The Modern Victory Garden

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!

It was a busy work week for me with evening commitments and my husband’s birthday thrown in for good measure, so evening harvests did not occur until Friday night.   I harvested the first head of crisp head lettuce on Friday along with a nice amount of broccoli (mostly side shoots).   The lettuce was really beautiful and made a great salad to go with our steamed broccoli, herb roasted pork chops, and homemade macaroni and cheese for that night’s dinner.

The spinach patch was bolting, so on Saturday I pulled all the plants and harvested the usable spinach leaves.   I blanched the spinach leaves and then sautéed it in butter and chopped garlic and seasoned it with a little sea salt.   It was so tender and delicious.   I really crave spinach sometimes and nothing else will do.   Unfortunately, this is the last of the spring spinach crop and I will have to wait until this fall for another chance at enjoying this nutrient dense green.

Sunday’s harvest included a small amount of fresh basil (not enough to make harvest tally weight), two very large green onions, and a 2 lb head of Parel cabbage.   All of this was used to make the Sunday evening meal of meatballs in a sweet and tangy barbeque sauce, fried cabbage and onions (with some crisped bacon tossed in), and linguini pasta tossed in garlic butter with chopped fresh basil.

Harvest totals for the week of May 21st through May 27th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Basil 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest weight minimum)
• Broccoli 0.50 lbs
• Cabbage 2.00 lbs
• Lettuce 0.75 lbs
• Onions 0.25 lbs
• Spinach 0.50 lbs

Total For Week 4.00 lbs

Total Year to Date 26.25 lbs

Eggs collected this week – 19

PRUNING TOMATOES

It was a dry and comfortably warm day on Sunday, so I took advantage of it and did some needed pruning on the tomatoes.   When I prune tomatoes I am working to:

• remove branches and leaves from the bottom 8 inches or so of the plant
• remove suckers from below the first flower clusters (both determinate and indeterminate)
• remove suckers on the indeterminate plants up to and including the period of time they are first flowering (after that I let the suckers above the first flower cluster grow) and
• remove any leaves that look unhealthy.

The reason I prune tomatoes as well as cage them is to:

• promote good air circulation and exposure of the leaves to the sun
• minimize disease and fungal issues by avoiding water splashing up on leaves from the ground and improving air circulation through the plant which helps leaves to dry off quickly if they get wet
• improve the vigor of the central stem which feeds the entire plant

Side shoots or suckers grow both at the base of the plant and also form in the crotches, or axils, between the regular leaf stems and the main stem.   Each sucker if left to grow will develop in the same manner as the main stem - producing leaf branches and fruit/flower clusters and even suckers of its own!   If you allow the suckers to grow they will indeed produce more fruit, but in an indeterminate type tomato suckers also create a plant that has a very dense vegetative growth which places many of its leaves into permanent shade.   The lack of sunlight exposure of these shaded leaves reduces the amount of sugar they produce and if the condition goes on for very long the leaves will eventually turn yellow and drop off.   The dense vegetation also creates a damp, slow to dry environment that can become a breeding ground for fungal problems.  In addition, the plant can get so heavy with the extra leaves and fruit that the plant is more difficult to support and may pull a cage system over from its own weight.   Some people hard prune their tomatoes all season to get only a central leader stem which provides far less but much bigger fruit per plant and produces sooner in the season.   Personally, I like to prune my indeterminate tomatoes early in the season and then just keep the base clear from then on with one final pruning of the top growth at the very end of the season to encourage the plants to put their energy into developing and ripening the existing fruit before the cold fall rains arrive, rather than make more baby tomatoes that will never have time enough to mature and ripen.   Once I do the spring pruning, I then let suckers develop on the indeterminate plants above the first fruit cluster as they do add more fruit production over all.

Determinate (bush type) tomatoes do not require any pruning other than to remove suckers below the first flower cluster.   Pruning a determinate tomato any more than that will not improve plant vigor and in fact you will significantly reduce the potential fruit production of the plant as bush type plants need to branch out to produce fruit as they do not go ever upwards with their growth like an indeterminate does.   When I prune a determinate variety I do a minimal “lower level” pruning only and leave everything else alone unless it appears unhealthy.

Here’s one of the Defiant (a semi-determinate) tomato plants growing in my garden before I did some pruning on it.   It does not need a lot of pruning as it is a semi-determinate plant but has a sucker growing from it’s base and several other suckers that need to be removed below the first fruiting clusters.

Here’s the sucker at the base.

And here are some of the suckers growing in the crotch between the regular leaf stems and the main stem but below the first flower clusters.   Showing you an example of one that has gotten fairly good sized and a much smaller one.

I started by cutting away the sucker at the base of the plant .

