Calabrese Broccoli

The recent rains followed by fog are doing a world of good for this gardener, the garden, and the State of California as a whole.  I haven't had to irrigate for some time now.  I was worried that the Bagrada bug that decimated two beds of mustard would ruin my bed of broccoli and cauliflower before cold weather arrived.  They have done damage to seedlings that got a late start; but the mature plants are thriving.  It could have been the applications of diatomaceous earth or the recent cooler weather that has slowed them.  Probably a combination and the fact that there are very few seedlings that remain.

The Calabrese Green Sprouting Broccoli is an Italian heirloom brought to America in the 1880s.  It should produce many side shoots and produce heads 5" - 8". *

Waltham 29 Broccoli

I thought I also spotted a head of cauliflower. After checking some planting notes, this looks to be broccoli.  Waltham 29 is a standard type that produces 4" - 8" green heads that are nicely flavored.  Compact plants also produce some side shoots.  Introduced in 1954.*  It certainly is much different than the Italian variety.  There are two varieties of broccoli and two varieties of cauliflower planted in the far east bed. Cool, foggy/rainy weather is expected to continue this week providing ideal conditions in the winter garden.

Red-Cored Chantenay Carrots

At the head of this bed, is a variety of carrot that is suited for heavy soil.  It's a stubby variety that helps to break up the soil.  This bed was solarized over the past summer to drive out nematodes.  Don't know if it worked; but the carrots show no signs of the wee beasties.  One of the sweetest, this variety was introduced in 1929 and is a large stump-rooted carrot with a deep red-orange center, great for juicing or fresh eating. A good market variety that is smooth and refined in shape.*

The western most bed was also solarized this summer and then planted with a cover crop of mustard.  Unfortunately, the Bragrada bug destroyed the mustard.  I've used this opportunity to plant garlic.  Once the rains started, the garlic sprouted.  Hope this is a good sign.

Sunshine Blue Blueberry

Previously, I had mislabeled this potted blueberry bush as Pink Lemonade.  It's a product of Dave Wilson Nursery out of Reedley, California.  They describe this variety:  "Southern Highbush cultivar.  Great flavored firm berries.  Ripens May 10 through June 15 at Gainesville, Florida (?).  A semi dwarf evergreen bush with great fall color.  Showy hot pink flowers fade to white in spring.  Self-fruitful.  Estimated chilling hours needed 150 hours, but very cold hardy as well."

There is lots going on in the garden during the most wonderful time of the year.

*  Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds.

Vampires Beware!

Garlic was planted for the first time in October 2009.  It was harvested in May 2010.  Between May and October 2010 all the garlic was used except for one head and a few loose cloves that were set aside to continue the routine.  Those were planted in October 2010 and recently the garlic was harvested earlier this month.  About 40 head of garlic were produced without much effort.  Ah the circle of life.  Seems a successful routine has been established as far as growing garlic is concerned.  Curing the harvest is a snap using the drying racks that Farmer MacGregor constructed.  Brushing and braiding is the final task reserved for this weekend.  Perfect.  Garlic is one of the easiest items to grow in my vegetable garden.  Pest free.  Disease free. Limited irrigation – just to get it started.  If you have a patch of loose dirt (loamy sand) in full sunshine give, it a try.  If you’re close to Bakersfield, California, try the October/May schedule and see if it works for you.

Box repurposed from Costco for toting weeds, lavender, and garlic.  No one in the garden is a fan of Hidden Valley – especially me. 

 

Interesting garden note:  Farmer MacGregor does a mean impersonation of Count Von Count counting.  Ah. Ah. Ah. Ah!

