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

Harvesting Organic Tennessee Turmeric

Just three weeks ago, all was green!

Our first frost for 2013 was October 19 with several frosts and one freeze since, so it's time to harvest the turmeric!  It's survived late planting, horrendous heat, and a long dry spell, but the nights are just too cold.

I lifted the ginger on Monday, and found about a dozen "hands."  Many of the plants looked like they were just getting ready to thrive which made the harvest even more disheartening.  For next year, I'm ordering for the earliest ship date I can.

Frostbite

The turmeric had weathered the first frost well, but the cold snap just yellowed them.  Despite the beautiful foliage--wouldn't they make a lovely house plant?--the rhizomes should be lifted from below rather than pulled by the plant.

Fine, fibrous roots!

I was surprised by how much "root wool" there was!  They held on to the light dirt even after lifting.

I should have shaken out the dirt, then washed them before "snapping" out the rhizomes.  Even the seed for this year's crop seems usable again.  The rhizomes were small, but not surprising after the size of the ginger crop.

A new rhizome and "babies."

The 2013 turmeric crop!

After sharing some, I think I'll grate it and freeze it fresh.  Many references suggest using it like ginger.   Making powder requires boiling the root, then dehydrating it before grinding.  That sounds like way too much trouble.

Overall, a decent crop for a first-year effort.  I'm planning to grow again, but I'll have to pick out good seed from my own crop as my supplier has already announced that no turmeric will be available next year!

So ends the tale of the turmeric!  What's growing in your Savory garden?

Nancy

Rain Delay

Turmeric has withstood the dry spell better
than the ginger (left).

It's been nearly six weeks since I've worked in the garden.  Sadly, it's been an extremely dry six weeks, so most of the garden has gone to seed.  Today was going to be the day to get back in and get it back in shape.  The weather was predicted to be perfect for outdoor work--cool and sunny.  Then the predicted cold front slowed a bit and Thursday's rain delayed until Friday.  It was a lovely soaking rain, much needed, but has totally rearranged my Saturday.

No bushhogging or tilling.  The main things I wanted to get done this weekend!

Even if the new pasture desperately needs it before I break up ruts with a disc, it will be several days before I can get the tractor in the field without creating even worse ruts.

I had planned to till up the garden beds and plant green manure, but, again, it's too wet.

This is what happens when you plant White Wonder
next to Edmonson:  orange cucumbers!

The new to-do list

• Vacuum and dust:  ugh.  But I hear rumors the dust bunnies are plotting a coup, so I guess I must.
• Update blogs:  well, here's a post, so I guess I can do that.
• Cook dinner for next week:  what's in the pantry?  Do we need to pick up some good local grass-fed beef?
• Wind up the hoses and put away the trellises, so, at least, garden progress can be made.
• Fertilize the turmeric and ginger.  Trees, too.  Blackberries, as well.
• Convert the DIY Indoor Greenhouse back to a greenhouse.  What else has it been?????  That's another post!
• Sleep in.  Lovely.  I think I'll go do that right now.

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

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

June wanes, July waxes in my organic garden

The fence is completely screened by the hibiscus and day lilies.

The heat and humidity have really settled on the farm like a hot, wet blanket which means the day lilies and the hibiscus (and the weeds) are thriving.  A busy week kept me out of the garden last week and this morning brought some surprises.  The pleasant surprises were peppers, tiny tomatoes, and blooms on the squash, cucumbers, and beans.  The unpleasant surprise was the inevitable incursion of nutgrass and purslane.

The turmeric (near) seems to be doing better than the ginger (rear).

The turmeric is adapting well to the heat, but does expect to be watered almost every day.  The early shoots were scalded by the hot sun, but most have rebounded after watering.  Given the long growing season both ginger and turmeric require, I'm already planning a low tunnel to stave off the cold nights which will come in November.

The squash seems to be thriving, despite the grass.

