Going to Seed

I was finally able to get out into the garden this evening during a very brief break in the rain. It has been very wet over the last several days. We got more than an inch and a half of rain just over the weekend and it has only slowed since.

Proof that the sun actually exists

I was glad that the rains paused so I could get a little work done. The garden does not look any worse for the recent soaking. I think the raised beds have allowed for decent drainage. The spinach and arugula have needed to be dealt with for some time now. The spinach bolted fairly quickly with the early arrival of hot weather. The arugula has since gone to seed too. I didn’t realize that it would get prickly as it got older. The flowers are lovely though.

Spinach gone to seed

Lovely little arugula flowers

I pulled out all the spinach and most of the arugula. Under the larger plants there were a half-dozen or so seedlings just starting out so I left them. Over the weekend I got a packet of mixed lettuce seeds. It certainly was not an ideal time to plant with the ground being so wet but at least I didn’t have to water the seeds in. It started raining again maybe half an hour after I went inside to wash the greens. I only planted about half the packet so if the seeds end up rotting instead of growing, I’ll have another shot at it.

After pulling the spinach and arugula and planting more seeds

In other garden news, the beets and turnips are growing very well. We’ll be eating some of them soon. All four varieties of tomatoes have set fruit with the Early Girls looking particularly nice. My sugar snap peas blew over in high winds we had a couple weeks ago. I did not realize they were going to grow five or six feet tall or I would have built better support. They’ve bounced back, though, and we should be eating peas by this weekend. And the corn is already knee-high days before the Fourth of July.

Early Girl tomatoes

Bent but not broken pea plants

The corn seems to be enjoying the weather

Oh, and guess who had babies…

Munchkin in the back yard

Yeah, and her too….

Twins!

Vegetable Rundown

This year I planted every type of seed I had just to see how they would grow. Now that we’re well into the season, I feel like I can make my first report on successes and failures. Here’s the rundown.
 

What didn’t grow?

Soybeans – The seeds were a couple years old and the ones I planted last year did not grow either so I was not at all surprised.

Tri-colored beans – Again, the seeds were a couple of years old but I thought with several different varieties in the mix that something might grow. One seed did sprout. I think it’s a purple bean.

Rosemary, Parsley and Sage – I should have started these herbs indoors but did not make the effort this year. They were older seeds so I just put them in the ground with some hope but little expectation. I had planted some of the sage seeds at my in-law’s herb bed several years ago and the plants are still going strong. I’ll have to try a transplant.

What plants have given a weak showing so far?

Yellow Squash – Only one of the seeds has sprouted and the leaves look shriveled and deformed. I’ll have to plant a couple more and see if they do better.

Eggplant – I bought these as plants and put them in the ground about three weeks ago. They don’t appear to have grown much in that time. They did take a beating from flea beetles before we dusted them. Hopefully the plants will rally.

Green Onions – I’ve never grown green onions before so I’m not sure where they should be growth-wise at the moment. They just look rather wispy to me.

Fennel – The fennel seed have finally sprouted. I worry what the late start will mean for potential harvest.

Basil – This is another case in which I probably should have started the seeds early. I do have two tiny seedlings. In time I may have more basil than I know what to do with.

What are the stars of the garden?

Arugula – I’ve never grown arugula before. My grandmother planted some in a window box a few years ago and it never did much. It has been growing like crazy and tastes good even when it gets bigger than I wanted before harvesting.

Pak choi – I have also never grown pak choi before. The toy choy variety that I planted grew quickly and was ready to harvest sooner than I expected. Next year I will plant a few seeds every few weeks so I can have a longer harvest.

Spinach – I can’t call the spinach a triumph but it certainly is growing better than I had hoped. For some reason I have never had luck growing spinach of any variety. I always got scraggly little plants that went to seed quickly. My spinach is getting spindly and going to seed now (there’s no way to prevent that in this weather) but I did harvest more than I ever have in the past. I’m calling that a win.

Horseradish – The horseradish is making a spectacular show above ground. We’ll see what’s going on with the roots come harvest time.

