Growing Seedlings

I'm so happy my seedlings are doing better this year, especially since it is my first attempt at growing tomatoes from seed. Here's some quick picks of my green babies:

the whole setup

mountain magic tomatoes

red romaine (front) & swiss chard (back)

gem marigolds, green romaine & ground cherries (l to r)

gem marigold close up

teeny ground cherries (back & right)

Seedlings I Planted Myself

Although I bought most of my plants this year, and direct seeded the rest outside, there were a couple that I started inside and grew under lights.

These are most of them - Diva cucumbers & Cavili squash. The Diva seed packet went into great detail about planting them inside, so I didn't plant them outside like I usually do with cukes. I asked on Gardenweb if that was necessary- and another Diva grower said it wasn't, but would give better germination. Since we were having a cold snap, I figured I might as well do them inside.

Well, he wasn't kidding about germination! I got 100% by just 3 days after planting. I swear, one morning I left work work and nothing was there, then I came home and Bam! they looked like this! I couldn't believe it.

Now here they are 10 days later. I hardened them off for about a week, and planted them after I took this picture.

And here's the Cavili squash on the same day, with the other seeds I planted - Lemon Gem Marigolds - in the back:

The marigolds were a bit of a disaster this year. Well, ok - let's call it a "learning experience". First of all, you can see that four of the cells are empty - those didn't even germinate. That may be because I used the same pack of seeds I bought in spring 09. Also, I planted them sometime in Mid-April but the ones that did grow are still tiny. Maybe that's normal but I'm not sure.

Then, at the same time I planted seeds I saved myself from the red and tangerine gem marigolds I bought from Well Sweep herb farm last year. Not one of those germinated. Once again, I turned to the awesome Gardenweb forums for advice, and discovered that you should save seeds from the plants at different times during the growing season. This is because if there are no pollinators around, or the weather is too hot or too cold, you may not get viable seeds from the blooms. I saved all of mine from the plants at the end of the season, so it was probably too late for pollinators and too cold. I also learned that the different colors will cross-pollinate, so it is unclear what colors I'll get from the seeds I save. One of them might be dominant, or I could get all sorts of combinations.

After finding that out I went ahead and soaked ALL of the seeds I saved last year overnight, and tried to presprout them on moist paper towels. Out of hundreds of seeds, maybe 10 of them sprouted. Unfortunately, as 1 more thing in a comedy of errors, I left them in the paper towels longer than I should have. I still tried planting them even though they had 2 leaves and a long tail, and out of the 5 or 6 I planted, 1 is now still alive.

So I finally gave up and bought a pack of tangerine gems from Seed Savers, since I have room for around 20 plants. They are germinating now. It is a little late to start them, but they'll probably still be blooming by July or so, and will keep flowering into October, so not too big of a deal. At least now I know a little more and hopefully this year I'll do a better job at saving the seeds.

Self-sown Nasturtiums

Nasturtiums are supposed to self-seed, but I read they are a little finiky and won't always do it. I wasn't able to save any seeds last year, because it was hard to get them ripe enough and I just didn't have the motivation to tie baggies on them or anything. So I wasn't sure what I'd get this year and bought seeds anyway.

Now I'm happy to report at least a couple did self-sow. The funny thing is, 3 out of the 4 or 5 of the plants grew inside the holes of the concrete blocks, not in the bed!

That's ok though, I left them there anyway and will just train them over onto the fence. I'm hoping maybe a few more will pop up when the weather gets warmer, guess we'll see.

Calendulas Reseeded All Over

Last year I planted a new bed of Calendulas (a mix of Oktoberfest and Flashback). Unfortunately, as detailed in this post, they ended up with some kind of disease. Over the winter I discovered that it probably was insect damage from the aphids, as well as thrips - because the markings on the leaves looked exactly like the ones in slide 31 of this pdf.

So I had no idea what was going to happen to them this year - but it turns out they rampantly self-seeded! I took this picture of the bed on April 5th. All of the little green things are Calendula seedlings.

Yesterday I finally thinned them. I'm sorry that I didn't take a picture before I did that, because I knew I had this one. But I didn't realize until afterwards how much they'd grown in the past month! There were at least 3 times as many seedlings yesterday before I thinned them than the April picture. Below you can see a picture of the result - with the huge pile of thinned plants in the background:
I really hope they stay healthy this year. I found some information online about beneficial nematodes that should help. These are microscopic creatures that naturally live in the soil. The type I bought are considered an organic method and don't harm anything except insects that are bad for the garden, including thrips. So I applied them as directed a couple weeks ago.

