Crop List 2019

Tulip this morning, poking her head out on my back porch

Here is my final crop list for 2019. (SHPC=Sand Hill Preservation Center):

  • Cucumbers: Longfellow slicer (have)
  • Tomatoes, early: Break O’Day, Paul Robson (all ordered from SHPC)
  • Tomatoes, mid-season: Dr. Wyche’s Yellow (ordered from SHPC)
  • Tomatoes, late: Green Zebra, Baker Family Heirloom (all from SHPC)
  • Eggplant, Pingtung Long (ordered from SHPC)
  • Eggplant, Fairy Tale (ordered from Johnny’s)
  • Hot pepper, Thai Bangkok (ordered from Johnny’s)
  • Butternut squash (have)
  • Basil, Genovese (have)
  • Carrots, Bolero (have)
  • Carrots, Rainbow (ordered from Johnny’s)
  • Radish, French Breakfast (have)
  • Garlic, Russian Red (hardneck, saved), Transsylvania (soft neck, Burpee)
  • Beets, Golden beets (have)
  • Potatoes, Banana fingerling (ordered from Fedco Moosetubers)
  • Swiss chard, Bright Lights (have)
  • Kale, Tuscan (have) and Curly (have)
  • Lettuce, butterhead, Kagran summer (ordered from SHPC)
  • Lettuce, leaf, Bronze Beauty (ordered from SHPC)
  • Greens, fall green mix (ordered from SHPC)
  • Peas, sugar snap (ordered from SHPC)
  • Pole beans, Kentucky Wonder (have)
  • Bush beans, Tendergreen (have)
  • Spinach, Bloomsdale (have)
  • Bok choy (have)
  • Leeks (buy seedlings)
  • Rosemary, sage (have)
  • Parsley, thyme (buy seedlings)
  • Nasturtium, Dwarf Jewel (have)
  • Cosmos, Versailles mix (ordered from Johnny’s)
  • Dahlias (have and/or buy tubers)
  • Zinnias (have)
  • Marigolds, petite mix (ordered from SHPC)
  • Sunflower Hopi Dye (ordered from SHPC)
  • Ornamental kale, Crane Feather Kind White (ordered from Johnny’s)

I placed my Fedco order on January 31, my Johnny’s order on February 4 and my order with Sand Hill Preservation Center on March 9.

Tomatoes, Tomatoes

My three tomato plants are heavily producing. I put them in late, but now at the end of August they are giving me plenty of delicious fruit. Despite my best efforts, I have too many tomatoes to eat raw (e.g. Caprese salad, Greek salad, fresh tomato/mozzarella/basil pasta sauce, or just plain on bread). So, I slow-roasted about three pounds together with garlic and fresh herbs and will either turn them into pesto or top some bruschetta in the next couple of days.

I quartered the larger Brandywines and halved the Momotaros and put them on a parchment-lined, lightly-oiled baking sheet together with some garlic cloves and fresh rosemary and oregano. Seasoned everything with salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil. I slow-roasted them in a preheated oven at 325 F for about 2 hours. I let them cool and put them in a mason jar in the refrigerator for use within the next few days.

Stock-Taking

This morning, after I watered my garden and locked the garden gate, I ran into a neighbor who asked me what I was growing in my plot. He also has a community plot nearby and mainly grows tomatoes and flowers. Time to take stock. Currently growing in my garden are: garlic, potatoes, leeks, carrots, beets, tomatoes, basil, cucumber, eggplant, butternut squash (I saw a tiny plant poking its first leaves out this morning, yeah!), Brussels sprouts, hot peppers, Swiss Chard, lettuce, kale (tiny seedlings are appearing), mixed greens (freshly sowed and just sprouting), radishes (just sprouting), pole beans, bush beans, peas, parsley, sage. Also dahlias, nasturtiums and borage. And mint and lemon balm, which keep creeping up in some spots. This morning I harvested garlic scapes, two big heads of lettuce and a lot of peas. I am done harvesting the first round of radishes and the rhubarb. When I looked at my plot while watering, not all that much seemed to be going on in my plot, but going through that list of plants makes me think otherwise.

Garden Day

Today, I spent 3,5 hours in the garden weeding and planting (bush beans, pole beans and carrots). I had neglected a large section of my plot that had not been planted yet (basically the entire right side of the plot starting at the pea trellis all the way to the fence) and it was overgrown with all kinds of weeds of the worst kind, including bindweed and yellow nutsedge. I have so much nutsedge in my plot, it is almost tragic. All of it was still small and growing and had not flowered or gone to seed. I used to use the compost from our community garden bins in past years and must have introduced the invasive weed this way. I got it all out (for now) and I feel very accomplished. The plot looks nice and clean. I also laid a new brick/paver path down the middle. Now I need to get more hay or straw to mulch the garden as the salt marsh hay cover is getting thin in some spots. No sign of the squash or cucumbers yet. I hope my direct sowing method worked. The nasturtiums I planted the same day are coming up, they are still tiny, I did not see them two days ago. I also hilled my potatoes today and they are now at ground-level. I took out the kale I direct-sowed a while ago. The plants were scrawny and chewed up. I will try to get some transplants. I also harvested some radishes and rhubarb.

First Harvest

With help from my plot neighbor David who generously offered to share his bounty. About a third comes from my asparagus micro-patch, seen below a couple of days earlier, the rest is from his patch. And this asparagus mushroom tart is what I will be making for dinner tonight, but I will use regular pizza dough instead of puff pastry and will substitute cremini mushrooms. So good!

New Beginnings

My garden had a very late start this year. I just started planting seeds today, April 27, which I think is the latest I have ever started. We had an extremely long and wet winter, with sleet and freezing rain just last week. But now, spring seems to have arrived for good. Today I seeded carrots, radishes, beets, lettuce, peas, kale and Swiss Chard. Because of the birds that have been raiding my peas these past two years, I decided to try row covers this year, which I placed over my two rows of peas and the row of lettuce in between. We’ll see what happens.

The rhubarb is starting to come up (see picture above), but I will need to add more compost on my rhubarb mound. The garlic is also coming up nicely. Unlike my plot neighbor, I do not have asparagus yet. I hope there will be some. I am thinking of starting a larger asparagus patch in my garden next year.

Garlic

Freshly planted plot, with some leeks still standing from last season

Dahlias

September bouquet: dahlias, parsley, radishes and asparagus

The four dahlias I planted this year gave me plenty of flowers for beautiful arrangements all summer and fall, big and small. I liked experimenting with combinations of flowering vegetables and even weeds.

Mini dahlia in soy sauce dish

Unfortunately, the night frost we had a few days ago killed them off and the day after, I dug up the tubers. I cut off the flower stalks leaving about 3 to 4 inches and carefully dug up the tubers using a pitchfork and then gently shook off most of the dirt. I am letting them dry in a paper bag for a few days before I will store them over the winter in the basement. I will trim the stalks to 1 to 2 inches and store the tubers in a basket or some other well ventilated container loosely filled with lightly moistened peat moss or vermiculite. I then inspect them regularly during the winter to make sure they do not rot and do not dry out. Any rotting parts will be removed. Here’s to hoping they will survive.

 

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