The Modern "Victory Garden"

March is a trying month in the gardening year.   The beginnings of the season are underway but the dangers of pushing too close to the “season extending edge” is high.   Even worse, the temptation to do so is fed by the dearth of fresh harvests offered up from a winter weary garden.   After a long dark season of living largely off of preserved and stored items and winter garden harvests composed largely of root crops - the lure of fresh spring greens is strong.                           

I use season extending tricks on both ends of the growing season, early spring and late fall, but I am most aggressive with the spring season.   An old gardening friend of mine (who had tremendous experience to back up his advice) once told me that if I did not lose at least a few plants in the spring and fall that I was not pushing the season extending process nearly hard enough.   This year I feel like I am living close to the season extending edge - but so far have not pushed beyond it.    The question then is…am I really pushing the season extension to the real limits?         

Last weekend, I posted about prepping the garden for a forecasted cold snap (a typical March occurrence).   The forecasts turned out to be quite accurate and the next day we had temperatures drop almost 20 degrees below the highs and lows we had been experiencing for the preceding many weeks.    Much of the garden was already protected but I covered up the freshly planted onions, kale, cabbages, and pac choi.   The Merlot lettuce (seeds from Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog) were also transplanted last weekend, but placed in a container that is currently residing in the unheated greenhouse.   Tonight after work, I did a quick inspection of everything to see how all of the plantings were doing.   I am pleased to report that everything is looking quite sturdy and unaffected by the colder conditions.   The spinach patch has newly emerged seedlings and they are growing and getting substantial enough that they are now clearly visible growing in the garden bed.   The kale, cabbages, and pac choi are clearly recovered from the transplanting and are looking sturdier than the day I set them out and the onion seedlings are similarly looking just fine.   The Merlot lettuces looked a little limp immediately after I transplanted them on Sunday, but they looked quite perky this evening despite the decided chill.           

The super early tomatoes (Siletz) have graduated to the unheated greenhouse during the day and are enjoying a daily trip into the house at night for protection.   The daytime temps the past three days have been quite chill but they seem to be thriving on this regimen despite that.   They continue to put on new growth and are starting to harden up from the constant handling and exposure to colder conditions.   Here’s a picture of them this evening sitting on top of our wood stove (no worries – there is no fire in the stove tonight!).   Sorry the pictures tonight are not as clear as usual but evening indoor shots without a flash tend to be a little more “fuzzy” and lower quality.               

There is always a runt or two in every crop of tomatoes and peppers each year.   I call them my Charlie Brown plants because like the pathetic little Christmas tree in the Peanuts Christmas special – all they really seem to need is just a little extra TLC to live up to their potential.   The littlest super early tomato (on the right in the picture) is one of those little characters.   He is lagging behind his brothers but not failing – just not thriving like they are.   All the plants have been exposed to the same conditions, same care, but you can see that there is quite a difference between them in growth.   It’s really a mystery why this regularly occurs.   I suppose it is just a product of that plant’s genetic inheritance?      

I have yet to lose anything this year as a result of pushing the season extension too far.   I shouldn’t really admit that though, because as soon as I do I know something will go sufficiently wrong to prove me quite premature in my declaration!   Gardens and children have a keen ability for keeping us humble on a regular basis.

How are you doing in managing through the usual March madness?

This coming weekend is a fairly big one in my seed-starting schedule.   Mid February is when I start my spring crops of broccoli and swiss chard, and the main crops of celery and tomatoes.   The tomatoes are the biggest part of that mix because I am not only starting seedlings for my own garden, but for my sister’s garden as well.   Over the past several year’s it has become a bit of a tradition that I also gift my staff at work with free tomato (and later pepper) starts.   That tradition started because (at a minimum) I start at least twice as many plants as I actually want to go into the garden.   I substantially over plant (particularly tomatoes) because there are so many opportunities for seedling death along the journey from seed to productive plant – poor germination, seedling diseases, repotting shock, and death from problems once the seedlings actually go into the garden proper.   Not to mention the occasional mishap death such as the time I accidentally tripped while carrying a large tray of beautiful seedlings – flipping them over so they landed upside down and crushed the entire lot of them.   It happens.   Some years you lose a lot along the way, other years hardly any.   So I mitigate my risk by planting at least twice as much as I need and then once I am sure all my needs (and my sister’s) have been taken care, I give the rest of the seedlings away to my staff, co-workers and several friends.   This annual spring plant give away has become so popular that I plant even more than the doubled amount, just to be sure I will not disappoint by not having any extras.         