Horseradish going crazy

I hate to jinx anything or count chickens before they are hatched but nearly everything else is growing right along pretty well. The strawberries are sending off runners, the corn almost has the potential of being knee-high by the fourth of July and the snap peas should be blossoming soon. I still don’t know if we’ll have to plug in the chest freezer in the basement to preserve the season’s harvest but it feels likely that we will. (fingers crossed)

Pak choi (before I harvested it all)

Flowers on a tomato plant

A pumpkin planted among the corn

Neon lights chard

Buckwheat planted outside the garden to attract bees

Roses behind the garage - they're pretty but we can't see them from the house

Guess Who was in the Garden Again

We had a house rabbit for many years. I should have known from that experience that rabbits do not give up easily. Yesterday morning when I looked out the window on my way down the stairs, as I do every morning, I saw a pair of ears in the garden. So, I rallied the troops (my husband), put on my barn boots, grabbed my camera and headed outside. You know that little break in the fence I mentioned before? Well, that was the spot where the rabbit chewed through the mesh fence to get into the garden. We knew that it could easily chew through the mesh if it wanted to but I didn't think it would make the effort. I guess I was wrong. It got out through the same hole after a brief panic among the raised beds. As soon as it was out of the garden it settled down maybe 20 feet away and started chomping on grass. Apparently once it was outside the fence the two perturbed humans were no longer a threat.

The rabbit peacefully snacking on greenery after being chased from the garden.

So, as the rabbit went about its business, I scanned the garden. Nothing was sampled or disturbed this time. I must have seen it right after it got through the fence. The way the rabbit was eating greens from the lawn it was obviously hungry but it didn’t touch anything in the garden. Maybe it just didn’t like what I have growing. Who knows? My husband grabbed some wood strips and the stapler and we repaired the hole in the fence. We’ll see if the rabbit tries again.

A perfect little bunny-sized hole nibbled through the mesh fence.

Hopefully the repairs will keep the tricky little bunny out.

After the quick emergency fence repair I harvested some spinach, more arugula and all the pak choi. It had rained the night before so the greens were gritty with dirt. I gave them all my standard triple rinse then ran them through the salad spinner.

The day’s harvest

I froze a lot of the pak choi. I chopped it up, blanched it two minutes in boiling water and then plunged it into ice water. After letting it dry off a bit on some paper towels, I packed it into a quart freezer bag. I also fridge-pickled some of it in a simple brine of 1 cup of white vinegar, ½ a cup of water, 1 tbsp. of sugar, ½ tbsp. of salt and some fennel seeds. I’ve never had pickled pak choi before. I’ll give it a week or so and then see what it tastes like.

Two pints of pickled pak choi

I’m going to use most of this round of arugula for my lunches this week but I also used some in a salad today. I mixed four servings of cooked and cooled pasta with a can of rinsed kidney beans and a couple good handfuls of chopped arugula. I dressed it with 1 ½ tbsp. of oil, 1 tbsp. of lemon juice and some salt and black pepper and then sprinkled some freshly grated parmesan cheese on top. It made a great light meal for a hot, humid day and all the subtle flavors worked really well together.

Mmm, pasta with fresh arugula and beans

How the Garden Grows

The other day, my husband and I were enjoying our morning coffee and tea on our back porch when a movement in the garden caught my eye. “There’s a squirrel in the garden,” I declared. “I don’t think it’s a squirrel,” my husband replied. “That’s the rabbit.”

Bunny enjoying a break in this evening’s rain

I recalled that part of the fence behind the asparagus was missing a cross piece. That must have been where the bunny got into the garden. So, we went out to evict the furry little creature. As I contemplated how we were going to capture the rabbit or chase it out with the least amount of disruption to the plants, it leapt at the fence and wiggled its way through the latticework. I didn’t think the spaces in the fence were large enough for it to fit through until I saw it with my own eyes. Long story short, later that day we added additional mesh to the fence. Other than some disturbed soil by the peppers where the rabbit probably made its entrance and a sampled beet green, the garden was unscathed.

Nearly-invisible added protection against ferocious bunny rabbits

 In addition to the unexpected potential of rabbit predation on the garden, we also discovered that flea beetles had been sampling some of the vegetables. The eggplants seem to be a particular favorite of the tiny insects but we found them on several other plants including the pak choi and the pumpkins. In the past, I have found Seven to be a mighty powerful weapon against the bugs but it is also mighty toxic to everything (including people). Since many of the greens were getting ready to harvest and eat and we’d rather not kill everything that enters the garden, we decided on diatomacious earth to discourage the beetles. So far, so good.

Other gardening chores over the last several days included laying straw around the strawberries and tomatoes, stringing line for the rattlesnake beans to climb and thinning the abundance of kohlrabi, turnip and kale seedlings.