No squash bugs, so far, but I saw the first marmorated stink bug on the driveway this week.  My cousin has suggested daily dousing with a tea made of garlic and geranium oil.  What do you think?

A tiny cabbage!

The Resident Dragon is most excited about the development of the tiny cabbage.  It's been so hot, I fear that the heads will never form, and am already planning to plant more in the fall.

The beginning of a broccoli floret!

My daughter is excited to know that the broccoli is developing.  The broccoli in my father-in-law's garden seems to be bolting (from the heat, I suspect).  I'm hoping to avoid the same fate.

The currant tomatoes are loaded with blooms!

Once again, the currant tomatoes are thriving while the others are lagging behind.  Some are blooming, but there are only two ping-pong-ball-sized tomatoes maturing.  This means it's time to add bone meal to help with fruit set and to ward off blossom-end-rot.

The cucumbers and beans are blooming well.

Three varieties of cucumbers means I will be pickling and sharing this year.  My daughter likes to snack on cucumbers so I'll be sending some home with her.

These heirloom beans thrive in the heat!

We're growing green/filet beans as well as dragon's tongue and kidney beans this year.  I hope to dry the dragon's tongue and kidney beans, but will probably freeze the others.  The little pods are about an inch long!

The blackberry primocanes are growing tall.

The blackberries are finally in full season and that means the RD is still enjoying his "drive-by" snacks as he rides past on the lawn mower.  Oddly enough, the blackberry bramble is the best-mowed area of the yard!  We've harvested enough to freeze about 3 quarts, with more still on the canes.

It's time to tie up and tip the blackberry primocanes
so they will produce lateral canes and more fruit next year.

The primocanes are flourishing and I "tipped" them 4" above the top trellis wire this week and tied the remaining cane to the trellis.  I'm trying to root the cuttings to expand the bramble next year.

It's July, which means it's about time to start seeds for the fall garden.  Do you have any suggestions?  I'd like to try some onions again, but I've just not had much luck with them.  What do you think?

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

Nancy

Organic Gardening: Spicing Up the Garden with Ginger and Turmeric

As an aspiring market gardener, I'm always on the lookout for empty niches in the local food chain.  One item I have never seen has been locally-grown fresh ginger and turmeric.  I live near Memphis, which has a growing and vibrant food scene, so I thought that might be a good product.

As I have whined about explained before, my soil is heavy clay (called buckshot) so raised beds will be necessary for the lighter soil required by ginger and turmeric.  Fortunately, my son gave me a raised bed kit for Christmas.

As far as I know, certified organic seed ginger and turmeric is only available on the mainland from East Branch Ginger.  I placed my order back in January and the white ginger variety had already sold out within 6 hours.  I ordered yellow ginger and turmeric and received the order in early March.  Because our growing season is not as long as in Hawaii, they recommend pre-sprouting which I wrote about in April.

The trays have been stacked on the counter in my laundry room since then, seemingly doing nothing.  In the meantime, I have been agonizing over the location of the raised bed.  Suddenly, two weeks ago, shoots began appearing in the trays.  I had to make a decision.

The shoots appeared after two months.

It's time to transplant.

So, on Saturday we put the frame together and placed it on the south side of the house near the orchard.  We have voles and armadillos, so we lined the bottom of the frame with hardware cloth.  Because the grass is so invasive, we lined the frame with gardener's cloth as a weed barrier.

Untreated 2x12s with the corners were assembled in the shady garage.

Thirty bags of organic humus and four bags of Black Kow Manure later, the bed was finished!

I dug 4" trenches on 24" centers (which means two long rows 12" in from the edge of the bed).  I also sprinkled pelleted gypsum to aid in nutrient uptake.

The ginger roots look like starfish!

While the kit came with a round soaker hose, I substituted my preferred flat hose so it can be arranged better.

Round soaker hoses will take higher pressure,
but they just will not arranged easily.

Now, I must keep them moist but not wet, and feed them often.  Check back for progress reports!

What's growing in your Savory garden?

Nancy