Weekend Update

Phenology says – “When dandelions are out then plants beans“ and “When Bearded Iris starts to bloom then transplant eggplant, peppers”.  Dandelions are out in dozens, my girls are having ball blowing dandelions with wind, I think it’s perfect time to plant green beans and yard-long beans. While driving around I am seeing lots of Iris in bloom, but in my backyard iris is yet to show color so I am holding off on planting squash to transplanting peppers. Every garden has it’s own micro-climate, I am sitting on lower side of the hill so cold air settles in my yard almost always. I am 15 days behind warming up than plateau just 1 mile away, likewise frost hits me 10 days earlier. Rhodies and Iris are starting to bloom elsewhere but not in my yard yet, I am waiting……

Sowing: Sowing more seeds continues, but I am getting bummed by poor germination on lot of things. Cilantro, lemongrass and Dill seeds aren’t sprouting. Few of my flower seeds (red Columbine, begonia, marigolds and cosmos) aren’t showing any hope either. I’ll try some different approach – maybe sprouting in paper towel? Haven’t tried yet. Few of the Indian veggies I am trying haven’t germinated as well – Guar and karela.

Growing: Radish, lettuce and spinach has germinated. Fenugreek, peas, rapini are doing well. I should be able to harvest fenugreek in next 1-2 weeks. This will be my first real harvest of the year, I am looking forward. Bunching onion are shaping up, they are due for haircut, tops are yellowing. I wonder if it’s common or they lack some nutrients.

This weekend I bought 4 tomato plants from local Fred Meyer. Ciscoe Morris suggested in Sunday paper that this week is perfect time to acclimate tomato plants outside. I follow Ciscoe religiously and I do whatever he suggests for the week, but problem here is my tomato seedlings aren’t growing beyond 2 leaves. Well, I thought, why not acclimate store bought plants? I have never grown tomatoes ever, so this year it’ll be store bought + seeds grown (if it happens). Since I am no expert on tomatoes, I randomly chose 4 plants – Celebrity (local store fav, IND), Lemon Boy (Yellow tomato, IND), Sweet 100 (IND) and tumbling tom (DET). I have Agatha, Kimberly and Tommy toes seedlings growing.

This weeks weather forecast calls for cloudy, cold temps. Hope cool weather crops shoot up this week. Grow please grow.

Seedlings

I started out with sowing later than last year and my seedlings are just emerging or in their cotyledon stage. I have got all summer veggies started out this way, all cool weather crops are directly seeded.

recycled food tray and recycled foam cups with seedlings. Summer seeds were sown here – 2 varieties of Tomato, eggplant, bunching onion, sweet banana peppers and bell peppers.

 

Ace sweet pepper and  Agatha Tomato seedling. Agatha is growing faster than other varieties. In few more days, I’ll plant these out in bigger cups.

Basil and Ichiban eggplant seedlings. Basil loves hot weather, it is taking most time to grow.

 

Bunching Onion and Turnip. Turnips love cool weather, were sown outdoors last week. Bunching onions also do well in cool, they’ll be transplanted in a week

 

Methi sown in container has emerged. methi will do fine even in cool temps – our nights are still in upper 30s to 40s. Shoebox container holds cauliflower seedlings, these are not doing well, turning yellow and look poor.

One of the wintersown seeds (in Feb) have bolted, label faded and I still don’t know what it is. Have you seen anything tinier than this bolting so fast?

 

Rows of fenugreek (methi). My FIL seeded half bed with methi and remaining with coriander seeds. Half bed of methi has germinated well, nothing on Cilantro side. Cilantro aka coriander germinates slow, germination temp should be above 70F. Northwest hasn’t seen temps in 70s yet. I hope seeds don’t rot and stay viable for few more days…

Peas have emerged, I have just 8 plants coming up. About 5-6 didn’t germinate, lost 3 plants to hail and I have run out of seeds. In 2 small pots, cabbage is happy.

and the spring sowing begins… (better late than never)

What a week it has been, we got hailstorm, pounding rain one day and summer temps in 70s another day. I don’t have anything growing in garden yet so no damage from hail. I am so behind on seed starting, planting and spring chores this year, more important things like doing taxes took precedence last week. 

Very first thing I wanted to do is to ‘make’ space for vegetable garden beds in the garden. We got very weedy space with old, non-flowering plants which needed to clear to get garden beds going. Even though I am late on plantings, I really want to make things right this year. This week is all about that, we (me and FIL) cleared up dying rose vines, cottontail weeds, dogwood, 2 overgrown butterfly bushes (why were these in garden at all, there are listed as  invasive species in state of Washington) and small pine tree. Re-located lupines and summer lily.
Now next is building raised beds… we went to Home depot shopping over the weekend. I picked up lumber to build some raised beds. I am not into woodworking and never done so, I’ll request FIL to make one for me.

Sown this week

Basil
Lettuce, buttercrunch
Eggplant, Ichiban
Fenugreek
Cauliflower, Silver Cup
Hot Peppers, seeds saved from grocery store dry pepper
Bell Peppers, Ace sweet pepper
Tomato – Agatha, Kimberly (wintersown.org)
BokChoi
Flowers – Cosmos, Begonia Dragon Wing

Harvested this week
picking of mint for garnish

Lot of Firsts…

Fist time in my memory (of 8 years that I lived) in Puget Sound, winter is over in January
It is almost guilty to hear chilly stories from East coast, while they are blanketed in deep snow. As far as south Texas panhandle is getting icy storms and London seeing record snowfall. All while we at Pacific Northwest enjoying record highs for January, looking for signs of winter that lasted just for few days in December. Cascade mountains have hardly have a snow cover.
We are getting glorious mornings, temperatures in 50s, birds singing, daffodils blooming (and tulips too, go check out Shell gas station in Redmond, I’ll get picture proof if I can). Winter is over.

I am seeing lot of first buds and blossoms of the year

Bare Raspberry cane with bud, Almost flowering Rosemary (flowers in Feb, that’s first!)

Perennial Oregano is showing signs of life,  Young leaves on Rose bush

 

We got first bloom of the year in my backyard
Check out Hellebores in bloom…

Helleborus, also known as Helleborus orientalis, was the hands-down favorite for shade. Hellebores have become so popular because they bloom in winter – wet or snow – in February. That’s when these low-growing evergreens with white, lemon  blossoms come to life, blooming until late spring. Their evergreen foliage then graces the garden for the remainder of the year.

First Harvest of edibles from Garden 

        

Check out this lovely bunch of chives up and ready to be picked, I saw one small flower bud coming up too. I remember last year, chives were not ready till late Feb. I picked chives and broccoli side shoots. Few months back I wasn’t sure if I should call broccoli as failure of 2009 garden, not so much….

Chives were topped on sizzling Roti (below). Broccoli was used in Vegetable Upma (below)

Seeds Inventory for 2010 garden

My first ever seed order has arrived, with few trades and saved seeds, leftovers from last years – I am ready for 2010 season.

Here’s Inventory list:

Pinetree Seed order
Clemson Okra, Ichibaan eggplant, Henna, New Ace pepper, Only the lonely nicotiana (flower), Silver cup Cauliflower, Pinetree cabbage mix, Red Amaranth, Stevia, Lemongrass, Bunching onions

Seeds Trade
From Daphne’s dandelions – slimJim eggplant and sungold tomatoes (Thank you Daphne)
From wintersown.org – cold set, shayenne, kimberly and 4 other tomato varieties, dukat dill and wildflower mix packet ( Thank you Trudy) 

Leftover seeds from 2009
bunching onions, carrots, beets, bush beans, Brussels sprouts, cucumbers, zucchini, Basil

Saved seeds
Marigold (I have zillion seeds of these, 3 varieties), Cosmos, Zinnia, Bitter gourd

To start year’s sowing, I scattered few onion seeds in one of the empty container last week. I am taking wintersown approach on this one.Happy gardening!

Broccoli buds have appeared

I have my doubts about broccoli, 6 of the plants look pitiful. I seeded broccoli back in July, never thrived, finally 2 of them are setting out tiny buds. Not sure how big they’ll get at this point. I am still giving them few more weeks before pulling them out and declaring ‘failure of 2009’. Not sure if edible yet but this picture is quite pleasing.