I then cut away or pinched out the suckers that I could see.   Here’s an after picture of the V section that previously had that larger sucker.

I also cut away a low level leaf branch that was drooping too close to the ground.   That was all that was needed for this plant and it was more open to air circulation and light after I had finished the light pruning on this semi-determinate plant.

I only prune tomatoes on dry sunny days and only on plants that are thoroughly dry.   I also wash my hands before doing this work, and several times during the process when doing multiple plants.   I also wipe down my pruning scissors between each plant as well.   The point of this extra hygiene and tool cleaning is to avoid inadvertently spreading disease or fungus from one plant to another.

Do you prune your tomato plants?

Laura / kitsapFG

We have had a fairly nice spring so far this year and even enjoyed a stretch of drier and reasonably warm weather for many consecutive days.   That period of nicer weather came to an end last Sunday.   Honestly, I was ready for a day or so of rain because the garden and the lawn were both getting quite dry.   If Mother Nature did not do some watering soon, I was going to have to get to it.   As of this evening (Thursday) the rain and cloud cover has once again moved on and the forecast (at least through Saturday) is for a return to sunnier conditions and normal high temps (upper 60’s low 70’s this time of year).   I am expecting that the garden will respond to the nice drink provided from rain over the past few days as then followed by a little sunshine – by exploding with more growth.   It’s been doing a good job of growing despite the cloudy, wet, cool days anyways.   I did a garden walk this evening and assessed the status of the various crops and made some mental notes on things that will need a little attention this coming long weekend, or will soon need harvesting.

Most things are doing very well, but not everything.   The spinach patch is starting to bolt and I am going to be lucky to get one harvest out of it before it has to come out.   I had better harvest it soon (real soon in fact).   Usually, I over winter spinach and then plant a new patch in early spring.   My late summer/fall planted crop that would have been the over wintered patch did not do well and I ended up planting a winter sown patch that then emerged and grew this spring, essentially replacing my usual spring planted crop.   That was a mistake, as the winter sown seed struggled to get going in the more adverse conditions of late winter and the subsequent growth has been slow.    And now, it just wants to give it up and go to seed. I won't be doing that again.  Oh well, there is always the late summer / fall crop to look forward to.

The spinach is not the only thing wanting to bolt to seed.   I have some turnips that are bolting too.

About a third of the turnips in the patch are bolting.   I will pull the ones that are going to seed this weekend and give them to the hens as a treat.   Hopefully the remaining plants will show some more restraint and put their energy into the root development instead.

The bolting spinach and turnips are really the only underperformers in the garden at the moment, and given how well the rest of the garden is looking I am pleased with the state of the garden.

I will focus this blog post on giving an update on some of what is growing in the older section of the garden, which runs parallel to the side of our house.   The intent is to do a separate post later focusing on the newer garden beds that are located in back of our house.   I do have to show you just one item from the back portion of the garden though.   The pole beans are up!   There are three varieties of pole beans growing in this bed; Fortex, Violet Podded Stringless, and Lazy Housewife.   There are some baby beets in that front section as well, but hard to see since they are so small yet.

In the side garden retaining wall bed, the bush beans are emerging as well.    The first ones up and going are the Royal Burgundy bush beans (right side of the planted area), but the Venture bush beans are starting to pop out of the ground too (left side of the planted area).

The beans (both bush and pole) have some catching up to do if they want to keep up with their legume family pea cousins.   The Cascadia sugar snap peas are starting to latch on to the vertical support netting and will soon be happily climbing.   Growing in front of them is a variety of lettuces, kales, cabbages, and lots of celery on the far end.

The regular pea patch (Dakota) plants are considerably more impressive than their sister snap pea plants.   The pea vines have raced up and through the first as well as the second horizontal supports already.

Next to the pea patch is the carrot patch, which I have kept under a lightweight reemay cover to protect it from carrot fly infestation.   There are three varieties of carrots growing in this patch; Mokum, Purple Haze, and Sugarsnax.   Recently I thinned and weeded the carrots and I was anxious to check in on them and see how the patch was doing.   I pulled back the cover and found a lush growth of carrots under there.   The wire fencing arched over the bed is used to support the reemay up off of the plants.

A little further on down the bed from the carrots is the broccoli (Umpqua) patch.   These plants are growing lushly and are producing central heads and are starting to show some side shoots as well.

In the immediately adjacent bed to the pea patch, carrots, and broccoli etc,, is the potato patch.   The potatoes have really taken off this past week.   I have four varieties growing in this bed; Caribe, Yukon Gold, Lemhi Russet, and Kennebec.

