic and self-indulgently decadent about eating raw, freshly shelled peas, particularly right in the garden without any preparing or sharing. Not even fava beans, all nutty, buttery goodness, can match green garden peas.  To be sure, I had plenty of fava beans for comparison. I continue to be very satisfied with fava beans and fava leaves, flowers and stems, which are all delicious. Fava is a very economical, cold season plant.  I tried growing them in the tomato cages but they were too lanky with that much support, so this year I will try planting them closely in a triple row, the way the soy beans flourish to see if I can get taller but thicker stalks. Oddly, this year, no-one is selling more than a single variety of fava beans (“Broad Windsor”) except PineTree which carries 2 varieties and Territorial Seed which carries 5. Fenugreek and lupine flowers are both members of the pea family.  So, this past year I planted lupines in the vegetable garden, because they nourish the soil by trapping nitrogen.  And they are perennial, so like the wild red clover which pops up randomly, I intend to just plant around the lupines wherever they regrow.  The fenugreek is not perennial.  It is edible and does sequester nitrogen in the soil.  And the stems, leaves and blossoms are edible the way fava and okra plants are – salad or sauté.  However, fenugreek is a summer crop and failed in the drought.   The soy beans were a beautiful green, bush row just blooming when the groundhog decided it was time to harvest, squeezed under the gate and ate the entire row to eight-inch sticks. I like soybeans steamed in the pods and salted. I replanted but the drought foiled the germination.  The purple bush beans did very well. They are resilient and long season despite the weather.  I like them blanched to preserve their color, or raw in salads. The purple bean blossoms are also delectable raw, as a garnish for eggs, poached fish or chilled soups.  The runner beans, pole beans and noodle beans did not make it into the ground, mostly because the corn and squash never were planted so 3-sisters planting method for corn, beans and pumpkins did not happen. A mistake because the method works well in the southwest where it is hot and dry.  I’m going to prioritize them this year.  The timing for planting the corn is crucial because the corn needs a head start so the beans can grow up it.  

2. Brassica – Cole - Green Crops (follow the legumes)

My spring greens were a fabulous profusion.  I started kale, spinach, mache, tatsoi, Chinese cabbage and some romaine, claytonia and orach in the greenhouse boxes in late February.  Everything germinated and grew.  It was ready to eat by April. I made the mistake of waiting and transplanting it all at the beginning of May.  The kale was the only successful transplant (because kale is biannual).  I should just have harvested and eaten the rest right away.  I have the first round of kale, spinach, mache, tatsoi, mustard, mesclun and lettuce seeds already purchased and ready to be planted in the outdoor greenhouse boxes in another two weeks.  I very successfully germinated all the direct sown spring everything last year. This was achieved by using white, floating row cloth laid directly on the seeded beds for warmth and moisture retention. I successfully germinated the spinach, borage, salad burnett, all the choi, tatsoi, Chinese cabbage, orach and lettuce.  This year I am fixated on bib, butter and looseleaf lettuce.  I’ve been growing romaine for a decade and I’m tired of it. The spinach grew extra-ordinarily well in the greenhouse boxes. I don’t remember the last time I had such an excellent crop, so I will double down planting it direct seed with row covers to stabilize the soil moisture and temperature. Claytonia was a fail last year because of the lack of water. Can’t transplant claytonia out of the greenhouse boxes because it has only a single, very thin root. So, I will have to treat it like the spinach and try growing it under row covers.  I skipped escarole and endives last year and regretted it. It is cold hardy so I will try a bit in the greenhouse boxes and a bit for a fall crop.  I’m going to be an empty nester this fall, so I really should have time a fall garden and harvest.  Arugula is something I need to grow a hedge of!  Did not have nearly enough last year.  Grew a little in the greenhouse boxes but it did not transplant well, so I will just sow direct this year. Purple orach did well in the greenhouse boxes, but like arugula did not transplant well and I did not plant enough.  It grows tall and is best planted in clumps or thick rows for support. Fenugreek requires warmer soil temperatures for germination and by the time I planted it the weather was turning dry so it was scraggly and stunted. Chard had a similar problem.  Like the spinach, both need more constant moisture. Salad burnett did well and may actually survive the winter; it is an evergreen I have seen growing in botanical gardens and has a distinct cucumber flavor that goes well with raw shellfish. Purslane did not grow because of the lack of water. I will put it back in the orchard and in the big hugle this year. It is a succulent with a mild spinach-cucumber flavor eaten raw in salads. Ice Lettuce is a succulent with fleshy leaves that have a textured surface. In French it is known as “Ficoïde Glacial” or Crystalline Iceplant. Supposedly it has a salty, lemony flavor and can be cooked like spinach, accompanies seafood.  I’m thinking sorrel meets purslane. I tried growing artichokes and failed, again, so I tried cooking cardoons as a precursor to switch from growing artichokes to growing cardoons. Cardoons are quite tasty, very similar to artichoke hearts. And these are also perennial, evergreens that I have noticed in ornamental gardens. So, the deer must not care for them and I will plant them in the hugle and the orchard.

The Asian greens were excellent this past spring and had a great re-growth in the fall.  I planted everything I had left in this category and have decided green tatsoi is the best – nice crisp rosettes of spoon shaped leaves, neither too peppery nor bitter. I don’t like the chois as much, so because there are many new strains of tatsoi, I think I will go with those and the new varieties of Chinese cabbage, which is quick and early growing. Cabbages, cauliflower, broccoli and Romanesco were all purchased as seedlings and just did not grow because of the drought. I intend to purchase seedlings again as I have great difficulty germinating and transplanting them. However, I see a new variety of cauliflower called baby hybrid that have fist-sized heads. So, I bought those seeds. Highly likely they will end up the size of Brussel sprouts, but the leaves are edible so it can’t be a total loss. I also hope to locally purchase branching head cauliflower – deep fried or air-fried it is so good because it has more surface area to crisp and caramelize. It also holds the sauce better. Truffle butter, aioli or buffalo hot sauce are my favorites.

I had grand plants for the Brussel sprouts to shade the sweet potatoes in the raised bed this past summer, but the groundhog loves sweet potatoes and broke into that bed and ate all the Brussel sprouts while digging up all the sweet potatoes.  This year I will certainly buy plants rather than seeds. The kale was prolific. And it was in a good, sunny spot. I assume some will survive the winter. I am trying a new variety with 3 foot long leaves. The perennial kale died but I remain stubbornly interested so I bought some more seed.  I will attempt to find some seeds.  Did not plant enough collards this past year, so I am re-focused this year.  The collards do not germinate well in cold soil, so can’t start in the greenhouse boxes.

 3. Fruits (follow the Brassica and Greens)

I had every intention of planting corn for my 3 sisters pumpkin-bean-corn planting, but missing out on the window for corn planting (when the oak leaf buds are the size of a mouse ear) doomed the project. I bought some decorative “gem” corn that has yet to be planted, and I want to try sweet corn again.  I really do need to germinate the corn in buckets because the crows and the squirrels, chipmunks and groundhogs have a crazy good sense of smell and will dig up each and every corn kernel I plant.  Tomatoes. They were a disaster due to the lack of rain. I got stunted green tomatoes in October. They also do not get enough light or air planted along the fence.  Happily, due to crop rotation they are going back into a bed where they have flourished previously.  I now know the trick to germinating them, and will be more proactive about giving the extras away sooner so I can focus on the ones I keep. I am not buying any plants this year. Eggplants, although they germinated abundantly, limped along with too little water and not enough sun, and never fruited. Lessons learned: although we now know how to germinate them, they must not be transplanted out until June (to avoid scorching).  And they must be watered frequently (to avoid stunting) with plenty of air and light (to encourage fruiting).  Peppers, overwintering does not work when you have no new plants to overwinter. It is a biannual, not a perennial. Learned a lot of lessons similar to tomatoes and eggplants, but with a few differences.  Peppers can actually do with a bit less sun, and a bit more water.

The okra was a failure this year as well. It needs water and light and air. It does not transplant well so needs direct sowing and a mulch or blanket to keep the soil moist for germination. It was also crammed against a fence and did not thrive.  The biggest okra plants I’ve every grown were in containers on the patio or out in the orchard.  So, I will try both this year. Blossoms, leaves and shoots of okra are all very tasty. Blossoms can  be battered and fried like zucchini blossoms. While okra must not be grown with squash, it can be grown with melons. I have to remember to only plant the small, cold hearty version and must plant multiples so I actually harvest enough at the same time to pick them very young and tender. I like okra pods blistered on the grill and dipped in hummus with salt and chili powder. Unicorn (which, although it is eaten like okra, is actually “devil’s claw”, a member of the sesame family and a medicinal herb) failed again to germinate. This is like my Datil pepper saga.  I need to buy live plants, but they don’t exist. Melons did not blossom or fruit this past year victims of the drought.  Zucchini, winter squash and pumpkins were never planted due to the miss on the corn planting. Going to try again this year, in the main garden. Focusing on short vine/bushing varieties.

Alliums

For the alliums, the garlic crop was tiny!  I mean really tiny heads and small cloves. Very disappointing.  I did not plant more in the fall, so no garlic harvest this year. I will give thought to planting some in the coming fall. The purple globe alliums in the big hugle were terrific.  The Egyptian walking onions bloomed but not profusely.  I hope they will survive the winter and bloom again.  The chives planted in the orchard did not germinate in the orchard. So, I am starting some pots indoors to transplant out.  Every bunch of scallions I get in my organic garden box I replant the bottom ½ inch with the roots and it re-grows. When I harvest them from my garden, I cut off the tops instead of pulling them. So, I did not buy any scallion seeds this year. Onions, I’m feeling ambivalent because we eat so many but I don’t have room for them in the plan this year. I might start randomly planting the cut bottoms in the flower beds and the hugle.   Leeks – ha!  This past fall there was a leeky dance! While I did plant the leeks (3 different kinds) right after Christmas last year and transplanted them into the carrot bed in the spring, they wilted and died off. So, I quickly purchased pencil thick leek sets and planted them in June, and had a modest leek crop by November. Aside from dancing around, I use leeks in soup, gratins and quiche.  I did buy more leek seeds this year, planted them and they are germinating slowly.  But I am also ordering a live set of 30 this spring

 4. Roots (follow the fruits)

Root vegetables were a bust this year.  Beets, I still stand by the long, tapered variety because they save space, but they did not germinate well this year and were stunted.  They are supposed to be “cold hardy”, but I have to assume that means they hold well into the fall, not that they germinate or grow in the cold spring. This year I intend to grow a different variety that has big tops.  Turnips seem to be the all-time reliable crop.  I had plenty of the long, carrot-like, purple Japanese turnips in succession plantings. And I had a variety that grows only tops which produced bountifully from July to Thanksgiving.  Will certainly repeat those varieties.  Radishes again were a no-show. I think they need more space, and I’m wondering if trimming the tops would make the roots bigger. Undeterred by repeated failure I am going to try several more varieties this year, European varieties and daikon, and I am even thinking of trying the podding type again. I’m particularly keen to try growing green radishes that taste like wasabi, because wasabi roots are hideously expensive, perennials. Carrots, were meticulously planted, pelleted seeds, spaced perfectly, germinated well with the help of garden cloth blankets, but then stopped and never grew more than pinky finger sized. Obviously, I will continue to grow carrots. Oddly, while I like cylindrical beets, I am considering ball-shaped carrots. Crop rotation dictates they will be in a different location, but one that has not been particularly good for them in the past.  Celeriac (celery root), I was able to germinate very successfully, but the transplanting failed. Will try again with hardier, later transplants. It is excellent breaded and fried, or roasted and pureed in soup. The lovage, a “cutting” celery which is actually a carrot relative, is perennial and grows untouched by deer or rodents. I moved it to the back of the yard and will plant more in the hugle.  Parsnips were excellent, but I failed to get a fall sowing in the ground.  This year I discovered caramelized roasted parsnips. They are delicious and go really well with roast turkey and gravy. I still have in mind the garlic-wormwood-parsnip companion planting for the hugle, since my wormwood seems well established now. I have temporarily lost my interest in some of the more obscure root vegetables: burdock, salsify, scorzonera, milk thistle. I grew no rutabaga but I’m not giving up yet. There is a rotation whereby you are supposed to plant the rutabaga where the peas grew, immediately when the peas have finished. Rutabaga is nice roasted (caramelizes beautifully), mashed, or pureed in soup (with sausage and beans). Parsley root, needs re-planting as the mice have eaten all the roots – a very satisfying root for stews and soups, but like lovage, too strong a flavor to eat raw or roasted. Potatoes: these did okay in the raised bed but obviously needed more water.  I didn’t even pay attention to what variety I planted – something gold and something red.  I will plant potatoes again, but need a different spot, and a different variety. Sweet potatoes:  The Japanese purple yams are so tasty and I have learned how to germinate the slips (half bury them in a pot of moist dirt) instead of paying for them to be shipped and damaged in the mail. I had plenty of slips and planted them in the raised bed. They were doing well until the ground hog got in and ate them all.  It even dug up and ate every last baby yam, so you know they are delicious! I try again this year. Maca (the Peruvian radish with ginseng qualities), like the rutabaga and celeriac can be germinated inside but needs to be bigger and transplanted later. I am not sure I’m going to try to grow it again, but if I do, maybe in pots on the patio because the tops are exceedingly large and not tasty.

6. Flowers

Certain herbs and flowers are really beneficial to the vegetable garden so I’m going to re-emphasize companion planting in the garden this year, but I am also emphasizing edible flowers this year, everywhere. I love cosmos. I like the pink and white “cup-n-saucer” variety. They would look really lovely with blue lupines if the lupines would bloom. Comos are easy to direct seed.  This is the first time ever I was able to direct seed and grow Marigolds. And these weren’t little – they were the giant gold chrysanthemum type.  This year I might plant them with the okra since marigolds repel harmful nematodes like the ones that are attracted to okra. Nasturtiums are one of my favorite plants that I always plant. They did not do well this past year due to lack of water. They are beneficial to many types of plants so I’m not yet sure where they fit in the garden plan but I will jam them in where-ever I can.  The leaves and blossoms taste like bell peppers. They are good in salad ad on eggs.

7. Herbs

Herbs in the garden of course include basil, which is a true companion of tomato.  It does better in the shade – I grew very little basil this year because it germinates in warm soil and was therefore too young and weak when the drought hit. The Thai basil towers I ordered were also weak and spindly.  I will try starting it indoors this year and transplant out. Borage is another very helpful herb. It is low growing so it is useful in the cabbage patch. It attracts pollinators and is a decoy for aphids. It gets along with peas and beans so it makes a good buffer between peas/beans and alliums. I planted a lot last year and it proved impervious to heat and drought, and cold. It self seeds but I will also plant more and treat the volunteers like the clover and lupines (just plant around them).  Tarragon is perennial so I usually try to grow it in the herb garden, we’ll see if it comes back this year, and I’ll plant more if it doesn’t. It increases the flavor of plants around it.   Marjoram is an herb that promotes growth in other plants, I did not plant any last year, so this year I will prioritize.  

#zone 5b vegetable gardening #backyard vegetable gardening

[jeninthegarden]

Welcome to the 2022 Jungle

Somewhere in the 20 months of pandemic quarantine my backyard farm slipped into a backyard jungle. Not in an overgrown, choked, messy, uncontrolled way; more of a teaming with life and not all of it domesticated or in a planned way. Everything is thriving and multiplying and expanding! I love it.  I want profusion and this past summer’s plantings were either profuse or a total bust.  2022 I am going to narrow down the scope and plant more but with less variety.  Enough experimenting – I have identified the best cultivars and just need to stick to one of each vegetable, with certain exceptions (like the varieties of tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, zucchini, snap peas, summer squash, winter squash, Asian greens, carrots etc). And, of course, refraining from purchasing more seeds does not fully account for the fact I have saved a lot of different seeds, and still have leftovers from what I bought last year.  

I have come to detente in my 17 years of living with a groundhog tenant in the back yard.  Groundhogs only live 3-4 years on average, so the resident groundhog changes and the burrow is taken over by a new tenant every couple years. The burrow entrances are all in the upper third of the orchard, along with the beehives.  There is a reinforced fence between the two parts of the orchard.  This summer the groundhog was very furtive. After a few very bold appearances in the spring, I have rarely seen it.  I know it is still in residence because I put a board over the hole it uses to go under the back fence and at least every other day the board is pushed aside.

The resident racoon took 3 of my chickens this summer.  4 more chickens died of various ailments and the local fox removed the corpses from the brush pile without leaving a single feather behind.  I got 8 new chickens.  One of our 10 year old cats died, and we now have a new kitten to keep our surviving cat company.  The local murder of crows, including the fascinating leader that has a gray feather collar (this coloration is not native to this continent) still have not learned to talk.  But they do a great job keeping the resident Cooper’s hawk away from the chickens. They also were fun to watch harassing the ground hog off of my compost pile, literally walking up behind the groundhog and pecking its tail.  I observed the Cooper’s hawk was being shadowed by the hummingbirds this summer and incorrectly assumed they too were harassing it.  But no, a little research revealed that humming birds frequently nest, and rest near Cooper’s hawks, because blue jays are both the hummingbird’s top predator and the Cooper’s hawk’s staple diet.  There were not a lot of blue jays around here this summer.  Another surprise is I have recently realized that the “Committee” of vultures hanging around our property in the fall and winter are not the typical Turkey Vultures (which have red heads).  These are the less common Black Vultures (not a red head among them) which have only been recorded in New York State since the 1990’s. Their usual habitat is further south. Turkey Vultures have a superior sense of smell, while Black Vultures rely on their eyesight to hunt. Black Vultures will sometimes attack live animals, while Turkey Vultures only eat carrion. Both species are more closely related to storks that to old world Vultures.  

This past spring was temperate and long. Summer heat did not come on quickly and we had plenty of rain.  I had great success with seedlings this year and planted quite early. But the intensity of the spring sun, coming in at an angle burned my eggplant seedlings (and my fig tree). I patiently waited another month to put out my pepper plants and those burned as well! Peppers are longer lived than expected.  This is the second fall they are still blooming in October.  So next year I must resist transplanting them out until June.  And shade cloth is a must.  Herbs I had the same problem.  They need to be bigger before they are transplanted out.

It is absolutely bizarre how fast the garden plan comes together. One minute I’m staring at a blank page, scrolling back a couple years, scrolling forward again to a blank page, wondering what do I want to plant. Two minutes later the page is covered with scribbles and diagrams and I’m frantically erasing things, wondering where AM I going to fit the rutabaga??!  And then I hit the Burpee website and have to really erase half of what I’ve planned out because there is so much new, fascinating stuff in the Burpee catalogue (every year!) that it won’t all fit. And then I buy it all anyway and really have to scramble.

Legumes (follow the Root crops):

Legumes are still hit or miss.  The sugar snap peas were amazing – much better than shelling peas. But, I’m not quite ready to give up on shelling peas entirely so I will be planting some of each.  Fava beans were brilliant, and they are an economical plant that is easily spring and fall seeded (I fall seed from my spring harvest), plus the whole plant is not only edible but very tasty.  This year I took note for a fellow gardener at the community garden who planted fava beans in tomato cages and they grew 5 feet tall! That is an extra 3 feet of edible stems and leaves, not to mention more bean pods.  So, since favas are very early or very late, I’m going to grow them in the tomato cages before and after the tomatoes.  Runner beans were beautiful and the humming birds loved the blooms, but I need to give them better support.  I also don’t need so many varieties. Since the hummingbirds like them, I will just get the red-blossomed types. The soy beans did not germinate – not one! So, I am trying a different variety this year. Giant Midori were great when I planted them a few years ago, but everyone else thinks so too and I just can’t find them.  Still did not get any noodle beans, but this year I am going to have real, arch trellises in the main garden to grow noodle beans and squash on.  My recollection is that noodle beans are very tasty and economical because just two beans make a dish.  I am going back to the 3-sisters planting method for corn, beans and pumpkins. Violetto beans will likely be the pole bean of choice for the corn patch.  Velour is the bush bean of choice and I will be growing those in the main garden as well, but I must track it down early because it sells out fast. Those silly wing beans/asparagus peas were not tasty so I won’t grow them again, except I have seeds left over and the blossoms are a really pretty blue that can be used as natural food coloring.  Guess I will squeeze them in someplace…

Brassica – Cole - Green Crops (follow the legumes):

It was another bad year for greens and brassicas. My spring greens were a bust. I had every kind and nothing did well, except the corn mache which was planted in 2020, came roaring in this spring and re-seeded itself so now I’m harvesting it in December 2021! And it appears to have re-seeded itself again.  But we must look ahead, not behind.  This year’s plan calls for better shade – the greens have never flourished except in the shadier, wetter part of the garden. Growing the corn for shade over the sweet potatoes, in the raised bed, produced a better yield than any method so far.  I regret I did not get beans in there too. Despite all the water we had, the sunniest spots in the garden fared the worst, even with extra watering. So, I am deviating from the strict crop rotation and interplanting with legumes to support the soil and taller plants to shade the ground.  I am also sheet composting this winter.  I did that on a third of the garden last year and it worked wonderfully.  This year there will be a trellis tunnel down the middle third of the main garden.  I’m going to start it off with claytonia, spinach, corn mache, scallions and alyssum under it, and eventually growing noodle beans and small winter squash over it. I am going to plant the peppers in the coolest third of the garden and interplant them with spinach.  I have decided not to grow escarole again.  It did really well, and bloomed and self-seeded. But if you don’t eat it while it is tiny, it gets too bitter to eat. Same for the endive. All the lettuce blends were irritating. So, I am going back to just 4 distinct varieties and will interplant them throughout the garden, under taller plants. Arugula is a failsafe, no matter when or where you plant it, and it is biannual so it always re-appears. Purple orach is personal favorite that I can always find a spot for. I previously thought Fenugreek was an herb, but it is actually a member of the pea family and cooks up like a micro green. It is very tasty and, like peas, fixes nitrogen in the soil, so I will interplant it in the main garden. Chard did poorly in the wilds of the orchard.  It actually needs more sun and its own space, so I will clump plant it in the main garden. Salad burnett and saltwort did not grow, and I won’t repeat, except I have extra seeds, so maybe I will try growing those in containers. Upland cress may have grown, but I couldn’t recognize it when it did! I mistook it for weeds and threw it out.  This year I decided to try growing real watercress, either in a water saucer or in the rain garden.

I went a bit overboard on the Asian greens this past summer.  None were particularly good or vigorous.  I really like green tatsoi best – nice crisp rosettes of spoon shaped leaves, neither too peppery nor bitter. Toy choi is the same but more compact. Chinese cabbage is quick and early growing, though it serves primarily to distract the slugs from other greens. The Chinese cabbage gets “laced” by slugs that eat so many holes in the leaves they look like lace.  Everything else bolted, was too mustard-like, or did not germinate.  So, I’m scaling it back to what I like to eat.  The cabbages were a complete bust – nothing grew to a head. Everything germinated, and leafed, and then stalled. Same with the cauliflower and Romanesco.  I ended up with just greens and then rotting centers covered with aphids.  It has been a few years since I have successfully grown cabbages.  I think this year I need to lime the bed, mulch heavily and feed.  I’m going to do a brassica mosaic bed – interplanting the early Asian greens with larger heading cabbages and cauliflowers. And of course, I will throw in some petunias, some dill weed, and some nasturtiums and alyssum, to attract good pollinator predators to eat the cabbage moths and aphids. I will start the Asian greens from seed, and buy the standard seedlings, herbs and flowers. The broccoli is banished to the orchard where there is enough space for it. I prefer re-sprouting varieties and will likely start from seed.  Brussel sprouts did very well in the potato patch this past summer. They were planted in half gallon pots with the bottoms cut out in between the potato hills, sitting mostly above the ground level. So, once the potatoes sprouted, I raised the entire bed up to the top of the Brussels sprout pots and mulched. But I only had room for 4 Brussel sprout plants. I may move them to the raised bed next year where I can fit 12.  I will certainly buy plants rather than seeds. The kale went wild in the orchard and doubtless self-seeded.  But I was not happy with it – it was the Red Russian variety that actually needs to be pruned, because otherwise it gets 8 feet tall with tiny leaves. I am going to plant the Tuscan kale and the Portuguese kale, at least, in the main garden this year. The perennial kale died.  I will attempt to find some seeds.

 Fruits (follow the Brassica and Greens):

It was a fabulous year for corn – no squirrels or chipmunks anywhere.  And the racoons were too busy eating my chickens. The sweet corn did well with the sweet potatoes in the raised bed.  The black popcorn flourished in the orchard.  I think we will attempt all sweet corn this year – there is just never enough of it.  Absence of chipmunks meant we had a great year of tomatoes.  However, as has occurred in the past, the early tomatoes I planted (which were small, the size of golf balls), cross-pollinated and stunted the heirlooms around them. So, we won’t do that again! I am buying tomato plants, just the heirloom varieties I like. And the plan is to put them in the main garden instead of the orchard. The space that was the peas and then tomato fences in the orchard will be devoted to broccoli this year.  Likewise, with eggplants, I will simply by plants.  And although they did well in the orchard, I am going to plant them in the main garden, with shade protection. Peppers, I am overwintering 10 plants, all hot peppers.  And I have lots of seeds saved from when I made cowboy candy.  So, I will just by sweet, bell pepper plants locally.  I will be planting the peppers in the shady third of the main garden, with shade protection so I don’t burn them.  They also need to be fed, and heavily mulched. The okra did better this past year than the year before, however it too will be returning to the main garden. I have read that it must not be planted with squash because it attracts nematodes that are bad for the squash, and indeed, while the okra in the orchard did well this year, the squash vines around them died. So, okra goes back to the sunny third of the main garden. I need a quicker growing, more compact variety because this past year’s crop grew to 7 feet high and started ripening in October, only to get killed by frost before Thanksgiving. Okra must be harvested before it is more than 3 inches long. Anything bigger and you get nothing but unchewable stringy pods full of hard, tapioca-like seeds.

