Putting the Garden to Bed

In the process of cleaning out my memory cards I found a few more things I wanted to share that didn't make it up to the blog in a timely fashion. So, if you are ready and willing, hop into the time machine with me this week! First stop: end of the gardening season.

I managed to save a small number of fully mature sunflowers from the birds and squirrels.  After a stint in the front porch to dry out, we harvested the seeds.  My plan is to use them to grow sunflower sprouts inside during the middle of the winter when I desperate for dirt to put my hands in and fresh green sprouts to eat.

Our 4 brussels sprout plants yielded a pretty good crop this year.  There is something really great about a plant that I put in the ground in the spring and then basically ignore until the very last day of the gardening season when I am ripping everything up.  Easy going, those brussels are.

This year I started purple tomatillo seeds indoors and then transplanted a bunch of them outside.  I had grown them in the front yard in the past and they didn't grow that robust.  This year, I grew them in a sunny spot and I learned that you should bury them deep like a tomato plant.  Those choices means my plants were really thick, tall and chock full of tomatillos.  So. Many. Tomatillos. I saved some seeds and hope to repeat my success next year but scale it back a bit so the plants don't take over the garden quite to intensely.

You know what you don't need to replant after you've planted it once?  Dill! It heartily reseeds itself.  I have it growing up in the cracks of my front sidewalk.  I caught some of the flowers at the right stage for seed collection this year.  I am thinking I might bake something with dill seeds in it to help use some of the bounty.  Any suggestions?

Either I am terrible at it or my conditions are terrible.  I am not sure if it is one or both of those things, but I have had very little success with root crops.  Beets and carrots go nowhere in my garden.  I planted a bunch of carrot seeds and ended up with a handful of tiny, stunted carrots to show for it.

I may not be able to grow carrots, but I can grow raspberries!  The patch really appreciated my pruning and the dose of turkey manure fertilizer I spread on it this year.  Nice, big, flavorful berries were my reward.

I don't harvest my Autumn Sedum for anything so it doesn't really belong in this post, but isn't it pretty?

The new raised bed beside the chicken run was home to mint and purple shiso.  I sadly didn't do much with the shiso this year, but I did harvest the mint and dry it for mint tea.

We also harvested hardy greens, other herbs and green tomatoes during our end of the season cleanup. I haven't been great about documenting my garden these past few years, but I have been using and appreciating the bounty that comes from it and learning a lot in the process.

Competing Interests

As the sun sets on summer, I am thinking about how full of a season it was. I was unexpectedly really busy at work, which meant extra hours and less time and energy for gardening, cooking, preserving and, well, everything! I still fit in a lot of fulfilling seasonal activities but it just seems like summer always has so much more to offer than can fit into the days.

It was probably a good thing that I wasn't hyper-focused on my garden this year because I had a lot of competition in that arena. Squirrels, birds, rabbits and chickens all feasted in the garden on a regular basis.  I fault some weak areas in our garden fence, the lack of dogs guarding the yard and the cleverness of chickens who figured out how to eat through the chicken wire and stand atop the garden fence to get at the plants. 

This combination of critters going after our garden resulted in hop rhizomes uprooted before they even had a chance to grow, hardy greens and brussels sprouts eaten down to the ribs, pole beans plants chomped off at the base, just-about-ripe tomatoes with bites taken out of them, every single apple stolen from the trees before they grew to full size and many more casualties.

 Really, it is ok, though.  I probably wouldn't have had time to process everything, so I guess I had some to spare. I did get some preserving done, we had a lot of fresh vegetables on hand for cooking and Paul did get 1 hop plant to grow.  So, it was worth the effort, just not as big of a return on investment than in past years.

We put "fence repair" on our fall to-do list so hopefully next year I will have at least eliminated the rabbit issue.  And, the dogs?  There is much talk about a puppy around here so that might be addressed by next summer, too.  Not sure what we'll do about those clever chickens, though.

Speaking of chickens, still no eggs but I feel like it will happen soon.  Fanny has become quite intrigued by them and they feed her curiosity by lingering near the door. They have become more bold around us, frequently coming up to the back door, lurking there just in case we might appear with a treat for them. In fact, I feel a bit like I am being stalked whenever I am out in the yard.  I guess they have made the connection about who provides their food!

Summer Bounty

Summer is so full of abundance.  So many events and celebrations.  So many local foods to savor.  So many places to explore, bike rides to take, projects to do...I try not to get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of potential there is all around me and appreciate each thing as it comes.

I tried a new jam recipe this year.  It is the rhubarb fig recipe from Gourmet Preserves.  I used dried figs and some of the tons of rhubarb growing in my patch.  I feel like the texture of this jam has great potential.

Amid the preserving, I have also been attempting to eat what is growing right now.  A recent meal consisting largely of green beans, leeks, mushroom and dill over a mixture of rice was particularly satisfying.

On a recent Sunday, I preserved a batch of sofrito sauce, a few jars of roasted tomatoes, a large batch of cucumber aqua fresca and baked some zucchini bread.  Paul also chipped in that day doing the harvesting, starting a batch of fermented tomatillo salsa and blanching and freezing green beans.  I hadn't planned to spend the day preserving but the garden spoke up and said, "Now!"

Paul has also been very hard at work on a big sewing project.  He sewed his own camping hammock from scratch.  Complete with tarp, top and bottom quilts and bug netting.  It turned out spectacularly well and his sewing skills grew exponentially.  I am proud of his focus and efforts in getting this project done before his trip to the boundary waters.  He just got back and is in love with hammock camping and far prefers it to tent camping.

I have also been enjoying some hikes/walks with friends/family as a way to see new sites and have good quality time to catch up.  On 2 recent hikes, my sister Jessy and I hiked the loop at Pike Island at Fort Snelling and saw a ton of deer as the sun was setting and my friend Jill and I explored Crosby Farm Park in St. Paul where we walked on the boardwalk above a swampy bog area.  There are so many great parks to explore in this area!

In other garden news, the sunflower seed harvest vs wildlife feeding ratio is currently about 30% me and 70% them, but I feel ok about that.

I'll close with a shot of a recent "pick-up" meal that Paul and I shared.  I grew up eating meals like this from time to time when a fully composed meal was too time consuming or labor intensive to create.  They are still satisfying as an adult, especially when a good portion of it grew right in your back yard!

June Garden Update

The garden is going strong! Take a walk through with me!

Hops grow FAST and TALL!

The companion planting plan has been successful so far.  The peas are growing on the outside of the trellis, sunflowers are holding down each corner, cucumbers are growing in the middle of the inside area surrounded by lettuce, arugula, spinach and radishes.  There are a few volunteer soybean plants mixed in there, too.  So far nobody is too crowded, everyone is getting the light they need and the weeds are being kept to a minimum.

I am hoping the sunflowers will mature enough that I can harvest the seeds for sprouting over the winter.  If not, they will at least be pretty when they bloom.

The purple pole beans are also ambitious, twirly climbers.

Here is another angle on the companion trellis arrangement.

This area is packed!  We have brussels sprouts, mustard greens, broccoli, 2 kinds of kale and chard tucked into the annex area.  The broccoli really grew strangely this year, producing a head before the plant had really grown in size.  Hmm.  Not sure why that happened but it looks like we'll need to plant a second round of broccoli to get a substantial harvest.

The tomatoes and nasturtiums are happy in their spot by the deck.  So far the chickens have left them alone. The basil in the Earthbox is appropriately and predictably packed in there.  A batch of pesto is in our future, for sure.  The mint will eventually find its way into a raised bed by the chicken coop.

It is shaping up to be a good year for raspberries.  My patch is PACKED with green berries.  I have no problem with that.  No problem at all.

We have a pretty good crop of radishes this year.  So plentiful that I think I am going to try this Sweet Herb Radish Saute recipe.

Speaking of herbs, I made an excellent green sauce by modifying this recipe for Garlic Scape Chimichurri. I substituted garlic chives for the scapes, basil for the parsley and skipped the red pepper flakes.  I was inexact in my measurements of the other ingredients but think I used a little more vinegar and a little less oil than it calls for. It turned out wonderfully and has been a great salad dressing, especially when you top your salad with a poached egg or sliced avocado.  We also ate it drizzled over a breakfast hash.  I'd describe it as tangy and so very green in flavor.  Yes, I know green is not a flavor, but I think it is a good way to describe how fresh it tastes.

We transplanted some oregano from my dad's garden this year. It is pretty easy to see how much different his soil is.  His garden is so sandy that the little hairs on the oregano still haven't let go of their sandy bits.  His sandy soil makes for great root crops but it is a pain to wash off of everything else!

I have been attempting to grow nasturtiums each year.  I think this year I might have gotten them into the ground in a timely enough fashion as well as found a spot that they like.  They are keeping tomato plants company.  I need to remember to pick a few of the leaves for our next salad.  Did you know the flowers, seeds and the leaves of the nasturtium plant are edible?

I love growing our own hearty greens.  We eat a lot of them and they are so economical to grow.  The seeds that I started inside transplanted well and the seeds sown directly into the grown are well on their way to catching up.

Last year, Paul's mustard green plants flowered and dropped seed so we have a few volunteers coming up around the garden.  Here they are competing with the collard greens.

Thanks for visiting!  Now, I think it is time for me to go soak in a bit of sunshine before this lovely Sunday comes to a close.

Summer!

Well, hello!  I have been fully enjoying summer so far. I keep meaning to share some stories and pictures, but the sun is out for so long that I keep go-go-going and then, when the sun sets, it is time to take care of a few things inside and go to bed.  Until I find a bigger time slot for sitting, processing photos and conjuring some more words, here is a quick summary of my summer so far. 

There has been strawberry picking and processing...20 pounds turned into strawberry rhubarb jam (recipe from Gourmet Preserves Chez Madelaine ), dehydrated strawberries and frozen strawberries.

Tons of bike rides!  I am bike commuting this year and trying to run as many errands and turn as many friend dates into bike rides as I can.  The Trek bike my dad gave me for a high school graduation gift is still going strong!

Chickens!  They live in a coop now!  Paul did an amazing job building their home.  We are still working on the interior decorating, fine tuning the food/water arrangement and finishing the last bits of the project, but it is fully functional and they love it!

They also love clover.  It is their favorite.

Speaking of favorites...I have one.

My garden is going strong. We have been eating salads and mustard greens and will soon have peas!  I also enjoy a cup of fresh mint tea from time to time.

I have been doing lots of fun things with friends like a backyard tea party, dinner on the back deck, walks to the local cafe for ice cream cones, bike rides and dinner at the beach, rooftop craft parties, chicken meet and greets and long walks through parks filled with great conversation.  Ah, summer, you are awesome.

I just passed the 1 year anniversary of the health drama and I am so utterly happy to share that things are going well on that front.  I have been conservative when it comes to what I allow myself to be exposed to and it is paying off!  Three cheers for that!

May Gardening - Back Yard

Thanks to a rainy day, I am taking the time to write about my garden instead of being out in it!  May was a fabulous month for gardening.  I took a smattering of vacation days many of which were host to very summery weather, so I had more time than usual to plant.  Paul and I started the month off with a visit to the Friend's School Plant Sale, where we got a lot of the starter plants we wanted for this year's garden.

Combine that with the plants I grew from seeds indoors, the seeds we planned to start directly in the ground and a few extras from Mother Earth Gardens and we were all set to get things in the ground.

Except for some time spent weeding, there are a few parts of the yard that take care of themselves.  Like our shaded rock garden.  The vinca I planted last year is thriving.

A few plants the previous owner planted are maturing and blending nicely.

Most of the transplants I have acquired from the yards of friends and family have taken to their new locations nicely, like these coral bells.

And these peonies!  I finally have peonies!  I have two bushes from my grandma's yard via my Aunt Audrey that were transplanted last fall.  They weren't sure what colors they dug for me, so I am really excited for them to bloom this year.  It'll be my version of the red carpet at an awards show.  "Oh!  What is she wearing?  That color is beautiful!  Just look at those petals!"

I am not sure if I mentioned it here yet, but we had the huge silver maple tree in our yard taken down over the winter.  It was damaged during the storm last summer and had become too much of a liability.  We had thought we would be able to use the base of the tree for the coop, but zoning wouldn't allow it.  So, now we have this oozing maple stump that the bugs love.  We are going to have to do something about it, but we aren't sure what we'll do yet.

The raspberry patch will likely be even happier now that the tree is no longer throwing shade over part of the patch.  I've finally gotten my pruning strategy worked out for the patch and I put a dose of turkey manure fertilizer on it, so I am expecting a good raspberry crop this year.

The apple trees will also benefit from a bit more sun.  I had hoped to prune them this spring but upon doing some research, I learned it is best to prune them in the winter.  So, I will let them go this year and plan to do a big pruning job next winter.

We also purchased a new, enclosed, outdoor compost container from the city in preparation for the chicken manure we will be composting.  I have a lot to learn when it comes to effective composting. I've got the indooor vermi-composting down, but our existing outdoor compost pile is a  poorly maintained heap.  I'll have to add "creating properly balanced compost piles" to my list of things to read up on.  Feel free to share any great resources or knowledge you have in the comments.  I hear a mixture of greens and browns is in order as is proper moisture levels and frequent aeration.  Do you really have to do that or is dumping compostables as you have them and neglecting it a viable strategy?  

The sweet woodruff I planted inside a ring around the apple trees is thriving.  The 3 starter plants I placed inside each ring has nearly filled the space and flowered after just one year.

As for our main vegetable garden space, we are trying some different strategies this year.  Leading into the season, we drew up plans that took advantage of companion planting.

We combined the trellises that used to lean against the fence into the configuration they were originally intended to be used (A frame) and planned rows of peas along the outside, a cucumber hill in the middle, quick growing greens (arugula, spinach, radish) beside the center mound and sunflowers at each corner.  We have 2 sets of that configuration with a different type of cucumber in the center of each one.  We also paired rosemary with bush beans and carrot seeds with tomato plants.  Stand alone arrangements happened for purple tomatillos, purple pole beans, hops, and collard greens in this part of the garden.

In this shot of the same area of the garden, you can see the rings that Paul planted his hops in.  So far squirrels have destroyed 2 of the 3 plants so this year might have to be called a learning experience.  We will have to come up with some ways to protect the buried rhizomes and sprouts next year.

After reducing my rhubarb patch, it is still too crowded!  I will have to be more aggressive when it comes to dividing the plants next year.  I am also trying a new plant in a space next to the rhubarb: horseradish!  I hear it can be quite a spreader, so I just put in one bare root to start the area out.

In addition to a different configuration for planting, we also skipping tilling this year in favor of broadforking the soil in the areas we planted.  It seemed pretty effective, so we might be investing in this tool.  We have been renting a tiller but the place we rent from went out of business.  We found a different place to rent a broadfork and are using this year as a test run for that technique.  It definitely felt good to turn the soil without killing so many worms!  And, even though the broadfork is a manual tool, it felt a lot easier on our bodies than the gas tiller does.

The annex area of the garden beyond the rain garden/flower area is being put to heavy use this year.  We have broccoli, brussels sprouts, mustard greens, tuscan kale, blue curled scotch kale and red chard planted in that area.  I planted it pretty tightly so we will have to access the broccoli and brussels from outside the fence and the greens from the walking path and a few strategically placed bricks.

I am a really big fan of the straw/hay mulch.  Too bad the straw bale gardening trend caused the price of a bale to double this year!  I still bought it, though because it really does cut down the weeds and reduces the need for watering as often.  A nice bonus is that the dirt from your garden stays in your garden instead of gluing itself to the bottom of your shoes.

The spring onion patch close to the house has been replenishing itself each year.  I am usually pretty forgetful about using them but this year I have been trying hard to get more use out of it.  It is the first crop I get each year, followed closely by chives and rhubarb. I also planted a few nasturtium plants between the tomato plants.  I hear they are a good companion for tomatoes.  I haven't had the greatest luck with nasturtiums the past two years, so I am hoping this year they fare better.  If they do really, really well, I might pickle some of the seeds.  They are like capers when pickled.

Since we don't have any dogs in our backyard this year, we expanded our growing spaces a little.  There are a few tomato plants and nasturtiums in the wooden frames near the deck and a few things in pots on the benches (basil, 3 kinds of mint that will eventually go in a raised bed and 4 shiso plants).

I started a few basil plants inside and then put a bunch of seeds in the earth box.  Paul said he really wanted a huge basil crop, so I packed the earth box full of seeds.  In fact, I think that is sort of our theme this year: crowding!  I hope the strategy pays off.  If it does, it means easier watering, less weeding and a plentiful harvest.  I never did like thinning anyway :)

After I get a few more things done in the front yard, I'll share some photos of that, too.   Thanks for spending some time with me in my garden.