Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Final harvest of the year

I harvested the last of the parsley and more kale, lettuce and choi. This should last into the middle of January. Now with temperatures in the teens forecast, we will see how well the remaining kale, lettuce and choi fare. I do need to get a second layer of plastic up if they are really going to survive the next two months. We are finding a taste for traditional Lebanese tabouli, so I will plant more parsley this spring.

The parsley that I picked would grow back and provide continuous harvests, but unfortunately the voles seem to like the taste of parsley roots. The voles have migrated to a second frame and parsley is the first thing that they attacked there. I set out snap traps based on Eliot Coleman's suggestion of no bait and placing them in tunnels. Since I didn't have time to put together a wooden box, I used a cardboard box. I am planning to put out traps by every garden frame until the population is under control.

We planted about 50 mache seeds, we will see how long it takes for them to sprout. It would have been better if they were planted in October. Have I mentioned that my goal for the coming year is to have the garden in constant production for an entire 12-month span beginning in April? This will require timing the succession planting better than ever. I also want to get an automatic watering system in place.

I made applesauce with the remaining apples in our refrigerator (about six cups). My daughter asks if I put sugar in the recipe but it is just peeled apples and a little cinnamon and filtered water. We lost more than a bushel due to spoilage in the garage earlier, one of the casualties of our mild autumn. [1 bushel apples = 48 pounds = 126 medium apples = 15 9-inch pies = 30-36 pints frozen = 16-19 quarts canned]

Friday, December 18, 2015

December update

There have been many harvests since my last post in November. The garden provided everything necessary for a big salad to share with the extended family on Thanksgiving. Here are some other favorite things that we have been able to do with produce from the garden:

  • pickled beets
  • tabouli with parsley and tomatoes
  • stir fry with choi
  • miso soup with scallions, choi and thinly sliced carrots
  • chunky cinnamon apple sauce
  • kale and garlic saute
  • green smoothies with kale
  • plenty of fresh eating of carrots and salad greens
Of course, the mild weather is making season extension easy. I did replace the barely fitting plastic covers with more ample covers because there have been temperature dips near the mid twenties. I probably have only another week or two before a second layer of plastic will be necessary to protect the tender lettuce.

On my last harvest of lettuce, I discovered that voles have been busy gnawing at the roots in one garden frame. Based on my research, the best remedy will be to set out snap traps, which I hate to do, but these guys are having a major impact. This experience highlights one of the benefits of having multiple small frames. Damage from pests is often isolated to only one frame.

Here is an overview of the rest of the frames:

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Early November Update

This is the most productive fall garden that I have had going into the winter months. It will be interesting to see how long we are able to harvest greens going forward. The key will be to adequately protect the greens from frost. So far I have gotten away with some plastic that doesn't quite reach from side to side, but soon, I will need not just one but two suspended layers.

We are currently in what might be called an Indian Summer with lots of sun and temperatures into the 70's. No sign of frost in the extended forecast either. Perhaps the most recent planting of lettuce will get to harvestable size before December?

Monday, October 19, 2015

First frost

We had our first frost last night and a couple blasts of snow yesterday, but today the temperatures are back in the high 50's and the low tonight is expect to be 50 deg F. I covered all of the frames except the tomatoes with one layer of plastic.

I was able to fill the sixth frame with soil and transplant lettuce, chard and parsley that have been growing in overcrowded conditions. I picked choi and some beets and carrots that were planted way back in May. A couple of beets were almost baseball size, but most were only slightly larger than golf balls. I will try giving them more space to grow next year since I have not been good about thinning them as they grow. Similarly with the carrots, one very wide but short, while most were small, and one "frankencarrot" with 8 tapers.

EDIT: I did a little research on how long you can leave beets in the ground and found that they are most tender when allowed to grow 40-50 days (that would have been late July), and that they are best when picked small (1-1/2" to 2"). So I guess I was wrong to disparage the size of my beets. I am just accustomed to purchasing larger beets at the grocery store.

Friday, October 16, 2015

Autumn update

Two weeks ago, we harvested the rest of the basil. This amounted to about 9 cups of leaves and several more pints of pesto. We have been enjoying choi in stir fry and salads, making tabouli with the parsley, and continue to harvest kale from the spring planting. The second to last tomato harvest occurred yesterday... about 7 small tomatoes.

