Spring Dinner Salad

A combination of spinach, romaine, mixed greens, and chard. Chive flowers aren't just a garnish... they have a fresh chives taste when you first bite into them with a spicy onion kick at the end. Yum! :)

Bolting Bok Choi Batman!

After a week and a half of dry, reasonably warm weather, all of my Bok Choi has bolted. Very sad.

Doing some digging online - I've found this is not an uncommon problem, particularly for newbies like me.

One forum on gardenweb.com had this issue as a subject, and had this post:

"I am Chinese. I know the answer! We eat bok chai in two stages. One is when they are young like a transplant (preferred) and the other is when they grow much bigger ~1/2 lbs. If you need big chai you need to transplant the young ones around september, october and you will get big ones in the spring time. If you plant them in spring just harvet them when they are young. All of them will go flowering in april. It dill well for me when I was in New Jersey."

So one aspect of this is that it seems we should have harvested this round of bok choi when it was still small. The good news is that bok choi sounds like a great over-wintering (year round) crop!

There was also a post on the same page about being mindful of the varietal of bok choi one uses- with an eye towards heat tolerance (There are lots of southern Asia brassicas). I found a great site that specializes in Asian vegetable seeds for future reference. (Lots of potential there)

The other thing is that I think I planted the bok choi in the wrong location.... it's a cool weather crop, and this location gets nearly perfect full sun. I've got a location in mind that gets allot more shade for the next try. So the first round of bok choi has been a failure - but I've learned allot and I've found a new seed source!

Since full sun was part of the 'problem' here... once my helpers pulled the bok choi out and I amended the soil with compost, we planted a lemon cucumber.

Potatoes - first mounding

Of two potato boxes, only one has really taken off in any meaningful way; the other box does have some green finally coming up - so I'm hopeful it'll come around.

Mounding with Cedar Grove compost... I mounded when they were 4-5", and I've left about 1" of growth as per my Growing Potatoes in a Container Guide.

The Annual Role of Dice - Tomatoes

It's mid-May, the weather is warming up, and the tomato starts have been hardened... into the ground they go!

Following the advice of my boss, Bruce (always listen to Iowa farm boys); I snipped the two lowest branches off of the tomato plant and lowered it as far down into the bed as I could, while making sure the next lowest set of branches and leaves did not touch the ground. He told me that roots will shoot out of the stumps where branches once were, and having the additional stalk in the ground improves the vertical strength of the tomato as it grows upwards.

The irrigation system I set up has one drip irrigation port for each tomato plant. I've read that over-watering and over-feeding tomatoes is a common newbie mistake to make, so I'll be keeping that in mind. Engineer the automated irrigation system is proving to be a skill set in it's own right - it's a work in progress.

RainCity is definitely a cool climate for growing tomatoes, so picking the right variety is essential. I've been told that Romas are usually a solid bet; My father-in-law was mindful of this when growing the starts - so we have some variety, but all of them are short season varietals.

Leaf Miners

First it was the weevils, and now, leaf miners.

Amaya informed Amber that the leaf miner bugs

put their babies inside the leaves, and then the

when they hatch they eat the leaves. This is true

of course, what I can't figure out is how she knew

that.

You can see on this chard leaf the damage they do.

If I let them get out of control, I can expect they'll

jump to my beets soon enough.

We have a bunch of magnolia trees in the area - and

we've seen evidence of their eating on their leaves

as well, which unfortunately means they have an

abundant natural habitat all around; and there are

probably millions of them.

I went to Sky Nursery to see what they had -

Originally I was looking for some kind of pheromone

trap (they didn't have one for leaf miners).

However, I did see that the capsicum spray they

were selling indicated it worked on leaf miners.

Perhaps the mama leaf miners don't much care for penetrating a leaf that's been treated with

pepper spray. I sure hope so- because that's about the only mitigation I've found. Other than

that, the only recommended treatment is to cull the infected leaves at first sign of infection, and

hope the little &^#@!*%$ don't find the rest of your crop.

We were able to actually see the leaf miners eating away when we put the leaf under the

microscope. Two that are in focus are on the left. There's more movement in the upper right,

which I'm sure are more of them, but the field of focus is limited.

Weevils and Me, Pas De Deux

Yup.. that's him. The little *!@)$&*^ that's been eating my snap peas and bush beans.

The kids have learned that we find leaves that are damaged, and then we pull out The Vegetable and Herb Expert to make a diagnosis. Once we have a firm idea about what we're dealing with... we gather more data. Capturing a specimen for analysis under the microscope so we can see get a visual is key. Ugly furry ^%!@#$. He's at x40 in this photo.

Here he is at x20. The top of the image is dominated by a penny for perspective of scale.

I only applied the tobacco tea mixture to the ground around the snap peas once. I've applied the hot pepper/soap mixture to the snap peas twice - and only twice due to rain (Rain may have washed off the first round. I'm trying to keep my response proportional). The snap peas that made it out of seedling stage have taken off and the new growth is unadulterated so far. Very few bush beans made it through the war. The mounds in this photo are the second round of bush beans. I've also done a second round of snap peas. Now that I know what to look for, I won't be caught unawares. I know the enemy, and I'll be ready with the appropriate response next time.

Basket of Gold

Flowers are not a primary interest of mine. That being said, I *am* interested in flowers that complement a garden - particularly ones that are highly rated in terms of attracting beneficial insects. Last season I found a great PDF that lists various plants that attract beneficial insects; and I started planting 'Basket of Gold' in the rock wall between two garden segments. Besides being beautiful, the main benefit of this one is that it blooms in early May, attracting bees and ladybugs at the earliest opportunity.

Another good link: Flowers for Benefical Insects

Evil Weevils

Both my bush beans and my snap peas are getting ravaged. Grrr....

Using one of my favorite books "The Vegetable Herb Expert" by Dr. D. G. Hessayon. I figured out that I've got a serious weevil issue. (This book is the ultimate resource for diagnosis).

Also called "brown beetles" or "pea & bean weevil", it munches up the leaves of your snap peas and bush beans (bastards!).

These little $@!*ers have been chewing up the leaves on my plants so fast, the seedlings die.

After learning that they were nocturnal, I had to go out to the garden and see them with my own eyes.... I realized that I'm officially in need of a gardening 12-step program after crawling around in the garden with a mag-light at 12:30am.

With visions of one of my favorite crops disappearing for the year, I asked my father-in-law for assistance... he created two different sprays for me. One is a mixture of hot sauce, mouthwash, oil soap, and 'tobacco tea'. It's "for ground use only". I need to do more research, but it's my understanding that pretty much nothing survives that mixture.

Is this earth friendly? Um... I don't know, but I'm thinking that the probability leans towards 'NO' (research pending.... I want to nail this down). That said, it's now in the arsenal when desperate times call for desperate measures. The other spray bottle he hooked me up with is a bit more simple - a mixture of hot sauce and (bio-degradable) dish soap to be used on the leaves directly. I'm inclined to think that one is probably OK - but I still have to research that as well.

In any event - since I started using the sprays the new growth on the snap peas *does* look a whole lot better. I treated the ground (once) with the tobacco tea mixture, and I've been making sure the leaves always have a fresh coat of the chili sauch/soap mixture. I won't save this entire rotation of snap peas, but I think the damage control has been effective,

Chamomile

Last year I built a garden path that I wanted to fill with flowers between paver stones (something to attract more bees)... but I planted a bunch of annuals, and then this spring it had over grown with weeds. I had to weed it and effectively start all over. That's not exactly what I was going for. I decided I needed a perennial - so I wouldn't have to do this again.

I discovered Roman chamomile (also called English chamomile). It has an cousin, German chamomile, which is an annual and favored by tea makers for it's robust flower production. But Roman chamomile has a long tradition of being a ground cover for paths in English gardens! :)

I discovered that chamomile seeds are *small*; too small to easily manage by hand. I ordered 5000 seeds from outsidepride.com and you can see in the bowl picture, 5000 chamomile seeds doesn't look like much. I read a posting on gardenweb.com that suggested mixing the seeds with sand in order to make them easy to manage by hand. I thought this was a great idea. Once they were mixed, the kids were able to help me plant them. "We're planting flowers with seed-sand."

I'm looking forward to having the path covered with a nice looking perennial... but having an herb that has been recognized for centuries as having medicinal qualities is definitely a bonus.

"The Camomile; The more it is trodden on, the faster it grows."

- Shakespeare's Henry IV, part 1

Spinach Sprouts

This shot is part of my ongoing effort to improve my repository of what various sprouts look like... (so I don't accidentally weed them). =P

What we have here is this seasons 2nd round of spinach.

Spinach looks nearly like grass when it's first coming up (in my view). In this instance I planted it in a row-like fashion, but I think that like most leafy greens, spinach would be well served by planting in a square-foot-garden approach.

The bok choi (backround), and the broccoli (foreground) and doing great.

Likewise, the spinach and mixed greens are coming along nicely. We'll be able to enjoying the first round of the spinach crop quite soon.

Spring Sage

The sage is among the herbs that have come through from last season looking just beautiful.

I love the taste of sage... saute it in butter and serve on top of fresh pasta or pork chops - yum!

I plan to experiment a bit more with it this year....

There's a couple ideas I've found that look promising:

Fried Sage Leaves look delicious and easy to do.

Another idea is to try to create a sage pesto. My personal favorite right now is a 3/4 parsley, 1/4 basil pesto. It seems the sage could bring some pizazz to the flavor, but I'm not sure if I'd want it to be the dominant leaf.

The Chives Forest

In my ongoing quest to have too much of everything, we split up the chive plants (dug them up and sliced them apart with a spade) and re-planted them underneath the grapes.

The bed directly underneath the grapes were proving to be a challenge... last year I realized (when I accidentally dug up a root) that the grapes had become so large that their root system had spread throughout the bed (duh- out of sight, out of mind.) So that effectively takes those beds out of action. What to do? Herbs is the answer. Once planted, if the herb stays healthy there no need to disrupt that section of bed every again. It's easy access from the kitchen, so it's a good spot for them anyways. Once all the split mature, we'll have *allot* of chives.

Corn seedlings!

Planted the first squash in the 'Three Sisters' bed - a couple of starts for butternut that Amaya got as a present on her 6th birthday.

The corn seedlings have already broken through! :)

I double planted each location with Quickie Hybrid (Sugar Enhanced - 64 days); I'll thin back to just a single corn plant per position once there's a little more growth.

Bush Bean Seedling

My initial planting of of bush beans (Jade - 60 days) hasn't gone too well.

First thing - a majority of the seeds that were planted haven't germinated.

Second thing- the seedlings that have come up are pretty sad looking.

The seedling on the left is representative of what I'm getting... the leaves are a pale shade of green with yellowed tips. At this point I think the most likely reason (for both problem) is that the soil temperature

is still too low. We were having lots of warm days when I first planted, but since then we've had quite a few stretches of where the nights were in the 40's and the days haven't broken 55. The lowest temperature I've seen listed for germination is 60 degrees - but a more typical range is 65 - 85 degrees.

Beans are great companion plants with for nearly everything thanks to the fact that they create their own nitrogen, so I'll just keep planting them. I've got plenty of seeds, and I want staggered crop production anyways.

Snap Pea Spout

One of the crops that first turned me onto gardening in a big way- snap peas.

To get our garden started, we worked with the Seattle Urban Farm Company. We didn't know anything about anything ... and these guys came out and bootstrapped us (they're awesome). One of the crops they planted was Snap Peas.

These grow with minimal effort, and the kids will be picking the peas off and eating them by the handful in late June/ early July.

We planted two different types last year - Sugar Star (90 days), and Super Sugar Snap (58 days)... and we discovered that we definitely prefer the Super Sugar Snaps. It wasn't just that they were faster, bigger, and bore more peas... they flat out tasted better. Maybe next year I'll experiment with another variety, but this year I just planted a whole bunch of the Super Sugar Snaps.

Carrot Sprout

I'm still new to this. At this time of year, when both sprouts and weeds are popping up at the same time (and are the same size) I'm still working out what is what.

So I've decided to start tracking what the sprouts look like... I can reference the photos later on.

What we have here is a lovely little carrot. :)

At this point we have .... four different rotations of carrots in varying stages of development.

Bok Choi sprouts, slugs, and iron phosphate

Something is nibbling my Bok Choi. Grrr... effing slugs no doubt.

I heard that coffee grounds can repel slugs - considering I use coffee grounds to acidify the soil, that doesn't seem like the best solution. Based on some feedback from an organic gardening forum, it doesn't sound like it works too good anyways.

So... some method of dealing with the slugs is needed. This is, after all, Rain City.

Apparently slugs don't get along with iron phosphate; and I've seen it mentioned as both safe and effective by organic gardeners. Two different products are mentioned: Sluggo and Escar-go.

So the question is: Can I use it and still be considered 'organic' & 'earth friendly'.

The EPA report on Iron Phosphate indicates that it is safe for humans, pets, beneficial insects (worms, bees, beetles), and the watershed (fish). Not one to take anything the EPA prints as gospel...

Oregon State University reports that iron phosphate is safe and effective in the northwest. (As opposed to metaldehyde = bad.)

But of course - enough digging online and you can nearly always find an opposing view. I found a well documented paper that takes shots at the EPA report as being over broad with its declarations of how safe Iron Phosphate. (The EPA over-sell on safety?! Imagine that.) The paper does not assert that iron phosphate is unsafe, it asserts that 'completely safe' is irresponsible over reach, and that Iron Phosphate should be used sparingly and only as directed.

