2013 Regular Season Gardening Annual Review

The funny thing about year-round growing, which we're attempting, is that the gardening season doesn't ever really end. I'm still watering plants in the hoop house and covering and uncovering cabbages and broccoli's to earn a harvest during the holidays. But I'll address our fall plantings in a different post. Today's is about the regular season, the April to October produce.

Garden Overview

We have five types of gardens: about 150 row feet of 30-inch wide outdoor beds (one raised with wooden sides, the rest raised by land shaping), two 20-foot hugelkultur piles (which I'll review in a separate post), three large beds (one of which is Lil's) totaling about 1000 square feet, three 20-foot 18-inch rows in the hoop house, and 30 trees of various edible types including pear, plum, apple, peach, cherry, and nut. All together that is...a lot of growing space. You can do the math if you want.

I was certain that this year was going to be a total failure because I expected excessive deer pressure and was uncertain about the quality of the soil and water drainage. As it turned out, my pessimism was unwarranted and the garden yielded hundreds of meals of produce.

We had a general plan for the beds but when the time came to plant, we defaulted to our standard 'plant what's available', which means all the strong seedlings I grew plus leftover seedlings from Swainway Urban Farm plus whatever else looked interesting. We intentionally interspersed varieties in different locations to maximize production if one bed or another failed for some reason.

What Worked

We planted seeds for peas, kale, mustard, lettuce, cilantro, beets, radishes and swiss chard in the hoophouse in late March. The greens all gave us many cuttings until late May when days became too hot and greens bolted. We enjoyed solid harvests of beets and radishes through June.

My sister, mother and I planted 20 feet of organic seed potatoes and 20 feet of sprouted organic grocery store potatoes in a slightly shady location. They thrived and we began harvesting them in mid-June. All varieties (the seed and the grocery store) produced at least ten big potatoes from each plant. They provided all our potato needs from June through September, feeding friends and family many times.

I scattered tomato, pepper, and eggplant seedlings all over the garden. While this became a staking nightmare, wherever I kept the plants off the ground, they produced very well.

We tucked sweet potato slips in under some tomatoes and rhubarb. They gave us one huge tuber and a couple little ones per plant, which isn't bad for an afterthought of an under crop.

Carrots thrived in many locations. As they're Lil's favorite vegetable and have almost no pests, carrots became one of my favorite crops this year.

My little kitchen herb garden of perennials is well established now at the end of the season. They are tucked into a sunny South-facing spot alongside the garage, so hopefully many of them will last through the winter.

We were able to harvest about 3 bushels of apples from our ancient apple tree in the back. I love free food and can't wait until the rest of the orchard matures.

Flowers, flowers, flowers. This was the year that I embraced the beauty of flowers, for which I mostly thank Lil. She grew a dozen varieties in her garden and I tucked blooms into corners of rows too. We made a big patch of sunflowers and zinnias too.

Straw mulching rows and walk paths worked beautifully to keep down weeds. More on this another time.

What Didn't Work

We planted onion sets at the outside of a bed containing beets. They didn't form big bulbs in that space of neglect, leading me to think we need to dedicate an entire bed to them next year.

Cabbages and collards were a wash. We did harvest about ten heads of cabbage but it was very buggy because I couldn't stay on top of the cabbage moth caterpillars. I wish there were a way to grow cabbage in the chicken run because the hens LOVE cabbage moths caterpillars...but they also love cabbage greens.

The broccoli and cauliflower I grew from seed never thrived and produced big heads. Plus, they were yet another breeding ground for cabbage moths. One idea for next year is to grow these under a light row cover so the cabbage moths can't lay eggs on them. Or maybe attract some predators?

Though the hoop house produced beautiful early greens and peas, the heat in there stopped growing before the time that outdoor greens are sweet. But because I didn't plant any outside, I didn't have greens in late spring when I wanted them. Next year, I'm planting them outside three weeks after the hoop house.

Alex tilled and I hand-hoed a big bed in the front of the yard to plant grains and squashes. The idea was to plant seeds and forget about them, which we did. Unfortunately, the tilling and hoeing only stirred up weed seeds and the plot was overrun with weeds that hid the squash bugs too. The squashes were a near total loss and the sweet corn never was super sweet. We ended up harvesting those dry for corn meal. We did harvest fifty volunteer butternut-ish squash from another bed.

Conclusions

We're left with the following ideas:

• plant more potatoes and sweet potatoes
• put the tomatoes and peppers in rows so they can be staked with florida weave style
• plant more carrots, especially under the tomatoes
• pay attention to where the onions go
• figure out a way to conquer the cabbage moths
• follow up hoop house plantings with outdoor plantings of spring greens and veggies
• keep up with straw mulching
• take more pictures - it was a struggle to find these!

How did your garden grow this year?

PS. This is the first post in November, a month in which I'll attempt to write every day. Prepare your RSS readers and throw me topic ideas if you have any!

Picking Apples From A Tall Tree & Cider Pressing Announcement

We're in the midst of bedding down the garden for winter. Stakes are laying all over the place and Lil has comandeered these 8 foot bamboo poles for playing pole vault, riding them like a witch's broomstick, and fighting imaginary monsters. It's a cheap toy, yet another version of the 'box and a stick', always favorite playthings.

On Sunday, Alex and I were surveying the yard and noticed that some apples on our mature, very tall apple tree were ripe. The ones that fell to the ground on their own were getting eaten by deer or dogs or raccoons, all of whom are less worthy of organic apples than us. We were pondering whether to rent or buy a pole-mounted apple picker when Lil ran towards the garage. She returned with a bamboo pole and started whacking at the apples. The ripe ones fell to the ground where we could pick them up.

Brilliant, my new eight-year-old!

Alex grabbed a pole too and I found a Trug. Twenty minutes of fun hitting and collecting later and we had a bushel of apples. Obviously many bruised when they hit the ground but for making cider, that doesn't matter.

We would love to let you hit an apple with a bamboo pole and see cider pressing in action. We're holding a Cider Pressing Open House at 1224 E Cooke Rd Columbus OH 43224 on Saturday October 26 from 2-5 pm. See you there!

Seasonal Snaps {Autumn Equinox 2013}

  This big oak may look like nothing much has changed since the Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, and Summer Solstice snaps, but it did have an exciting moment. During a thunderstorm in July, lightning arched off the ground and struck her trunk, sizzling a family of squirrels and leaving a scar across the bark.

Joseph of Swainway Urban Farm grew six rows of vegetables in the tree's shadow which unfortunately were flooded during the same storm. Their growth remained stunted through the summer and yielded primarily produce for our two families.

Sorghum is the last remnant of a failed squash and grain garden in the front. Squash bugs and weeds decimated the squash plant; we're making do with an alternate harvest of corn.  

Plantings close to the house include Lil's flower garden, the apothecary with plants like the Toothache plant, and several fig trees. The blueberries that flank the walk suffered from lack of water in the spring but hopefully will make it through to next year.

The orchard trees are looking a little bigger than before. Comfrey and brambles are filling out in between the rows. Alex and Lil are sizing up the existing apple tree in this picture.  

Finally, the view where most of the action is - you can see tall sunflowers and rows of vegetables (albeit gone-by plants) that were just barely planted in the summer.  

Inside the hoop house, we're hanging on to a couple tomato plants that are still yielding ripe fruit for fresh eating. Ever-bearing strawberries are remarkably still producing fruit, a couple a day. The rest is planted with fall root and leafy green vegetables.

We will write a wrap-up of the season's successes and failures in the garden and the hoop house soon.

How is your garden looking this first day of fall?

Dried Corn and Stalks - Alternate Harvests

When my mother wanted us to grow sweet corn this year, we whined. "The deer will tear it down!" "Don't you know sweet corn is one of the most difficult crops to grow successfully?" "If the deer don't get it, raccoons or geese or rats will!"

But we planted anyways because we promised to grow something for each member of our immediate family and this was a year of experimentation.

And guess what? The corn grew! It was more than knee high by the fourth of July. Later, the stalks tasseled and set ears. Lil and friends ran through the rows and crouched behind stalks as if in a giant corn playground.

Alas, we never harvested sweet corn at the right time. It was under ripe before our family trip to the Eastern Shore and starchy after. We whined again. "If we were home, would it have tasted good?" "Was it the variety?" "Ah, well, maybe corn-fed venison will be a better harvest."

A month later, the corn patch still had no visitors from hungry wildlife. "Did the raccoons stay away because the corn is near the road?" "Or maybe does the Nasturtium we planted discourage deer as promised?" "I guess we should harvest it."

We cut all the cobs off the stalks and scythed the stalks down. We marveled at all the biomass grown from one handful of seeds.

The sweet corn ears are drying on our hardware cloth shelf in the hoop house next to strawberry popcorn. If they dry to completion, we'll try milling the sweet corn into corn meal. If the cornmeal doesn't work, we know some chickens who would likely eat it.

The stalks are drying on the paved walkway to the house (classy, we are) because they can be a secondary harvest. Tied up with twine, they'll be festive autumn decor.

Mom, thanks for the push to try growing sweet corn. It didn't produce what we wanted, but we harvested what we could. Don't be surprised if your porch is soon visited by the corn stalk fairy!

Fall Planting Starts Now...Or Yesterday

Just when tomatoes are coming in by the tons and weeds seem overwhelming, there's one more little task to add to your list of gardening tasks - fall planting. For us, autumn planting is a nice break from the harvest season, a re-commitment to eating fresh from the yard even as temperatures cool. Sowing seeds and seedlings now will give you a crop to eat through the autumn and early winter while preventing soil erosion and nutrient loss.

First, Save Seeds

Before you rip out tomatoes, squash, or peppers, be sure to save seeds from the best fruits. Seed saving should always be in the back of your mind to preserve biodiversity, ensure varieties are adapted to your local conditions, and save cash. Read my seed saving guide published a couple years ago for the basics or the Adaptive Seeds Guide for more detailed information.

Plant Autumn-Sown Garlic, Perennials, Fruits

Several edibles want to be planted at this time of year. Garlic is the most well-know crop that must be planted in the fall. Put yours in the ground before mid October and let it over-winter. You may see sprouts in the fall and that’s ok. They’ll survive snow and ice and shoot up again in the spring.

Fall is a great time to plant many flower bulbs and transplant berries or fruit trees too. Split your own plantings first - strawberry runners, raspberry shoots, herbs, and perennial flowers can all be transplanted in the fall. Often you can find perennials and fruits in the clearance section of your local nursery. It's best to split and transplant in mild weather, but if you run into a hot spell, just water often.

Plant Leafy Greens, Roots, and Cabbages

In Ohio, we can grow greens, many root vegetables, and members of the cabbage family in the fall. Planted now, these germinate quickly and tolerate cold temperatures as they mature.

Prepare the beds in which you wish to sow fall crops by lightly turning the soil and adding compost or an organic, mild fertilizer. Baby the seeds and seedlings when they are young, as hot dry days can scorch them. We use straw mulch to prevent weed growth and hold in moisture.

Below is a chart of fall crop dates in central Ohio; be mindful that if you plant seedlings, have a warm microclimate, use season extension, or autumn is mild, you may plant a few weeks beyond these dates.

Variety	Planting Date	Days To Harvest	Notes
arugula	8/20	30
asian greens	7/15	45-50
beets	7/30	50-60
broccoli	7/15	70-90	best started indoors
cabbage	7/15	60-75	best started indoors
carrots	7/30	60-90	sweetens after frost
cauliflower	8/5	60-85	best started indoors
collards	8/5	60-80
endive	8/20	35
kale	7/30	60	sweetens in cool temps
kohlrabi	8/15	55-70
lettuce	8/20	45-70
radish	9/15	35-60
rutabaga	7/30	90-100	sweetens after a frost
spinach	8/20	40-60
swiss chard	7/30	50-60
turnip	8/10	45-60	sweetens after a frost

When Winter Weather Comes

Cold temperatures are not the enemy of fall crops and indeed make some sweeter. There are also simple season extension techniques like row covers and low tunnels to keep plants from succumbing to frost die-off. I'll write about these soon.

