Mustard Seeds

I took advantage of some very rare cloud cover this morning to take on some fall garden tasks. (Fall in spirit only because the temp today should be just under the 100 mark.). More experimentation regarding root knot nematode control by planting a cover crop of mustard got under way by cleaning and raking the soil. Two beds are being set aside for this green manure application. Once the mustard blooms, it needs to be cut down and turned under before seed is set.  The chemical formed is repulsive to root knot nematodes plus nutrients are added back into the soil.

One of the two beds was solarized for over 8 weeks this summer.  The other bed grew peppers and tomatoes without any signs of the pest. Tomato roots show now galls formed.  These tomatoes were not nematode resistant; so I'm feeling better that the pest is being eradicated. 

No rows were formed. I purchased the seed by weight to insure the bed will produce a full cover crop. As the temperatures cool, an application of beneficial nematodes will be introduced to all the beds. The beneficials will attack the bad bugs - including grubs. Earthworms are supposed to be safe from their attack.

 The current predator in the garden are the mourning doves feasting on my mustard seeds.  If they don't munch on my onion seeds, it's the mustard seeds.  Pinwheels from the 4th of July have been re-purposed as scarecrows.  So far so good.  But it's only been a few hours.  I'm a bit concerned if this mustard program goes biblical.

"He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”"  Matthew 13:31-32

Garden hopes are are high that a cover crop of mustard will be great green manure making the soil fertile for seeds to come.

Garden side note:

This morning, a bloom finally developed on a morning glory vine. For some reason, these plants have not been vigorous and will soon be replaced by peas. Flying Saucer morning glories were planted on June 19 and just now had a pitiful bloom.  Early Call morning glories were planted two days earlier on June 17. Only one vine germinated. Slug? Snails? I don't know. The 1st bloom on this puny vine occurred this morning. I would have to seriously consider ever planting morning glories again. Pitiful.

Wando Peas were planted this evening on the north side of the west bed where this morning glory remains

Garden Progress in April

 Here's what's going on in the garden after some nice rain before we head into a scorcher of a week.
Several lavender plants are drawing various pollinators into the garden - hummingbirds, bubble bees, bees, and butterflies.

Lavender

The plum tree is alive.  I thought it had been lost after it bloomed in the fall and produced leaves into the winter.  Those leaves looked awful and sad; but it bloomed this spring and produced some fruit.  Most of that fruit has fallen though.

Santa Rosa Plum

The peach tree got away from my pruning shears last year.  Once the fruit has been harvested in a few months, I'll work on slowly trimming it down to a manageable espalier.

O'Henry Peach

Good ol' Granny Smith looks like it is thriving and will provide plenty of apples at the end of the summer.  This tree had some problems with scalding a few years ago.

Granny Smith Apple
 

The Red Flame grapes were pruned a bit today by Farmer MacGregor.  He took down an unfilled Scrub Jay nest that distressed those nest builders.

Red Flame Grapes

The Warren pear tree never bloomed (AGAIN!) and the Fantasia Nectarine lost all of its fruit.  The Bleinheim apricot has had a few prunings so far this spring.  The fruit has a bit of cosmetic damage from the sun and wind.  Hopefully, it won't do a thing to the flavor.

Bleinheim Apricot

A few peas have started to develop.  I'm surprised since the heat came early.  Maybe I'll get a few to sample.

Wando Peas

Celebrity tomatoes have produced well in the past even though there is a nematode problem.  This year is no exception.  There is hope of homemade salsa.

Celebrity Tomato

Thornless boysenberries were covered with netting today to fight off the pesky birds.  This season may not be as bountiful as last.  If so, I'll blame it on my pruning.

Thornless Boysenberries

Serrano peppers are great stuffed with cream cheese and wrapped with bacon.  They are also my pepper of choice for making salsa.

