A late gardener

It is the middle of April and I have not been actively gardening. The weather has been cold and that is my excuse, although it isn't really a good excuse. The four largest beds have been prepared. Those four beds had been covered with leaves and were easy to turn over and had few weeds growing. I added a bit of bone meal and some chicken manure to the beds and now they are ready to plant. At the beginning of April I set out Novella Shell peas and pots of sweet peas. Snow peas were planted earlier but I believe the crows pulled them from the ground as soon as they sprouted. I will have to replant quickly or it will be too late for this year.
I planted a new lettuce mostly for the name and the short maturity time; Drunken Woman Frizzy Head. Hope it is as fun to eat as it is to say.
For the first time I set out onion sets. Usually I get starts of Walla Walla's with mixed results. This year I am hopeful for some big yellow rock onions in late summer that will keep through the fall.
I think that having all the over wintering veggies still alive has kept me thinking that the garden is active. It is actively going to seed and things need to be pulled up which I have little heart for. Arugula is now a flowering plant although it still tastes good. The kale is a beautiful ornamental. Old onions are about to flower, the fat round flower heads look great to me. And while I tell myself that the parsnips are growing I know that soon they will become mushy with new growth and it is time to pull them up and eat what I can. The parsnips did over winter just fine but they did not get enough growth in the fall to be full sized. Baby parsnips are better than no parsnips is my thought for now.
We set out some Yellow Fin potatoes and I have some red and blue ones to follow.
Slowly working my way through spring planting....weather permitting.

March 1st and the beginning of the year

The weather this year has been so mild that many plants have over-wintered without any help from me. We've been eating Laccinato kale many times a week,cooked and raw in salads. The mustard greens are delicious and a half a dozen plants is just enough for two, I pick the leaves randomly and they grow back fairly quickly. The parsnips were the most interesting thing that I planted last year, partly because I had never grown them before and also because I had no idea how they were doing underground. Last week I emptied out a pot of them and there they were, short and small but definately parsnips. It was a treat to roast and eat them. More are in a raised bed and hopefully they will grow larger as the days warm up. I need to get last year's plants out of the beds to make way for this year's spring and summer plantings. I am excited to have so much over-winter and it is hard for me to remove any living and producing plant. We shall see how ruthless I can be.
Tiny garlic and chives are coming up. A peek of tarragon returning means that the soil is warming up and time to get that compost turned into the beds.
One detail I learned about parsnips is that rich soil makes for hairy parsnips...now I need to create a lean soil area, not sure how to accomplish that!

Winter without cover

December gardening was a pleasure this year, warmish, dry without wind and little rain. I covered the beds with leaves from Liz's garden and what I could get from the birch next door. I also completely covered the beds that I planted with garlic and shallots. Most of the leaves stayed in place and were starting to break down by the time the snow arrived January 18th. And did it arrive, first snow was only a few inches and the little garlic tops were sticking out of the snow. Then more snow to about 8-10 inches covered everything. The Lacinato kale was the only thing showing above the snow, that and the rosemary. I didn't cover my bay tree so we shall see how it fairs. It is on the porch close to the house but not enough to make much of a difference in temperature once it is 27 degrees out.
I hadn't trimmed the lavender and hope that it isn't damaged by having flowers out in the snow.
I still have/had mustard, kale, leeks, beets, parsnips and arugula in the raised beds that are now covered in snow. It will be interesting to see how they are once the storm has blown by. I intended to cover those plants but did not get it done. It would be helpful to have a system set up here so that I don't try to figure it out when the bad weather comes.
Very happy to be able to gather thyme, rosemary and parsley from the snow beds. The bit of freshness and green to our warm food is a very nice thing.
The snow is melting slowly now.....

December gardening...Still!

December 2nd and a very mild 44 degrees outside with a tiny bit of sunshine. It was a great day to get some more garlic planted, 2 rows of the unknown soft necked Chinese garlic that I like and has been keeping so well. I still want to plant an artichoke variety which I have from last years unknown planting.
Pulled up the remaining bean stalks, layered paper and leaves in one bed, that bed also has carrots and parsnips that are tiny, maybe they will grow a bit or maybe they will make it through to spring and grow then...we shall see. No covering on them yet.
Covered the garlic and shallot beds with leaves from my friend Liz'z trees, which she nicely bagged and delivered. Those beds should be warm and drier and protect the bulbs should we have a hard freeze. I think the leaves will all decompose and add to the compost in those beds by spring. Easy gardening.
I still have beets, lacinato kale, collards, chinese cabbage, turnip greens and parsley. There is a bit of tarragon left cut and ready to dry. The chives, garlic chives and tarragon got a little covering of leaves today.
There wasn't much gardening this last month of November, ate the last of the tomatoes which was amazing to me that in November without a hot summer we still had tomatoes to eat, the best of them were the Sun Golds.
And there are December Roses!

