The Winter Garden

The first camellia--sasanqua--of the season.
The japonica is just budding.

The threat of near-teen night-time lows last week sent me scrambling to mulch my winter beds.  I've added several raised beds and put in several winter crops.

The garlic had sprouted about 4" tall and I knew it needed to be mulched.  Although not optimal, the lack of hay sent me dashing to Tractor Supply for pine shavings.  By the headlights of my trusty little truck, Jim and I fluffed about 4" of pine shavings around the garlic leaves.  I have not been outside in the daylight since, and hope that will do the trick for the winter.

The garlic has enjoyed warm fall days!

The spinach has also sprouted about 1" tall, but it will have to fend for itself.  Although we do have some bitterly cold nights, at times, most winter days are in the forties, which, hopefully, the spinach will enjoy.  It not, oh, well.

Carrots!

This bed is split between carrots (left) and saffron crocus.

The saffron crocus finally sprouted.

The third bed is split between carrots and saffron crocus.  While we did mulch the crocuses, the carrots are on their own against the cold.  Saffron is a fall-blooming crocus, but likely will not bloom this year.  It is reputed to be a profuse multiplier, so I hope to fill the bed next year.  I'll need as many bulbs as possible since each bulb only produces 3 threads of saffron.  No wonder it's so expensive!

The fourth bed is the original, from which I've recently harvested turmeric.  Although I've given a few tubers away, I'll save most for seed for next year since seed will not be available.

What can I plant that's short-term, and loves the cold?

One topic I'll be researching over the winter is "landrace" crops.  I had not ever heard of the term before this week, but it seems like one solution to a variety of problems with plants just not thriving.

What do you know about landrace farming?

Your helpful comments are needed!  So, not much going on the the garden, which is a good thing.  If the rain lets up, I'll turn under the garden.  I'm enjoying the rain, however and would not dare complain about it.

Many thanks for reading, and for your comments about landrace farming.

What's growing in your Savory jardin?

Nancy

Lessons from My Organic Garden 2013 Edition

Muscadines

Well, I'm not putting a current picture of the garden in this post because, well, the crop I grew best this summer was grass.  Yup.  Grass.  All in the garden.  I was ill for about 2 weeks early in the summer and it just took over.  Yes, I've tried some to keep ahead of it, but it's stronger than I am.  In the next week or two, I'll be fishing the soaker hoses out of the grass and tilling it all under.  All is not failure, however, although the vegetables just could not compete with the grass for nourishment.  So, lessons learned from this year, so far:

Cucumber!

Weeding

• I hate weeding.  I don't weed.  I don't care how cool it is; I do not weed.  This is a major problem for an organic gardener.
• If I will not weed, I must either mulch or plant in rows.
• No-till isn't working for me; the aforementioned grass takes over the mulch crop.
• Intercropping is not working either.  The grass takes over before the "inter" crop establishes itself.

Sprouting bulblet of a "walking" onion.

Gardening method

• "Strip" gardening (tilled strips 3' x 25') has too much opportunity for grass incursion.  It's just not working.
• Raised beds have worked well for the ginger and turmeric.  Consider planting more, but do make them 3' wide rather than 4'.
• "Market garden" crops should be grown either in rows, cultivated with a tiller, or under plastic mulch/gardener's cloth covering soaker hoses.

Ginger and turmeric

Crop Selection

• Even heat-tolerant varieties of broccoli and cabbage can't tolerate the unrelenting direct sun of my garden.  Plant them earlier or later.
• San Marzano, Rutgers, and Oxheart tomatoes have done well.  Plant them again.  Currant tomatoes should be planted in single rows with harvest space all around.
• Although White Wonder, Sumter, and Edmonson cucumber varieties have produced well, I need to find a smaller variety for pickling.
• Go with the same pepper selection next year, but be sure to mulch with plastic as well as feed more heavily:  jalapeno, Tennessee cheese, serrano, King Arthur, among others.
• Annual "garden" crops are too labor-intensive; increase blackberries and find additional perennial crops.

A luscious fig!

The Future

• Blackberries!  They like my dirt and their cultivation schedule works with mine.
• Turmeric?  What's above ground looks good, but we'll see how the rest turns out.  It is planted in a raised bed with . . .
• Ginger?  It's really scruffy looking, but new leaves mean new "fingers" on the hand-shaped ginger root.
• Figs:  The fig trees are producing more this year, and enjoying the heat.
• Catawissa/Egyptian/Walking Onions:  They grow well in a pot, and every part of the plant is edible.  The bulb is like a small shallot and tastes like a spicy scallion.
• Other specialty crops:  Do you have any suggestions for specialty crops?

So, I'm shutting the garden down early this year.  I've already started the container garden on the porch and am considering a low tunnel outside.  There is so much to learn, but . . .

