Red Trumpet Honeysuckle

Last summer I made my first and last order of live plants through the internet. Most of them died, so I won't do it again. One that has managed to come back strong this year though, is the Red Trumpet honeysuckle. You can see it in the background on the trellis in this post from last year. Now as you can see on the right, it has reached the top of the trellis.

I have always loved honeysuckle, with fond memories of eating the little drop of nectar from the common white and yellow ones as a child. I only found out last year that is Japanese honeysuckle, which is actually a highly invasive plant. No wonder it was growing along the roadside in so many places! So instead, I got Red Trumpet honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) which is native to this area and not considered invasive.

It never flowered last year, so when I saw these gorgeous red trumpets come out this spring, I was delighted. I think it is still on the small side, and may need to be moved into an area with more sun. But at least I got these beautiful flowers!

Spring Harvest and Two Meals

Here's a good pic of the different kinds of radish I grew this spring. White Icicle, Easter Egg (white, pink, purple, maroon) & Red Globe. Most of the White Icicles ended up taking a bit too long to mature, so by the time they were big enough to eat, they had bolted and gotten woody. I think they'll be better in the fall. The Easter Egg & Red Globe, on the other hand - were fantastic - I picked about 100 more that aren't pictured here.



Now here's a picture of the Mustard Greens. I picked at least 3 more armfuls as big as this one. They were so tender and delicious. The trick is to saute them with a little maple or agave syrup to bring out their sweetness. I will definitely grow these again.






This is a big pile of Arugula. I also picked about 3 more piles this size. It is great sauteed like spinach. I like to mix the sauteed Arugula in with a tomato bean sauce and put it on pasta. It's also good just raw as a salad green. I love the nutty taste.

I even used the arugula flowers in a meal one evening. They have the same nutty taste as the leaves, delicious! You can see them at the top right corner of this picture:

It is cajun-spiced seitan on a bed of radish & mustard greens (sauteed w/ garlic, smoked paprika & red pepper flakes), dirty rice, and a wonderful salad composed of thinned baby turnips and beets, plus radishes w/ chive & arugula blossoms and a light herb vinagrette. I really do like the taste of the chive blossoms. I sprinkle them on everything now.

But that meal was nothing compared to this brunch! Grilled Vcon smoky tempeh w/ black-eyed pea salsa & grilled smoked rosemary potatoes + mustard greens sauteed in the leftover tempeh marinade. It is all sprinkled with chive blossoms and also dollops of oregano pesto. (I had to make something with the oregano since I have sooo much of it. The pesto was tasty!). More purplish-pink easter egg radishes on the side, with a bit of the pesto on the end + chamomile flowers. The yellow flowers by the pile of greens were actually mustard green flowers. Spring is great!

Baby Violets

There they are, along with my finger for size comparison. The origami pots didn't work out that great. It may be just because of the type of paper I used instead of newspaper- but they are breaking down. I don't think too many of the pansies grew, just the Johnny Jump Ups. I read that violets should be planted out about a month before the final frost date, which is coming up this week, but I'm not sure if they are still too small to transplant.
A couple of the violets-in-a-can my partner brought home from the computer show actually grew too. I can hardly believe it.

Update: Great news!! Remember the wild violets that unexpectedly grew in my backyard last year? Well they are growing back again! I was worried they wouldn't, since we did so much work in the backyard the area was trampled quite a bit, as well as torn up by J.J. the dog. But last night when I went outside, I saw that all of a sudden they are sprouting up everywhere! Yay, I'm so excited. They smelled so delicious last year. I think I identified what type they are too: Viola sororia (Sister Violet or Woolly Violet). They are New Jersey's state flower. :-)

Cold Moist Stratification

This is something new that I just learned about this year. Apparently some seeds, usually perennials, need what's called "Cold Moist Stratification" in order to germinate. Normally in nature seeds of these plants lie dormant over the winter, and it is only after a period of freezing and rain that they germinate in the spring. If these types of seeds don't experience this treatment they won't break out of their tough shells. Here is a great explanation of stratification.