Okra in the main garden is going to provide shade to the melons.   Melons did not blossom or fruit this past year. They were in the corn patch in the orchard and it was not warm enough.  Zucchini have not done well for several years.  This year six are going into the center of the main garden and several more are going into the hugle. As for winter squash and pumpkins, I am going to try growing some smaller varieties on a trellis in the main garden and larger varieties and pumpkins in the orchard. I am ready for the squirrels this year. I bought a hundred nylon mesh bags to protect fruit (if there is any) and squash.  I will try to grow luffa gourds in the upper part of the orchard where it is hot and dry.

Alliums:

For the alllims, I have planted a lot of garlic this fall.  I planted 50 cloves in the front yard as part of a decorative flower bed among the daffodils. And I planted another 30 cloves in the great hugle with some decorative purple globe alliums.  The Egyptian walking onions are planted in the sunny herb garden by the patio.  I need more chives for the orchard. Scallions and onions I have started a regrow project.  Every bunch of scallions I get in my organic garden box I replant the bottom ½ inch with the roots and it re-grows.  When I harvest them from my garden, I cut off the tops instead of pulling them.  The onions, I replant the bottom ½ inch with roots and wait until spring when 5-8 green shoots sprout up.  These can then be separated and re-planted to grow whole new onions.   Leeks – will there ever be another Leeky Dance?  This past season I attempted to grow the leeks with the succession planting of carrots. They are supposed to be companion plants – the leeks encourage larger carrots and the carrot tops shade and blanche the leek stalks. I had 3 different types of leeks that were supposed to mature at 3 different times, several weeks apart, interplanted with several successive plantings of carrots, in the sunniest spot in the garden.  The leeks never made it beyond pencil width and the carrots did not germinate well. So, this year I am just planting the leeks (3 different kinds) right after Christmas and planting them in their own space with nasturtiums to shade their feet.

Roots (follow the fruits):

Root vegetables actually did well this year, other than the carrots!  Beets, I have settled on a long, carrot-like, dark red beet called “cylindra” that is fast growing and cold hardy.  It does not have a lot of top green however, which is a shame because I love beet greens.  Likewise, my best results for turnips have been a long, carrot-like, purple Japanese turnips which also don’t have big tops. So, this year, I am thinking of adding a couple varieties of beets and turnips just for their greens. Radishes as usual were a no-show.  Daikon’s just won’t grow and their tops are enormous, and not edible.  This year I am going to try the spicy black radishes again, and some French cylindrical red and white radishes.  Going to plant them in the center of the main garden under the trellis that will later in the summer be covered with beans and squash vines. Carrots, just did not germinate. I am going to grow them in the shady third of the main garden this year where it is more consistently moist. And because I am so reluctant about thinning the carrots, I am going to try pelleted seeds for the very first time. The turnips did very well interplanted with the peppers, so the turnips are going into the shady third with the peppers this coming year.  This was the first year I was able to grow celeriac (celery root), from seed.  It did very well in the shady part of the main garden, but is not a companion plant for carrots!  So, I must find it a new spot. I am wondering if its leaves are astringent enough to plant it outside the fenced garden.  The lovage, a “cutting” celery which is actually a carrot relative, is perennial and grows untouched by deer or rodents in the herb bed. You may recall that last year I said I would NOT plant parsnips, and I had not in many years, and then I did plant them. It seems impossible to fail at growing parsnips. Had a nice crop and there are 20 or so little ones left in the ground to pull next year. I like eating parsnips – not mashed, but cut up and roasted. I might plant them again next year, just not sure where since they have to be kept away from carrots, celery and dill. It is suggested they be planted with garlic, and with wormwood, both of which are in the big hugel. At this point the big hugel may be settled (decomposed) enough to grow root crops. Maybe it’s time to find out. I went ahead and experimentally winter sowed some with the garlic in the front bed. I will spring plant some more in the great hugel. I have not lost my interest in some of the more obscure root vegetables: burdock, salsify, scorzonera, milk thistle. And, since I still have seeds for all of them laying around, getting stale, I decided to winter sow a clump of each in the front flowerbed with the garlic and parsnips.  I grew no rutabaga except some strays that wintered over from 2020 and went to seed. I might get volunteers in the spring, but I really would like to grow them this year along the pea fences, because it is optimal to plant them as soon as the pea harvest is done, and they like the nitrogen the peas fix in the ground. I could probably transplant the volunteers, except they would be very difficult to identify, having bolted and gone to seed among a lot of Asian greens and cress and arugula that did the same.  Parsley root, is a fixture in the shady part of the main garden.  It grows very well in shade.  I never do get to eat the roots however because during the winter the mice chew them from underneath and eat the whole plant. Potatoes: this year I grew “blackberry” a small deep purple potato and “masquerade” a red and gold spotted medium, thin skin potato. They were both prolific, but they tasted horrible! The purple in the little ones was a very intense flavor without any sweetness, and the skin to flesh ratio made them tough and chewy, like concord grape skins. The red and gold ones had a terrible, wet, turnip-like texture that held even after cooking thoroughly. We will not do that again! Yukon Gold and Adirondack Red next year.  Sad, because planting the potatoes in the ground, mounded, works better than anything else.  But this year I am not going to use up main garden space for potatoes. Which very likely means going back to containers in the high side of the orchard, or testing out whether the great hugle has decomposed enough for root crops. And, as seed potatoes are very expensive, I may just buy a couple organic potatoes from the store and cut them up for seed. I know, I know – they’re not inoculated!  But I can buy inoculant, or just take my chances they get blighted. Sweet potatoes: The Japanese purple yams were also a great success this year.  These were planted in the raised bed, under the sweet corn for shade.  It worked so well I am going to plant them there again, but with Brussel Sprout plants for shade, and maybe some bush beans.  However, rather than paying a lot of money for sweet potato slips (which don’t ship well), I am just going to get one from the market and start it in a glass of water. I am already experimenting with three that started sprouting in the pantry. I tossed them in a pot with dirt, in the house and they are growing vines. Maca (the Peruvian radish with ginseng qualities), germinated indoors and then did not survive the transplanting. I still have seeds so I will probably try again.

Flowers:

Certain herbs and flowers are really beneficial to the vegetable garden so I’m going to re-emphasize companion planting in the garden this year, especially since I am going off the strict rotation schedule and mixing and match a lot more.  I am also trying to eliminate bare ground or at least shade it in the sunnier areas.  Flowers, I am planting cosmos in the main garden this year, for the first time in a decade. Comos are attractive to pollinators and aphids so, they increase the yield of fruiting plants like tomatoes, cucumbers and squash that all need pollination, and they make a perfect decoy for aphids, luring the pests away from any vegetables that are plagued by aphids, in my garden that would be the kales and collards, which I have taken to planting with the tomatoes, so double duty for the cosmos.  However, cosmos is a relative to dill, so they need to be kept away from the carrots and related root crops.  Marigold is another really important plant in the garden because their natural oils will remain in the soil for many weeks and repel harmful nematodes (like the ones that are attracted to okra!). Their roots also encourage the growth of a certain type of symbiotic fungi which exchange nutrients with host plants for their mutual health and growth. Marigolds also deter harmful beetles including bean beetles and asparagus beetles, leaf hoppers, white flies, tomato moths, cabbage white butterflies, cabbage moths and sweet corn moth. They also decoy slugs and spider mites. And they attract pollinators. Note that, although they repel cabbage moths, they should not be planted within the root span of cabbages, only around the borders of the cabbage bed. The same is true for beans. It is best planted with melons, okra, tomatoes, peppers and eggplants. Nasturtiums are one of my favorite plants that I would plant anyway, but they are beneficial as a ground cover and pollinator attractor, so they are good for any type of fruiting plant or brassica.  And they are low growing so they are better in the cabbage patch than cosmos. They are absolutely essential in the pumpkin patch for repelling the squash bugs and pumpkin beetles. They are good for potatoes, so I will likely put some in the potato patch with the brussels sprouts. They are also great in the leek patch because they shade and blanche the leek stalks. Alyssum is a small but helpful flower. Very low growing, so it is good groundcover in the sunny spots, and is a particular friend of the brassica family.  It attracts all kinds of aphid predators like hover flies and ladybugs.

Herbs:

Herbs in the garden of course include basil, which is a true companion of tomato.  It does better in the shade – I grew very little basil this past year because it got too much light in the vegetable.  The only successful basil I grew was in the shady portion of the herb garden.  This year it goes behind the tomatoes, and in the shady side of the herb garden again. Burpee has some new extra tall Thai basil towers I have ordered as plants, but I like a wide variety of basils so I have a lot of seeds leftover from last year. Borage is another very helpful herb. It is low growing so it is useful in the cabbage patch. It attracts pollinators and is a decoy for aphids. It gets along with peas and beans so it makes a good buffer between peas/beans and alliums.  Tarragon is perennial so I usually try to grow it in the herb garden, but this year I will try it in the main garden.  It increases the flavor of plants around it. It is of Mediterranean origin so it does well with the nightshades.  I’m going to plant it between the zucchini and the carrots in the main garden. I am also going to interplant it with the rosemary along the orchard fence.  Marjoram is an herb that promotes growth in other plants, and is good for everything, so I’ll get some in the main garden bed this year.  

On beyond vegetables (and my jungle has gone very far beyond vegetables):

I ordered more daffodils, 300 more.  I’ve decided to mark off distinct patches of the front lawn and interplant the daffodils that are already there with ferns so that after the daffodils have bloomed the ferns will sprout up around them and we will not have to mow the dead daffodils at all. Will be ordering a lot of hay-scented ferns in the spring.  Once again, my saffron crocuses did not bloom, so I ordered more of them (3rd year in a row).  Then I made the terrible mistake of ordering hyacinths. They smell so good! But deer eat their blossoms and squirrels dig up and eat their bulbs. If I don’t plant them in the orchard, it will be useless.  And the orchard – have to replace 4 trees that died.  But then I ordered two more – a quince and a medlar that I will plant next to the orchard because there isn’t room in the orchard.  The great hugle needs some trees, so in the spring I am ordering 2 pagoda dogwoods and 2 sunrise redbugs to plant at the rise of the hugle. Both are native, and bees supposedly love the pagoda dogwoods.   We have several dead privets in our front hedge that need to be replaced with something more interesting – the straight private hedge is too monochrome and does not blend well with the rest of the property. I’m thinking oak-lead hydrangea and New Jersey tea bush.  The blueberry bushes seem to have given up the ghost, so I’m going to replace them with ferns.

The Orchard. This year we suffered from the early rains and wet spring. There was not fruit, other than 4 small peaches. The peach tree developed curly peach leaf fungus that made its leaves like toad skins. However, that happened in early spring and by June, the peach tree had grown all new leaves that were fungus free. The red-fleshed crab apple, the red cider apple, 1 honeycrisp and the yellow pear all died. Not sure if they drowned or just did not get enough light, but they never leafed out at all and withered dry in the summer heat.  The remaining pears and honeycrisp apple trees all developed orange rust fungus by the end of June and although they didn’t die, we certainly did not get any blossoms or fruit.  I’m also not sure how well they will survive the winter.  The plum trees one black and one green, did not bloom at the same time so there was no fruit.  The black plum developed a single branch of black rot fungus, which was quickly removed, and then the tree was fine for the rest of the summer and fall.  However, there is a high probability it will relapse in spring. I will have to treat the whole orchard with fungicide in early spring, and feed the trees that had rust fungus. I ordered replacements for the dead trees, except that I decided not to order another Honeycrisp – still have one alive so I ordered a different pollinator, Ellison’s Orange Apple.  And, I got a little carried away and ordered a Pineapple Quince and a Sultan Medlar.  No room in the orchard so I am going to plant them next to the orchard.  The Chicago Brown Hardy Fig, that was planted beside the boulder in front of the house, but is now a house plant (house twig) after the deer found it. I moved it outside into full sun in the spring and burned its leaves badly.  It recovered in the shade over the summer and fall, and even developed 6 little figs. I brought it back inside for another winter.  The Weeping Persimmon in the back yard is still alive, still growing and I removed the cage from around it, so we will see how badly the deer eat it down this winter. One other aspect of fruit trees that I must read up on is pruning! I’m not sure when I am supposed to do that, spring or fall, but I must find out.

The Community Garden.  The InterGenerate community garden in my village was a big draw during Covid, attracting new members and greater creativity by existing members.  This year I planted sunflowers and peppers and string beans, kale and arugula.  This fall I decided to pre-plant for spring with lettuce, carrots, greens, kale, sunflowers and popcorn.  Next year I am going to grow cherry tomatoes in hopes of producing more in less space. The objective is to provide as much fresh produce as possible to our local food pantry.  It is a very good experiment in subsistence farming in small spaces. Our efforts to make the pollinator garden stalled.  Hopefully we can get some bed definition and mulching done this winter in anticipation of planting in the spring.  We are still considering building a communal herb bed for perennial herbs.

Bee-Keeping. We started over this year with two new colonies of honey bees.  All three hives absconded at the end of 2020. I was rebuked on my local bee-keeping website for not being a better bee-keeper.  So, this year I tried harder.  I fed aggressively in the spring.  I added hive boxes promptly.  I added the honey attics promptly.  We harvested 2 and a half gallons in late July.  I was using the Hyssop hive and the Lilac hive.  Again, the dark blue seems to have added heat early in the spring and allowed the hive to brood and build up quicker.   We harvested again in September – a gallon and a half.  Then I set the mite treatment strips and put on robbing screens.  The bees did not abscond.  I feed them through the first week of November and then I gave them pollen and bee candy and wrapped the hives to keep them warm. And then I had to wrap the hives in bird netting because while my chickens were cleaning the orchard, they started eating the Styrofoam wrapping of the hives!  And having flashbacks to my very first bee colony, that froze, I decided to buy a 4th hive (waiting to be assembled and painted a dark turquoise). I am going to pre-order two more bee colonies in January.  So, at a minimum, if my two hives do not survive the winter, I will have two new hives running in the spring.  Or, if my hives survive, I will have 3 or 4 hives running in the spring.    

Hugelkultur. (You have to say that word with guttural gusto!) What??  It is the method of building a raised bed over buried logs.  The great hugel is thriving. It is ready to have some trees added to it. Planning to plant 2 pagoda dogwoods and 2 sunrise redbuds.  And I think I can attempt some root crops like parsnips this year.  To date we have planted 2 viburnum, 2 rhododendrons, 2 azaleas, one hydrangea tree, 2 elderberry, and 2 grey dogwoods.  The deer have really done a number on the dogwoods and the elderberry. This spring I am planning to put up deer netting around the whole hugle to protect my new plants. I am growing hyssop, thistle, salvia, goldenrod and wormwood in the hugle.  I have a lot of goldenrod in the herb beds that needs to be moved out to the hugle, as well as some yarrow from the lavender field and a sea of asters that came up next to the lavender bed.  I also planted several clumps of purple globe allium. I planted 50 cloves of garlic across the front edge.  I want to plant more salvia and transplant some oregano.  

Back to Eden. Scored 20 cubic yards of wood chips this past spring.  And I got another 20 cubic yards in September, all from getchipdrop.com.  So much more to do. I am still hoarding carboard.  The pollinator patch at our community garden will also require and initial weed barrier of cardboard and woodchips to get it established.  I used a lot of chips in the orchard this summer for weed barrier. Amazingly, the chickens went through the orchard in October and November and turn the soil entirely – not a trace of the cardboard is left, after only 3 months.  Another spot by the driveway that was gravel and dust 2 years ago is now soft dirt after a woodchip and cardboard treatment, so I added daffodil bulbs.  And the great hugle is actually settling a bit and can use more cardboard and chips on top and around the back edge where I have almost completely smothered the poison ivy.  The front flowerbed where I planted the blueberry bushes is also now a soft, fluffy expanse of fully decomposed loam after 3 years.  I planted 150 daffodils at the front edge to demarcate the flowerbed from the lawn (so it doesn’t get mowed or weed-whacked).  In the spring I will add ferns to follow the daffodils.

The Herb Garden. This year the violets and the oregano really smothered everything else!  I did remove the rosemary bushes this fall and moved them out to the orchard fence line.  I think that will be the rosemary field next year. The garlic chives appear to be petering out. They are good for the roses, so I should plant some more.  The roses were huge and grew up into the gutter this year because of all the rain. They need to be trimmed. The sorrel is thriving, but nothing eats it, including me, so I think I’ll move it to the back of the yard, near the weeping persimmon where the rain garden is going.  The thyme did not do well, I need to find a better place for it with less water. Sage came roaring back this year and even bloomed, so I may get some additional varieties.  The Indian hibiscus seems happy in the sunny part of the herb garden, so I will plant more.  The basil and parsley do well in the shade part of the herb garden so I will double down on those.  I did not get the angelical planted.  I want to start it indoors this coming year and put it in the shady side of the herb bed, but also in the front yard in the shade. Comfrey was recommended as an orchard plant because it is fast growing and can be cut and mulched 3 times a season. I planted several root cuttings two years ago and they grow into massive, 4-foot patches. I need to divide them! Also, the chickens eat the comfrey in the fall because it is a low-fiber, high protein green that is very good for all types of livestock.  

House plants. My sad little, Christmas cactus bloomed again, at Thanksgiving, and further research shows it is in fact a Thanksgiving cactus.  My Chicago Brown Hardy Fig is spending its second winter indoors.  A friend gave me a tiny little aloe plant two years ago that faired very poorly last winter and I put it outside in the spring without much hope. It was scalded pretty badly by full sun, and then I left it in the shade the rest of the summer.  Now it is two, healthy 6 inch aloe plants, no thanks to me. They are named “Elba” and “Sardinia”.  

Woodlands. Woodchips have been very effective at keeping down the weeds in the wooded lower edge of the property.  Things have really thinned out so now it is time to start planting back in.  One thing that still needs to go is the Japanese barberry. There are 6 in my wood line. It is an invasive, thorny bush that grows anywhere, very vigorously. It is so dense and thorny that the birds and animals cannot get inside it, so it harbors deer ticks, the bad kind that carry Lyme disease. We also have lots of the invasive multiflora rose bramble in the wood line that needs to be removed.    

Wetlands. I’m now calling the damp parts of our yard the wetlands. I have still not made them into rain gardens. The uphill back corner is a very damp area because water pools there.  We need to do some grading to get the water to move to the back property line and then do some digging so it drains down the back side of the property along the fence line.  In the front of the property, right at the street there is a hollow in the lawn that I have been planting with iris and button bushes.  I need to remove some more Japanese barberry and plant a Virginia Magnolia or a River Birch.  I also want to plant high bush cranberry and cardinal flowers.  

#hudsonvalleygardening #backyard gardening #ny gardening

[jeninthegarden]

Seed List 2022

Every few years I get frustrated with the spring planting and unpredictable weather and start thinking it would just be better to plant the seeds in the fall and let them germinate naturally.  While it certainly saves time in the spring, it is very labor intensive in the fall. I have to complete the next year’s garden plan before October, and then actually plant in November.  But planting in November also entails having the garden cleaned up in October and actually having seeds in hand to plant in November. I over-order seeds and save seeds and buy seeds all the time so yes, I have the seeds.  Clean up did mostly get done, thanks to the chickens.  Crop rotation sort of dictates where things have to go next year.  All good, except that I have bees. I had the fall honey harvest. Then I had to treat the hives for mites. Then I had to clean and put away equipment. I feed the bees sugar syrup for several weeks, in feeder boxes. I ordered winter bee feed, it arrived, and I had to remove the syrup boxes and install winter feed.  And then I designed and made hive cozies to wrap the hives for the winter. I installed the mouse guards on the hive entrances.  Now it is December, and I haven’t planted the garden seeds like I planned.  And December is looking busy because I have to plant 300 daffodils and some walking onions and some garlic.  And we have a new kitten in the house, which is kind of like having a toddler, except that she hides, and we can’t find her, for days…Oh, and then there is the issue of harvesting some late crops; my parsnips, celeriac, daikon radish and sweet potatoes are all still in the ground. And my collard greens are still standing. And they are all in the way. Lastly there was the little issue of some very fancy flower bulbs that I bought for my mother but did not get a chance to plant at her place this fall, so I thought I’ll just overwinter them in my raised garden bed.  Except that they are all safely planted and labeled exactly where I should be winter sowing my carrots!  Oh well – planting will have to wait until spring, again.

The seed catalogues, the “garden porn”, has begun to arrive. Is it just me? The warm fall? Or does it seem a tad early for the seed catalogues to be showing up?  I do recall that this past January I did some panic buying because certain things had sold out, so I am more tuned in this year and intend to get things ordered by Christmas.  But I have to complete my review of 2021 before I can begin to think about what I want to plant this year. And I have to re-inventory all the seeds I already have. I save a lot of seeds from things I grow or eat.  I’m rapidly missing the window for planting anything this fall.  One thing I must obtain in short order are the leek seeds.  I have to admit that if those do not get planted before Christmas, there will be no leek harvest next year unless I order live plants.  I’ve done that, but then I get 50 leek seedlings that are all the same type.  So, in the next week, I must quickly order leek seeds, and plant them before Christmas!  Another hard-learned lesson is that I may start the peppers and eggplants early, but I must not transplant them out until June 15th. Tomatoes, same thing. However, I must also cut back on the number of tomatoes I start from seed because keeping 100, foot-tall tomato plants in the house in May is impossible!  This year, I’m just going to order tomato plants. And I kind of burned myself out on peppers this past summer, and then literally let them get burned by the sun, putting them out too early. Then I decided to rescue a whole bunch that had not fruited and brought them indoors for the winter. Peppers are a biannual and I did successfully winter over 4 last winter.  Doubling down, I brough in 8 this fall, including 4 of the “fire flea” chiltepin peppers which are said to be perennial.  So, I’m not going to order pepper seeds this year. I am going to order pepper plants to supplement whichever of the pepper plants make it through the winter.   I’ve sworn off gourds, except the elusive luffa gourd, which I cannot grow.  That has to be started indoors early and not transplanted out until it is large.  So yes, the preliminary seed list is forming.

Legumes:

Bush beans: “Velour” which is a proven winner.  A compact, bush-habit plant, very heavy-bearing bright purple, stringless pods over a long season.  This is my top choice for bush beans. Very heat and drought tolerant. Does well in raised beds and planters.  It sells out fast but I was able to find it at Vermont Bean Seed Company.

Fava beans:  Pinetree Seed’s “Varoma” was hearty and tasted superb, two years running. The whole plant is edible and will grow   I made the happy discovery that the stems and blossoms taste as good as the beans. I have one pack but need to get another. I also ordered “Robin Hood” from Territorial Seed which is an early, dwarf plant that needs no support.

Noodle beans – This year I am incorporating a real trellis into the fenced in garden so I will try again.  I grew them one year and recall them as being delicious, nutty flavored. “Yardlong Red” from the Vermont Bean Seed Company was on sale.

Pole beans- None of these were planted. They aren’t really worth the time since runner beans and bush beans give me everything I need.  I do have good memories of “Violetto” beans growing really well on cornstalks, but no one seems to be selling it this year.  While searching for the Vermont Bean Seed Company catalogue, I found “Tarbais” a small white, pole bean from a little village in the south of France of the same name, which are cassoulet beans.  And, then, on the same page (p.13) I saw “Succotash”, a marble shaped, black, pole bean that can be dried, which is thought to have originated in Rhode Island by the Narragansett Indian Tribe. Yes, of course, I bought it – who could resist? And I have a packet of “Rattlesnake” beans left to plant somewhere. “Winged Bean” aka asparagus bean was weird looking and weird tasting, and a waste of time. I’m not buying more seeds, but I will plant the rest of the ones I have.

Runner beans: All the varieties I ordered last year were beautiful and prolific, but you really have to plant a lot of vines (100+) to harvest enough to eat. I ordered “Black Coat” an ancient heirloom from Pinetree which is a red-blossomed, black bean, again this year because it was so beautiful, and the hummingbirds loved the blossoms.  Not going to bother with scarlet emperor, sunrise, or painted lady. However, the white, half-runner variety “Stardust” I still have lots of so I will plant what is left.

 Shelling Peas – In 2021 I focused on the snap peas and the harvest was glorious!  And, although I am very happy with snap peas, I can’t quite shake my habit of planting shelling peas.  Did not get around to a fall planting so, I am adding to other varieties to the mix: “Dakota Darling” from the Vermont Bean Seed Company, a nice early, prolific variety that will be over and done in time for me to re-use the fence. I have leftover “Lincoln” peas from years past I will use up.

Snap Peas: These produced well and were very tasty. We will plant all these again. “Sugar Magnolia” snap peas from Pinetree Seeds, which have violet pods, and “Spring Blush” a pink-tinted pod. The “Sugar Lace II” semi-leafless and prolific snap pea I bought last year was silly and unnecessary except that I have some left, so I’ll plant it. I bought “Cascadia” which is a very early grower, and “Opal Creek” which are a golden green color, both also from Pinetree.

Soybeans:  Last year they sold out of Park Seeds “Midori Giant” before Christmas (the last variety I successfully grew). The organic “Chiba Green Organic” I ordered instead did not germinate - not one! I don’t know what happened.  So, while ordering my leeks for Christmas planting, I ordered “Karikachi” soybeans from Pinetree seeds, which are supposed to be tall and prolific. And then I found “Midori Giant” at Park Seeds, so I bought them too (millions and billions and trillions of cats…).

 Fruits:

Corn: The “Kandy Korn” from Burpee was delicious, so I bought more. And I still have a little “Honey Corn” from RH Shumway. And I have “Blue Jade” a dwarf heirloom sweet corn from Hudson Valley Seeds, to plant in planters on the patio.  

Cucumber: all my remaining seeds are bush crops so I will buy seeds locally because I am growing cucumbers on a trellis this year.

Eggplant: I’m not even going to order plants. I will just buy some locally. I need 2 standard, 2 fingerling, one green and one Thai.  While looking through the sale section of Johnny Seeds catalogue, I found some weird green, wrinkled eggplant “Comprido Verde Claro” from Brazil. And it was on sale, so even though it warns that yields will be low in cooler climates, I thought I’ll try it in containers on the patio where it is nice and hot.

Gourds: The only one I will try again is the Luffa gourd because I still have not grown a single luffa. I still have seeds.

Melon: They all germinated, but none grew or blossomed.  I have a few leftovers.  Pinetree had “Sakata Sweet” a prolific small, honeydew, and “Minnesota Midget” an early fruiting, short-vined orange cantaloupe on sale, so I bought more of these.

Okra: like fava beans, I discovered that the entire okra plant is edible.  Leaves can be cooked like collards, and the flowers can be battered and fried like zucchini blossoms.  The “Unicorn” (which, although it is eaten like okra, is actually “devil’s claw”, a member of the sesame family and a medicinal herb) failed again to germinate. This is like the Datil peppers.  I need to buy live plants!  “Baby Buda” from Burpee had good production and compact. Only plant the small, cold hearty version and you must plant multiples, so you actually harvest enough at the same time to pick them very young and tender.

 Pepper: Again, I am experimenting with over-wintering my pepper plants that did not fruit their first season. I’m overwintering 10 – all hot peppers.  I saved a lot of seeds (also hot peppers) so I will start some more.  And I will purchase sweet pepper plants locally.  As for the legendary Datil peppers of Saint Augustine, Florida, I’ve failed to germinate seeds for the second year in a row. Not a single seed out of 25 germinated, not in pots, not in a bag with a wet paper towel.  I will order seedling plants next just to complete the vicious circle of utter failure, then lay off for another decade.

Tomatoes: Stick with what you know and like – don’t plant everything.  Of course, I’ve just drawn up the garden plans for 12 tomato plants.  I ordered 4 plants from Burpee (Black Krim, Big Rainbow, Steakhouse, Brandywine Pink) and then I will start 8 others from seed. Plus, I want to grow cherry tomatoes in the community garden this year to donate to the food pantry.   For variety, I bought seeds from Pinetree for: “Climbing Triple Crop”, a red beefsteak that climbs 10-15 feet, “Pineapple” a beefsteak heirloom that is yellow with red blotches, and “Pork Chop” which is a large beefsteak yellow with dark green stripes.

Watermelon: “Blacktail Mountain” from Pinetree is supposed to be very easy to grow. And I bought “Golden Midget” from Eden Brothers which is small and early fruiting.

Winter Squash and pumpkins:  I have every kind of squash and pumpkin seed left from last year.  But I also bought “Baked Potato” winter squash from Burpee, just because I might not succeed in growing potatoes this year.

Zucchini: This year the plan is for 6 zucchini plants in the main fenced garden. I want six different varieties. In the Vermont Bean Seed Company catalogue, I found a “Vermont Hybrid Medley” pack of 4 types of zucchini: green, green-gold, gold and yellow, that are all compact bush varieties that grow well in the Northeast. And a round green, French heirloom variety called “Rond de Nice” was on sale, so I bought that. Then I found a pale green, patty pan summer squash called “Peter Pan” from Burpee which is described as much meatier than other patty pan squash, so I chose that for the 6th type.  And then I found a “Scalloped Blend” from Eden Brothers, of 6 different colored patty pan squash so I bought that too.

Roots:

Beets: Pinetree “Beet Mix” and Territorial Seeds “Cylindra”.

Carrot: Territorial Seed “Giants of Colmar”, large winter harvest carrots for stew. Park Seed’s “Rainbow Blend” purple-red-orange. Pinetree “Culinary Blend” yellow-white-orange. “Rodelika”, a Danvers type from Territorial Seed, but pelleted for a change because I’m really bad about thinning, so I want to see if pelleted germinates better.  

Celeriac: successfully started indoors. Will do it again. Johnny Seed (haven’t ordered from them in a decade because they are so expensive – over $5 for 200 seeds) had “Mars” pelleted organic seed on sale.  Never tried pelleted seeds, but celeriac seeds are really tiny, so I feel like I waste a lot.

Parsley Root: “Arat” from Pinetree is a long, slender root that tastes like a cross between carrots and celeriac.

Parsnips: it is hard to fail at growing parsnips.  Going to sew the Harris variety I have leftover in December in the great hugle. Ordered “White Spear” from Territorial Seed which is an extra-large variety that can be sewn early or late.

Potatoes:  going back to growing them in containers. I will buy some from the store and sew them to avoid the horrible shipping costs.

Radish: “Black Spanish”, sometimes described as a substitute for horseradish, and “French Breakfast” a milder, smaller cylindrical, red radish, both from Eden Brothers.  

Rutabaga: missed then, so this year we will plant some right after the peas. “Magres” from Territorial Seed, yellow-fleshed, red-skinned, fine grain variety that holds over winter.

Sweet Potatoes: “Japanese Marasaki” growing my own slips over winter.  Will grow in containers.

Turnips: “Hinona Kabu Japanese” from Pinetree, these look like pink carrots and are specifically for pickling. Will try these again. And I bought “Alamo” from Park Seeds which is a tunip hybrid that produces a long harvest of sweet turnip greens.

Greens:

Amaranth: had great luck with “Love Lies A-Bleeding” last year.  But this year I want to go back to an edible variety, so I chose “Red Garnet” from Pinetree, a large leaf, early variety.

Arugula: This year I chose “Astro” again from Pinetree for $1.95 – half the price of anywhere else.  It germinated and held well, right through November.

Chard: “Fordhook Giant” the white standard, good grower.  But who has ever heard of “Perpetual Spinach Chard”?  It is a Swiss chard that grows the size and shape of large spinach, tastes like chard and is good at re-growing for multiple cuttings. Found it at Eden Brothers, on sale.

Claytonia: It is a succulent green that looks like a bouquet of little lily pads. Bought a small quantity from Pinetree impulsively, “Claytonia”.

“Fenugreek” from Eden Brothers: I had it listed as an herb, but you eat it like a salad green, and it is actually a member of the pea family. It is delicious sauteed. I am planting it like a salad green this year.

“Ice Lettuce” from Pinetree, which is not actually lettuce. It is a succulent with fleshy leaves that have a textured surface. In French it is known as “Ficoïde Glacial” or Crystalline Iceplant. Supposedly it has a salty, lemony flavor and can be cooked like spinach, accompanies seafood.  I’m thinking sorrel meets purslane….

Lettuce: The blends irritated me last year, and because I’m so reluctant to thin, it fizzled out sooner than it should have, and got too much sun.  So this year I am experimenting with pelleted seeds for better placement and real heads: “Milagro” a large, blocky butterhead, “Flashy Trout back” a speckled, heirloom romaine, and “Red Snails” a red, crinkled leaf that resists bolting. For non-pelleted I chose “Red Iceberg” from Pinetree. It is a cold-hardy and red-colored iceberg.  

Mache: “Marcholong Mache” a super early corn mache from PineTree that I bought in 2020, reseeded itself in 2021 and was prolific. In fact, it is still growing so I bought some more and may turn it into a permanent patch. But I also bought “Vit” from Johnny Seed so I can try to carpet my garden path with it.

“Mitsuba” from Pinetree. It’s Japanese parsley, or Chinese celery. It tastes like parsley-celery? Impulse buy.

Nettles: “Stinging Nettle” from Hudson Valley Seed Company, never made it into the ground.

Orach: a violet red, velvet leafed spinach that grows on an 18 inch, upright stalk. Pinetree “Double Rose”, ordered it again.

Spinach: “Viroflay” on sale at Eden Brothers. “Lakeside” from Territorial Seed, which is supposed to be failsafe.  

“Watercress” from Pinetree. I have never grown it before, but I bought it impulsively.

Brassica:

Asian Greens: Pinetree “Tatsoi Greens”.  The gold standard for large rosettes, spoon-shaped leaves, tenderness, mild flavor and cold heartiness. And Johnny Seeds “Mei Qing Choi” baby bok choi.

Broccoli: I bought a six-pack of seedlings from Burpee: “ButterStem” sprouting broccoli. I will buy seedlings of other varieties locally.  

Cabbage: “Michihili”, from Eden Brothers, is a large, Chinese cabbage that is very dense and early growing. The slugs love it.

Cauliflower:  I bought a six-pack of seedlings from Burpee: “Twister” a heading cauliflower that grows upright leaves twisted around the head. I will buy other seedlings locally, most likely a sprouting cauliflower and some Romanesco.

Collards:

Kale: “Beira” Portuguese kale, and “Black Magic” Tuscan kale, from Johnny Seed.  It was on sale 1000 seeds for $3.  And because the perennial kale plants I bought last year died out, I’ve chosen seeds “Sea Kale” from Pinetree for $2.95 instead of paying $18 per live plant from Territorial Seed.

And, because they seem to go with the brassicas in planting rotations, the alums:

Chives: I need to plant more, in the orchard because they are a recommended companion plant for fruits and berries. So I ordered a full ounce from Eden Brothers of “Common Chives”.

Garlic:  I planted 50 garlic in early December, in the front lawn bed, with the daffodils, and in the great hugle.

Leek: Territorial Seeds “Succession Planting” threesome of Zermatt, Tadorna and Bandit seeds were a bust mainly because I did not start them early enough. I have a few of each left over.  Must start right after Christmas! I bought Pinetree’s “American Flag” (130 days), “Caratan” (100 days) and “Early Giant” (95 days).  

Onion: I planted RH Shumway’s “Egyptian Walking Onions” in December, in the sunny herb bed by the patio.

Scallions: I am doing the scallion regrow project.

Flowers for companion planting:

Cosmos:  I ordered the Park Seed “Cups & Saucers”.  

Marigold:  benefits so many things in the garden. Usually, I just buy the miniature firecracker mix, but this year I went bigger with “Mission Giant Yellow” which looks like an imperial chrysanthemum, blossoms 3 inches across. It is also taller so it can be planted with taller plants. I may spread them around the property.

Nasturiums: Need these for interplanting with a lot of different vegitables, so I bought Burpee’s “Alaska mix”.

Tithonia: “Mexican sunflower” from Park Seed, is a great favorite with butterflies. It is also a great favorite of the groundhog, so it has to be put in the lower orchard.

Lupines: I bought more “Perennial Blues” from Eden Brothers.

Herbs for companion planting:

Basil: “Thai bail evergreen towers” I ordered two live plants from Burpee. “Elidia” seeds from Johnny Seed, because they were on sale.

Borage: I have seeds left from previous years, and it self-seeds.

Dill:  I bought “Long Island Mammoth” from Eden Brothers.

Marjoram:  I will purchase locally

Tarragon: I will purchase locally and interplant some with the Rosemary.

#hudsonvalleygardening #backyardgardening #NYgardening

[jeninthegarden]

The expanded herb garden

Herbs

We forgot to discuss herbs.  I am full up on lavender – 45 plants, a field. We will plant no more lavender on this property.  It smells great and looks great. I cook with it occasionally, mostly with lamb, but it can be used with beef or pork just as you would use rosemary.  Disappointingly, although the lavender is planted just yards in front of my bee hives, the honey bees showed no interest whatsoever in the lavender blossoms.  No lavender flavored honey here.  Too bad because I went through a phase of putting lavender into my coffee with honey, chilled and served over ice. It was very refreshing.

Rosemary and thyme never seem to survive the winter, or more precisely the spring thaw, in the herb garden, so maybe it’s time to start planting them, en masse, elsewhere. Who wouldn’t like to have a rosemary hedge, or a carpet of thyme?  When I plant them this year I will give more careful consideration to where else they might thrive.  We cook with them in almost every dish we eat for dinner.  They go with all meats, and eggs, and beans, and mushrooms and soups. I never grow enough to harvest and dry it. Although, every other year or so I try to bring some indoors in a pot and the plants typically die by Valentine’s Day, on my kitchen counter.

The Egyptian walking onions can go back in the herb garden, but I ordered 30, so I can put some in the orchard, where they will be free to walk, and in the large bed on the front lawn where they will also have room to walk.  They are an incredibly useful plant – the white roots and green stalks can substitute for scallions, while the topsetting bulbs can be used like shallots and the curling shoots on the topsetting bulbs are like garlic scraps.

As I mentioned previously, the chives are destined for the orchard. They tolerate shade so they can be planted close around the tree trunks, although these saplings won’t create much shade for a few years yet.

And a tarragon plant I had for several years did not survive transplanting, so I ordered a new one from Burpee.  One plant is quite enough since we only ever use it in chicken salad or tuna salad.

Lovage.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned it before.  I planted some lovage (a perennial, cutting celery that is apparently more closely related to carrots) at least 10 years ago, in the herb bed, and it came back year after year.  It is very strong tasting so it really only goes into soup. And this past summer I decided it is too tall (6 feet) to be growing so close to the house.  It obstructs the view.  So I divided it and moved it around.  I’m waiting to see if it comes back this year in any of the places I transplanted it.  It clearly does not need very good soil – the soil in the herb bed is rocky and full of clay. It is so resilient I feel obliged to grow it.

Mullein.   Fuzzy Mullein is a medicinal weed. It is indestructible.  I have seen it growing on railroad tracks.  It is used to treat asthma and respiratory complaints.  You can make tea from the blossoms.  I just like the shape and texture.  The first summer we moved into this house, in 2004, a single, stray mullein sprouted on the back edge of the property, just out of reach of the lawnmower.  And the next year I found little mullein seedlings in the lawn nearby and moved them to safety in the flower bed. And ever since, I’ve been moving them around, culminating in a giant mullein I settled in the great hugel in 2019 which in 2020 grew to a 4 foot in diameter, rosette of green velvet leaves that put up an 8 foot flower stalk as thick as my wrist. They are so hardy and dramatic looking there will always be room for plenty of them in my yard.      

Oregano is everywhere now, as is the lemon balm. Ironically, we rarely use either in cooking, even the oregano because we have a large container of dried oregano that just never runs out.  But, also ironically, the honey bees really like the blossoms on both of these plants, and these plants bloom more than once per season.  I am suspicious that, even though the articles I’ve read say bees are attracted to the color blue, honeybees prefer white or green blossoms to anything else.

Cilantro and borage are two annual herbs I never have to plant again.  They self-seed and come back every year, all over the place.  I’m not one of the 4-14% of the general population to whom cilantro tastes like soap. Cilantro is one of those few tastes that I did not grow up with and therefore have a very clear memory of the first time I ever tasted it. It was a totally new and unique taste and I really liked it.  It tasted effervescent and fresh and it tastes like the color green. It has to be eaten raw.  Borage is a cucumber flavored herb that also has to be eaten raw, but also very young because it develops spines. If it flowers, pretty little blue, star-shaped blossom clusters, then the leaves are too stiff and prickly to eat. But the blossoms are edible and have the same great flavor, and look nice in salads or as garnish.

I’ve been rather unsuccessfully growing mint all these years. It is a weed and it really should flourish. But in 2014 it died out entirely from a black spot fungus that infested the shade side of the herb garden. I had to treat the soil with neem oil for several years to be rid of the fungus.  Now, as a precaution, I bury any penny minted before 1976 (because the old ones were totally copper and copper spray is a cure for lots of plant funguses) in the shaded herb bed.  The past few years I have replanted the mint, along the patio wall where it has limped along. And then, this past summer I found it is growing wild in the left back corner of my property, at the edge of the great hugel.  

I have two large clumps of hyssop in the hugel already, so no need for more of that. It has great, purple blossoms all summer long, the bumblebees love it, and the honey bees ignore it. It is “Anise” Hyssop but I have never yet attempted to eat it.  I think it is used for tea.

Milk thistle is also happily established in the hugel and I will have to watch it and make sure it does not spread.  I originally planted it because it has a large taproot that can be roasted like a vegetable, but I have not yet tried to eat it.  It is very pretty, about a foot high with distinctive holly-like, green and white striped leaves, and a purple bloom.  

I’m trying to overwinter the parsley in the garden, and I even have a row of root parsley (which has a strong taproot that grows to the size of a small carrot) overwintering – parsley is a biannual.  We eat lots of it.  It goes into a lot of dishes, but I also like making chimichurri sauce, which is parsley pesto with lots more garlic. It goes well on grilled chicken or steak.

Sage is a hardier than rosemary and thyme.  It lasts 3-4 years in the herb garden but is always small.  So this year I will plant two patches in the hugel.  

Nasturtiums, of course, are in my top five all-time favorite plants to grow. The leaves and blossoms are edible. It has a fresh peppery flavor but also a succulence. The plants are excellent companion for lots of different vegetables and I plant them everywhere.

Have I babbled about basil?  I have discovered that basil does best in part sun part shade.  It can be heat sensitive and needs water.  That is why it is recommended to plant it under tomato plants.  There are so many types of basil to choose from. I like purple basil. It has a stronger smell than green basil.  I like Thai basil; it has a stronger, more licorice flavor and stands up to heat (both BTUs and Scovilles) better.  I like lettuce leaf basil, with leaves like bib lettuce, big enough to wrap cheese and bruschetta into basil leaf tacos.  And then there is holy basil, an herb used more medicinally, in tea. It has a stronger, smokier flavor, like the lapsang souchong of basils.  So, which basil did I choose? Choose?  Trick question -there is no choosing.  They each have a completely different use, so I have to have them all!

And from the boundless basil, we will now digress into pure flights of fancy.

Green ginger, that’s its nickname.  Its proper name is wormwood.  It is used to create absinthe (no idea how and no intention of attempting it).  But it is flowering perennial – “feathery grey-green foliage and bright yellow flowers” - so into the great hugel it goes.  It is supposed to be quite bitter raw, and it is suggested that it be used in aromatic bitters.  Medicinal qualities are dubious. Most articles insist that it is NOT a hallucinogenic, and that it IS somewhat of an anti-inflammatory.    

Angelica, a biannual that looks a bit like Queen Anne’s Lace, but with a thick, celery-like stalk, and in fact is a member of the celery family.  It likes total shade. It reportedly has medicinal qualities; the Chinese variety of it is known as Dong Quai (Angelica sinensis), a stimulant. I’m not getting that variety.  I am planting Angelica archangelica (Holy Ghost), of Norwegian origin. It is another purported anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal.  I have grown it in the past just to fill up shady spots.  But I have not yet eaten it.  Its flavor has been likened to juniper berries. It is suggested to be used to: “flavor fish, poultry, cooked fruits, soups, or stews, while its stems can be cut and prepared like asparagus, chopped and stewed with rhubarb and apples, minced in preserves and marmalade, or candied”.

Anise.  Why, since I have anise hyssop, would I need to grow anise?  It is yet another member of the carrot-celery-parsley family. Medicinally, it sounds a lot less dubious than some others.  It contains manganese and iron. It is anti-fungal/anti-bacterial. It sooths and prevents stomach ulcers. It is an anti-inflammatory. And it is a tasty spice used in sweets and pastries.  Right now, I like crushed anise seeds on top of my expresso or cappuccino. Anise Hyssop is more bitter and smokier/menthol tasting, more suited for tea.

Fenugreek.  This is a new one that I encountered at our farmer’s market this summer.  I ended up stir-frying it like an Italian escarole/broccoli rabe, and stewing it in a curry sauce like spinach.  It’s sort of the texture of spinach and, although it is supposed to be slightly sweet and nutty in taste, I found it to be like a mildly bitter oregano.  In theory the seeds taste like maple syrup. Medicinally, it is purported to lower blood sugar and cholesterol and help skin conditions.  It belongs to the bean family of plants.  

Caper bush. Capparis spinose is the blooming bush commonly called “Flinders Rose”, which is interesting because caper berries look a lot like large rose hips. You typically eat the flower buds pickled.  The plant is a perennial that belongs in a rock garden. It is also a hybrid of several other distinct species in its family. It belongs to the Brassicales order of plants, and is related to mustard and cabbage plants. There are no known medicinal properties.  It’s perennial, so hopefully I only have to plant it once.  It tolerates poor soil and drought so it can be planted where a lot of things can’t.  We cook with capers regularly. I have even pickled nasturtium buds as a substitute, so I’m very interested in the real capers.  And I like pickled caper berries in my martinis.

Sesame.   I like tahini.  I like sesame seeds toasted and sprinkled on yogurt.  A flowering plant first domesticated on the sub-continent of India, it is the world’s oldest seed-oil crop.  It purportedly can lower blood pressure.  It is an annual that prefers dry, hot weather. So I will plant it in the raised garden bed this year. An added advantage of that location is that it is close to the bee hives, and the flowers of the sesame plant are supposed to be very attractive to honey bees specifically.  I have doubts, since the pictures I have seen all show big, tubular flowers that are purple.  I think they are going to be more attractive to bumble bees than to honey bees.

Black Cumin.  Otherwise known as Black Seed, it is rumored to have almost as many miraculous health benefits as marijuana.  But none of those claims are scientifically proven. But then again, no financial interests are served by promoting naturally existing medicines that can’t be patented and sold for lots of money. I just eat the seeds for their flavor.  I like toasted cumin seeds on melted cheese, in my cereal, and on buttered toast.  There are two different plants referred to as “black cumin”.  I am planting Nigella sativa.  It is a member of the buttercup family along with delphiniums, clematis and hellebors. This is a historical spice – seeds were found in a Hitite(!) flask in Turkey dating to 2000 BC. It is a flowering annual sometimes called “Love in the Mist” and the plant looks a lot like dill or comos to me. It is quick growing and is advised to be sown every three weeks mid April through mid June, and then again August 15 and September 15 for continual bloom.  I think I’m more interested in a consolidated, early harvest and maybe a second fall planting to allow it to self seed for next year.    

Feverfew.  Also a member of the aster family, but much prettier, and more compact.  Someone in my garden swap group traded me a feverfew for some mullein last summer.  It was lovely (coin sized, white, daisy like flowers) and the honey bees liked it. Supposedly it will self-seed.  So I’m waiting to see if it comes back.  It is used medicinally to treat migraine headaches.  I don’t suffer those so for me it is purely ornamental (and pollinator friendly). Maybe it ends up in my honey and adds to the relief from pollen allergies by adding head-ache relief.

Crocus.  A flower, yes, but I bought the giant fall blooming variety from which the stamens are harvested (with tweezers) and dried into saffron. We use it in risotto and paella. And this time, I carefully planted it in the orchard, unlike the hundreds of crocus I have planted in my front lawn that spring up every spring only to be eaten and re-eaten by deer any time they get taller than an inch.  And because they are fall blooming I am concerned about avoiding planting over them in the spring, or letting weeds completely overtake the spots where I planted them, so with each clump of 10 crocus bulbs I planted one, large daffodil bulb so I will have a daffodil flag marking each spot in the spring that I can replace with a permanent marker in the summer.

French Sorrel: I have two large, perennial patches of it, but other than the first, tender, spring leaves, it is fit for nothing but soup; I must resist the temptation to add it to salad

And, of course, I forgot to mention a couple of additional herbs I decided to grow. I really do not wish to make my own medicines, so there are some heavy weight medicinal herbs I’m NOT growing.  But there are a couple more culinary herbs I am going to attempt to grow - attempt is the operative word because they are annual and tropical.

Culantro - not to be confused with Cilantro (soapy tasting, Mexican parsley). Culantro looks like dandelion leaves, grows in a rosette and supposedly tastes like a mix of sorrel, cilantro and arugula.  It is biannual and pungent enough to stand up to high heat cooking and stewing, whereas cilantro is used raw or just to finish or garnish a dish.  Culantro figures in Vietnamese and Cuban cooking and pairs well with dishes that include beef.

Roselle - is Indian Hibiscus.  It’s perennial in the tropics. It grows 4 feet high. The stems can be used as a jute substitute in burlap or rugs. The buds and flowers can be used as a natural red food coloring or dye, they have a sweet and sour flavor and are used to make chutney and a wide variety of hot and cold beverages. The leaves are cooked and eaten as a spicy, peppery spinach. They hold up well to heat and are used in curry dishes and to season bean dishes.

Shiso - is that flat, basil like leaf with a serrated edge that often appears as a garnish in your sushi order.  It has a very delicate cucumber, lemon and licorice flavor.  Excellent with raw or cooked fish.  A relative of mint and basil, it is suggested you can substitute it into any cocktail that calls for mint.  Doesn’t hold up to heat so well.  You can blend it for salad dressing, or dipping sauce for tempura, and you can make raw shiso pesto to serve over fish.

#herbgarden culinaryherbs

[jeninthegarden]

The Delusion Continues

I kept my promise and did not look at the pepper plant section of any more seed catalogues, even though I read a very lively discussion on one of my garden group chats about the Hatch (Valley) chilis, and realized I have never grown Anaheim chili peppers, and wondered if they are all they are cracked up to be....and wondered.. But I did NOT order any! However, the R.H. Shumway seed catalogue straggled in (late - about 2 weeks later than all the others) to distract me from my musings about Hatch Valley pepper preeminence.  You can't really call the Shumway catalogue garden porn because it is black and white, no photographs, printed on newsprint, and type set like a century old newspaper. Kind of cutesy-charming, silly and certainly not going to inspire any expensive seed purchases. So, I reasoned, there could be no harm in flipping through just to walk down memory lane.  I get the Shumway catalogue because I used to order from them back at the beginning of my gardening days.  My interests expanded as my garden expanded and I moved on to Johnny Seeds pretty quickly for great selection and more exotic varieties.  So, I was surprised and excited to see Shumway is carrying Egyptian Walking Onions, and they are in stock!  No one else is carrying them, and mine have all disappeared, so I hurried to place my order for 30 bulbs (they cost less than daffodil bulbs and are far more useful - or so I rationalized). And that should have been all, but wasn't.  Shumway has very limited varieties of everything, but low and behold, they are carrying the Iroquois musk melon (heavily netted, cold hardy, orange flesh) that Hudson Valley Seed Company is already sold out of.  So, I ordered a packet of those.  Shumway is also carrying chive seeds (very plainly stated, in black and white) and I need more chive seeds for the orchard. And I remembered that the thriving chives I have had in my herb garden for 10+ years, were actually from seeds I originally ordered from Shumway.  So, I ordered some ordinary, garden chives.  That, of course, reminded me that when I was sorting my seed inventory, I found a some old (2011) packets of parsnip and salsify packets, from Shumway, and tossed them because they are clearly not viable anymore, and I was really done with roots this year. Not interested. Couldn't even remember why I had ever been interested in parsnips, of all things.  I re-read the Shumway description of Hollow Crown vs. Harris Model parsnips, and recalled exactly why I had gone with Hollow Crown last time ...and ordered those again!  Shumway only carries one variety of salsify - Mammoth Island - so there was no choice to be made. I have a lot of scorzonera seeds left and it is cultivated the same way salsify is, so I bought more salsify to go with my scorzonera. It was only logical.There was no logic to the additional seeds I ordered from Shumway.  The "Baltimore Hybrid" giant carrots and the "Megaton" green cabbage were completely thoughtless.  I've never had any luck growing giant varieties, so why bother?  Well, I don't know - I didn't really think about it! I have ordered such things in the past, NOT from Shumway but from shady, E-bay sellers because of click-bait pictures.  Can't say Shumway's drawings are click-bait, so that's no excuse.  Anyway, now I'm going to be attempting to grow giant carrots and cabbages. No more garden catalogues, please, no more!

#seed impulse buying gardening zone 5b

[jeninthegarden]

Seed List 2021

I want them NOW.

The seed catalogues, the “garden porn”, has begun to arrive.  I always have to complete my review of the prior year before I can begin to think about what I want to plant this year.  I get interested in different cultivars from season to season; I swear off some, fixate on others, swear off some and then buy lots of seeds anyway because they are inexpensive or just include really pretty pictures, discover some new hybrids that I just have to try, succeed gloriously and re-order the same.   But first, there is the momentous decision of whether to order seeds or just order the plants, or hedge my bets and order both, or risk it and order neither in hopes of picking it up locally.   And then there are the plants other than vegetables.  Since I am now a member of the pollinator pathway and a 3rd year bee-keeper, there are native, blooming plants to be considered, and some non-native, invasive plants that have to be dug out and replaced with something.  I also have an orchard, and although I’m full up on fruit trees and berries, there is a lot of space in the fenced, groundhog-proofed orchard that needs companion planting or temporary cultivation.  We completed our great hugel – more space for planting native species and anything the deer don’t eat (asparagus, artichokes..).  And the lavender patch is thriving, not just with lavender but wildflowers, some of which are perennial and need to be relocated.  Now we are contemplating not one, but two rain gardens, one in the front yard and one in the back yard.

The following seed list is comprised of just the edibles I am ordering. For full disclosure, I’ve added the list of seeds I still have in inventory from the past few years. Not all of those seeds will be viable but I’m going to be germinating them because I have extra space.  The perennials, herbs, flowers, shrubs, trees, natives, exotics, hardscaping, bee-keeping and chicken-keeping are all detailed in my garden review.  Not here.  

Beans were a bust, so my fixation has not been fixed! And, as usual when I am thwarted by the elements, I double-down.   I’m totally over the squash and gourd bonanza, except that I saved seeds from all the squash I successfully grew, so now I am stuck with the dilemma of either giving the seeds away or planting them. I’m disappointed in the potato crop but the Japanese Yams were soooo delicious I’m going to try those again, and a couple other varieties that are just click-bait.  Super aggravated that none of the brassica flourished – doubling down.  And tired of waiting for fruiting, so I invested in some quirky, fast-maturing varieties and paid particular attention to standard varieties advertised for abundance and temperature range tolerance.  

I was surprised and worried to note, however, that some variety of seeds have already sold out, in January!  So, I panicked and ordered somewhat hurriedly, from multiple seed companies, some staples, repeats and favorites.  And then, in a more leisurely but not more methodical fashion, ordered everything else.  

Legumes:

Peas –  The pea crop was lousy last year!  And I used all my saved seeds trying for a fall crop, that failed. So, back to the drawing board.  Going by the descriptions, I ordered “Easy Peasy” from Burpee (11 peas per pod/2 pods per node -200 seeds) and “Maestro” (9 peas per pod, multiple pickings – 150 seeds).  I think I’ve ordered both of these in the past and was satisfied.  I also ordered “Alaska Early” (Extra early, 6 peas per pod, multiple pickings – 300 seeds) from Terratorial Seeds and “Knight Pea” (Extra early, 10 peas per pod – 150 seeds) from Pinetree.

Snap Peas: For my first ever attempt at sugar snap peas (no shelling required – but not as thin as snow peas), I ordered “Sugar Magnolia” snap peas from Pinetree Seeds, which have violet pods, and “Sugar Lace II”, the semi-leafless and prolific snap pea.  

Runner beans: Last year I ordered Territorial Seeds “Scarlet Emperor” with red blossoms, and Pinetree Seeds “Painted Lady” with red and white blossoms, “Sunset” with pale pink blossoms. And Park Seeds “Stardust”, with white blossoms. I have some of each left in inventory, so this year I am ordering “Black Coat” an ancient heirloom from Pinetree which is a red-blossomed, black bean.  

Bush beans: Park Seeds “Velour” which is a proven winner, in sold out already.  A compact, bush-habit plant, very heavy-bearing bright purple, stringless pods over a long season. I ordered it this time from Territorial Seed “Velour”.

Pole beans-I  want to try the Territoral Seeds “Rattlesnake” beans again since the groundhog and the drought got all the ones I planted last year. Pinetree Seeds “Winged Bean” yielded just two pods so I saved the seeds to try again, but also ordered a fresh pack. I still have a lot of “Violetto” purple pole beans left.  They do well climbing cornstalks or sunflowers.

Noodle beans – Never even made it into the ground, so I still have Pinetree Seeds “Red Noodle” and “Mosaic” left over. However, at this point germination is not going to be great.

Soybeans-  They are already sold out of Park Seeds “Midori Giant”. So I have ordered their organic “Chiba Green Organic” instead.

Fava beans- Pinetree Seeds “Varoma” was hearty and tasted superb.  I made the happy discovery that the stems and blossoms taste as good as the beans.  So this is absolutely a spring and fall crop I need to plant a lot more of. I doubled my order.  I may also order the bulk, cover crop variety to sew in the fall.

 Fruits:

Corn – The “Kandy Korn” from Burpee was delicious, or so say the squirrels!  It was a perfect appetizer to all the squash they demolished in the fall.  This year I need to regroup on corn.  I’m not going to have the space for it for much longer, so seems a shame to give up. I ordered “Blue Jade” a dwarf heirloom sweet corn from Hudson Valley Seeds, to plant in planters on the patio.  And I ordered “Dakota Black” popcorn from Territorial Seed to use for the 3 Sisters planting in the orchard.  I have grown Dakota Black previously.  

Cucumber- Cucumbers didn’t get enough heat last summer.  So this time I went with a quick growing slicer variety from Totally Tomatoes called “Green Light”. And a prolific pickling variety “Pick-a-bushel” from Burpee.  I have some “Bushy” and “Pickle Bush” (both bush, pickle cucumbers) left, as well as “Marketer” and “Market-More” thin skinned, slicing varieties left over.  But I was not impressed with any of these varieties.  And then there is “Barese” (from Totally Tomatoes): an “Italian heirloom novelty” that can be eaten young as a traditional cucumber, or allowed to mature into a melon..?

Eggplant – I did so well in the orchard I decided to go with Park Seeds “Black Beauty” large standard, and “Mixed Fingerling” purple, white and green (again).  Dan has really perfected his eggplant caponata recipe, and we grill eggplant and stir-fry it, or roast it for babaganoush often enough that we will eat all I can grow. I also have “Hari” (long green of India, but the seeds are several years old), and “Millionaire” (the classic long, purple of Japan, but also several years old) in inventory.

Gourds- I’m done with gourds.  We won’t talk about the stack of bushel, bottle, dipper, swan-neck gourds that are rotting on my front porch.  No, I said we’re not going to talk about it. The only gourd I want to try again is the Luffa gourd because I still have not grown a single luffa.

Melon- I bought Burpee “Mango Melon” seeds again, for the description of its taste alone because the seeds from last year did germinate but did not produce any fruit.  And I also bought “Jenny Lind” heirloom, green melon, and “Sakatas Sweet” a super sweet green with very thin rind, from Pinetree (which is located in Maine, so most of their seed offerings grow well in the Northeast).

Okra – like fava beans, I discovered that the entire okra plant is edible.  Leaves can be cooked like collards, and the flowers can be battered and fried like zucchini blossoms.  I saved seeds from Pinetree Seeds, giant “Cow Horn” and “Red Burgungy”.   I ordered Park Seeds “Rainbow Fiesta” ivory, green and pink okra again because it did not fruit.  The “Unicorn” which, although it is eaten like okra, is actually “devil’s claw”, a member of the sesame family and a medicinal herb, also did not germinate.  So I bought it again!  And then I saw that Territorial Seed had “Simpson”, which is more cold-hardy, and Burpee has “Baby Buda” which is a small, early maturing and cold tolerant variety of okra; so, I ordered those as well.

Pepper – I am trying an interesting experiment of over-wintering my pepper plants that did not fruit their first season.  Unfortunately, when I dug them up, I did not label them so, I don’t know if they are hot or sweet. I suspect they are mostly hot.  I ordered “Yellow Calwonder” from Totally Tomatoes, a fast growing sweet yellow bell, and “Chablis”, also a fast growing sweet bell that grows from white to orange to red, and “Sheepnose Pimento”, a sweet red cherry pepper, and “Sweet Banana” a long, sweet yellow.  Then I got distracted and ordered Pinetree “Tobasco Pepper”.  In inventory I have the following hot peppers:  Dragon Tongue; Cayenne; Paper Lantern; Habanero; Lemon drop; Chiltepin (fire flea); Portuguese hot red (Portuguese dagger); Early Jalapeno; and Pastilles Bajio.  And sweet: Big Red and Corno Di Toro.  I promise not to peruse the pepper plant sections of the rest of the incoming seed catalogues.  But a member of our local plant swap has a pepper propagating propensity, so I absolutely promise that some of the peppers I am planning to propagate will be proffered in exchange for some of the pepper plants she has propagated!  

Tomatoes – Here, COVID fatigue (boredom, tired of waiting) hit me and I started to ask myself why I have to wait until August for ripe tomatoes.  Then there was the timely arrival of the seed catalogue from Totally Tomatoes.  So I got a little off the rails and ordered “Quedlinburger Fruhe Liebe” that matures in only 40 days! I also ordered “Anna Russian” a red heirloom, “Old German” a yellow striped heirloom, “Black Krim” a purple heirloom, “Independence Day” another very early tomato.  And then the Burpee catalogue arrived…They have a 2 lb seedless paste tomato called “Super Paste” and a 3 lb beefsteak called “Steakhouse”, and the bronze colored plum tomato called “Shimmer” I grew a few years ago, and a French beefsteak called “Mama Marmalade” that I’ve been eyeing for a couple years.  So I ordered 1 plant of each, except for the Super Paste of which I ordered 30 seeds. I have a lot of seeds left in inventory: Pink Beefsteak; San Marzano; Green Zebra; Big Rainbow; Mr. Stripy; Brandywine; Giant Garden Paste; Mortgage Lifter, Black Russian, Black Seaman and Cherokee Purple.

Watermelon:  I chose “Faerie Hybrid” an early maturing (just 60 days), yellow rind with red inside.

Winter Squash and pumpkins: I’m sort of over my fixation, except that I saved a lot of seeds and am still mad about the squirrels eating all my squash and pumpkins.  So, although I am not buying any squash or pumpkin seeds, I have the following in inventory: Japanese black pumpkin; Honeyboat; Dumpling; No-ID other than “small winter”; Cheese pumpkin; Queensland Blue pumpkin; Butternut; Honeynut; Spaghetti squash; Giant pumpkin; Jester squash; Cherokee bush pumpkin.

Zucchini- Burpee fordhook heirloom is an excellent staple, but the Burpee’s Sure Thing variety really does well with less sun, and is very resistant to powdery mildew so I’m going with that one because last summer was just not hot enough for zucchini.  

Roots:

Beets: Pinetree “Beet Mix”

Carrot: Territorial Seed “Giants of Colmar”, large winter harvest carrots for stew. Park Seed’s “Rainbow Blend” purple-red-orange. Pinetree  “Culinary Blend” yellow-white-orange.

Radish:  Not interested! So, of course, I ordered some radishes that don’t look like radishes or even have the same growing season as regular radishes:  “Minowasa Summer Cross No.3 Diakon” from Territorial Seeds, which looks like a white carrot and grows in the summer.  

Potatoes:  Pinetree “Pinto Gold”, a medium sized gold potato with violet patches, and “Blackberry” small, jet black potato from Territorial Seed.

Sweet Potatoes: “Japanese Marasaki” from Territorial Seed. Purple skin with white interior that is sweet and pecan nutty, but with a firm, dry texture of a russet potato.

Turnips: “Hinona Kabu Japanese” from Pinetree, these look like pink carrots and are specifically for pickling.

No celeriac, rutabaga, parsnips, radishes, burdock, scorzonera, salsify, milk thistle….until I end up planting them anyway.  

Greens:

Arugula:  Pinetree Seeds “Astro” quick growing for clipping.

Chard: Pinetree “Peppermint Stick” Swiss chard. I don’t like red or yellow chard because chard is closely related to beets and the red/yellow coloring makes Swiss chard taste like beet greens.  I like beet greens but I also like chard that does not taste identical to beet greens.  So maybe peppermint stick will be a good, colorful choice that won’t taste too much like beets.

Claytonia: It is a succulent green that looks like a bouquet of little lily pads. Terrirotial Seeds “Miner’s Lettuce”.

Escarole: Burpee “Sugarloaf” This is a very tight-headed, upright variety that looks like a pointy cabbage.

Lettuce:  Burpee “Four Seasons Blend”, “Heatwave Blend” and “All Season Romaine Blend”.

Mache:  “Marcholong Mache” a super early corn mache from PineTree.

Nettles: “Stinging Nettle” from Hudson Valley Seed Company.

Orach: a violet red, velvet leafed spinach that grows on an 18 inch, upright stalk. Pinetree “Double Rose”.

Spinach: Park Seeds “Space”heat and mildew resistant.  “Renegade”a high yielding, weather indifferent variety is sold out! So I ordered “Imperial Star” very cold hardy.  And I’m going with “Lakeside”, a failure-proof, everything hardy, spinach from Territorial Seed.

Purslane: Pinetree “Goldberger Purslane”a larger, paler and more succulent variety, with a lovely golden bloom.

“Salad Burnett” a cucumber-tasting salad green from Pinetree

“Saltwort”, a succulent green from Pinetree

“Upland Cress” , a spicy, mountain cress from Pinetree.

Brassica:

Asian Greens: Park Seed “Li Ren Choy” pak choi;   Pinetree “Purple Pak Choi” and “Tatsoi Greens” and “Misome”; “Green coin” tatsoi and “Yum Choi Sum” Asian chard, from Territorial Seeds; “Rainbow Tatsoi” and “Komatsuna” tender green, from Hudson Valley Seed Company.

Broccoli:  Territorial Seed’s: “Aspabroc” and “Emerald Crown”, I have two rows of winter/spring broccoli mulched with straw in the garden that I am trying to overwinter.  And I have plenty of “Homegrown” broccoli mix seed in inventory.

Cabbage: Not a single cabbage succeeded last year.  So this year we start earlier and we start fresh. Territorial Seed “Kalibos” a pointy red cabbage, and “Wa Wa Tsai” an early, mini Napa cabbage, Burpee’s “Red Dragon” open leaf, red, napa cabbage.  Pinetree’s “Point One” green head super early (48 days) cabbage. I have some “Round Dutch” green cabbage left in inventory.

Cauliflower:  Park Seeds “Veronica” which is that weird, green pyramidal Romanesco – Sold Out!, so Pinetree “Romanesco”, and “Snow Crown” - 53 Days to maturity. I have some “Fioretto” open head cauliflower and “Burgundy” purple cauliflower seeds in inventory still.

Collards: I did not order any seeds, yet.  I have a row of seedlings mulched with straw that I am trying to overwinter.  I have “Champion” collard seeds leftover from several years ago.

Kale: “Portuguese Kale” from Burpee.  I have often described it as looking like giant green roses. It tastes more like cabbage than kale.  “Amara Ethiopian Kale” (looks like shiny, kohlrabi leaves, and matures in 40 days) and “Kosmic” perennial kale, from Territorial Seed.  I have 2 surviving Sea Kale (perennial) seedlings in the orchard. We’ll see if they survive the winter. And “Organic Kale Garden Blend” from Park seeds.  I also have a lot of Red Russian Kale seedlings I mulched with straw to see if they will overwinter. And I left some Portuguese Kale standing to see if it will re-sprout (if only to give me some more seed to plant in the fall).  I have lots of very old curly blue kale seeds leftover.

And, because they seem to go with the brassicas in planting rotations, the alums:

Leek: Territorial Seeds “Succession Planting” threesome of Zermatt, Tadorna and Bandit (seeds).

Onion: Burpee’s “Sweet mix” for shorter days.

Scallions: Park Seed “Warrior”.

Garlic:  I planted garlic in the fall, and it developed green shoots and roots.  I mulched it with straw and hope it will sprout in another 6-8 weeks.

#seed list garden zone 5b

[jeninthegarden]

Jen in the Garden 2021

The Quarantined Garden

 Time was not an issue this year because I was at home 24/7 and staring at my garden from my desk in the bedroom window.  The view is impressive.  I have a fenced orchard with 12 fruit trees.  I have a chicken coop with 7 of my original 12 chickens still alive and well.  I have three bee hives. I have a fenced in vegetable garden, a berry patch, an herb garden, a lavender field and a hugel of shrubs and native plants, and I am planning a rain garden.  This is my 13th year of garden logging.  I also have deer, groundhog, possum, raccoon, crows, hawks, squirrels, rabbits, chipmunks, a fox and an occasional coyote.

I have come to detente in my 16 years of living with a groundhog tenant in the back yard.  Groundhogs only live 3-4 years on average, so the resident groundhog changes and the burrow is taken over by a new tenant every couple years. When we cleared the back of the yard this last winter for the orchard, I was finally able to see the layout of the groundhog burrow.  It is under the upper 1/3 of the orchard with initially 3, now 4 entrances inside the orchard fence.  Because that portion of the orchard is higher ground, it is drier and I planted the stone fruits (cherries and plums) in that half of the orchard, entirely without disturbing the burrow or burrow entrances.  I also put the bee hives in that area because drier is better for bees. And I made rings with stones around the burrow openings so that I don’t step in them. They now look like hobbit holes.

The orchard fence is made of wire with 2x4 inch openings.  The groundhog generally prefers to go under the fence and has several places where it has scraped exit trenches.  Because the orchard is so bare and new I decided to plant squash and corn in there and put up a partition fence to keep the groundhog out of the lower 2/3 of the orchard. That was when I witnessed the Highway Ham Hobbit Houdini actually squeeze itself right through a 2x4 inch opening in the fence wire to escape after digging its way into the partition to eat all my sunflowers and beans.  I had to reinforce the lower portion of the orchard with bird netting and really big rocks. No break-ins since, but the dry spell in June made the groundhog peckish and it climbed my cherry tree saplings and ate their lower leaves.  It also ate the tops off my sweet potatoes in the upper orchard, and a lot of the yarrow seedlings.  It has not so much as nibbled the peach tree. Obviously it does not like peaches.

The spring was cold.  I planted in late March and although everything germinated, it stopped growing at about 1-3 inches high and just stayed that way until the end of June. It was rainy and soggy. The daffodils were amazing.  Then came June and there was no more rain for 6 weeks. I actually had to water because of the new fruit trees and lavender bushes. The June grass looked like August. Most of the summer crops were ruined, with the exception of the extras that were thrown in the orchard and did really well.  I’m not sure if it was because of the extra watering or because that ground has not been cultivated in 60 years, or both. The young trees will not be substantially shading the orchard for many years, so meanwhile I have plenty of space to cultivate between them.  

The legume crop was spotty at best. My bean fixation wasn’t fixed so I am doubling down.  Greens and Brassicas were just off.  It was a deceptively mild winter and we had a very early thaw after almost no snow. But, although the spring was wet, it stayed really cold, too cold. My early greens didn’t get enough sun and my summer greens didn’t get enough water.  So I’m going all out on leafy greens this year.  There you have it:  Greens & Beans is the focus this year…plus a few flights of fancy and the standard deviation into other edible oddities.          

 I had numerous gardening projects going this past summer and I am surprised at my own progress (having 2 bored teenagers at home added a lot of extra muscle and motivation):  

 The Orchard.  My daughter wants to make sure she gets full credit for planting the orchard. Last winter we had the back 20 yards of the yard cleared and fenced.  Although we hired help to do the basic clearing, and then to remove a large concrete pad we uncovered, and to put up the fence, my kids and the neighbor kids, did several hundred hours of work in the spring to remove all the roots, vines and rocks, and then, after the concrete slab was removed, they split 8 pines trees worth of logs and filled in the hole (which was one third of the orchard) and covered it over with dirt, used the remaining logs to complete the great hugel, and covered that with dirt and woodchips.  And then it was time to plant fruit trees.  We opted for the following varieties, from Willis Orchard and Raintree Nursery: 1 Self-fertile peach, 1 sweet cherry, 1 sour cherry, 1 green plum, 1 black weeing plum, 1 red-fleshed crab apple, 1 red cider apple, 2 honeycrisp apples, 1 self-fertile sugar pear, 1 white pear, 1 yellow pear.  These are all 2 year old, 5-7 foot saplings that should fruit next year. Additionally, I ordered a Chicago Brown Hardy Fig, that was planted beside the boulder in front of the house, but is now a house plant (house twig) after the deer found it.  I also have a weeping persimmon in the backyard swamp that is living in a cage to protect it from the deer.

 The community garden.  The InterGenerate community garden in my village was a big draw this past year, attracting new members and greater creativity by existing members.  We got a really good watering system in place and made great use of it.  The aim of the group is to teach people how to grow their own food and in that vein we donate both seeds and the harvest back to the community.  Last year the focus will be on real subsistence crops: potatoes, beans and squash instead of the ultimate (super expensive) tomato.  I was enthusiastic and went completely overboard ordering potato seed, beans and squash.  This year I will be devoting my plot to leafy greens and hot peppers, things the community we serve really appreciate. I assume interest in our project will be even greater this year.  And because my seed inventory is so high, I will also be donating seeds and plants to fellow gardeners.  With the water system for the community garden up and running, we have turned our attention to perennial beds and pollinator patches.  We have a large patch of goldenrod on the property we are thinking of expanding into a wild flower patch.  We also are considering building a communal herb bed for perennial herbs. The mild fall also sparked interest in season-extending materials.

 The Pollinator Pathway. This is a national movement subdivided down to extremely local chapters working to connect greenways, nature preserves and public lands with private properties where no pesticides are used to create green corridors that are pesticide free. I am also very self-interested in joining this movement because this was my second year of bee-keeping and I harvested some superb honey.  So, started last spring with 2 bee hives and ordered a third. We harvested from the Hyssop (blue) Hive in late July, about 2 gallons. We took about 1.5 gallons from the Sunflower (yellow) hive in September.  The Hyssop hive colony was overcrowded so I ordered a 3rd hive (purple) and split the Hyssop hive in August to see if I could build out the Lilac (purple) hive colony for winter.  All was well until October when I discovered all 3 hives had “absconded” – they were empty: no bees alive or dead, no honey, pollen or larva.  Research indicates there was too much competition for food. It was a crazy year for yellow jackets and I did observe lots of yellow jackets trying to battle their way into the hives daily.  So I packed up the hives, wrapped them to prevent infiltration by wax moths, and put them away.  In the spring I will clean them and re-locate them (the upper orchard may be too hot), and order two new colonies.  

I planted a lot of native plants this year and unfortunately very few survived! June was a bad, dry month, and the month I tried planting everything.  Turtlehead Cleome, Jersey Tea, Bergamot, Queen of the Prairie and Joe Pye Weed all failed. And that was a lot of plants!  So too, the California lilac failed. The elderberry and a few beebalm survived, so did the buttonbush.  The hyssop, salvia and iris did okay. The oakleaf hydrangea died.  Astilbe and bleeding heart limped along.  Ferns were hit or miss. Thistle and mullein were abundant.

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Provence in New York. Last year we bought 24 gallon pot lavender plants on Cape Cod and we brought them home. We planted them in place of the wildflower bed that had petered out and started to go back to grass.  They have been thriving with vigorous weeding by my chickens.  So we decided to expand and went back to the same farm in Cape Cod for more plants this spring.  However, there were no lavender plants, and we met the woman who had purchased every single one minutes before we arrived.  She was gleeful telling us that our positions had been reversed the year before when we bought all the lavender the day before she arrived. So we sourced locally, but were only able to find 4 inch pots.  Still, we planted 20 more. And all survived and have doubled in size.  

 The Wildflowers. The chickens were allowed to scratch and bare the soil between the lavender plants this spring and, amazingly, that treatment lead to a huge resurgence of the wildflowers. We had a sea of cornflowers, lots of wild white yarrow, poppies, foxglove, daisies and black-eyed susans and lots of things I cannot identify.  Interestingly, the same thing happened in the orchard where the chickens spent a lot of time.  I transplanted some of the yarrow to the orchard, as it is considered a good companion for fruit trees.  And I moved some foxglove back there too, and still have more to transplant to the front yard. It was so successful letting the chickens weed the lavender that I am going to repeat the process this spring.  The chickens do an amazing job of eating grass seed and turning the soil.  I always let them in my garden in the spring to help me get a head start on weeding.  And they spent a lot of time in the orchard this spring as well.

 The Western Wall – This has been a disaster. I am going to move the kiwi berries to the orchard.  I planted more asparagus and it did not take.  Perhaps this is a bed for flowers only.  But the iris is there but not blooming. Foxglove did okay, except that I moved it.  The horse radish is okay because it is a weed.  The rhubarb is failing.  I should probably move it.  Maybe this space should be a rock garden.  Disturbing the soil, which is heavy clay, lets a lot more water into the foundation.  Not good.

 Hugelkultur. (You have to say that word with guttural gusto!) What??  It is the method of building a raised bed over buried logs.  Finally, the great hugel is complete!  All that wood left from our nine pine trees that fell 8 years ago during Hurricane Sandy has been split and buried. Helen and Calvin split all that wood this spring. And 20 cubic yards of woodchips delivered last year have been spread around the property. The great hugel is thriving. I’m dedicating it to native plants, including burdock, thistle and the biggest mullein plant you ever saw - it was 8 feet high and 4 feet around.  We also buried quite a lot of logs in the orchard, to fill in the area where we had to remove a concrete slab.  

 Back to Eden. Scored 20 cubic yards of wood chips, last year from getchipdrop.com. The woodchip and cardboard weed barrier method of gardening worked really well in giant hugle and the front yard. And I got another 20 cubic yards in September.  So much more to do. It will be the basis of the two rain gardens we are going to build this coming summer. I am still hoarding carboard. The pollinator patch at our community garden will also require and initial weed barrier of cardboard and woodchips to get it established.

 The Herb Garden. I had a little problem with the herb bed two years ago when I let the Bull thistle take over.  I like the thistles and transplanted them to the big hugel. I dug out all the little thistle seedlings in the herb bed and got rid of then. The bigger issue with the herb garden this past year was an invasive yellow primrose that I was tossing out left and right.  And the violets have taken over the outer border. So I need to be more ruthless about thinning them.  Otherwise, the bed flourished. I had to plant more rosemary and more thyme. This is turning into an annual thing.  No matter what I do it does not make it through the winter.  The oregano however is taking over.

 The Shade Garden.  I have to subdivide the herb garden into the light and shade portions because most of the herbs just will not grow in the shade portion so I’ve started planting native ephemerals and hosta.  I should move the honey berry bushes next year. They don’t mind the location but they have not exactly thrived, so they are destined for the front yard with the blueberry bushes (that haven’t exactly thrived because the deer keep eating them..). Lemon balm and chives, by comparison, have taken over, as has that stupid yellow primrose that just has to go! Now, bloodwort, foam flower, mountain mint, spider plant and woodland stone crop all did well, and oddly, basil flourished there because of the moisture, even without light.

 House plants. I think perhaps the fig tree needs to winter over inside this year.  It did not thrive outside by the big rock. And then the deer got hungry and ate it. So it is recuperating inside and has a single, new leaf.  Next year I also want some large ferns for the front porch. I bought a new wax plant vine (Hoya Obovata) to replace “Hobi” that died;  this one’s name is “Obo”.  “Brutus II” (a kidnapped Philodendron Hope Selloum cutting from an apartment sublet 20 years ago) has died. My Dracaena Warneckii (“Necky”) is 24 years old and still going strong. My sad little, Christmas cactus bloomed, at Thanksgiving, and now looks pathetic again.  My Chicago Brown Hardy Fig is recuperating as a house plant after being munched to s twig by deer this summer; it’s going to be a patio plant for a couple years. The art glass terrarium is a desert wasteland again.  

 Woodlands.  Just when you thought there was no piece of this property left for me to cultivate. I decided to make inroads against the vines and poison ivy on our lower, pine tree border. I mulched and clipped. There are many Japanese maple saplings in that border which I saved from the vines.  I also found a bunch of jack-in-the-pulpit and a few ferns.  I planted some ferns and astillbe and transplanted some violets and planted some impatiens.  I threw some primrose in too, since I was ripping it out of the herb bed. It is very dry under those trees. I hope if I mulch with woodchips it will sustain some smaller plants.  And on the upside of the property I have decided the privet row is too monochrome so I am replacing the dead ones with other types of bushes, hopefully a jersey tea or some oak leaf hydrangea. At the very back lower side we still have massive amounts of vines and some invasive wine berry bramble and Japanese barberry I would like to get rid of.  There is also the bottom 20 feet of a big pine tree I want to put a possum nesting box in.

 Rain Gardens.  I am planning out rain gardens in both the front and back yard. In the front yard I have already started to smother the grass in the swale.  I planted some blue flag iris in there. I want to add button bushes, a sweet bay magnolia, cranberry bushes and cardinal flowers.  In the back yard, I want to put river rock into the back corner and plant some sedges, cranberries, button bushes, ferns around the borders of it. I already have a weeping persimmon sapling growing there because it is one of the only fruit trees that likes to have wet feet.

The seed list this year is a little complicated because I saw a video about the extraordinary amount of people who took up gardening during COVID, who are now hooked and want to try again this year, which is predicted to lead to shortages of every type of garden martial, from fencing to shovels to seeds and fertilizers.  I’m good on everything but seeds, so I panicked and ordered everything before taking inventory of what I have leftover.  Good and bad.  I was shocked that I have received the 2021 garden catalogues only in the last two weeks and already many things are sold out!  I have a large seed inventory left from last year but only 5-10 seeds of any type. So this year will be interesting. Additionally, I found that the addition of the fenced orchard has doubled my available gardening space protected from deer and groundhogs. So I need to start planting more.  I am also very impatient – quarantine does that to you – and I want high-yielding, early maturing varieties of everything, NOW.

 Legumes (follow the Root crops)

 So my bean fetish was a bust.  I planted lots of bush beans and the groundhog dug into the orchard and ate them all as they were flowering.   Pole beans got off to a slow start.  I really just didn’t get around to planting them soon enough and the June drought  slowed them down.    

Peas were also a bust since the spring was just too cold for them and then June was too dry.  I saved some seeds and tried a fall crop which only grew a few inches before it got too cold. I used all my saved seeds trying for a fall crop, that failed, so back to the drawing board.  Burpee’s “Wando”, was warm weather tolerant, but it was not tolerant of the June drought.  So, I thought I’d give it another shot, but Burpee’s is not offering it this year. Burpee’s “First 13 Pea” was unremarkable.  Again, the very cold, dark start followed by drought may have been the issue.  But I don’t recall a single pea pod that had more than 8 peas in it.  So I am not going to do that again.  And I have decided that “Lincoln” peas are too tall for my pea fences (fences are 3 foot and Lincoln can grow to 5 feet.  Although it is a “beloved heirloom”, I’m skipping it.  As noted previously, 250 pea vines takes up all the pea fencing I have space for inside the walled garden.  But, now I have all this extra space in the orchard….I might just go crazy and plant a thousand peas, just because I can. But I will be focusing on varieties that are early and prolific, and not too tall.

I saw some really pretty pictures of snap peas (as opposed  to shelling peas), which have violet pods, and a semi-leafless and prolific sugar snap pea. I’ve never grown snap peas, so this is something new and it interests me because there is no effort of shelling and no tossing (wasting) the shells.  And I have the space, and peas fix nitrogen in the soil.

The soy beans did not germinate so I tossed them.  But will try again this year because I recall they are prolific growers. I want profusion, instantly.

Fava beans did remarkably well and bloomed beautifully, but then the dry weather slowed them down and only about half the blossoms fruited. The beans themselves, while delectable, are laborious to shell and skin.  I saved seeds and grew a fall crop which handled the cold very well, and even blossomed. But, of course, it was too cold to set pods so I cut and ate the greens and blossoms. Really tasty! And, none of the labor to prepare! We will do that again. They are also supposed to be a good cover crop, so I might sow them all over in the fall.

Winged Beans sprouted, and they had very pretty blue blossoms that I did not test, but believe can be used for a natural, blue food-coloring.  Not sure I planted them soon enough – maybe they are more like peas and I planted them on a pole bean schedule?? Anyway, I saved the seeds from the two pods that formed, and we’ll try again this year, earlier, on the schedule with the peas.

Bush beans, the ones the groundhog did not massacre, did really well. I have hit on a purple variety that are hardy and prolific, so we’re going with those again.  The black bush beans were all eaten and I didn’t have any in reserve so I think I’ll just let those go.

An interesting article about Rancho Gordo’s native bean project (ranchogordo.com) led us to order several pounds of 10 varieties of obscure beans from remote Mexican villages. I am in the process of testing it they are still viable (put them in a bag with a wet paper towel in a dark cupboard) and can be germinated.  If they can be germinated, then I’m going to save a few of each and grow them.

Runner beans- the June drought really did a number on the start of bean season.  And then the ground hog broke into the orchard at ate most of the bean shoots. The ones that survived were excellent and runner beans are just not available in the grocery store.  So I want to try them again.  Last year I ordered Territorial Seeds “Scarlet Emperor” with red blossoms, and Pinetree Seeds “Painted Lady” with red and white blossoms, “Sunset” with pale pink blossoms. And Park Seeds “Stardust”, with white blossoms, the ones the groundhog didn’t eat where very tasty, but barely enough for one bowl.  I have some left in inventory and I will buy some more. These are very tasty beans and they have beautiful blossoms that are also really tasty.  They are a bit too heavy for corn or sunflower stalks but grew very happily on the orchard fence.

 Brassica – Cole - Green Crops (follow the legumes)

 I started a ton of seedlings inside. They all germinated. I planted them outside and they went into a suspended animation and stopped growing at about 5 inches tall.  Then there was the June drought.  Huge waste of space!  So disappointed.  Next year I will start them earlier, and have them bigger when I transplant them.  They are also due for a crop rotation and some calcium supplementing. The cabbages were a complete bust, and the cauliflower. The kale limped along and seemed to perk up in the fall.  It is biannual so I have hopes it will re-grow in the spring.  The red Russian kale was heartiest and most of what germinated was actually self-seeded from last year. The Portugese Kale was small, but I’m letting it stand and have mulched it with straw to help it through the winter.  The fall sown broccoli and collards all germinated and made it to about 6 inches tall, so I mulched those too in hopes of a mild enough winter to let them re-grow.

Spinach, a very fickle crop in recent years, did not germinate, at all. I’m thinking it needs to be started indoors and then treated like tatsoi and planted in its own 12 inch circle. Not exactly a good use of space, but I have all this new area in the orchard that needs cultivation, so will try it in traditional rows in the garden and more spread out in the orchard. Lettuce did well, except in June and July. So this year I am focusing on some heat tolerant varieties.  Escarole and Endive were thriving, but this year I have to remember to eat them before the summer because the heat makes them bitterly inedible.  The same is true of the French sorrel.  I have two large, perennial patches of it, but other than the first, tender, spring leaves, it is fit for nothing but soup; I must resist the temptation to add it to salad! Arugula did very well, particularly in the fall, so I mulched it with straw to see if it will come back in the spring.  Some varieties are biannual and the fall planting did not flower, so there’s hope.  The nasturtiums did exceptionally well – they don’t mind the drought.  And I tucked them in everywhere so there were plenty. I even preserved some of the leaves in the fall – cold pickled in lemon juice brine – to use like grape leaves. Mache is really hard to grow but for some reason the fall planting was a great success. This year I am focusing on a quicker maturing, cold hardy variety. Claytonia and purple orach are still lots of fun and germinate early and well. I direct sow those. I tried cultivating purslane but so much of it grew wild in the orchard this year that next year I will just throw the seeds in the orchard and not waste the garden space.  Arugula is always a direct sow.  And it is bi-annual so placement has to be thoughtful.  This is a re-plant year so I planted and re-planted. The fall crop was much more successful, so much so that I deep mulched it with hay and covered some with plastic. It is still green, in December. I planted the large Italian dandelions for their leaves and roots but they got swallowed up by weeds in the hugel and then the rabbits ate them.

The Asian greens (pok choi, bok choi, tatsoi, mustard, chrysanthemum, Chinese cabbage) were a bust.  Just never go going in the spring and I didn’t save any seeds for fall. Too bad because all the fall greens did really well. But this year there are so many crazy varieties available and the bounty in the fall green markets is just haunting me, so I have gone completely overboard on seeds.  Maybe that’s the new obsession this year, greens and beans.

Celery, I discovered that you can just put the 1 inch cut end of the bunch directly into the ground, in the potato patch.  And they all took root.  Some are still alive under plastic. They are actually quite tolerant of cold and wet, so like the onion ends, they will never again be wasted in the compost pile.

 Fruits (follow the Brassica and Greens)

I swore off eggplant last year, and then planted some anyway.  Just some mixed fingerlings and standard black.  I didn’t even have room for them in the garden, really, so extras went in the orchard.  Well, the plants in the garden were stunted by the lack of water and too much sun.  By contrast, the ones in the orchard went wild – nearly 4 feet tall.  And Dan made enough caponata salad I had to jar it by the quart.  I actually jar and preserve it.  We eat all the eggplant we can grow either grilled, or eggplant parmesan, or roasted for babaganoush, or Chinese stir-fried with chicken and garlic. And one of our favorite restaurants in Key West makes a terrific warm eggplant salad that Dan has reverse engineered.   So I’m planting the same again this year – some mixed fingerlings and some standard    

I am trying an interesting experiment of over-wintering my pepper plants that did not fruit this year in pots, inside the house.  Unfortunately, when I dug them up, I did not label them so, I don’t know if they are hot or sweet. I suspect they are mostly hot.  I saved seeds from our very prolific Portuguese Dagger hot pepper (which was an extra that got planted in the orchard and exploded), and from the Chiltepin “Fire Flea” hot pepper seeds from our organic green market.  These were the peppers I used to make Cowboy Candy this past fall.  I also have a lot of seeds left over in inventory.  The sweet Corno di Toro also did really well in the orchard (except that it looks identical to the Portuguese Daggar and I occasionally grabbed the wrong one) so I ordered some more, quick growing, sweet bell peppers. We do like stuffed peppers and I found a really nice Italian recipe for green peppers stuffed with venison and polenta.

The okra germinated well, but bloomed and fruited very sparingly. I tried a lot of different varieties and only the red burgundy and the cow horn produced enough for me to save seeds.  The difficulty in growing okra here is the lack of heat makes the fruit form too slowly, so by the time you pick it at 3 inches long, it is already too woody and you end up with an inedible dish that is like okra couscous in small mesh bags. I really like okra, particularly blistered on a grill, but this past season I discovered that the entire okra plant is edible.  Leaves can be cooked like collards, and the flowers can be battered and fried like zucchini blossoms. And they are really pretty.  So I am ordering two quicker growing varieties that are reportedly cold-weather tolerant.  Devil’s Claw did not germinate so I ordered more seeds - a member of the sesame genus, which can be eaten exactly like okra when it is young and is an herb with medicinal uses.  The leaves and flowers are reportedly sticky and smell terrible, so hopefully I can plant it on the hugel and the deer won’t eat it.

  The corn germinated well in the orchard.  And we discovered that my honey bees really liked the corn blooms. I have several videos of the bees all over them, which led us to joke: did this mean the bees were cutting the honey with high fructose corn syrup?  I grew Burpee’s Kandy Korn, very delicate and sweet.  There are few things that compare to the taste of the first, fresh picked-corn of summer.  And that first pick we ate was the last we had because the squirrels relentlessly shredded the rest and broke down the stalks starting that very night.  I should throw up my hands and be done with corn. But, I have all this extra orchard space for the next couple years…

The squirrels thought the corn was an excellent appetizer for the 50 squash and gourd vines Helen grew in the orchard this past year.  I managed to rescue 4 butternut squash, two buttercup squash and one queensland blue pumpkin and only because I put mesh bags over them before they were very big.  Every other squash and pumpkin was gutted as soon as seeds had formed in it. The gourds, on the other hand, obviously do not taste good because the animals left those untouched. We have a nice pile of bushel, dipper, swan neck and bottle gourds drying (rotting) on the front porch. In theory those should have been brought inside and dried and cut and painted. But I was using them as decorations in the fall and lost interest.

And finally, tomatoes, tomatoes.  The squirrels and chipmunks were more interested in the chicken feed, corn and squash seeds than in tomatoes this year.  But the tomato crop was really late due to the June drought. And, by the time the tomatoes were ripe, almost everything else was gone, so the squirrels started in on any tomato I did not put a nylon mesh bag over. And then they got desperate and started gnawing through the bags.  It didn’t help that we had an over-population of squirrels this year.  Any given hour of the day there were at least 3 investigating the chicken run, climbing all over the outside trying to figure out how to get inside, to the chicken feeder. And the plum tomatoes in the back of the orchard were entirely undisturbed because they were not in proximity to anything else of interest to the squirrels.  

 Roots (follow the fruits)

 I had a potato fetish this year. I planted 6 trash bags full, and another 12 in the ground, and then another 12 grew back from the previous year.  The trash bag potatoes did poorly because they did not get enough water. They were harvested August first and there were no more than a handful of golf ball sized potatoes per plant, though the stalks had dried. The Rose Finn Apple fingerling potatoes were delicious and creamy.  The Mountain Rose were interesting, rather nutty tasting. The German butterball look like scaly golden reptile eggs and made a tasty potato salad with diced sausage and a radicchio chiffonade. The Japanese sugar yams were excellent – sweet/nutty and drier than orange sweet potatoes. The extra ones I planted in the orchard were nibbled down by the groundhog. And there were 12 potato plants that re-grew in the prior season’s row. I clearly did not harvest them carefully. Looking back at the 2018 seed list I planted a red, white and blue mix of Yukon Gold, Colorado Red and Purple Viking, and my notes say the Colorado Red were particularly delicious. However, when I dug them up, there really weren’t any potatoes. So I left them there to see what happens next year.  I’m over root crops so this year I’m restraining myself to some standard size gold potatoes and some weird, miniature, black potatoes (total click-bait). And the Japanese yams were soooo delicious (thick purple skin and a dry white interior the texture of russet but a pecan-like sweetness) I’m absolutely trying those again.

           And remember the random mention of something called “Yacón”?…It is an Andes Mountain tuber related to sunflowers: “Yacón’s flavor is best described as a melding of crisp apples and watermelon with a hint of celery or water chestnuts”. It is eaten raw. It grows tall like a sunflower, only bushier and its roots are large, potato shaped tubers that are supposed to taste like crispy apples. I did buy one and planted it in the back of the orchard. It grew to be quite bushy, but never bloomed. It has a long growing season and I waited as long as I could before digging it up. It tastes like water chestnut to me, not sweet like an apple, but not as fibrous as jicama.  It certainly should be eaten raw because it would turn to mush if heated.  It is a perennial so I am supposed to save the rhizome winter it inside and replant in the spring. I put it in a small pot in a gloomy corner and let it die back. And now, eight weeks later it has started to re-grow.  It was supposed to stay dormant! These plants grow eight feet tall and 3 feet round – not a house plant.  But if I cut it back it might die, so now I must repot it and keep it alive until I can put it back outside in May.

 The radishes seem to have the same issues as the spinach: spotty germination and needed more space than they were given.  I’m tired of radishes.  I’m tired of all the root crops!  Even the carrots were worthless this year, although, to be fair, the grass beat them out and I did not weed them.  They were in the raised bed this year, because of crop rotation schedule and did not get enough water either. Same was true of the beets.  The tunips never got planted.  The scorzonera and salsify were planted in the great hugle and although they germinated and grew, they are biannual so they remained low to the ground and may not have gotten enough water in the June drought.  I will have to see if they re-grow in the spring. The milk thistle did well in the hugel and I am sure it will re-grow.  I actually transplanted burdock (I transplanted weeds – yes, I do that) to the base of the great hugle.  They are also a biannual so they should come back this spring, however, they did get mowed several times this past summer since they were too close to the lawn, so maybe they won’t.  

Maca (the Peruvian radish with ginseng qualities) got lost.  I think I might have planted it in the orchard when I was planting the yacon, but forgot to mark it.  Because these very strange, large turnip-like rosettes were growing in the orchard and I mistook them for weeds and removed them in August.  So, just out of curiosity I am going to plant this again. I still have not grown celeriac successfully and this year I’m not trying.  Likewise, rutabaga I’m not timing correctly.  I don’t plant it early enough.  It is a companion plant for peas, yet I keep putting it in the ground a month later.  I’m taking a year off from roots, except carrots and beets, and maca, and some Japanese turnips that look like pink carrots and are meant for pickling which is all I ever do with turnips.

 Alliums

It was a bad year for alliums (and for brassicas).  The Egyptian walking onions are gone.  I will replant this fall because they are so useful and I love their crazy corkscrew, tops.  I did the leek/red onion/white onion mix from Territorial Seed and planted them in all the wrong places and the drought in June and July killed every one of them. NO LEEKY DANCE.  This year I am starting my own leeks, three varieties for succession planting so I have 3 crops to fail instead of just one.  I can grow leeks! I’ve done it before quite successfully.  Onions, I’m doubling down and I ordered a sweet, northern mix of sets that I will plant somewhere new!  Garlic, I impulsively bought a couple large seed heads in the fall, from a farm stand, and planted it in the orchard, along the center path.  It’s in the ground – out of my hands. I even mulched it with straw. I have never before grown garlic, and we use garlic very quickly so not a lot goes to waste, but I am thinking of just tossing any garlic that does sprout in the pantry right into the ground. We have a lot of space where it could be tucked and nothing disturbs it, so why waste it in the compost pile.  I feel the same way about onion bottoms. A quarter inch slice with the roots on the bottom will re-grow.  Best to put it right into the ground and cover with about ¼ inch of soil.  And scallions, I have belatedly learned, should never be pulled, just cut at ground level and allowed to re-grow. And I am going to attempt the same with leeks. The chives, it turns out, are a very good companions for fruit trees, so I planted some seeds at the base of each tree in the fall. We’ll see if they germinate.

 Flowers  

I’m still having visions of a field of sunflowers, so I bought more seeds.  Just have to protect the seedlings from the deer, the squirrels and the groundhog.  Cannot direct sow them because the squirrels dig up the seeds like truffle-hunting pigs!  Nasturiums were glorious this past year.  I finally planted enough of them. And I even cold pickled the leaves in lemon juice to use like grape leaves.  Alyssium is a lovely, pollinator friendly ground cover that smells wonderful.  I’m going to sow it in the lawn and broadcast in the orchard. The beebalm I planted in the orchard did well, as did the zinnias and strawflowers and calendula. The comfry (labeled the most perfect orchard companion plant) which was planted in very early sprint as un-promising looking, short, cork-sized pieces of root, all sprouted magnificently.  It has large, hosta like leaves and blossoms (which are purple), and is long standing, and can be cut and mulched in place at the end of the season, providing good nutrients.  Lupine is also touted as a good orchard plant because it is a member of the legume family and fixes nitrogen in the soil. It germinated, but died off in the June drought. It is supposed to be perennial, so maybe some will come back.  I sowed a lot of white yarrow in the upper part of the orchard and it germinated well, but the groundhog nibbled a lot of it over the summer.  But it’s perennial so we’ll see if it comes back.  White clover seems to be the go-to staple for my honey bees, so I’m going to sow a lot into the lawn in the spring. Oh, yes! And I did plant 300 more daffodil bulbs in the front lawn.  I also planted 50 large, saffron crocus in the orchard.

 Herbs 

The obvious conclusion is that the herb garden is not drained well enough for rosemary or thyme to overwinter.  So that has to be re-planted, again, every year. This year I will try planting some in the upper orchard where it is drier and sunnier.  My tarragon died, so that has to be replaced.  The herb bed is over-run with a rampant type of  yellow primrose I spent a lot of time ripping out.  And the violets need thinning.  I need to start moving some to the shaded parts of the front of the house.  The parsley is supposed to be a biannual so I mulched it to help it survive the winter. And I also planted Hamburg Rooted Parsley in the fall and mulched the seedlings.  Borage and cilantro have self-seeded themselves for the past five years, but I bought more to broadcast sow in the orchard.  I also bought sesame because it has lovely seed pods.  And I bought black cumin because I love the whole seeds to eat and it has a lovely blossom.  I saved lots of basil seeds and have determined it does well in moist, not too sunny locations like the orchard and the shade garden. The mint did well last year and so did the lemon balm.  The lemon balm has already seeded itself in the orchard, and there is a big bed of mint (that I never planted and never noticed until we built the great hugel) in the back, left corner of the property. French sorrel is happy in the herb garden – I have two, well established patches now, one in the shade side and one in the sunny side. It is very tolerant of poor drainage. It might do well in the rain gardens.  The chives seem to be petering out.  I need to sow more in the orchard anyway, since they are very good companion plants to fruit trees. My tarragon plant died – or appeared to – when I transplanted it. I will have to replace it, unless it miraculously re-appears in the spring.  Marjoram and Oregano need to be divided and moved around. I have plenty of dill seeds and intend to sow them in the orchard this year.

Seed List: to follow

#garden dreams garden report garden zone 5b

[jeninthegarden]

2020 Seed List

Seed List 2020

 Less is more, …and so is more!

Always interesting to compare the formal garden plan to the list of seeds I have actually purchased. Since I order seeds online from at least 5 sources, over several months, it is only when I compile the total seed list that I realize just how far overboard I’ve gone.  This year I’m really cutting back, I promise.  Except that I have some seeds leftover from last year that will go bad if I don’t plant them, which would be a shameful waste.  And then there are the seed catalogues, the “garden porn” with pictures of beautiful vegetables in new and different hybrid varieties, or non-native plants I have never heard of but want to attempt to grow…but I am really trying to hold back.  I did not buy any herb or flower seeds because I usually just pick those up as plants in the local nursery. But I also planted some perennial flower seeds last year (I know, totally out of character!) and my husband fell under the spell of a delusion about the lavender fields of Provence growing right in our back yard, so we’re going to buy another 10 lavender plants to build the dream.

 I am over the broccoli, cabbage, eggplant and daikon radish fixations.  This year I

’

m enthralled with potatoes, beans, sunflowers, and every kind of winter squash and pumpkin.

Legumes:

Peas –  Burpee’s “Wando”, is a warm weather tolerant variety that can be planted early and late so I’m betting on a warmer spring and early summer with this one. But Burpee’s “First 13 Pea” is the first shelling pea to have 13 peas per pod, so I feel I must try it. We also have some leftover “Lincoln” peas to plant. There is nothing better than fresh raw peas, eaten right in the garden. Over the years I have planted more, and more, and the magic number for us seems to be 250 pea vines.  That takes up all the pea fence I’ve got, and a lot of premium garden space inside the walled garden.

Runner beans- I love runner beans because they taste really good! The blooms alone taste so sweet it is hard to leave any to set pods.  Young pods are eaten just like string beans and the mature beans are wonderful in salad or soup or cassoulet.  This year I ordered Territorial Seeds “Scarlet Emperor” with red blossoms, and Pinetree Seeds “Painted Lady” with red and white blossoms “Sunset” with pale pink blossoms. I still have Park Seeds “Stardust”, with white blossoms, left from last year. 

Bush beans- Park Seeds “Velour” is a compact, bush-habit plant, very heavy-bearing bright purple, stringless pods over a long season. A great success last season so will plant the remainder again this year. And I ordered Pinetree Seeds “Turtle” black bus beans. I intend to eat the Velour as string beans and let the Turtle mature to be dried and stored, or maybe canned.

Pole beans- Last year I ordered some black climbing beans online.  These were eaten by deer so will try the remainder again this year. I ordered Territoral Seeds “Rattlesnake” beans which are harvested young as a sweeter string bean, and then mature, shelled beans reportedly have a meaty texture and a flavor similar to pinto beans. Pinetree Seeds “Winged Bean” harvested like string beans but with edible leaves that taste like spinach.

Noodle beans – I like red noodle beans best because they have an almost pecan nutty taste, so I ordered Pinetree Seeds “Red Noodle”.  I also have some “Mosaic” leftover, which have a more asparagus flavor.

Soybeans- I saved a lot of seeds the last time I grew them, which was 2017? So it may be too late for these seeds. Because I have so much garden space that is due, in strict crop rotation, to be planted with legumes, I ordered fresh soybean seeds, Park Seeds “Midori Giant”.

Fava beans-  Pinetree Seeds “Varoma” although traditionally a cool weather crop, is also heat tolerant, so that is the variety I ordered.

Fruits:

Tomatoes – I saved a lot of seeds from heirloom, beefsteak tomatoes I bought at the green market. I’ll plant whatever I’ve got since tomato seeds never seem to go bad. And the local garden swap always has some interesting selections.  My favorites are the Big Rainbow/Mr. Stripy varieties which are gold with orange and red stripes. Others in the household prefer the Black Krim or Purple Cherokee.

Corn – I have leftover Burpee’s Maple Candy sweet corn. So I will plant it and put wire cages over it to keep critters from digging it up.  It is not available this year from Burpee, so I ordered Burpee’s “Kandy Korn”.

Eggplant – my fixation with eggplant is dormant this year.  I am just going with a Terratorial Seeds traditional Italian black eggplant that fruits prolifically over 3 months, and the “millionaire” variety that is a long, black Japanese variety. And just as I said that, I found a mixed pack of green, purple and white fingerling eggplant from Park Seed and bought it!

Pepper – I went wild last year and then had such a hard time rescuing the peppers from drowning.  I saved a lot of seeds: Burpee’s “Sweet Thing” a sweet cheyenne, “Born to be mild” sweet jalapeno, “Hot Fish” an African hot pepper, “heat-less” habanero. So I will plant all I saved and just put them in pots on the patio at the outset. But also ordered Park Seeds “Pasilla Bajio” for the mole sauce I never make, and “Early Jalapeno” which hopefully won’t need so much heat.  And I ordered “Corno de Toro” which is a thin-walled, sweet pepper.

Okra – looked promising until the deer at it. I bought Burpee’s Go Big last year.  I have seeds left so I will try again. I ordered Park Seeds “Rainbow Fiesta” ivory, green and pink okra.  But then I saw Pinetree Seeds, giant “Cow Horn” super large, “Star of David” deeply ribbed and “Red Burgungy” dark red, and Pinetree sells very small quantities, so I ordered all of them. And I also ordered something called the “Unicorn” which, although it is eaten like okra, is actually “devil’s claw”, a member of the sesame family and a medicinal herb.

 Zucchini- Burpee fordhook heirloom is an excellent staple, but the Burpee’s Sure Thing variety really does well with less sun, and is very resistant to powdery mildew so I’m going with that one because last summer was just not hot enough for zucchini.  Had to order new seeds since the deer ate it all last year.

Cucumber- Cucumbers didn’t get enough heat last summer.  And there was the extended growing season for the spring peas which meant the cucumbers didn’t get planted until July and just never fruited. Last year was all bush and pickling varieties.  This year I am into vines, so I ordered Park Seeds “Marketer”, a nice seedless slicing variety. 

Melon- Like the tomatoes, this year I saved a lot of seeds from the melons I got at the farmer’s market, so I am not sure what variety they are, but I will plant them because I only saved seeds from the tastiest melons, cantalope and honeydew. I have a few Burpee “Mango Melon” seeds left to try again.

Gourd- I bought seeds for the Serpent Melon Gourd, which is eaten as a vegetable when it is young. It is striped green and white, coils like a serpent and is bright red inside. When mature it can be a poor substitute for tomato. Doesn’t sound particularly yummy but I got “cat-fished” by its online photos. Then somebody in my gardening group mentioned it was time to start the Luffa gourds so I panicked and bought some seeds, thinking it would be very good for the environment if I dispensed with plastic sponges.  And then Bushel gourds caught my eye and I got those seeds as well, because they grow to the size of a beach ball and you can hollow them, wax them and use them for storage containers.  Don’t ask me what the Dipper gourds are for…please, just don’t.

Pumpkin- I am enthralled with squash of all kinds. I have leftover Dill’s Atlantic Giant, so that is the pumpkin variety this year.

Squash:  No bush varieties, only vines this year.  I bought a mixed pack of 50 seeds of all types of squash.

Watermelon: Not buying seeds. They are too difficult to germinate so I will just buy seedlings.

Roots:

Radish: I’m indifferent this year.  The daikons were a bust. Territorial Seeds Spanish black radish were stunted. I will plant the rest of them, plus Park Seeds “Easter Egg mix” because they were on sale for a dollar. I bought more “Macca”, a Peruvian radish that is said to have an energizing effect like ginseng. Last year it was direct sown and did not germinate. I will start it indoors this year.

Beets: Territorial Seed’s cylindrical beets worked space-wise they are more carrot shaped and don’t need to be thinned as much, but it never got hot enough.  I’ll plant the rest of the seeds, but I don’t have high hopes.

Turnip: I still have copious amounts of seeds left from last year, Park Seeds standard purple top white globe which is a national standard turnip grown in spring or fall and Park Seeds Alamo hybrid that produce big greens with rapid regrowth for multiple harvests, and is bolt resistant.  I will plant the rest. I don’t really like turnip root unless it is pickled.

Carrot: we harvested fresh carrots for Thanksgiving and still have a bunch in the ground.  First good carrot harvest in a couple years. So again, I bought Park Seed “rainbow mix, six inch regular season carrots” and Park Seed  “sow all season big Nantes type orange carrot”.

Parsnips:  I might plant some parsnips, but they are tricky to companion plant since they cannot be planted with carrots or celery, and their leaves get really tall and shade other plants. I might try them in the hugle. Did not buy seeds yet since I am undecided.

Potatoes: This year I have gone crazy over potatoes and am going to give them more valuable real estate in the garden. I ordered Territorial Seeds “Rose Finn” a pale, blush pink potato, “Red Mountain” red-skinned, red-fleshed, “German butterball” a gold potato and Park Seeds  “Japanese yams” purple-skinned and white-fleshed.  And then, I completely lost track of everything and ordered “Yacón”…It is an Andes Mountain tuber related to sunflowers.

Salsify and other odd roots - And then I really lost it.  I bought  Dave’s Garden “Mammoth Island” salsify and “Blue Hispanica” scorzonera.  I’ve never grown these successfully because they are a bi-annual and need to be planted in their own spot, in the hugle.  Then I bought Outsiderpride chicory, milk thistle and “Garnet” dandelion, to roast the roots and make tea.

Greens:

Amaranth:  Pinetree Seeds “Red Garnet”. This is a leafy variety and leaves are eaten like any other kale/chard/collard green.

Orach: a violet red, velvet leafed spinach that grows on an 18 inch, upright stalk. Territorial Seeds “Red Plume”.

Claytonia: It is a succulent green that looks like a bouquet of little lily pads. Terrirotial Seeds “Miner’s Lettuce”.

Lettuce:  I went with Territorial Seeds “Wildest Lettuce Mix”. And Park Seeds “Salad bowl mix”.

Escarole: Burpee “Sugarloaf” Italian lettuce leaf style with a nutty flavor, for cooking.

Endive: Territorial Seeds “Rhodos” a French, frisee salad variety.

Chard: Park Seeds “El Dorado” golden stemmed chard.

Arugula: I have a large supply of leftover seed, some saved seeds and also purchased some new Pinetree Seeds “Astro” quick growing for clipping.

Mache:  Territorial Seeds “Vit” corn mache. A larger variety I have purchased in the past.

Spinach: Park Seeds “Space”heat and mildew resistant, and “Renegade”a high yielding, weather indifferent variety.

Purslane: Territorial Seed “Golden Purslane”a larger, paler and more succulent variety, with a lovely golden bloom.

Asian Green Mix: Tatsoi, Bok Choi, Mustard, Chinese cabbage, Chinese broc, chrysanthemum, shiso perilla.

   Brassica:

Cabbage: I was terribly disappointed by the cabbages last year. I am not buying and new cabbages, but will plant leftover seeds of Territorial Seeds “January King” and “Large Dutch Green”. Besides that, I will buy the obligatory 6 pack of early red cabbage seedlings.

Kale: Tronchuda Beira from Burpee.  I have often described it as looking like giant green roses. It tastes more like cabbage than kale.  I also have leftover seeds for every other type of kale: Red Russian, Dino, curly Blue Dwarf, Black kale, I will obviously plant some of those too.

Cauliflower:  Park Seeds “Veronica” which is that weird, green pyramidal Romanesco.  I also could not resist Burpee’s “Fioretto” a super fast sprouting variety.

Collards: Territorial Seeds “Flash” is fast growing and re-growing, and a little more compact and upright to withstand snow.

Broccoli:  I went crazy with broccoli last year and it was prolific.  I have leftover seeds so I will plant the same again: Territorial Seed’s three season hybrid sprouting types: “Aspabroc” “Rudolph” “Rioja”

And, because they seem to go with the brassicas in planting rotations, the alums:

Leek: Have to have leeks for the Leeky Dance.  Just planted the seeds pods left from Territorial Seeds “Lancelot” but also ordered 30 more plants of the same.

Onion: The mixed lot of every type of onion, 50 sets from Territorial Seed.

Scallions: Territorial Seeds “Guardsman”

#backyard veg garden

[jeninthegarden]

Wet & Wild

Reflections of the Gardening Projects of 2019

This is my 12th year of garden logging.  What did I just say last year in my decadal review?  That’s right: “the deer remain the big issue”. Well, this past summer, they jumped the temporary netted fence around the corn and tomato patch, and ate all my tomato plants.  And I had a lot of tomato plants!  The deer did not even wait until the fruit had set!  Meanwhile, the ground hog got in and dug up all my corn the same day I planted it (twice!).  Then I planted sunflowers for my beans and squash to trellis on in place of the corn, and the deer hopped in and ate all the sunflowers and squash, and pumpkins and beans.  So, the field crops, although perfectly mulched with cardboard and woodchips a la Back to Eden gardening method, for water conversation and weed barrier, were a complete loss.  It was particularly sad because I started all my squash and melons from seed this past year, with great variety.  The plants were vigorous and blooming before I transplanted them. I hardened them off on the patio before lovingly transplanting them.  Years past when I have tried to direct sow squash, the squirrels have always dug up the seeds and newly germinated seedlings.  

As noted last year, the past few years have been wet and wild - too much rain and too many snap heat waves that have been the most disruptive events.  Still considering rain barrels, but still haven’t done it because there is no shortage of rain in this region. The spring was very wet.  The summer was fairly cool.  The fall was quick and dry.  If anything, we just didn’t get enough sun and heat for the fruiting crops or the long growth crops.  For instance, peppers were drowning in the garden until I rescued them, re-potted them and put them on the warm stone patio. Potato crop was measly though not reduced by disease, insects or rodents. The beets also did not grow, though hilled up in the same conditions under which carrots flourished. They germinated nicely and then stopped growing when they were only 3 inches high.

By contrast, we had a huge crop of peas in the spring and well into June. Unfortunately that meant I had nowhere to plant the cucumbers because I had planned to put them on the pea fences. I won’t make than mistake again.  Fresh raw peas were abundant in the first 3 months. But when I sacrificed all the saved peas and tried a fall crop, even though it was warm enough, it was too dry and the shoots didn’t grow more than 3 inches before it frosted and I had to eat them.  Even the fall greens did not germinate well.  Carrots, we had a bumper crop of and harvested plenty fresh for Thanksgiving dinner, and we had several rows still standing in the garden, in January. Turnips did fine; I pickled them. 

The broccoli and kale did well this year but the cauliflower and cabbage faltered, very disappointing because theses too were started indoors from seed to give them a good head start. And they were hilled up to keep them from getting too wet, but there was not enough sun or heat and their growth was severely stunted.   There was never a chance for the Brussel sprouts – they need nearly as much heat and a long growing season as pumpkins.  Collards just did not germinate. I was using old seed and it failed.

Spinach, a very fickle crop in recent years germinated and grew well last year, particularly where I was extremely brutal about thinning it.  And like the peas, we had a bumper crop of bush string beans, the purple variety, which enjoyed an extended season of about two months.  Did not get a chance to make pickled dilly beans because the dill did not germinate; the seeds were too old. 

Shocker of the season, I grew and harvested radishes! Have not harvested radishes in 10 years.  This variety was the Spanish black, sometimes used to pad out prepared horse-radish, very white and picante.  These were the large breed that should have been the size of an orange, but mine were only the size of golf balls. Meanwhile I ate a vast quantity of watermelon daikon radish bought from the farmer’s market. I made radish and feta salad, shredded radish and cabbage slaw, thin sliced radish with burrata and honey. So aggravating that I could not grow my own!        

Salad greens did very well, particularly in the spring and lasted well into summer because it was so cool. Again, ruthless thinning produced excellent results. The claytonia and the purple orach are still my favorite spring greens. Nasturtiums really took over the garden and they lasted well into fall, they crept and trailed all over the garden.  I love the leaves in salad and the blossoms in scrambled eggs.  I really like squash blooms in my eggs too, but Bambi ate all the squash.

Onions were tricky this year.  The Egyptian walking onions, which are self-seeding and in my herb garden seem to be petering out. Not sure if the last crop tried to seed in the lawn and got mowed or were subsumed by the rampant wild violets I keep tossing in the herb bed.  The leeks, I am sorry to say, did not get enough sun or heat.  Result – NO LEEKY DANCE; very unsettling to the delicate balance of the universe, although the kids are teenagers now and would have been horrified if I had tried to make them dance.  I bought some leeks in the fall because I am very fond of baked leeks au gratin, with some millet or brown rice.

The chives, as always were abundant. And they are perennial so I had to divide them this year.  Love the blossoms scattered in salad like minced red onion.  And, speaking of red onions, I planted about fifty red Cipollini onions, and harvested about fifty.  They were neatly hilled up so they did not drown. Maybe they were smaller than they should have been, egg sized, but they dried and stored well; we are still enjoying them.

I had numerous gardening projects going this past summer and I am surprised at my own progress: 

 The community garden.  I have joined quite a few gardening groups, both online and locally this year. One of them is the InterGenerate community gardens of my county, and specifically the communal garden in my village.  The community plot I cultivated this past year was an experiment in high yield food production in a 16 square foot raised bed.  The violetto string beans were part of that and a smashing success. This year there has been a lot of discussion about subsistence farming and the pretentiousness of growing the perfect tomatoes. The aim of the group is to teach people how to grow their own food and in that vein we donate both seeds and the harvest back to the community.  So this year the focus will be on real subsistence crops: potatoes, beans and squash.  I am enthusiastic and have gone completely overboard ordering potato seed, beans and squash which will proliferate my own garden this year as well.

 The Pollinator Pathway. This is a national movement subdivided down to extremely local chapters working to connect greenways, nature preserves and public lands with private properties where no pesticides are used to create green corridors that are pesticide free.  Very enthusiastic participation on our cul-de-sac; we all registered our properties with the Pathway and promised not to use pesticides. This is very impactful because our cul-de-sac abuts a 200 acre Audubon nature preserve so we are an important bridge piece in the corridor.  I am also very self-interested in joining this movement because this was my first year of bee-keeping and I harvested some superb honey. And I want to add a second hive this year

.  Provence in New York. While puttering around Cape Cod this past spring we discovered a family garden farm selling huge lavender plants at irresistible prices. And while I would very happily have purchased one or two for my herb bed at home, my dear husband had a vision of the fields of lavender in Provence. And since the price was right, and we were driving my Toyota highlander from which I had not yet removed the winter weather mats, he bought 24 huge lavender plants and we brought them home. We planted them in place of the wildflower bed that had petered out and started to go back to grass.  Applying my knowledge of lavender plants that have not survived the winter well in my herb garden, we planted each plant in a hill with gravel and sand under it for drainage.  If the lavender field (conveniently located in the flight path of my bee hive) survives the winter, we will expand it by another 10 plants this year

 The Wildflowers. All three of the windflower beds disappointed us and have petered out. We replaced the one in the back yard with a lavender field.  The one behind that against the back property line is getting the Back-to-Eden treatment this spring so we can plant fruit trees there in the fall. Plums – I’m feeling a plum tree obsession building. Santa Rosa weeping plum trees...  The wildflower patch in the front lawn has already received the Back-to-Eden cardboard and woodchip treatment, and we hugeled the old, rotten woodpile into it. This fall I planted the front of that bed with bluebells and the back of the bed with blueberry bushes. And I threw in a bunch of foxglove seeds in the western wall bed that have set six hardy rosettes I expect to bloom this summer (it’s a biannual).  I may move those to the front wild-flower bed, behind the blueberry bushes.

 The Western Wall – I moved the rhubarb, asparagus and horseradish to the new flowerbed by the western wall of the house.  I also planted a couple of kiwi berry vines that now need a trellis. The asparagus had already been thinning in the vegetable garden and did not appreciate being moved, so I ordered 25 new roots. The rhubarb seemed to like the new location and actually needed dividing so I have high hopes for this spring. Horseradish is a weed so it will be happy anywhere, and oddly enough, I read somewhere that rhubarb-asparagus-horseradish is a good companion planting formula. But I’m a little confused about digging horseradish out of a bed without disturbing the asparagus and rhubarb roots. I couldn’t quite work that out so I planted a patch of each, in the same bed but not mingled.

 Hugelkultur. (You have to say that word with guttural gusto!) What??  It is the method of building a raised bed over buried logs.  We made a really good start in the spring and got the old woodpile in the front yard entirely buried and covered over with cardboard and woodchips, and planted with blueberry bushes and bluebells. The backyard wall of wood is much bigger (leftover from the nine pine trees we lost in hurricane Sandy) and quite a challenge because it is always a jungle of weeds and poison ivy. But we persevered and got half of it hugeled and covered over with woodchips. And we even got some hyssop and salvia, dogwood and a couple rhododendrons planted.  This summer we’ll get the rest buried and then I want to plant an Echinacea patch and add a couple dwarf pear trees, and put bluebells in the front.     

    Back to Eden. Scored 20 cubic yards of wood chips, for free this past summer from getchipdrop.com. The woodchip and cardboard weed barrier method of gardening worked really well in the corn/squash patch. Such a shame the deer got in and ate everything. The children’s garden, mulched two years ago, was still so weed free that I planted a weeping persimmon there.  It is a chronically wet area and persimmons don’t mind wet feet.  I am thinking of adding a swath of river rock and making a permanent rain garden.  Need to add some button bushes and Siberian iris, and cardinal flowers. I still have 10 cubic yards of wood chips and I am busy hording up more cardboard boxes for spring. 

 The Herb Garden. I had a little problem with the herb bed this year.  I had 3, robust, Scottish thistle rosettes in the herb bed in the spring, and I decided to let them grow.  And they grew. They grew about 9 feet tall and 5 feet around.  Now, there is nothing prettier than a bright yellow gold finch flock hanging all over a giant thistle plant covered with vivid purple blooms.  But, thistles are really really sharp and I couldn’t weed under them. And when they finished blooming, I still couldn’t cut them down because the birds needed the seeds.  So the herb garden was a thistle and weed garden this past summer.  I really was impressed with the thistles but think for their size they would look better from afar. So, I dug up a fine, large rosette (they are a bi-annual) in the fall and moved it to the back of the big hugel, in a patch that has already been mulched with cardboard and woodchips.  And I see plenty of little thistle seedlings in the herb bed that will have to be weeded out in spring, but I might save a couple and put them in the hugel too for next year. 

 House plants. They were sadly neglected this past summer.  First year in a long time that I did not put them outside.  They suffered for being kept inside – the air-conditioning is not good for them.  I won’t make that mistake again.  My wax plant vine “Hobi” (Hoya Obovata) finally died, after 25 years!  So sad because I took cuttings of a plant that I had grown up with. I am going to order a new one. My “Brutus II” (a kidnapped Philodendron Hope Selloum cutting from an apartment sublet 20 years ago) is down to a single green leaf.  My Dracaena Warneckii (given to me by my mother-in-law as an engagement gift) is still alive after 23 years and thriving. The other Dracaena varieties which I adopted after a friend took a summer-long, cross country motorcycle ride and never reclaimed them, are still alive after 25 years.  I gave my giant poinsettias away after the holidays – they are always dead by March no matter what I do. So I am only left with one, sad little Christmas cactus I don’t know how to care for.  The Areogrow planter is up and running and the basil, parsley and dill have sprouted.  It is an excellent little hydroponic system. The art glass terrarium was beautifully replanted in the summer and lasted a couple months before dying out.  So it needs to be re-planted again, this time with plants that want less light.

   The seed list this year is a fresh start and I’m scaling back, except when I’m not.

  Seed List:  will follow as soon as I stop buying seed packets.

#2020gardenplans

[jeninthegarden]

2019 Seed List

Yes, I already bought everything. No dithering this year.  But the seed catalogues keep coming.  Must resist buying anything more.

I feel like this is a very modest seed list compared to some years.  It feels plausible, and sufficient.  Okay, I got a little crazy with the broccoli. But otherwise I feel I was very restrained.  I did not buy any herb or flower seeds because I usually just pick those up as plants in the local nursery.

Legumes:

Peas – “Lincoln”, from Park Seed is a standard, heat tolerant, high yielding pea variety I have grown before and saved seeds for five years successively. Park Seed’s “Sugar Sprint” is an extra early, extended harvest variety that can be planted spring and fall.

Runner beans- So, I have successfully grown scarlet and emperor runner beans which are red flowering.  And I have grown painted lady which is candycane stripe flowering, but this time I am trying a hybrid white flowering from Park Seeds called “Stardust” – “a cross of a succulent, tender French dwarf bean with a robust, vigorous runner! The result of many years of breeding, Stardust delivers generous yields of huge, delectable foot-long pods on handsome climbing plants.” 

Bush beans- Park Seed’s “Velour” is a compact, bush-habit plant, very heavy-bearing bright purple, stringless pods over a long season.

Fruits:

Tomatoes – Going with Park Seeds because they offer smaller seed packs so you can grow a greater variety: Black Krim, Big Rainbow, Mortgage Lifter, Purple Cherokee, San Marzano paste, Giant paste

Corn – Why?  It never works out.  But I cannot resist the 3 sisters method of planting corn beans and squash together.  So this year I am trying Burpee’s Maple Candy sweet corn. I don’t have high expectations about producing muck corn, but, the beans need something to climb so why not.

Eggplant – Hold my horses!  I get fixated on all the different types of eggplant I could grow BUT: the Thai green and berry, Louisiana long green and Indian brown need more heat than we get; the Turkish orange variety are too bitter; the Israeli baladi purse eggplant don’t germinate well; the ghost white are bland, as are the rose pink.  I need to grow standard black for roasting, and Japanese long for stir fry and grilling. So I am going with a Terratorial Seed’s traditional Italian black eggplant that fruits prolifically over 3 months, and the “millionaire” variety that is a long, black Japanese variety.

Pepper – I’m just really over bell peppers.  Last year they were copious but got sunburned and rotted because I just didn’t pick them.  I find myself buying bags of small, sweet red and yellow peppers, so maybe I will try growing small sweet mixes. I am going to try some hybrid sweet/hot varieties.  Mix/match 3 pack of plants: sweet/spicy jalapeno, sweet/smoky cayenne, and sweet/fruity habanero from Burpee. 

Zucchini – one zucchini plant will feed a family of four for a year.  Everyone fixates on baby zucchinis and despises the baseball bat sized.  I really love eating the blossoms, but since I bought the vegetable spiral cutter, I find that a nice, midsized (10 inches long and 3 inches diameter) zucchini has starchier flesh and makes superior vegetable noodles either spiral cut like spaghetti or thin sliced ribbons for lasagna or raviolis. They also make much creamier zucchini fries. Burpee fordhook heirloom is an excellent staple, but the Burpee’s Sure Thing variety really does well with less sun, and is very resistant to powdery mildew so I’m going with that one.       

Cucumber-these are like peas, there are never enough of them.  They make wonderful pickles, salads, soups, cocktails. They taste great with lemon, watermelon, cabbage, vodka, lemonade, tomatoes, salt, sugar, sour cream, onions, feta cheese, smoked salmon, crab, and caviar. This year I am trying Territorial Seed’s “Bushy” pickling gerkin because it is early fruiting and compact bush vining to save space.

Melon- need something that will grow fast.  I can’t trust the summer to be hot enough long enough, so I focus on varieties that grow in the northern plains or Canada. However, Burpee has developed a cantaloupe they say is mango-flavored, so I’m going to give it a try.

Pumpkin- I am beyond jack-o-lanterns. I really want to grow pumpkins I can eat. They are so healthy for you and you get more meat per fruit than you do from sweet potatoes.  Roast pumpkin like squash (it IS squash), dice it into wild rice pilaf, mash it like sweet potato, mix it into bread, pasta, pancakes, waffles.  I am going with Burpee’s Cherokee bush pumpkin – shorter vines and more pumpkins, dry, yellow meat good for baking.  (But I still have some Dill's Altantic Giant seeds left from last year and it would be a shame not to plant them...)

Squash:  I know the bush pumpkins and bushy cucumbers, and the mango melons are good enough for the three sisters planting, but I really like delecata squash so I am going to try Territorial Seed’s “Honeybush” which is a little larger and more tan color than a standard delecata.

Okra – Burpee’s “Okra Go Big”,  I have recently learned that I really like okra blistered and dipped in chili salt and humus. And, a member of the local garden club grew two big bushes of it last season. This is a seven foot tall bush okra, so I’m jumping into the first attempt at growing okra in a big way.

Roots:

Radish- why, why try again? I am obsessed with the giant varieties I have tasted at the farmer’s market. Black Spanish radishes stuffed with clams oreganata, watermelon daikon thin sliced and wrapped like mini tacos around roast duck.  I have selected Territorial Seed’s Watermelon daikon (very crisp, large and sweet) and Spanish black radish (very large, firm and spicy like horseradish).   

Beets- they are such a staple, so versatile, but taste so good with goat cheese. I also like them pickled. One of my biggest mistakes with beets is that I don’t thin them ruthlessly enough, even though I really like the greens. (Um, so how about planting tape, Jen? Nah, too complicated. Um, they sell it with the seeds already stuck to it at the right intervals, Jen…Nope, not doing it.) So this year I have chosen Territorial Seed’s cylindrical beets because they are more carrot shaped and don’t need to be thinned as much.

Turnip- they are soooo delicious pickled I like them better than pickles. They can also be mashed like mashed potatoes, with horseradish and scallions.  But I get a little crazed about the tops, because those are really tasty too.  So this year I am being very extravagant and growing both Park Seed’s standard purple top white globe which is a national standard turnip grown in spring or fall and Park Seed’s Alamo hybrid that produce big greens with rapid regrowth for multiple harvests, and is bolt resistant.

Carrot- we eat lots of carrots. I have to say the yellow varieties are really the sweetest. But Dan likes the heavy orange stew carrots for cooking.  So I’m going with Park Seed’s rainbow mix, six inch regular season carrots and Park Seed’s sow all season big Nantes type orange carrot  

Not going to try celeriac again.  And I am not growing rutabaga either.  The burdock went to seed last fall so that is already sown – I am not growing it, but I will certainly harvest it.  I might transplant some to the new bed by the west wall since it is a weed and I don’t care if the deer eat it.  Similarly, I have salsify and scorzonera seeds left over, and they are actually perennials that bloom, so I might plant them in clumps by the west wall. 

Potatoes- a root? Not really (not according to crop rotation charts), but it grows below ground, or it should. I’ve been dithering about with grow buckets the last 4 years with limited success while they’ve been thriving in random spots where they’ve been composted, so this year they go back in the ground.  I like the purple potatoes best, but I’m going to do the red white and blue mix: Yukon gold, Colorado Red and Purple Viking.

Greens:

Orach: deep magenta, slightly velvety, spade shaped leaves on an 18 inch stalk.  It tastes like spinach but takes up less space and looks stunning in salad.

Claytonia: It is a succulent green that looks like a bouquet of little lily pads. “This annual green is high in vitamin C, and native to many moist areas of the country. The leaves are rather heart-shaped, and provide a substantial addition to salads and sandwiches. Probably the most cold tolerant of the greens, Miner's Lettuce will grow year-round in the cloche, greenhouse, or even unprotected in the maritime Northwest. Quickly regrows after harvest.”

Lettuce: romaine lettuce, of course.  But I saw a lovely pale pink variety in the store and I can’t find seeds anywhere, so I am going with a good sturdy standard from Territorial Seed, “Winter Density” early growing, compact but round head – not the “Eiffle Tower” tall and pointy stull you buy in the store.

Escarole: My new favorite green for braising and for making green crisp chips.  I’ve stopped throwing it into soup and started cooking it as a side dish.  It is also nice in stuffed pork chops, or wrapped around chicken breast.  Park Seeds has a tight, lettuce head looking escarole that is thick steamed but compact and space saving.

Chard: Burpee’s “Bright Lights” rainbow colored chard.  Again, the fordhook is very good and reliable, but I like the colored variety better.

Arugula: standard roquette, large, round heading plant, fully flavor, cold hardy. Nothing fancy about this one.  It goes to seed, prolifically in the fall, but also winters over for a second year.  And I’ll be able to save seeds and replant for several years.

Spinach: Burpee’s Space hybrid is a 3 season spinach that is long growing and slow bolting.

Brassica:

Cabbage: I love cabbages. I get poetic about them. The chickens love cabbages too. This year I am focused on something that will “hold in the field” through the fall.  So this year I am planting Territorial Seed’s “January King” green, slightly flattened with burgundy markings on the wrapper leaves of 3-5 pound heads.

Portuguese kale: Tronchuda Beira from Burpee is enormous with 24 inch leaves, and sweeter than most kale.  Very heat tolerant.

Cauliflower:  looking for the earliest harvesting type of white cauliflower.  The orange cauliflower tastes like squash and the purple variety like beets.  I want just plain white, small, numerous heads. Going with Territorial Seed’s “Snow Crown”. “Always mild and sweet. Its hybrid vigor and rapid growth make it one of the easiest to grow of all early cauliflower varieties. It forms fully domed curds in heads 7-8 inches across, weighing 1-2 pounds. This variety maintains its prime eating quality for up to 10 days in the garden. May manifest a delicate pink blush when maturing in the hotter parts of summer.”

Collards: Portuguese kale looks a lot like collards, but collards taste like collards and are much cold hardier.  So I am focusing on collards that are really late maturing, so they won’t overlap with the Portuguese kale. Territorial Seeds “Flash” is fast growing and re-growing, and a little more compact and upright to withstand snow. We’ll see if we can grow it early and late.

Broccoli:  Again, somebody hold my horses! I’m going overboard on the broccoli.  Trying Territorial Seed’s three hybrid sprouting broccolis for 4 seasons of this vegetable-

                Spring/Summer: Aspabroc: “This gourmet quality baby broccoli or broccolini produces tender, delicious, elongated stems topped with small, domed, 2 1/2 inch florets. After the initial central stem is cut, the plants continue developing side shoots for repeated cuttings. Aspabroc has a nice, upright habit that lends itself to tight plantings.”

                Summer/Fall: Rudolph: “Enjoy fresh broccoli for the December holidays with this winter sprouting variety. Rudolph is an English favorite because it is ready for harvest long before the other sprouting broccoli. Can be planted in mid-July, to produce an abundance of full flavored spears by mid-December.”

                Fall/Winter: Rioja: “Bred to overwinter and slide into a late February to March harvest window when fresh food from the garden is scarce. A productive, bright purple sprouting broccoli. Vigorous plants reach about 24-28 inches tall with easy-to-pick heads.”

And, because they seem to go with the brassicas in planting rotations, the alums.

Leek: Have to have leeks for the Leeky Dance.  Going with the standard “Lancelot” from Territorial Seed.

Onion: The gourmet mix of red and white Cipollini onions, from Territorial Seed.

[jeninthegarden]

Return of the Eggs

The air has warmed, but the ground has not. It is still hard and uneven underfoot when I walk in my defective duck boots across the back yard to the chicken coop in the morning. (My duck boots are from LL Bean and I am thinking of returning them with the explanation that never in the 17 years I’ve had them have they walked to the chicken coop through the snow and ice to feed the chickens without me!) A month ago we had a warm spell and rain that turned the yard into a sea of mud where you sank to your ankles with every step. Part of the unevenness now is those deep, frozen footprints. Mine, the kids, deer, coyote, cats, and other, smaller critters that took a walk about and then went back to bed. My own prints are so deep I have to be careful now not to turn an ankle tripping in one. There is still snow and ice in the shady spots. I had the happy forethought to put a heavy plastic over the top of the wire covered run so snow doesn’t build up in the chicken run. And I have one side of the run under the coop blocked with plastic for a wind break. The chickens like to hang out under there. Still ice in the water feeder each morning, but I don’t have to use a candle during the day anymore to keep it unfrozen. This was my own solution because my coop has no electricity or heat. I was inspired by a terra cotta candle heater they say can heat a room in a house, and cast iron teapot warmers. I have a flat paving stone with three garden pot feet holding up an inverted terra cotta pot. Under the pot is a votive candle in a pint mason jar. I light it in the morning when the daytime temps are below freezing. The candle and some warm water in the feeder to start will let the chickens drink all day. They don’t need the water at night so it doesn’t matter that the candle goes out in the afternoon. Been away for a few days so I took my coffee out to the coop this morning and sat for a little social time with the hens. One or two like to sit on my knee to warm their feet for a few minutes. They are almost two years old now to the day. I raised them from day old so they are imprinted on me and would like to go wherever I go. Since they were born in February, and I was generally wearing my black fleece jacket all the time when they were chicks, they seem to recognize me quicker if I am wearing black. The added daylight is definitely helping egg production. We’re back up to 3-4 eggs a day now (from 8 chickens). The Easter Egger (a rarer blue and gold colored that lays grey-green eggs) was a steady layer this winter except for the end of December and beginning of January. The two Swedish flower hens (one brandy and white with no tuft, one black and white with head tuft) both lay a couple eggs a week straight through the winter. Their 18 molt was also almost a non-event. They had a 4 week stretch of no eggs in October with barely noticeable feather loss. The Buff Orpington deserves honorable mention. Her molt was dramatic and lasted late September through early November, but she started laying again in late January. My other 4 hens: 1 Black Astralorp, 1 Cream Legbar and 2 Welsummers all did their molt through October and only started laying again this past week. And the Welsummers started up again with these horribly elongated eggs I thought would be double yokes, but were not. My Astralorp just laid a much smaller than usual egg. A neighbor reported her Astralorp got eggbound trying to start laying again last week. It was panting as if it had a respiratory infection, and then laid a yoke-less, bad smelling egg after about 24 hours. Definitely something to watch out for. I had not previously heard of this issue. But seeing the different sized/shaped eggs the hens are producing as they start to lay again after a few months off, it appears they can run into difficulties.

#backyard chickens #chicken eggs

[jeninthegarden]

The Garden reflections 2019

Back to Eden (are we there yet??)

This is my 11th year of garden logging.  So it is time to do a little retrospective on a decade of negligent vegetable gardening.  The big issues remain WATER and DEER.  I refuse to create any kind of irrigation system.  While I may mound up to help drainage, hugle to use up logs and preserve moisture, plant closely to prevent things getting too dry, I have not invested in any drip irrigation or rain barrels, or even ollas (buried terra cotta pots).  So, after a decade, I remain largely at the mercy of the weather.  I am still on the fence about any larger investment.  If anything, it has been too much rain and too many snap heat waves that have been the most disruptive events.  I haven’t ever had a real drought.  Row covers have been useful for direct seeding germination. Still considering rain barrels, but still haven’t done it.  The greenhouse we had for a couple of seasons was more useful as a screen house to keep chipmunks away from the tomatoes than for weather protection.  I prefer row covers and bird-netting.

The other ongoing issue is still the deer – from the very first years when I covered my tomatoes with sheets at night and still found half eaten tomatoes floating in the bird bath the next morning, to the Mexican deer that happily ate all my hot peppers (because I wrongly assumed they were too spicy and it was therefore safe to plant them outside the fence), the depressed deer that tried to off themselves by eating my rhubarb leaves.  The list of things I have assumed deer would not eat and been proved wrong is apparently endless.  I had a brief respite when a local coyote put us on his day and night patrol route, but he has moved on and the pesky deer leaned over the garden fence to eat the tops of my tomatoes this fall.   My investment in infrastructure to keep deer out of my garden has also been limited. I still do not have any permanent enclosure other than my original 20x30 fenced garden.  And that is in serious need of a facelift since it is now 13 years old.  The decadal lesson on deer is that there are more of them than you think and they are really just large rodents that eat everything.

The secondary issue that stands out from the decade is WEEDS.  I am a negligent gardener so the weeds sneak up on me every year.  I have a complicated relationship with weeds:  I know most of their names.  I eat the ones which are edible: purslane, lambs quarter, burdock, wild garlic, dandelions. I find some of them interesting too look at: bittersweet and porcelain berry vines are invasive but pretty. I should exterminate them but they are growing rampant in the back of my yard.  Some I even cultivate because they are so hardy and ornamental: I am constantly moving violets out of the yards and into the herb garden and I never weed them out of the vegetable garden. Fuzzy mullein is everywhere and I am always moving it around.  And then there are the cultivated plants which have gone native: lemon balm I planted one plant of has spread all over the property and I just move it around now.  Giant red India mustard self-seeds and is also to be found everywhere on the property.

WEEDS I have learned must be controlled from earliest spring.  The only patches of garden that remain weed free by July are the ones that were mulched with newspaper and straw by the end of April.  This is true every year.  My success in controlling the weeds depends on how much time and effort I put into weed control in the month of April.  Propagation can always be supplemented with bought seedlings and I have no issues with soil quality because I compost and rotate crops routinely.  But I just do not weed, routinely or even at all some years, so weeds that sprout quickly overtake me.

Being at the mercy of the weather means that some years are better for certain crops than others.  And, whichever vegetable patch is fully mulched by April, those vegetables don’t get subsumed by the weeds.  I enjoy abundance, of whatever happens to grow vigorously.  I always appreciate volunteers that go to seed and grow again unassisted and leftover plants that make it through the winter. I subscribe to the philosophy of Eat the Invaders, so I eat whichever weeds are edible. Some of the most satisfying plants I have grown are:

Peas. There are never enough peas and everyone loves peas. I dry and save seeds for the next year. They are so easy to grow.  I never forget to plant peas and since they are planted very early, they are always mulched and never lost to the sea of weeds.

Cabbage. From the days of Helen having to be taught to only eat one leaf off each red cabbage seedling, to watching the chickadees bathe in the rainwater caught in giant cabbage leaves, to my favorite quote of the decade: “But always to her the red and green cabbages would be jade and burgundy, chrysoprase and porphyry; life has no weapon against a woman like that!”  I love cabbages. I love to interplant them with sky-blue petunias and dill. I like to pickle cabbage. I have even made sauerkraut. I always plant cabbage.  My chickens love cabbages too. I will never be able to free range the chickens in my garden.

Tomatoes.  Heirloom tomatoes are my favorites.  Nothing will ever compare to the taste of an heirloom tomato you have just picked from your own garden. I am partial to the yellow with red stripe varieties like Big Rainbow and Mr. Stripey.  Dan likes the black varieties like Black Krim and Purple Cherokee.  I like the Hungarian Heart paste tomatoes.  Unfortunately everything likes tomatoes and it is difficult to protect them from deer, squirrels and chipmunks, and field mice. Weather is always an issue, especially when you think you are getting a head start by planting early but the weather never warms sufficiently for the fruit to set. Nevertheless there is no question that there will always be tomato plants in my garden.

Leeks.  From the earliest days of the leaky dance, we always plant leeks.  Mostly because they are the first thing that needs to be planted, right after Christmas, right now in fact.  And then they just need to be transplanted and allowed to grow, for 10 months.  And they need to be planted inside the garden because trial and error has proved that there are Welsh deer hereabouts that will eat leeks.  Oddly, although I plant them compulsively, and dance the obligatory leaky dance (it is like ribbon dancing with leek tops) when they are harvested.  I eat them right away, if at all, and never store them. And I have never yet let them go to seed and saved the seeds.

Nasturtiums.  Yes, I really do always plant nasturtiums.  I love the shape of the leaves. I love the taste of the leaves and the flowers, tastes like bell pepper/cucumber/arugula with salt and pepper.  I usually plant them around the leeks. Sometimes I save the seeds for planting the next year.  I have even pickled the buds and seed pods like capers. The leaves with long stems still attached are beautiful in vinegar, in old, odd shaped scotch bottles.

That is the top five constants for the past decade.  I have grown these 5 every year and have every intention of continuing to grow them in every vegetable garden I ever plant.

The top five favorites of the decade are:

Arugula.  Love arugula.  It is tasty; it is cold hardy; it is actually biannual; it self- seeds.  It is a reliable germinator very early in the spring and will keep growing through the fall. It produces many seed pods so it is easy to save seeds for the next spring planting, and if you aren’t interested in moving the arugula bed, it will self-seed.  I like it in salad and in sandwiches, and even in soup.

Parsley.  It is cold hardy; it is biannual; it can be brought inside for the winter; it is very shade tolerant.  My favorite thing to do with parsley is make chimichurri sauce, which is a parsley pesto made with parsley, garlic, olive oil and salt.  It is great on steaks.  And it is very easy to freeze the ground parsley and garlic for later use, just don’t add the olive oil until you want to serve the chimichurri.  And no parmesan in this pesto.

Runner Beans:  They are one of the most satisfying pole beans.  An early starter with good germination rate. The blossoms are beautiful and really sweet to eat.  The young beans can be harvested and eaten like string beans, the mature beans can be shelled and used in salads or soups.  All very tasty and not commercially available. Because they are a neglected varietal, there are generally only two or three types available and they are heirloom.  I prefer the Painted Lady – larger blossoms that are pink and white, instead of red.

Zucchini:  I love the blossoms, cooked with sage and eggs. I love the zucchini made into zoodles, cooked with tomatoes, stuffed with sausage, grilled with Greek dressing marinade, breaded into sticks with marinara sauce. Zucchini is a weed – really easy to grow and you only need one bush.  I like Burpee’s variety called “Sure Thing” because it is resistant to powdery mildew and does not require full sun.

Asparagus:  Fresh picked asparagus is up there with heirloom tomatoes, sweet corn and sweet peas.  There is nothing store-bought or even farmstand fresh that compares. It is almost too good to cook.  If I do cook it, I only blanch it.  But it is perfect cut up raw with raw garden peas in a salad (with a little fresh ricotta). Or you can puree it raw for a chilled summer soup with a drizzle of olive oil and salt.

The top five failures: 

Radishes. I have never yet succeeded in growing a radish root.  They get a yard high with lush green, downright bushy tops, and below ground nothing but a thin pink hair of a root.  Not standard radishes or daikon, not in sandy soil, full sun, dry soil, partial shade.  Not mixed with carrots and lettuce. Every year, every way, I try, try and try again, and never succeed. The easiest crop to grown, planted as soon as the soil can be worked. And I have never yet produced a radish.

Celeriac.  I can’t even get these to germinate, indoors, outdoors, nothing. And I love celeriac, so like radishes, I try every year and fail. Celeriac makes a wonderful soup (with green apples) and amazing schnitzel steaks.  It is a late fall root so it is readily available in the green markets. I should just give up trying to grow it, but I don’t like sacrificing garden space to stalk celery when I could grow celeriac and have both the root and celery leaves for soup.  But I also grow lovage in the herb garden which is a “cutting celery” that can be used for soups.

Corn. Fixation on the Three Sisters native American planting of corn, beans and squash has led me to try over and over again to cultivate corn.  Makes a nice bean pole. But the sweet corn and even the popcorn attracts squirrels. So even if the ears form, and don’t have corn ear fungus, 2 days before I decide to harvest, the squirrels strip the cobs and break the stalks.

Hot Peppers.  Have never produced a hot pepper.  They have cross-pollinated with sweet peppers resulting in bitter peppers. Or they have not produced any fruit, or the Mexican deer ate them.

Pumpkins.  Never enough space for pumpkins. They need too much room and whenever I try to cultivate them outside the fenced in garden, the deer and the groundhogs eat the vines.

The top five freaks:

Noodle Beans:  They score high on the fun factor. They are neat looking and they are tasty.  They need a lot of support which I have so far failed to provide.  Different varieties vary widely in taste from the more asparagus tasting green variety to a hazelnutty tasting red variety. 

Portuguese Kale: I just love how this looks. It is a sweeter variety of kale that ends up looking like a giant open rose.  It is green but somebody developed a lavender variety that is stunning.  It is very tasty and easy to grow but gets large and needs a lot of space per plant.

Purple Orach: tastes just like spinach but is a deep, purple-magenta color (with a slightly velvet texture) and grows on an upright stalk which is a real space saver.  It is cold hardy and so beautiful in salads, especially with nasturtium flowers.

Typhon Holland Greens:  This is one of the fastest growing brassica ever.  It looks a lot like romaine lettuce but tastes like a mild mustard or turnip green.  It is crazy tolerant of heat and drought. 

Claytonia:  another strange shaped veritable – looks like a clump of lily pads.  It has only one, tiny tap root.  It is very cold hardy and it self seeds and comes up everywhere.  It tastes like a cross between cucumber and butter-leaf lettuce.

The top five flight risk:

Horseradish - it is a weed.  I don’t even see seeds so I can’t figure out how it is moving so quickly and spreading so far. The roots may look dead, but resuscitate miraculously. That can lie bare on the compost pile all winter and still sprout new leaves in the spring.  I should never have bothered planting them in the enclosed garden. They grow 4 feet tall with wide, collard-like leaves. I think they need to move to the west wall of the house and be cultivated in semi ornamental clumps. Yes I was digging it up at Christmas because fresh grated horseradish is so sweet and spicy and goes perfectly on fresh shucked oysters! Giant red India mustard - I decided to save the seeds of my first harvest. I was shelling the seed pods on the patio and the seeds are so small that I dropped a couple hundred, which washed off the patio in a rainstorm, into the herb bed.  The next spring they were a lovely bronze carpet of seedlings very early and I weeded them out as necessary to make room for the other plants, but allowed several clumps up remain because they are such a nice color contrast. Those clumps went to seed (300-500 seeds per plant) and it was game over.  In the heat of summer, the mustard taste gets really spicy.  A leaf or two on your sandwich or burger or taco instead of lettuce is great. Lemon balm: one plant.  I thought it was going to be a culinary herb for tea and sautés.  It is pretty much inedible because it naturally contains citronella.  It thrives in anything from full sun to full shade, any soil type. It can propitiate by underground runners that pop up a foot or more away, or by wind blown seeds - it flowers at least twice a season.  I am constantly pulling it out.  However, i have planted it all around the patio in a defensive ring because it does keep the mosquitos away. Mutant pak choi.  I bought some kind of a hybrid Asian green maybe 5 years ago.  Some of it went to seed and ever since it has been randomly volunteering in the garden, except that its subsequent generations have reverted back to one of the plants it was hybridized from which is more like a biannual headless broccoli. And another strain is coming up fresh each spring looking like a rootless turnip green.  Again, nothing like what I once planted. It is very cold hardy and not particularly tasty. Burdock.  It is a weed.  And at one point a couple volunteered in my garden, and that year the weeds won, and one of the burdock flowered dropped several hundred seeds in my  garden.  And then I started harvesting it and cultivating it and letting just one go to seed each year so I always have plenty of seeds.  I don’t mind burdock. It’s first year it makes a nice ground cover and only gets about 12 inches high. It comes up very early, very beginning of March and the young leaves are edible. They are also very easy to see in March - the only green thing in the garden, so I harvest what I want and later, I just cut the tops off if they are in my way or over-shadowing things.

The garden report from the past year:

The cloche experiment: fail.  It did not work.  Nothing under a milk jug survived. Good-bye milk jugs.  Like the greenhouse, without electric controls over heat and ventilation, it is not effective.  I either need a cold-frame or row covers. The rosemary died as usual.  The parsley not under milk jugs survived better than the parsley that was covered.

The herb bed:  about eight years ago I improved the soil with woodchips, and the herb garden has flourished.  I need to re-mulch with woodchips this year.  The oregano has begun to wander.  The Egyptian walking onions have begun to peter out.  I am weeding out violets, or rather, moving them to other spots on the property.  I never get rid of them; they are excellent groundcover.  The thyme has really established itself and comes back with gusto.  The sage has thinned and needs to be replaced.  The rosemary is all dead.  The lavender is surviving inside.  I may put it out but keep it in pots on the patio. Mint, a weed, was all wiped out by black spot fungus in the shade bed.  I treated the bed with neem oil and will try adding woodchips.  The Lemon balm, of course, in the same bed, contracted the same fungus and survived anyway. The rhubarb is okay.  I thought it was thriving until I saw somebody’s rhubarb patch on Cape Cod which was a four foot tall hedge. The bed needs more compost, and some wood chips. 

The west wall project:  The west wall of the house gets total afternoon sun and plenty of water coming down the hill.  It is also entirely devoid of plantings – the grass comes right up to the foundation of the house.  I have decided to build a 3 foot wide garden bed all along that side.  I hate grass, so I am smothering it.  I am going to plant the new west wall bed with clumps of horse-radish which grow very tall and sturdy green leaves. I will relocate the asparagus to clumps there because the current asparagus bed in the fenced garden is a waste of space since only humans eat asparagus.  Asparagus get nice tall, feathery fronds with red berries.  Fall blooming saffron crocus, with wire covers because the deer like to eat crocus.  Strawberries, also under wire cloche because everything eats strawberries.  Oddly strawberries, asparagus and horse-radish are companion plants. And they all like borage, so I’ll throw in some of that. And I’ll relocate some of the violets to there. And maybe some of the rhubarb.

So the back Back to Eden weed barrier method of gardening worked really well in the children’s garden, which took up all the cardboard I had saved.  I am busy hording up more cardboard boxes for spring but now have a much clearer idea of just how much more cardboard I need.  I will have to solicit people’s old moving boxes in the spring.  And I will order wood chips to spread on top of it.  This year we just used old leaves – didn’t have enough of those either. I have been sheet composting with chicken manure and used coop straw.  Plenty of that to go around.  And I am now faithfully saving my used coffee grounds and citrus peels for the same (the only kitchen scraps the chickens won’t eat).  Once I move the asparagus bed out of the fenced garden I can cover the whole thing with compost, cardboard and woodchips and begin the grand experiment in my garden, and hopefully defeat the weeds this coming year.  The children’s garden was pretty weed free, but we didn’t get the fencing up so critters ate everything.

An update on the house plants.  I repotted all the house plants and even divided some.  The largest corn plant, that I divided, has thrived in one pot and is wilting away in the other.  I have the Areogrow planter out and ready to plant my winter culinary herbs.  It is an excellent little hydroponic system.  Last year’s Christmas poinsettias died.  But I have 3 new ones I will attempt to nurse through the year.  Will try forcing bulbs in the next month.  I did plant another 200 daffodils, and 200 crocus.  I clumped the daffodils and spread the crocus throughout the lawn because the deer eat all the crocus clumps by the porch in a night.  So I’m making things more difficult for them.   The large art glass globe still needs to be replanted.  And I am still contemplating getting a bee hive.

The seed list this year is a fresh start.  I have no seeds saved or stock-piled so I get to order all new this year.  Looking back at my lists of constants, favorites, fails and freaks, it is not hard to guess at least 10 plants that will be in my garden.  The choices this year will be what varieties and the fun factor.  And yes, still following the crop rotation schedule.

 Legumes (follow the Root crops):

Grew no beans in 2018, I planted them and most of the seeds were just too old and did not germinate.  The few that sprouted were eaten by I do not know what kind of caterpillar.  I give up on fava beans.  No reason they shouldn’t grow here, but they just don’t.  500 peas planted in 3 successions, 2 weeks apart, in the spring and one fall planting will suffice.  Runner beans, if I decide to try 3 sisters again.    

Brassica – Cole - Green Crops (follow the legumes):

 I love all members of the cabbage family.  But they also like space. I can grow, and the chickens love, cabbage too.  I likely will not start from seed because it is too easy and inexpensive to buy the seedlings.  Same for cauliflower.  I have saved lettuce seeds for so many years, and only bought mixes, that this is an exciting year when I get to buy seed and actually select certain varieties like “spotted trout” and “deer tongue”.  Romaine lettuce now comes in a pale pink variety, as well as bronze.  Escarole is my new favorite vegetable – I’ve stopped just throwing it in soup.  Now I like it sautéed, and escarole chips are far superior to kale chips.  Claytonia and purple orach are still lots of fun

 Fruits (follow the Brassica and Greens):

 The weather and the squirrels, chipmunks and mice all devastated my tomatoes, and then the deer leaned over the fence and ate the tops.  So tomato plants will be purchased this year.  As will screen covers for the plants.  Likewise, the zucchini will have to be covered with netting row covers.  I’m not crazy about my eggplant and pepper crops.  Maybe my problem is I don’t like bell peppers – all of them got sunburn this summer and had horrible brown scales.  Maybe I should grow a different variety.  Eggplant, I always try to grow Japanese variety, with moderate success except for years when this really odd insect eats the whole plant. Melons, cucumbers, pumpkins and winter squash all need much more space and protection from every kind of predator.  Okra – some one in the garden club successfully grew okra this past year so I am going to try to grow it.  I like okra blistered and dipped in chili salt and hummus. 

 Roots (follow the fruits):

  I certainly will be harvesting burdock.  I didn’t plant it, but it self-seeded and there will be plenty in the spring.  I am crazed for watermelon daikon radishes – they get grapefruit sized and thin slices make wonderful tacos for shredded duck and scallions.  I also love the chopped radish and ricotta salad. Black Spanish radish doubles as horseradish – very sad tale from a local farmer who used to grow black radish for Heintz because it made up almost 80% of their prepared bottled horseradish, but new labeling rules forced them to switch to mostly pure horseradish so the black radish industry collapsed.  However, black radishes are large enough to stuff with clams casino and roast, so, here we go again trying to grow radishes. There are so many available at the green market I should just give up, but I can’t.  Still have not perfected the potato in the bucket method.  Despite being in raised towers, they got too much water.  I think I need to try sandier soil this year.

  Flowers:

 We are still working on smothering the lawn in several large swaths and planting wildflowers.  I have more seeds ready to spread in spring.  Going to keep adding perennials like Echinacea, milk thistle, comos, sunflowers.  I also bought cardinal flowers (lobelia) and zinnias to add around the edges.  I have some salvia and primrose that a neighbor sneaked into my herb garden. Might add some more primrose to the shade bed. Nasturtiums and petunias and marigolds are all important companion plants in the vegetable garden. And I am going to experiment with some saffron crocus for the west wall. 

Herbs:

 The new mint garden has still to be planted.  I ended up inter-planting some with the lemon balm border around the patio, but the lemon balm really crowds it out.  Not sure where the mint will go this year.  The front of the house may be dug up for the new front walk this year so I am not going to do any planting out there. As always I have grand designs for growing cumin.  But not really hot enough here, so maybe I will try it in a pot on the patio where it can get some extra heat from the stones.  Same for the Indian Hibiscus.   And sorrel, I like to grow it but don’t really like to eat it, so don’t know if that will get into the herb garden this year. It is a bit too tempting for the deer, so it doesn’t survive outside the fenced garden. And I have not come across any good companion planting for sorrel, so unless I eat some sorrel dish that is really tasty, I might skip it.  Sage needs to be replanted, several varieties – I had the most delicious dish of walnut and gorgonzola raviolis served with whole sautéed sage leaves in olive oil.  I also like batter fried sage leaves with warm olives.

 Seed List

 The seed list will be shared separately this year.  As I mentioned above, I am out of seeds. Nothing saved or in stock, so I get to start fresh!  The poor germination rates this past year really motivated me to just dispose of everything.  So now I have the very pleasurable chance to peruse all the incoming seed catalogues and consider all the newest hybrids.  I will circulate the seed list after I have spent the next few weeks researching.

#gardening backyardgardens

[jeninthegarden]

Garden Reflections

GardenJen 2018:

This is a reflection on the trials and errors of 2017, and the plans and dreams for 2018

Back to Eden

 In 2016 the chicken brooding for the communal coop pre-occupied too much of my time and delayed spring planting.  2017 there was a good, early start on both the chicken brooding for my own personal flock and the execution of the garden plan.  The kids co-operated by doing all their gardening in the opposite corner of the yard as opposed to invading my space.  And they are learning – they did use deer fencing and even weed barriers.  And they built their own strawberry tower from logs we still have in abundance curtesy of Hurricane Sandy.  We had a friendly competition for growing competing potatoes in buckets, and not too bad a harvest. The biggest mistakes were using fresh chicken poop as fertilizer which burned the roots, and forgetting that deer like to eat potato vines.   

The cool, wet weather took a toll on the tomato crop, although the peppers (just because they are contrarians) did exceptionally well. The sweet pea crop was phenomenal, parsley and basil held up nicely. I grew rows of beautiful purple shouldered turnips only to discover at harvest that the wet weather had rotted all the bottoms below the soil level.  Likewise, the carrots looked superb until I tried to pull them and discovered the critters had tunneled below them and eaten them from the bottoms up!  I lost all the squash and zucchini to the squirrels and the deer.  Squash and melons must be germinated indoors or the squirrels will dig up and eat the seeds.  And the plants themselves have to be well protected because the deer, rabbits and ground hogs will eat them even after they get spiny.

The herb garden was very robust, as was the rhubarb.  I am now fully carpeted with Egyptian walking onions so I had to dig some up and give them away. The oregano has started popping up everywhere.  I moved some around.  As usual, the rosemary did not survive outside.  However, all the windowsill herbs I had in the kitchen over the winter transplanted successfully to the garden, and all but the rosemary (!) survived being dug up and moved back to the kitchen this winter.  I am doing a “cloche” experiment with gallon milk jugs; I have covered a thyme plant, a rosemary plant and a parsley plant with milk jugs, caps off, for the winter to see if they survive and green up quicker in the spring.

 Yes, the weeds inevitably caught up to me by late July and I mostly missed the second planting. Given how cool and wet it was, I should have re-planted everything that I had planted in the spring.  It would have been great – didn’t happen.  I have a stunning crop of second year burdock that I mostly left in the ground and will dig up in 2018 spring.  I did well with landscaping cloth in the cabbage patch and under the broccoli, kale and Brussel sprouts.  The sky blue petunias and the dill plants companion planted with the cabbages and cauliflowers not only looked stunning, they did their job and we had no cabbage moths at all.  And this year the cauliflower was a success.  Lucky us since cauliflower is our new rice.  I am certainly going to try to grow it again. It did have to be cut and eaten in very short order because the rain mildewed some of the heads before we could consume them.  Burpee has developed a loose headed/branching cauliflower that I will give a try. But I am also going to try an early heading variety.   Broccoli – I am very pleased with small, re-heading/branching broccoli, it is the only way I can justify the space it takes up.  However, once again the Brussel sprouts did not produce anything bigger than pea sized sprouts.  They need more heat and more space. And since the cole crops are over-due for a rotation this year, I may just focus on collards and broccoli.  Grew no collards at all in 2017 and the kale crop was competing with the useless Brussel sprouts so it did not reach its potential.  The Toscana kale (sort of like kale palm trees) performed best.  The Portuguese kale (which is like a giant, loose cabbage leafed rose) failed entirely.

So this year, aside from fencing in the new garden space, I am going to try the Back to Eden weed barrier method of gardening.  I have spent all winter hording up cardboard boxes  - easy to do because I have Amazon Prime. I will sheet compost with chicken manure, used coop straw, green material, twigs and branches, and any kitchen scraps the chickens don’t consume (mostly avocado and citrus peels), cover that with a layer of cardboard, weigh the cardboard down with a foot of last autumn’s leaves which I have in several giant piles.  This will become a sort of like a giant hugle/compost pile/weed barrier.  I will wet the whole thing down (or wait until we’ve had a nice soaking rain) then dig holes or trenches in the leaf layer, fill those with garden soil, and plant in those holes and trenches. This should give me a weed free garden for 2018.  We shall

Of course, covering everything is going to necessitate removing the perennials.  This year I will be re-locating the asparagus bed.  Eight years it has been taking up prime real estate in my fenced in garden.  Waste of space – asparagus is a weed and nothing but idiot humans will eat it.  So off it goes to a new spot along the western wall of house where it will be planted in bunches, instead of rows.   Also to be removed are the black raspberries and horseradish.  Horseradish is a companion plant to asparagus so it will go to the same spot.  Black raspberries get gnawed by the deer so they will have to go to a separate fenced in area.  The strawberries, also companion to the asparagus will go to the very successful strawberry tower in the children’s garden.

The seed list this year is another challenge.  Too much of my seed inventory meant to be planted in July never made it into the ground.  And I have so many seeds that this will be a grow-from-seed year, instead of order plants.  I have also gotten myself into a couple of garden plant swap groups so, I will plant only what I either have seeds for or can get through exchange this year. There will be NO seed or plant ordering, with a few exceptions such as a rosemary plant, a lavender plant, marigolds and petunias, and some other things I have run out of, as detailed below.

In other greening endeavors, my house plants are on their last legs and need some serious attention.  It’s been a couple years since they were re-potted, and they haven’t summered outside in at least 4 years, so they need some serious re-hab.  They are an eclectic collection, none of which I purchased and all of which are at least 15 years old, and some are more than 20!  I am also determined not to just throw away my Christmas poinsettias this year.  I am going to attempt to save them and get them to re-bloom next Christmas. Wish me luck.   And I have several glass containers with gravel left over from last year that I am going to recycle to force some spring bulbs to bloom. I have already set up and seeded my countertop aquaponics herb garden.  I planted another 200 daffodil bulbs in the lawn in late November.  I have a large art glass globe that Dan gave me as a terrarium a few years ago that needs to be replanted.  And did I mention that I am thinking of taking up bee-keeping…?  

Legumes (follow the Root crops)

Grew no beans in 2017, so I have multiple packs of beans to plant this year. Beans are an important stage in crop rotation that I have not been rigorous enough about in the past few years.  So I need to plant a lot of beans this year. Noodle beans, or Yardlong beans are great space savers because they climb and they grow so long that you only need one per person per meal. They need more support than I typically provide, so I am going to try to make bean pole teepee’s this year. I know I’ve said it before, but this year we will do it! I also like Runner beans. They are my fava bean substitute – I have failed to grow favas after numerous attempts.  I have a high-yielding, scarlet blossomed variety in inventory so I will find an empty fence to grow them on!  My third and most dependable pole bean variety is Violetto.  These are the variety I use in my Three Sisters corn-bean-squash planting.  And I have two packs in inventory as well as some popcorn seeds, so I will grow them together in the squash and pumpkin patch.  I don’t usually plant bush beans, unless I do, and then I plant too many. Since I didn’t plant any last year, I have a lot to plant this year. Soy beans are great tasting, as well as hardy and vigorous as long as you keep the groundhogs away.  I have saved lots of seeds, so I will plant them since they too count in the “legume” stage of crop rotation.  And last but not least, there are peas.  500 pea vines is the magic number for us in order to have enough peas that the kids and all their friends can raid the garden every day for fresh peas and there will still be enough for the occasional adult.  I’ve given up the idea of cooking them at all.  They taste better raw anyway. The spring was so cool and wet that the pea season last year dragged on and on and consequently, we ate almost all of them.  I may actually have to buy peas to plant, for the first time in at least 5 years!

Brassica – Cole - Green Crops (follow the legumes)

 I love all members of the cabbage family.  But they also like space. I would give up on the Brussel sprouts because I never get more than pea sized sprouts. But I have 500 seeds!! So I will find space for them. I love growing cabbages. Quote of the decade is: “But always to her the red and green cabbages would be jade and burgundy, chrysoprase and porphyry; life has no weapon against a woman like that!”  So, I grew all my cabbages and now have no cabbage seeds.  The dilemma – order some seeds? Or buy some plants?  If I can/pickle/preserve nothing else, I always manage to pickle some red cabbage.  And I only need 2 or 3 heads.  Hardly seems worth buying seeds and starting them myself when a six-pack of seedings is less than two dollars. But we can always eat more cabbage than I can grow, and the chickens love cabbage too.  So I will buy seeds. I will be buying cauliflower seeds this year, the branching variety and early variety.  I will be buying branching broccoli seeds as well.  I have too many bok choi, tatsoi, kale and collard seeds in inventory so I may have to grow some as mirco greens just to use them up.  I have spinach, strawberry spinach, arugula, claytonia, romaine lettuce and orach seeds.  I will likely order some endive, mache and escarole.  And I need more lettuce seeds.

Fruits (follow the Brassica and Greens)

 This is a grow from seed year. I saved so manytomato seeds, and melon seeds from the heirloom tomatoes and melons we ate in 2017.  And I never got around to planting the eggplant, peppers and cucumbers so I have a lot of those to start indoors in the next two months. Zucchini were eaten by the squirrels which dug up all the seeds I planted.  I will have to buy seeds and germinate them indoors.  Same with the pumpkins. I have plenty of watermelon seeds, and all kinds of winter squash seeds.  I am going to do a big mixed patch of melons, pumpkins, squash around the hills of popcorn and beans but I am going to fence it in so the deer don’t get in!

Roots (follow the fruits)

 As with most root crops, I have had relatively little luck with beets. I will not use a mixed variety because if they don’t grow at the same rate, the slower ones will just all get thinned out. I happen to have some red and some gold seeds. I will plant them earlier as the cool wet summer we had in 2017 delayed their growth until fall when the voracious field mice ate them along with my carrorts.   Carrots, like the beets, need space and rigorous, ruthless thinning.  I will plant all the seeds I have, but I must harvest them earlier to beat the mice to them.  Radishes are unicorns in my garden history.  I just cannot grow them! They defy me, mock me, grow 3 feet tall, flower and pod like weeds with a hair width little pinkish tap root.  And we so enjoyed the giant watermelon radishes from the farmer’s market this summer!  I have radish seeds, so I will plant them. Turnips are easy to grow.  I like the tops sautéed in butter; the bottoms make wonderful pickles and I have 1000 seeds. Rutabaga is susceptible to rot, like turnips, and requires rigorous thinning like beets, weirdly likes to be grown with the legumes, and I have 500 seeds so I will companion plant it with the bush beans this year. Celeriac does not germinate for me in the garden.  I still have seeds so I will try to start it indoors.  Parsnips are an oddity that need to winter over.  So I will plant them but not plan on attempting to harvest them until next spring.  Scorzonera and salsify are two crops that like celeriac, do not germinate well, and like parsnips need to winter over. I am going to try two methods this year, planting half in buckets, started indoors, and the remaining seeds in the garden to harvest in 2019. The burdock are just waiting to be harvested. Milk thistle is another root I want to try, and I have the seeds, so I may try them started indoors, in buckets.

Potatoes are going in buckets again this year, but the buckets need to be secured behind fencing so the deer can’t get them.  I also intend to try sweet potatoes this year, also need to be secured behind fencing so the deer don’t eat the vines.

I have started some leeks and scallions indoors already.  I will put the scallions in the cabbage patch and put the leeks into the carrot patch since they are supposed to be companionable. 

Flowers

 We are working on smothering the lawn in several large swaths and planting wildflowers.  While I have annual wildflower mix seeds for these patches, I want to enhance them with echinacea (cone flowers), milk thistle, comos, sunflowers.  I will also put some sunflowers into the corn patch (the chickens love sunflower heads).  I always plant nasturtiums under the peas.  I like to eat nasturtium leaves and flowers in salad. I put calendula into the herb garden because I have fantasies of using the blossoms for soap or tea.  And I companion plant marigolds and petunias in my vegetable garden. 

Herbs

I attempted to grow a mint garden in 2017 with 6 different types of mint.  Disaster struck in the form of black spot fungus which is in the soil and gets absorbed into plants, causing them to break out in a sort of black measles.  It destroyed the mint, killed the blossoms on my honey berry bushes, infested the lemon balm which, because it is truly invincible, simply outgrew the infection.  Unfortunately, the fungus resides in the soil and thrives on wet, dark conditions, so it will likely resurface this year, despite the fact I have doused the entire shaded herb bed with neem oil.  So I am going to create a new mint garden to the front of the house which has a nice, damp and dark moss patch which is of no other use.  I will plant the angelica there as well, and some chives (although the chives were completely unaffected by the black spot fungus).

After 5 happy years, the hyssop died.  I think its roots were oversaturated and rotted.  So I need a new hyssop plant, but rather than plant it in the herb garden, I am going to pot it and put the pots in the squash patch to attract bees. It has been several years since I have successfully grown sorrel so this year I will try again.  I have a lot of seeds for black cumin, Indian geranium, borage, and chamomile so I will start those inside.  

#backyard veg garden

[jeninthegarden]

Fresh Eggs and Chicken Talk

A few years ago I began hearing noises in the very early morning. Not being quite awake I would tell myself I was dreaming about my childhood in Pennsylvania where I grew up on a farm.  I was hearing a rooster crowing, at around 4 am, which is perfectly normal for a rooster - they do not crow at dawn but several hours earlier.  But I don't live in farm country anymore so there was no good explanation for why I would be hearing a rooster crowing every morning. And then the dreams began to get more vivid...the geese started cackling, turkeys began to gobble, somebody began to "drove-she-ducklings-to-the-water" every morning at about 6 am, and a goat began bleating...I don't live in farm country anymore, but one wintery morning, the goats (plural) escaped and were skipping and hoping through the neighborhood.

There has been, in the past decade, a growing interest in backyard chickens in suburban, and even urban areas.  Some of my neighbors have recently started discussing a community coop.  I am all in favor, and, as part of the discussion, we decided we should track down and consult the owner of the goats who has clearly been keeping chickens for the past four years.  So one recent morning I found myself in the very muddy back yard of an innocuous looking suburban home, surrounded by eight goats, eight turkeys, 20 chickens, 20 ducks and two geese.

It is all quite illegal, this suburban farmer informed me cheerfully.  Our town's zoning will only let you have one chicken per acre and 1 goat per half acre. He has three quarters of an acre and a large pond.  By contrast, you can have as many horses as you want because the horse ordinance predates the invention of automobiles, so a horse in that era was considered the family car. However, enforcement of the animal ordinances only occurs if somebody complains. And somebody did complain a few years ago, about that rooster crowing at 4 am.  Our town gave this suburban farmer a notice of violation and told him to get rid of... the rooster.  So he got rid of the rooster and there have been no complaints since, and no more interest from the town.  Even the goat round-up occasioned no comment.  The goats walked out over the frozen pond.  A couple of good-humored neighbors rounded them up and brought them back - no complaints. A surprising number of things in this life all come down to having good-humored neighbors. 

Chickens are a gateway drug, the suburban farmer told us gravely.  He started with just two chickens; now he lives in a barnyard.  The ducks, he told us, were the biggest mistake.  They are solely responsible for the mud.  They poop twice their weight every day and they cannot survive without water to immerse in, year round. So when the pond freezes over, he has to operate a series of heated tubs for them to bath in, all day.  The only up side is that duck eggs are delicious!  They are velvety in texture, and meaty but sweet in flavor.  They add extra lift to cakes and soufflés if you whip the whites.  But the ducks lay them very randomly, everywhere, in the mud, so collecting them and cleaning them is a chore.

Chickens, on the other hand, don't like water and don't even like humidity.  The chicken coops were situated on a dry, sunny hillside, facing south, with a drainage ditch separating them from the rest of the yard.  And it was the Calcutta of chicken coops, complete with wires and pipes and fencing, string.  He had bought some coops, assembled others and retro-fitted a dog run. There were electric wires for the heat lamps, cables for the security cameras, electric fence to keep out predators.  The security cameras were a new addition that helped figure out that weasels were getting into the coops.  Beware of weasels! Raccoons and opossums climb in over fences, which is why his are electrified.  Foxes and coyotes dig in from underneath, which is why the bottom of the fences are buried 18 inches deep. The turkeys (6 toms and 2 hens) are for protection, very good at driving off the predators, or anything smaller than a coyote. And the geese are better than guard dogs at sounding the alarm if anything intrudes, day or night.

Goats.  What are the goats for??  They are very calming animals.  But the males, unless castrated (these were), stink!!  And the females do not give milk unless they are breeding (these were not), so they are just..pets.  And they think they are dogs.  So the whole while we were in the yard, the goats were standing next to us, leaning against us and rubbing their heads against us, and nibbling our clothes.  Oh, yes, goats eat everything.  There are grazing companies which will bring a herd of goats to clear your property of unwanted vines, weeds and poison ivy.  But beware, goats eat everything, including your laundry, any the clothes you are wearing.       

A quick trip through the suburban farmer's kitchen revealed all counter surfaces covered with bowls and containers stacked high with eggs. No, they don't need to be refrigerated. During our tour of the back yard I had also noted eggs piled in various spots  - in a corner of a coop, on a stump, in a planter by the back porch. We had thoughtfully brought egg cartons with us, which we were urged to fill with eggs of all colors. It brought to mind just how many quiche and soufflés I had eaten as a child, growing up with a flock of 10-15 chickens.  Clearly, 20 chickens and 20 ducks were out-laying what this suburban farmer and his family of six could consume.  Even counting the eggs needed weekly for pancakes, waffles, cakes, muffins, sweet loaves, breaded meats and vegetables, we rarely need more than a dozen eggs a week, for a family of five.  Just two reliable chickens are going to give you a dozen eggs a week.  And I was thinking of getting four, because a nice little coop holds up to four chickens.        

#backyard chickens