For 2010 I need 36 tomato plants (composed of several varieties) to cover my sister’s needs and my own.   I will be planting a total of 144 plants (or 2 full trays of twelve 6-packs) to provide for our actual needs, loss protection, and the big plant give away.   In addition, I will also be starting 24 broccoli, 24 celery (2 varieties), and 24 swiss chard plants – basically doubling the amount of each that I actually need.   Combined, I will have three full trays of 72 planting cells each.   In preparation for this weekend, I set the trays out and filled them with the empty plastic starter cells.    

I have enough plastic starter cells for this current wave of seed starting, but am getting very low on them.   I reuse them over and over again, but occasionally they just get so worn out or damaged that I have to discard them.   Apparently, there has been enough attrition that I am getting down to a somewhat low supply of them.   I may have to stop by the local nursery center soon and pick up a few to shore up my inventory again.   As for larger sized pots used later for repotting, I have quite a big stash of those due to the generosity of several people who know I use them and bring me their extras - which I then rinse out and reuse (many times!).

Lots of seeds to get started this weekend, but there are also lots of seedlings that are in the shop from the first couple of waves of seed starting.   The kale and Chinese cabbages that I started in mid December will be moved out to the green house this coming weekend where they will permanently take up residence.   The Merlot lettuce that I planted last Saturday from seeds sent to me by Dan at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog – are showing some really good emergence.   As of this evening (Wednesday), all the cells have at least one plant emerging.   

The super early tomato crop (Siletz) planted on January 22nd is coming along nicely.   They are forming their first true leaves.                       

The onions (Walla Walla and Candy) that were planted on January 17th worried me a little because initially the germination was not strong in two out of the four containers.   They seem to have gotten with the program though and all four trays now have a good stand of onion seedlings in them.

The lettuces (Super Gourmet Blend) and pac choi (Ching Chiang) that were planted at the same time as the onions are also coming along well.                      

Not pictured but also doing well – are the kale (Improved Dwarf Siberian) and cabbages (Tronchuda and Savoy Ace) that I started on January 30th. 

Things get a lot busier from here on out.   The shop growlight set up will be full up with seed trays, the greenhouse will start absorbing the overflow as I shuffle older plants out of the way to make room for the next wave of seed starting, and the garden bed prep tasks will ramp up in preparation for the first early crop plantings.                            

For those of you starting your own seedlings this year, how are things progressing for you?

We have had a long string of record setting cold days this past week.   Approximately 10 days of over night lows of 18 degrees or lower and day time temperatures that did not make it up to freezing level.   The coldest temp I observed at our place was 12 degrees.   While we get these cold snaps occasionally, they usually happen in late January and early February – not in December.   I was not as proactive in response to the forecast warnings as I should have been.   I missed my opportunity to put some grow tunnel covers up over the outside beds at the outset of the cold snap.   There really are not very many crops in the outside beds that are not winter hardy and/or belowground in soil storage (carrots and parsnips).   However, by not covering the semi hardy crops I pretty much sentenced them to death by freezing.   I have been going to work and returning home at night in the dark, so it was not until Saturday morning that I was able to make a good assessment of the damage.                                         

The celery had been going for an extremely long period of time this fall, but the extreme cold (and for a period of many days) definitely finished them off.      

The lettuces are similarly (not surprisingly) completely taken down by the freeze as well.   The kale behind them looks a little ragged too but holds the promise of a potential bounce back.

The brussel sprouts have just a few more harvests of sprouts left on them.    They were pretty frozen on Saturday morning but are such hardy plants that I was not despairing of them being down for good.             

This afternoon (Sunday) the temperature actually moved up to 40 degrees and while the ground is still frozen solid, the plants had a chance to unthaw.     As I expected, the brussel sprouts lost a few of the lower leaves, but the sprouts are fine and I was able to harvest a nice amount for dinner this evening.                          