Onions, Garlic, & Birthday Wishes

Technorati Tags: onions,garlic,Licorice

The water is off the onions and garlic.  Now it’s time to wait for the greens to dry a bit before they get pulled out of the soil and put on the drying racks to cure a bit.  The garlic will be braided and the onions stored to use as needed.  Garlic will be planted in October for another harvest the following May.  More onions will be planted to enjoy as green onions throughout the summer and brown or purple onions when they mature.  All the onions are started from seed in place.  They are some of the easiest plants to grow.  I encourage anyone starting a vegetable garden to start with radish seeds and onion seeds.  Everything germinates (sprouts) quickly.  Results are quick.  Harvest can begin in just a few weeks with tender radishes and green onions.  By harvesting early and often, you’re providing room for the remaining vegetables to mature.  Extra bonus:  a package of seeds is so inexpensive that it’s worth a try.  All that is needed is some loose soil, full sun, and some occasional water.  A sack of garden soil from a garden center is a simple way to start a small experimental garden.  Make sure to puncture the bag to allow for drainage. 

Mother Earth News – Spring 2011

 

Special birthday wishes to the Empress of the Garden, Licorice.  She was born in the garden 20 years ago.  Congratulations old girl!

 

Note:  Windows Live Writer has been updated and I’m just getting acquainted with the updates.

Twilight Garlic

I’m out in the garden well past twilight working and inspecting.  It’s about time to harvest the garlic that was planted back in October 2010.  I’m a lousy record keeper regarding the garden; and blogging is helpful but I didn’t note what date the garlic was planted.  At least, I can’t find record of it.  It was sometime in October.  Now the garlic is starting to dry out.  Today the drip lines were pulled away from the garlic and onions because irrigation will switch to automation in the morning.  Prior to that the garden was watered manually as needed. The temperatures are climbing into the 90s this week so it’s time to rely on the water conservation system to keep the garden and gardener happy.  This will help prevent swamp pants.The variety of garlic is a mystery.  In the fall of 2009, I picked up a package of garlic to experiment with.  It grew.  The harvest was dried (cured) then braided and used from June to December.  There was a small, junky head that remained from the braid so I busted it up and planted it in the fall of 2010 to see if it would grow.  It grew.  The circle continues.  From about 40 cloves of garlic came 40 heads of garlic.  The initial investment of 30 cloves was probably no more than $5.  From that came 30 heads plus 40 more.

How much garlic can you buy in the grocery store for $5?  I don’t know.  I believe I’m getting a pretty good return on my investment AND I know how it was grown.  That’s a pretty good feeling.

 

Garden Note:

The summer garden is moving right along.  Here’s what has been going on:

• Tomato starts have been planted in their summer bed.  The supports need to be strung in preparation for a burst of growth.
• Cosmic Purple Carrot seeds from Heirloom Acres Seeds were planted with some of the tomatoes to see if carrots really do love tomatoes.
• Malali Watermelon seeds from Baker Creek were planted along with some French Breakfast Radish seeds.  Last year, this variety of radish was planted with squash as a beneficial.
• Nastursium seeds were planted in the holes of the cinder blocks that form the raised beds to help attract pollinators.  If the pill bugs let some seedlings grow to maturity, it should look good.
• Strawberries received an application of Garden & Bloom.
• Scale was discovered on the grapefruit tree and the orange tree could be threatened.  Take down was applied.  A 2nd application should take place in 10 days.
• Scare tap was tied to the grape arbor to scare away nesting mourning doves.  One empty nest was removed.  The following day a nest with an egg was discovered.  Scare tape does not scare stupid mourning doves.
• Sweet Peas continue to be harvested.  This area will be reserved for more beans this summer.
• Irrigation drip lines are in place to start a regular schedule to begin May 4.
• Bolting parsley was trimmed back.
• Shoots were removed from the healthiest (eastern most) wisteria.  The canopy was adjusted to encourage growth to spread over the top of the pergola.  Tomato cages were removed from the bases of both vines.  Cages were used to prevent puppy from teething on the trunks.
• Received a couple of cherry tomato seedlings from a co-worker.  These have been transplanted into small pots to harden.  They will be used for grilling.

Garlic

This is the 1st time garlic was grown in the garden.  It was planted in October and harvested in May.  Success!  It was fairly easy to grow and fairly easy to braid.  Currently, the braid is being snipped at a rapid pace as salsa production goes into full gear.  Another great use is to chop it up and cover it with olive oil to use on anything being grilled.

Garlic nuts swarm to the Garlic Festival held annually in Gilroy, California.  It’s happening July 23-25 this year.  I’ve never been and wonder about using garlic to flavor ice cream.  Maybe if I lived closer I would visit the festival and give the ice cream a try.

I’ll plant again in the fall.  In the meantime, vampires continue to fly over.

Drying Rack

Farmer MacGregor should have been born in 1906.  He was meant to have been an adult in the 1930’s.  The clothes.  The music.  The movies.  The food.  The lifestyle.  Everything.  That is why he designed and built the drying rack the way he did.  I suggested/requested that it would be nice to have something so I could dry garlic and onions when the time came.  A few photos in a magazine sparked the gentle farmer to go way beyond expectations. Lumber was ordered and delivered from a local hardware shop.  Measurements were taken and the cutting began.  Neighbors stopped in to find out what was old MacGregor making now.  (They gave up years ago trying to keep up with his home improvement projects.) The cut lumber was left to dry out before construction could begin.  With plans and tools gathered, the assembly began.  There is a frame with removable drying trays.  With the trays removed, dowels strung with herbs (mostly lavender) can be inserted for drying purposes. The drying rack was painted and wire was attached to the trays to complete the rack.  Farmer MacGregor wanted to use this green color of paint thinking this would be the color of choice in a decades old garden.  It’s a green wash. See?  The garlic was harvested and is now drying.  I pulled out the center tray to show how they come out.  The garlic is delicious.

Farmer MacGregor did a fine job.

Beans Beans the Magical Fruit

The Borlotto Solista beans planted on 05/18/10 germinated today.  The Summer Savory seeds have been ordered.  The savory will be planted along side the beans as companions.  According to Carrots Love Tomatoes,

in Germany savory is called the bean herb because it’s good to grow with beans and also to cook with them.  It goes with onions as well, improving growth and flavor.

Farmer MacGregor has plans to build a bean support for what should be very colorful beans.  I’ll feature more of his handy work soon. Also in garden news – The Black Hungarian Peppers have bloomed.  There are 5 plants sharing a bed with Serrano Peppers and Al Kuffa Tomatoes.  The garlic will make way for more Serranos. From left to right:  Al Kuffa tomatoes, garlic, Serrano peppers, Black Hungarian peppers. 

The beans are planted in the holes of the cinder block seen in the foreground.   Planted in the other holes are chives, thyme, marigolds, and lobelia.  There’s also lavender but you can’t see it in the photo above.

Garlic

It’s garlic harvest time in Maybelline’s Garden.  Farmer MacGregor built a drying rack that will soon be holding heads of garlic for drying.  The garlic was planted on October 10, 2009 with the label promise of maturity in 90-120 days.  Well, almost double that estimate it’s time to harvest. I pulled the irrigation line off the garlic last evening and will let nature do most of the drying.  Once the tops have browned a bit more, I’ll pull the heads out of the ground and place on the drying racks.  The temperatures will start to get with it and help the garlic tops dry out. The heads have developed into a nice size and they smell great.

This evening’s events met the approval of my supervisor. Cat Call – get it?

Summer Crops – Part III

Moving further to the east…

This bed still has a few items leftover from fall.  There were peas on the far left.  Those are long gone.  Next is garlic.  I suspect that will be harvested soon as the greens are drying out.  Beside the garlic are a few remaining beets.  Beets are harvested each weekend and pickled to be used throughout the week.  Carrots are on the far right.  I may harvest those to make some Basque carrots and clear out the bed. 

Hot peppers will be grown here through the summer.  From seed, I’ve started Serano and Black Hungarians.  These peppers will be used to make salsa all summer long.  Wonderful, delicious salsa to enjoy all summer long kind of takes the edge off of disliking summer so much.  Another use for the harvest is pepper poppers.  These are like candy to Farmer MacGregor.

I don’t believe the seedlings I have will fill the bed; so I would like to grow beans.  Cannellini beans.  Lidia’s Italy on PBS   provided a nice recipe using  cannellini beans.  These would be superb to have on hand to add to soups and other dishes.  I’m having a tough time finding a supplier; so that makes me want them all the more.