Unfortunately, it wasn't until after I placed the order I realized it probably technically isn't veganic, since they do eat the unwanted insects. Granted, this is a pretty small thing to worry about considering insects are harmed in one way or another no matter what you do. Also, I rationalize that they're normally in the soil anyway, and there was probably an imbalance in my soil because the previous owners applied pesticides, which kill beneficials as well as unwanted insects. So hopefully I just restored these creatures to their natural habitat, and it will work to improve the balance of insects in my yard. I hope that's what happens anyway, so I don't have to apply them again. Guess we'll see.

Wishing it was Summer: Nasturtium Goodies

Here's a few pictures of dishes I made with the nasturtiums I grew in 2009.First are flowers stuffed with almond pepper chreeze - these were so good!! I stuffed and rolled the leaves like dolmas too, and it was awesome. I used this recipe with some diced Italian frying peppers and ground black pepper to add a little heat.

I also made nasturtium and potato soup using the leaves. The soup was quite tasty - it was something like a vichyssoise soup, but with spicy greens. I would definitely make it again - except next time I would wait until the very end to add the milk. On the side I had a tea sandwich with a little Nayonnaise, cucumbers, more italian frying peppers (since I had so many to use up they made their way into everything!) and lemon pepper.
Finally, I made two logs of nasturtium lemon butter and froze them. I didn't end up eating it until Thanksgiving, and still have the other in the freezer. (now that I think of it, I really should get it out!) In this picture you can see the butter on some toast. The flowers sprinkled on the plate are actually edible lemon gem marigolds, since that's all I had left at the time. Floral, yet spicy and lemony - it is hard to describe this butter but I really enjoyed it. It got raves from the relatives at Thanksgiving.
My only regret is that I didn't start eating the nasturtiums until the end of last season. They were too pretty! But now that I know how delicious they are, I definitely will make more with them next summer.

Do I love my garden or what?! Took the day off edition

You might remember this "Do I love my garden or what?!" post from last year's veganmofo. Well, it is kind of interesting to reflect on - things are looking better this year, what with my Agribon rowcovers instead of sheets.

Still, I took today off from work (it was a slow week, so my boss was fine with it) just to work in my garden haha! It is bright and sunny, about as good as a fall day could be. Although we haven't had a frost yet (very unusual) we've had extended cool temperatures so things are starting to show signs of dying. The leaves on the herbs are turning brown, which I definitely don't want since I am trying to dry and preserve them for winter. I have a number of things I want to get done:

1. harvest and dry the hot peppers (habanero & kung pao, mainly. The jalapenos still haven't turned red)
   
2. harvest and dry herbs (shiso, oregano, marjoram, eucalyptus, sage, mint, chives & lavender)
3. harvest and dry the edible marigolds
4. harvest the nasturtiums and make something with them for dinner
5. pull down the malabar spinach. It has spots all over it now, since it is a tropical plant I think it is hating the cool weather
6. sew the extension onto the agribon covering the lettuce bed

Jeesh! It is a lot for one day. I've also got to clean my house since I'll probably have people over for a Halloween party this weekend, and I need to put another coat of plaster/joint compound on a drywall project in the upstairs bathroom. I'm sure I won't get everything done, but, I'll try my best.

Nuts about Nasturium

I just absolutely adore these flowers!! They grew so beautifully this year, it went far beyond my expectations.

My garden is edged with a gorgeous array of spicy edible plants. It makes me smile every time I go outside to see these bright and sunny flowers.

Even on rainy days, they are so brilliant amongst the green they practically glow. None of the pictures I've taken capture this effect as intense as it is in person.

Who needs skittles when you've got Nasturtiums? They're a real rainbow of flavors.

They grew in various shade of yellow, from pale cream tinged with peach, to solid buttery, sunshiny yellow through neon bright yellow with red or orange triangles inside the flower. There is also bright orange, and a beautiful deep ruby red. I also love how the leaves look like little lily pads. One plant is a lot frillier than the rest - I'm not sure if it is another type that got mixed in with the packet of mixed climbing rainbow that I bought.
But the red is definitely my favorite. I am going to try saving some of these seeds for next year.
This weekend is going to be all about trying to save these beautiful plants before they're destroyed by frost. I'm thinking of drying some using the new dehydrator, but can't find too many things to do with them. I think I am going to invest in a Sunwave flower press, so I can make cards and other crafts for christmas presents. But in the meantime it looks like next week will have to be chock full of eating various nasturtium dishes. I've found a ton of ideas!