October 29th Salad and More

Amazing to have salad from the garden, at least for me. This year I planted lettuce and arugula in late August and now I have salad! I didn't plant as much as I wanted to because so many other plants were still producing but this is enough. I planted Black Seeded Simpson lettuce and is tender and delicious. Replanted both the European and American arugula and both are doing well at the end of October.
I had tucked a few potatoes in corners late this summer as a test and today pulled up some Purple Peruvian and Fingerlings, leaving more to harvest later....well a little bit later. Cold is coming and the rains so I will have to get them up out of the ground probably within the next 3 weeks.
Today I planted more garlic; Music and Metechi and set out a row of French Red Shallots. Last year I planted shallots and forgot where they were and they got covered up with chard and kale. This time they have a row of their own, clearly marked:-) and I am trying some in a pot.
Good day for being in the garden!

October 20th photos

The garden is not ready for bedtime yet. Still alot going on and I have plants that I hope will hold on in a light frost. Not quite ready to use a row cover and I don't have a good system for the covers. Last year I simply laid the cover over the plants when the snow and freezing weather was on its way. This was only modestly effective, arugla, beets, lettuce and chard made it through the snow. Planning for cold weather gardening requires some learning and research.

Mr. Stripey continued

Now I am not sure that my green tomato is a Mr. Stripey. I think it is a Green Zebra tomato mis-labeled. While I was making green tomato chutney from these tomatoes, I kept thinking that the tomatoe was soft and juicy, not like a green tomato at all. Once they were bubbling in the pot and too late to save it occurred to me that a "green" tomato would hold its shape and not melt away like a ripe tomato and that was exactly what was happening. There are a few more on the vine and I will bring them inside and see if they start to turn reddish and if not then I will be fairly sure that this tomato is indeed a Green Zebra. If it is I can add it to the list of tomatoes that did well this summer. Not a large producer but plenty of pretty green tomatoes with a lovely flavor.
Planted some of the brown garlic that has the great stripes on the paper sheath. Don't know what it is other than a hardneck with mild flavor and gorgeous bulbs.
All the hardnecked garlic is still keeping well. I'll start to use them up now before the basement freezes which is where I am storing them still on their stalks.
Cool nights but still above 40 degrees so I am leaving everything in the ground for now. My list of still growing veggies as of October 20th:
Golden and red beets, purple potatoes, mustard, collards, kale of 2 varieties, parsnips, parsley, carrots, chinese cabbage, leeks, lettuce, arugula and the on going tombocini.

Mr. Stripey

I love this tomato! Love the name and how it looks. It tastes great too. But alas most of them will not ripen this year. It is turning cold and damp so I've picked them today, October 19th, and will make chutney out of them. I've not done that before, fried green tomatoes sure enough, but not cooked down with peppers and loads of garlic as the recipe recommends. Since I have loads of garlic and I understand that the hard necks don't last long, it will hopefully be a good recipe for Mr. Stripey.
My golden beets are looking wonderful but they are small, about 2" or so in diameter, will wait and hope that they fill out a bit more. The nights are in the 40's, I think things will continue to grow.
My peas that I set out at the beginning of August will not make a fall crop of peas. For Seattle I guess they should be started in late July.

Mid October

Today was a fabulous day for working in the garden, warm and sunny. We haven't had any rain so the soil was very workable for planting. It might be a bit early to plant garlic but the weather is predicted to be wet and that makes for a planting mess so I am starting now.
Today I planted 6 varieties of garlic and marked them with stakes...wrote the names on the stakes at least for now.
I set out Brown tempest, Chesnok Red, Translyvanian, Romainian Red, Red Janice and whatever the small red soft necked garlic that I bought last year from a Chinese woman who called it Chinese Red...I don't think that is really the name of that garlic. I hope to plant at least a few more varieties, Music for sure.
Made a great recipe for collards, saute a bit of onion and garlic, slice the collards very thin, best if rolled up like a cigar and then saute with a bit of water for just a few minutes...super good and very pretty.
Still have tomatoes on the vine, I will be able to get a few more ripe ones but the rest will have to be fried green tomatoes or chutney. Mr. Stripy is so pretty but certainly won't get ripe with the rains coming. The Sunburst continues to ripen and taste great, so no question about planting that one.
Trombocini still has squash growing, about 6 on the vine and I think they will get large enough to eat. There are also 2 small zucchini that are trying their best with this warm weather to grow, they will be cute little ones about 5" or so. I will "harvest" them tomorrow and remove the vine for the winter.
Haven't posted any pictures lately, but we have had great collards, mustard and beets this last week from the garden.
Happy that we have lots of flat leaf parsley still along with chives. The basil is nearly all gone and I will bring a sprig of Thai basil in to start in water on the window sill.
Time to try drying some herbs for the winter...

