More fall plantings

After more traveling for both pleasure and work I finally found some time to finish planting the seedlings I purchased at the end of last month and do some general gardening. Even though we've had some chilly weather, Brendan and I both spent the early afternoon playing in the garden today--he replanted some of our succulents (his favorite plants in the garden) and I got our new kale in the ground and moved a couple unhappy plants to (hopefully) better locations.

Because the Toscano kale from last season did so well in our yard I put in another six-pack, along with a new variety that is supposed to get red in cold weather, but turns green when cooked. I cut down the leggy stalks of last season's Toscano and hopefully it will come back in again this year (Dad recommends that I cut them off, the person I talked to at BHN said to replace them with new seedlings, so we’ll see what happens!). To continue to try to salvage our clay soil I worked in last year’s mulch and added a full bad of WonderGrow compost. Hopefully this will help them continue to be pretty pest-resistant (while the Toscano was quite hardy it did attracted aphids a couple of times). I will have to continue to be on the lookout for slugs and snails though since they feasted on the pumpkin in the same plot and had already started to munch on the seedlings before I got them in the ground.

Halloween planting

Despite being sick this weekend, I found some energy to purchase some new cold weather crops and get some of them into the ground. I decided to try broccoli again this season, but instead of getting some of the more visually interesting varieties I picked last year, I bought a heartier variety and amended the soil in the plot more this year. I turned over all the top soil, incorporating last year's mulch into the soil and applied new compost to try to keep improving our lovely clay soil. I decided to use WonderGrow organic compost from American Soil & Stone (a local supplier we get our potting soil from) since it worked well on the tomatoes we planted earlier this summer. I also planted some lettuce in the same plot--I talked to someone at BHN and they said now is better time to plant lettuce to avoid bolting, so we'll see. I also put in variety of beets in this plot and finally get around to planting the sweet pea seeds from last season's plants so we'll have lovely fragrant flowers again, come spring.

I didn't kill them all!!

After several months of neglect I’m thrilled that some of my vegetables are actually thriving! The tomatoes continue to be star of the yard, with several of the plants climbing higher than the fence, and producing plenty of fruit. The Sungolds are still a favorite of all who try them and even though they were the first to produce they continue to be heavy producers. The Maglia Rosa and Juliets have also been heavy producers with big beautiful bunches. Spike has been surprising guests with a slightly smoky flavor and interesting colors. The Italian Tree has lived up to its name and is now over a foot taller than the fence and has been a late producer. Now that it has started putting on fruit it has started to produce quite large beautiful dense red/pink tomatoes. The last to be planted, purchased from the Edible Schoolyard fundraising event, has just started to put on a fruit, so hopefully we’ll be able to extend our harvest with this later planting.

Juliet elongated cherry

Spike

clockwise from top: Spike, Juliet elongated cherry, Sungold Cherry, Maglia Rosa

The squashes have done less well and haven’t produced fruit that didn’t shrivel up and fall off the plant until now! The White Lebanese has two potential squashes that have significantly outgrown the others that have been turning yellow and shriveling up. Even though it says it can withstand harsh conditions something has made this squash and the zucchini quite unhappy. I don’t think the zucchini is going to produce anything. I think the next time I try squash I will have to compost and mulch more enthusiastically.



The pumpkin has also struggled; slugs have been nibbling away at each fruit it tries to produce so while I wish I could have an all organic yard I chose to save the pumpkin from the slugs instead of having no pumpkins. So now there is finally one fruit that seems to be holding on and we may actually get a pumpkin this year. Granted it will likely be quite petit given its substantially shortened growing time, but hopefully we’ll get something!

The wax beans unfortunately did not survive the slug attacks and while we did get a couple of beans that were beautiful and quite tasty, they were devoured by the time we got back from vacation this summer. I’d love to try them again and hopefully with a little bit more care they will do a little bit better.

The kale continues to produce and while they look like umbrellas, they are still producing well, still tasty and hopefully it will continue to thrive. The plan is to let them produce for a little bit longer and then cut the stalks down in October/November and let them grow back. I may even plant some more since it’s clearly quite happy.

