How Does Your Garden Grow

When I got home from crafting weekend a couple weekends back, I swear the veggies in our garden had doubled in size.Although winter took a while in leaving this year, we've had a decent growing year so far, with plenty of rain and a bit of heat. I've been marveling at how well the garden seems to be doing this year and then I remember that's because we simply gave up on some veggies (salad greens, spinach, onions, to name a few) that have always struggled in our garden and have devoted their previous (and precious) garden space to veggies that consistently thrive, like beans and kohlrabi. At the moment, everything points to a very productive garden year.

 

These potatoes are growing in soil this year rather than straw bales and seem to be quite happy. 

 

We did end up recycling the straw from last year's straw bale potato experiment and have potatoes growing there too. 

 

I've been trying to keep up with pruning suckers on the tomatoes to make them more productive and to make them a little more manageable. Still, we're well on our way to have "monster" tomatoes that need to be tied up so we can get to the front door.

 

Beans and cabbage in a corner of the raised bed.

Baby gherkin.

Herbs and a baby eggplant.

We're growing kossak kohlrabi this year, which can grow up to 10 inches in diameter and 10 lbs! I'm planning to have a freezer full of kohlrabi for winter dinners this year.

Peppers (bell and jalapeno) and a not so baby eggplant.

The guys with the party hats are here!

The watermelon (with cosmos in the back) is finally coming into its own.

How does your garden grow?

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Garden Tour 2013

The garden's been in nearly two weeks now, but I haven't gotten around to post a little "tour" here, mostly because it's been so blinkin' cold that the plants have just been languishing in their new "forever" homes.We're now in a string of days with highs in the 70s, so hopefully the plants will get the memo and do some serious growing before we dip back down to the mid-60s. I know it's June in Minnesota and I shouldn't be surprised by cool temps, but after a few HOT summers, this cool spring is a little disorienting. We also haven't had any rain for at least a week, so last night Andy and I finally pulled out the garden hose and gave everything a good drink.

Here's the terraced garden. My goal with this garden is to make it "effortlessly beautiful" - a goal I've been working towards for three years now. ;) We need a few more perennials to actually achieve that goal (note the bare soil patches - where I've planted a wildflower mix) but we're definitely getting closer with each passing year.

Poor little chilly tomatoes. They're developing a rusty colored mildew on their larger leaves, but are still putting on a lot of new growth. I'm more inclined to think that the mildew is actually goosebumps.

Four little peppers - three bells and one jalapenos. There were five peppers (two jalapeno plants) but we always end up with more jalapenos then we could possibly ever use, so we gave one plant away to a neighbor. This means I've spared you from a whole summer of "five little peppers and how they grew" references. You're welcome.

Little potatoes poking up.

We pulled off the row covers last night and discovered the kohl crops going nuts: kohlrabi, kale, broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts.There's also Swiss chard and pole beans poking up around the edges.At least someone likes the cold weather.

The rhubarb gets bigger each year, but is it big enough to harvest?

The squash plants are getting too big for their plastic gallon cloches. I'm not sure they're really going to like conditions outside of their cozy cloche though. 

Carrots, beans, and leeks hanging out under the row covers.

How does your garden grow?

 

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Slow Changes

Change is funny, isn't it?

We devote a fair amount of our lives to resisting changes and then, at other points, we long for change so badly that we can hardly see straight as we wait for its arrival. Around these parts, we're feeling a little stymied - by spring, by life - yet no amount of willing change to occur actually prompts it. So instead we wait, trying hard to remind ourselves that if you look closely enough, you can watch things changing before your very eyes.

 

 Current ice out prediction: when pigs fly.

 The sun is out today (heavens be praised) and across the bay, neighbors have their laundry out to dry.

This is one of the longest pussywillow seasons in recent years. Some of the pussywillows are just starting to pop now.

 Exactly six years ago, this section of forest was on fire. Today, happy little conifers soak up sunshine.

Seedlings will be seedlings. In typical fashion, they have completely taken over the dining room table. Is it Memorial Day weekend yet?

We're finally getting around to spring tasks, like tidying up the woodpile, turning the compost, and tending to brush pile.

The chives I planted last year (who did not like being transplanted one bit) are holding their own this spring. In a few years, they  will have completely taken over the flower bed and I'll be cursing them most foul. All I want are enough blossoms for chive blossom vinegar.

 Why hello there, blue sky.

Little rhubarb nubs. As the first crop of the season pokes up, I'm reminded that it's time to start eating up what's left of last year's harvest. The not so bad result of this "pantry cleansing" was a blueberry pie yesterday. We still have green beans, blueberries, and oh so much cabbage hanging out in our freezer. So what exactly does one do with a gallon of frozen cabbage wedges? Suggestions most welcome!!
 

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Smell Like Dirt

“In spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.”
 - Margaret Atwood 

When we were in town last week, I ran into the hardware store to pick up a couple bags of seed starting mix.

"This is so exciting!" the clerk said as she rung me up. I tend to agree.

By gum, it may not look like spring around here (ahem, sub-zero mornings, 3 feet + of lake ice, and a good 12-18 inches of compacted snow in the woods), but at  least since I started the first batch of seeds on Sunday afternoon it smells a little bit like spring. Now every time  you walk into the cabin, you're greeted  with the earthy aroma of warm, moist soil, a smell I most associate with the interior of greenhouses. Ahhhh! Just a single whiff gives you hope!

To date, nothing's sprouted, but any day now the first herbs, tomatoes, peppers, broccoli and more will be poking up their first little green shoots.This marks our third summer of serious gardening and I'm hoping for another successful and fruitful year.  Each year we get a little wiser in our gardening ways, but one of the joys of gardening is it unpredictability.

As I observe our eating habits and how well vegetable types grow, I try to modify our garden each year so we get the best delicious bang for our buck. Considering that I still have a gallon bag stuffed with cabbage in our freezer, I'm cutting back considerably on the amount of cabbage I plant this year and will instead increasing the amount of broccoli and kohlrabi . I'm also experimenting with a few new types of tomatoes since we can never get enough garden grown tomatoes around here. Whenever Andy asked why a batch of soup was so good this winter, the answer was always, "garden tomatoes." We'll also be planting more carrots and potatoes and I have my fingers crossed for a better squash year.

A few brand new veggies/fruits we'll be trying out this year are ginormous kohlrabi (you harvest them when they're 12 inches in diameter rather than 2-3"!), a watermelon with a short growing season, and eggplant.Will any of it grow? Who knows?

One thing we won't be doing this year is expanding our gardening space. Instead we'll be trying to use the space we've established over the last couple years as wisely as we can.

It's amazing to think that what is right now a teeny little seed in the dirt will, in a few months' time, be tall, green, strong and  producing pounds of food. For me, gardening's worth it just for that miraculous affirmation: that with a little love and care, the tiniest speck of an idea can be transformed into something incredible.  

Are you gardening this year? What are you planning? Have you started your seeds yet?    

 

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Looking Ahead: The Garden to Come

On Sunday night, we received a fresh 6 inches of snow. It hasn't been an especially snowy winter around here, but it seems the more the snow stacks up, the more a little green sprout of an idea that it's time to start thinking of spring and gardens grows inside of me.

 Somewhere, underneath all of that are a couple raised beds.

Although we're nearly two months away from starting seeds, the seed catalogs have been piling up in the mailbox since just after Christmas. Those early bird seed catalogs have been destined for the recycling bin where I toss them without even rifling through their pages a single time. When a neighbor called last month to ask when he should start his seeds, I realized I hadn't thought about this coming summer's gardens at all.

To be honest, last September kind of kicked the stuffing out of me -- what with the working 6-7 days a week and dealing with a seemingly endless green bean harvest -- and I've been taking the gardening off-season very seriously this year. As much as I enjoy using last summer's produce in the kitchen all winter long, including the aforementioned  3+ gallons of blanched green beans (so good when sauteed in olive oil with onions, lots of pepper and a splash of vinegar), it'll be a few weeks before I'm ready to meticulously plan out the vegetable gardens and place my seed order.   

For now I'm content with grabbling over the big garden decisions in my mind. Should we expand the gardens yet again this summer or we content ourselves with the existing infrastructure, which would make the gardening a much more economical endeavor? Is it time to throw the towel in on growing onions? What about potatoes? Andy swears he lost sleep over the potatoes last year and although growing potatoes in straw did result in a delicious (if not paltry) harvest, I have to admit poking through the straw to check on the potatoes and finding salamanders living in the potato bed was not my most favorite experience.  (I may be woodsy, but a girl has her limits.) 

