Finally Spring - Garden Update

The average last frost date for this area has come and gone and the lowest nighttime temp forecast through the end of the month is 41.  I think spring is finally here to stay!The French Breakfast Radishes are speeding toward their 25 days to maturity and the Lollo De Vino Lettuce is by far, the prettiest lettuce I have ever grown.The strawberries are already thickly covered in blooms and green berries.And speaking of "thick", the June-bearing variety I have put out an outrageous number of runners.  I tried to stay on top of it last year, giving away dozens of rooted starts and adding many more to the compost bin, but they still managed to do a little guerrilla gardening of their own, sneaking out some late season runners to plant offspring around the designated 4'x8' beds.The blueberry bushes are also covered in unripe berries and continuing to bloom.  This is their second summer in place and I am hoping the January pruning results in even larger, more plentiful berries than last year.I am growing 2 varieties of Sugar Snap Peas this year, finishing out the last of my Sugar Anns and also growing a variety call simply Sugar Snap.The collards and lettuces in the garden are off to a slow start which I attribute to the mostly cooler weather we have had this spring.  With daytime highs starting to reach into the high 70s and low to mid 80s, I think their growth rate will pick up quickly in the next few weeks.And last, but never least, the tomatoes.Of the 38 tomatoes that were emancipated at the end of March, I have 37 that are doing very well.  The septoria leaf spot has dramatically slowed in it's progression since they were moved outside and the one Rebekah Allen tomato plant that was lost to a nighttime nibbler, has been reseeded indoors and will be replaced outdoors in a month or so.This weekend I will be sowing more herbs in the front and reseeding some of the spinach that has had less than stellar germination rates this year."In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." ~ Margaret Atwood

Avant Garden

The single, yellowed leaf I found on one of my paste tomatoes at the end of February was actually the opening shot of a fungal tug-of-war that will likely continue for the whole of 2016's growing season.  The Septoria Leaf Spot fungus which can cause damage to tomatoes by defoliation leading to sunburned fruit has been mostly contained by removal of affected leaves and regular use of a homemade organic fungicide (1 gallon of water, 2 TBS vegetable oil and 2 TBS baking soda) but the close proximity of the plants to each other while they are stuck in my indoor grow room was almost certainly encouraging the spread of the fungus.With about a week to go before the last frost date for my area, I have been obsessively checking the 15 day weather forecast for the past few days to determine whether I could risk putting the tomatoes out a little early to give them some much needed space, fresh breezes and sanitizing sunshine to inhibit the fungus from spreading.  Today I rolled the dice and moved them to the great outdoors!The PVC tubes that my bamboo tomato supports fit into are already in place so the plant roots will not be disturbed later in the season when they are necessary and the tomatoes have been hardened off.Last year I had a handful of tomatoes that had blossom end rot so I saved eggshells all winter and crushed them into a powder to provide more calcium to the plants.  Tomatoes are a vine plant that will root along their stem, so mine were laid down in the channel I dug rather than placed upright.  Eggshells were spread beneath and on top of the root area.The stem is gently bent at a 90 degree angle several inches up from the top of the soil line from the starter cup.  Roots will develop along this stem and according to Charles H. Wilbur, more roots will result in more tomatoes.Soil is patted down over the tomato root and around the bent stem and any leaves touching or near ground level are removed to avoid splash up from the soil leading to new and exciting fungal infections.Repeat 37 more times then relax and start compiling fabulous tomato recipes like this one while you wait for the fruits of summer to appear!

Making Lemonade

Unless I take the time to carefully pluck them out, one by one, before taking a garden pic, you have probably noticed the indecent number of pine needles lurking in the background of EVERY PHOTO I TAKE!Once upon a time I had big dreams of chicken wire leaf bins in my backyard to effortlessly convert the sweet gumball and maple leaves raked up each fall into garden gold over the course of a year.  In these fantasies I would empty the bins the following fall and add the compost to my garden before starting the cycle over again.Instead, the home I purchased has pine trees.  Loblolly Pine trees (Pinus taeda) to be exact and the leaves they shed do not turn into lovely compost over the course of a year but instead, remain defiantly pine needle-like for much, much longer.After a bit of debate and confirming that pine needles making soil acidic is actually an old wives tale, I decided to compost them anyway (note: this was my idea, not the pine needles').Then, magically, after two years of composting, I have...pine needles!Pine needles don't turn into compost very quickly, but one of my goals this year is to mulch and I have been casting around for a sustainable, organic mulch that would work well in my garden beds.  After two years of composting, I did get somewhat broken down needles that would work very well as a mulch.I started mulching around my transplanted collards while I wait for my direct sown spinach and sugar snap peas to fully sprout and I have to admit the result is quite nice.Because I have been turning the needles in their bin throughout the year, I know they hold moisture and attract earthworms so should work well as a mulch.Okay, that was a completely gratuitous pic just because they looked so pretty.So now, I have made lemonade from my lemons and looking over my garden plan now I find myself in the position I could not have conceived of a year ago, I am not sure I have enough pine needles!