Next to the potato patch are the blueberry bushes and the older of the two strawberry patches.   The Ozark Beauty strawberries are flowering heavily right now and are starting to set fruit.  The bird netting over the bed protects the fruit from birds, but unfortunately does nothing to protect them from slugs which are a huge problem in our region.   Slugs love strawberries as much as we people do so it is a constant battle to keep them out.   I am back to daily early morning slug patrols to try find and remove as many of the slugs as possible.   I barely make a dent in their population but I do try.

The corn patch (Precocious) is growing just behind the older strawberry patch.   The plants were transplanted out about two weeks ago and have settled in well and put on new growth.   If the weather warms up they will be even happier.   Most people do not need to bother to start corn indoors and transplant them, but in our region’s maritime climate, giving the plants a jump start when they grow more slowly in general (due to cooler summer conditions) helps to ensure they make it to harvest maturity before the cold rains of fall arrive.

I will leave you with a look at the garlic patch and in particular the Music hard neck variety growing in the back portion of the bed.   These plants are very tall, measuring about 4 feet high at the moment!   I am actually surprised they have not produced any scapes yet.   I expect I will not have much longer to wait.

Well, that is most of the side (older) portion of the garden.   I missed a few items but that covers the vast majority of it.   I will try and do a similar walk through on the back portion of the garden this coming weekend.

Laura

CHICKEN COOP AND GARDEN TIDY-UP

With the transplanting out of the squash family plants and the direct seeding of dill and more carrots last Monday - the garden is now fully planted up.   In addition, I delivered the last of the extra squash family starts to the Giving Garden on Saturday, so for the time being (until the fall crops need to be started), the focus is now on maintenance and harvesting in the garden.

The harvests are definitely picking up but are not of the nature yet to require any preserving efforts.   I try to take advantage of these lulls in the work demands of the garden to do some general tidy-up tasks such as weeding and walkway weed whacking.   Weeding is usually not too much of a chore because I do small amounts of it on a regular basis, but the walkways need a periodic mowing down and trimming and that is a chore that is more time consuming.   It is my least favorite thing to do in the garden because it wears me out physically (hard work) and I am always a filthy mess afterwards.   However, I always love how tidy and well-kept the garden looks after it is done.   Luckily, this chore only needs to be done about once a month May through September.   In October, I open the garden back up to the hens for free ranging and they keep it weed and bug free until I close it back off from them again in the early spring.   They do such a good job that it takes until May before the first walkway clearing effort is really needed.   I had put it off as long as I could though and Saturday afternoon was spent getting everything trimmed and cleaned up.   It did look good when finished.   I will try to get some garden overview pictures taken in the coming week so you can see how everything is coming along.

Another periodic tidy-up chore that I have is raking out the chicken yard and cleaning the coop.   This is also done approximately monthly but is a year round task rather than just during the growing season.   I actually don’t mind this job at all.   All the dirty bedding from the coop and the raked up chicken poop and spilled/spoilt feed from the yard area – are put on the compost pile.   This causes the compost piles to heat up tremendously afterwards.   What I like about this particular work is that the coop (which is always a cozy little hen house anyways) becomes even more inviting with fresh shavings and new sweet timothy hay lining the nest boxes.   The hens always seem to appreciate having their house tidied up too.   It never fails that as soon as I finish, one (or more) of the hens wants to use a nest box.

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!

The harvests are still largely greens at the moment, but this week I had some other items in the harvest basket too.   The variety of harvests should only continue to improve in the coming weeks.

Last week I missed posting on Harvest Monday as I was traveling.   I only had a harvest of basil to report for that week anyways (as I was gone for most of it and not harvesting) and it did not even make it to the harvest tally total as it did not make my minimum weight of ¼ lb as rounded.

Monday I harvested some lettuce which was simply used to make a green salad to accompany that day’s meal.

Wednesday I cut two kinds of kale – Beira (larger leaves) and Dwarf Siberian Improved.   I made a chicken and kale stir-fry for that night’s dinner.

Saturday was another nice lettuce harvest.   The fresh lettuce and some home-canned chunky tomato salsa was used to make a taco salad with.

On Sunday, I determined that I needed to lop off the top portion of the tree kale plant because it was just getting way too tall and was starting to pull the plant over from it’s support.

I had to use some large ratcheting loppers to cut the two top portions as the central stalks are quite thick and fibrous.   The plant looked much better after I did the trim job on it.

The tree kale pruning yielded 4 ½ pounds of kale after I trimmed away the stems.

I also harvested a nice variety of items on Sunday in addition to the tree kale.   There were a few broccoli plants that were threatening to flower so I harvested those.   There were several young carrots in the greenhouse containers that were ready to be used.   I pulled a nice bunch of young red onions.   Finally, I harvested three good sized kohlrabi plants.

The kohlrabi, onion, and carrots were made into a lovely fresh coleslaw salad which accompanied the broccoli (steamed and then served with just a little butter and a sprinkle of sea salt) and some roasted chicken thighs for Sunday dinner.