As these February days pass, I know I'll greet the seed catalogs in the mailbox with increasing enthusiasm. Soon I'll fill notebook pages with garden diagrams and lists of seeds to order. They say hope is for fools, but we gardeners are always rewarded for our patience and perseverance during the winter with that first little sprout poking through the cold, spring soil.

Are you thinking spring and gardens yet?

 

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Garden Know-How: Pruning Basil

What I like about gardening is that there's always something new to learn and master.When one thinks of gardening, well, it just doesn't seem that complicated, does it? You take your seed, you plant it, water it, feed it, and eventually, harvest it. Easy, peasy, right?

But the thing is, if you really want to garden well and have the most abundant harvest possible, there are all sorts of secrets and tricks to the trade you need to know.

For instance . . . did you that you should prune your basil?

Yeah, me either.

A helpful little pin on Pinterest this spring alerted me to the fact that I should be pruning my basil plants to boost productivity. I'd learned last year that you should be pinching the plant's buds, because if the plant's allowed to flower the leaves can go bitter, but I never dreamed that the best thing I could be doing for the plants was to mow them down on a monthly basis. I mean, just take the kitchen shears to the strong, healthy plant I nurtured out a mere seed only months before? My maternal instincts (yes, I do have them) squealed with alarm at the very thought of it.

So I did some reading (thanks Fine Gardening) and it turned out to be true. To get the most out of your basil plants you should be snipping the stems off at the base (right above where there are two new sets of leaves on either side of the stem) before the plants starts to flower. It actually makes the plant grow back bushier.

Source: mybyrdhouse.blogspot.com via Ada on Pinterest

Here's my basil plants after their second haircut of the season:

Not too shabby, eh? It's true, after each pruning, the plants come back thicker than ever because those little sets of leaves you pruned down to are given a chance to grow big and strong.

It turns out that each basil plant should produce between 15-20 cups of leaves. Take into account the fact that I have three Genovese basil plants and two Thai basil plants (that's cilantro in the middle of the front row) and holy moly that's a lot of pesto.I've already made two batches of pesto and frozen more than enough basil to top our pizzas for the entire winter and it's only August 1st!

I realize this entire post reads a little bit like an over-enthusiastic review of some "As seen on TV" ad, but really, isn't gardening wonderful?

They say, "If you would be happy all your life, plant a garden." But let us also remember, "If you would have basil all summer long, for the love of goodness, prune it!"

 

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Garden Envy. Garden Lust.

Gardening really is an addiction. One you get that first, sweet taste of gardening success, you just want more and more.

They really should put warning signs on seed packets. You know, something in big bold letters like "This is only the beginning!" or "Slippery slope ahead!" or "For the love of your wallet, don't plant this!" If they'd done that, maybe I wouldn't have a cabin brimming with houseplants and a perpetual scheme in the back of my mind about how to expand my gardening space in the backyard.

Warning signs or no, I'm a goner by this time. 

Each summer I convince myself that I finally have just the right amount of gardening space. After we put in the large-ish raised bed last summer, I was sure I had plenty of gardening space to keep myself content until we move onto bigger, green pastures (aka, some place where the septic mound doesn't take up all the good planting spaces).  But then the new raised bed was super successful, which only inspired more great ideas for garden expansion.

It kind of defeats the purpose of gardening to be thrifty when you just keep buying more and more bags of top soil, manure, and peat moss. Somehow, there's never compost to go around and I'm always in need of more large pots and building equipment for raised beds.

But then, I always keep stumbling upon something I just have to grow. Here are some fruits and veggies I'm currently lusting after:

Asparagus: 

I love asparagus and we've been eating a lot of it this spring. But each time I throw a bundle of asparagus grown in Central or South America, I suffer terrible locavore pangs. After all, it is a vegetable that we're perfectly capable of growing in the Northwoods and if I simply waited until it was in season in these parts, I could enjoy all sorts of locally sourced asparagus. So why not grow it myself?

As one of just two perennial vegetables (the other is rhubarb), asparagus takes a couple years to establish itself and because it doesn't offer instant gratification (or as instant as any vegetable can offer) I worry that we will have perhaps moved on before we can actually enjoy the asparagus.  The bed would also require special insulation during the winter months and of course, we'd have to built another asparagus bed to house the patch. . .

