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 - Seed Starting Part 1

It's just about seed starting time again! But before I start getting out the trays and warming mats it would be nice to know what the state of last year's seeds is. Fortunately, it's easy to find out which are still good and which need to be replaced. All you need is a paper towel, a gallon size baggie a sheet of paper and a pen.

Start by placing your seeds in rows of 10 on the paper towel. You want to go a bit less than half way across the towel so you can fold it over later. I've marked the top with a "T" in case it gets turned around. As you place each row, note what it is on the sheet of paper.

When you've placed all your seeds, carefully fold the other half of the towel over the seeds and sprinkle it with water. You want it completely wet, but not dripping.

Finally, slip the wet towel and seeds into a large plastic bag and fold the open end under to close it. Put is someplace dark and a little warmer the room temperature.  (I've been using the top of our refrigerator for decades.) Put the sheet of paper with the seed names on top of the plastic bag and forget about it for a week.

One week later, pull out the paper towel and see what you've got. As you can see, it can get a little messy. If you're lucky you'll be able to separate the paper towels. That wasn't the case for me this year so I just held it up to the light so I could count the seeds that had germinated. This year I ended up with:

Tomato	8
Eggplant	0
Basil	6
Parsley	5
Spinach	2
Cima di Rapa	7
Thyme	Half-ish
Carrot	5
Cicoria	6

So I can toss my remaining eggplant and spinach seeds. The rest I'll just double up when I start them in trays in another week or so. Some seeds don't keep well, so I've got new supplies of peas and zucchini and I'll be trying a new variety of pepper, "Lombardo", a long thin Italian frying pepper. Of course we'll be growing San Marzano tomatoes again and this fall we should have our first crop of saffron from the bulbs we planted last year. I'm also going to try to grow some winter squash since I grown rather fond of the Winter Squash Soup from The Complete Bocuse.

Now I have to go clean up the seed starting area, wash the trays, and see what I've lost and what I still have.

Gardening 2012: Summer Wrapup

Today's Goodies: Peppers, Carrots, Swiss Chard

It's the first day of Autumn so I thought I'd look back over the produce page and add up what we got from our 80 square feet of garden space this year.

• 19.5 lb of Tomatoes
• 17 lb of Eggplant
• 15.5 lb Zucchini
• 4 lb Peppers (so far - there's a lot still on the plants that sontinues to ripen)
• All Thyme, Parsley, and Basil we need

We also harvested about 6 servings (maybe 3 lb. or so) of Cima di Rapa and have lots of Swiss Chard that will keep producing well into winter. There's even 2 eggplants still producing. We have about 60 carrots we'll be pulling as well as new plantings of beets, Cima di Rapa, spinach and radishes. And there are loads more peppers. We're going to pickle a couple pounds this weekend.

The big mistake this year was underestimating just how hot and dry summer was going to be. We could easily have had 100 lbs of San Marzano Tomatoes if I had put in the drip irrigation system last spring. By the time I finally installed it the tomato plants were already badly stressed and beginning to succumb to (I think) fusarium wilt. Next year we'll have the drip system in place and we'll plant more than one variety.

We like eggplant a lot but next year I think we'll go with maybe three plants. We'll also grow a mix of sweet and hot peppers and stick with no more that 2 or 3 zucchini.

I've learned you can start beets indoors so next year we'll give that a try. We'll also plant way more peas. They're easy to grow, delicious, and simple to freeze.

The Alley - Future Home of Spring Peas

I think we can take advantage of a narrow strip of ground on east side of the alley behind our house. It's about a foot wide and I can use the 40 feet of it that's "ours" as a long narrow row. The old chain link fence on top of the retaining wall will support the plants.

Gardening 2012: Labor Day Update

Last Harvest?

Never underestimate the power of Italian vegetables! Just when I though the eggplant had finished, I ended up with another 2 lb 3 oz. We even got one last zucchini because I was too lazy to dig up the plants. We've harvested another 1 lb of little red Calabrese Peppers too. Back in the upper bed the Cima di Rapa is up and needs to be thinned and the cicoria and spinach are poking their heads up as well.

Saffron Bulbs

We also planted 45 saffron bulbs. This was a bit harder than it might seems due to the fact that the front area was still laced with old bamboo roots that had to be dug out before we could plant the little guys. Saffron is a fall blooming bulb and according to the directions we should have fresh saffron in a month or so.

We still have to plant root vegetables in the old lower bed and there are hundreds of peppers still slowly ripening. We might even see a few more eggplant.

