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It sounds like the name of a cute cafe or perhaps a quaint kitchen shop but it happens to be one of my favorite combos from the kitchen garden this season:
One of my favorite vignettes in the kitchen garden this year, a combination of cauliflower 'Vitaverde' and red 'Moulin Rouge' zinnias planted through a row of butter beans in the spot where an earlier planting of peas had finished. Bush type beans don't usually have a lot of visual pizazz but these are taller and have little pale yellow (butter yellow) blossoms held high on their stems. I even spied a hummingbird sipping on one. Yes, that is another name for Lima beans. I am hoping the tender young homegrown ones will live up to their buttery name. I can't say enough about those red zinnias (available from Renee's Garden Seeds), don't be afraid of red flowers, they are such a cheerful addition to this edible landscape, and so, so popular with all of the pollinators. The blue-green foliage of the cauliflower and then the chartreuse heads are an eye-pleasing treat as well. Next up roasted cauliflower!
I've never, ever even entertained the idea of a guest blog post before. But I decided to make an exception. You see this is no ordinary guest post. I know Jenny and Jenny knows her stuff. And I'm a big believer in raised beds. I've been growing edibles for over twenty years and my new raised beds are a joy to use, plus my veggies are happier than ever. As a professional landscaper, Jenny knows the nuts and bolts of building raised beds, as a gardener she knows how they work from seed to harvest. Enjoy!
Better Soil, Better Drainage, Better Back
Raised beds are great for gardeners who have poor soil (rocky, clay or sandy). By building beds above your soil surface and filling them with higher quality soil, you're giving your vegetables a better environment to thrive and produce. Also, if you are a gardener with mobility issues, you will find gardening with raised beds to be much easier than gardening at ground level.
While you don't have to construct raised beds if you have decent soil, vegetables — particularly root veggies like carrots — tend to like the deep soil that is found in raised beds. Any bed that is raised above the ground surface is “raised," whether it's 6" or 2' high. Raised beds provide an environment with good drainage for vegetables. The better quality, deeper soil allows water to be absorbed without staying soggy.
So now that you're sold on the idea, here are some tips for planning your own raised beds:
1. Choose a sunny, fairly level site. Most vegetables like as much sun as you can give them, at least 6-8 hours a day, so carefully choose the part of your yard that gets the most sun. And while you can construct raised beds on a slope, it's easier and less expensive if you can find a part of your yard that is somewhat level. Sloping yards will need to have beds created in a retaining wall fashion, stepping down into tiers to create level individual beds.
2. Choose your construction material. Raised beds can be built out of wood (2 x 4 or 2 x 6, landscape timbers), mortared stone, cinderblock or even rolled steel. Wooden beds and cinderblock are the least expensive, while mortared stone can become pricey depending upon the type of stone you choose. Rolled steel will be the most expensive. Most types of construction can be good DIY projects for the handy homeowner, but the rolled steel beds will most likely need to be contracted out to a professional unless you have welding skills. Your choice of materials can also be determined by your personal aesthetics — wooden beds tend to look more organic and traditional, while mortared rock is more formal, and cinderblocks and rolled steel lend an industrial chic look to your garden.
3. Determine your bed size. Raised beds are the most functional when constructed in 4' widths, at whatever length you desire (6', 8', 10' or longer). This 4' width allows you to easily weed, water and harvest your vegetable garden from both sides without having to step into the bed itself, which would compact the soil. The height of your bed depends upon your needs. If you simply want a great growing environment for your veggies, then 6" to 1' will be sufficient. However, if you have mobility issues, then 18" to 24" or even 32" will be better. This increased height will allow you sit on the edge of your bed (particularly if it's constructed out of wood or mortared rock) while you work in your garden, eliminating the need to bend and squat. The taller your bed, the more materials you will need and the more expensive it will get, so plan accordingly and be willing to construct one bed at a time as your budget allows.
Now when you hear people talking about raised beds, you’ll know what they are. Essentially, raising the level of the ground in which you plant grants you better access to the soil. Raised beds only have to be about six inches tall to get the job done, and the benefits are two-fold. Firstly, because your soil drains better, and inputs can be added more easily, you may see an increase in the health of your crop. Secondly, the height of the bed makes gardening that much easier on your back. These benefits can be felt even on smaller gardening budgets, and the level of difficulty to construct is minimal. So give it a try!
Can you freeze bell peppers? Certainly. There are several ways but I like this quick and easy method I found on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln website. It's the same as the one I use to freeze berries so I savor summer even in the snowy winter.