Serrano Peppers

Most of the irrigation is only twice during the week.  Basins are filled from the hose.  This method may encourage the roots to push deeper into the soil and not dry out as fast.  I may be wrong since so many encourage drip irrigation.  We'll see.

Fighting Tomatoes

Celebrity Tomatoes

Just came in from the garden at 8:35pm.  Temperature:  95°.  Carumba! The tomatoes have gone buzzerk and needed to be cleaned up, strung up, and harvested.  There is precisely 5 gajillion tomatoes remaining on the vines.  Mama Mia.  Most will go in the freezer to be used in spaghetti sauce and salsa later.  Others will be used fresh.  I have no plans to can this summer.  Too hot and freezing is so much easier.

Not much fertilizer was used on these Celebrities.  They are resistant to verticillium wilt, fusarium, and nematodes (VFN).  That's the reason they were planted in this bed with signs of Root Knot Nematodes.  Joining these tomatoes in their fight for a nematode free world is basil, asparagus, and French Marigolds.  There are a few vines that don't look so great though.  They may be in an area where the nematodes are the worst.  Those will be pulled and replaced with more French Marigolds.

Susy at Chiot's Run posts information about growing yellow mustard to fight against nematodes.  I may consider planting yellow mustard in the fall to grow through the winter.  Peas were intended for this bed during the cool season.  I wasn't sure if mustard would grow with peas but the Canadians ran a test and the results indicate that mustard is a good companion.  I'm looking into this combination to improve the soil and produce a good crop of peas.

Pea Picker No More

The time for picking peas has come to an end.  Peas are planted at the tail end of summer to get them up and growing through the winter.  Preserving peas has never been a concern for me because I eat most of them out in the garden - raw.  Delicious.  But the cool days of winter and spring are only something to hope for as we drive into the hot brick wall of summer.  BAM!



The pea vines are all out now with radishes and zucchini taking there place.  Tonight will be the final night to enjoy fresh peas.  Shame. 

I looked out to the garden to determine what I could eat if suddenly there was no other food source.  Pickings are kinda slim since the seasons are changing. 

Here's the produce I have to select:
Lemons, garlic, strawberries, carrots,  green onions, and herbs (lavender, thyme, basil, rosemary, and oregano). 

Here's what's coming along:
Boysenberries, squash, onions, radishes, tomatoes, peaches, apples, and apricots.

Here's what still needs to be planted:
Beans, beans, the magical fruit!  Pumpkins will be planted at the end of June.

This week, Farmer MacGregor will be installing new steps from the pergola down to the lawn AND flower beds to border the pergola.  I hope to have an entry of the progress once the project is complete.  Still looking for a purple tree rose.  Barbra Streisand may be the variety that will work.

Pea Patch

Tall Telephone Peas were planted on September 18, 2010.  I’ve been harvesting them for sometime now; but only recently have any made it to the kitchen.  Peas make great lunchtime snacks!  The green pearls are sweet and grassy tasting – delicious.  Sadly, I do not track how much of each crop is harvested.  That’s simply too much record keeping for me.  I can’t even keep a garden journal.  There are notes in my Sunset gardening book though.  Blogging helps me organize things a bit better than trusting my memory.

This variety of peas must be the type that old Jack planted.  The package describes the vines as reaching up to 9’ tall.  I suspect that is fairly accurate since the supports are over 6’ and the vines started running horizontally rather than up into the clouds and goose with the golden eggs.  I know.  Jack grew beans.  Artistic license in play here.

The supports will stay in place to string up the tomatoes after they have hardened off.  The timing should work out pretty good.  I really thought the peas would have been finished by now.  They really had a very slow growing season and didn’t do much until the weather warmed up a bit.

The rest of my Tall Telephone seeds were traded with a gardening friend that is growing an abundance of sweet potatoes.  He will supply me with some of his bounty at harvest time.  That frees up a bit more garden space for something else this summer.  Perhaps I’ll plant some bell peppers.  I’ve traded seeds to distant gardeners and shared an over abundance with others, now the two types of trading have been combined.