Aside from just tossing the blooms in a regular salad, this Apple and Sprout salad looks great (and could use some of the season's best fruit if it stops raining long enough to go to the nearest u-pick or farmers market).

This looks like a decent recipe for stuffed flowers, but probably instead of tofutti I'd use my homemade almond chreese. Another recipe for blackberry stuffed flowers features maple sweetened tofutti. I can't quite imagine a sweet stuffed blossom tasting that great, since they are quite peppery. But maybe next year when my blackberry bush is ripe I'll try it out anyway.

Nasturtium & Grape salad seems like a good basic salad but with a yummy twist (the grapes). Here is an even simpler fruit salad featuring strawberries. I should have made this green bean and tarragon salad before my haricot verts gave up the ghost, since it would use them and some of the huge tarragon plant I've got but never know what to do with. Well, there's always next year.

Of course there is the ubiquitous nasturtium vinegar idea - that recipe looks better than most I've seen around the web. I'm not going to bother with a pickled nasturtium seed recipe, since there are so many on the web and I don't plan on doing it this year I don't think.

Then there's nasturtium lemon butter, or a jalapeno nasturtium aioli that sounds amazing! I'd have to try one of these vegan replacements for the egg, such as jarred mayo or cashews, tofu or maybe white beans.I also just came across this lovely PDF press release about 15 - 20 foot long nasturium vine displayed at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Apparently it takes them 10 months in the greenhouse to grow these vines, and they've been putting them on display for visitors since 1903. I would love to try one of those recipes, perhaps lavender nasturtium syrup. And now I must visit Boston in April!!

I really like this idea, "for a tangy alternative to chives, chop nasturtium leaves finely, and sprinkle them over a jacket potato. " Sounds easy and baked potatoes are a freqent favorite in my house, so this is definitely one to try.

I definitely need recipes for the leaves since there are soo many about to succumb to frost. This pesto looks interesting. Here's another idea: nasturium leaves wrapped around sundried tomato, flowers & basil almond chreese stuffing, tied with a chive.

Here's a recipe for Nasturtium potato soup that would use up a lot of leaves, although I have to say it doesn't look like it would be very tasty from the list of ingredients. Although this soup recipe from epicurious also seems rather plain - perhaps the nasturtiums add so much spicy flavor you don't need much else. This carrot and nasturtium soup looks a little more interesting, though I'd probably be too lazy to do carrots four ways for it. I guess the only thing left to do is try them and find out.

Now for something completely different: Nasturtium pizza or how about nasturtium tostadas? OOh! I could even make Emeril's nasturtium risotto for Food Network Fridays!

Of course my list of recipes wouldn't be complete without some nasturtium tea sandwiches. This one with cucmbers looks delicious.

Wow, there's even a recipe for nasturtium bitters! And a hair conditioner that uses dried flowers. Doubt I'll be that adventurous this year, but maybe some day...

Ok, now that I've officially gone nuts and compiled enough nasturtium recipes to last a lifetime, we'll just have to see what comes out of the kitchen over the next week.

The Amazing Ever Expanding Cockscomb

Mostly everything in my garden is edible, even the flowers. However, this year I did make a few exceptions to attract more pollinators. So, when my cousin gave me a little pot of cockscomb seedlings this summer, I happily accepted and planted them.

Well, little did I know how these were going to grow! To the above left you see them just planted on August 1st. Then starting to get some cute little flowers on August 29th below:
And then blammo! Here they are on September 20th, as tall as the black raspberry bush behind them!

I just couldn't believe they grew so tall. They're only annuals, but my cousin said they self-sow profusely (which is why she had so many to give me) so I'm hoping they'll grow back next year.

I can see a ton of black seeds in the flowers, so I'm going to try saving some just in case they don't.

Fortunately, not only are they beautiful, but the pollinators also love them! All of the following pictures were taken one after another, with all the insects on the plants at the same time (plus more that aren't pictured). I'm sure they must be helping get all those squash pollinated. (see mofoers, this post is related to vegan food afterall!)
















Quite a few of them grew into big beatiful brain-like combs. I knew from seeing them in stores before that they make great cut flowers, and retain their color well when dried. So I cut a bunch for a bouquet. That was last Saturday, and today they're still as fresh looking as last week. I plan to dry and save them too.

Quick Catch Up

So many pictures, so little time! Once again summer has me outside and not on the computer. But, it has been a good month so I'm not complaining. Here's a quick slideshow of some garden highlights:J.J. taking time to smell the borage flowers.