How to Series: Growing Methi (Fenugreek)

When I first started out experimenting with growing vegetables, Methi was my first garden attempt. What I found was It works no matter you have green thumb or not. Methi is easiest to grow, ready to harvest in as little as 30 days. I was delighted to taste tender fresh methi from my own garden very first time I harvested, yield is far better and bigger than what you get at your neighborhood Indian store.

Most of the Indian stores sell methi wilted, about to make seed pods and sometimes it tastes like grass. And I used to pay 99cents for few twigs of methi. Well, not anymore. From early spring till late fall, I grow my own methi and buy frozen packs for rest of the year. Methi is semi-cold hardy so light frost doesn’t kill it. Methi makes it the perfect crop for those who just can’t wait to get the garden going, just open the pantry and soak some methi seeds in water.

How to grow fenugreek (Step by Step):


1 – Methi (fenugreek) seeds are sold in Indian grocery stores, $1.99 packet will get you more than 500 seeds. Store bought seeds work beautifully.


2 – Soak seeds in tap water for 12-24 hours

3 – Prepare ground by working soil, adding some compost. Methi can be planted in containers as well. Methi seeds are seeded densely (not in rows). Scatter methi seeds dense in desired growing area.

5 – Germination is expected in 1-3 days, methi seeds upon germination look something like above.

6 – Ready to harvest in 30-35 days.

Some harvest methi as micro-greens, just before first true leaves appear. Fleshy first leaves are bitter and are used extensively in daal or with fish preparation in Mumbai cuisine. If harvesting for micro greens (samudri methi), it is ready in 5-7 days after germination.

Also, I found that methi develops it’s trademark bitter pungent taste in warmer, hot weather. Methi grown in spring and fall has mild taste.

More about Methi: for those with botanical interest, methi belongs to legume family(Fabaceae) – flowering plants that produce edible seeds. Fenugreek is termed as Trigonella foenum-graecum.

medicinal properties: In West, fenugreek is widely used by lactating women to boost milk supply. Tablespoon of fenugreek powder 3 times a day is the trick. Fenugreek is natural remedy to control diabetes.

Peanut Butter Tree

 

 

We moved into our new house last year in fall, most of the shrubs and trees had shed leaves by then. In front yard, a wonderful smallish tree caught my attention – It had pinkish buds with blue berry like fruits. Quite unusual I thought. In Summer around late July this tree started blooming – had thousands of small pink-white flowers that looked like Jasmine and had very strong aroma. Many people who visited us in summer wondered about this tree, they had never seen such thing.

And I kept looking…searched folia, USDA plant database, internet but couldn’t find the name.  All of a sudden, 2 days back, I landed on Petunia’s blog. I was jumping in joy to have stumbled on her page. Thank you thank you Petunia. There it is – It’s called Peanut Butter tree or Clerodendrum trichotomum or harlequin glorybower

More research on it –
USDA link is here -http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=CLTR

Why is it called Peanut Butter Tree?
Internet tells me leaves of this tree have very strong pungent smell, when rubbed these leaves give out peanut butter smell. well, I never noticed before, I went to front yard for my own taste test, and yes, it does kinda smells like peanut butter.
Now that I remember about flowers, stamens of this flower do have strong PB like aroma. when stamens removed, flowers give out very sweet fragrance – earthy jasmine like.

November harvest

Few of beets, Icicle radishes, last Zuk and few peas. Beets were seeded in July, Icicle radishes on 5th Sep. Peas have been great success so far, I have been picking 5-6 every other day for last couple months, I have 8 vines that are producing snap peas heavily. They apparently are liking this cool weather and have not slowed down like all other plants.

failures 2009

In retrospect gardening went well this year, many great harvests and equal amount of failures. In all, I’m happy with my newfound gardening interest. It is very delightful to witness small seedling magically appearing from soil, flowers budding from plants and many fruits/veggies getting to their prime.

With this, there are many failures to list.
Lettuce – I grew too much, last of few I added to compost pile directly

Bokchoy – fall sown, something kept eating leaves and stems never grew any fatter

Spinach – won’t grow beyond 3 true leaves

Brussels Sprouts – started way late? I still have hope as I think I can harvest it till December?

 
Peppers – planted in non-so-ideal location, these need more light and fertile warm soil. Although I managed to get 7-8 big size peppers, these small ones were still growing when I pulled up plants. I need to set these in sunnier location and maybe cover soil with black plastic to help them retain heat.