Finally...

I went to the USDA website which turned out to be surprisingly good. Their report on iron phosphate indicates that the EU, Canada, and Japan allows iron phosphate for non-organic crop production, but not for organic crops. The U.S. has similarly voted (2-1) to not certify the use of of iron phosphate for use on certified organic farms. "Currently no synthetic substance has been approved for use as slug and snail bait in organic crop production". However, the same report indicated that "Ferric phosphate is a very effective molluscicide and does not harm humans, animals, non-target insects, plants, or soil microbes. It is a very stable and non-reactive substance in the agroecosystem."

So why did they vote against it? According to the report, because "other organic alternatives exist." Methinks that's lacking detail...

The 'alternatives' are essentially a barrier based approach (copper) or beer traps (yech!).

I'm not certain the direction I'll go on this.

First Harvest of 2010... radishes!

They're not big... The radishes were e planted in mid-February. This bed wasn't amended (with compost), nor were they even fertilized. (Mental note: have some compost always on hand in the future... you might find yourself suddenly planting on a warm February day.)

But... it's not even May and we're starting to have fun pulling food out of the ground and eating it. :)

Satya discovered that radishes are "SPICY!!"

Amaya chopped some up and put them in the fried rice we had with our salmon. (Yum!)

Good times.

Never let the perfect be the enemy of the good...

The strawberries are ready to go!

The bed has been cleared of dead leaves and old shooters, and fertilizer has been applied - and none too soon; we're seeing the first flowers appear. This year is just warm... everything is popping early this season.

Cleaning the strawberry bed is just *not* my favorite task - and it's a great example of my habit of "85% is good enough" that Amber (justifiably) accuses me of. I will gladly sacrifice 15% of quality if it means a job gets done with haste- particularly if it's something I don't enjoy doing in the first place. So the strawberry bed is ready for the season - or at least it's 'good enough'.

Grapes

Last year was the first year that our grapes successfully crossed the terrace, and it was also the first year that we got a harvest! The grapes are delicious- I just wish I knew what kind they are.

They're a red, seedless grape that are quite small.

One side effect of having the grapes in the upper terraced bed is that we can no longer aggressively till the soil there. The root system for the grapes has spread extensively throughout - and tilling would disrupt the grapes. We have some herbs that are coexisting in the same bed, so that works well. For sections that are currently bare, I'm thinking that we could regain some functionality with containers on top of the terraced bed soil (like mint... which you wouldn't want in an open bed anyways.)

At the end of this growing season I'll be looking to cut back the grapes quite a bit to the core vines that we want to nurture.

Blueberries and Rhubarb

The blueberry bed has been weeded twice so far this year, and coffee grounds have been added around the base of every bush to increase the acidity of the soil (once.) I need to do a Ph test...

Last year we still didn't get all that many blueberries. We've got six plants... I'd like to think that's enough so we can get our fill- but getting the plants to produce in a significant manner has been difficult. In truth, I think the main problem is water. I didn't get the irrigation system modified last year, and I'm pretty sure that until I do, these plants will live, but they won't thrive.

This one is actually looking pretty good... the amount of blossoms we are getting on this is the best ever. I think this our Spartan, since that's the only one we have that begins fruit production this early in the season.

The rhubarb transplants that we got from Bruce at the beginning of the spring have already taken root and look really healthy. I've given them some fertilizer and at this point these look to be an easy maintenance crop and a nice addition to the mix.

There's a recipe in particular that I'm looking forward to ... once a few years back I had Bruce's wife's strawberry/rhubarb crisp. It was delicious... I must have it again. I had never had rhubarb before that.

I've also got it in mind to try to create a rhubarb chutney. I think that could work.

The Three Sisters Project - Part I: Corn

The three sisters - Corn, squash, and pole beans is an *old* method.


If this works out as it should, this new raised bed should supply an ample amount of corn, squash, and beans hereafter.... (from the Renee's Garden link above)


"Corn provides a natural pole for bean vines to climb. Beans fix nitrogen on their roots, improving the overall fertility of the plot by providing nitrogen to the following years corn. Bean vines also help stabilize the corn plants, making them less vulnerable to blowing over in the wind. Shallow-rooted squash vines become a living mulch, shading emerging weeds and preventing soil moisture from evaporating, thereby improving the overall crops chances of survival in dry years. Spiny squash plants also help discourage predators from approaching the corn and beans. The large amount of crop residue from this planting combination can be incorporated back into the mound at the end of the season, to build up the organic matter in the soil and improve its structure."

