Lettuce Seedlings emerging – April 2010

Lettuce from last year’s garden (LEFTmost row)

- Lettuce : (40-50 Days in Spring)
Sow seeds in Late February (harvest micro greens/baby leaves in late March).
Sow again in mid-March for second spring crop (harvest by mid –late April)

Sow seeds in late February, preferable in container, so if weather turns freezing, container can be covered or brought inside. I have already seen lettuce seedling in my neighbors front yard, her lettuce bolted last year and seeds were scattered all over her front yard. Lettuce does not tolerate frost, it has to be protected in winter weather. Growth is limited due to limited sunlight this time of the year but micro-greens or baby leaves can be harvested as early as 3rd week of March. To maximize output, sow lettuce where maximum sunlight is obtained (southwest side of your garden).

Spinach growing in container – April 2010

– Spinach : (60-70 Days in Spring)
Sow seeds in Late February (harvest by mid-late May)
Sow seeds in mid-March for second spring crop (harvest by mid-late May)

Sow seeds in late February, in container OR direct seed in raised bed. Spinach is semi frost tolerant so be prepared to cover your raised bed in case of freezing temps/snow. Container sown Spinach can be brought inside in case of freeze. Spinach is cool weather crop so expect it to thrive in late March. February and March sown seeds are harvested around same time in mid-late May(March sown Spinach grows faster due to warm weather and better sunlight). As always, plant early crops where better sunlight is sought.

 
Cherry Belle Radish emerging from soggy grounds – May 2010

- Radish: (45 Days in Spring)
Sow in container late March/early April (harvest by Mid May)

Sow seeds in late March. I like to do first planting in container till frost danger is passed. And also slugs LOVE radish, since slugs are prolific in spring, I like to control slug damage by sprinkling sluggo/oatmeal/copper wire around containers. Radish are cool weather crop.

Contd…. (next to come: Green Onion, Broccoli and Peas)

Groundhog day has passed, prediction is for early spring. Weather in pacific northwest is staying amazing (please no jinx). East and Midwest is getting pounded by freezing temps and unbelievable record snow. All while, we in NW have record high temps in January (for second year in row), February has brought sun. Well, last year January was unseasonably dry and warm and June/July saw mild temp and constant rain. I can take wintry January but please please let this years June/July be nice.

All this sun and warm temperatures are making me plan for this years garden. Here are some thoughts about prepwork and seeds to sow. Late Winter/Early Spring is all about cool season vegetables – these are frost-hardy, thrive in cool weather, and do well in early spring

February:
February month is all about cleaning the garden, removing last years dead plants, removing weeds and put some soil, compost in raised beds.

March:
I usually start sowing seeds beginning of March. I know, according to “the experts” I should start 8-10 weeks before last frost i.e. by Feb 1st week. But I like to wait.  Since I do not have fancy set up of racks, greenhouse and artificial light, waiting till March gives much better results for me.

Here is Planting calendar for growing vegetables in Northwest.

In my next post, I’ll take up detailed planting for each of the vegetables.

It’s been good year so far. Joys of growing and harvesting are unmatched but If I have to put $$ to the year review, here it is. Of course manual labor hours are not considered
Total Spend = $130.21
Total Cost of Food Produced = $199.89

It’s boring to look at number but here’s tally of yearly harvest.

Thank you for reading!

So far this week, We have been harvesting  a lot – squash, cherry tomatoes (sweet 100 variety), Jalapeno, green beans, shelling peas, cucumbers, fenugreek and dill. Here are some photos….

(above) – Methi (Fenugreek)

(above) – Methi and Shepu (Fenugreek and Dill), both used as greens

(Above) in colander: Chard ‘bright lights’. in plate 1:  sweet 100 tomatoes, green and wax beans. in plate 2: Agatha tomatoes, 1 black krim, peas, cucumbers and yellow squash.
(Photo captured with phone)

Ambat Chuka has a special place in Marathi Cuisine. Little I know that we can grow Ambat Chuka here, well sorrel thrives in Pac NW conditions. It grows well in spring and thrives in summer, I hope it continues to produce in coming fall. It’s got tangy, sour taste which come all together when cooked with daal – my favorite. We harvested big bunch of sorrel this weekend and made into Ambat Chuka Bhaji (no photos) – It’s almost been 10 years since I last tasted it. Happy.