Last, and unfortunately least, the peppers have been nibbled on regularly by the deer we’ve discovered are visiting the yard while we sleep and haven’t really done anything. We’re still trying to find a solution for the deer visits…

Tomatoes!

Not only have the tomato plants taken off, but actual tomatoes have started to appear! I noticed a couple Sungold a couple weeks ago and they are hard to miss now as they turn such a beautiful deep orange, but I was thrilled to go out today and discover green globules on Spike, the Maglia Rosa and the Juliet. I can't wait for the Sungolds to be ready--they are days away from perfection!

Birthday Gardening

For my birthday this year I decided that the best gift my parents and Brendan could give me was a day helping me in the yard. After years of father's days weeding and doing whatever other garden chore my dad requested I figured it was my turn! We'd picked out a spot in the yard that would be perfect for growing tomatoes and peppers, but it needed some work (existing plants moved/removed, path reset, considerable slope dealt with, etc...):


So dad and I devised a plan for the space, Brendan and I schlepped some very heavy basalite retaining wall bricks from Home Depot and I promised my workers a lovely Easter brunch in return for their manual labor. My parents picked out some interesting tomato varieties that they had success with in the past or had heard good things about and I started my pepper seedlings from seeds I'd saved last summer from a variety of peppers from the farmer's market. On Saturday afternoon my friend Erin who was in town visiting for the weekend helped me weed and pull out the existing plants the day before so we were ready for birthday gardening. After a lovely Easter brunch (which included egg shaped lemon poppy seed muffins with different colored lemon glazes, much tastier than colored hard-boiled eggs in my opinion) we covered ourselves in sun screen and started digging...

A couple hours later and we had reset the path so it's now nice and level, shored up the slope and created a nice bed for the veggies, attached 6 tomato cages to the fence for the plants to climb up and fertilized and mulched the new bed. We still need a couple more bricks to finish the wall and we're waiting for my pepper seedlings to be ready to finish the planting, but I'm thrilled with the result and we can't wait for fresh ripe tomatoes straight from the yard!

Spring arrives

I love this time of year as everything come to life after winter. On each walk through the neighborhood there is more and more color everywhere, from the freesias exploding in bright, bold yellows, pinks and purples to the pear tree in our yard putting out delicate white flowers. Even my favorite weed, Kenilworth Ivy, is starting to bloom and the Graffiti Cauliflower is starting produce gorgeous purple heads that almost look like flowers.

Unfortunately my Swiss Chard got some sort of caterpillar that has burrowed into almost all the leaves and laid eggs on them too. So I've cut out all the leaves with any sign of caterpillar and sprayed them down with an organic insecticide I found (Safer brand Insect Killing Soap) and hopefully the next bunch of leaves will be caterpillar-free.

There was finally enough kale on all 6 plants to cook and share with some friends and it was great. It was much more tender and a little less bitter than store bought. Here is the recipe I found that used several of the ingredients I typically keep stocked in my pantry:

Pasta With White Beans and Kale

Ingredients
2 1/2 cups uncooked radiatore pasta, (or rigatoni, penne)
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 (7-ounce) bottle roasted red bell peppers, drained and diced
12 cups coarsely chopped kale (about 1/2 pound)
1 (16-ounce) can cannellini beans or other white beans, drained
8 oz crumbled feta
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (or red wine vinegar)
1/4 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper
6 tablespoons grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Preparation
Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain pasta in a sieve over a bowl, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid; set pasta aside.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add minced garlic and sliced bell peppers, and saute 1 minute. Add kale and cannellini beans; cover and cook 5 minutes or until kale is wilted, stirring occasionally. Add cooked pasta, crumbled feta, reserved cooking liquid, 1 tablespoon oil, lemon juice, and pepper, and stir well. Spoon the pasta mixture into serving bowls, and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

Veggies in Bloom

So my bolting broccoli is now flowering--no yummy Romanesco for us this season. Even though I tried to keep the soil cool after I noticed that the plant had started to bolt, there was nothing I could do. I'm trying to the cauliflower as cool as possible, but I'm concerned that the spot I picked wasn't ideal since I didn't realize how much afternoon sun this part of the yard was going to get since this is our first spring in this home. This fall I'm going to try to pick a different spot with more morning sun, less afternoon sun which should help according to the folks at BHN and possibly plant earlier.


I know Outback has a bloomin' oinion, but I much prefer my blooming green onion--I forgot how fun onion flowers are. And my chives look like they will be next!

Where did it all go?!

No matter how many times I cook greens I always forget how a lovely big bunch of greens disappears so quickly in a hot pan. I brought in a big bunch of our bright green and orange Swiss Chard for Brendan and I to enjoy last night. Into the pan with more garlic than most people can tolerate (yum!), and the lid goes on. Moments later, when it was ready to add a splash of red wine vinegar and its almost all gone! Luckily our small servings of chard were delicious, I really enjoyed the slightly mellower taste of this variety and the bright orange stems sure are pretty, even after cooking. I'm glad I waited for it to grow some more--I thought it was never going to get any bigger. Next time I'm planting at least twice as much!

Sunday Gardening

Since the rain has finally stopped I have a chance to get out in the yard again. Since we ate the last of the Mixed Lettuce planted in October last night at dinner I bought some Buttercrunch/Bibb lettuce to replace it and planted that this afternoon. Since the soil is pretty dense clay I mixed in some sand to see if that helps with drainage. I also added some vegetable food into the soil too since I think the soil is still repairing itself after bearing barren for who knows how long. We'll see if that helps my new little lettuces.

I also noticed that my broccoli is starting to flower unfortunately. I guess with that heat spell we had the soil got too hot and it started to bolt. I found this article on growing cold weather crops and keeping the soil cool, so I'm going to try to keep it cooled down with cold water and may have to shade them if we keep getting so much sun. I pinched off most of the flowering part and after such a sunny day I'm going to put some ice cubes on top of the much between the plants to slowly cool down the soil. I was really looking forward to eating some of this fun spiral variety so hopefully I'll be able to salvage some of it.

Strawberries

The strawberries I planted in my herb pot on the deck fared well during the winter and have started to produce flowers and the first signs of fruit. the fruit was anemic last fall, but it was late in the season and I was surprised it fruited at all. With the upcoming change to daylight savings and more daylight I will probably have to find them a sunnier spot to get really good fruit.

Valentine's Day "Flowers"

This morning brought a lovely surprise my my wonderful fiance! He has really started getting interested in succulents--something I've always loved and that my parents have been collecting for years. When we started gardening here in Berkeley we started growing a collection of succulents in a planter box on the deck, and every once in a while he would come home with a new cutting of something that caught his eye on his walk to and from the UC Berkeley campus for us to start growing. Before he would let me get out of bed this morning he ran out to get what I thought were just the couple of chocolates I had requested, but got a basket full of succulent cuttings as well--over 100 cuttings, 12+ varieties, all different colors. I was thrilled, and he was clearly excited about our expanded collection as well! i couldn't have asked for a better Valentine's "bouquet!"

Broccoli!

We have broccoli! I am so excited!! During my morning, half-asleep wander through the yard as I enjoy my first cup of tea I discovered our first bit of romanesco broccoli peaking through the big lovely leaves. And now all I want to do is watch it grow!

Crazy Greens

I'm not quite sure what went wrong...but I have lettuce that is climbing for the sky and swiss chard that refuses to get any taller. Granted nothing had been planted in this bed for quite some time so the soil was dried out and totally neglected, but I still don't get why these two plants, side-by-side in the ground are having suck different reactions. The romaine lettuce refuses to grow in an actual head, but intead is growing taller and taller, and the other varieties are barely growing at all.

Luckily, they still taste good! I was amazed by how different home-grown lettuce tastes then store bought, even lettuce from the farmers market. Instead of mild mannered, sometime wattery romain, we have hartier lettuce with much more flavor, better texture and much more vivid colors.

So far we are only eating the romain and a little of the red leaf while we wait for the other varieties take their time getting established. The swiss chard we haven't tried yet since it still refuses to grow, so we're giving it some more time.