May Garden Tour Part 2

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Dave

After yesterday’s tour of the kitchen garden near the house, today we are on to the main vegetable garden, which is currently about 30 by 40 feet in size and surrounded by a 7-1/2 foot tall deer fence that has seen better days. The fence was supposed to be replaced last year by nice wire fencing with wooden posts, but that hasn’t happened yet. At this point the garden is about 2/3 planted, with the rest (paste tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, sweet potatoes and okra) scheduled to go in before the end of May.

trellis for pole beans (click on any image to enlarge)

One big chore I did this year was to replace my pole bean trellis. The Trellinet netting on the old one lasted for three years, but it was in need of replacement. I put it up at the other end of the garden, in an “L” shape. That will give me a little extra room to grow more yardlong beans, and some borlotto shell beans. The trellis is supported with both metal T-posts and bamboo stakes.

pole beans sprouting

Some of the yardlong beans were already germinating after 4 days in the ground. These beans were a welcome addition to the harvest basket in 2011. The rest of the beans came up a couple of days later. It will be fun to have some shell beans, if they do anything. I hope to expand the garden a bit next year, and dry beans will be one thing I plan on growing in the extra space. Instead of the 30 foot trellis I have, it would be nice to have one a bit longer so I could grow dry pole beans like Good Mother Stallard or perhaps Rattlesnake. Aren’t gardeners always wishing for more room to grow more things!

row of early bush beans

I also have one row of bush beans planted, to give us some early beans. This row is a mix of Purple Queen, Rocdor and Derby. The Purple Queen (aka Royal Burgundy) is already showing a few blooms. I took a chance and planted these a bit early on 4/1, but it looks like the gamble may pay off with some extra early beans.

blossoms on Purple Queen bean plant

I also have a row of potatoes planted here. Growing here are Red Lasoda, Yukon Gold and a few more of the Russian Banana fingerlings. I need to hill these up a little more to give those spuds plenty of room to form!

these potatoes need some more hilling

I have two rows of tomatoes planted, each with 11 remesh cages. And each cage is planted with two tomato plants of the same variety. Last year I had two rows planted right next to each other, which had me doing the Tomato Tango whenever I tried to harvest. This year I put a row between them, with winter squash planted there. I should be able to navigate amongst the squash plants to get to the tomatoes. At least that’s the plan. These are ‘bush’ winter squashes that don’t vine too much. I will be planting some squashes that do vine in another area of the garden, where they can vine on the deer fencing.

these three rows will be a jungle in a couple of months

I will mulch these tomatoes with newspaper in a week or so. The day I planted them, it was so windy that I knew I would never get paper spread without it flying all over the neighborhood! I will also mulch around the squashes, peppers and eggplants with newspaper covered in straw. That will take care of any weeds as well as keep the squashes off the ground where they might rot. That same mulching strategy has worked well for the past two seasons.

all the squashes got a big handful of compost at planting time

I also need to plant some more paste tomatoes. I will be supporting most of these with the stake and weave method, and trying some ‘short’ cages for a couple of the determinate plants (like Viva Italia or Health Kick). I also am growing ground cherries (Aunt Molly’s) for the first time this year. I plant on supporting them with a ‘lightweight’ store bought type tomato cage. A friend says he just mulches around his and just lets them sprawl, but I’m not big on letting tomatoes of any kind ramble about so I plan on supporting ours.

Kossak kohlrabi is bulbing up

Two of the three raised beds are planted with mostly brassicas this spring. One bed is a mix of broccoli and cabbage, while the other bed has Apollo broccolini, kohlrabi, and celery. I am trying the big Kossak kohlrabi for the first time. It is supposed to produce “incredibly huge kohlrabi bulbs”, up to 10 inches wide. I am always skeptical of catalog claims for giant veggies, so we will see how big these really get. Kolibri and Winner are my old standbys for kohlrabi, and reliably produce for me every year. All the raised beds got a liberal helping of compost before I planted anything, so hopefully everyone should at least be well fed! I’m not sure if I will mulch these two beds or not. I’m thinking I will, if the straw holds out.

Apollo broccoli plant

The third raised bed was planted with garlic last fall. Most of the hardneck varieties are here, like Japanese, Uzbek, Chinese Pink, Romanian Red and Metechi. The creole variety Ajo Rojo is growing here too. Ajo Rojo is a great tasting garlic that kept well for us this year, so I am keeping my fingers crossed that I can get it acclimated to our climate. I’m giving it all the TLC I can! This bed should yield quite a few garlic scapes, in addition to the bulbs.

dew covered garlic scape

That a look at what’s growing here in the vegetables garden in mid May. I hope you enjoyed the tour. I plan to be back later this month with a look at some of our other plantings.

Posted in Gardening | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

May Garden Tour Part 1

Posted on May 14, 2012 by Dave

It’s been a while since I gave a tour of the Happy Acres vegetable gardens, either virtually or in person. Last week fellow MG Jan came by and got one in person.  I told him he would get to see it ‘warts and all’, though I guess things aren’t in too bad a shape. At least that’s what I tell myself! So here’s a tour for the rest of you, and a chance to see what’s growing in May.

cold frame with lettuces, kohlrabi and celery (click on any image to enlarge)

I’ll start with the cold frame beds around the greenhouse. The cold frames aren’t really doing much this time of year except to provide critter control (which is critical here), but I usually just leave them in place year round. Cold frame #1 (which had overwintered spinach) was recently replanted and has a mix of lettuce (Spotted Trout, Radichetta and Sea of Red), kohlrabi (Kolibri) and celery growing in it. I’m growing both regular celery (Tango) and cutting celery (Parcel). I’ve also got kohlrabi and celery growing in a raised bed in the main garden.

young celery plant

Since celery has a reputation for being finicky about temperature, I waited until night and day temps were settled and consistently above 55F before planting it out. Hopefully that will keep it from prematurely bolting to flower. I also plan on mulching around the plants to keep the soil moist. I’m certainly no expert when it comes to growing celery, so I will be learning as I go with this one. The cutting celery is more strongly flavored, but it is also not nearly so fussy to grow. I’m going to try growing some of the Tango as a fall crop too.

cold frame #2 with lettuces

Cold frame #2 is all lettuce at the moment. From left to right I have Merlot, Oakleaf, New Red Fire, Slobolt and Hyper Red Rumple lettuces. There are six plants of each, so it’s quite a bit of lettuce in that one 4×4 foot bed. Though if you look closely the first plant in the Oakleaf row is something else! I lost one plant and replaced it with a Simpson Elite I believe. I’ve been harvesting some of the outer leaves already for salads, and we had some wilted lettuce last night, which is one of my favorite things.

young Florence fennel plants

Cold frame #3 is half occupied by arugula that I am letting go to seed. The downside of saving seed from many species is that the plants occupy garden space for a longer period of time. Of course the upside is you get the seeds. I also planted some Florence fennel in the open part of the bed.

young Florence fennel plant

I love the crispy Florence fennel bulbs. I didn’t grow any last year, but it’s back in 2012. It probably does better here with a fall planting but it should still bulb up for us this spring.

garlic bed in May

Some of the garlic crop is growing in the bed nearby the cold frames. I call it the ‘lasagna’ bed, since I used the lasagna method to build the bed initially. Now it’s just a 30 foot long slightly raised bed where I grow various veggies each year. This year about one third of it is devoted to garlic.

stem of Simonetti garlic plant

Simonetti is a softneck artichoke type garlic we’re growing for the first time. The stem of the plant in the above photo is huge, and I can only hope that is a sign of the size of the bulb that’s growing under ground! It almost looks like a leek growing there.

garlic scape

And as I predicted last week, the scapes on the hardneck garlic varieties are running about 3 weeks ahead of last year. I got the first harvest Saturday, just enough to make a batch of salad dressing. These are surely a tasty treat for me!

fingerling potatoes

Sharing the lasagna bed are potatoes, onions and tomatoes. The potatoes are the Russian Banana fingerling variety. I saw some small potatoes forming when I hilled them up the last time, which is a good sign. I had said I wasn’t going to grow fingerlings this year, because I don’t think they are a good use of garden space for the amount of potatoes I get, but I wound up planting some anyway. As my wife has learned, with me ‘no’ doesn’t always mean no! I do love the taste of these little potatoes roasted, fried or in potato salad.