The kale plants bounced back too.

And the January King cabbages are okay as well.                              

These are a really tough cabbage plant and are excellent for over wintering as a result.    The jury is still out on the Beira Tronchuda cabbages.   Unfortunately, the three remaining Ruby Ball cabbages were ruined by the freeze and had to be removed and composted.                 

In the unheated greenhouse, I lost a few of the lettuce plants and the outer leaves on some of the swiss chard, but overall the plants seem to survive fairly well.       

Recognizing I have only a handful of greens producing plants that have survived, I decided to get the grow light going today and start a few cell packs of lettuces, kale, and Chinese cabbages.   Before doing any seed starting, I changed out the grow lights in the light fixture as they were several years old and were losing some of their intensity as a result.   I then planted up four six packs using the very last of my germinating soil mix.               

These were then covered with a plastic dome.                    

And then placed on the heat mat under the grow lights.                     

Overall, considering I did not do much of anything to protect the outside plantings, I was fortunate in that so many of them seem to have survived intact.

I am way behind everyone else this year in getting our leaves raked up.    Things seemed to be conspiring against me to get it done timely.   First, the trees seemed to hang on to the leaves for a prolonged period of time this year, only letting go once we had a major windstorm event.   That windstorm was part of a series of storms that rolled through one after another bringing heavy and soaking rains.   The leaves were matted down and completely wet as a result.   This weekend was actually almost dry (a few sprinkles), so this afternoon I took advantage of the weather break and spent a few hours doing the annual leaf raking and composting process.   They were still very wet and hard to rake up but the top layer had dried out somewhat making the task at least possible to do.   The leaves were transported to the compost piles where I topped off the two current bins and got a good start on a third bin.                                                             

Another chore I tackled today (before getting to the leaf raking) was to remove the fall crop of broccoli.   They have provided some good harvests including a lot of side shoot production, but they had essentially quit producing and the weather forecast is calling for freezing nighttime temps next week so there really is no hope of any further harvests.                    

 Half gone.                                                         

All gone!   I need to layer some compost on to this bed next weekend.

The kale, brussel sprouts, various cabbages, swiss chard, celery, and root crops (carrots & parsnips) are doing fine in the fall/winter garden.   I have some lettuces in the outside beds as well but they are looking a little rough.    The steady cold rains have been hard on them.   The January King cabbages are particularly nice looking and are starting to form heads. These are such pretty plants with their purple and green coloring and ruffled leaves. 

The fall season is wrapping up and winter is fast upon us.   The heavy cold rains are beating down several of the semi hardy fall crops - the outside beds of lettuces and spinach for example, are all but done at this point.   I will be pulling them up and composting them soon.   Luckily, the swiss chard and lettuces in the unheated greenhouse are doing quite well.   I also noticed today that the mache (corn salad) has begun to germinate and emerge in the greenhouse as well.   There are still several more harvests left on the brussel sprouts before they too will be done for the season.   I harvested a nice bunch of them for tonight’s evening meal.                  

It was a cool but enjoyable day working in the yard and garden.   Finally got the leaves done for the year – better late than never!

The temperature dipped down to 34 degrees last night.   There was frost on the deck railing but nowhere else to be seen.   Still, the combination of really wet and colder conditions has taken its toll on the Jalapeño pepper plants in the greenhouse.    They still looked really robust and healthy …              

… however, a closer inspection revealed that the growing tips were moldering, a sure sign that the plants were giving it up for the season.           

They were still carrying a significant amount of fruit on them, but they were not going to grow any more without some warmer temperatures.   This afternoon, I stripped the plants of the remaining peppers and removed the plants altogether.   The final harvest of fresh peppers for 2009 yielded just under 3/4 of a pound.            

I then used my garden cutters to remove the tree like plants and composted the vegetation debris.                                       

The emptied containers were then seeded with Corn Salad (Mache).            

These greens will not be ready until February or March but will be much needed by that time when the rest of the winter harvest is depleted significantly.   In the meantime, I have some nice looking swiss chard in the greenhouse pots.         

