Harvest

Writing about gardening takes me away from the garden, which I have too little time in as it is. Fortunately, it's raining now and I don't have any other chores that are too pressing. This morning was a big harvest. I have been remiss in noting previous harvests and still have not purchased a scale, so we will have to rely on estimates for my grand total. Unrecorded was the grocery bag full of Mache harvested at the beginning of the month and my first harvest of lettuce and spinach last week. This morning, I filled up two bags with three kinds of lettuce, (mostly Red Sails) spinach, orach and herbs. I'll give one bag to my friend Terri, 'cause I know she has a guest from out of town. I will keep the other bag for Tiz and me.

Over Memorial Day weekend I went to the Troy Farmers Market and the Menands Market in search of flowers for the cutting garden and pepper plants (particularly Poblanos) I didn't find Poblanos until my last stop at the Coop on the way home. The garden was busy when Tiz and I planted the flowers on Sunday. I think we spent twice as much time talking as we did planting. She cut her first bouquet, which consisted of chive blossoms and the flowers from my cover crop of crimson clover! Good deal for a cover crop, it fixes nitrogen in the soil, you can eat it - I added some flowers to the salad, but to be honest, they tasted a bit hay-like - and its beautiful. This fall I will be better prepared and make sure the area to be planted in tomatoes for the following spring will be seeded entirely to clover, so that I have a big patch to leave in bloom and still have time to turn it over before planting. I have started too many tomatoes to fit into this year's patch so I'm at a loss. 

Here is a list of planting that occurred today and over the holiday weekend. Today I planted spinach (Whale) in the spaces between the peppers I planted last weekend. I also planted two types of melon, Prescott Fond Blanc and Eden's Gem. Planting melons is completely wasteful in such a small space, but I will grow them up a trellis. For me they are a tribute to my grandfather, who made them his specialty and sold them at market. Growing melons well in the north is difficult and the space I have allotted to them means I will only harvest a handful of them for all my efforts. Although I promised to keep an accounting of what food came from the garden, I'm not about to turn mercenary about the whole thing, it takes all kinds of nourishment to feed the soul.

Anyways, back to planting. So far, of my many tomato varieties, I have planted: Amish Paste, Health Kick, Cherokee Purple (2), Kellogg's Breakfast, First Lady, Orange Banana and a tomatillo. The peppers planted were: Jalapeno, Hidalgo, Anaheim, Poblano and Early Red, a quick-turning sweet bell pepper. I also planted a six pack of some white cauliflower I picked up along the way, they were planted near the broccoli and romaine lettuce that were put in a few weeks back. I inter planted radicchio Fiero in with the cauliflower. 

My free time is gone now and I must run. I will post more pictures taken today later.

The Best Laid Plans

It was a perfect night for planting, the soil was warm; the sky threatened rain. I had my carrots, my beans, my lettuce and cukes. The ground was mostly turned. All I had to do was put the seeds in the ground. But where?

One of the reasons for this blog is to keep a record. Most every piece of ground in my garden had two crops grown on it last year, much of it supported three. For example a portion of the third row had: lettuce, followed by green beans, followed by radishes. To be a good organic gardener it is essential to rotate crops, so that plants of the same family don't follow after the other, creating a buildup of pests or disease associated with that plant family in the soil. Unfortunately, two major plant families, the brassicas and the nightshades account for a majority of the favorite garden crops, throw in the squashes and it seems impossible to find  a place to grow anything without running into problems. The nightshades are supposed to have 2-4 years between planting. The negotiations required to keep peppers, tomatoes and potatoes off the same ground in a plot my size are more than difficult, they are impossible.

Last night I planted Kentucky Wonder Bush Beans and French Breakfast Radishes. The radishes were planted in a row between the Red Baron Onions, I'm hoping the onions will keep the flea beetles at bay. In the spots where earlier I planted radishes and kohlrabi, I gave up the losing battle against the flea beetles. I turned the soil over and planted again. There I planted Burpee's Golden Beets and one of my favorite lettuces from last year, Speckles. Speckles is a succulent butterhead-type heirloom, with soft green leaves covered in tiny maroon spots. I think it is best harvested at the size of a softball when its coloring is most distinctive and its texture is just right. 

Off to work. I will continue the crop rotation discussion later, revealing my primitive and ineffective method. 

Rose Finn Apple

My fingerling potato is so classy it has three names. I didn't quite get it right last time so I thought I would make a correction. Not knowing about potatoes I perused the web for good info on planting. I found the advice here and then ignored it. Not ignored really, but failed to follow correctly. Instead of properly preparing the seed potatoes when they arrived, I just put them in the basement and forgot about them. 

When it came time to cut the potatoes into their one-inch pieces (each containing at least one eye) It was easy to see where the eyes were, because they had already sprouted. I followed the directions and put the cut pieces into a paper bag, but shaking the bag, as instructed, is clearly out of the question. The sprouts are an inch or two long and I'm afraid I will break them. I have made do with a gentle tumble and a small prayer that I am not breaking off tender shoots and cutting short the promising life of tasty taters. I'm going to plant them a little sooner than recommended as well, because I will be away this weekend and I'm afraid of what they will look like by Monday.

Fortunately The Keuka Gold are egg- sized and don't need to be cut up. 

Last night I went to the garden after work. I weeded and mulched the raspberries and planted sets of broccoli and romaine lettuce. I planted them together, because I noticed last year that the cole crops (brassicas) did best when they were interplanted with other vegetables, it seemed to reduce the feeding of the flea beetles. There was a dramatic growth difference between a row of broccoli planted alone and the one right next to it planted in combination with lettuce. I think the difference in leaf color confused the flea beetles enough to put them off their feed.   

Rain and Potatoes

The drought broke with a week of cool and wet that has lingered, pulling our first true April weather into May. This week starts a warming trend. The garden has loved rain and relief from the heat and will be ready now, I think, to take advantage of the coming week's warmth.

Weather and obligations have kept me from doing much in the garden. Tizzy and I went down last night and I planted carrot seeds (Little Fingers and Scarlet Nantes,) while she planted out some herb sets (chamomile and parsley)

Since my last post I have also put out sets of Cauliflower (Violet Queen) and Leek (American Flag) I have been lax in recording planting dates in the house, so I can't say when my sets were started. In the past two weeks I started a French baby leek from seed and Swiss chard seeds in recycled containers, the leek probably two weeks ago and the chard last week.

I promised to talk of potatoes. Last summer I went to an event sponsored by NOFA-NY where organic vegetable variety trials were evaluated. There were taste tests involved, I sampled nearly 50 potatoes, 30 tomatoes and 20 different open pollinated melons. The potato I liked the best was Caribe, with bright purple skin and equally bright white flesh. To round out my order from Fedco this spring I ordered Keuka Gold, a selection from Cornell meant to rival Yukon Gold's appeal, but to be a better producer. YK is renowned among growers as having a terrible yield. Farmers there spoke well of Keuka, though several were vehement in their dislike of YK, saying its taste and texture were sub-par. They all bowed to Martha Stewart, though and the power of the market place, YK is the potato with the strongest brand recognition. They grow what sells. I also ordered some fingerlings (Rose Finn) This marks my beginnings as a potato farmer, which I promise to continue to discuss, because I have already made some errors and the tubers are not even in the ground yet. Later though, I have to go earn my daily bread.