Strawed berries and pak choi dusted with diatomaceous earth

Last Wednesday, I harvested our first vegetables from the garden – arugula with a few leaves of spinach and some baby beet greens and chard for color. We’ve enjoyed a couple salads so far and I’ve been able to make a second harvest of the greens. I love that at least part of the salad I eat for lunch at work has come from my own garden. I can’t wait until I can add other veggies to the greens.

The garden’s first harvest

Plenty more arugula to pick

There are ten gorgeous pak choi plants in the garden and they are all ready to be harvested. I have picked a few for tomorrow’s dinner but I can’t let the rest of them sit in the garden too much longer. I’ve done a little searching for pak choi recipes and will probably be experimenting with pickling and freezing over the next few days. Stay tuned for a report. Next year, I’ll have to remember to plant a few seeds at a time a couple weeks apart so they aren’t all ready at the same time.

Big, beautiful pak choi

Everything is in the Ground

Last Saturday morning we woke up to a light frost. None of the new seedlings suffered any damage that I could see but I’m glad I hadn’t planted the rest of the garden. When we lived in the Adirondacks, we always waited until Memorial Day weekend or later to plant the garden. Even with the slightly longer season here, that still seems like a good rule of thumb. After a frosty start, the day warmed up and I did finally transplant my tomatoes, peppers, eggplants and herbs. I also planted the rest of my seeds. It took me about three hours to get everything set to my liking. Now all my raised beds are filled.
 

Tomato and pepper plants getting used to their new environment

Yesterday evening I weeded my garden for the first time. There really weren’t many weeds to pull yet but there were enough to compete with the seedlings. Plus, I actually like weeding. There’s something about moving through the garden, pulling out wayward stalks, leaving just the desired plants and fresh, clean ground behind, that I find very satisfying. My back and legs may beg to differ but my muscles get used to it fairly quickly. I also took the opportunity to thin some of the plants. I always feel a little bad about pulling up seedlings before they’ve reached their full potential but it is necessary. 

Pull the grass, leave the chard.

Another thing I felt badly about doing was pulling the flowers off my strawberry plants. I know that keeping the plants from setting fruit helps them grow stronger roots but I really like strawberries. As with all home-grown produce, strawberries taste so much better when you grow them yourself. I may give in eventually and let a few berries grow or I may not. I just have to keep reminding myself that I’ll be grateful for this season’s sacrifice of fresh strawberries next year.

Strawberry plant in bloom

Removed flowers and tiny strawberries – just wait until next year!

It’s amazing how quickly some of the plants are growing. The turnip seedlings appeared just four days after planting the seeds. The pak choi will be ready to pick in no time (it is a miniature variety) and we should have our first batch of arugula in about a week. I’m really looking forward to eating fresh produce from our own garden but as I said to a coworker today, “don’t count your zucchini before they hatch.”

Pak Choi on May 22

Pak Choi on May 27

Unfortunately, I had to cut my adventures in gardening a little short yesterday. While wiring the lattice fence to the posts to make it sturdier, I felt something like spider webs on the back of my hand. Since I had seen a couple spiders while working, I thought nothing of it. Spiders don’t mess with my plants and as long as they are outside I let them be. When the odd, light tickling sensation did not go away after brushing off my hand, I took a closer look. There were dozens of tiny, pale gray creepy-crawlies moving over my skin. I don’t know if they were baby spiders or mites or what but my garden time was over. I put away my tools, went onto my back porch, stripped down, left my clothes outside the door, streaked past my husband and jumped in the shower. I can’t say that the bugs bothered me that much – they are a side-effect of working outside – but I was glad to be all nice and clean again. Hopefully, the tiny beasties were a one-time encounter.

Here a lovely bee to take your mind off a swarm of tiny crawling insects.

A Little Bit of This, a Little Bit of That

When people ask what I’m planting in my garden, I tell them “everything.” They laugh and I laugh and it’s all great fun but it’s also sort of true. I am planting a lot of different things this year. There are two reasons for this: 1. since it is a brand-new garden, I want to see what actually grows well in this climate with this soil and 2. I have accumulated a lot of seeds over the years and I want to use them.

I am taking inspiration from the Shakers so I’m planting vegetables they would have traditionally planted – beans, beets, carrots, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, lettuce, cantaloupe, onions, parsley, peas, peppers, potatoes, pumpkins, sage, spinach, squash, tomatoes and turnips. I’m also stepping out of the Shaker model a bit and planting soybeans, kohlrabi, fennel, kale, chard and pak choi.

The bulk of my garden space is devoted to annual vegetables but I also planted some perennial favorites - asparagus, rhubarb, strawberries, horseradish, chives and thyme. I have always wanted a strawberry patch, especially since I haven’t been able to make my annual picking trip with my grandmother. She’s still alive and well at 90 and still picking strawberries but I’m a couple hundred miles away now. After her hip replacement some years ago, one of her physical therapy goals was to be able to get down on her knees and back up again to pick strawberries; a goal she achieved, by the way.

With the gorgeous, warm (almost hot) weather of the past few weeks, I found that all the garden stores were out of things like asparagus, rhubarb and strawberries so I had to order them online. I don’t like ordering live plants like tomatoes and peppers, though. I would rather have a good look at the plants in person. So, even though it is still too early to plant such things, I went to the greenhouse this weekend. I worried that if I waited I would not get the varieties I wanted. It was a successful trip. I got a Juliet tomato plant (my favorite), as well as, a Beefsteak, an Early Girl and a yellow pear tomato. I got peppers and eggplants, too, and some perennials for around the house. Now, we just have to keep them alive until it’s time to put them in the ground. At least with the humidity up we can use the water from the dehumidifier in the basement to keep them watered.

Plants from the greenhouse waiting to be planted.

I’m afraid I was rather short on pictures to illustrate this post but here are some photos from this weekend.

First Seeds in the Ground

It was the perfect weekend to work on the garden. I’m glad I planned ahead so we had nearly two full days to move soil and build fencing. When our six cubic yards of garden blend soil arrived at around 10:30 Saturday morning, the driver told me that it was a good thing I had gotten my order in early. He was already booked solid for deliveries and folks who had called on Friday, presumably trying to take advantage of the gorgeous weather that had been forecast, would have to wait until Monday.

Soil ready to be moved into the garden beds

As I was paying for the soil, another delivery truck arrived with the twelve blocks of peat moss I had also ordered. It was kind of fun blocking up the street for a little while all for the sake of my new garden. From my experience last year with the museum’s garden beds, I know that the soil around here can be heavy with clay. Even as part of a garden blend that contained sand and compost, I knew we’d have to lighten it up a bit.

Peat moss with a bonus free gift – a wooden pallet!

So, with all our bed-filling ingredients ready to go, my husband and I got to work. Before we moved any soil, however, we lined the sides of each bed with 7 mil plastic. The recycled plywood we used to build the beds was pressure treated. That’s why it’s still usable and not just a rotten pile of mush but we don’t want chemicals leaching into the soil and then into the plants.

It took about three hours and 52 wheelbarrow trips to fill all eight beds with layers of garden soil, peat moss, and shredded leaf mulch. My husband shoveled and moved load after load while I raked everything into the beds and blended it all together. By the middle of the afternoon, the pile of dirt was nearly gone and I was ready to sit down.

Progress by the end of the day Saturday

On Sunday, we picked up work again. My husband moved the last of the soil into the garden beds and I did some more blending. It think it’ll be a while until all the soil components are really worked together but if gardening has taught me anything, it’s patience. With the beds now filled to my liking, it was time to plant some seeds. The first official planting in the garden was actually a horseradish root. After that, I put in my cool season vegetables – spinach, chard, peas, beets, carrots, scallions, pak choi, and arugula. I planted them all in one bed in a series of wide rows using twine as a guide. I made a small fence for the peas at the end of the row for easier picking.

Rows lined off and ready to plant

While I was planting, my husband was building. We need a fence around the garden. That is an indisputable fact. There is a lot of wildlife in the area and while I enjoy watching the deer and rabbits and occasional woodchuck, I do not plan on feeding them from my garden. Most of the perennials growing around the house have already been sampled. We salvaged some lattice fence from the old pool to use around the garden.

Starting the fence

The lattice is two feet tall so when placed on top of the edge of the garden beds, we get a three-foot tall fence. On the north side, however, the beds sit into a slight hill so it is, effectively, only a two-foot fence. A deer can easily lean over a fence like that to nibble on my plants. I plan on planting vegetable along the inside of the fence that, in my experience, deer don’t usually browse but we also have a back-up plan. We added five-foot tall posts in the corner so that, if needed, we can stretch a line higher above the fence and add tin pie pans or whatever that might deter the deer. We’ll just have to wait and see how it all works out.

The garden on Sunday afternoon

I made it through the weekend with just a few minor scrapes and bruises, some sore muscles and an unexpected sunburn on the backs of my elbows. I have to say, that when I stood in my garden with the fence all around and the first seeds planted I felt almost giddy with happiness. It is exactly how I envisioned it!

My Shaker Garden!