A baking and gardening journal. Mostly.
-A.J.
Fall is approaching. There are lots of tomatoes but they’d better hurry up!
The Romas. To be fair, we harvested the 8 ripest fruits last night, so these are all leaning green:
This is going to be the biggest Black Krim we’ve ever seen:
This is our first year with the Old German variety. This one is close to ready, it’s supposed to get some amount of red to go with all that orange:
Continue reading “Container Garden Update — August 20, 2017”
-A.J.
It finally rained last night after fifty-five days of no rain. Today was cool and drizzly, but it was a good day to get out and do some heavy pruning on the tomato plants. The harvest, including ripe Oregon Spring, Roma, and Black Krim tomatoes, tomatillos, and cucumbers. The green tomatoes for our pet store guy:
An overview before the pruning:
After pruning:
Tomato alley:
We harvested about 1/3 of the basil a couple of days ago. The plan is to harvest about half of what’s left tomorrow. In previous years we’ve waited too long and the basil got sort of bitter. We’re not going to make that mistake this year:
The Carmen Peppers are having a good year. We didn’t cage them and now they’re all threatening to flop over. We had to insert tomato stakes and run twine around everything to prevent disaster:
Tomatillos:
The seedlings got too much water and not enough sunlight. Some did ok, but we’re having to start over in many of the pots. Even without the shade cloth some of them are looking pretty leggy, so shortly after this picture was taken I moved them to a sunnier spot:
The Minnesota Midget melon plant has… melons! They’re bigger than baseballs, but smaller than softballs. Hopefully they’ll ripen before the frost gets to them:
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Visit Dave at Ourhappyacres, host of Harvest Monday.
-A.J.
It’s supposed to get hot this week. So far the harvests have been small and steady. The garden will likely go crazy starting in a few days.
The Tromboncino:
The tomatillos. It’s (past) time to run twine to support the lanky branches, they’re in danger of breaking off. Note the seedlings in the foreground:
-A.J.
It’s the middle of July, and we’re about to turn the corner from “growth” to “production”. The raspberries are in full swing:
There’s a lot more where that came from. Nice output from a pot on the patio:
The other fun find today were what I think are filet beans — the pods were all hiding under leaves:
We’re going to have a caprese salad tonight using some of this basil:
The Tromboncino zucchini are doing well. There are a few fruits, this one is about 1′ long:
The 8′ zucchini trellis:
Hiding on the north side of the zucchini plant are some spinach, basil, and romaine seedlings. A critter got into them last night, so now they have bird netting over the top:
The Minnesota Midget melons are coming along after the slow start:
The cucumbers. There’s one on the bottom right that should be ready in a few days:
We’re going to get a *lot* of tomatillos this year:
The Lilac peppers:
The Carmens:
The Oregon Spring. Doing their usual crazy early thing:
An overview from the “hill”. It rained a little bit this morning:
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Visit Dave at Ourhappyacres, host of Harvest Monday.
-A.J.
We’ve had our first couple of really warm days, and the fans are now out of the garage. The warm-weather veggies are digging it. I love gardening this time of year because everything is young and vibrant, and the garden is growing and doing it’s own thing with a minimum of work input.
We’re going to get lots of raspberries this year. Speaking of work- I need to do a better job with the bird netting:
The beans. The edamame have been much more energetic than the filet beans, and much more bug-resistant too:
The cucumbers are just starting to climb the trellis:
One of the four melon plants made it. We filled the space in the box with a Siletz tomato. In theory they should coexist well:
The Oregon Spring are drinking by far the most water of anything in the garden. I’m not sure if that’s a function of the box, their location, or just how much respiring is happening with all that plant mass. It may about time to thin the interior of the jungle:
The rest of the tomatoes (L-R) Roma, Old German, Black Krim. There’s a Purple Cherokee hiding behind the Old German:
The tomatillos are up to the top of the 6′ trellis:
The Tromboncino:
A closeup of the bottom of the Tromboncino. We’ll be eating zucchini soon:
An overview:
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Visit Dave at Ourhappyacres, host of Harvest Monday.
-A.J.
A few pictures of the June garden-
Overview #1, from up the “hill”:
Overview #2:
The left column has three boxes of tomatoes, with the Tromboncino zucchini in the big trellis at the back. Continuing to the right in the front row- the next box over has the Oregon Spring tomatoes. The rest of the front row (L-R) is three pepper boxes and then a box of basil. The rear trellis contains the tomatillos, the center trellis has cucumbers, and the rightmost trellis has the surviving melon plant and a new Siletz tomato plant.