early planted tomatoes

The tomatoes in this bed were started a bit early, and planted early, and they are a mix of types, colors and sizes. I have Sungold, Supersweet 100, Mountain Magic, Champion 2, Early Girl, Jetsetter and Cherokee Purple planted there. Every plant got a nice handful of slow release organic fertilizer, and I watered them in with a fish emulsion/kelp solution as well. Then I mulched with newspaper and caged them. I will sidedress them again with the same fertilizer in a couple of weeks. That should keep them growing and making tomatoes for the rest of the season, especially since the whole bed got a liberal helping of compost this spring.

blossoms on Sungold tomato

As is the norm here, Sungold was the first one to bloom. To which I say “go tomatoes!” Sungold is one of our favorites for eating fresh and for drying.

green carrot tops

Last year I did a terrible job of growing carrots. I let weeds take over the spring planting, and the fall planting was overrun by the China Rose and daikon radishes I planted right next door. So this year I resolved to do a better job. I had to resow several places to get a nice stand, but they are looking good now. There are four little short rows in that bed, for about 16 feet of carrots. All I have to do now is keep them weeded and watered, and we should have some carrots before long.

carrot forming below the greens

I have the Mokum and Yaya varieties growing now for a spring/summer planting. I see orange just below some of the greens, so that is a good sign of things to come. For me the hard part of growing carrots is getting them germinated, and keeping them weeded when they are small. So it should be all downhill from here.

I’ll be back tomorrow with the rest of the garden tour. I hope you enjoyed today’s peek at what’s growing here!

Posted in Gardening | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

2012 Impact Community Garden

Posted on May 11, 2012 by Dave

I haven’t said much about the Impact Community Garden lately, but I want to report that it is alive and well, and growing along nicely in 2012. And it is high time for an update! This is a garden project I helped start last year at Impact Ministries in Evansville. You can read about how it all came about in this post from 2010.

Impact garden, before 2010 groundbreaking (click on any image to enlarge)

So far this year we’ve had three planting sessions, with the first one being on March 31st when we planted potatoes. We planted the same amount of potatoes this year as we did in 2011 (about 90 hills), but we added some Yukon Golds to the mix along with the Kennebecs and Red Lasoda varieties we grew last year. The potatoes are growing great, and we will be hilling them up soon.

Impact Community Garden in early May, 2012

On April 14th we had our second planting session, and planted lettuce, cabbage, broccoli and onions. We planted a lot more onions than we did in 2011. The Candy variety did very well last year, making large sweet onions, so we decided to grow more of it. And we added the Redwing variety to give us some red ones. The lettuce was a nice mix of red and green leaf varieties like Merlot, New Red Fire, Simpson and Spotted Trout. It should be ready for cutting in a week or so. We planted both the onions and lettuce in double rows.

double row of lettuces

Our third work session was this week, when we planted tomatoes, squashes, chard and green beans. We also did some weeding, and worked on our rabbit fencing around the perimeter of the garden. We’re trying to keep the critters from eating up all our veggies!

Spotted Trout lettuces

We have another work session planned in about two weeks, when we hope to cage our tomatoes and plant sweet potatoes, cucumbers, peppers and eggplant. We’re going to mulch most of the garden this year using newspaper covered with straw. That should help keep down weeds, as well as conserve moisture. We were fortunate last year to get 60+ inches of rain, but so far this year has been dryer than normal, and mulching should help limit our watering needs a bit.

fall 2011 garden mulched with straw

We’ve got a few new faces (and hands) in the garden this year, including one person who saw the garden last year and stuck a note on the fence and said “I want to be a part of this”. Now that’s what I call a community garden! I’ll be back throughout the season with more news about this exciting project that is helping to teach people how to grow their own food, and learn about gardening.

