Gardening 2013: Quickie Update

Zucchini #1

After a full week of near 100 degree temperatures we finally got a break last night with some pretty decent thunderstorms. Not up to Chicago standards, but at least things have cooled down. And...

Most of the vegetables are finally starting to come around. That's our first zucchini up there. 8 ounces of sweet green goodness. And it looks like we'll have a few more by the weekend:

A More Shapely Fruit

In fact we harvested a couple of small eggplant last week that I didn't document, but more are on the way:

The San Marzano tomatoes are finally starting to ripen. There's still no hint of wilt or blossom end rot, so I'm hoping for a good crop for making sun dried tomatoes (OK, yeah, I'll probably dry 'em in the oven - it's too humid here to sun dry successfully).

The cippolini onions are almost ready to harvest. The greens have all fallen over and in a few days they'll start to brown a little. Then I'll pull 'em and spread them out to dry on the front porch like I did last year.

Gardening 2013: May Update

Nearly to the roof this year!

This spring has been a little hard on the garden. It was very hot early, then got wet, and now we're on a period with more seasonal daytime temperatures but night time lows in the low 40's.

That hasn't bothered the cippolini onions or the cima di rapa in the front bed. They're watered using 1/4" drip line every 2nd row.

Just about ready

We'll probably harvest the cima di rapa in another couple days and make pizza with it. Valley Shepard Creamery in Reading Terminal Market makes mozarella daily on-site so I'll probably pick up half a pound on the way home from work Tuesday. (Which in turn means making a batch of dough Monday evening.)

San Marzano Tomatoes

As you can see, we're using red plastic "mulch" again this year and each plant has it's own drip line with a 1 gallon per hour emitter. There are a couple rows of peas on the right - they get plenty of eater from the gutter garden just visible at the top right.

Unfortunately, the eggplant and peppers I started are way behind. I may visit some garden stores next week and buy larger plants. It's annoying, but these things happen now and then. And I still have to pop some zucchini seeds under the black plastic in the front "bamboo bed".

Cippolini in Agrodolce

Red Marble Cippolini - Ready to Go

Last week we harvested our Red Marble Cippolini and set them out to dry. Today I cleaned 'em up and sorted them by size. I had about a pound of medium sized onions - about an inch in diameter so I decided to prepare them "agrodolce" style.

I used Mario Batali's recipe, which can be found here: Cippolini en Agrodolce.

Gardening 2012 - Onions!

Red Marble Cippolini

A couple weeks back the Red Marble Cippolini's tops started to fall over - the first sign they're almost ready to harvest. Since it's supposed to rain on and off for the next four days I decided to pull them this evening rather than risk having them start growing or end up so wet they'd rot rather than dry.

From the 80 or so I planted we ended up with about 60 of the little cuties. They'll dry for a few days on the front porch, then I'll cut back the stalks, clean them up. The plan is to can them "agro-dolce" style in pints. Stay tuned!

Gardening 2012: July Update

It's time once more for a gardening update!

Coming Along

San Marzano Tomatoes: They're exceding every possible expectation. The plants in the upper bed have reached the tops of the double height ladders and although the three in the lower bed are not as tall, they easily match the others for quantity of fruit. We got our first ripe tomato from the lower bed on July 3rd. and now there are quite a few beginning to color. I'm a little concerned about the wilting leaves, but the plants seem otherwise healthy.

I didn't think I'd start needing to buy quart jars until August...

Gardening 2012 - Memorial Day Update

San Marzano Tomatoes 6 weeks after transplant

Back in Minneapolis, this is the weekend we used to set out tomatoes and other cold sensitive plants. But of course, things get warmer sooner these days and if you've been following along you'll recall that we planted out our tomatoes on April 15th! Anyway, six weeks later those scrawny plants have grown into exceptionally vigorous vines that are nearly four feet tall. Since it's apparent they'll easily over-top the ladders I bought, I've ordered another set to extend the ones already in place.

The peppers and eggplants in the front bed are starting to catch up now that they're getting sunlight before noon. It's a good reminder that even though it was warm enough to plant out in mid-April, the Earth is still in the same orbit around the Sun, still tilted 23.44 degrees and for plants like these, there's just not enough light in the day at that time of year to really get them growing well.

The zucchini has also recovered from it's too early planting and we actually have our first baby squash. This is a spot where it's looking like the plastic mulch is going to be a huge benefit. Obviously it keeps down the weeds (even the bamboo that's still trying to grow under there). It also helps keep the soil moist and it keeps the tender plants off the dirt which means we'll have clean zucchini with (hopefully) little or no spoilage.

In the rest of the garden the second batch of cima di rapa has had it's final thinning. I've replanted Swiss Chard because the first batch cima di rapa shaded the original planting so much it was hopelessly stunted. The carrots and beets are coming along. The onions in the old bed are doing quite well while  those in the upper bed have fallen a bit behind. That's likely attributable to the fact that the old bed has had the benefit of a decade of organic cultivation and is far richer and fluffier at this point.

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 - Red Marble Cippolini

Red Marble Cippolini Onions

The onion sets arrived on Friday so that means it's time to set them out. This is the first time in decades we've grown onions, but these little red cippolini looked too delicious to pass up. Like the first batch of seeds these came from GrowItalian.

Red Marble Cippolini Sets

As they arrive onion sets don't look very promising. Just a bundle of scrawny, dessicated, scallion like things. Nevertheless, they will grow into those tasty little cippolini in about 3 months. GrowItalian, like all the other seed companies advertises their onion sets as "Approximately 60 per bunch.". In fact, there are more than 100 plants in this bunch.

Onion Sets in the upper bed

I of course planned space for 60. I ended up planting 80 in the existing raised beds and I'll probably put the rest in the yet to be completed "front" bed. Right now that area is shaded by the house to the south in the morning but in another month or so the sun will be high enough that it will get sun most of the day.