Paradigm Shift

I sometimes forget the prevailing notions people have related to growing food.  The most common mental images seem to center around long hours of back breaking labor spent tilling, planting, hoeing and weeding.I am quickly reminded of the current thinking when I breezily say things like, "I planted 288 spinach plants today and need to do the same for lettuce tomorrow." and the person I am speaking with gapes in horror at the perceived amount of time and effort that goes into it.  But the chasm between what they are thinking and what I actually did is as big as the Grand Canyon.  We are operating under two VERY different paradigms when it comes to growing food...Depending on the agricultural model used, growing food can be relatively low-labor and the little time and money spent in the garden is subtracted directly from the time and money that would otherwise be spent driving to the grocery store, finding produce that is less nutritious and fresh, waiting in the checkout line to pay and then driving home on a daily or weekly basis.This morning I planted 36 Red Romaine lettuces and the whole process took about 20 minutes.  I started with a homemade plant spacing tool made from plywood, cheap cabinet handles and recycled wine corks:Lettuce can be planted 9 to a square foot so I pressed the spacer into 4 of my 1'x1' squares to leave divots where the seeds should be planted.Next I shook out some seed into my palm and placed 2 per divot.  I normally have really good germination rates with the Baker Creek lettuce seeds, but these are last year's seeds so I did 2 to be safe.  This was the most time intensive part of the whole operation but not what I would call laborious.When I was done I patted the soil over the seeds, lightly covering them and creating good dirt to seed contact then watered.Voila!Yes there will be some watering throughout the season and yes, I do get an occasional volunteer plant that needs to be plucked out of my garden beds, but those are minor things, easily taken care of when I head out to my backyard grocery store each night and look around to see what's for dinner.

Springing Ahead

After a week of travel, timezone jet lag and leaping ahead an hour, I returned home to find my spring garden well underway.The blueberries and strawberries are already in bloom and hoping the 33 degree overnight currently forecast for Monday night doesn't damage them.The collards, cabbage and kale have been hardened off and were transplanted yesterday near the sprouting spinach, pak choy, lettuce and sugar snap peas.The 8 spears of asparagus that have been harvested so far have been well  worth the 1 year wait and I hope some crowns that have not yet produced will begin to send up spears soon.  In the meantime, I am becoming an expert on making a little asparagus go a long way in dishes.

Batting 500

I have two spring perennials that required a 2 year latency before the first harvest:Last night I harvested my first two spears of asparagus, one each of Jersey Knight and Purple Passion.But my morel boxes...only contain mulch and hope so far.  Fingers still crossed...

Getting Back On The Grid

With the spring starts happily growing indoors and awaiting the last frost date in April, today's sunny, spring-like* weather meant getting down to the business of putting the square back in square foot gardening.I have tried a few different materials to mark off my grids over the years with all surviving only a single year's exposure.  This year I am trying a nylon string made for outdoor use and so I spent a good part of the day tying the string (and myself) into little knots.The square foot grids serve the useful purpose of being guides for plant spacing throughout the year when individual squares are turned over for different seasonal plantings, but they also serve as something of a study in contrast with their clean, angular lines soon to be mostly obscured by nature's riot of a summer garden.*A note on the continuing deception of Punxsutawney Phil - as I was preparing garden beds today I saw that the beautiful weather had tricked some of the Jersey Knight asparagus into putting up tender shoots despite two nights of freezing temps headed my way later in the week.2015 was the first year in the ground for my 2 year old crowns so they were left in peace all year without a single spear being harvested.  I am determined to get to sample a few spears this year and will be covering them with cloches on the coldest nights to protect the bounty that must be split between the crowns and me this year.

Urban Growing - By The Numbers

• 200% - the increase in households participating in community gardens from 2008 to 2013
• 35% - the number of households growing food at home or in a community garden
• 88% - the number of people that do not garden but still want to see gardens in their neighborhood

This data was excerpted from the excellent article "Urban Growing" by Christine Jordan Sexton, published on Realtor.org.  There are many other interesting numbers in the article such as $1.2 billion being the amount millennials spent on food gardening in 2013 if you happen to be looking for a business opportunity or 750 being the number of mostly poor families helped by Southside Community Land Trust in Providence, RI to grow their own food if you happen to be looking for a way to give a hand up to those in need.But for me, it was the 88% of people wanting to see gardens in their neighborhood that do not garden themselves number that was most interesting.  It's no surprise at all that gardeners like to see other gardens in their neighborhood, but it is news to me that people that do not garden also take pleasure in the sight of food growing in a neighborhood.  Kudos to you 88%!  C'mon over, I'll have some extra tomatoes in August :)

Starting My Garden Early

While Punxsutawney Phil and the meteorologists work out their differing predictions for the end of winter, growers are already hard at work preparing for spring, summer and fall.January plant starts included cabbage,chili peppers, bell peppers and rosemary.Now that February has begun, the seed starting kicks into high gear with oregano, collards and lots and lots of tomatoes with 8 varieties and a total of 38 plants this year!The new starts will welcome roommates in my growing nook for the cilantro and basil I grow indoors each winter.  I purchased inexpensive shop lights, metal wire shelving units and florescent tubes 5 years ago so I never have to go a grey winter day without their bright colors and fresh flavors complimenting meals.The minimal, initial investment for the equipment has more than paid for itself already and now as my garden diversifies and the number of indoor starts continue to expand each year with no additional infrastructure costs to date, I consider this money extremely well spent.Happy Spring, whenever it comes :)