Butternut squash – sown too late, see above tiny raw lone squash I picked last week. I am sure if it had one more month to grow, would have grown and ripen. I’ll seed this variety earlier next year. It looks cute though, right now it is adorning Halloween decor inside the house.

Garden Planning 2010: growing Indian vegetables

Year 2009 gave me good learning and more encouragement to grow my own vegetables. I grew lots of lettuce, peas – western vegetables. I did better with fenugreek (methi), dill (shepu), cilantro, mint and peppers. Next year my total focus will be growing Indian vegetables – that I love to eat every single day.

Here’s the 2010 plan –
Greens: Fenugreek (methi), Chinese Spinach (math), Spinach
Squash: Dudhi/Lauki/Bottle Gourd, Cucumbers
Beans: Green beans, Snap Peas, Long beans, Okra
Alliums: Spring onion
Fruit Vegetables: Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, Eggplant, sweet peppers, hot peppers
Root Vegetables: Potatoes – Yukon gold and fingerlings

I’ll grow below veggies just because I have free leftover seeds from this year
Greens: Basil, Lettuce, Brussels Sprouts
Squash: Zucchini , Butternut Squash
Alliums: Spring onion 
Root Vegetables: Beets, Radishes 

Fun veggies:
I am planning to grow Kala vatana and Rajma just for fun, ever inquisitive mind wants to know how seedlings look like, are flowers beautiful? I also want to grow just 2 of each – cabbage and cauliflower. Just for fun.

Apart from leftover seeds from this year, I am planning to order few Indian veggie seeds from these seed stores, I checked their websites. Time to order for catalog
Johnny’s Selected Seeds – got good selection with bottle gourd and greens
Evergreen Seeds – Specialized company with Asian vegetables, good selection
SeedsofIndia – everything and anything from India. I usually tend to buy seeds from local area suppliers as these seeds are developed suitable to environment. I suspect success rate with seedsofindia as it seems these seeds are imported from India?

why I want to grow my own potatoes next year

From msnbc.com (http://health.msn.com/nutrition/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100246775&page=2)

What the farm director won’t eat: nonorganic potatoes

Jeffrey Moyer is the chair of the National Organic Standards Board.
The problem: Root vegetables absorb herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides that wind up in soil. In the case of potatoes—the nation’s most popular vegetable—they’re treated with fungicides during the growing season, then sprayed with herbicides to kill off the fibrous vines before harvesting. After they’re dug up, the potatoes are treated yet again to prevent them from sprouting. "Try this experiment: Buy a conventional potato in a store, and try to get it to sprout. It won’t," says Moyer, who is also farm director of the Rodale Institute (also owned by Rodale Inc., the publisher of Prevention). "I’ve talked with potato growers who say point-blank they would never eat the potatoes they sell. They have separate plots where they grow potatoes for themselves without all the chemicals."

The solution: Buy organic potatoes. Washing isn’t good enough if you’re trying to remove chemicals that have been absorbed into the flesh.

The alternate solution from me: grow own potatoes, at least a few pounds

Pumpkin Patch

Me and girls hit pumpkin patch at the base of Sahalee way yesterday, it was good fun.

What’s that got to do with gardening? oh yes, I witnessed first hand how pumpkins are grown in rich, moist soil. learned that sunflowers + corn + pumpkins are grown in vicinity because sunflowers ward off bugs on corn, yellow pumpkin flowers attract abundant bees helping pollination, birds gathering to collect sunflower seeds eat harmful bugs…organic growing concepts at their best.

Out of season berries

What’s going on with Raspberry canes and blueberries? We are in cold zone, temperatures almost touching 40F at nights and 60s in days. Plants and shrubs should be changing colors and going dormant to face wintry weather. Instead raspberries are budding and blueberries are giving me second crop?

Raspberry flowers?

After  windstorm 2 days back, it was partially sunny day yesterday. I went to examine raspberry came damage and saw cluster of buds on one of the canes. A good friend gave 3 canes as gift in early summer, since these are new canes friend told me that they’ll start bearing fruit next season. I wasn’t hoping on fall harvest. These are in sunniest spot in garden.. maybe that’s what to do with it. Not sure at this point if they’ll bear fruit or not… let’s wait and watch together. I am excited

Blueberries are going crazy too, I am surely getting 2nd tart crop in few days. Do these typically give 2nd harvest?