The tomatillos are chest-high:
The Oregon Spring are doing their usual early thing. There are lots of blooms and a few fruit:
The Tromboncino will need to be trained to the trellis soon:
Moving to the front yard — we got another good batch of (very big and fat) peas:
There are still more on the vines, though the vines are beginning to look a little “cooked”:
The lettuces in the top of the salad table are doing well:
The front yard now has four little volunteer pansies:
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Visit Dave at Ourhappyacres, host of Harvest Monday.
-A.J.
We chose to simplify a little bit this year and go more with things we know “work”, are easy to process, and will see quick use if they make it as far as the freezer. We added a few new things too, including melons. The descriptions below are copied from the Tilth Plant Sale PDF.
Melons –
4 of- Minnesota Midget Cantaloupe: 65 days. Open pollinated heirloom from 1948 when it was introduced in Minnesota. Measures 4 inches across at maturity, when the rind is a soft yellow and slightly soft at the stem end. Sweet orange flesh with a good muskmelon flavor. The compact vines produce decent yields. Slice into thin delectable servings with an herb infused soft cheese and salted pistachios for a fantastic summer appetizer.
We were going to try these melons last year, but we missed the Tilth plant sale. This will be our first attempt at growing these. From what I’ve read the vines are supposed to get about 4′ long, and the fruits will likely need a pantyhose or sock support or something similar. Hopefully it’s a warm summer, otherwise we may be underwhelmed. 4 plants is one full box.
Sweet Peppers –
6 of- Carmen: 60 – 80 days. Lusciously sweet when left to fully ripen to a deep red, this pepper is perfect for chopping and tossing straight into a salad. A great container plant and a good addition to a sunny veggie bed. 6 inch fruits on an upright plant.
6 of- King of the North: 76 days. Open Pollinated. Here is a sweet bell pepper that will mature in short season climates. Its crisp, blocky fruit will turn from medium green to red if left on plant longer. Excellent raw in salads or dips. Great to use as stuffed pepper or in tempura recipes.
Jimmy Nardello: 76 days. Open pollinated heirloom. Thin-walled 8″ long curved tapering pointed fruits turn deep red when ripe with shiny wrinkled skin. Great eaten raw and super tasty when fried–very prolific! This seed variety is considered by Slow Food USA to be an endangered member of their “Ark of Taste.”
Sweet Chocolate: 60 days. Open pollinated. Early sweet, lobed, thick-walled fruits. Ripen from dark green to a rich chocolate color. Cold tolerant.
The Carmen and King of the North do well every year. They’re versatile in the kitchen, they’re easy to process, and they’re relatively work-free. One box of each.
The Jimmy Nardello is a pepper I’ve been reading about for years. Tilth finally had them in stock this year. I have high expectations.
Sweet Chocolate is another pepper we’ve been meaning to try and represents a little more variety in the pepper boxes.
Hot Peppers –
2 of- Anaheim College 64: 74 days. Open pollinated. Medium hot flavor make these short season peppers a hit for dips, sauces, stuffing with cheese or roasting. They are just like the anaheims you find in the store but without having traveled all those miles to get to you!
Anaheims are very mild hot pepper — we still have bags of Jalapenos and Serranos in the freezer, as well as dried Thai Chiles. We have no shortage of hot stuff, so we took a pass on the lava and went mellower.
We have two open slots for peppers, to be filled in the near future.
Tomatillos –
2 of- Verde: 70 days. Open pollinated. A classic deep green tomatillo with high yields, ‘Verde’ is ready when the husks have split and are drying. Very intense rich flavor which pairs well with sweet summer tomatoes and makes a fantastic salsa. The high yields will allow you to freeze them as you pick, saving some for winter sauces and stew ingredients. Give tomatillos room to spread and they will favor you with their riches.
Our favorite type of Tomatillo. Larger fruits = less handling. We grow these in an A-frame trellis and run extra twine for support for the branches. 2 plants fills one box.
Zucchini –
4 of- Tromboncino (aka Zucchini Rampincante): 60-80 days. Open pollinated heirloom. A Tilth favorite, the flesh of this variety has a smooth buttery texture and a mild flavor—the taste of summer! The 12 to 18” long fruits are “trombone”- shaped and can grow in curly cues or hang like bells on a trellised vine. Harvest when they are a pale, grass green or leave a few fruits at the end of the season to mature to a buff color and enjoy them as you would a winter squash.
Historically we’ve done two Tromboncino plants in one box. I sort of screwed up when I picked up four. This variety is relatively mildew resistant and they grow vertically up a trellis, so I’m hoping that four plants will work anyway. We’re partial to the taste and texture of Tromboncinos. We’re unlikely to ever grow “standard” zucchini again.