Somehow both pink and purple flowers grew on the same borage plant.

Fresh picked blackberries went into my morning fruit salad for work.

The nasturtiums are doing fabulous in their new spot by the fence. Much better than the tiny one that grew then died in the hanging pot last year!

Just picked all of these kung pao peppers on Saturday. I can't believe so many grew on just three plants.

My partner the pepper lover pickled them yesterday.

This was all but one of the italian frying and bell peppers that I've picked so far. A bit dissapointing, but, with this crazy weather I'm happy I got any at all. Hopefully things will pick up in the next few weeks.

The tomatoes are doing better - not quite as good as last year, but still decent. Here's the first batch of Roma, plus some grapes which have been producing a few handfuls each day now.

The yellow and red grape tomatoes, plus jalapenos and cilantro from the garden got made into this delicious black bean salsa yesterday. You can't quite tell from the pic but the bowl is huge - a few handfuls a day really adds up nicely. The only things we had to add were a can of black beans, a little white onion and some lime juice.

This was the biggest haul yet from two weekends ago. Who needs the CSA! It is beet greens, rainbow and fordhook giant chard, the peppers, turnips, beets, some blackberries, tomatoes, a cucumber and a lone calendula flower that I accidentally cut off.

The Emerite haricot vert were outstanding. This was the 1st batch from earlier in July, and I picked two more even fuller bowlfuls after that, plus about a half a bowl this weekend. This was the second batch of carrots I picked, and even more peppers. I just planted a new crop of carrots this weekend - now I can hardly wait until November!

Midsummer Meal

This was last nights dinner. A little random, but it used up everything I picked from the garden. On the left was a quinoa, turnip green, smoked tempeh & almond dish. It was garnished with lightly sauteed red and yellow grape tomatoes on top. (we've gotten about 10 so far - I can't wait till the tomatoes really get going over the next couple weeks!!) The turnips were diced and sauteed in garlic, smoke flavor, onion & red pepper flakes. It was delicious! The almond added just the right amount of crunch. I got the idea here: Novel Eats Simply Vegan blog Thanks Samantha.

In the middle are dill pickles made from 10 pickling cucumbers & a packet of Ball dill mix. Also added some kung pao peppers from the garden and a bit of garlic. I didn't do a water bath with them - just refrigerated in two jars. I don't think we'll have any problem eating them within two weeks. I already ate almost half a jar myself yesterday! Above you see the cucumbers (I didn't use the three on the right - those were left on the vine too long) and below is the final product. I picked 6 more today.

Finally on the right are more mashed turnips and potatoes. I really can't get enough of those. On top is a beautiful edible Amazon Jewel climbing nasturtium - it was really delicious! Floral yet spicy. I'm looking forward to more of these gorgeous blooms. Here's a collage of the various colors. I took all of these pics last night. The hardest part is picking them to eat - I just want to keep looking at them.

Calendula Bed Looking Beautiful

The calendulas really exploded this week. The flowering ones in the front are a mixture of Flashback and Oktoberfest that I planted inside under the growlight setup back in April. Towards the back are some smaller plants that I direct seeded in May. I'm really glad I started the earlier ones inside! You can see it made a huge difference.

The amazing thing is I took this picture on Tuesday, and by Thursday I went outside after work to find twice as many flowers! I love how they are all different shades of cream, yellow and orange. And they will keep flowering into the fall. What a great edible plant. There will be plenty to go around for bath salt presents this holiday season, that's for sure. I'm also hoping with this many plants in one bed, they'll self sow so next year Ill have early volunteers outside.















UPDATE 7/15/09: Darnit! I spoke too soon. Just noticed the calendulas have a terrible black aphid infestation! Going to try shooting them off with the hose. If that doesn't work, next step will be to use a canola oil/liquid soap solution. Would be nice to get some ladybugs, but the only place I know to get them is over the internet and I'm not quite there yet.

UPDATE 7/19/09: Well, the aphids were easy enough to control. Most of them were on spent blooms that needed to be deadheaded anyway, and the rest I just blasted off with the hose. Now there are just a couple more I'm going to blast off. However, I thought the light yellow spots on the leaves were normal, but they appear to be getting worse and may actually be a disease. Either leaf spot or white smut: http://vvv.state.ct.us/caes/PlantPestHandbookFiles/pphC/pphcale.htm. I hope it is the latter b/c that is not as serious as leaf spot, which will kill the plant. Guess we'll see how it goes.