Posted in Gardening | Tagged | 7 Comments

Brown Rice Salad

Posted on May 10, 2012 by Dave

When warm weather arrives, I start thinking about cool salads and side dishes. And I’m always on the lookout for new ideas and recipes to tempt our palates. While on vacation earlier this year, my wife and I stopped at the Hana Fresh Market and picked up the makings for a picnic lunch at nearby Wai‘anapanapa State Park.

brown rice salad (click on any image to enlarge)

One of the things we got was a brown rice salad. It really tasted good to both of us, but I kept thinking “I could make that better”. It needed a little more ‘oomph’ in my opinion. So when we got home I set out to see if I could come up with a version that would better suit our tastes.

ingredients for salad

This salad features long grain brown rice as the main ingredient, along with chopped vegetables and an Asian themed dressing. Most of the ingredients are pantry staples here and in many kitchens. I usually serve this salad as a side dish, but if you add some beans for protein you also have a cool vegetarian main dish. And other vegetables could easily be substituted for the carrots, cucumbers and radishes. If you don’t like parsley, then mint, cilantro or basil would work well instead. Do like I did and make it to suit your own taste buds!


Brown Rice SaladPrint This Recipe Print This Recipe
an original

2-1/2 cups cooked long grain brown rice
1/3 cup diced carrots
1/3 cup diced cucumber
1/3 cup diced radishes
1 thinly sliced green onion (including green top)
2 tbsp chopped parsley
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp salad oil (I like walnut or unrefined sesame)
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp toasted sesame oil

1. Put first 6 ingredients (rice through green onion) in a large bowl.
2. Add remaining ingredients in small bowl. Stir or whisk to combine.
3. Pour dressing over salad ingredients, toss gently until mixed.
4. Serve chilled or at room temperature; refrigerate leftovers.

Servings: 6 (about 1/2 cup each)

Nutrition Facts
Nutrition (per serving): 156 calories, 51 calories from fat, 6.2g total fat, 0mg cholesterol, 72.3mg sodium, 153.1mg potassium, 26.1g carbohydrates, 2g fiber, 3.8g sugar, 2.4g protein, 20.8mg calcium, <1g saturated fat.

For other tasty ideas using what you have in your pantry or cupboard, head on over to The Gardener of Eden, where Robin hosts Thursday’s Kitchen Cupboard.

Posted in Recipes | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Tasty Treats

Posted on May 8, 2012 by Dave

I dined on a tasty homegrown treat yesterday, something from the Brassica family. Can you identify the vegetable in the below photo? I’ll give you a hint – it’s not broccoli raab, or gai lan (aka Chinese broccoli), and it’s definitely not choy sum. But I guess you could say it is a cousin of all three of them.

mystery treat (click on any image to enlarge)

Got it figured out yet? It’s the young flowering shoots of the kale I let go to seed. I’ve got more than enough seed forming from the Beedy’s Camden kale I let flower this spring, so I decided to harvest some of the remaining flowers coming out as side shoots.

flower shoot of kale

I gave them a quick blanch in boiling water, then served them up with a little salt and butter. The flavor sort of reminds me of a mild broccoli raab, not really bitter, but not really sweet like the leaves of this kale. It’s definitely a tasty treat. And this will probably be my last time to enjoy it this year. I’ll be pulling the plants as soon as the seed ripens.

Most all of the flowers of the Brassica family are edible. Some brassicas are grown specifically for their flowers, like broccoli and cauliflower. But many like pak choy, tatsoi and kale that are grown primarily for their leaves have flowers that are quite tasty and nutritious as well.

And speaking of tasty treats, it’s almost time for another late spring favorite around here: garlic scapes. My records tell me I harvested the first ones in 2011 on May 30th, but with everything running 2-3 weeks earlier this year, I expect to see some scapes forming any day now. And what do we do with garlic scapes? For one thing, I make Garlic Scape Pesto. And I make Garlic Scape Dressing, with a great recipe shared by fellow blogger Daphne.

hardneck garlic scape

We’ll soon be saying goodbye to another springtime treat. This will be the last week of the 2012 asparagus harvest. It’s been a great year, with the beds giving us over 27 pounds so far. We’ve got some in the freezer to make soup with later, in case we start craving some asparagus. Still, it will be a long time before the 2013 harvest season rolls around.

May asparagus harvest

But even as asparagus is exiting, the cherries are starting to ripen. And it looks like blueberries won’t be far behind. Hopefully we can keep the birds away from both of these treats.

bowl of cherries

So that’s a peek at what garden treats we are harvesting and eating here. I hope you are enjoying whatever seasonal goodies you can find in your neck of the woods!

