Winter Garden Update 2013

Onions amongst the Arugula and Bright Lights Swiss Chard. I removed the Red Winter Kale seedlings that you might be able to see here in the center of the onions, and transplanted to another area so they will have room to mature.  This area is the second planting and is growing leaps and bounds with the rains we are having. Just enough rain to keep the soil wet enough so I won't need to use the sprinklers.

A few of the Red Winter Kale I transplanted on Sunday.

Beets, Early Wonder, Bulls Blood and a Gourmet Blend, all from Botanical Interests Seeds.  I will thin them out to give them room to expand and eat the baby beets with the tops attached.  I just scrub the tiny ones lightly, and eat with the roots and all.

  Third planting of Lacinato Kale and Little Gem Romaine Lettuce.

I think this is Red Velvet, and below is Little Gem Romaine, both organic heirloom seed from Botanical Interest Seeds.  I started these a couple of months ago and put them out on Sunday.

 

Salad Burnet, is ready to pick and some will be in tonight's salad.  This herb grows year round for me, I keep it next to the house on the West side, but it is in the shade which it prefers this far South.  Salad Burnet has a light cucumber-melon flavor and is wonderful added to a vinaigrette dressing or just mixed in with your salad greens. It is lovely added to cucumber tea sandwiches or sprinkled over Cucumber Bisque.  Lucky for us it will still be here when I am growing cucumbers.

Winter Savory growing in my herb garden.  It is much stronger and pungent in flavor than the Summer Savory and holds up well in hearty Bean dishes.  Although the flavor is strong, add it fresh, near the end of cooking. Try adding it to white wine vinegar, it will give it a spicy peppery note.  I add Winter Savory in my bouquet garni when making my vegetable broths.

 

Here is one of several Nasturtium Fiesta Blend patches that cover my front bank. I pick the leaves and flowers when small and tender and add them to our salads.  Many people use the flowers to stuff with cream cheese and herbs.  Both the leaves and flowers have a light peppery taste. I love the leaves tossed with apple cider vinegar and pears as a salad.  In late summer I pick the seeds that will form and when they are green you can pickle them; they will be similar in flavor to caper's.

The Snow Peas and English Peas are blossoming now.  The white blossoms are from the English Peas and the pretty, pale pink blossoms shown in photo below are from the Snow Peas.  I picked a few of the tendrils to add to my Ginger-Honey Roasted Carrots for tonight's dinner.

I didn't plant enough radishes this year, but here are some from the Easter Egg Radish blend from Botanical Interest Seeds.  The one above is large at two inches across. Too big now to enjoy as it will be hot.  I will add it to the vegetable broth pot, along with the green tops. I don't waste the roots either, I just clean them well and add to my soups or chop finely and sprinkle onto salads or use in my vinaigrette's.

Easter Egg Radish and French Breakfast Radish.

I thinned out the Parisienne Carrot's and have just enough for my recipe tonight.

I have at least 5 volunteer tomato plants coming up.  I transplanted a few of these to give them some room as they were all coming up in the lettuce and onion patches. I have no idea if they will make it through the winter months or what variety they are, but that is what gardeners love about a volunteer, the surprise. 

Here are a few Bright Lights Swiss Chard seedlings that I transplanted out on Sunday.

I think this is Arugula Rocket Salad, from Botanical Interest Seed. Most of my markers faded in the sunlight, I will know in a few weeks if it is indeed arugula.

Here is Giant Red Mustard an heirloom from Botanical Interest Seeds, just now showing its colors. This is one I transplanted on Sunday so it is looking a little sad right now. The rain will perk it up and it will grow beyond 2 feet tall if I let it, but I will start picking the leaves in a few weeks. If let to grow too tall they become bitter and tough.

I will leave you with one of many Borage seedlings; annual volunteers that pop up all over my front yard and bank.  They don't enjoy being transplanted so I leave them where they decide to sprout and work around them.  This is what is in store for us in a couple of months Borage Ice Cubes.  The leaves are also edible with a cucumber flavor, and when picked young can be added to sandwiches and salads. But don't harvest when too old or large as the leaves are 'hairy' and get prickly shape.

Hibiscus Flower Tea adorned with Borage Flower Ice Cubes.  The flowers also look lovely floating in light, creamy soups and have a slight cucumber flavor.

Who loves a garden

Finds within his soul

Life's whole;

He hears the anthem of the soil

While ingrates toil;

And sees beyond his little sphere

The waving fronds of heaven clear.

Louise Seymour Jones

Winter Garden 2013

I am late posting photos of my winter garden plantings that took place a couple of weeks ago.  Of course had I taken the pics then there wouldn't be anything in the pictures but soil!  It doesn't look like much right now but when the little guys grow up the plot will be covered in goodies for us to eat all winter.

We are still using the area along the driveway this year and probably next year, since we used the adobe bricks from the raised beds for the labyrinth; I don't have that space to use right now.  This area gets a lot of sun and I can easily work the ground from both sides.  We used one of the tomato cages for the peas and green beans; I think this will work out pretty well and I can always add a tall fence around the cage to give the peas more room to spread and hold onto if need be.  I still have another section (past the kale) to dig up and amend the soil with compost, then I will plant more of the same things but a few weeks later. This way I am not harvesting all at once. Sucession planting!

Snow Peas and Green Beans on the cage, Easter Egg Radishes, French Breakfast Radishes and Round Black Spanish Radish.

Snow Pea shoots, in the back area there are onion seedlings.  I used the seed heads and just sprinkled them along  the parimeter of the row.  I will probably need to separate some of them as they get larger.

In this area we have a french Carrot called Parisienne  from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds that is short variety.  I also planted Cilantro, Parsley and Dill somewhere in the space. LOL

Same area, with Gourmet Baby Greens, Mesclum Sassy Salad Mix, and Arugula.

Lacinato Kale

Chioggia Beets, these are the red and white stripe beets and Gourmet Blend Beets, this mix has golden, orange, dark red and stripe beets.  I will do intermitant planting of all of the beets, onion sets and radishes, watching for areas that I missed and seeds that did not germinate. 

Last seasons Swiss Chard looking sad, but it will now do much better with the cooler nights. Also a section of onion sets in the foreground.  I planted many of these a month or so ago and then more on this day.

Bright Lights Swiss Chard and More of the Red Chard.

Mesclun and Salad Bowl Blend

Pencil Pod Yellow Beans, a bush variety.

A Girl’s Garden

Robert Frost (from Mountain Interval, 1920)

A neighbor of mine in the village

    Likes to tell how one spring

When she was a girl on the farm, she did

    A childlike thing.

One day she asked her father

    To give her a garden plot

To plant and tend and reap herself,

    And he said, “Why not?”

In casting about for a corner

    He thought of an idle bit

Of walled-off ground where a shop had stood,

    And he said, “Just it.”

And he said, “That ought to make you

    An ideal one-girl farm,

And give you a chance to put some strength

    On your slim-jim arm.”

It was not enough of a garden,

    Her father said, to plough;

So she had to work it all by hand,

    But she don’t mind now.

She wheeled the dung in the wheelbarrow

    Along a stretch of road;

But she always ran away and left

    Her not-nice load.

And hid from anyone passing.

    And then she begged the seed.

She says she thinks she planted one

    Of all things but weed.

A hill each of potatoes,

    Radishes, lettuce, peas,

Tomatoes, beets, beans, pumpkins, corn,

    And even fruit trees

 And yes, she has long mistrusted

    That a cider apple tree

In bearing there to-day is hers,

    Or at least may be.

Her crop was a miscellany

    When all was said and done,

A little bit of everything,

    A great deal of none.

Now when she sees in the village

    How village things go,

Just when it seems to come in right,

    She says, “I know!

It’s as when I was a farmer——”

    Oh, never by way of advice!

And she never sins by telling the tale

    To the same person twice.