I decided to try the "winter sowing" method. There are pansies and johnny jump ups in the round take out container and lavender in the seltzer bottle. The seltzer bottle is inside a pot with rocks in the bottom just so it won't blow away. I poked drainage holes in the bottom of both, then filled them with soil and planted the seeds. I also poked ventilation holes in the tops. As it gets warmer, I'm supposed to make these holes bigger and bigger but it hasn't gotten that warm yet. It was probably a bit late to start them at the beginning of March, but as you can see on the 5th there was still snow, and it has been pretty cold all through the month so hopefully it will still work.

The anise hyssop also went in a small container, but got a little different treatment. The seeds were so tiny I practically needed a magnifying glass to see them, so I wrapped them in a moist paper towel and placed that inside the container. I read that the hyssop needs light for germination so I carefully put them under just one layer of paper.

Unfortunately, last weekend I checked on them and they were very wet, so I got the bright idea to unfold the paper towel and leave them in the sun to get light. Not such a smart move, since of course I proceeded to forget about them, the sun dried the towel and the wind blew it off the table. *sigh* I lost all but three seeds. I will probably only need two plants since I know that hyssop can grow really huge so hopefully they'll germinate! You can see it here on March 13th with the other two containers, all set to get frozen outside overnight.

Today was the first day I saw anything green in any of the three containers. It looks like one of the pansies sprouted! I hope more grow in the coming weeks.

End of March: Wonderful News!

Despite having freezing cold nights at the beginning of this week, all of the veggies I planted outside are growing! I went outside Thursday and couldn't believe my eyes, all of the peas I planted (both types) are peeking out of the soil. I counted them last night - there are nearly 40 pea sprouts. The arugula also survived the cold, and the whole row looks great. We even have two radish sprouts.

The inside seedlings are still ok, though leggy. I'm going to harden off the lettuce this week then plant them deep so hopefully they'll recover once in the garden. Of course, as you can see below the cut-and-come again tray of extra seedlings I didn't even plan to plant is looking way better than the leggy lettuce in individual containers! Oh the irony.

I'm getting excited now for the next few weeks in April. Lots of things to be planted. I made another plan (yes, I couldn't help it haha) for exactly when to plant the seedlings according to the moon cycles. I went with different dates since the Farmer's Almanac seemed to early considering the cold weather we've been having, based on the conventional wisdom that leafy plants with seeds on the outside go in the first quarter, annuals with seeds on the inside second quarter, root veggies and perennials in the 3rd and nothing in the 4th. I don't know if it is bubkus or not, but I figure there is no harm in trying since it is pretty much right on time as far as the weather anyway. This is the plan for the next two weeks:

Today:

• Pre-germinate radish seeds for early (non-moon) planting in the next few days. I want to put these in early where I will plant warm weather veggies in May so they'll be ready for harvest by then. It will be interesting to compare them to the later moon sown radishes, although I won't know if any difference is due to the moon or just warmer weather.

4/1 or 4/2:

• Start flowers inside - Tray 1 = Calendula (10 flashback, 5 octoberfest), Marigold (2), Bergamot (3 fitulosa + 3 didyma) & Garlic Chives (2)
  
• Tray 2 = Nasturtium (10 climbing, 5 empress, 6 whirlybird), Balloon Flower (2), Mallow (2)
• Tray 3 = Hollyhock (15) & English Daisy (10)
• Direct sow more lettuce & arugula plus mustard greens, mache and chard
• Transplant lettuce seedlings

4/4 or 4/5:

• Direct-sow a couple more peas to fill in any empty spots

4/11 or 4/12:

• Direct-sow turnips, beets, carrots & more radishes
• Plant purchased berries outside - raspberries, blueberries and strawberries

New Indoor Lighting Set-up: Check! (Sortof)

We got the Gorm set up, but the 24" florescent light setup from Lowe's = fail. It has no plug or switch.I thought we'd have to return it but my partner says maybe we can use a "corded switch" for the shop light. Unfortunately I don't know anything about hooking up a shop light apparently. They made it seem so simple in gardening books, and I even asked the employee at Lowe's - but none of them said anything about the need to purchase and attach a corded switch.

Good news is, we had the other florescent lights and managed to jerry-rig them with duct tape and pipe cleaners. Also put the fan on them for good air circulation, and misted them with a spray bottle.

First Week of March Garden Update

I planted peas!! It was 69 degrees here yesterday, and despite 8 inches of snow and freezing temperatures in the beginning of the week, my raised beds were totally workable. I tested it with a shovel, and was able to dig up all the over-wintered carrots remaining from last spring. So, I set to work and cleaned up all 4 of the existing beds. First I removed the remains of the kale, dried branches, etc., then weeded & raked. I also extended the strawberry bed into twice its size. Then spread about a cup of rock phospate and another of cottonseed meal on the beds, lightly tilled it in with a garden claw and watered. Finally, I planted two types of peas.

I also started 6 types of lettuce inside last week. I soaked them first, and to my surprise I got 100% germination! So I have 25 individual seedlings about 1 inch tall now, and I put all the leftovers in one big tray to use as cut and come again variety. I have a little florescent light on them but today I'm going over to the hardware store to get a bigger light and we are going to build a table-top growlight system.

Finally, I started some flowers and herbs. I soaked johny jump ups and pansies using the soaking method, but they are just starting to germinate now so they aren't planted yet. I also winter-sowed some lavender, pansies, and johnny jump ups in recycled containers outside. Who knew it would get warm so fast! My partner also got me these neat looking soda-type-can planters from a computer show he went to last week. Inside are violas and lavender, plus soil & fertilizer already in there. So you just had to pop the can open and water it. Neither of these have sprouted yet either, so I guess we'll see what happens.

Here is the finished indoor setup on March 8th:



Update: This all of the lettuce, two days after the above (3/10), when I added a second florescent light:

Gardening Binge 2009 #2: Check!

I knew after my last seed order a few weeks ago, there were still a few things I forgot. I definitely wanted to order the Agribon row covers. I also want to make the existing wild violet area (as described in this post last year) on the other side of the yard into an edible flower bed, but didn't get anything for that when I ordered my veggies. So, today I had some time to spare and of course my thoughts immediately went to my garden, and the little violets that should be sprouting any week now. One thing led to another, and bye bye hard earned $$$! Haha. At least I don't feel too bad since they are all edible and most perennial. Here's the haul, all organic, from Peaceful Valley:

• Anise Hyssop (Mint Licorice) Agastache foeniculum
• White Yarrow Achillea millefolium*
• Bergamot Lavender Monarda fistulosa*
• Calendula Flashback Calendula officinalis
• Nasturtium Rainbow Whirlybird Mix Tropaeoleum majus
• Nasturtium Climbing Amazon Mix Tropaeolum majus
• Garlic Chives Allium tuberosum
• Catalogna (Italian) Dandelion Greens Cichorium intybus (these were Free!)
• Tendergreen Mustard (also Free!)
  
• Mache Gala (a.k.a. lamb's lettuce or corn salad)
• The lightest Agribon (19) to keep the worms off my Kale
• The next heavier Agribon (30) to protect crops from frost

*Native to New Jersey!

Wuhoo! I'm so excited I don't even know what to do with myself. Well, actually I do- make lots and lots of origami boxes to use as pots for indoor seedlings! I better get to it- hopefully it will work and you'll see the results in my next post.

Now I need to put some more details here on a couple of these new plants that I've never grown before.
-Anise Hyssop= Height: 2-4'; Spacing:18-24 in. (45-60 cm); Sun to Light Shade; Propagation: From seed; sow indoors before last frost (cold, moist stratification dramatically improves germination); blooms mid to late summer

-White Yarrow= Height: 6" - 4'; Spacing: 1 - 2'; Full Sun; Drought resistant; Propagation: Divide in the spring. The seed germinates in 2 weeks at temperatures between 65 and 75 degrees. Light is necessary for seed germination (so plant no deeper than 1/4 inch). Germination time indoors may be as little as 5 to 7 days.; bloom in June, but will bloom again in September if the dead clusters are removed

-Bergamot Lavender = Height: 3' - 5' (mowing may keep it shorter & water/fertilizer will make it grow huge); Spacing: 12 - 24" (good air circulation keeps away powdery mildew); Full sun to light shade; Somewhat drought resistant (moreso than monarda didyma) but may like moist feet - seems to depend; Propagation: Direct seed 2 seeds/in or start indoors 4-6 wks before last frost and transplant when frost danger has passed. Planting Depth: 1/8"-1/4"Soil Temp. for Germ.: 60-70°FDays to Germ.: 10-21; Blooms in June/July, may continue through Sep. if deadheaded

Other Possibilities:

• Tagetes tenuifolia (lemon or tangerine signet marigold)
• Malva sylrestris (common mallow, french hollyhock)
• and/or Alcea rosea (Hollyhock) probably doesn't taste as good as mallow but it sure is cute! Also has upward, tall habit
• Bellis perennis (English Daisy, Lawn Daisy) small, adorable and I NEED it haha
• Centaurea cynaus (Bachelor's Button, Cornflower) pretty, blue, many colors but also large: 2 - 3 feet tall
• Platycodon grandiflorum (Balloon Flower) Another purple 2 - 3 foot tall totally gorgeous edible flower
  

Sunny Calendula

I just realized I never posted any pictures of the Calendula plants I grew in summer 2008. They were lovely! I direct sowed heirloom Oktoberfest seeds in late spring, but it took them until fall to really explode. I only just read a book recently that told me they are actually fall plants, so this is normal. Guess that's why they call them Oktoberfest! They made wonderful fall bouquets, and we ate a couple in salads. I dried the rest to use as flavoring (supposedly they are the poor woman's saffron, though I still haven't tried it) and also used them to make bath salts along with Lavender as described in another post. Above you can see a picture of the whole plant, which was pretty wild looking, I guess because it was heirloom. Below is a collage of the individual blooms.

Nasturtium: Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

They were pretty for a minute. Tasted good too, spicy yet floral. Unfortunately, this picture captured them at their very best 5 inch tall glory. A few weeks later they died. I'm not really sure what happened. The only thing I can think of is that they were in a hanging planter on the porch, and I wasn't very good at watering them. They only got partial sun up there too. I'm determined to give them another try next year, this time in the ground and full sun.

Oh So Jolly Jester Marigolds

What a happy little bouquet these heirloom Jolly Jester Marigolds make. I picked up an envelope of these seeds from Seedsavers on a whim, and boy am I glad. Although they did take longer to grow and bloom than regular marigolds from the nursery, it was worth it once they really got going.

Below you can see how wild and tall they grew next to my solar powered frog fountain, which I didn't mind at all- no highly manicured, tight in the rows garden for me! They even lept over the fence and twined together with the equally wild tomatoes. The best part about the non-compactness of the plant was the flowers had longer stems than usual, so I was able to make it into the bouquet you see. I also have some drying on a screen for an attractive filler in lavender potpourri I plan to make soon.

Do I love my garden or what?!?

Here it is, all covered up for protection from the possible frost. We worked on it all day. I hope this helps. Of course, knowing Murphy's law, we probably did all of this for nothing. But better safe than sorry I figure.

We really need to get a thermometer for the backyard so I can tell the difference between the local forecast and what's going on in the microclimate of my garden. The Master Gardener's hotline told me it can vary widely, depending on fencing, whether or not you are on a hill, etc. At this point I really don't know how it is here. Although I can tell you I am sitting outside right now next to a blazing chiminea and it is cooooold! (Yeah, my husband is a computer geek and he set us up with super high speed wireless internet out back. Pretty cool huh!)

We also harvested everything we could. Well not quite everything, we purposely left some green tomatoes, basil, peppers, etc. to see if they would survive as an experiment. I didn't harvest any thyme or oregano either, I figured they'd weather the frost and give me a little more time to do it next weekend. There still sure was a lot to process though! We froze the parsley, will puree the basil with a little oil and freeze (hubby is working on that right now), diced the chives and tarragon for butter (earth balance vegan butter of course), put the rosemary in red vinegar, set the lavender, sage, calendula and marigolds on screens to dry, and saved the peppers/green tomatoes for salsa and roasting tomorrow. PHEW!

As for the habaneros, we picked the plant that had the most pods closest to being ripe and pulled the whole thing out of the ground. Then put it in a bucket filled with water and placed that in the basement. As mentioned in the last post, from what I read this should make them turn ripe quickly. I hope it works! We left several other plants in the ground and covered them so hopefully they will survive too. Here's the habanero in the bucket, and my dog JJ. Don't worry, we didn't let him eat any. :-)

Ode to Sunflowers

A garden of Sunflower beckoned to me -Come join us, my lady, and joyous you'll be!
We're large ones and small ones, some dainty and fair,

And even some delicate to wear in your hair.
We follow the sun, swaying slowly without a care,

We have a new dance that with you we will share.
A Garden of Sunflowers - author unknown

Here is a montage of the sunflowers I grew this year. They are all the same heirloom variety, which I can't remember at the moment but will look up when I get home. I picked this variety because the picture on the seed packet was maroon like the last flower in this post, but in the end I love how they came out all different colors. I will definitely grow these again next year, although I guess I have to find another spot since I read that you should rotate sunflowers. I saved some of the seeds, but we didn't eat any. Maybe next time.

Xeriscape Up Close and Personal

Here are a few close up shots of the individual plants growing in the front garden.

On the top left is Firewitch Dianthus. The flowers would be edible if it wasn't too close to the road. I love how it looks like some kind of sputnik plant with the flowers sticking off it in all directions.

On the bottom right is one of three blue fescue plants. It is the only one that sent up any shoot, which you can barely see is the beige wheat-looking thing shooting up in the upper right hand corner of the picture. Both these and some of the Dianthus were part of an internet order I made from the Big Dipper Nursery in Washington before I had a car. They came bare root (wrapped in a bag and newspaper, not in a pot) and were tiny. I hate to say it but I was extremely dissapointed with the order and will never buy live plants over the internet again.

I was so excited about the adorable blue muppet-looking pompom plant, it was a total bummer when I opened the order and saw a scraggly tuft of grass. Once I got a car and became a regular at my local nurseries, I saw many much larger and vigourous Blue Fescues for about the same price. The larger Dianthus you see in the picture was also bought at a nursery, the ones from the internet are the small ones in the back. Not to mention most of the other plants I got in this order died or hardly grew at all (an Astible- dead, Edible Ostrich Fern- dead, Ornamental Creeping Bramble which they said was a practically indestructible ground cover - dead, Red Trumpet Honeysuckle- barely still alive) Oh well, live and learn. I hope they recover and grow bigger next year.

This is one of the Dusty Millers.

As mentioned, they did not get any yellow flowers at all. I like how it looks a bit like a fractal or snoflake in this picture. The silvery-whitish fur on the leaves serves to reflect the sun, one of the ways these drought-tolerant plants work to conserve water.

I'm going to give Lavender its own special post.

Finally, here is a close up of the unidentified furry plant (I got this one on sale and didn't write down the name). It was maybe a third this big when I planted it, and that was in July. I can't believe how quickly it grew!

Does anyone out there happen to know what it is?

No-Mow XeriScape: Accomplished

This is a little bit different than the rest of my blog since it isn't edible. Actually at least some of it would be, if it wasn't so close to the busy road I live on.

When my partner and I bought this house back in March, it started out as the tree, grass and bushes you can see in this original post: http://grow-peace.blogspot.com/2008/05/before-shots.html

I don't believe in mowing lawns. I feel that we should use our land to cultivate useable produce with the best technologies whenever possible. Lawns just seem so wasteful to me, with the need for chemicals to keep away "weeds" such as dandelions, which are actually edible, high in nutritional value, and delicious.