The greatest lesson about gardening is that there is always next year.

A Thank You!

I'd like to share a little "next year" with you.  I'll send 10 "walking onion" bulblets to five of you who take the time to offer suggestions for next year's specialty crops in the next two weeks.

What about you?  What's growing in your Savory garden?

Nancy

Sneaky Zucchini in my Organic Garden!

White Wonder Cucumber

My garden has surprised me several times this year:  cucumbers are popping up all over, tomatoes are finally swelling on the vines, and, ta-da!, zucchini were hiding at the bottom of several plants!

I happily sent them home with my daughter, for whom I planted them.  All of the squash and zucchini are loaded with blooms, so she (and I, and my neighbors, and my co-workers) should be well-supplied.

Edmonson or Sumter Cucumber

With the development of the tomatoes, the tomato hornworms have also arrived, so a primary task each garden day is patrolling for and eradicating the pests.  My cousin collects hers and uses them as chicken treats, but I've just dispatched mine to their eternal reward.  The San Marzanos have been the surprise of the season, with the Rutgers following close behind.  I was a bit worried about my tomatoes being so late until I spoke to a few local market growers whose crops are also late.  I feel some better now.

Early mornings have been surprisingly cool.

The Contender beans have produced almost a peck of beans, so I'll be able to freeze a batch soon.  The Calima beans are just now producing so it will be a week or two before the beans are ready.  The Mandy pole beans have been very slow to grow and are barely blooming.  I hope to have some by the end of the month.

My plan to combat grass and weeds with mulch has been derailed by a lack of mulch.  This means the nutgrass has run rampant in the beds, as you can see in the cucumber picture above.  I need a new plan.  I hate pulling grass, but I'll have to do it, or live with the grass until the fall changeover.  Or both.

Peppers, cucumbers, & zucchini!

Update:  I'm living with the grass, kind of.  I pull it sometimes, but, mostly, just rummage around in it, looking for the vegetables.  Next year, I absolutely must put down plastic!

So much to do--I'm off to can (purchased) tomatoes!

What's growing in your Savory garden?

Nancy

Organic Gardening: Time to Work!

Beans and cucumbers sprouted after only 5 days!

Things are really getting busy here on the farm.  Nearly everything is transplanted and almost all seeds are in the ground, with the exception of the interplantings.

A routine

I'm still tired, like last week, but am settling into my summer routine:

• Work in the garden from first light (as soon as I can tell a snake from a stick) until the heat and/or humidity become unpleasant, which is about 9.
• Get on the tractor and bushhog or mow until the heat and/or humidity become unbearable.
• "Chill out" in the cool house:  cleaning, cooking, or writing.  (Or napping!)
• Go back to the garden when the breeze comes up in the evening and work until I can no longer tell a snake from a stick.
• Chill out inside for a bit before enjoying the sleep of the weary.

Mandy (Big Red Ripper) cowpeas!

This week has been typical, and the beans, peas, squash, and cucumbers planted on Monday night have sprouted!  That is a testament to warm air temps as well as warm soil temps and some judicious watering.

Water everywhere

Speaking of watering, since I've expanded my beds this year (growing from 4 to 8), I'm in need of more low-pressure Gilmour flat soaker hoses, especially since my wonderful 50-foot hose lost its battle with the tiller last fall.  (It took me over an hour to unwind the snarl from the tiller tines.)  We've been watering with oscillating sprinklers this week, but the additional hoses go in next week, which will, hopefully, save some water, especially once I begin mulching with yard clippings.

Broccoli and cabbage have grown a lot in 2 weeks,
but need fertilizer!

I've also fertilized the transplants this week, giving them a dose of the lovely Garden-Tone from Espoma.  Although all of my garden area was, at one time, part of a corn patch, some of the strips have been "worked" more than others, and it shows.  I stabbed the ground next to each plant for a fertilizer "earth funnel" and the newer beds (worked less) were harder than the beds I worked last year.  The plants in those strips will need some extra care.

In fact, I'm considering tilling up another strip and planting a series of mulch crops to help condition the soil for next year.

Interplantings

Back to this year, though.  Since I will not have enough grass clippings to mulch all of my garden strips this year, I plan on interplanting other vegetables.  The current plan is:

• Carrots with tomatoes
• Beans with tomatoes
• Beets with cabbage and broccoli
• Eggplant among the pole beans

Peppers will be mulched with the grass clippings; that has worked really well for several years.

Working through the time of long shadows!

Cucumbers and beans are already planted in the same bed (cucumbers down the middle along a trellis, in the hopes that the bean canopy will minimize the weeds around the cucumbers.

Pole beans are planted at the foot of each tripod leg (including the tomato trellis supports) in the hopes they will climb up the leg.

