Garden (& Home) For Sale!

Big news here at the Grow Peace household! I got a new job about an hour away from my current home. So we're going to move to a bigger home somewhere close to that job. That means my current home and garden are for sale! Anybody want to buy a great little house?

Here's also some gardening pics just for fun. I had two patches of arugula completely survive the entire weirdly mild winter. Here they are I think sometime in late February or early March (unfortunately my cell phone doesn't seem to save the date! So annoying. I really need to buy a new camera)

We are definitely going to buy a new home with plenty of space for gardening. I can't wait to build a new garden with everything I learned from doing this one. It is going to be awesome!! And I'm sure I'll have lots to post on my blog about it, so please stay tuned!

P.S. This is not an April Fool's joke. My garden really is for sale!

I'm Not Dead Yet!

Happy New Year everyone! It was a wonderful holiday season for the grow peace family. I hope you enjoyed yours too.

Winter has been especially mild so far, especially compared to the last two years. So we were able to enjoy a salad on Christmas day with fresh cut arugula from the garden! It was very simple, just the arugula, red onions, oranges, almonds and a vinagrette made mainly with fresh squeezed orange juice and mustard.

 

We also had vegan 'goat cheeze' crostini, with fig balsamic jam, topped with fresh garden sage. It wasn't just a pretty garnish - it really did taste better with the sage. Our roasted potato side dish was flavored with fresh rosemary from the garden. Easy yet delicious.

I was really happy we were able to have a few treats from the garden for our holiday feast. It just makes things so much more special when you're grown them yourself!

First Harvest of 2011

Today I picked a bunch of mache that self-seeded when I let a few plants go to seed last spring. Here they all are in the bed:

And close up:

Unfortunately I think they've already started to bolt. You can see the middle leaves are starting to get taller - that's going to shoot up into a seed stalk pretty soon. They were probably at their peak in March, but I missed it. So, I picked a bunch today and made a salad with mandarin oranges, walnuts and raspberry vinaigrette.

This was the first time I ever ate mache, even though I grew it last year. (I totally missed the harvest window then since I had no idea they'd go to seed so quickly) It was delicious! The taste was very light and delicate. I can see why this green is also called lamb's lettuce - it evoked softness and spring.

I picked some chard and arugula that self-seeded too, and sauteed them with garlic and lemon. We had that as a side to whole wheat angel hair with white bean sauce. I'm not going to post pics of those, since that's pretty basic and look just like the chard & arugula I've posted here before. But it sure was nice to have fresh greens with no gardening work on my part at all!

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)

Spring has Sprung

Well, it isn't exactly spring yet, at least until the equinox on March 20th. But this weekend was gorgeous - in the upper 50's and bright sun all day Sat and Sun. Unfortunately, I was stuck inside working. I managed to get out for a quick walk through the garden today though. Considering there is still about 2 inches of snow on the ground in shady places, I was surprised to see quite a few new green baby plants coming up! Here's a photo roundup of each happy harbinger.

First, I'm thrilled with the rosemary you see to the left. It is too cold in my climate for anything but the hardiest rosemary to survive the winter. Two years ago I bought an unspecified variety from a local nursery and it completely died over the winter. So last spring I got a new variety that was supposed to be extra cold tolerant - Logee Blue. Considering this was the coldest and snowiest winter we've had in about 20 years, I never thought it would survive. But as you can see from the left, it looks pretty good! I'm sure we'll be seeing new growth on it soon.

Here's a couple more that don't need much explanation.

Chamomile that reseeded itself for the second spring in a row (I only planted one plant in 2008!):
Biennial Chard growing back for it's second season:
Black Hollyhock (This will be it's second season. I hope it flowers this year, unlike last summer.):
Chives (I am so looking forward to sprinkling those yummy flowers all over my salads!):
Mystic Merlin Mallow (It produced one pretty purple flower last year. I can't wait to see more.)
These were the first pictures I've taken with my new camera. Its a Canon PowerShot SD780 IS. I still have to finish reading the instructions to learn more about taking manual shots, so these were just taken on auto macro setting. I'm pretty impressed with the quality for quick auto shots though. They definitely look better than my old camera, and its great I only had to take one photo of each - no blurring from shaky hands.

Four Season Gardening = Fail

Well, not a total fail - but definitely not a success! The plants under my rowcovers have been dead since it first dipped into the low 20's back in early December. Here is what the greens bed looks like today:
Even the mache is frozen. So much for that!

And here is the bed of carrots. The turnips look the same.
I wish I had known this was going to happen, so I could have at least picked everything when I saw the temps were heading down that low. A lot of good food was wasted. My brother says I can still dig the carrots up and eat them, but I've read in other places frozen ground will turn them into mush. In any case the ground is frozen hard right now, and it is so cold out I have no intention of going out there to dig. Nope, I'm staying right here on the couch with my fuzzy blanket, snoozing doggy and tea.

Overall, I don't feel too bad. At least it was a learning experience. Now I know what the Agribon can do, so next year I can plan better. And it did at least make everything last until early December. If it hadn't been the coldest winter on record in over a decade, it might have worked better. I'm also still glad I built the rowcovers, because I'm sure it will help me get an early start in the spring. Now I've just got to be patient and wait for horrible January and February to pass!

C'est la vie!

Update: Looks like the problem is I needed an additional layer of poly. Thanks Robin! I am definitely going to try it. http://www.mofga.org/Default.aspx?tabid=833

Happy Thankgiving!

I'm so happy that my rowcovers seem to be working so far. Just look how lush and green the plants are underneath! Granted, it hasn't been that cold yet - after that one period of frost that killed the peppers, squash and tomatoes, it has been pretty warm since. Still, I think it is helping, and I can't wait to see how long they will stay green. Above you can see the bed with carrots, turnips & a little bit of chard along the sides.
Here is the leafy green bed, with mustard greens, arugula, red romaine & buttercrunch lettuce, and mache. I'm really excited about the mache, since it is supposed to be the one green that will last through winter. It looks really healthy under the rowcover. I can't wait to eat it, but I'm trying to hold out until it gets really cold. Here's a closeup of the mache, which is growing all along the front of the bed:

I harvested a variety of goodies from these beds for today's Thanksgiving feast. The pictures aren't great because by the time I got home from work, it quickly got dark, and on top of that it was raining. But I still had fun out there picking the veggies. The Frech innovation described in Coleman's book - using the ropes - really does make it super easy to get in and out. All I had to do was push the cover back - I didn't even need to untie it. Then just slid it back down when I was done. Here's what I got:
This was maybe about 1/3 of the carrots growing under the rowcover. They're still a bit small, but not too dissapointing. I figure this harvest was about equivalent to a bag of baby carrots, just a lot better tasting and no chlorine involved. :-)
Unfortunately, most of the turnips were still too small to harvest, so this was all I got. The rest of them looked like these four on the left in the picture below.I think it may be because I did a crappy job of planting them back in August, since it was a miserably hot day. I hope what's left under the rowcover grows more (there is still a lot). Worst comes to worst, at least I can eat the greens.
I also picked a ton of arugula. I only have a picture of it packed up and ready to transport to my mom's house. Here is everything ready to go. Starting from the top left, moving clockwise I've got :





-Arugula
-Turnip Greens
-Green Pepper
-Kung Pao & Jalapeno Chili Powder
-Turnips & Baby Carrots
-Nasturtium Lemon Butter
-Thyme, Rosemary & Edible Marigolds







I'll update the blog with everything I made from it later.

Hope everyone enjoys their thanksgiving and has a wonderful day!

Big Fall Harvest

Wow, I can't believe how much I picked today, and I didn't even get to any flowers.

Here it is: bell peppers, italian frying peppers, lots of hot peppers, mustard greens, a couple radishes, basil, two kinds of mint and shiso leaf:
The peppers and mustard greens I can handle, but the mint and basil are going to be tough. I've got to pick all of the good leaves off individually, then dry them. That's a lot of picking. Uggh. I better get to it. At least I'll have plenty for the winter.

Also, here's a quick pick of my new dehydrator in response to Chris' comment:I'll be using it to dry everything.

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.

Fordhook and Rainbow Swiss Chard

This is a picture of my strawberry/swiss chard bed on Oct. 11th. The strawberries are in the middle, and the chard is in a row at either end. Right behind the fountain is a row of Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard, and in the back, a row of Five Color Silverbeet Rainbow Swiss Chard. Last year I grew the Rainbow, but it grew quite slowly and never got that big, although I did get a few harvests and it was tasty (plus pretty). So this year I decided to try the Fordhook Giant, which was recommended for my area by the local Master Gardener program.

Well, it surely lived up to its name!! I couldn't believe the gianormous leaves I harvested from those plants. To the left is a close up with my hand on a leaf for size comparison.

I've gotten at least 3 or 4 nice size harvests off the plants so far, and there is plenty left. They're also biannual, so I'll probably be able to harvest them again next year.

I still have a few plants alive of the Rainbow from last year in another spot in the garden (now under the row covers). Unfortunately, they did get attacked a bit by leaf miners, pretty much chard's only pest. It is amazing how the critters manage to zoom in on their favorite plants so quickly, when just last year my yard was only weeds! At least so far, the leaf miners haven't touched the chard in the strawberry bed.

At first I was a bit worried that the chard would be bitter with the huge size of the leaves and dark green color, but to my pleasant surprise they were amazingly tender and delicious! You can see the last harvest I picked to the right, on the same day I cooked the Italian Brunch described in the last post. Most of it is the Fordhook, with just a bit of the Rainbow that's reddish-purple. It did also grow in yellow, white, and orange-y colors.

I often use chard in cooking in place of spinach. Personally, I like it even better - it tastes mild and delicious to me. I'll put it in tomato sauces, veggie sautes or even lasagna.

Most often though, I just saute some minced garlic in a bit of olive oil, (and sometimes red pepper flakes) then throw the roughly chopped chard in until it just wilts. Then I squeeze on a generous amount of fresh lemon juice, and maybe a bit of salt and cracked pepper. Simple yet outstanding as a side dish. That's how we ate it that day at brunch. Here's a picture:

Four Season Harvest "Chenilles" Low Tunnels Completed

Just finished building two low row covers for my winter crops. I did it as described on page 89 of Eliot Coleman's book, "Four Season Harvest". Apparently this is a French innovation - to have little loops on each hoop so you can tie a rope to hold it down, rather than burying it with dirt. This makes it easier to harvest and vent.

I used #9 wire, and bent it into a semi-circle shape a little longer than he said, actually 8' long instead of 6.5' since my beds are wider. (approx. 40 - 42" rather than 30 - 36" he calls for) I used needle-nose pliers to put a loop about 1.5' from each end, again a bit longer than he called for (1'). It needed to be longer to accomodate the cinder blocks. I pushed them about a foot into the ground on either end.
Then I laid the #30 Agribon over it. (actually this was better as a two person job, and Mr. Aubade helped a lot - both with cutting and shaping the hoops, then with laying down the fabric) I finished it by tying poly outdoor rope like a shoelace through each loop.

The first one came out too short, so I've got to staple on about 2 feet more. It had lettuce, arugula, mache and mustard greens in that bed (not pictured).

But the second try, as seen here in the pictures, seemed to work pretty well. This bed has carrots, chard and turnips in it. It didn't come out quite like I had hoped, as it seems a little wobbly - but I think it will be ok since my backyard isn't too windy. Guess we'll see how it goes. This is definitely an experiment. I just want to see how long the plants will live.

Six Tips for Harvesting

As my husband and I were picking some dinner last weekend, it occurred to me there are a few basic guidelines I follow to decide what to harvest.

Of course, when it comes to things like tomatoes or peppers it is a simple enough thing to know when they are ripe and ready to eat. So this is more for the trickier plants like herbs, lettuce, chard, or mustard greens that continue to grow through multiple harvests.


I never really thought of it clearly before we were talking and picking together, so I think it is helpful even for myself to have them spelled out. That's why I'm now going to record them here, so we can best turn the above mustard green plants into this all season:

1. This one is pretty obvious, but trim in such a way as to optimize the plants growth. For example, never trim too much so it dies back, and try to get the older leaves but leave the smaller ones so they'll soon be big enough to eat.
2. Look for bigger, older leaves that still look good - if they haven't been munched on by a caterpillar yet, they will be any second so time to pick.
3. Cut parts that are growing too close to other plants and taking them over. (I'm looking at you, oregano and shiso!)
4. Trim parts that are growing onto the path or the edges of the beds, because they'll end up trampled and bruised soon enough.
5. Harvest any that are just starting to touch the dirt. Once they start laying on top of it, especially if it rains, they'll end up muddy and rotted anyway. So cut them before that happens.
6. Try to trim them in an aesthetic fashion. Since these plants will keep growing and the garden is small, it's nice to keep an eye for beauty when harvesting. Like, don't cut off all the leaves just from the front, or one side. Try to keep the plant looking natural.

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!