Having the "spiny squash plants" protecting the corn is of particular interest, since we have raccoons in the area. I don't want to go through this exercise just to feed a bunch of city coons.

I'm curious about the premise that you can plow in all the crop residue. Corn stalks, corn husks, squash leaves... combined and composted with the nitrogen that the pole beans capture in their root system, means that you can continually plant the same crops in the same plot? (more research needed.)

My official seed planters have planted the corn.....

When the corn gets to 4 inches the pole beans will be planted in the mounds with the corn, and the squash will go in the negative space between the the mounds.

"Native Americans kept this system in practice for centuries without the modern conceptual vocabulary we use today, i.e. soil nitrogen, vitamins, etc. They often look for signs in their environment that indicate the right soil temperature and weather for planting corn, i.e. when the Canada geese return or the dogwood leaves reach the size of a squirrels ear."

We planted when the lilacs and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.

First harverst (radishes) nearly ready....

Winter was *warm*. Amber's gamble during an over warm Feburary day - the last frost may actually have happened - plant and see if things turn out.

Things indeed have; Another week or two and we'll be munching fresh radishes. YUM! Cyrus is excitited - that boy loves radishes pulled straight from the ground.

The lower rock wall bed

Last year I planted in front of this rock wall, and I (nominally) amended the soil in only half the bed. I wish I would have taken pictures of that entire process... sunflowers that were in the portion of the bed that had received some compost were notably taller and better looking than those that I just planted in the dirt (little more than a sand/clay mix).

This year I've dug down about a foot breaking up the sand/clay dirt, removing the rocks, and amending the soil with cedar grove compost. In my mind there's dirt and there's soil. Dirt occurs naturally. Soil is something you have to create and nurture.

We planted watermelon (Bush Sugar Baby - 80 days), more spinach (Bloomsdale Savoy - 50 days), more broccoli (Green Sprouting Calabrese), and pumpkins (Small Sugar - 110 days). I'm skeptical that the watermelon will work ... but I was told that you can use a dome of plastic or you can prop up a sheet of plastic (southern facing) to amplify the sun and create a warmer micro-climate for the watermelon. I'll probably try that to help the watermelon along. I'd be neat if it works. It could be a viable method for other warm climate crops- peppers in particular!

Corn - a new challenge

Corn in Cascadia. Is it doable? We'll find out.

I discovered the 'three sisters' concept last year. (More info: gardenweb.com and Renee's Garden I'm determined to make it happen. Squash and beans are no problem... they're easy. Corn on the other hand, is more complicated.

First off, there's planting the corn. Corn can't just be dropped into any bed. Corn roots go deep (up to 4 ft!). "Over the course of a growing season, about 40% of the water used by corn will come from the first foot of soil, 30% from the second foot and 20% from the third foot. Less than 10 percent will be obtained from the soil below 3 feet." We diligently till and amend the soil in all our beds, but not 4 feet down.

To solve this problem, I've decided to build a new raised bed. Raised beds offer several advantages. Even with building a raised bed and importing soil from the nursery, I still have to dig down to break up and amend the existing soil - but at least I'm not digging down as far. (I'm aiming for 18-24 inches down and a 24" high raised bed). The earth under where I'm putting this bed has had excavators, my F-150 on top of it... and it's even been worked over with a compactor. Breaking it up took some work. Another benefit of raised bed gardening is that the temperature of the soil comes up faster in the spring. I expect that this raised bed will prove useful for other warm weather crops in future rotations.

A change from other crops we've grown is that corn has both female and male flowers on the same plant. (Primer) Normally the wind would provide what's needed for pollination to occur - but to ensure a strong crop I'll likely have to manually pollinate the corn.

To top it all off... lots of things beside humans like to eat corn. We've got raccoons, crows, and squirrels in abundance and they all like corn.

A worthy challenge... but worth it for the prize of fresh, sweet corn.

Rasberries

Rasberries are done and ready for the season.

Pruning, weeding, a top layer of compost (2 bags gave a 1-2" layer for a 1' x 50' bed), and then fertilizer. The fertilizer was put together by Amber - it's a recipe from a great book: Steve Solomon's "Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades".

This is the second full spring for this bunch of rasberries. Last year was a bit disappointing in terms of yield. It was good enough for lots of munching, but barely enough to also supply preserves in the freezer. I'm not sure about this year yet... but I'm pretty sure that next year will be fantastic - the root system has spread throughout the bed and new shoots are coming up all over the place. By year four we may need to thin the bed out.