Harvest totals for the week of May 14th through May 20th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Basil 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest weight minimum)
• Broccoli 0.25 lbs
• Carrots 0.25 lbs
• Kale 5.75 lbs
• Kohlrabi 1.25 lbs
• Lettuce 0.50 lbs
• Onions 0.50 lbs

Total For Week 8.50 lbs

Total Year to Date 22.25 lbs

Eggs collected this week – 19

Laura

kitsapFG

The blog was quiet this past week because I was in Spokane on a visit to my mom.   I was able to see all of my sisters and one of my brothers while there too and in general had a lovely time.   I even worked in a visit to Manito Park Gardens while there.    I took a few pictures inside the greenhouses, and in the Japanese and Perennial Gardens to share with you.

I got back on Sunday evening and was grateful that I had taken one more day off from work (Monday) to get caught up on things at home before jumping back into the traces again.   The weather has been particularly fine lately and the garden has been responding with accelerated growth.   I was amazed to see how much things had grown in the less-than-a-week of time that I had been away.   The kohlrabi (Koliribi) has really started to fatten up its swollen stem and I should be harvesting these in the very near future.

The swiss chard (Bright Lights) has enough growth now that it too is also ready for light harvests.

The broccoli has begun forming central heads.

Since it has been dry and fairly warm for the past few days, I gave the broccoli a good watering in the hopes that it will refrain from trying to bolt to seed.   I also gave the broccoli, cabbages, and kale plants a spray of Bt solution because the cabbage moths are out and abundant already.   The cabbages are forming heads and for the moment are not showing any signs of significant pest damage to speak of – either slug or cabbage worms.

The potato patch is sprouting.   There are lots of potato plants up already and many that are just emerging.   This bed will soon be filled with plants creating a dense canopy of foliage.

The pea patch is zooming along.   The pea vines have grown through the first horizontal trellis support and are reaching for the second one already.

The strawberry patch is blooming profusely and I even spotted a few berries forming.   In the back of the garden the artichokes are producing a number of buds.

I watered the artichokes and the strawberries on Monday too as I want to have the plants grow the fruits (and buds) with as much uninterrupted growth as is possible.

The squash family starts have all now been thoroughly hardened off and were in desperate need of being planted out, so that was the priority for Monday.   The cucumbers were planted next to the slanted grow support trellis.   Under the trellis I have some winter sown spinach growing.

The squash patch bed had previously had compost layered on.   After broadcasting some general purpose organic fertilize over the bed area, I used my broad fork to then aerate and loosen the soil, and finished it by lightly cultivating the top few inches with a hoe and raking it smooth.

The soaker hoses were then laid out.

The green plastic mulch was then laid out on top.

Holes were then cut at the proper spacing and I planted out 3 Small Sugar pumpkins, 3 Red Kuri winter squash, 2 Butternut winter squash, 2 Sunburst patty pan summer squash, and 2 Partenon zucchini.

While it was good to spend time with my family in my hometown (Spokane) and once again wander the beautiful gardens in Manito Park, I must say that I was very happy to return home and spend time in my own productive (and beautiful in its own way!) modern victory garden.

Laura

kitsapFG

Knocked a few more items off of my catching up “to do” list today.   Managed to finish weeding and thinning the carrot patch and I weeded and cultivated the adjacent bed area.   I have actually weeded this section a few times already this year, which is pretty unusual for my garden beds.   Late last fall I was the recipient of some vermicomposted llama poop and I put it on this bed.   It would appear that it was the carrier of some serious weed seeds because this particular bed has been “sprouting” weeds all spring.   I gave it a going over with a three tined cultivator and it looks much improved - at least for the moment.

The front of this bed has some cabbages in it.   The first four are Ruby Ball cabbages which get ginormous (is that really a word?!), and the next four are Parel cabbages which are more medium sized.   Both are starting to show signs of wanting to form the start of a central head.

Right next to the cabbages is the spring planted crop of broccoli (Umpqua).    I noticed today that deep in center of the plant, there are central heads of broccoli beginning to form.

Next to the broccoli are some swiss chard plants (Bright Lights) and behind those is the first of several onion patches I have growing.   I had a bad onion harvest last year and our winter was lean in that we lived on the overwintered leeks and green onions after our meager harvest of storage onions ran out.   I am determined not to repeat that bad outcome again, so I went a little nuts in how much real estate I have devoted in 2012 to onions.

These are some Ailsa Craig onions that were the last group that I started earlier this year.   They seem to be growing well but are dwarfed by the Ailsa Craig onions I have growing on the deck in some rectangular pots.

