Garden Report 03.20.2011

I planted spring veggies today:
Tonda di Parigi Carrots
Tall Telephone Garden Peas
Golden Beets
Chinese Red Meat Radish
Hollow Crown Parsnip
Rocky Top Lettuce Mix
Chantenay Red Core Carrot
Chioggia Beet
Giant Noble Spinach
White Vienna Kohlrabi
European Mesclun Salad Mix


What I need to do this week: Plant onions.

The tomato seeds I planted are all looking good. I need to replant some of the peppers and all the eggplant because the germination rate is not so good.
I am also going to start the following inside:
Batavian Full Heart Endive
Slo Bolt Cilantro
Red Mexican Hat Wildflower
Yellow Prairie Coneflower

I also should probably take some soil samples over to the MO Extension office soon to see what the soil deficiencies are.

The greenhouse needs vent openers on the other three windows. For this summer, I don't think I'll put the insulation or (heat sink) rain barrels in. The next thing to work on is getting brackets and shelves in on the south side of the greenhouse, some hooks for tools, and a planting bench. I've also been on the lookout for some kind of large urn/pot to put the bamboo stakes in during the winter.

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Fall Garden planting

Yesterday evening, I had this whole entry written about what I planted in my fall garden, and then when I clicked "Publish Post", blogger asked me to re-sign in to my account and lost the whole entry... weird?!

So, yesterday I planted in the root bed: lettuce mix with beets (both chioggia and golden beets), spinach and endive, and carrots. I planted kohlrabi in the rhubarb bed.

Last night for dinner we had fajitas the easy way, with veggies out of our garden. Mostly anaheim and banana peppers, with a few banana peppers from Melissa's house since I'm garden-sitting. Also used one red onion and one yellow onion. They are between golf ball and tennis ball size. I wish I knew how to make my produce bigger. It's a little disheartening when my produce is half the size of what's available in the grocery store. I know, the commercial growers use fertilizers and the produce is bred to be large, but does it really need to be that much larger than what I grow? Oh well, my peppers taste a heck of a lot better than storebought!

I sprayed my tomatoes down a second time with garden dust on Thursday. I also gave them a third helping of calcium nitrate. I noticed some of my squash still have blossom end rot, so I gave them a round of calcium nitrate as well. 

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Is anyone else drooling yet?

It's summertime, because my garden says so.

 

This first picture is of a bumble bee, busy pollinating clover.(Having problems seeing it? Look at the flower to left of the middle.)

 

I've been dreaming of Greek salad ever since I started the tomatoes from seed inside in February. That dream is soon to be a reality!Above, cucumbers have set on.

 

These are an heirloom tomato, called Black Cherry. As the name implies, they are a cherry tomato that is "black", which is really a dark red-purple.

 

This is also an heirloom variety. It was free seed sent to me when I ordered the other seeds. It is called Cuor di Bue and is an Italian tomato for fresh eating. I will probably use it for slicing, for Greek salad, and will try canning with it.

 

Next are Yellow Pear tomatoes. These are the only tomatoes I am growing this year that I didn't start from seed. I forgot to order the seed and by the time I remembered it was April. I was afraid the seedlings wouldn't be big enough to transplant in time, so I bought a single plant from the Ace Hardware down the street. The following photo is also of Yellow Pear; the plant is LOADED with little green tomatoes.

 

Not all of the tomatoes have set on yet. This is a shot of one of the Amish Paste plants. These are similar to Roma tomatoes and are used for sauces and tomato paste. Lots of flowers = lots of tomatoes = lots of paste and sauce to use in the winter!

 

This is a kohlrabi plant. They are from the Brassica family, which also includes broccoli, cauliflower and the like. It grows above ground, but is a root vegetable. I eat them when they are slightly smaller than softballs. I peel the tough outer skin off and then shave them, or slice them julienne and put them in salads. Very crunchy, the texture of an apple, but the flavor is similar to broccoli.

 

This is a Chinese Red Meat radish, which is also referred to as a Watermelon radish because when they are sliced the outer edge is pale green and the inside is a vibrant red-pink. They are sweeter than typical radishes and aren't supposed to be eaten until rather large- 4" diameter. Not all of mine have gotten that big because it got so hot. They can also be planted in the fall, supposedly with better results because they have a tendency to bolt.

 

Last but not least, the Castor Beans. I planted these in with the vegetables. Moles found my raised beds earlier this spring and uprooted a lot of stuff. Mom used to plant Castor Beans to keep moles away, so I'm trying it. They are very poisonous to humans though; the entire plant contains a poison called Ricin which I've seen on a "top 10 deadliest poisons list" in the past.

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Making friends

After several days of not being weeded or thinned, my garden was looking a little hectic. I went home to Cape for a long weekend, worried that my lettuce would bolt while I was gone. The temperatures were in the upper 80s and low 90s all weekend. But when I got back it was still looking good.
I shared lettuce and spinach today with Dave. He's our neighbor to the north. And he confessed to me that his favorite thing to eat garden-fresh is tomatoes. We're both guilty of standing in the garden and eating tomatoes straight off the vine, only to have a mouth full of canker sores and wondering to ourselves "why did I do that??". Well, because garden-fresh tomatoes are the best!
There weren't many other vegetables ready to eat. I had four snow peas, a chioggia beet, a very small golden beet, and a chinese radish. I'd never eaten beets raw before. The chioggia was a lot sweeter than the golden beet.I'll eat the radish tomorrow. I am going to try to be better this year about eating produce as it's ready to eat. Last year I was so overwhelmed with peppers, tomatoes and eggplant that half of it went bad. Granted, it's all good for the compost pile, but it would be even better in my belly! Last week I ate the first kohlrabi that was ready. I grated it and ate it like a slaw, but without any dressing. I also ate a chinese radish last week, but it was really hot. The package says they're supposed to be sweet radishes, and are ripe at 4 inches. The one I ate last week was only about 2 inches and I picked it before I double checked the package. I picked one today that is 4". I hope it really is sweet. If not, I'm going to try growing them in the fall. I'm going to have to do a fall planting for beets, kohlrabi and parsnips anyway because the seed didn't germinate very well.

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