May 28, 2010 Mo' Distractions, Mo' Problems

  I've been too busy and distracted to really focus on the garden this week, and again  haven't been posting.  This sporadic schedule will likely continue until a week or two after the wedding....

The weather since the last post has been typical late Spring weather: a few days of rain followed by consecutive warm/hot days.   I finally made it out to the garden this past weekend to weed, mow, and take stock of what's doing. So much change in such a short period of time! Take a look at the field, it has grown well beyond the point of being able to walk through it- even the deer are hard to spot these days

Yesterday we had  a really nasty thunderstorm roll through that just missed us. I get excited watching the big red cells on the radar barreling down on us only for the damn storm to blow just to the east.  It happens every time!! All round us were the lighting and heavy rains, but we only actually got about 20 minutes of mild rain.

Well I've missed quite a bit (pics from Sunday May 23rd):

The spinach bolted before I could use any of it. I harvested one plant for some sandwiches and the rest bolted in 5 days.

The peas all of a sudden are six feet tall and beginning to yield.

The beans are all well established and starting to climb the trellis.  Even the cucumbers are starting to show signs of looking healthy - I bet they're triple in size next week!

The first tomatoes are on the vine.

The squash plants tripled in size.

Peppers are looking good, but haven't grown explosively like the rest of the garden.

May 15, 2010 Overdue Update

I liked this view over the black berry bushes in full bloom!

It's been a few weeks since my last update and quite a bit has changed.  We've been busy with work, finishing arrangements for the wedding, and watching the Flyers dominate the Eastern Division!  In between I've been keeping  up with the garden but I've not been able to find the time to document it as often as I would like... so here's an update:

With the exception of this weekend there has been a number of cool days and colder nights over the last two weeks. This has been good for the leafy veggies and the peas, but the cucumbers and one of the peppers look a bit stressed.  Here's a wide shot of the spring crops. 

Here's a couple of the French Breakfast Radishes right out of the garden.  I like radishes in general, but this variety is fantastic.  There a bit more mild in bite than a traditional radish, but have great flavor, color, and texture.  I think this is going to be my go to radish in future years.  I liked them so much I planted a second row!

The peas are looking amazing! They are much bushier this year and have grown taller than last year.  I can't tell if it's the difference in seeds, or the weather has been cooler this Spring.  Either way they are all flowering and look super healthy. 

The lettuce is also benefiting from the cooler weather.  In just a week they nearly doubled in size.  I've picked a few leaves here and there to try them out and they're pretty good.  The Deer Tongue is a little bitter, but has a pleasant taste.  I think that this week I'll be able to throw all them together in a salad.  I planted a new row of each variety to ensure that they keep coming up when I need them.

Not much new with the tomatoes.  They're slowly getting bigger, but the cooler temperatures have kept them from exploding.  I finished adding the remaining stakes and placed a cage over all of the plants.  They're just waiting for the summer to show...

The peppers are about as good as the tomatoes.  They're slowly growing and are looking good enough.  The King Arthur variety have a few leaves that looked a bit stressed but all in all they're in good shape. 

The squash are looking pretty good.  The cold weather turned one leaf on each plant black. I was a bit worried at first, but they've grown several new leaves to replace dead.  Since the cold nights they've looked fantastic and are steadily growing!

Cucumbers are looking ratty.  I'm hoping they're just off to a slow start with the weather, but I'm getting a little nervous.  I seeded several of them in peat pots and transplanted them.  A few days later it got down to the mid 30's.  I covered them the first night but a few days later it got down to the upper 30's at night and I let them be.  I seeded some additional plants to replace the ones that looked real bad.  So far they've mostly sprouted but they don't look as good as last year.

From here on out it's suppose to be warm, so I'm hoping my troubles with the cold nights are behind me!

May 2, 2010 After the Market, All the Plants are In

It was a hot day for the opening of the West Chester's Grower's Market yesterday, but that didn't stop it from being BUSY.  We got there before 11am and there was still able to get everything I needed.  There were only a two stand selling vegetables seedlings, although there were two or three more selling herbs.  I got nearly everything from my go to guy.  His basil plants are what got me started gardening on my fire escape just after college.

I ended up getting 8 tomato plants, 6 peppers, a yellow squash, and a zucchini plant.  The garden plan only called for seven tomatoes but I couldn't make up my mind between the crazy varieties he had available.  After seeing them in the ground there will be no problem with adding another plant.  All of the plants are spaced out quite well and have marigolds between all the plants.  I shouldn't run into any of the crowding issues from last year. 

I do have some space behind the cucumbers that I originally intended to put one or two eggplants in.  But I might balk on that and add a couple more peppers.  The annex is so over grown, it may end up going fallow this year.  I'd like to pull it up to make room for another squash plant, but I'm not sure I'll get to that this year.


So here are the tomatoes that I purchased:

Amish Paste

"Very productive heirloom from Wisconsin that produces up to 12 oz, deep-red oxheart-shaped, meaty fruit. (Probably one of the largest paste tomatoes) Lots of sweet, tomatoey flavors from this coreless meaty fruit. A great slicing and sauce tomato."  [source]

Yellow Pear

"These organic tomato seeds produce huge, bushy plants that yield very large quantities of 1 oz., 1 1/2-inch, bright yellow, pear-shaped cherry tomatoes that will give you fruit until frost. The tomatoes of this yellow pear tomato variety are zesty sweet and delicious. A beautiful salad or snackin' tomato. If you are growing several colors of cherry tomatoes include this one. A great tomato choice for a patio or planter garden. A good producer even in cooler coastal regions." [source]

Black Krim -  (aka Black Crimson and Black Crim):

"Originally from the Isle of Krim on the Black Sea in the former Soviet Union. This rare, and outstanding tomato yields 3-4" slightly flattened dark-red (mahogany-colored) slightly maroon, beefsteak tomatoes with deep green shoulders. Green gel around seeds. Fantastic, intense, slightly salty taste (which is great for those not wanting to add salt to their tomatoes)." [source]
 

Pink Brandywine

"Plant produces good yields of 1 to 2 lb pinkish red beefsteak tomatoes. Tomatoes have rich tomato flavor and pinkish red when matture. This variety won several taste testing awards and is one of the best tasting tomatoes in the world. An Amish heirloom variety from the USA dating back to 1885." [source]

Giant Belgium Pink

"The 'Giant Belgian Pink' Heirloom Tomato Plant has huge, sweet fruits that average 1 to 2 pounds and have weighed in at almost 5 pounds! It was one of last season’s most popular heirloom varieties. Each pot contains 1 tomato plant. Giant Belgian Pink Heirloom Tomato’s dark pink fruits feature a smooth blossom end, with a low-acid, mild flavor, so sweet that they’ve been used in winemaking. It has solid meat and hefty size, excellent for sandwich slices." [source]

Cherokee Purple

"The Cherokee Purple was rediscovered by tomato grower Craig LeHoullier.  LeHoullier claimed that it was more than 100 years old, originated with the Cherokee people. The Cherokee Purple tomato has a unique dusty rose color.  The flavor of the tomato is extremely sweet with a rich smoky taste. The Cherokee Purple has a refreshing acid, is watery, thick-skinned and earthy with a lingering flavor.  The Cherokee Purple plants are very prolific making this plant a good heirloom for gardeners and farmers." [source]

Green Zebra

"Developed in 1985 by tomato breeder Tom Wagner, this is an unusual and exquisite green tomato chosen by Alice Waters for her restaurant, Chez Panisse, in Berkeley, California. The 2-inch round fruit ripens to a yellow-gold with dark-green zebra-like stripes. The flesh is lime-emerald in color that has an invigorating lemon-lime flavor. A great green tomato for brightening up salads and other tomato dishes.  Try our Green Zebra Tomato Seeds for your tomato garden and enjoy a wonderful addition of color to your salads and sauces."  [source]