The lettuce that was planted in mid-August is now ready for selective harvesting. One more frame will be setup before the winter for a total of six frames. We will transplant more lettuce and parsley into that frame.

Temperatures are forecast to get into the low 30's for the first time. It is time to cover all of the frames with ag-cloth to encourage the last bit of growth before it gets really cold.

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Early Pre-Autumn Update

The average first frost date range here is October 20-30, less than 8 weeks away! I was able to get another garden frame filled and planted with parsley and lettuce this weekend. The lettuce and parsley were started mid-August after the early August batch was lost while I was on vacation. They have been slowly developing under a canopy of kale that has been going strong all summer.

Based on our current lettuce gap (mid-July to mid-September), let's figure out when I should have started more lettuce:

  • The first batch was planted about March 23 and the first harvest was May 16 (~60 days).
  • That lettuce continued to produce until mid-July when it began to go to seed (~60 days)
  • I have been without garden lettuce for six weeks and don't expect to be able to pick from the current planting until the end of September (~60 days)

If I had started a batch of lettuce at the same time each month through July, I would have had a more steady supply of lettuce, and since there is overlap, would be able to reduce the amount that is planted after the first planting.

Next year, let's try starting with 32 plants (8 square feet) and then 16 additional (4 square feet) each month until July when we replace the original 8 squares with new lettuce which will provide into the heart of winter (now scheduled on my Gmail Calendar). Alternatively, I could start another planting every other month. Note: The trick to having lettuce all summer is to provide mid-day shade in July and August when the sun and heat are most intense and to keep it watered well, otherwise it will quickly go to seed.

The last tomato was picked yesterday from the container tomatoes that first began showing signs of blight about 8 weeks ago. The tomatoes in the 4x4 frame just started providing ripe fruit and should continue up until first frost. We have been adding volunteer purslane to our salads and green juicing. It is a "rich source of omega-3's", among other things.

We also picked about 2.5 gallons of apples from our Gala and Braeburn apple trees. There will be many more to come as most of the apples were not yet ripe. The pears, plums, peach, grapes and blueberries did not produce this year, but we have been picking a cup or two of raspberries almost everyday. I am planning to put a fence around most of the fruit next year to keep the deer away.

In the kitchen, we grew some sunflower and wheatgrass sprouts. One tray of either fills a 2 quart container.

As a final note, I finally fixed all of the garden frames that were damaged by the heavy snows last winter. This winter, they will be protected by hoops.

Monday, August 31, 2015

Late August Update

This past weekend, we made another quart of pesto. The basil has been the success story of the year, three cuttings and probably one more (for a total of about a gallon of pesto for the year). The beets and carrots have not matured wonderfully, probably due to insufficient sun in the back row, but the beets are tasty.

I also found some time this weekend to repair garden frame protectors, I have been trying to get to that all season... The choi planted at the beginning of August is beginning to mature. We have some lettuce, parsley and chard planted mid-august that will need to be transplanted this weekend. We have harvested four of twelve tomatoes from the blighted tomato plants. I have been picking off the affected leaves, but the blight is beginning to take over the entire plant. About four of the eight remaining tomatoes are beginning to ripen.

Another compost tower was placed in the asparagus patch. It will be interesting to see if this gets processed faster since there are likely more earthworms there than in the raised beds. I like that this tower has an opening that is about six inches square (the first is only four inches square). It is easier to dump scraps into this one without spilling.

The gala apple tree in the Southtowns is very full and beginning to drop fruit. We will harvest some this weekend.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Garden frame review

Frame 1: The kale planted this spring is still going strong. The lettuce started bolting a couple of weeks ago and was removed.

Frame 2: I have been harvesting parsley from this frame since the lettuce was harvested. Soon we will be picking beets.

Frame 3: More beets and carrots coming along.

Frame 4: This frame is filled with four tomato plants that I bought from the Co-op in May or June. These plants look very healthy and have lots of fruit.

Container 1: These two plants were attacked by blight. I have one tomato turning red and a dozen more that will be soon.

Fall garden: I have a tray of pac choi, lettuce, kale, and chard ready to be planted.