In the main garden, the bed of lettuces is still going strong too.                

And the celery plants are still producing beautifully.                

The heads of Ruby Ball cabbages are looking rather waterlogged from our soaking fall rains, but are continuing to grow and hold the promise of some good eating to come.                                              

Harvested some parsnips and carrots a day or so ago.                  

I am using some of the parsnips this afternoon to make Cornish Pasties for dinner.   The parsnips (3 medium sized ones) are peeled and cubed and then combined with diced onion (1 medium), peeled and cubed potatoes (1 large potato), and lean pork cut into small cubes (I used one large pork chop).   The meat and vegetables are sprinkled with a tablespoon of flour, some beef bouillon granules (equivalent of one cube), 1/3 cup of catsup, and a little water, then stirred until well coated.   This is allowed to marinate in the fridge for an hour.   At which time it is spooned into rolled out pastry dough circles given a sprinkle of salt and pepper and then the crust is folded over and sealed shut creating a turnover.   Bake at 375 for 45 minutes.

Are you using items from your garden (fresh or preserved) in your dinner prep today?

According to the weather forecasts, today offered up the best opportunity to get outside for the entire weekend.   Even at that, it was gloomy and damp all day and by the time I came inside this afternoon - it was threatening to rain again.   It has been quite rainy of late and root rot and mildews now represent one of the biggest threats to the fall crops, second only to slug attacks.   The danger of damp increases as I begin buttoning up the greenhouse more regularly.   Some crops are more resilient to cool and damp conditions then others.   Peppers are not one of them!  They require some careful attention to keep them going late into the fall.   In fact, the one remaining Mini Bell pepper plant was showing signs it was succumbing to the cool and damp (leaves were wilting and stems drooping) so I went ahead and harvested all of the remaining fruits and then pulled the plant.   The two large Early Jalapeno plants are still going strong but could easily deteriorate too if allowed to get too cold or if subjected to really damp conditions.   They have a lot of fruit still on them so it is worth the effort to keep them healthy as long as possible.   It is getting cold at night and the daytime temps are barely getting above 55 degrees.   To keep the pepper plants going I need to start shutting the greenhouse up most of the time from here on out, and run the ventilation fan to keep the damp at bay as much as possible.         

I spent some time today getting the greenhouse ready for the winter season.   I removed the empty planting containers and put them outside - making room to bring in the containers of swiss chard that have been residing out on the deck.   The swiss chard was given a trim (removing leaves that had been chewed on by slugs) and then side dressed with some bone meal and blood meal.           

All of the swiss chard container plantings were given this treatment and then placed in the greenhouse where they will be more protected from root rot and hard freezes.   I usually manage to keep swiss chard going through the entire winter with the protection of the greenhouse.      

Since I do not have any starts of lettuce going (seemed to have missed getting some started per my schedule!), I opted instead to just transplant some of the young lettuces growing in the outdoor beds.   If they survive the transplanting process, they will provide some fresh salad greens long after the outside bed of lettuces have been frozen out.   The last thing I attended to this afternoon was to plant two of the large containers in the greenhouse with red onion sets. With that completed, the greenhouse is basically prepped to go into the winter.           

You can see the large tree-like Early Jalepeno peppers at the back of the greenhouse with the transplanted lettuces in the container next to them.   The two larger empty looking containers have the onion sets in them.   You can see the white ventilation fan in the lower right hand corner and the swiss chard plants on the lower left.         

Before I came in, I harvested some broccoli florets and a couple of carrots to go with the peppers I picked earlier.                          

Are you buttoning things up in your garden too?

It was a cool and overcast day today and it felt more like November than October.   The chill put the move on my husband and I to get the annual stovepipe sweeping completed so we are ready for another season of heating with our woodstove.   We have the necessary chimney sweep brushes and are getting fairly good at this annual task.   The only glitch we seem to run into each year is reassembling the stovepipe inside the house, which has to be removed to clean (has an elbow).   It did not help that I had accidentally vacuumed up the screws with the shop vac while cleaning up the debris knocked out of the stovepipe by the brush!   The screws are actually quite small and were difficult to find in the powdery soot inside the shop vac container.   Eventually we found them and got the pipe reinstalled.   Good to go for yet another year.                                                      

Once that was completed, I shifted my attention to the garden, which was in need of some fall clean up.   Here is a picture of the older portion of the garden.       