So, I decided pretty much immediately upon moving into this house that the little patch of grass in the front had to go. I shared my idea with a friend who is a Master Gardener, who to my surprise said that it would be extremely difficult to grow any flowering plants in this area since it was so close to the street and in so much bright light. He said that it would need a great deal of water to grow in this area.

Based on that advice I did a lot of research on what plants could grow in a low water bed near a road. I discovered this thing called "xeriscaping", which is basically growing gardens that are drought-tolerant and don't require supplemental irrigation. I did water them quite a bit for the first month or two after I planted them until they got established, but now I think they are pretty much on their own. I'm excited for next year when it seems like they will fill it all in very nicely.

What you see above is a recent picture of what I planted back in June (decorated with Halloween stuff obv.). I read that fuzzy, silvery plants are generally good. So I planted Blue Fescue, Lavender, Dusty Miller, and Dianthus FireWitch, as well as some fuzzy green plant towards the far right that I'm not sure of the name. They are all perennials.

The Lavender and Dianthus are edible, but from what I have read, they're planted too close to the road to eat. I asked the local Master Gardeners at the Rutger's Extension office, and they said it should be at least 10 feet, but really more, from the road to be safe to eat.

One thing that really surprised me is that the rabbits in my hood seemed to like the Dusty Miller. It is supposedly poisonous to humans so I'm surprised that the rabbits like it. But apparently they do- after we prevented them from getting the lettuce in the backyard, I guess they were forced to eat the Dusty Miller out front. I put holographic daisy pinwheels around the plants to scare the rabbits away, and that seemed to work pretty well. The Dusty Millers got bigger after that, although they never produced flowers. I'm not sure if that is because of the rabbits or just since it was the first year.

I hope to eventually propagate these plants into the backyard so I can eat them, but for now I figure I can use them as potpourri for holiday gifts. You know, make them into sachels for lingerie drawers and all that good stuff. I have pics of the latest harvest I got, and more detailed pics of the individual plants but for some reason I can't upload them right now.

Herb Garden

This is the herb garden on July 25th. As you can see, I planted it in the ground, not in a raised bed. I figured it was okay to put them right in the ground since the only other garden I really ever had in my adult life was in this same neighborhood, about 1 mile from here, and the herbs I planted grew awesome in the ground.

So here we have baby heirloom sunflowers along the back fence, with a red trumpet native, non-invasive honeysuckle growing up the center trellis. Unfortunately the honeysuckle doesn't seem to be doing too well. I would have thought since it was native it would have grown like crazy, but it seems to be hardly growing at all. Maybe it isn't getting enough light due to the shadow of the fence. I think I may try to move it to a sunnier area.

Then, if we move clockwise in a spiral from the bottom right (I did try to plant this herb garden in a spiral, not sure if you really can tell) there are two little heirloom calendula plants, a wispy dill that really didn't do well at all so you can barely see it, oregano, spicy oregano, rosemary, sage, more wispy cilantro that barely grew, roman chamomile, thyme, lemon thyme, and tarragon. Everything was a plant from the nursery except for the calendula, dill and cilantro which were all seedsaver heirlooms that I direct sowed.

Violet Miracle

Since I wanted to grow all edible plants in the backyard, and am a huge fan of the color purple, I thought violets would be great to grow and naturalize in the shady areas from the fence. I looked all over on the web trying to find native violets, which surprisingly seemed difficult to do. It seemed like they were so common, hardly any nurseries but specialists wanted to carry them. Of course, keep in mind I still don't have a car- so I was limited to what I could find on the internet. With early spring quickly dissappearing, I resigned myself to being without violets for this season.

Then one day, low and behold- I see little purple flowers that looked an awful lot like violets pop out amongst the weeds! Would you believe, they were already growing by the fence! What luck, I couldn't believe my eyes! When my mom's friend the Master Gardener came overhe confirmed that they were indeed wild violets! Of course, the trick is going to be getting rid of the weeds without killing them. For now I've just left it as is, a project for another day. But we don't mow over in that area so they can grow. And boy oh boy, do they smell great! I love these violets, they are so pretty!