October 10 Tomatoes

Making fresh, simple tomato sauce right now, herbs, onion, garlic and tomatoes from the garden picked today, October 10 in the mist. It has been a strange year for tomatoes,glad they are ripening this late. The varieties that have done well are the beautiful Black Prince, Costoluto, Star Burst cherry and a variety of small yellow pear tomato. I will probably just plant these next year if I can resist the pull of trying yet again something new.
A little basil left from pesto to add to the sauce, I was sure that it would be black from the cold after removing most of the leaves but happy to say that the pots are holding and the little leaves of that spanish seed basil are doing fine in the mist.

Beans in a pot

These scarlet runner beans were grown in a 5 gallon pot without much care, forgot to water or was away but each time they were neglected the vines bounced right back. Planted for a vine to climb up a post I had never grown this bean before and had no real idea of what the beans might be like. They are gorgeous to look at and while I only have a cup or so of them I will cook them and see how they taste.
This Sunday October morning I turned over 2 beds with some compost and manure, I already put in green sand and most of the soil has been through a fine mesh so the soil ought to be great now. This are hasn't been planted or cared for for many..maybe 20 years, so I am happy to have the little area ready to plant. Maybe the garlic will go into those beds, garlic on one side, shallots on the other would be a good planting.
Had baked yellow fin potatoes for dinner and leftovers for breakfast. Really good.
Fall here now, cooler, high 50's and cloudy, minor rain for the last 2 days. Not much yet for fall color.

My garden is producing tomatoes that are ripe and while not as sweet as in a warm year, they are most welcome. Today I roasted the tomatoes, banana peppers and garlic then sauteed some onions and oregano added the pureed tomatoes and peppers and it was a yummy warm soup.
Garlic is still holding well, potatoes in box with paper between the layers, both are in the garage. Temperature there will be about 40-50 degrees so a bit warm but it is the best that I have for now.
My parsnips are growing and I am excited about that, beets too.
It is time to make some pesto to store since the nights cooled down as of yesterday. I think that the basil from seed did the best, but all plants were productive and mild.
My ordered garlic came and it is helpful to identify some varieties and will sort as best as possible. Preparing the beds now for planting, turning over my own compost, adding green sand, and now will get some composted manure, let it all settle in and will plant toward the end of the month and try to remember to consult the moon just for fun!

Trombocini...and then some

We left Seattle for a few days and I had checked the squash to see if it could stay on the vine till I came back...well I came back to quite the squash. About 5 pounds of it! It looks fine and while it might be a bit dry to be cooked, I think I will get a saw and give it a try. This is the best squash, zucchini type, that I have ever cooked. Fried zucchini, zucchini bread, zucchini moussaka, diced in salad and pasta, that should take care of some of it.
Off to order garlic for fall planting. This time I will make sure to keep tract of what is planted where. So far all my garlic has dried well and is doing fine in the garage. I've used half of the one that I call "Chinese" garlic, small red papered cloves with soft necks. I could braid them so they came into the kitchen and I love reaching for them when ever I am cooking and need a clove. Will have to figure out exactly what this one is, since I purchased it at a farmers market and the person selling it just called it Chinese that is all I know about this variety. Pretty too.

Basil, late but worth the wait.

Mid September and the basil is just perfect. I've been tearing off leaves to add to tomatoes for a month but this is the first pesto of the year. Usually the basil plants in a cool year just don't have enough growth for me to cut them way back for a batch of pesto and I find that pinching a few leaves helps the plants to fill out by the end of the summer. The best tasting basil is the seed my sister brought back from Spain. Late to sprout but has caught up with the other seed starts as well as the plant from the nursery. My Thai basil just keeps on growing, started from a sprig from a restaurant it is prolific and tasty. Late but a good basil year.

September dinner and waiting

.

This is a first for 2011, a dinner where nothing comes from the grocery store, well everything from the garden but the olive oil. Fresh beans, yum! From a bush bean that was started by someone else, will have to find out what it is, because it is firm and flavorful. Sripey tomato was fine, could use some more heat in the garden but it is ripe so no complaints. Trombocini sauted with herbs and garlic from the garden. I didn't harvest my own salt so there are 2 things from my all garden dinner that I did not grow or harvest.
For September I have purple potatoes growing, new lettuce, peas have not sprouted yet, but I am hopeful. The parsnips are up and a few carrots. I seeded heavily so now I have to thin the rows, very hard for me to pull out the little starts! I think the russet potatoes have finished flowering and when the leaves wilt I will dig them up and store them or have a french fry party.
A disappointment is my hubbard squash. I have 3 and they are only about 6 inches and I will be surprised if they grow more this year. I'll leave them in the ground until it is cold so maybe they will be big enough for a bowl of soup. Fall gardening will be interesting....