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 - Drip Irrigation Part 2

Messy Drip Line Installation

In today's installment we're running the 1/2 inch mainline back to the new upper bed. Nothing much to that:

1. Remove the stub from the right arm of the faucet "T"
2. Connect the 1/2 inch main line in it's place
3. Carefully unroll the main line, holding it in place with wire hold downs.

When it actually reaches the upper bed, we've finally got something interesting to see.

Drip Line and "Goof Plug"

With the onions drying on the porch and the tomatoes plagued by Fusarium Wilt the upper bed isn't very interesting.  The tomatoes each have a 1 GPH emitter just like the zucchini out front. However, there are four "mini-rows" of Swiss Chard and they most definitely need water. So for each pair of rows I punched a hole in the main line, inserted a transfer barb and this time added a length of drip tubing. It's like regular 1/4 inch tubing with little emitters embedded every 6 inches. The ends are closed with "goof plugs" rather than emitters.

Emitter Emitting

From the upper bed we make a right angle turn with an elbow fitting and head about 10 feet south to the old "lower bed". Another elbow fitting turns right and it's off to the front bed.

Back at the lower bed, things are essentially the same as in the upper bed - 1/4 inch supply tubing and emitters for three tomato plants and (eventually) drip line for fall planted stuff: Cima di Rapa, another try for beets and maybe some lettuce or other greens..

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 - Drip Irrigation Part 1

A week ago I ordered the various parts I need to assemble a drip irrigation system for our little garden. I probably should have done it as soon as I realized we would be facing another scorching summer. Unfortunately, I never really got motivated to do the measuring and planning (I thought) it would take.

So I hit the www.dripworks.com website, figured out what I'd need and ordered:

1	12100	1/2" Mainline Blank Tubing (.600 ID, .700 OD) - 1/2" x 100' Blank Tube	$13.50
1	1250	1/2" Mainline Blank Tubing (.600 ID, .700 OD) - 1/2" x 50' Blank Tube	$8.50
20	14GP2	1/4" Goof Plugs For Repair	$1.20
1	1450	1/4" Polyethylene Micro Tubing (.170 ID, .250 OD) - 1/4" Tubing x 50ft	$3.70
30	14LTB	1/4" Transfer Barb - 1/4" Long Transfer Barb	$4.20
1	DSD6L	Dripline 6" Spacing, 1/2 GPH - 1/4" Soaker Drip 6" 50' Roll	$15.50
2	ELL	Easy Loc Elbow	$2.60
7	ELMC	Easy Loc End Cap	$6.30
1	ELFH	Easy Loc Female Hose Beginning	$1.05
7	ELT	Easy Loc Tee	$11.55
1	PUPKT	Pocket Punch	$5.95
30	DTA1	Take Apart Emitter - Take Apart Emitter-1 GPH (black)	$6.60
20	SUHD	U Shaped Wire Hold Downs	$3.00
Subtotal: $83.65 Shipping Rate: $17.00 Total: $100.65

Yeah, a hundred bucks. And I left out a couple more expensive items like the pressure regulator and a timer that I'll probably add next spring. Plus I've probably more "main line" tubing and fittings than most people would need because our 4 little beds are at the corners of a 15 x 50 foot rectangle so the basic layout is a big "U" shape. On the other hand a more traditional row type garden would use more of the rather expensive dripline - I'll use less than half of the 50 foot roll.

Here's how it's laid out...

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 - Thunderstorm Update

Rolled Zucchini

Friday evening we had the first real thunderstorm of the season. I managed to get the lawn mowed before it started and although there were a few flickers, the power stayed on. This morning I went out to see how the garden had fared, particularly the tomatoes, as they have gotten rather tall.

As you can see, the zucchini got sort of rolled over in the wind. Although a few of the male blossoms broke off, they're none the worse for the experience.

You can't hide anymore

And it was easier to trim off a couple unfertilized zucchini that were hiding underneath (they'll gradually decay if you don't).

Eggplant!

The eggplants don't seem to have noticed the storm at all. As you can see we'll be getting plenty of these purple beauties this year. The big one on the lower right is now in the kitchen awaiting it's fate.

Some of the pepper plants got knocked over. Since they're all a little on the spindly side, I took the PVC pipes we used early in the spring to support a frost cover and converted them to stakes.

Almost 6 feet tall

And then there are the tomatoes. These San Marzano plants are huge and are going to need some careful pruning. A couple branches were partially broken in the storm so they'll have to come off and a few other branches are intruding on the onions and Swiss Chard.

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 - Thinning & Pizza

Baby Cima di Rapa

Last night I thinned the cima di rapa and ended up with a pile of tender baby greens:
I couldn't just toss 'em in the compost so I made half a batch of pizza bianca dough, let it rise in the 'fridge overnight and put together this little pie.

