First Hard Frost

We woke up this morning to our first hard frost. Fortunately, I brought the peppers and tomatoes that are still ripening into the garage a couple of days ago and covered the greens outside with ag-cloth (except for the kale which is extra hardy). I cut the tomatoes off at the base and carried them entwined in their cage into the garage where they are hanging upside down. I read that they will ripen better when attached to the stem. The green peppers were rolled in on two wheel dollies since they are in grow boxes.

Before the frost we harvested all of the new green tips from our mint plants. We ate the last cucumber from the garden today and the last green beans a few days ago, though both of them stopped producing in abundance a few weeks ago. I have been eating handfuls of raspberries for months now, they seldom make it to the kitchen for a photo shoot. We have been harvesting kale, chard, lettuce, celery, tatsoi, parsley and cilantro and expect to continue for many more weeks with the help of a new greenhouse. The new greenhouse structure is almost ready. I had some trouble bending the ribs consistently last weekend but expect to get it right this weekend.

Frost on kale

Garden tucked in below new greenhouse structure

Tomatoes hanging upside-down in garage

Early Midsummer Update

The mulberries are becoming ripe now, this is one of my favorite berries. I like the way they melt in your mouth and they are very sweet. Last year, the birds picked the bush clean before I could enjoy them. Tomorrow morning, I will cover it with netting.

The chard has been harvestable for a couple of weeks. I am looking forward to a dinner of steamed chard with tamari rice. One of my favorite dishes.

Three productive frames

The daikon radishes will be harvested and pickled this weekend. Parsley, cilantro, and basil are ready to be added into tabouli, salsa and pesto respectively.

The peas are producing abundantly, four cups this morning, three cups yesterday, a couple handfuls the day before that. Almost all of the spinach has bolted at this point. The leaves never grew large. perhaps due to being crowded, but nothing that grew was wasted.

Cucumbers and pole beans were planted under the pea vines on Tuesday. If I were on top of things, I would have started lettuce three weeks ago that could be planted in place of the spinach and radishes that will be harvested. Something is eating leaves in the first frame, time to bring out the beer traps.

The marigolds that I started from seed in April all have at least one flower blooming now. The clematis, rhododendron, lupine and columbine are finishing blooming. Veronica, hosta, azalea, and [?] are blooming.

Cucumber and echinaceae seedlings

Cucumbers planted under pea vines next to radishes

Sweet peppers in a grow box

Cruising Along

Everything is growing quickly in the garden now. The peas which started blooming in the middle of last week are sporting pods.

We have six tomato plants in a new frame and six green peppers in containers.  The basil is almost ready for a second harvest and the chard and kale in the second frame will each make a good dinner with rice or quinoa. Radishes, spring onions and baby greens from the first garden frame continue to be enjoyed on a daily basis. We also have enough parsley to make some tabouli and cilantro for fresh salsa.

Cucumbers and string beans starting in the basement will probably be planted out this weekend.

Two Frames in Full Production

We have two 2.5' x 8' frames in full production now with three tomatoes and twelve basil planted in containers. More tomatoes and green peppers will be planted out this weekend. Cucumber, milkweed and echinacea seeds are starting in the basement. Thank goodness we have a three day weekend so that I can get caught up.

Morning Harvest

An example of a typical morning harvest: baby kale, chard, lettuce, spinach, tatsoi, and radishes.

New Frame, Transplanting and Starting Warm Season Plants

Yesterday, I put together another garden frame and planted it with parsley, cilantro, celery, chard and kale that have been growing under lights in the basement. We have two nights of near freezing temperatures on tap, but the plants should be fine under the ag-cloth. The tomatoes in the basement are about a foot tall now. I would like to plant them out, but feel that I should wait another couple of weeks to be sure we are out of danger of frost. The sweet pepper plants which were started at the same time are only three inches tall, but they took a lot longer to germinate. They were transplanted to quart containers this weekend. The marigolds are beginning to put out flower buds.

The first garden frame has been providing plenty of greens for a daily breakfast burrito and salad. I have been picking baby lettuce, kale, tatsoi, radish and spinach. I counted 28 asparagus stalks harvested so far and three more today. I will stop harvesting in a couple of weeks so that a few stalks can grow to maturity and the plants can regenerate.

Now is the time to start squash and cucumbers and any other warm weather plants. I am planning to grow those and the peppers and tomatoes in grow boxes. I am hoping to build one more garden frame at the beginning of June which will hold the next batch of greens for salads for mid-to late summer. I continue to grow sunflower and buckwheat microgreens, and an alfalfa/broccoli/cress mix inside on a regular basis. I will share the results of my harvest tracking with those soon.

Root Bound Garden Squares

I was preparing a new garden frame this weekend to replace my tree root infested frames. I took off one of the old frames and tried to salvage what soil I could. It turned out to be a much more difficult task than I expected. The tree roots created a tough interwoven network within the soil.

I can't be angry with the tree for finding water and nutrients within easy reach, but dangit, I spent years building up the fertility and tilth of that soil. It is a bit discouraging to see it taken over like this in the span of a couple of seasons. There is nothing to do but to learn from the experience, salvage what I can and start over again.

Tree root bound garden soil

Detail of frame edge

Tree roots extracted from two 4' x 4' garden frames

Tomatoes Transplanted On

This evening, I transplanted the tomatoes to larger containers. The tomatoes will be planted out after the middle of May when most danger of frost is past, along with the basil and coriander. I've got 26 healthy plants, but will probably use less than ten. If I had finished creating the new planting bed last weekend, I would have planted the rest of the cold hardy plants such as celery, parsley there along with another seeding of radishes and spinach, then would have had enough room under the existing lights. Next week will be the time to start fast growing squash, melon and cucumber plants to be planted out at the same time as the tomatoes.

Tomatoes In Soil Blocks

Tomatoes after Transplanting

Seedlings Under Lights

Breakfast of Champions

Homegrown asparagus, spring onion, sunflower and radish sprouts; avocado, heirloom tomato, and shiitake mushroom from the Co-op, and pressure cooked adzuki beans in a spelt wrap; plus fresh squeezed carrot, apple, celery, ginger juice. 

First Asparagus

Last weekend we had sunshine between showers and temps around 70 degrees and now, all of a sudden, the asparagus is ready for the first cutting. The tomatoes in the basement are about three inches tall and will be transplanted to one quart containers soon. I will get more potting mix and Bumper Crop this weekend for a new frame and the grow box container gardens.

Emerging asparagus on April 13

First cutting, April 23

Transplanting outside

This morning I planted out two trays of lettuce, choi and kale. The lettuce was started very close together in the seedling trays so will take a few days to perk up. Following the motto of Stacey "I love to plant and harvest all of the time" Murphy, I will soon be harvesting from the radish and spinach seeds that I broadcast several days ago and the lettuce as well. I will harvest in such as way as to allow the remaining plants enough room to grow to full size. In some ways it is like growing and harvesting microgreens in the kitchen, except that the microgreens are usually harvested all at once.

I also harvested the kale from last year's garden that is beginning to bolt following the warmer temperatures this past weekend. It yielded about 3 gallons of loosely packed leaves.

This evening I transplanted the peppers and remaining marigolds to larger blocks. The peppers took longer than anything else to germinate.

Vestiges of Last Year's Garden

There are a few plants from last year's garden that overwintered and are beginning to grow again. We have kale, choi, parsley and onions. These are all biennial so will be harvested this season before they go to seed.

One pleasant surprise was to see the ramps that I purchased from the co-op last spring reappear. The tops withered and died soon after I brought them home and planted them last year, so it is good to see that several survived. Ramps are a native wild leek with a taste somewhere between onion and garlic. Here is an article with more information on their cultivation: https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/ncnu02/v5-449.html

Overwintered choi, kale and ramps

Overwintered onions and parsley

Asparagus is also beginning to appear.

Seedling Progress

This weekend, youngest and I planted out about 150 snap peas. We planted them three abreast in a 1' x 8' row.

Peas in morning sun in soil blocks

Peas in garden bed

Garden bed covered with ag-cloth

I also transplanted celery, parsley, marigold, and cilantro from micro to mini-blocks. Some straggler tomatoes and basil were planted from micro into regular blocks. The process is very fast when the soil blocks are made with the micro-block dibble, otherwise each plant needs to be inserted into the mini-blocks with a chopstick or a similar tool. Because I used the latter method for most of the seedlings, this took a couple of hours.

When I ran out of seed blocking mix (512 mix from Johnny's), I tried an experiment by purchasing regular potting soil mix and then adding sand. Note that the sand is brown and says "for molding". The sand needs to be "sharp" to hold its shape. The soil blocks are working but they are not as strong as those made with 512 mix. I have been using three quarts of soil mix to one pint of sharp sand, using a yogurt container for measuring (6:1 ratio).

Seedling Setup

This has been the best year yet for seed starting. I feel like I have a system that works well and requires minimal effort. Here is the basic outline:

Starting with five trays:
  * one tray of micro-blocks (3/4" - 224 to a tray) with bottom heat set to 72 deg F, including tomatoes, peppers, parsely, cilantro, kale, chard, choi, basil, celery, and marigolds. These are transplanted to regular or mini-blocks once they are at least  1/2" tall.

  * one tray of lettuce in mini-blocks. May be planted more densely than one plant per block since they can be separated and replanted when transferring to the garden. These can be transplanted to the garden when they are 3 or 4 inches tall and have more than one set of true leaves.

  * three trays of peas planted in mini-blocks (1.5" - 48 to a tray). The peas are first soaked in a wide-mouth half-pint mason jar overnight and then rinsed a couple times a day until the radicle (first root) begins to separate from the seed. These can be planted outside as soon as the seedlings are a couple of inches tall.

Peas with radicles ready to plant

Peas planted in soil blocks

The trays are setup under 4' fluorescent lights that are suspended about 3" above the blocks. The lights are set to be on 16 hours each day. There is also a fan standing at the same height as the seedlings. It is set to come on at a medium setting for about 45 minutes, three times a day. This provides stimulation that the plants need to grow strong so that they will be able to stand up to wind and rain when they are planted out.

Here is the seed starting setup --

Bottom heat on top left tray. Thermostatic control on far left.

Lights should be only inches above the seedlings.

Seeds Started

We started the seeds listed below on Saturday. We made a tray of micro-blocks for most seeds but put the choi and lettuce in another tray of mini-blocks. The micro-blocks will be transferred to regular blocks once the viable seeds sprout. The mini-blocks will be planted directly outside once the seedlings are strong enough to withstand insect pressure. The peas are soaking and will likely be planted in blocks this evening. The trays are stacked on top of a thermostatically controlled rope light set to 72 degrees F with the micro-blocks on the bottom. As soon as they start sprouting, I will place them under the lights and set up a fan so that they grow up strong (thigmomorphogenesis). I am going to follow the method of this study (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC35122/) and turn the fan on three times a day for 30 minutes.

3 Beefsteak tomato

10 Brandywine tomato

12 Cherokee tomato

12 Red Cherry tomato

12 California Wonder pepper

12 Biscayne pepper

16 Giant Italy parsley

20 Curly parsley

20 Calypso cilantro

10 Sweet Italian basil

10 Sweet basil

20 Genovese basil

20 Tango celery

20 Rhubarb Red chard

20 Nash Green kale

5 Toscano kale

10 Joi choi

10 Tatsoi

20 Romaine Ridgeline lettuce

20 Muir lettuce

20 Oakleaf lettuce

20 Red Sails lettuce

50 Peas

Indoor Gardening

Our very mild winter will be coming to a close shortly which means that we will soon be starting seeds under lights in the basement. The past few weeks, we have been getting our kitchen in order and growing quite a few things indoors. Our Omega Juicer has made it very easy to regularly make whole wheat and lentil sprout bread. Once the wheat and lentils are sprouted, it is simply a matter of running them through the juicer with the blank insert, then squeeze into a loaf, coat with sesame seeds and bake at 250 deg for a couple of hours. One of the best things about this bread is that it can be baked in our mini-crockpot, thus saving energy and saving worry about having the oven on for an extended period.

We are also regularly growing trays of sunflower and buckwheat microgreens, and jars of alfalfa, broccoli, and cress seed mix. I am putting together a spreadsheet that will help me to figure out how to have a steady supply of these indoor greens and that will allow me to report on cost and yield.

2016 Garden Review

We finished the last of the kale from the garden last night, lightly sauteed with garlic and shiitake. I have some choi in the refrigerator and that will be the last of the harvest from 2016. I kept a spreadsheet of savings last year and, even though it was a difficult year, we saved over $600 in groceries by having the garden. Much of that was spent investing in the irrigation system and materials for building more frames, but next year we should be able to save more.

January has been very mild with most daytime temperatures above freezing.

If I were on top of things, I would have greens growing in the basement and plants started for the spring, but I have been taking a break to focus on the Holidays and decluttering the house. Perhaps I will be able to start some plants in a couple of weeks.