Mulch At A Minimum

At the very least, protect your vegetable beds by mulching in the fall with straw or leaf litter. Mulch holds in nutrients, prevents erosion, and helps keep weeds at bay. In the spring, rake off the mulch and begin planting!

 What are you planting now?

NB. Swainway Urban Farm fall seedlings, like the cabbage pictured above, are available at City Folk's Farm Shop and the Clintonville Farmers' Market for the next few weeks or until supplies run out. If you buy at the market, say hi to me!

Acmella oleracea aka Toothache Plant aka Our Party Trick {Wordless Wednesday}

A friend wrote recently, "Seeing you always leaves a tingly feeling in my mouth." He's talking about toothache plant, Acmella oleracea, our party trick flower. Innocent in appearance and vigorously growing in our apothecary garden, we encourage guests to taste the small dense flowers. They give off the oddest sensation, described by some as sour, acidic, numbing, and 'like liking a 9V battery'. The effect dissipates after about five minutes.

Beyond the silly sensation, flowers and leaves of the toothache plant is useful for numbing the mouth, discovered by Brazilians as an herbal remedy for cold sores and dental problems. Some people, including Lil, munch on the flowers, also called eyeball plant, as a sour candy alternative. Or she may just like spitting out the flower on the ground.

We will collect seeds and have plenty to share if you want to grow your own next year.

What's the strangest edible you've grown?

Score Squash Now For Fun Autumn Scarred Squash

Last year I saw Jamie Oliver post an amazing Halloween display with scarred squash. I booked marked the idea in my mind and am now scoring all our volunteer squash plants. All you need is a sharp knife blade or skewer and a young winter squash. Without removing the pumpkin, butternut, or other variety squash from the plant, score a design lightly into the skin of the squash.

Then, let the plant grow. It will weep a little liquid in the first twenty four hours and then begin to form a brownish scar. As the squash continues to ripen and change color, the scar will balloon slightly but stay brown.

This intervention could potentially weaken or draw disease to the fruit but thus far our scarred squash are growing just the same as the non-scarred fruit on the same plants.

The possibilities for these decorations are endless. We've drawn shapes, jack-o-lantern faces, initials, and messages that we'll show off later in the season. And the best part is that the scarred squash will still be edible!

Are you already thinking about autumn? If you're looking for a few gardening ideas, try signing up for my Fall Gardening class where we'll talk about autumn crops, cover cropping, and season extension.

Sharing Our Space

Harmonious Homestead was settled by generations of creatures and people before us. If we steward it well, our land will provide for many future families. Put in a historical perspective, "our" land only belongs to us for a moment and is acted upon by many other creatures while we're here.

And that's why we share it with sustainably-minded folks who want to help this space reach its potential.

Eve, whom Rachel met through a parenting group years ago, located a top-bar hive of bees here in the spring. The are thriving, visibly pollinating the vegetable plants and ground-covering clover. If she visits when we're here, she answers our questions about beekeeping and shares in our wonder about all the aspects of the life of bees we can't know.

Joseph and Jen, the growers of Swainway Urban Farm, had a few excess seedlings needing a place to put down roots in June. We offered up our front yard which Joseph tilled and planted in six sixty-foot rows, seen below just after planting. The 'Swainway Annex', as we're calling it, is growing food where there once was grass. We intended to experiment with dry farming two rows of tomatoes but the weather (a rather fickle homesteading partner) had other ideas and the rows are flooded at the moment. Hopefully the sun will dry up the water and ripen the fruit soon.

Our families contribute moral support, creative and hard-working ethics, and occasional planting and harvesting help. Shawn and Gerry at City Folk's Farm Shop provide materials, hoop house help, and a venue for classes. Friends bring good cheer when they cavort in the natural playground and admire the chickens. Neighbors support us with inspiration, watchfulness and gifts of their excess.

We always envisioned a communal homestead. When we work together like Eve's bees, we learn, find joy, and reap rewards that would not be possible if we toiled alone.

We want to share our space with you too. Please come see the goings-on at 1224 E Cooke Rd Columbus Ohio 43224 this Saturday, July 13, from 3-5 pm.