Ingredients

Dough:

250 g. bread flour
200 g. water
5 g. salt
1 Tbs. EVOO
1/4 tsp. active dry yeast

Topping:

28 oz. can San Marzano tomatoes
4 oz. fresh mozarella
dried oregano
A big handful of fresh baby greens
Fresh basil
The most delicious EVOO you have on hand

Method

The night before, place all the dough ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer and mix by hand until a rough dough comes together. Using the dough hook, knead on 80% power for 15 minutes. Be careful, at this speed the mixer will tend to "walk". Scrape the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, oil your hands, and shape the dough into a "ball", making sure to get it coated with oil. Cover the bowl tightly and place it the refrigerator overnight.

At least an hour before cooking place a baking stone on a rack in the lower third of your oven and preheat the oven to it's highest temperature: 500 or 550 F.

Get the dough out of the refrigerator, shape it into a disk and let it warm to room temperature on a well floured plate, covered, while the oven preheats.

Crush the tomatoes by hand and drain them. You'll end up using nearly all of them on the pizza. Save the juice and any left over crushed tomato for another use.

Trim the greens and chop roughly if they're large. Cut the mozarella into into 1/4" slices and break them up into irregular chunks.

When the oven has preheated for at least an hour gently stretch the dough into a pizza shape, leaving a slightly raised edge. Spread a thin layer of crushed tomatoes evenly on the dough. Sprinkle very lightly with dried oregano and scatter the mozzarella, basil and greens on the top.

Bake in the blazing hot oven for about 8 to 10 minutes or until the edges are nice and brown. Drizzle on a little of your most delicious olive oil and enjoy! It tastes the same no matter what shape.

Mmmmm....

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 - 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.

Gardening 2012 - Update #2

Things have slowed a bit as temperatures have came back to historical averages.

Cima di Rapa Seedlings

Most of the cima di rapa seedlings have developed their first true leaves so with a few sunny days they should really start to take off. I expect they'll need a second thinning this weekend.

We planted one 8 foot row of peas in the "old" raised bed along side a chain link fence on March 26 and  a couple short rows of beets on April 1.  The "new" upper bed got 2 short rows of Swiss Chard parallel to the cima di rapa at the same time. We'll pop in a couple more rows of each plus some more cima di rapa on the 15th. We should see our onion sets arriving sometime this week - half of 'em will go into the new bed and half into the old.

Leggy Tomatoes

The tomato transplants are getting a bit leggy in spite of the grow light and the south facing porch window. Unfortunately, night time temperatures are rather unreliably in the low to mid-40's so actually setting them out is still pretty risky. We do have more plants than we actually need so maybe this weekend we can come up with some sort of protection scheme and take a shot.

In any case, the parsley and thyme can certainly be potted up and hardened off this week. The parsley is looking great:

Root Development

Parsley Potted On

Cima di Rapa!

Cima di Rapa Quarantina

That was quick! The cima di rapa we planted on the 18th is already up. The seed packet claims it will be ready to eat in 28 days. Those "days to harvest" claims are usually pretty optimistic but I'm starting to believe this one.

Gardening 2012 - Transplants & Raised Beds

A month ago I wrote about the beginning of the new gardening year. For the last week or so we've been transplaning the seedlings into (mostly) individual pots. Now that everything is transplanted it looks like this:

The two pots in the front with nothing in them are just planted zucchini. Everything else is pretty obvious: Tomatos are on the left, basil, parsley and thyme here and there, eggplant and peppers on the right.

We've built a new raised bed frame this year.  In the past we've avoided using presure treated lumber since it used an arsenic based compound. These days a less toxic copper formulation is used, though leaching is still a potential issue. As a result, we'll grow only leafy plants there this year.

Fortunately, the materials are still pretty cheap. For our 18 square foot bed two 12 foot 2x6 boards and a single 8 foot 2x2 cost $17.93. We had them cut the 2x6 boards in half - just the right size for a 3 x 6 foot bed and also just the right size to fit in our Mini. I cut one in half to make the ends of the bed frame:

The copper in the treated wood means that you need to used stainless steel or hot dipped screws to hold everything together. I happened to have some treated deck screws left over from another project but if you don't you'll need to buy a few - 16 three inchers will do the trick.

With the bed in place we added a couple .75 cubic foot bags of dried manure and half a bag of peat moss to the surprisingly sandy soil next to the garage. This is the only place left in our little urban lot that gets anything close to full sun.

It doesn't look like much now, but there are three rows of cima di rapa there - the white PVC pipe marks where the next row will start. Given the price of broccoli raab around here that already more than pays for the materials that went into the bed.

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: