Fractured Fairy Tales

Gardening is difficult on crutches. Leeks made it into the garden on one visit. On the 17th I planted tomatoes my father had given me as well as a few I bought at Community Gardens' spring plant sale - a fundraiser I should have noted! I promise to be better about such things. The fall plant sale happens in mid-September. I will announce that before it happens.

Along those lines and fitting with my inability to feed myself - The Veggie Mobile has garnered some international attention and needs our support. From an email sent to me:

Subject: Community Gardens’ project nominated as worldwide finalist - vote now!

Capital District Community Gardens’ Veggie Mobile has been selected as one of ten finalists in a worldwide competition called “Designing for Better Health” sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Ashoka’s Changemakers.
Internet ballots will decide the three highest vote-getters by May 28th and winners will receive a $5,000 cash award and international recognition for their project. This is a tremendous opportunity for our organization, our mobile market – The Veggie Mobile, and for New York’s Capital Region!
Now we need your help. Please use this link to vote for our program and share this link with your personal networks (email, facebook, myspace, blogs, etc.). If everyone we know gets in touch with everyone they know we will win this award.
Every vote will make a difference - thanks for helping to spread the word! Please vote by May 28th.
http://www.changemakers.net/designingforbetterhealth/
More info on Capital District Community Gardens and The Veggie Mobile www.cdcg.org

The Veggie Mobile rocks! I buy great food at great prices and am charmed by the staff nearly every week. They have kept veggies in my life even when I can't grow them myself. As the corrupt politicos like to say: "Vote early and vote often."

Oh, I harvested Spinach and radishes on the 17th as well. Tizzy served them up as a lovely side salad to go with the grilled fish we had. The fish was topped with mango salsa - mango, peppers and limes off of the Veggie Mobile!

Planting

On 4/11 I planted a row of spinach Winter Bloomsdale, Three types of lettuce: Mint Fresh, Really Red Deer Tongue and Buttercrunch alongside two rows of radish: Champion and White Icicle.

I also lined out 24 sets of baby Bok Choy and planted two rows of Chiogga beets. In hopes of deterring the flea beetles I scattered mesclun mix between the Bok Choy.

Our Spring Cleanup was on the 17th. This is where all the gardeners get together to perform chores for the benefit of the garden as a whole, mulching paths, cleaning up the fence line, straightening up the shed, etc. I showed up late and was of little use, because I fractured my ankle earlier in the week. I plopped myself down though and spread some newspapers on an overgrown path, which Tiz brought wheelbarrows of mulch to cover.

Fortunately on the 18th some friends showed up to help me in the garden. I took up a spot on the ground of a long-abandoned plot and Marcus and Sue turned over the earth, while I cleaned out the roots of Jerusalem Artichoke and Road Lily (of which one is not an artichoke and the other has little in common with the true lilies) Actually both plants are edible, but the variety of artichoke wild in our garden has such small roots that its not worth the trouble. Neither of them make nice companions with other vegetables because they are so invasive. I separated out the daylily roots for Sue to take with her, because they do make a great ground cover and she needed them for a tough spot in her garden. Sue and Mark did great work and I will have them to thank when I plant potatoes there in a few weeks. 

Then I hobbled over to my plot and planted out hundreds of onions. I made a cooperative order with friends at work from an onion grower in Texas and we received bundles of little onion plants wrapped up in rubber bands in the mail. By combining our orders, we brought the cost down to about a nickel a plant. A good rain fell on Monday and Tuesday to settle them in so I assume they are doing well. I haven't made it back to the garden since. This is a bad time for a gardener to have a busted up ankle!

I planted two red onions and three yellow. Candy and Red Candy are two large varieties that are sweet summer onions, not meant for storage. Ailsa Craig is a very large onion also, but it is supposed to store alright. This onion is named for an island. After looking it up to check the spelling I can see why. My main storage onions will be Copra and Red Zeppelin. All together I planted about 180 plants. Sue came over to help me finish up and she planted about a pound of Yellow Moon shallot sets in the same section. This whole row of the garden is devoted to onions. I still have two types, maybe three, of leeks to plant out and red Prisma shallots that I have started from seed.

I am interested to compare my success with these tiny plants compared to the much larger sets I used last year, sets planted out about a week later on the 23rd. To make room for the onions Tess and I harvested the overwintered Mache, which she made a beautiful salad with. She included pears and nuts and a mild vinaigrette. Delicious.

Yesterday and today we are having nearly 90 degree temperatures. Much too hot for April. Yesterday was the hottest since 1915.  

Time and Making Timing

Went to the garden on Saturday with good intentions. But it was cold and the wind was blowing and the soil was wet from rain. 

In the upper right corner you can see my block of garlic. if there was a close up you would see that the late- planted Bavarian White had almost caught up to its peers.

The white blanket is remay. I use it to moderate temperatures and maintain moisture. During the summer I cover carrot plantings with it so they don't dry out before germination. In the fall it provides protection from frost and freezes.