A new tool

In years past, my patches were grassy and weedy, but I've already improved on weeding this year.  The difference?  The "action hoe"!  It's light; it's nimble; it's fast!  I know my plants will do better when they are not competing with grass and weeds for nutrients.

A "berry" good report

The early blackberries are turning red (from green) and we are hoping to have the first berries in a week or two!  The canes are loaded and we're hoping for a good year.  We've been watering with a t-post sprinkler from Tractor Supply which we've found to be far more stable than a tripod.

Wild roses, violets and buttercup--
beauty is there for those with the eye to see it!

Slowing down

As you can see, it's been a busy week here on the farm, but sometimes I am forced to stop and remember why I am so thankful to be here:

One of my early memories is sitting on the church steps on the opposite corner of this property and listening to the bobwhites and whipporwills.  I was disappointed, when I moved here, to learn that they had been gone, hunted out, for many years.  The second summer, I thought I heard bobwhites, but could never prove it.  The third summer, several others in the community heard what seemed to be a lone bobwhite.  The fourth summer and fifth summers, we had a pair.  This summer, we've heard at least two pair.

This morning, I saw a bobwhite sitting on the trellis that is 25 feet from my back door, calling for his mate.  By the time I retrieved my camera, he had flown away.  But I saw him.  He seemed comfortable here.  I hope he stays--and brings friends--for his call takes me back to a slower time when time was savored.  And that's my most important plan for the summer:  savor the time, and the people I share that time with.

What about you?

How are you living your Savory life?

Nancy

Totally Tabascos!

Jack Frost's handiwork cooled
down our hot peppers!

Ready to plant!

Peppers seem to grow well in our boiling-hot but dry summers, and every year I look for new varieties to try in the garden.  Last year the new variety was orange habaneros which produced prolifically through frost.

Yes, I fell out of this trailer!

This year's experiment was tabasco peppers.  I hadn't thought about tabascos until I saw the seed at, oddly enough, the wonderful Totally Tomato site.  I started the seeds on Valentine's day but, due to my cold garage and inadequate sunlight, the plants were not ready to set out until late May.

Tabasco peppers point up, not down!

Our soil is quite poor, so we added several trailer-loads of leaves last fall and this year's soil was a bit more friable.  I created two garden strips:  sweet peppers and hot.  I lay soaker hoses under mulch and fertilized about every other week.  The tobasco plants grew nicely.  They were lush.  They were green.  But, when all the other peppers started blooming, they did not.  They waited, and waited.  I was picking baskets of poblanos, jalapenos, serranos, even pepperoncini, but the tabasco swayed bloomless in the breeze.

Finally, finally, they began blooming in July.

Fortunately, they ripened at the same time!

Tiny fruits formed.  Slowly.

Tiny fruits grew larger.  Slowly.

They grew larger.  Slowly.

Until, finally, finally, finally, most were ready.

This year, we're making a standard sweet hot sauce.  Next year, maybe we'll ferment a sauce!  But, in any case, tabascos are tops on our crop list!

Our tabascos were not large, but they were potent!

We cut the plant to harvest the peppers.

Tedious, but tasty!

What's growing in your garden????

Thank You Very Mulch!

 Every year I begin my garden with the best of intentions to control pests and weeds.  As long as it's cool, I manage fairly well.  Sometime during the summer, something usually happens to interrupt my efforts:  a rainy spell, an unexpected opportunity that takes me away for a week or so, or an illness.  This year, all three intervened and the grass took over (left).  No matter how much I worked, the grass and weeds grew faster than I pulled.  It became obvious I needed to work smarter rather than harder.

Last year, I had tried using black gardener's cloth to prevent grass and weeds.  It did, but it also impeded water reaching plants.  I knew I would not be satisfied with that solution.  Then I picked up the most recent issue of Mother Earth News which contained an article about mulches.  Eureka!

Now, I've been feeling guilty about not composting the untreated (NO herbicides!) grass clippings from my nearly 2 acre yard.  After all, the soil in my garden turns rock-hard during the dry summer and could certainly use organic amendments.  So, I pulled out the lawn sweeper, attached it to the mower, and enjoyed a lovely summer evening riding around my freshly-mown front yard.

What was not as fun was pulling as many of the weeds as I could bear on the next cool morning.  But pull I did, and spread the now-brown grass clippings in a 2 inch layer around my pepper plants leaving some room around the stems.  I stood aside and waited.  And waited.  And watered--it's been a rather dry summer.  And waited.  And smiled.  After two weeks, the grass had grown around the edges and was leaning in, but had only just begun to peep through the mulch.

I clipped the edges and piled on another layer of mulch.  An added benefit was the nutrients the decaying grass supplied to my struggling plants.  So, I'm now a believer in the power of mulch.  I'm already plotting my mulch strategy for next year!