Friday, July 31, 2015

Composting tower

I have been looking for a composting solution for some time. We have to be careful near the city because of the presence of rats, so it has to be an enclosed system that they cannot easily access. Then I saw the composting worm tower at http://www.instructables.com/id/Worm-Cafe-Compost-with-earthworms-right-in-your/ and was intrigued.

The idea is that food scraps are placed in the tower which extends below soil level where worms can easily gain access. I had looked at worm based composting previously, but it sounded like it would be a hassle to maintain the correct environment for the worms to survive and reproduce. The advantage of this system is that the they can come and go from the tower at will and in doing so they will distribute their castings around the garden. So ideally, one places food scraps in the tower and the worms do the work of spreading it around the garden, so one never needs to think about the scraps after dropping them in the tower. Another big plus is that it is built with natural materials.

So, I built one with a 1x6 cedar plank that I bought for $12 from Home Depot and I also built one out of pine ($6). Over time, I will compare the difference in longevity of the different woods. Having one of these towers in each garden frame, will also provide a convenient place to recycle soil-laden roots from harvested veggies and weeds.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Late July Update

I picked the final lettuce from the spring planting on Sunday. A couple weeks before that I picked about 7 grocery bags full and gave them away at work. Everyone was very appreciative and seemed to like it, especially the Two Star variety from Johnny's which appears to be a cross between green leaf and romaine. We harvested the tops from the basil and made another quart of pesto.

The tomatoes in the grow box have been suffering from what I believe is blight with the leaves turning yellow and brown, also some of the fruits have developed blossom-end rot (see photo below). I picked the worst affected leaves. Interestingly, the tomatoes in the frame right next to the grow box show no signs of blight. I have added some calcium to the soil, hopefully that will have some effect.

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Early July update

We made one pint of pesto with the 6 cups of basil that were harvested this weekend. The peas are beginning to yellow and will be pulled soon to make room for the burgeoning tomato plants. I had hoped to fix all of the garden protectors that were broken by the heavy snows last winter and to mulch the garden over the July 4 weekend, but alas. Maybe this weekend! Fall planting will be happening soon!

Monday, June 29, 2015

Midsummer update

Well, the days are already getting shorter, time for an update. We have been harvesting a lot of lettuce, basil, peas, and kale, but there is still so much left to harvest. I will try to space the planting of lettuce better going forward so that we do not have too much at one time. We have been busy with high school graduation and guests for the past three weeks, so I was happy to spend some time this weekend before the rain started in earnest, to fill another two garden frames with soil and transplant the cherry tomatoes. Below are some progress photos taken June 22 to show how things are filling in.

Frame by frame, we have the original lettuce and kale frame bursting at the seams, but providing delicious salad greens and smoothie makings.

The second frame is something of a hodgepodge. It became a holding area for garlic and onions brought over from our previous garden as well as strawberries rescued from the area where we laid the new garden frames, and a place to put cherry tomatoes until another frame became available. Also, included are plantings of cilantro, parsley, lettuce, beets and carrots.

The third frame is a more traditional square-foot layout with lettuce in the corners and alternating beet and carrot squares. In the middle are several chard.

Next, we have a container of basil which is growing new sprouts exponentially as we pick the tops. I believe that we have enough to make some pesto. Finally, the container which started with peas and now includes two large tomato plants.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Three more frames built

This weekend I built three more garden frames and partially filled one. It will take another couple of trips to the old garden to gather enough soil to fill the rest. We continue to harvest lettuce and kale and had our first strawberries. We also harvested some basil for dinner last week. The pea pods are just beginning to grow.

I hadn't visited the Southtowns site for a couple of weeks and missed peak viewing time for the peonies and iris. Roses and dame's rocket are now blooming and the one poppy that I managed to protect is almost there, with daylilies not far behind.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Second harvest and third frame planted

On Friday, my daughter harvested more lettuce and kale. It was enough to fill another large container which will last us for a week, but there is a lot more left to harvest (and share with others). The lettuce in frame two is almost of harvestable size and the coriander seeds yielded several starts (maybe parsely as well, it is difficult to tell them apart at this stage). On Saturday, the third frame was topped off with soil and planted with (18) lettuce starts, (12) ruby chard, (64) carrots, and (64) beets. The basil has finally recovered from transplant shock and we should be able to harvest some soon. We also purchased two large tomato plants which were transplanted into the pea cage and (4) smaller tomato plants that will go into the next frame that is built.