Strawberries: 

Another source of locavore guilt. I buy far too many strawberries that hail from California. There are plenty of pick-your-own strawberry farms just over the border in Ontario, but when the strawberries ripen in mid-July, I'm too overwhelmed with summer mayhem to make the two-hour trip up to one of these farms. Which makes me want to grow my own so badly.   

But they're kind of a pain to grow (or so I'm told) and I don't think they'd like a raised bed much, since they're pretty susceptible to frost damage. I'd have to figure out some way to make some sort of an embedded patch for them and we just don't have much top soil to play around here.

Potatoes:  

I might just have figured out away to grow potatoes this year. Our growing space has been too limited in the past years to give potatoes the garden real estate they need. But I think we might have some success with potatoes if we grow them using the Stout method.

We recently moved all the soil out of the roadside garden into a new raised bed and I think we'll try to put down a layer of compost in the new empty space, then throw down some seed potatoes, and cover them with mulch and maybe a layer of top soil, just to make the garden a little more presentable to passersby. What the heck, eh?

What veggies and fruits do you have a hankering to grow this year?

 

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Looking Forward: The Garden

The seed catalogs have been piling up since the new year. Although I'm already anticipating this summer's garden, I haven't paid the seed catalogs too much attention yet. Really, I have enough seeds leftover from last year to take care of most of my seed starting needs and if I want to garden to save money, there's no reason to go all crazy with seed orders when I don't have to.

But now, as February starts fading into March and the sunset lingers farther and farther past 5:30 each evening, it's time to put some serious thought into what this year's seed order will actually entail since I'll be starting the first of the seeds in just over a month. (Oh sweet Hallelujah!)

 

I find I can't really plan out the seed order until I've plotted out a rudimentary plan for where everything's getting planted this year. Crops need to get rotated each year to get the most of soil and each year I learn something new that shapes the next year's garden. This year, I want to use the space in the raised bed we put in last year more effectively. Little things, like training the cucumbers up the fencing and planting spinach in the shady corner, will boost efficiency.


We'll also be moving the garden Andy put in two years ago over to a sunnier spot. While the installation of the garden was by far the sweetest thing anyone has ever done for me, after two years of battling an increasingly shady aspen tree, I am awarding victory to the aspen and we'll be using leftover supplies from last year's raised garden to put in a couple small raised beds where hopefully the onions will, at long last, prosper and thrive. (Longest sentence ever.) 

If I'd been a thinker, I would have actually saved seeds from last year's crop. However, this thought did not dawn on me until my friend Sarah visited last week, bringing with her cone flower and marigold seeds saved from one of her acquaintances' garden. Not that buying seeds is such a major expense, but free trumps cheap any day in my book. I'm glad to have such large reserves of seeds from last year; it helps me feel like I didn't totally miss the boat on the seeding saving thing. 

This year's order from the seed catalog (probably Seeds of Change, but I could be persuaded if anyone has a better suggestion) will be teensy tiny compared with last year's:

• Tomatoes (Early Girls or . . . .)
• Jalapenos 
• Beans (bush)
• Chard (Bright Lights)
• Winter Squash (Butternut and Gold Nugget)
• Seed starting mixture

I might throw in a early ripening melon if I'm feeling optimistic and I've thought about an early ripening eggplant too, although neither Andy or I are terribly crazy about the aubergine and its nutritional value is so low it seems like it wouldn't be worth the space.

My mom grew a bountiful crop of butternut squashes last year so I'm anxious to see how the winter squashes fare up here. The squash will be replacing one of the summer squash plants because as much as we all loved the summer squash (And yes we do still have some shredded zucchini in the freezer. Coincidentally, Andy actually just requested some chocolate zucchini bread, so that frozen zucchini is getting put to good use and I don't regret having spent the time shredding that last ginormous zucchini.) we eat (and enjoy) winter squash far more than we do summer squash.

Although I still stand by my belief that those initial zucchinis at least last summer were the most beautiful zucchinis I'd ever seen. . .

The pumpkins will also be giving up their space this year to make room for the winter squash. The pumpkins were great fun to watch grow last year, but they just didn't produce enough to justify their keep this year. 

Are you looking forward to this year's garden? What will you plant? When will you start your seeds?

 

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