Gardening 2012 - Fall Planting Part 1

The time has come for fall planting.  I'm somewhat disappointed the tomatoes were felled by fusarium wilt but I'm hopeful that with the drip system in place the San Marzanos will be able to overcome next summer's hot spells. Anyway...

Now, the picture above doesn't look like much but what you're seeing (left to right) are:

• 2 big Basil plants
• 3 rows of Cima di Rapa
• 1 row of Variegata di Chioggia Cicoria
• 2 rows  of Giganti d'Inverno Spinach
• Swiss Chard we planted a couple months back

The drip system has been modified to use drip line for the fall crops. The 1 gallon emitters and their 1/4" lines have been removed (they just pull out) and the empty holes in the main line filled with goof plugs. Then new holes were punched and the drip lines installed.

The Swiss Chard is big enough to start harvesting.  There's not enough yet to stuff ravioli, so maybe pizza tomorrow.

The old lower bed has another basil plant and a couple rows of spinach. Tomorrow I'll re-work the drip system there and plant the various fall root vegetables:

• Tonda di Chioggia beets
• Lungo di Napoli radish

and in a couple weeks, more  Cima di Rapa and Giganti d'Inverno Spinach.

Finally,  I have 45 saffron bulbs to plant. They're going to go in front of the shrub roses. It's going to require a bit of effort to clear that area but fortunately I only need about 3 square feet.

For more on the drip system: Drip Irrigation Part 1, Drip Irrigation Part 2
For what the garden has given us: Garden Produce 2012
Or click the Gardening tab for everything.

Gardening 2012 - Mid May Update

Things are happening in the garden! The San Marzano tomatoes have recovered from the little cold snap and are almost half way up the towers.

In the old lower bed the onions are doing well and as soon as I get done typing this, I'll thin the cima di rapa. Just to the left of the onions we've added a few rows of carrots and replanted the beets. Now that temperatures are well into the 70's they should all be sprouting in a matter of days.

Earlier in the week I picked up 4 cheap plastic buckets. They're a classic piece of low-budget container gardening and make excellent pots for tomatoes. So we drilled 5 half inch holes in the bottoms and filled them with potting mix topped off with one Roma tomato plant each.

While it's possible I'll have way too many tomatoes this summer, this will give us a chance to compare the performance and taste of "real" San Marzano tomatoes and the modern Roma hybrid.

In the new front bed the eggplants are doing quite well, but the peppers don't seem real happy. It's still early though and they may still be a little stunted from the cold snap a couple weeks ago. Or... it might be because I forgot to poke some holes in the plastic so rain water could reach the soil. Whichever it is, the weather is now warm and the holes have been poked.

On the other hand the rest of the container plants are very happy. Obviously I was able to bring in the big pot for a couple evenings, so that eggplant suffered not at all on those cold nights.

Gardening 2012 - Planting Part 1

It's planting time! It may seem early but in fact night time temperatures have been in the mid-40's for a few weeks and the forecast has lows of around 50 for the rest of the month.

Tomatoes

 

San Marzano Tomatoes, Parsley, Thyme & Basil

This year we're trying red plastic sheets as "mulch" for the tomatoes. The theory (supported by studies at Montana State University and Penn State) is that the red plastic reflects the wavelengths of light that react with phytochrome and encourage more rapid growth. The stuff comes in big rolls and also 3x3 sheets - the exact right size for our little raised beds. It has hundreds of tiny holes to allow water to penetrate to the soil. (In theory anyway - that little puddle in the right foreground doesn't seem to want to cooperate.)

After leveling the soil and pinning the plastic down with landscape fabric pins, we marked and cut three "X" shaped openings where we want the tomato plants. Then we pulled back the flaps, dug planting holes, mixed in a handful of ground eggshells and popped in the tomato plants. Because San Marzano tomatoes are indeterminate, we're using towers rather than the more common cages. There's another almost identical planting in the new "upper" bed with the Cima di Rapa for a total of six San Marzano plants.

Eggplant

Eggplant, Parsley, Thyme & Basil

It's still just a little early for eggplant, but I popped one into a container so I can bring it in if  night temperatures threaten to drop below 50 F. There are parsley, thyme and basil planted around the outside edge of the pot.

Coming soon: Peppers, Zucchini, and the rest of the Eggplant

Gardening 2012 - Seed Starting

Well, it's 8 weeks to the "last frost" date for our area, so it's also time to start starting seeds. For the first batch we've got parsley, thyme, basil, eggplant, and some spicy Calabrese peppers. In a couple more weeks we'll start tomatoes, then about the middle of March zucchini. This year we're also growing broccoli raab, beets, carrots, and swiss chard, all of which will be direct seeded along with some red cippolini type onions that will go in from sets.

To get things moving in our chilly basement, we're using a heating pad underneath the seed starting tray. In a perfect world it will provide just enough (and not too much) warmth to get the seeds moving. According to the instructions, that's 10 degrees warmer than ambient. The manufacturer suggests using a thermostat, but the basement is cool enough that I'm hoping it won't be necessary.

The tray with the first five varieties loaded, the tray looks like this:

And after a couple hours with the heat on it's looking good; not too hot, but warmer than my basement:

The heated seed starting tray is this one:



We've also got a lighting system we won't actually need for a week or so: