It has rained all day, every day for a week now and the sky has run itself out of water! I stole this break in the rain to check on sown seeds and the herbs and berries.The back half of this box is mixed lettuces and the front left is daikon radishes. The front right is leftover bibb lettuce from a Victory Garden project at my son's school.The tomatoes and peppers are hardened off and ready to be planted in the beds. I have my own saved seed serranos as well as an heirloom yellow pepper this year and for tomatoes I am growing an heirloom grape tomato and trying my first F1 hybrid for a red slicing to improve yield.The blueberries are trying to live up to their names with a hint of purple starting to stand out against the green.The sage flowers have been a favorite of visiting bees but are ready for their spring pruning now.The chives are also sporting lovely dead head flowers and at last they seem to be truly established in my garden.Soggy but smiling!
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First Day of Last Frost
The last frost date for this area passed without incident on April 9th and today was my first day home to survey the perennials and sow some annuals.I'm just going to say it, my over-wintered herb garden is just darned pretty this spring. And I am beside myself that the chives are not just alive but thriving! After years of refusing to grow for me, they are vigorous and even blooming.I was also ecstatic to see the blueberries bountifully in bloom!Last year the blueberries were conned into blooming by the false spring and a hard, late frost killed most of the flowers. A feeble second bloom happened after the last frost but didn't amount to much.The strawberries were also a pleasant surprise, not just sporting a healthy head of blooms but some hard green strawberries already just waiting for the warmth of the sun to make them blush.I threw caution to the wind a few weeks ago and mixed up the assorted lettuce seeds I had on hand and sowed them thickly in 1/2 of a bed. I love the mix of the reds, greens and the little ones already wearing speckles.And lastly I laid down 18 rows of spinach in the front 3/4ths of these beds that will also host 2 tomato plants each in a few weeks.Ahhhhh...the gardener's Spring has finally sprung!
Read MorePermaculture Summer
To create your own permaculture summer:
Start with a good variety of fruits, berries and herbs that pretty much take care of themselves year after year.
Add to that background of growth, some tender green leaves (lettuce and spinach will do nicely) and one hungry rabbit.
Voila! You are back to your permaculture staple of fruits, berries and herbs with no pesky greens to worry about.
This, in a nutshell, is my summer.The herbs bolted and are setting seed now. The strawberries are producing well but I haven't covered the bed so the birds are beating me to many of the berries.The tower of asparagus is holding up very nicely under the accumulating mass of growth and the asparagus themselves are inexplicably sending up sporadic spears (3 in the pic below).The figs are plentiful and beginning to ripen. The birds also beat me to the first fig of the year but they don't seem to have seen the one on the other side yet.The blackberries are ripening by the handful daily and the blueberries are plentiful, but stubbornly green.The rabbit problem appears to be solved so now I am just patiently waiting for August when I can plant more greens for fall.
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Asparagus
Summer Already
After an early, false spring in February that fooled blueberries and peaches into blooming followed by the rest of a perfectly normal winter that felt like it lasted forever, spring finally did come and then go in a flash and we are now fully into summer in Zone 7b.My asparagus harvest was light this year, which I attribute to the early burst in February, with many spears freezing at the end of the false spring. I don't know if the freeze affected the crowns or if it was just a coincidence. An interesting side note, for each of the last two years I have had a second burst of spears in fall when nighttime temps dip into the 40s. It will be interesting to see if I do and how much it produces this year.In the meantime, each of the crowns has a few spears that have been allowed to grow tall and fern-like. Every summer I try something a little different to contain all this greenery that feeds the crown for next year's harvest and each year the greenery either slowly or not so slowly overtakes my supports. I think I may have won this year with this 4 pole support, similar to what I have used for snap peas on a larger scale. Currently the asparagus are around 5 1/2 feet tall and being easily supported.The herbs that overwintered are in full flower, some so prodigiously that I trimmed them back to allow everyone a little sun and space.While I wait for the blackberries and blue berries to ripen, my favorite summer treat this year is free-stone peaches halved and grilled for 4 minutes per side. They are a perfect addition anything you are serving up!
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Laissez-faire Farming
The threat of winter weather pushed right up to the last frost date for my area this year. Add in my hectic schedule the past few weeks and the result is a late start on my spring garden, and some corners looking to be cut.These colorful lettuce varieties would normally be carefully planned and planted in their own distinct areas.This year I am deploying what I am calling a laissez-faire farming method of "mixed lettuces" saving a lot of time and proving that even lackadaisical farming sounds better in french.Seeding and watering these 9 square feet (around 100 plants) was the work of 5 minutes.I have to give a quick shout out to the oregano photo bombing the picture above (bottom and right of garden bed). This now feral oregano self seeded the area around it two years ago when I had the herb planted in this box. It is so thick and lovely year round that I am tempted to use it as a ground cover along paths.For the rest of my garden, this year I am doing a lot more grouping than normal, with all of a bed planted with spinach or radishes or edamame, allowing me to broadcast seeds and get everything started a little faster.Au revoir!
Read MoreSunlight Like Tides
Sunlight, like tides, wait for no man.Yesterday I watched as the morning sunlight set fire to the jewel toned Lollo De Vino lettuce and determined to do a spring garden update. By the time I took the update photo the light had moved on and the deep, rich hue of the lettuce was on display, but not the fiery light that inspired me to call this the most beautiful lettuce I have grown so far.This morning I was determined to not let the light pass me by again.
#LettucePorn #Food(Growing)Porn #NoFilters
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
Last Frost Date
Last night was a low of 28 so the tomatoes were covered (again) and I am optimistic that it was the last night of freezing temps (again). This time, at least, I have the Average Last Frost Date in my corner...though average and last possible vary by over a month.I the meantime, the container garden on my deck planted with cold weather crops is just fine with or without a light frost. The beautiful colors and daily growth of of these varietals make warmer weather feel not so far away.This is my first year growing Lollo De Vino Lettuce. I had run out of room in the garden for another lettuce but it was just to pretty to resist when I ran across it so I am growing it in a container along with a volunteer cilantro. Another first year variety, the French Breakfast Radishes have sprouted.
I planted Snow Peas in the container garden this year to add some height contrast to the low growing lettuce and radishes. The easy access to peas and shoots is a total bonus.Today's cold weather task is to give some overdue attention to the indoor basil garden which needs some pruning and thinning.Happy Average Last Frost Date (for Raleigh NC)!
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.
Then There Was One
This morning I did my final pass thinning the tomatoes, peppers, collards, cabbage and kale down to a single plant in each starter cup and then I crossed my fingers that no fungi or pests find my singletons between now and when they move outside.For now the 38 tomato plants are vigorous and hale and I am excited that fully half of them are from my own saved seed.
I added a few new varieties this year of both slicing and cherry tomatoes and plan to save seed from all I want to grow again next year.The cabbage and collards are nearly ready to be hardened off and will join the lettuce, spinach and leeks I will be direct sowing this weekend.
Now that the 2 week forecast has no nighttime temps below freezing it is time to get the spring garden into full swing!