'Candy Apple' Bell Peppers just starting to turn red, a great variety with thick walls
I've been waiting patiently for my bell peppers to turn that gorgeous shade of red that gives color and sweetness to any recipe. Imagine my disappointment when I noticed that the plant was so weighed down with beautiful bells that a branch split. That meant I had to get in gear to save these veggies.
Tray freezing is a technique I'm already familiar with, using it for preserving blueberries, strawberries and raspberries from the farmer's market. You freeze the produce on a baking sheet in a single layer. Once frozen you put it in a freezer bag, so the individual pieces or berries don't stick together. It's better for food safety and quality.
Join me on Twitter at #pollin8rchat Tuesdays 8pm CT to learn about pollinator-friendly gardening!
You can cut the peppers in strips or dice, however you'll want to prepare them for the intended dish. To avoid that messy moment when the seeds go everywhere I simply cut around the stem, down all four sides. You are left with the core and most of the seeds, just toss it out. There may be a few seeds to pick out.
I cut my peppers in strips, I can always dice them if needed when I go to use them. Place them in a single layer and let freeze. Once frozen you can pop them into freezer bags. Use within a year from freezing. Easy, huh?
Follow the pics to see how simple the tray freezing method can be.
Glad I noticed this heavily laden, broken branch when I did
Slice down four sides around the stem
You're left with the core intact and no messy seed explosion
Cut the pepper into strips and place in a single layer
Once frozen, place in freezer bag, make sure to label contents and date, you know you'll forget
I saw the saddest veggie garden today. My heart went out to it. I know its gardener meant well, but the good intentions were lost on this garden.
Landscape fabric used for mulch, big fail
It looked more like a prison for plants than a place to grow food. I'm sure the heavy coat of landscape fabric was meant to control weeds, perhaps warm the soil. Instead the plants stuck stiffly out of the holes, properly spaced but awkward and fruitless. It was almost like each veggie plant was being forced to wear a scratchy turtleneck in the hot summer heat. That fabric may be permeable but those plants looked thirsty too. And those bricks, they had a threatening air about them.
I couldn't help but think about how happy the veggies looked back home in my garden. My veggies are planted a little close, so much that they hug each other. There is co-mingling. Errant bean tendrils twist 'round zinnia stems. Limbs loaded with tomatoes spill over the edges. Cucumber vines furnish ramps for ants to ascend. There are lots of bees, bugs and other lively creatures acting out the circle of life, pollinating the blooms and keeping any damage in check. There's color too.
Flowers and vegetables planted together
When I saw that sad little veggie garden I wanted to throw back the black hood that was holding it back, let the soil soak up the rain. But I didn't. Instead I went home and picked beans from tangled towers and pulled up crowded carrots while the humming of bees lingered on the breeze, grateful for my harvest.
Ooh, I'm so excited. I can see my little pea seedlings poking their heads out of the soil. I can hardly count the days until they are ready. Get out the butter!
Peas in the pods!
Lately in catalogs and garden centers I've noticed more and more pea trellis apparatuses, (or is that apparati?) for supporting the treasure-laden vines. Some are flat, some are tilted, some are arched, but all are pretty pricey.
I've always made my own pea trellises from bamboo poles and zip ties. They end up looking sorta cottage/sorta Asian. A little wonky. Whatever, they do the job.
Peas starting out in my old Kansas kitchen garden
For each trellis buy one bundle of 4' bamboo poles. They're sold 8-10 in a bundle for around $3-$6. Lay down an old blanket or paint cloth on a flat surface and arrange the poles in a grid. Leave more space at the bottom so those ends can be pushed into the soil to hold the trellis in place.
I bind the poles where they cross with small black zip ties. See the photo below. Work on the edges then inward. The poles may want to twist a bit but you can adjust this when you're done. Trim the off the excess plastic when you have the pieces all in place. Watch out, the edges can be sharp.
Trellis detail
Adjust for your pea plant spacing and then push into the soil. I use galvanized u-shape pins to anchor them in place since my garden is exposed to wind along that side of the house.
Peas in my Minnesota garden?
Well at least the snow makes the trellis easier to see!
Now all you have to do is wait for your peas to germinate, climb the trellis and fill their pods! That's the hardest part.
As the days get chilly I'm not quite ready to give up the garden. I'm always looking for ways to stretch the growing season and enjoy the tasty fruits of my labor just a little bit longer. Home Depot was thinking the same thing, so they've invited some of their favorite garden bloggers to share how they do it. Hey, The Garden Buzz is one of them!
I decided to share my deceptively simple veggie soup formula. I love to use my autumn harvest for delicious creamy soups made with all sort of fall veggies and fruits. They warm your tummy, and fill you up but not out. Just the thing we're all looking for between these "heavy-table" holidays.