These were started almost six weeks before the Ailsa Craig plants growing in the garden bed neaby.   They were planted outside more than four weeks ahead of the others too.   The faster start seems to be really paying off with these as they are rapidly filling out and growing more top growth.   I also experimented with over wintered onions (Top Keeper) this year by direct seeding late last summer and then leaving them in the garden to tough it out over the winter.   They did really well until mid to late January when we got a few days of really bitter cold.   I lost about half of them in that episode and my lesson learned is that I would be well advised to give overwintered onion seedlings a grow tunnel cover for protection during the darkest/coldest months.   I only lost about half of them though, so to make better use of the bed space, I just interplanted some Red Wetherfield onion sets where I lost an onion plant.   The result is that this bed has a fine stand of onions in it now.

The garlic patch growing in the same bed as the over wintered onions are doing fabulously too.   I think they will be producing scapes in the not too distant future.

But this is not all of the onions!   There is another patch in the back portion of the garden too.   These are a red onion (Cabernet).   This bed really needs me to do some weeding and cultivating there too.

I have to admit that these still are not quite all the onions growing in my garden.   I also have a few more tucked into the lettuce patch, and another couple growing around some cabbages because I used up the last of the onion sets by just interplanting them in a few strategic locations.   With all those onions though, I did not have room to grow leeks again this year, which is a shame because they were our faithful stand-in for the missing onions last winter.   I am hoping though that the onions will grow well and reward us for the multiple plantings by flooding us with more onions than we can use.   That would be a pleasant change from last winter where I was being very sparing in my use of onions – something that just was not right.   I find it is almost impossible to cook anything we like without using a whole lot of onions and having to skimp like that was quite limiting.   How are your onions growing this year?

Laura

kitsapFG

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!

Greens are the stars of the garden right now.   I have several plantings of lettuces that I am rotating through doing “cut and come again” harvests, which is giving us a nice mix for our salads.   I am also growing some crisp head lettuces but those are being left alone so that they can mature into heads.   I harvested lettuces twice this week – on Friday and Sunday.

The two plantings of tatsoi were starting to bolt, so I harvested both of them this week.   The first bed was harvested on Tuesday and the final patch was cut on Saturday.

The winter sown spinach growing in containers with some onions were finally ready for harvesting this week.   I needed to get these out of the containers as the onions are needing more room, so this harvest was a singular event for this particularly planting.   The spinach was harvested on Thursday.

Harvest totals for the week of April 30th through May 6th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Lettuce 0.50 lbs
• Spinach 0.25 lbs
• Tatsoi 0.75 lbs

Total For Week 1.50 lbs

Total Year to Date 13.75 lbs

Eggs collected this week – 18

PLANTING CORN AND BEANS

The soil has warmed up considerably and the corn plants were hardened off and ready for transplanting, so on Sunday I prepped the bed they were to go into and got the corn (Precocious) planted.

I have posted many times on how I prep a bed for planting, so I will spare you the details of that process, but I did change one thing with this corn planting in that I used some composted chicken manure that I have had cooking in a separate pile, rather than the regular compost.   Corn is a heavy feeder and will benefit from the higher nitrogen levels of the chicken manure compost.   I only wish I had more of it.   What little I have left is being held in reserve to use sparingly in the planting holes of the zucchini, winter squash, and pumpkins when they are planted out in a week or so from now.   Speaking of the cucurbit plants, after delivering the remaining tomato starts to the Giving Garden on Saturday morning, there was enough freed up room in the greenhouse that I was able to move the cucurbit plants out to start hardening off.   There are several trays of them with many destined to also go to the Giving Garden.   Here’s a few of them in their new home in the greenhouse.

In addition to planting out the corn starts, I also planted beans (both bush and pole) on Sunday.   The soil is now warm enough to properly germinate bean seeds, and the forecast for the coming week is for very nice spring weather which should aid in the bean seeds germinating.   I put the bush beans in the retaining wall bed, which is next to the corn patch.   The front section was planted up in Venture and the back section was planted in Royal Burgundy.

Pole beans were planted on Sunday too.   I planted an 8 foot section in Fortex; a 4 foot section in Purple Podded; and a 4 foot section in Lazy Housewife - which is seed that was given to me by Larry in a seed swap.   The pole beans are planted in one of the narrow vertical grow beds behind some other crops I have growing there.   While I was planting in that bed, I also planted some Red Ace beets in a section vacated by the removal of the bolting tatsoi.

Hopefully the corn transplants will settle in well and the bean seeds will germinate quickly and with a minimum of open spots.   At this point, the garden is rapidly filling up and there are only a few odds and end locations and the last large bed of cucurbits to plant up.   Once the squash family plants are properly hardened off I will tackle getting those planted too.   Of the to do list items I posted on Friday, I managed to get done all but half of the carrot patch thinning and weeding; the weeding and cultivation; and I did not get any more carrots planted quite yet.   I should easily be able to get to those remaining “to do” items as well as getting the cucurbits planted out in the next week (give or take a day or two).

Laura

kitsapFG

For the past two weeks, other than harvesting I have had to largely ignore my garden.   Last weekend, I was traveling on business and the weekend before that we spent the whole weekend doing the annual landscaping rejuvenation and maintenance work.   In between I was quite busy at work.     So this evening when I did stroll in the garden to assess work priorities for the next few days, I found a lot of things that were begging for some attention.

Things have been growing lushly recently due to the alternating weather pattern we have been in for several weeks now.   We seem to get two or three days of bright sunshine and temperatures in the upper 60’s and even low 70’s, followed by three or four days of cool and rainy days.   The plants seem to love this - soaking in the sun and then rehydrating with the wet rains.   Even the tomatoes are doing fine with this as they are all still kept under cover during the cooler and damper days and as a result are staying relatively dry (which is truly one of the tricks to growing tomatoes in my cool and damp maritime climate).   I planted the tomatoes out three weeks ago and they have all settled in really well.   If the weather warms up and stays warmer these plants are poised to really take off with good growth.

On warm, sun filled days, I pull the cover off and let them enjoy unobstructed sunshine.   I noticed tonight that I have some suckers that need to be removed and I really need to prune some of the lower branches already.   Sunday we are supposed to alternate back to the couple of days of warm and sun in our pattern and I will take advantage of it by removing the cover and getting to the needed pruning.

The garden plants are not the only ones liking the weather pattern though.   I have a lot of garden beds that really need some cultivating and weeding and the walkways need to have the grass and weeds mowed down.   Here’s a picture of some young Bright Lights chard and behind it are some onions and you can see the abundance of emerging weeds that are growing in the bed.

The peas have been really growing well and are actually reaching the first of the two horizontal support layers. 

I will probably pull the bird netting off of the pea patch this weekend.   The plants are big enough now that the danger from birds is now past.   Notice in the pea patch pic that there is lots of grass growing in the walkways that needs to be trimmed and also notice the leaves scattered about.   The leaves are from a nearby tree that had a heavy load of ivy growing on it.   About a month ago we used a chain saw to cut the thick ivy vines growing up the tree – effectively killing the ivy in the tree.   In the last two weeks the ivy plant has finally given up and is dying and falling out of the tree which is good (and what we intended) but the darn leaves have been dumping into my garden on a steady basis as a result.   The older vertical grow bed is closest to this tree and has really been carpeted with dead ivy leaves.

This bed has the snap peas (very back portion next to the vertical support), lettuces, kale, tatsoi, cabbages, and celery growing in it.   You can see from this picture that I have been trying to clear the leaves out of the beds as much as possible, but the walkways are covered with them.   We are not done yet, as there is about half as much leaves yet to fall from the tree.    What a mess we created for ourselves!

The carrot patch has been growing under the cover of a lightweight garden blanket.   They look good but are in need of some weeding and some thinning - another task to add to my weekend “to do” list.

I did thin and weed the first planting of radishes recently during a morning garden walk before work.   They look happier for the attention and are growing well.

So here is the final list I have come up with of things that need attention in the garden:

• Prune the tomatoes and let them enjoy as much sun exposure as the weather allows before covering them up again
• Deliver the rest of the extra tomato starts to the Giving Garden on Saturday and then move the cucurbit family starts out to the greenhouse to start hardening off
• Remove the bird netting cover from the pea patch
• Weed and cultivate several beds where needed
• Use the push reel mower and knock down the grass in the walkways
• Keep removing the dead ivy leaves from the garden beds
• Thin and weed the carrot patch
• Give the onions, garlic, and artichokes a fish emulsion tea drench
• Prepare garden beds and plant (or transplant) – pole beans, bush beans, beets, more carrots, and corn

It’s a fairly long list but some of these will only take a few minutes to get done.   After largely being away from the garden for two weeks, I am anxious to spend what promises to be a pleasant weather weekend – getting caught back up on normal garden maintenance.

Laura

kitsapFG

CONTAINER PLANTINGS

For some inexplicable reason, I largely skipped using my containers to plant in last year with the exception of the three large containers used for the artichokes, and the peppers which were planted in containers in the greenhouse.   I have quite a few pots and they really do expand my growing options because they can be located anywhere that gets good sun and is otherwise not occupied.   This year, I have the containers being put to work and will likely add even more before the spring planting season is through.

On the deck I have four big black pots with two Window Box and two Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes in them.   One of the Silvery Fir Tree tomatoes already has quite a bit of fruit set on it.

Further down the deck there are two more big pots that have some Early Jalapeno peppers in them.   One of those has got a fruit set as well.

In between these tomatoes and peppers is a row of low rectangular planters.

The first two have some extra early started Ailsa Craig onions and some winter sown spinach.

The second two have several varieties of lettuce growing in them. You can tell I have recently harvested the Merlot (red) lettuce.

Saturday, I rejuvenated the soil in the large containers in the greenhouse and planted up the Lady Bell pepper plants.    I also planted one more Silvery Fir Tree tomato in the corner pot – tucking it in among some carrots that are already growing in that pot.

The green container in the first photo of these three is planted with some ginger root.   Not sure if this is going to work out in my growing region, but I have always wanted to give this a try.

The greenhouse also has the remaining tomato plants that are yet to be given away to my employees and to the Giving Garden.   The tomatoes are  on the saw horse table and laid out on the floor.   I need to get these to their new homes soon, as I need room to start hardening off the squash family plants in a week or so.

Growing crops in pots is a great way to increase the productive garden area and they can be very attractive too.

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!

The lettuces are growing beautifully right now and we are enjoying having green salads return as a fairly regular item on the menu again.   I have quite a few different varieties of lettuce growing at various places in the garden.

On Monday, I cut a nice bunch of leaf lettuce including some Merlot, which is a lovely deep red/burgundy leaf lettuce.

On Saturday, I cut another colander full of lettuces, this time some Bibb and Deer’s Tongue lettuce.

I also cut some rhubarb, which was promptly used to make rhubarb crisp - served warm with a little vanilla ice cream. (yum!)

Harvest totals for the week of April 23rd through April 29th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Lettuce 0.50 lbs
• Rhubarb 0.75 lbs

Total For Week 1.25 lbs

Total Year to Date 12.25 lbs

Eggs collected this week – 13

Laura

kitsapFG

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!

We enjoyed some gorgeous weather this weekend, but I used it to do the annual spring front yard flower beds and landscaping tidy up - rather than work in the vegetable garden.   There really is not much to be done in the garden at the moment anyways.   The warm weather crops are next to go in and it is still a bit early for most of them.   Everything else is growing along nicely and not needing any real attention at the moment.   The front yard on the other hand was in real need of renovation and maintenance.   We had purchased ten rhododendrons several weeks ago that needed to be planted out.   These were placed in the area that we recently logged, to start filling in the area with some color and some view screening of our adjacent neighbor’s property, without posing a potential sun blocking problem in future years.   We have some beautiful specimen rhododendrons in the back area of our property and we are hoping this front area will eventually look similar to it after these plants mature.

The planting bed that runs midway along the length of the front retaining wall was completely cleared out, the soil cultivated and amended, and then it was planted up with a variety of perennial plantings that are content to grow in the partial sun conditions that this bed experiences.

This was a complete rework of that planting area and it required planting more than 20 large plants.   It looks much improved with this makeover.   I also did some pruning of the three Japanese Red Maples in the front lawn area, and planted up the containers on the front deck and four hanging planters on a large free standing shepherds hook, with a variety of annuals and tender perennials.

Worked all weekend to get these tasks done so I could return my focus to my food production garden.   The work was well worth it as everything looks much better, but flowers and landscape plantings do not hold my interest nearly as much as growing beautiful food producing plants.

The harvests this week are starting to get a little more varied and interesting, which is good because the frozen and preserved supplies are starting to get thin and we increasingly need more fresh harvests to start replacing them.    On Monday I harvested some lettuce and chives but neither weighed enough to make my harvest tally minimums.   They were both used for that night’s dinner which was small pan seared rib eye steaks, green dinner salads, and fettuccini pasta tossed in garlicky melted butter and lots of finely chopped chives and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

On Wednesday I cut some pac choi and kale, which was used to make a stir-fry for dinner.

Sunday’s harvest was a big colander full of tatsoi, which was also used to make a stir-fry meal.

Harvest totals for the week of April 16th through April 22nd (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Chives 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest tally minimum)
• Kale 0.25 lbs
• Lettuce 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest tally minimum)
• Pac Choi 0.25 lbs
• Tatsoi 0.50 lbs

Total For Week 1.00 lbs

Total Year to Date 11.00 lbs

Eggs collected this week – 17

Laura

kitsapFG

PLANTING TOMATOES

My planting schedule had this weekend named as the one to plant out the hardened off tomatoes (with protective covers until the spring rains slow down and the temps warm up).   I always wait for a dry and warmish day in mid to late April to plant them out and I lucked out and got the perfect weekend to get this task completed.   I start my tomatoes early and set them out early (with protection) because I have found that with our region’s mild summer weather, having plants that are more mature and have fruit set going into the brief window of warm weather we typically have each summer, results in a greater chance of getting a decent harvest of ripe fruit before the cold rains of fall arrive in early September.   Our zone 8b average last frost date is mid-March, but the soil is not warm enough to plant out the tomatoes until mid-April. 