Posted in Food, Gardening | Tagged , , , | 14 Comments

Growing Eggplant in Containers

Posted on May 7, 2012 by Dave

It’s safe to say I am a big fan of eggplant. With varieties that produce low calorie, high fiber fruits in all sizes, shapes, and colors – what’s not to like? For the last few years I have been experimenting with growing eggplant in containers. I grow them in the ground too in the vegetable garden, but growing in containers is easy, and a great way to have eggplant even if you don’t have a garden plot.

Hansel eggplant growing in container (click on any image to enlarge)

I can think of several advantages to growing eggplant this way. For one thing, they generally produce earlier. Eggplants love heat, and containers warm up faster in spring than garden soil does. For folks in colder climates or areas with short growing seasons, this can be a real advantage. Also, eggplant are susceptible to several diseases, including verticillium wilt, blights, and viruses. By growing in containers with good quality disease-free potting soil these soil borne problems can be avoided.

closeup of Hansel eggplants

The only real disadvantage is one that applies to growing anything in a container, and that is the watering issue. Containers need frequent watering in hot weather, at least daily and sometimes more than once a day. Letting the plants dry out will stress the plants and reduce the overall yield.

Fairy Tale eggplant in container

To successfully grow eggplant in a container, I start with one that is at least 12 inches in diameter. I have found that larger containers up to 16 inches in diameter will grow larger plants, and therefore more fruit. Self-watering containers are great for growing eggplant, and help with the watering issue by providing a reservoir of water for the plant to draw on. Another type of container that is becoming increasingly popular with gardeners is Grow Pots (or Smart Pots). I will be testing peppers and eggplants in Smart Pots this year, and comparing them with plants grown in plastic containers.

closeup of Fairy Tale eggplants

Eggplant is a pretty heavy feeder, so I use a good quality potting soil that has plenty of organic material in it. I also add a little compost to the mix, and some organic, slow release fertilizer (I like Espoma Tomato-Tone). That regimen has worked well for me the last few years, resulting in lots of tasty eggplant.

handful of Hansel eggplant

There are many eggplant varieties that do particularly well in containers. Two of my favorites are Hansel and Fairy Tale, which also happen to be All-America Selections. Gretel is another AAS winner that is good in containers and has slender white fruits.

Fairy Tale eggplants in 5" bowl

Both Hansel and Fairy Tale bear a multitude of tasty eggplants over the growing season. This year I’m also growing Millionaire and Pot Black in containers. Millionaire is a widely available long slender purple Japanese type, while Pot Black is a new variety that produces small round purple fruits and was bred especially for container culture.

Eggplant is pretty versatile in the kitchen. It regularly plays a starring role here in stir fries and in such dishes as my Grilled Eggplant Parmesan and Grilled Eggplant with Tahini Yogurt Sauce. Grilling eggplant is a great way to prepare some of the smaller fruited varieties. When Fairy Tale is grilled, the flesh almost melts in your mouth.

Grilled Eggplant with Tahini Yogurt Sauce

Grilled Eggplant with Tahini Yogurt Sauce

Growing eggplant in containers is an easy way to add this wonderful vegetable to your own gardening repertoire, if you’re not already growing it. And if you’re not growing eggplants yourself from seed, your local garden center should be able to supply you with all the plants and supplies you need.

Posted in Gardening | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Our BFF Cats

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Dave

I am pleased to report that new cat Dusty has been fully assimilated into the household here at Happy Acres. After a couple of months of getting to know each other, Puddin and Dusty have truly become BFFs.

"Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated." (click on any image to enlarge)

They eat together.

Dusty and Puddin at the trough

They hang out together inside.

hanging out in the laundry room

They hang out together outside on the screened in porch.

Puddin and Dusty hanging out on the porch

They groom each other.

Dusty after grooming Puddin

They play together famously, frequently ‘inventing’ new games.

"Don't just sit there, let's rumble!"

Old toys take on a new dimension when played with a friend.

"Show me how this thing works"

And now they are even sleeping together. Or at least they are sleeping side by side.

snoozing in Sport Pet cubes

They’ve come a long way since February when we brought Dusty home. I can only imagine what adventures they will have in the months and years to come. Stay tuned for more updates as they develop!

Posted in Cats, Photography | Tagged , , | 7 Comments