Matt's Wild Cherry

"These small cherry tomatoes are packed with more taste than you can believe. 5/8- 3/4", deep red, round fruits have a tender, smooth texture, and loads of sweet, full flavor. High sugar content (11º Brix). Though the taste is superior, it doesn't yield well and the fruits are soft, so grow on a trial scale at first. Teresa Arellanos de Mena, a friend of former Univ. of Maine AG faculty members Drs. Laura Merrick and Matt Liebman, brought seeds to Maine from her family's home state of Hidalgo in Eastern Mexico. It's the region of domestication of tomatoes, and where these grow wild. Matt gave us the seeds." [source]



And the Pepper Plants:

Early Sunsation 

A great early pepper. Early Sunsation pepper produces large, smooth fruit that mature from dark green to bright golden-yellow at full maturity. Combine this with good tolerance to bacterial leaf spot and you could have the perfect golden pepper variety. The blocky shaped fruit have thick walls and a very sweet taste when left to ripen yellow. [source]

Purple Beauty

Plant produces good yields of 3" long by 3" wide sweet purple bell peppers. Peppers have thick walls and turn from green to purple when mature. Excellent for salads, stuffing, and gourmet dishes [source]
 

Sweet Italian

The Italian red peppers grow to a length of six to eight inches.  They are wonderful eaten raw in strips or in salads.  In our opinion, they are better tasting than the red bell peppers.  The red Italian pepper adds color to many cooked recipes, but we believe that cooking them is a waste of their wonderful raw flavor.  Select Italian red peppers that are firm and free of blemishes and wrinkles.

King Arthur

This hybrid produces a quality blocky shaped, 3-4 lobed sweet bell pepper that matures green to red, and has excellent yield potential. The jumbo 5 inch fruit have medium-early maturity. This dwarf variety is quite early for having such large fruit. Maturity 65-70 days from transplanting. Approximately 25 seeds/package. [source]

Red Knight

Throughout the Northeast and Midwest, growers are reporting good yields of large, thick-walled fruit on X3R Red Night. Maturing in the mid-early slot are high quality, blocky bell fruit that measure 4½ in. W x 4½ in. L. The shiny, attractive fruit ripen from a dark green to an intense red color.

 

Cherry Bomb TMV

Heirloom/Open-Pollinated. Red Cherry Bomb is an old-fashioned heirloom favorite that has a nice, 1-1/2 to 2" round shape. It is not very hot when dark green, but fiery when it fully matures to red.  It can be used fresh, dried, or pickled, but I really like to use it in salsa! This is a particularly easy-to-grow variety, and a great choice for the home gardener. 2500-5000 Scoville Units [source]

April 24, 2010 Herbs, Flowers, and More

I took this picture yesterday and thought it was a good shot of Spring!

Here's the new flower bed, it turned out great!  Stacey got some good looking flowers at Distinctive Gardens.  And as good as it looks now, in a few weeks when everything is established and growing it's going to look even more amazing.

I put in a full flat of Marigolds today and placed them between what will be tomatoes.  It added some much needed color to the garden.  This will force me when it comes to Market time to stick to the plan and only plant seven tomatoes.

The herbs are in!  During a trip to Distinctive Gardens today they had all the herbs out and I couldn't wait another week. They looked so good that I got weak and bought everything I saw.  So we have (starting with the upper left) Oregano, Basil, Basil again, Thyme, St Johns Wort, Dill, Cilantro, Majoroum, and Sage in the middle. 

The cucumbers are now in the ground.  I debated a little about putting them in with what I hope is the last cold night forecasted for Tuesday.  I thought that I'd chance it as they were starting to get pretty large in the peat pots.   I hope they hold up to the 40-43 degree night.

Here's a long shot of the garden (except for the flower bed at the end).  It now has some nice color to it.  Next week is the Grower's Market to fill the rest in!

The lettuce looks like it has finally taken.  Although last year at this time they were much larger.  I guess that since the first round didn't survive they got a head start last season. All three varieties now look VERY different.  Although it's not in this picture , the carrots are making slow progress.  This year I'm definitely going to get some production from them. 

The peas are growing strong.  Most of them are climbing the trellis on their own, but a few still need some help grabbing hold.