As with any planting process, the greatest amount of work in planting up the tomato patch is in the preparation of the garden beds.   I follow the same process I do with all my garden bed prep – starting with layering on some finished compost and broadcasting some balanced organic fertilizer.

Then I use the broadfork to aerate the soil, working down each side of the bed until it is fully worked up.

I then use a sharp hoe and cultivate the top few inches of soil to mix in the compost and the fertilizer.   The final step in bed preparation is to use a rake to smooth and level the entire bed.

It took me two hours of steady work to get the beds to this state of readiness.   After breaking for some lunch, I returned and began the tomato planting process by laying out the soaker hoses on the long bed that will have red plastic mulch on it.

The soaker hoses are then covered by the red plastic mulch, which is anchored with earth staples.

I then cut holes in the plastic at the locations where I will be planting tomatoes.   This is a 4’X24’ bed and I put 12 tomatoes in it – staggering them so they have good air circulation and have unobstructed exposure to the sun.

I then proceed with the transplanting.   I dig the holes and place the dirt in a small bucket.   Each hole is amended with a heaping tablespoon of ground up oyster shell (adds calcium), a level tablespoon of Epsom salts (water soluble magnesium), and 2 tablespoons of balanced organic fertilizer.   The amendments are mixed into the soil at the bottom of the hole and then the plant is put in place and the dirt is filled back in using the soil I set aside in the small bucket.   Any excess soil in the bucket is put in another garden bed that is currently empty.

The long bed was planted with 2 Stupice, 2 Purple Cherokee, 4 Defiant, and 4 Legend tomatoes.   The shorter bed ( 4’X12’ ) was planted with 6 Heinz 2653 tomatoes (paste/sauce variety).

The next step is to carefully place the cages into place.   With more mature transplants like I use, this can indeed be tricky as the plants are quite large and have more leaf branches.   Real care must be used in order not to damage the plants.   For the indeterminate tomatoes, I also place a ladder inside of the cage to provide more overall support to these taller plants.

The last step is to put the protective cover of plastic on over the long bed of tomatoes.   I have used this same sheet of plastic on the tomato bed for three years now and it is still going strong.

The 6 plants in the shorter bed were covered with individual tomato greenhouse covers.   Usually I would just cover these with some plastic as well, but I am trialing a new item this year and thought these would be good candidates for this single plant protection.

The 2 Window Box and 2 Silvery Fir tomatoes and the 2 Early Jalapeno Peppers I planted in containers on the deck on Saturday were also covered with these tomato greenhouses.

The container plantings were easier to put the covers on because the cage supports are smaller, which made sliding the covers on much easier.   The larger square cages in the garden were a tight fit and I ended up with some small tears in the plastic as a result.   I will be able to reuse the red plastic covers from the container plantings but sadly, I will have to cut it off of the larger cages in the garden bed - making it a one-time use item only for those.

During warm days the ends of the grow cover is opened up to allow cross ventilation and then closed back up again at night.   The tops of the tomato greenhouse covers can be opened up to similarly allow good ventilation.   On really bright sunny days, I remove the plastic cover altogether and let the tomatoes get as much direct sun as is possible – covering them back up before nightfall.   Once the weather consistently warms up and the spring rains are behind us, I remove the covers for the rest of the growing season.

HARVEST MONDAY

Each Monday, Daphne’s Dandelions hosts “Harvest Monday” where everyone submits links to their blog posts summarizing their harvest for the week.   It’s fun to see what people are producing from gardens from so many different regions, and how they are using it.   Check it out and join in too!

I harvested a few small pickings of lettuce this week that did not make harvest weight minimums or get photographed, but were enough to use in making soft tacos and to dress some blue cheese burgers with.   In addition, twice this week I harvested some fresh tatsoi leaves.

The first harvest was sauteed and used as a bed for chunks of chicken breast stir fried and tossed in a spicy Thai peanut sauce (served with cooked rice on the side).   The second harvest of tatsoi was chopped up and sautéed as part of a spaghetti and meat sauce that included the greens and some sautéed fresh sliced mushrooms.   Both were delicious meals and I am appreciating how fast the tatsoi bounces back after a harvest.

Harvest totals for the week of April 9th through April 15th (rounded to the nearest ¼ pound).

• Lettuce 0.00 lbs (not enough to make harvest tally minimum)
• Tatsoi 0.50 lbs

Total For Week 0.50 lbs

Total Year to Date 10.00 lbs

Eggs collected this week – 18

Laura

kitsapFG