I heard an old Phil Collins song every time I looked at the burlap growing container and the wilting carrot foliage, "I wish I could just make you turn around - turn around and water me".
This was back in the spring and I had thrown some carrot seeds into one of these new-fangled girdles, the burlap grow bags given to all the garden bloggers at Garden2Blog by those fun-loving gals at The Seed Keeper Company.
We were in between houses, living in a rental while the big move was looming, my mind wasn't really on carrots. Building a home involves a thousand tiny decisions that add up to a very big deal if you don't do it right. So I was a little preoccupied.
"How can you just walk away, look at this beautiful foliage". Foliage was all I really expected. At first the bag sat on the picnic table and then after we moved it sat wherever I could find a spot, dodging the concrete guys and the stonemasons while the exterior was finished. It found a resting place on the driveway for awhile where the garage doors reflect at a couple hundred degrees, caught in a cycle of water and wilt.
Oh and yeah, I never got around to thinning them either.
By now the burlap bag and its withering contents were a source of embarrassment, "And you coming back to me is against all odds". But I couldn't quite throw it away. As the patio and landscaping was nearing completion, I took the bag of ferny, browning foliage inside out of sight so as not to completely ruin my reputation as a garden writer and master gardener. It sat on a table in the garden room for a week while I went in a hundred different directions doing everything else but worrying about carrots.
Finally in a frenzy of checking off my to-do list and fall approaching, I looked over at the bag and sighed. "So take a look at me now". I felt around down in between the stems and lo and behold, I met with firm resistance. I dumped the bag into a tub, that's the beauty of these grow bag contraptions, you don't have to dig.
Forty carrots!
Look at what I found. Forty carrots. I figured they would taste like crap after all of that neglect. Surprisingly they were as sweet as any homegrown carrot could be. "You're the only one who really knew me at all". Just think if I had put the grow bag in a place of honor and paid more attention? Imagine what you could grow!
When you're done with the grow bag it folds up for easy storage, so "there's just an empty space", no big pots to wrangle until the next season when the burlap girdle will be ready to replant.
Check out all burlap growing girdles and all the other great things on Carol and Kerry's site at The Seed Keeper Company.
(I can hear my kids sighing already, Mom's been listening to Daft Punk and now she's paraphrasing their lyrics in her blog posts. What next?)
French Breakfast Radishes sprouting in late summer
Gamble gardens are usually associated with spring time. You play fast and loose with the last frost date, sow a few early peas or go big with tomatoes. You hope to harvest days or weeks sooner with little veggies lined up across your rows instead of three identical fruits across the slots.
If you've been following my late-in-the-season laments you know I have been garden-less up to now, watching other gardens grow while my post-construction dirt yard awaited its transformation.
Things are happening this week; trees and shrubs, paths, a modest amount of lawn, beds, rocky niches, woo-hoo! And just as exciting, my kitchen garden beds made of sleek Cor-Ten weathering steel are partially in place giving me a place to play.
Most late season veggie offerings at the garden centers are rough, ragged; kale and chard tangled together, a few herbs and some sad zinnias. No matter I planted some, but they stand stiff and unnatural in one bed like awkward latecomers to the party.
Lots of gardeners don't think of planting seeds mid-season, but there are actually lots of vegetables you can sow up until end of June in Minnesota, sometimes getting a better yield bypassing certain insect pest's life cycles. Beyond that you wait until August and the possibilities narrow, but never mind that September 15 first average frost date.
I decided that between this weird weather year, the urban zone bump and a sheltered microclimate I could risk a few seeds and my high hopes.
I sorted through my seed packets and selected anything that could mature in 55 days or less. So this week with some good weather, a few rains and the micro-spray sprinklers I have little babies; spinach, beets, carrots, mesclun, two kinds of leaf lettuce, bunching onions and radishes. In addition, Harris Seeds recently sent a trial packet of Mascotte Beans, an AAS 2014 Vegetable Award Winner with a 50-day maturity date. I'm anxous to see how things go.
I've been out there quite a bit leaning over the raised beds encouraging the tiny green sprouts to get busy and grow. And surely that lilting classical music the stonemasons play while they build the drystack wall in the garden can't hurt.
Last year I pitched an article about grafted tomatoes---what a cool concept I thought. I was told it was more an agriculture story, not mainstream enough for the home gardener.
So what shows up in all the garden centers this year? Yep, grafted tomatoes, and more. Eggplant, cucumbers, peppers. Already popular in Asia and Europe, they've been slow to take off here, but sure gained steam this year.