Meanwhile, here’s the plans for the final bed:

This eastern most bed has been planted with green bunching onions (04/18/10).  They’ve already sprouted (04/29/10).  The sprouts can be thinned soon and used like chives.  Once the onions are about as thick as a pencil, they can be harvested and used in salads, on baked potatoes, and eaten plain.

A dozen metal stakes are now in the bed.  These stakes will have the tomato supports attached to them.  This is the 1st year I’ve strung tomatoes and Farmer MacGregor is blazing the way by constructing fine supports to showoff all the heirloom tomatoes in the garden.  They will take up less space horizontally allowing for companion crops to grow along side and benefit each other.

The tomatoes are on standby ready to be planted as soon as Farmer MacGregor completes construction.  I plan to chronicle how to string tomatoes showing the plans and construction all the way to threading the tomatoes up the twine.

That’s it.  Four raised beds ready to produce a bounty this summer and all it took was a few packets of seed, a ton of labor, and Farmer MacGregor’s know how.  Ain’t he great?

Garden Update

There was a nice harvest today.  Romaine and Bibb lettuce was thinned.  The heads were used to make a salad.  The beets were also thinned.  The baby beets were pickled to add to the salad. The cauliflower is ripening all at the same time so a few heads were cut along with some broccoli to make casseroles.  This was the 1st day to harvest any cauliflower or broccoli.  Cauliflower and cabbage are in extreme abundance and are being shared to take advantage of the fresh, tender produce. The peas are continuing to mature.  Last weekend they needed to be staked up more to eliminate their sprawl.  They were beginning to overtake the garlic.  Now, the garlic has a clear shot at the sun.  I’m thinking about planting this entire bed with tomatoes next. With the beets thinned, they have more room to grow larger and are less likely to shade the garlic.

Note:  Do not plant peas on the east side of  a bed.  Their vigorous growth tends to shade anything trying to grow on the west side.

Winter Garden – California Style

Here’s what we’re enjoying in Maybelline’s Garden:

 

 

 

While Noah was building his ark this weekend, I took pictures while the sun was still operating.  Today, January, 18, 2009, the winds howled and the sky opened up.  Wow.  It poured.  I hope the next storm sticks some snow up in the mountains.   This time of year is delightful.

Fall Planting Part IV

  1. Peas    2. Carrots (pending)  Garlic   3.  Beets        4.  Carrots

February 6, 2010

October 5, 2009 – The fourth of four raised beds has been planted with seeds.  No seedlings to transplant this time.  I’m trying to use only seeds.  Not all the beds have been fully planted; but all four have been started.

In this bed, I planted on either side of drip line.  I’m supplementing by hand watering as needed.  I ran out of carrot seeds and will plant once I make a run to the hardware store.  I’ll try a different variety.  Crystal Palace lobelia will be planted in the holes of the cinder block.  Currently, marigolds, basil, parsley, thyme, and chives are growing in some of the cinder blocks.  They are welcome to stay as long as they behave.

My goal is to grow enough peas to freeze.  In the spring, most of the peas were eaten before they even made it out of the garden.

October 10, 2009 – Planted a double row of garlic.  This will really help when we make gallons of spaghetti sauce this winter.

CROP	MATURITY	USE
Peas	62 days	Thanksgiving?
Garlic	90-120 days	Winter spaghetti sauce marathon
Beets	57 days	Pickled for Thanksgiving
Carrots	65 days	Christmas party carrot cake! Basque carrots

 

The scarecrows were put out in the garden today to add to the feel of fall.  These were made years ago and they’ve lasted through many fall celebrations.  This guy is guarding the bed that was just planted. So far, the crows don’t bother the garden. 

This gal sports a denim jumper.  She refuses to give in to trends.  The scarecrows have been known to wear witches hats as well as pilgrim hats in recognition of the fall holidays.  She’s overseeing the remaining peppers and eggplant.

Behind the scarecrows are the beds used for camellias and azaleas.  I’ll chronicle that ordeal soon.