Does anyone else make trades with fellow gardeners?

Yes Peas!

 

Tall Telephone Peas were planted back in September and are now finally starting to fatten up.  That’s five months.  I thought I would have peas around Christmastime.  Sheesh! 

The seeds came from Terroir Seeds with this description:

68-78 Days.  Swiss heirloom dating to 1878.  Many vines and a profusion of easy-to-pick pods with 8-9 tasty peas each.  Long season.  Pisum stavum 

The packet instructions give these directions:

As soon as soil can be worked in spring, sow peas in full sun, 2” deep and 6” apart within the rows and space the rows 2’ apart.  Germination takes 7-10 days.  Sow successively every two weeks until temperatures remain above 78 °F, and again in mid to late summer for a fall crop.  Vining types need trellises or supports.

I suppose I should have planted them in August rather than September.  Planting a couple of more rows to try to get some spring peas is probably a good idea since I come out and eat these off the vine at lunchtime. Preserving any is doubtful.  At $2.95 for 100 seeds, it’s a pretty economical way to garden. These plants are over 6’ tall.  Make sure to provide tall enough support.

Enjoy some pea facts and pea recipes at peas.org.

We Go Together Like Peas and Carrots

One of the raised beds in the garden has been dedicated to Forrest and Jenny this fall/winter.  Nothing but peas and carrots are growing there.  Two varieties of carrots – Atomic Red and Cosmic Purple – are looking very healthy.  Carrot seeds are fairly fine and are only need to be sown on top of the soil they are meant to grow.  Like all other root crops, remove any stones from the well draining soil before planting.  Just barely cover the seeds and keep the soil moist.  The seeds should sprout in about a week.  A second crop of each variety was sown about three weeks later to insure a continuous harvest.

Tall Telephone Peas is the only variety of peas that are being grown this season.  The first crop was planted on September 18 and the second crop was planted October 4.  These seeds are much larger than carrot seeds.  The seed is a pea that needs to be planted 2” deep and 6” apart.  I have planted the rows about 3’ apart to allow room to move between rows.  This variety is expected to grow about 9’ tall; so twine has been strung on the supports that were used for tomatoes in the summer in anticipation of vigorous growth.  The seeds sprout in about a week and can be sown as long as the temperatures remain above 78 degrees.

Harvest Moon / Planting Moon

Fall planting is almost complete.  I’m a bit late but I hope to see some results.  As expected, the radishes are up.  The radishes pictured above are Jaune D’Or Ovales.  These were planted on September 16 and the photo was taken this evening (September 22).  These radishes are planted in the lettuce bed that was most recently the Lemon Squash bed.

I use stakes and old tomato cages to keep garden kitties (any kitties) out.  Redwood stakes are used to mark the rows.  Even though I write down what I planted on the seed packet and on my garden plan, the stakes are a handy reference.

This evening, I planted as long as I could thinking that the light of the harvest moon would help me complete my planting.  No way.  I’m almost done though.

Here’s what’s in the ground now:

Bed 1	Bed 2	Bed 3	Bed 4
Peas – Tall Telephone	Lettuce - Merlot		Cabbage – Early Jersey Wakefield
blank	Radishes - Watermelon		Onions – Yellow of Parma
Peas – Tall Telephone	Lettuce - Cimmaron		Cabbage – Mammoth Red Rock
Peas – Tall Telephone	Beets - Crapaudine		Beets – Early Wonder
Carrots – to be determined	Radishes – Juane D’Or Ovale		Cauliflower – Purple of Sicily
Carrots – Atomic Red	Onions – He-Shi-Ko		Onions – Flat of Italy
Carrots – to be determined	Lettuce – Brune d’Hiver		Broccoli – to be determined
Carrots – Cosmic Purple	Lettuce - Iceberg		WILD CARD
	Stevia		Lavender
	Strawberries - established		Orange Thyme
	Basil - established

The beds are listed from west to east.  The crops are listed from west to east with framing crops at the bottom of each list.  Grey italic means the seeds still need to be planted.