Green Sorrel has many names :
  English – Green Sorrel, Garden Sorrel
  Marathi – Ambat Chuka
  Hindi – Khatti Palak
  Telugu – Chukka Kura

Ambat Chuka goes onto my list of things to grow next year!

(Above) Agatha Tomatoes – I got seeds from wintersown.org. I started seeds in late April and transplanted out mid July (We got rains and cold all June). Very compact, determinate plant loaded with tomatoes.

(Above – 2 photos) Brandywine Tomatoes – This is heirloom type indeterminate plant. I got it as a seedling in local swap. Plant got too big quite early with lots of bloom. Unfortunately all the blooms are not translating into tomato yet. We got ONLY ONE green tomato on plant (above) so far. This is supposed to be huge 1-2 pound tomato, pink in color with burst of flavor. I can’t wait …

(Above) Black Krim – This is supposed to be black Krim, seedling got mixed up. I hope it ripens and I’ll find out soon. Semi-determinate plant I think. if you think it’s not Black Krim, please help me identify.

This tomato originally from the Isle of Krim on the Black Sea in the former Soviet Union. This tomato yields slightly flattened dark-red, slightly maroon, beefsteak tomatoes with deep green shoulders. 

(Above) San Marzano Tomatoes – Started from seed, semi-determinate plants produce oval shaped fruits. These are supposed to be best for sauce and paste. This tomato originally comes from Italy.

(Above) Beaverlodge Tomato – Compact plant loaded with tomatoes. This is ultra early tomato which sets fruit and ripens in cold rainy weather. My plant has curled leaves – leafroll – due to excessive rain and improper drainage. I acquired this plant as part of local plant swap, it is first to give me ripe tomato. This tomato is bred at Canada and is earliest maturing tomato, best for cooler, foggy, rainy growing conditions (translate to Pacific NW).

(Above) Celebrity – Store bought, Indeterminate. This is a hybrid variety which is 1984 AAS winner. It is said to be mid-early variety with flavorful fruit. This plant was to set fruit very last from all store bought plants.

(Above) Lemon Boy – Store bought, Indeterminate. As Name suggests, this tomato ripens to yellow color. Appearance is of heirloom tomato but I am sure this one can be hybrid as plant did not suggest it was heirloom. I am curious to find out how it looks and tastes ripe…

 
(Above) Sweet 100 – Store Bought, Indeterminate. As name suggests there is over abundance of tomatoes on this 5 foot tall plant. It has given me 7 ripe sweet tomatoes so far.

I am also growing Kimberly tomatoes, these are from seeds shared by wintersown.org. It’s supposed to be early tomato on small plant. Kimberly has frilly leaves and I am so much interested to see how fruits looks like. It has not set any fruits yet, party due to my mistake of starting it late. It is said to be early type with small fruit which ripen in cold weather, even in autumn. I am patiently waiting ….

Happy Growing!!

(Above) Hydrangea – Nature own litmus paper. Hydrangea will bloom blue if soil is acidic or else red-pink if it’s alkaline. On my recent trip to eastern Washington – Walla Walla side , I saw white hydrangea – it’s bred differently and not indicative of soil PH.

(Above) Unknown – Please help me identify.
It’s growing tall up, 5-6 foot and bearing pink-purple flowers up on top.

(Above) Shasta Daisy

Here are few pictures of harvests over last week. I was able to harvest Green and Wax Beans, 1 big Zuchini, Blueberries (last of the season), Lots of Radish, Chard, lettuce and Chives.

Below is BED 1, growing from left to right – Lettuce, Turnips, last of bunching onions, French Breakfast Radish, Marigolds, baby Beets and Swiss Chard

Below is Bed 2, towards back are 4 tomato plants which are recovered from yellowing due to constant rain. I am growing tomato varieties – Celebrity, Tumbling Tom, Lemon Boy and Early Girl. All are store bought plants.  Towards the front are 3 Zucchini plants.

Container garden: Ornamentals, Muncher Cucumbers, Golden Oregano, Marigolds, Cosmos, Chicks&Hens,  Beaverlodge Tomato and 1 Ichiban Eggplant. 

BED 3: This sits in partly sunny space. From back to Front: Blue Lake bush beans – 2 types, 1 Jalapeno, 1 sweet pepper and few bell pepper plants. Front row is Cabbage. There’s also one tomato plant hiding somewhere – Kimberly.

Bed 4 is completely dedicated to fenugreek, I do succession planting and harvest here. Right now, I have planted Dill and fenugreek in back part (still yet to germinate), front methi is ready to harvest.

Below is my pea patch. Not much action here, it is completely under-utilized (well, I think that for every other bed too). Tacoma bush peas, few pole peas and trailing cucumber vines are planted here.

That’s the reason I am growing ‘Ultra-early’ or ‘Cold-Set’ tomatoes. Tomatoes which ripe earliest or set fruit/ripen in relative cold. For main-crop tomatoes, I have never had success with seed started plants, they just never reach maturity before frost hits. I have bought plants from Fred Meyer for main-season. My house sits on cooler side with morning sun exposure so it is extremely important for me to grow tomatoes well suited for my micro-climate.

The very first tomato to ripen this year is Beaverlodge.

“Beaverlodge tomato is bred at the Beaverlodge Research Center in Alberta Canada, these are Sub-Arctic series of tomatoes developed for short season gardening. They are considerably larger than cherry tomatoes and take about a month less than regular tomatoes. The plants are determinate, which means they form compact, bushy plants rather than sprawling ones. That growth habit makes these varieties suitable for container growing.”

Here is pictorial:
    

It made to the daily harvest yesterday

It’s been long since I have sown anything, my time is just so consumed with weeding and HARVESTING produce. Here are some pictures of my harvests over last 2-3 weeks.

I have not started fall planting yet. OMG – thought just gives me shivers and I exactly know what that means – no broccoli or Brussels sprouts for me this fall. I have to be better next year. I have to make commitment to start fall sowing at least till this weekend.

We have been harvesting and eating lots of berries and fruits from Garden. We picked about 70 Bing cherries, 140+ raspberries (oh so delicious!) and 70+ strawberries. YES! I have won war against slugs, this year I was able to eat strawberries. Thank you SLUGGO! We also employed tacky methods to stop crows from taking cherries before we could, that involved – hanging old napster turbo tax CDs, wind chimes, blackberry thorns and mom’s old saree. I wish I could show you photo (I lost it with camera crash) but you get the idea… Mainly harvests for last 2 weeks were fenugreek (methi), strawberries and random other veggies. Here are more photos of what we have been eating from garden.

We were talking potatoes last week here’s another one that I pulled.

Strawberries, 2 blueberries and bok choy (some slug damage)

More Methi and strawberries 

1 Salad head (Black Seeded Simpson), Turnips (Purple Top White) and few French Breakfast Radishes. Yes, Northwest can still produce radishes, we are not hot yet.

Lovely Chard and blueberries

More fenugreek and strawberries. I am making lots of methi thepalas these days

I read that potatoes should only be planted out in Spring, but can I plant them out now? Will they grow? Has anyone tried growing them in summer, maybe this is good new experiment for me.

Geekgardener posted a comment that I am missing my potato harvest photo. Yes, between my camera issues and phone losing all it’s data – I lost lots of photos, glad this one was safe in archive.

On from 5th July we are blessed with sunnier days and warmer temperatures, garden is loving every bit of the sunshine. I managed lot of gardening work yesterday, cleaning up garden – raking, weeding, deadheading old flower stalks. I transplanted pepper/eggplant/karela that have been indoors so far. Something has been chewing up on squash, I already lost 7 seedlings so I moved remaining Squash to other location. By now, I should be getting baby zukes but this damage is giving me a month of late start.

Last week was all about picking berries and fruit. I have a 4 year old Bing Cherry tree out in the yard, crows in my neighborhood wait impatiently to pick cherries from this tree. After loosing quite a bit semi-ripe cherries couple weeks back, I decorated the tree with old reflective CDs, wind chimes, blackberry thorns to scare crows away. Crows didn’t budge so I had to cover few branches with soft cloth (my mom’s old saree), that did the trick and I was able to pick sweet, succulent cherries. I got 3 raspberry canes from a friend last year, one broke during windstorm last year, 2 of the remaining canes came loaded this year. I got abundant berries from just these 2 canes – about 150. Canes that bore fruit this year will die down this year but raspberry sends out baby plants so I’ll have few more canes next year. I already spot 4-5 new canes but I’ll have to do some rearranging and placing for next year’s.
June bearing Strawberries are giving me fruits now – in July. Me and girls went with big basket yesterday and got big basketful. Generous sprinkling of sluggo last week really helped with slugs attack, at least I am eating strawberries this year vs last year I was picking leftovers from slugs.

Over last couple weeks, I have picked generous amount of chard, bok choy, sping onions and big bunches of turnips. First potatoes were also picked. Here are some photos:

I am already very late on fall planting, I have to fire up this week and get cranking ….

Berries are ready, almost ready, maybe in about 1-2 weeks. Raspberries were earliest, these sit in sunniest spot. I picked very first raspberry on June 17th, they have been ripening steadily over last 2 weeks. I pick about 10 almost every 3 days from just 3 canes. I cannot wait for next year when these 3 canes have produced some more baby plants which will bear fruit next year. Strawberries are getting plump, they are still green though. last year most of strawberries were attacked by slugs – this year I have sprinkled generous sluggo around strawberries and protected them with copper barrier on one side. Let’s see how that goes I got 2 small blueberry plants alongside north fence, these berries will ripen soon.

Harvest continues – I picked Mustard which was ready to bolt, used it in mustard-bean curry on Sunday. Raspberries are flowing in. My biggest surprise and excitement came from real potatoes this week. Back in April when I came back from India, I saw 2 supermarket bought potatoes sprouted in pantry. Instead of tossing in trash, I cut ‘eyes’ and buried them out. Fast forward 3 months – Potato plant had flowered, 3 days back I buried my fingers down in soil and felt a good size potato. I could not wait any longer and dug out the plant – I got 3 good size potatoes and there were several tiny ones forming (I’ll wait a little longer next time). I have one more potato plant that isn’t flowering yet.

Sorry, no photos for the week. Camera is acting funny and refuses to take any pictures. Happy Gardening!

Typical fall and winter crops for me will include Fenugreek, Turnip, carrots, Broccoli,  Brussels sprouts, cabbages, Swiss chard, lettuces and spinach.  Here’s base plan for me.

Happy Gardening!

Whoohoo… I spotted some red and wow – there it was, very first ripe raspberry. Me and girls ran out to backyard, plucked sweet, ripe raspberry and shared it by 3. Sorry, No photo To record, very first raspberry of the year was on June 17th! I still got cherries, blueberries and strawberries in line, although critters are also waiting it to ripen. My biggest menace is crows, last year crows got away with half of my ripe rainier cherries, birds got blueberries and slugs loved strawberries.  I have big plans to deter crows this year, I am ready to fight…

Sown: More wax beans, Tacoma bush peas
Transplanted: transplanted Daikon to big container. Daikon needs loose soil of 8+ inches to grow I think container might be good idea. we’ll see. Also I planted out just one tiny Ichiban eggplant and one unknown tomato plant
Harvested: last of spring fenugreek was harvested along with salad mix (lettuce, spinach, Micro greens – mustard and beets)

Harvest Photos

Last of the Spinach, about an ounce. I used it in kids’s spaghetti.

 
Brocolli Raab (Rapini) and Salad Mix

Last of the spring sown Fenugreek, I am storing it for use in next 3-4 days.

According to Komonews.com’s weather blog -  We enter Day 279 since the last time we hit at least 75 degrees. Yes, we are yet to reach 75 here and looking at next 10 day’s forecast, it isn’t happening any sooner.  It is COLD and it is WET, VERY WET. How wet are we? put it all together, and in the 37 days since May 16th, it has rained on 34 of them, with our only dry days coming on May 24, June 5 and June 18. That is completely unheard of for this time of year. 

Okay, so doing some comparable analysis based on weatherman’s ideas: Checking weather in some typical cold spots around the globe –

Sammamish 53
Seattle 55
Calgary 63
Toronto 73
Halifax, Nova Scotia 70
Oslo 68
Yakutsk, Siberia 67 ( what ??)

so Siberia is warmer than us? Pacific Northwest summer can be either ‘tomato’ year or ‘cabbage’ year – No doubt we have declared this year as cabbage year but all I want this year is at least one ripe tomato

(Writing this is  inspired by Komo’s weatherman blog – http://www.komonews.com/weather/blog )