Just like grafting an apple makes for a stronger, hardier tree with other good qualities selected like improved flavor and disease-resistance, the same goes for these grafted vegetables. The really good thing about grafted tomatoes is they can give heirloom tomato varieties that extra something to get higher yields than you would otherwise. How's that for a win-win?
Important note: Unlike regular tomatoes that should be planted deep, grafted tomatoes should be positioned so that their graft union (usually marked by a little plastic collar, or if that has fallen off, just look for the nubby seam) at least an inch above the soil. You do this so the original rootstock (scion) doesn't root and ruin the whole reason for growing it.
So...anticipating, and dreading a slow start to my gardening year, what with the winter that wouldn't leave and our new house exterior behind schedule, I bought one grafted Mighty 'Mato Indigo Rose and a regular Sweet 100 cherry tomato for two large containers. I thought... one experimental and one old dependable to take care of my tomato urges until the garden goes in.
What shows up the next day? Samples. Of grafted tomatoes and their ungrafted counterparts to test side by side. So without further ado and according to the FTC rules I will tell you I received Grafted Brandywine, San Marzano and Chocolate Stripes from the folk at Mighty "Mato and Harris Seeds among others. I gave one set to the neighbor and still await his verdict.
Meanwhile the Indigo Rose shot up huge and immediately put on baby tomatoes all over the vigorous vine. The best part? These gorgeous little globes are deep blue-purple draped over green. Striking.
And they have anthocyanins. Say what? I was introduced to these free-radical scavenging and anti-oxidizing pigments at the Minnesota Herb Society "Journey Through Thyme" 50-year celebration. Herb wizard Pat Crocker conjured up some great cooking during her presentation, Basic Black: Cooking with Magic.
Anthocyanins are members of a flavonoid group of phytochemicals with wide-ranging health benefits. They are found in herbs, fruits and vegetables with blue, purple and black colors. Or as my mama used to say, "A colorful plate is a healthy plate".
Mighty 'Mato Indigo Rose--Grafted Tomato
So in went the other grafted tomatoes unstaked into temporary two gallon pots, waiting for transplant into my new kitchen beds. Now here in mid-July and still no kitchen beds, all the tomato samples are in limbo, perhaps purgatory, but the Mighty Matoes are proving a point.
You can see that under horrible circumstances they are still making a better effort next to the regular plants. I can only think if I'd had that many large containers or here's an idea, real ground, they would have been prolific and healthy!
So as I'm waiting for my landscape to be "installed", what a less than picturesque word, I'm waiting on Indigo Rose to ripen soon (followed by the others). You're supposed to wait until the purple turns brown and the bottoms go red for optimum taste.
And the Sweet 100? In a year of weird weather and weirder plant happenings, with some things flourishing and astounding us while others languish, I still can't believe it's such a disappointment. You can usually always count on a cherry tomato when all else fails but not this time.
Time to invoke the gardeners mantra...there's always next year.
As for grafted tomatoes, I think they're a great idea.
And we're melting, melting. I hear it in my head in the voice of the bad witch of Oz.
March is not a pretty month in Minnesota. I'm back from Savannah just in time to witness the great thaw. How was a kid from Southern California to know she should learn to ice skate, that it would serve her well in the future, for simply getting down the sidewalk? It's slippery out there, be careful!
Many garden bloggers are posting pics of their first daffodils, some in the deep south are already harvesting peas, you might say I'm pea-green with envy. Patience, my dear.
I can't report any gardening going on but I can tell you that a great gardening magazine has gone digital. Yes, more ways to read Northern Gardener....and me.
The March/April 2013 issue finds me full of beans. So what else is new you say? The humble bean has fueled armies and explorers for centuries. Now it's time to think beyond green beans and discover all the beautiful beans, both edible and ornamental that you can grow (as soon as the ground warms up to 55 degrees) in your garden.
Beautiful beans
Check out my article "So Many Beans", and be prepared to realize I only scratched the surface on this subject. Tasty heirloom beans with colorful names like Jacob's Cattle and Turkey Craw will entice you to try a few and delve deeper into their histories.
And is it too late to talk about mulch? When is the right time to remove it come spring? In the March/April issue my column, "Pushing the Zone", I discuss the warm and toasty insulating properties of mulch and how it can help you extend your growing limits. Well, actually I compare the whole process to having hot flashes, maybe too much information, but it makes sense.
But it's definitely not all about me. This issue talks about "Magical Magnolias", U of MN seed trial results, making a difference in the world with your garden, beautiful container combos, and much more.
The digital magazine will eventually be available only as an added benefit for MSHS (Minnesota State Horticultural Society) members and subscribers, but for the first three issues of 2013 access is open to everyone.