The center beds have the vast majority of our winter crops growing in them - carrots, parsnips, winter cabbages, brussel sprouts, loose-leaf cabbage, broccoli, and kale.   This afternoon, I removed even more of the lower leaves on the brussel sprouts to encourage the sprouts to continue sizing up.   I also harvested the Cascadia sugar snap pea seeds and pulled down those dried vines you see in the back right portion of the picture.   The Sunset runner beans were also harvested and the seeds were removed to dry along with the sugar snap peas.   I removed he runner bean vines and the cucumber vines and composted them along with the pea vine.   I also pulled up all of the bush bean plants and laid out a large number of them to finish drying down for seed saving.  The rest of the bush bean plants were composted as well.   By the end of the work session, I had topped off two of the compost bins.   I now have just one empty bin available for the rest of the fall leaves, kitchen scraps, and all other late season garden debris.                    

I wrapped up the garden chores by watering the peppers in the greenhouse thoroughly - using rain barrel water.   Because the temperature is supposed to get quite chilly tonight, I closed up the greenhouse early so that the passive solar would have a chance to warm up the interior before the sun went down.   I still have quite a bit of pepper production happening and I would like to keep them going as long as I can.   The last thing accomplished was to harvest a head of Ruby Ball cabbage, some ripe mini bell peppers, and a mess of good-sized carrots.         

The carrots and peppers will be used for snacking and cooking over the next several days.   The cabbage was combined with a small onion to make coleslaw for tonight's dinner.   The evening meal menu was crispy roasted chicken thighs, mashed potatoes and gravy, and purple cabbage coleslaw.   I brought in some Yukon Gold potatoes from storage to make the mash potatoes.   While I was in the storage area, I pulled out the very last of the Viva Italia tomatoes that I have been ripening off the vine.                            

The tomato plants were pulled at the end of August due to blight infection.   I set many of the tomatoes aside to ripen off the vine and they have been providing us with a steady supply since that time. These are the very last ones.                

It was a productive day and I am glad to get the annual stovepipe-cleaning chore completed.   The only other major winterizing chore yet left to do - is the cleaning out of the gutters.   Probably get a start on that this weekend as well, but it is a task that has to be broken up over time - as it is just too much to do all at once.             

Is your garden and home ready for the coming colder days?

Yesterday evening as I got home from work, I detoured out to the garden before heading into the house - to pick red bell peppers growing in the greenhouse to use in the evening meal preparation.   Imagine my surprise to find two of our deck chairs situated in the middle of the greenhouse so that they made a makeshift chair with footrest!   Further investigation revealed carrot tops littered about the garden walkways.   What the heck was going on?             

It turns out that early that morning, my husband stepped outside to talk to a Comcast serviceman that stopped by while investigating a disruption of service occurring in the neighborhood.   Unfortunately, he closed the door as he went outside and ended up locking himself out of the house.   The shop and garage were also locked up tight.   He was wearing lightweight clothes, did not have his cell phone, had not had breakfast, and his keys were inside.   Our daughter was attending classes at the college and I was at work.   He was suddenly the lone player in a mini version of "Survivor".   It was not some tropical paradise setting though.   It was "Survivor Modern Victory Garden"!         

He knew that our daughter would be coming home later in the afternoon.   He just needed to Outwit, Outplay, and most importantly - Outlast the situation!   Since it was cold and he was not dressed well, he set up his base camp in the greenhouse, which provided passive solar warmth.   A few deck chairs positioned for comfort and he was good to go!   Water was easy (the garden water spigot) he just needed food since he missed breakfast.   What was a guy to do?   Enjoy a veritable smorgasbord of berries (strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries) and carrots of course!   The berries did not leave behind evidence of his plight, but the scattered carrot tops (that for some reason did not transport themselves to the compost pile) did!         

The good news is.... he survived!   The bad news is..... Survivor Modern Victory Garden does not have a $1 million prize for the sole survivor winner - just a warm house, a comfortable recliner chair, and a cup of tea.

Saturday was spent largely on errands and appointments and only a little time was spent in the gardens.  So today (Sunday) was the day for getting most of my "to do" list done.   I started off by tackling the spinach patch.   This needed to be harvested and then the produce blanched and frozen.    Here's a picture of the patch before I began harvesting.                      

I like to use a "cut and come again" harvest on greens like spinach.   If you look at the previous photo you can see low areas which are actually spots that I previously harvested from that are growing back again.   I use a large serrated bread knife to essentially mow the produce for harvest.   Here's some pictures to show you what I mean.                                          

The spinach patch after harvesting is cut down to within about 2 inches of the soil surface.   After harvesting it hard like this - it is a good idea to give it a good watering and some fertilizer   I like to use a fish emulsion drench as it gives it a good shot of nitrogen and is immediately available to the plants for uptake.                                                                                         

From this section of bed, I harvested enough spinach to almost fill a five gallon bucket.                                  

I then fill the bucket full of water and swish it around good to rinse off the produce.   Once it has been thoroughly rinsed, I drain the water away.         

This is now ready for blanching and freezing.  The following sequence of photos walks you through that process.                

First you need to prep your work area and tools for the job.   A large pot of water needs to be set to boil and a metal mesh colander needs to be set out and ready to use.                                                                                    

In addition, you need to prepare an ice water bath.    Put a stopper in the sink drain and then fill with ice and water.                                                  

Next you place the produce (spinach) into the metal mesh colander and then immerse it into the pot of boiling water.   Use a large spoon to push the produce down into the boiling water and then cover  with a lid.   Boil for approximately 1 minute until the produce is wilted down and is a bright color.   The idea is not to cook it thoroughly - but just to start the cooking.    

Remove the the colander from the boiling water and then immediately immerse it into the waiting ice water bath.   Swish the colander around in the ice water to ensure the middle portion is immediately cooled down.   The important thing is to immediately stop the cooking process. 

Once cooled, remove the colander from the ice water and let drain in the sink.   I like to gently squeeze the greens to remove excess water before packaging them up in properly labeled freezer safe packages.                   

I ended up with four 1 lb packages of spinach for the freezer.   

The rest of the day was spent doing some garden clean up and maintenance tasks.  I spent about an hour and a half using the weed whacker to knock down the weeds and grass from the garden walkways.   Next, with my husband's help, we tackled cleaning the greenhouse panels.  A lot of pollen, dirt, and mold gets deposited throughout the year and diminishes the amount of sun that can reach the plants inside.   Here's how it looked before we started.                                                                      

And here it is after we finished.      You can see the walkways were cleaned up between the two photos as well.

That's about it for today.   I have a few more tasks to take care of this weekend, but the really big chores are now done.   I hope you were able to spend time in your gardens today too.

A three day weekend is upon us and the weather is forecasted to be gorgeous and warmer.   HURRAH!   I have lots to do in the garden but I also have some other things planned for the weekend as well.    Garden work will largely be focussed on some maintenance and clean up tasks and the first preserving effort of 2009.    The spring planted spinach patch is ready for a hard harvest and I will be blanching and freezing the produce.   I think I will set up a new web page this weekend to keep a running tally on the 2009 season preserving efforts.    This new page combined with the Seed Starting Schedule and the 2009 Harvest Tally pages should provide a nice recap of the 2009 garden season once they are completed.

The following is what I am hoping to get done this weekend:

• Clean the greenhouse panels (remove pollen, dirt, etc) (Done)
• Use the Weedwhacker to tidy up the walkways (Done)
• A little weeding here and there (Done)
• Reseed a few corn plants that did not survive the planting out (Done)
• Direct seed some Runner Beans (Done)
• Harvest the spinach patch and freeze the produce (Done)
• Continue filling in potato trenches to keep the plant stems covered (Done)
• Water container plantings and newly seeded beds (Done)
• Spray the cole crops (particularly broccoli) with BT solution (Done)
• Start a new web page - 2009 Preserving Tally (Done)

That's pretty much it.   The garden is growing fast now and it will not be long before the heavy harvests will start occuring.