End of summer

This is my first attempt to have a fall garden. Usually I wait too late to plant anything much for fall but this last week I pulled out zucchini and yellow squash and onions and made room for quite a bit for fall.
Planted peas, snow peas, we shall see if this works out.
Collards from seed transplanted to the beds.
Carrots and parsnips, parsnips take 120 days to make so maybe they will get a little cold weather and be perfect for Thanksgiving.
Crisphead lettuce should do well from seed.
Both my Spanish and american arugula seed has started from my sowing 2 weeks ago and I know that will last until the first frost.
Mustard, spinach and cabbage set out from nursery starts and they are doing well.

From early August planting, I have golden beets growing nicely, although they have some sort of leaf miner doing some damage. Will have to see what controls those little pests.
The broccoli from seed sown in the beginning of August is growing well, no heads yet, but the plants look better than my earlier nursery sets that were attacked and basically destroyed by aphids.
The trombocini squash is still free from leaf wilt and virus and producing one a week, so that is still my star for the year, that and garlic.
Great weather may give us some ripe tomatoes, we have had some from the one plant in a black pot on the patio the rest are green, looking good but far from ripe....we shall see.

Late August

The weather is fantastic, tomatoes are growing! We had a few that ripened this last week, they are in a black pot on the edge of the patio. I can say for my sunny garden that the black pot did make a difference in how quickly:-) the tomatoes ripened.
Last post on garlic was about braiding, I need a lot of practice and need to learn the timing for the different types. The soft neck was braidable at any time, the hardneck varieties, I am not sure if they should be braided right away or after they are completely dried. I did have a fantastic crop and all a drying now in the basement, simi-braided.
The best discovery this year has been this zucchini called Trombocini, simply delicious and the leaves are not getting any virus so far, it is a big plant that has a long, solid, sweet light green zucchini. I did an old fashioned fried zucchini just for fun and was wowed by it. I won't plant any other from now on.
Small amounts of Romano beans just keep coming so that works well for a small household, a handful at a time is just enough for dinner.
Thinking about what is next; golden beets are growing, broccoli started for fall, time to plant ? I will start to amend and turn over the soil for some new fall adventure.

Garlic and more garlic progress in drying

Garlic is curing and cleaning up well. I thought I would have lots of muddy garlic but it is looking fine. So no washing required at the time of harvest. Braiding next:-).

Garlic everywhere

July 21, 2011 and garlic is drying everywhere in and out of the house. Nearly all varieties made some garlic, some better than others. The little red "Chinese" garlic, so called by the person who sold it to me in Port Angeles made little red bulbs that dried quickly outside. The rest of the garlic is unknown after losing my planting plan:-(. I think I can guess at some and next year I will be more careful, hopefully. There seems to be many differing opinions of how to harvest and dry. I pulled all garlic as the lower leaves dried, I did not bend them over and let the green tops dry with the bulbs in the garden. Next year I will try that. I washed some as I pulled them, others I have let dry with the dirt just brushed off. I wasn't able to keep the garlic dry before harvesting because of the rain but that seems to be important to having clean bulbs.
The elephant garlic I did not pull soon enough and the outer skins have pulled away so they will not dry and hold, oh well, roasted fresh garlic is still good. I waited a week to pull some garlic from the initial harvest and that was a mistake, the skins on those are split too, so it is true that there is a narrow harvesting range, too soon, too small, too late no storage possibilities.
Doesn't seem to matter that the bulbs are drying inside or outside here in Seattle as long as they don't get wet.
Braiding is the next thing, that should be fun to figure out, some books say braid before completely dry others say when dry...maybe both will work. Photos next if my plaits look reasonable.

Mid-July and the garden is full and maybe even some tomatoes in our future. Pulled 1/3 of the garlic and it is curing will continue to pull it up as the lower leaves wither, well not pull, dig it up. It would seem easy to pull but not in my soil.
Finally we have peas! The zucchini is blossoming, one hubbard squash flower but nothing to polinate it unfortunately. Loads of flowers which I let alone where ever they come up, doesn't seem to hurt anything so far. Beans are waist high without flowers yet but I think they will do well. I am going to pull the lettuces and start over today so that we can have salad again in September. Will try seeding some fall Broccoli...Hmmm wonder how that will do. Most everything has done better than I expected given the weather. There have been aphids on a few things but some soapy water with chili's from Hawaii seem to have stopped them for now. Off to pull up those lettuces!