Now, in the spring, it holds the day's warmth a little longer into the night and encourages the spinach to sprout.

I have been using this same piece of remay for two years now. I think it will last for several more.

I wish I had taken a thin strip of it and covered the peas. They are just barely above the ground. Both plantings, although made of different varieties, planted a week apart, are equally far along.

Timing is everything. 

 

First whole day of spring. Recovering from a brutal cold, I went out when the sun was well up and the frost gone from the soil. The ground that I worked last week was black and fine, warmed by a week of sun and a gentle rain.

No sign of the peas planted on Sunday, so I poked about at the beginning of the row. I turned up a pea all swollen and green just splitting open and sending out its root. I tucked it back in the ground.

In the prepared bed I planted two types of spinach, Bordeaux and Viroflay; mache Gala, a white bunching onion for scallions and a Treviso type of radicchio. After planting I covered the entire area with a doubled piece of remay.

I planted another patch of peas, this time in a double row. These are a later and taller variety called Oregon Sugar Pod. I will wait a few weeks to put up the pea trellis so that it doesn't create any more shade than necessary. I planted the double row closer than recommended, closer to one foot than two, in order to leave plenty of room in the rest of the bed. I will thin the peas and use the thinnings as pea shoots in my spring salads. As the peas begin to age I will plant cucumbers among them, so the trellis remains useful.

I weeded last year's mache and am curious to see how the spring sown plants do in comparison. Where the mache et al was planted I left the very center of the bed clear. I hope to put out very early tomatoes in that row, with a bit of plastic over them to see if I can manage a tomato crop by July 15. I need to check my records, but I think that's when I got my first tomato last year. But it was only one, the rest of the crop was two-three weeks later.

Inside I have started leeks (3 types) and shallots, bok choy, cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. I also started an early tomato variety and several types of lettuce. I will plant more lettuce and tomatoes this week

Yesterday we enjoyed the first blasts of spring. It was nearly 50 and sunny. The ball fields were full of anxious players and I was just as anxious to get started gardening. First I did some clean up, removing the last of the fall crops I hadn't harvested. The clean up turned into a gleaning as I managed to salvage leeks, turnips and carrots. I took them home and roasted them with herbs and some Veggie Mobile goodies I had in the fridge. After roasting they went in the blender with a bit of stock and Viola! a delicious soup. I had it for lunch today. My first harvest of the season on March 15th, substantial and delicious!

The Garlic is up. The Bavarian White, which was planted several weeks later than most, is barely above ground, the other varieties have several inches head start. Self-seeded mache is growing nicely where it was planted the fall before last.  

Before I went to the garden I looked for the planting plan I drew up a month back - of course I could not find it. So I relied on my memory as to where I meant to plant peas. I planted Sugar Daddy, a dwarf edible-podded pea that is supposed to bear in 45 days. If I am lucky I will have peas in May! It is supposed to remain warm this week, so its possible, doubtful, but possible. I prepped a bed for mache and spinach, which I hope to plant tomorrow. Hope springs eternal!

The Rest of the Story

With my respects to Paul Harvey. I thought you might appreciate a tour of the changing world. After so many years crying in the wilderness, it seems the powers that be are starting to hear our teeny-tiny voices of systemic and sustainable change.

Perhaps you heard the First Lady thinks local food is good tasting food, perfect for inspiring children to eat their veggies? She even took time to mention community gardens by name. It turns out the prez himself has been known to eat his veggies and the White house lawn may soon be a vegetable garden.

When chosen to head the USDA, Tom Vilsack, former governor of Iowa, was given some Bronx cheers by the sustainable agriculture folks, who called him the governor from Monsanto. But it turns out he may have a personal history that makes him very amenable to understanding the consequences of a food system based on corn syrup. In an interview for internal publication within the USDA Vilsack really spills his guts.

The praise for Vilsack has actually been coming in recent weeks from those who previously would have buried him. It seems he chose a woman of impeccable sustainable qualifications as his second in command, Kathleen Merrigan.

In a GMO update: Ag Giants are attempting to keep their hands firmly on the reins, trying to persuade the world that their genetically modified crops are essential to the future of the planet, but the scientists are no longer inclined to go along. Research is starting to indicate GMO foods may be dangerous not just for the people or animals that eat them, but for the earth itself.

I just thought you all might want to know!

As you may have gathered, I am a latecomer to the computer world. (hence the bold type on the last post. I really didn't mean for that to happen) For some time now I have been trying to get this blog to accept comments. All of the obvious steps have been taken, this problem should not be a problem - and yet it is. I think I must go deep into the Html code that supports this enterprise to resolve the issue. I wish I could ask you, dear reader for your advice - but, this blog does not seem to accept comments. The fact that I have even peered into the Html code - something I don't even know what the initials stand for - should strike fear into all of our hearts. If the Internet collapses suddenly......