Blueberries

Peppers

I seeded 2 kinds of peppers this year, back in March when things were cold and dreary – 1 packet of banana peppers ( 30 cent seeds from American Seeds) and 1 packet of bell peppers (30 cent seeds again). Banana peppers were a disaster and I pulled them mid July, they never grew beyond 4 leaves, were stunted. On other hand bell peppers were semi-success. I learned so much about growing peppers, what to do and not…..

I pulled all bell pepper plants ( 6 total) yesterday, got about 7-8 large green peppers and about 10 tiny ones.

Lessons learned, here’s what I’ll try to do next year:
1 – Pepper seeds are slow to germinate, they need 80F to germinate. Since I don’t intend to invest in fancy heating mats, here’s what I’ll do (which worked this year tooo.). Soaking seeds 6 hours in lukewarm water, heating soil block before sowing pepper seeds and placing it in oven with lights on. This guarantees germination in 6/10 days.
2 – Placing seedlings under light and keeping on heated surface
3 – Heat soil in pots and cover with black plastic before transferring seedling to final pots
4 – Choose sunniest location

Beets are ready

Purple/Red beet heads are peeking out of ground and ready to be harvested. These were started from seeds on 20th June , transplanted in a month and ready by 5th October. That’s 100 days till harvest. Not all of them are ready yet, some are still in ground, not sure if this depends on amount of sun or water they are getting.

Notes added later: I went back and checked seed packet information, these are – Detroit Dark Red. Packet says 60 days till harvest. (?, it’s almost 100 days now…)

I am finding that Vegetables in my backyard are typically taking plenty more or less time to mature than what’s on seed packet, it just varies. Peas and cucumbers were earlier than maturity days on packet. Peas (50 days, maturity days listed on seed packet – 70 days) and cucumbers (muncher, 45 days, maturity days on packet 62 days) . On the other hand, butternut squash listed as 90 days, I seeded those on 1st June, it’s 130 days today and all I have is tiny tiny green fruit that may never ripe. I think I just have to go by what works for me, make a journal of success/failure from this year.

 

Harvest Friday

Harvested 3 zukes, dill greens, bunch of snap peas and some lettuce for salad.

End of Summer

Yesterday marked official end of summer. In US, summer ends on September equinox on around Sept 22nd.

The September Equinox

On the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. This is true for both the fall and spring equinoxes. So on two days of the year you can find the exact cardinal directions of East and West by using the sun. The ancients did this when they set up their calendars at Stonehenge and the Mayan pyramid, among others.

Read more: http://solar-system-astronomy.suite101.com/article.cfm/first_day_of_fall#ixzz0RksoSUQ6

Do we have equal length day and night here in northwest? let’s look at local weather station data:

Sunrise: 6:55am
Sunset: 7:08pm

okay, so days are longer by about 13 minutes than nights, not quite equal. we’ll have equal days and nights on Sept 26th. Did bing on sunrise and sunset data and found this interesting site. http://www.sunrisesunset.com/calendar.asp?comb_city_info=Seattle,%20Washington;122.3;47.6;-8;1&month=9&year=2009&time_type=0

So what summer veggies are growing in my garden on this last day of summer?

Zucchini, bell peppers, muncher cucumber and loose leaf lettuce

Mystery vine from squash family

Sometime in June, on left side of the house, I noticed upon a small seedling. I was busy weeding and this tiny seedling came very close to being plucked and thrown into compost pile. It looked interesting, nothing like regular weed selection, it looked more like belonging to squash family. Out of curiosity I didn’t weed it, instead watered it every week. Today after 2 months, it has grown into a sizeable vine, with some tiny flower buds appearing.

I still don’t know what it is… maybe I’ll never know as winter frost is approaching and it may never set fruits… It’s got huge leaves and giant tendrils that are curled to weeds in it’s path.  This vine is just growing on the ground, maybe I’ll give it a support tonight…..

Do you know what it is? I am not happy that I may will never even know what it is as fall is approaching…

Surprise bean in my compost pile

  

Surprise bean has sprouted from my compost basket, too sad it is too late for the tiny seedling.