The hot peppers in bed 3 (Serranos and Black Hungarians) are producing like mad and I’m going with the flow.  This bed may be reserved for early tomato planting in about six months.  I don’t know.

One Potato. Two Potato.

Volunteer Yukon Gold potatoes are growing amongst the green bunching onions.  They need to be removed to allow for healthy tomato growth.  The bunching onions are planted in the tomato bed not only for eating but to encourage insects to scoot. The potatoes were an unsuccessful project planted last year.  Blight got the best of them after they were mounded.  These sprouts are the result of me not cleaning the bed out properly.These weren’t the only volunteers in the bed.  Peas were also sprouting.  They had to go too.  Now the bed is ready for the tomatoes once Farmer MacGregor installs the tomato supports.  My supervisor approved of my work.  Validation is a good thing.

Minding My Peas

The last of the peas have been pulled out in preparation for the summer plants to get started.  The stakes were pulled.  The dried out plants were pulled.  And the garden wagon was pulled up to be filled with the vines to continue drying. I’m waiting for the remaining pods to dry out so I can store them for split pea soup.  I sure hope that’s how it’s done.  My mother told me that that is how my Granny did it; so I’m giving it a shot.This bed still has carrots, beets, and garlic growing.  I think the peppers will grow here for the summer.  I have Serranos  and Black Hungarians waiting in the wings.  Last summer there were pumpkins, onions, beets, and carrots. 

Wait A Pea Pickin’ Minute

Where did the term pea pickin’ minute come from?  If pea picking is supposed to be quick then I have lots of improvement to make.  I picked the last of my peas on Saturday and shelled about 1/5 of the harvest.  

That is labor intensive work, Jack. I took the haul up to the patio and started in.  By the time I was sick of shelling, I felt just like Idella from Driving Miss Daisy.  I have pounds and pounds to go.

Garden Update

Here’s a few things that have been going on in the garden.

March 6, 2010 – The tomato seeds sprouted.  They were planted, along with pepper seeds, on March 1.

The lilac continues to perfume the garden air.

The broccoli has bolted.  The final harvest was made and the plants removed to make way for summer crops after the soil is amended.  Note:   the Lobelia in the background.  I have been unsuccessful in capturing how dark the purple is on this Crystal Palace variety.  Finally, the color shows when it’s not the focal point.

The beets are really starting to take off.  I usually thin out the smaller ones; but now they’re really starting to get big,

The Red Flame grape is starting to show signs of life.  The vine was fed today.

These little caterpillars along with their thug friends the pill bugs and earry wigs (earwigs) have been found guilty and executed for the damage they have done to the cabbage.

Most of the rest of the cabbage was salvaged.  The bed is now completely vacant awaiting amendments so the summer beans and savory can be planted.

Carrots continue to produce.  A bunch was recently harvested to add to a pot of mushroom/wine chicken.

Peas continue to go nuts.  Now that the heat is cranking up, the pods are filling out at an accelerated pace.  They joined the carrots in the pot with the chicken.

All the fruit trees have been fed:  plum, peach, apple, pear, nectarine, apricot, fig, grapefruit, orange, mandarin, lemon. 

Peas

The peas are really thriving in the warm weather.  The loads of white blossoms are maturing into sweet pea pods.  When I’m out in the garden and spot a nice, fat pod I take a seat and enjoy the naturally sweet treat.  I haven’t been able to save enough to cook.

These were planted on October 2 and October 5.  By the end of January, they needed to be contained with some twine to keep them from overtaking the garlic.  The package of Little Marvels listed 62 days to maturity.  WRONG!  The waiting time was double.

The Little Marvel peas aren’t the only peas doing well in the garden.  Royal Blue Sweet Peas planted in September are getting ready to fill the air with spicy scents.