The shallots have exploded with tons of new growth. I planted ten but only eight have sprouted.  Judging by the way the first eight have grown, I'm not holding out much hope for the last two.The garlic in the foreground is also doing well.  Only one of the three bulbs seems to have been a dud.

The spinach is looking fantastic!  In only a few days they have grown significantly.  I will need to thin a few of them out in the next day or two.  The radishes are getting there too. I accidentally pulled one thinking it was a weed and the radish root was there - what a great color they have!

April 19, 2010 Preparing for the Market

The West Chester Grower's Market is under two weeks away from opening so it's time to get the rest of the garden in shape.  I don't know how this happened but there seems to be TONS of rocks in the garden.  The soil has never been ideal (it's far from bad), but I don't remember there being this many stones last year.  I think I would have noticed and removed them if so.  Regardless of how they got there I spent some time today removing hundreds of small stones and weeds from the whole plot today. I will give it another once over when I purchase my plants to fill the garden but I thought it was a good idea to do as much work as possible now.

It's been kind of cold here at nights the last week or so.  Even though the last frost date was April 17th, there has been several nights in the upper 30's and lower 40's.  I started my cucumbers last week in peat pots with the intention of getting them into the ground this week, but it looks like the weather isn't going to change much so I'm playing it safe and waiting until it's warmer to get them in.

Not much has changed in the garden from last week.  Everything is growing slowly.  The spinach all have true leaves, the radishes are starting to grow secondary leaves, the lettuce is poking up slowly, and the peas are starting to climb the trellis. It still looks like a big patch of dirt with a sprinkle of green.  I can't wait for the market to open to really get things going!

Aptil 10, 2010 Quick Progress Report

The Carpenter Bees are back this week.  I know that they can do some serious damage to blah blah blah...  I don't care, they're fun to watch!  There are about a dozen of them buzzing around and doing some crazy maneuvers.  There a great sign that the warm weather is here to stay!   So here's a quick round up of how things are going:

The peas are growing pretty quickly thanks to the nice weather.  All of the plants came up but one, which is pretty good.  Most of them are 4-5 inches now and the smallest is just an inch above the surface.  They're even starting to climb the trellis!

Radishes are popping out.  They're not exactly in a neat little row but who cares, they are a welcome touch of green in the patch of dirt where I planted my seeds.
 

Not much doing with the lettuce thus far.  There is something small and growing there but it's too soon to tell if it's actually lettuce!

What I thought were weeds are indeed spinach! A quick Google search confirmed that this is what they look like at this stage.  I thought it was grass with the long and skinny first leaves, but if you look closely at the picture the first rounded bits of delicious are starting to pop out!

I'm guessing that this is the shallots sprouting.  They've only been in the ground a week and they're already coming along.  I'm very pleased!

These are the green onions that I put in last week.  I purchased them to be part of dinner, I saved the bottom piece with the root and simply stuck it in the ground.  I got the brilliantly simple idea from some page I found with Stumble Upon (Greatest tool for the web btw) but I didn't bookmark it to give the person credit. 

New this week to the garden, well actually to two strawberry pots on the porch are, well,  strawberries!  I've never seen strawberries sold this way so I had to give them a try,  They were selling them in bunches of 25 with a pretty decent root system already to go.  I'm looking forward to seeing how they do!

What is this you might ask?  It's a pretty substantial Goldings Hop rhizome.  I'm super excited about this (Thanks to Mark Prior for the donation) as I've been thinking about how to first find, and then plant some hops for my home brewing since last year.  I'm not sure how much this one massive rhizome is going to yield, but Goldings whole leaf hops sell for about $5 an ounce. And it would be real cool to brew a "Backyard Harvest Ale" this fall!  I'm hoping that this baby gets me at least an ounce or two for one good hoppy ale...  I planted it an a 2x2x2 foot pot and plan on running the vines along the metal mesh of the porch for easy harvesting.  It's just crazy enough to work!! Here's a great article about growing hops if anyone is interested: Growing Hops in Containers