Tomatoes (2 tomato plants go in one box) –
2 of- Oregon Spring: 60 days. Determinate. An extra-early variety that sets loads of meaty fruits weighing 3 to 5 oz., with excellent flavor. Compact plants set fruits even in cool weather and continue to yield all season long. Nearly seedless. A perfect choice for ketchup and sauces.
2 of- Roma: 75 days. Determinant. Premium canning tomato, ideal for sauce and paste. Pear-shaped scarlet fruits are thick and meaty with few seeds.
2 of- Black Krim: 75 days. Open pollinated heirloom. Indeterminate. From the Black Sea region of Russia, these 10-12oz beefsteak type tomatoes have a strong, rich flavor that is common with black tomatoes. One seed catalog noted that the fruit is best when half green and still firm. Very productive. Reportedly is a consistent favorite at tastings, so why not give it a shot?
Old German: 75-85 days. Indeterminate. Fruits are golden with reddish streaks. Produces large, rich and full bodied tomatoes. Great for fresh eating tomato, salads, and salsa.
Cherokee Purple: 85 days. Open pollinated heirloom.Indeterminate. Slightly flattened, 6-8 ounce tomatoes with a purple cast. Shoulders will remain green when ripe. Deep, rich, smoky flavor that’s not too acidic. For fans of the black/purple tomatoes, Cherokee Purple is one of the best This seed variety is considered by Slow Food USA to be an endangered member of their “Ark of Taste.”
We chose not to do eight different tomato plants this year. We passed on Taxis because their yellow sauce is very sweet and requires cutting with other red sauces. We also passed on Sungold (or “Sun Gold”). The small fruits of Sun Gold require a lot of fiddly work and the orange sauce is very very sweet.
The Oregon Spring are early and dependable. They taste good and they’re high-yielding. Normally we’d pair these with a Taxi.
The Black Krim win basically every taste test we do, and the deep purple fruits make great sauces.
The Romas were selected specifically for sauces. I thought we’d have more success this year if we did a mono-box and they didn’t have to compete with anything bigger or unruly.
We wanted one more “black/purple” tomato. We’ve grown Cherokee Purple in the past and enjoyed them, so that was the selection. Looking at the PDF, we may want to try “Carbon” next year.
The Old German sound like a great fit due to their size, versatility, and color. We’ve never grown these, but on paper they’re a winner.
That leaves one box left over, which will contain six sweet basil plants once the weather warms up.
-A.J.
EarthBox covers are sort of necessary evil. The covers that the company sells are of marginal quality, and they run around $2, each.
Instead we go to Home Depot and buy a roll 10′ x 25′ x 3.5 mil black plastic. Right now a roll is $12. The finished cost per cover is 20 cents, each.
To create the covers, unfurl the roll. The folded, short dimension is the 10′ length. Without unfolding it, cut it into 3′ pieces. You’ll get 8 pieces with 1′ left over at the end:
Then unfold each 3′ x 10′ section. Cut those every 24″, making five covers at 2′ long apiece.
As it turns out, the folds happen at about 8″ intervals and it makes measuring easy. They’re straight too, which is good if your scissors tend to wander.
To “attach” a cover to an EarthBox get a putty knife and tuck the plastic between the sides of the EarthBox and the dirt.
It’s easy to do, and we now spend $2.40 on covers per year instead of $20+.
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I want my two dollars!
-A.J.
The first asparagus to come up this spring! Given it was only planted last year, that makes it the first asparagus ever!
Talking to another local who grows asparagus, I thought we might have to wait until closer to the end of the month to see some shoots. Nope!
Last year we planted asparagus in three different areas of the back yard. The thinking was that they’d likely do better in some places and worse in others. Depending upon how many survived the winter we could try to consolidate the plots into the best spot. Also, if we did lose a few to the wet and cold it might not be terrible, since they may have been over-crowded in the first place. More elbow room might be a good thing!… Or they were going to be fine all along as is… Hard to say.
Of course, this all means that our first real harvest is a year away..
-A.J.
Each year when we grow peas I push some stakes into the ground and add trellis netting. It never looks awesome. The peas usually do well until the sunny days kick in. At that point their pots dry out quickly and the peas suffer.
Attaching the trellis assembly to the salad table is an attempt to address those issues:
It’s the same Ultomato stakes and netting that was used last year. The netting just happened to almost perfectly wrap around the North and East sides of the newly seeded salad table. I used cable ties to attach the stakes to the table. Quick and easy.
It’s a sturdier build than just pushing the stakes into the ground. As an added bonus, the pea pots are spread around the shady sides of the salad table. They should be relatively protected from the sun, and therefore cooler.
Here’s the line of pots on the North side of the table:
Once they get a bit taller the plants will poke out above the salad table. That’s the theory anyway.
All in all, combining the trellis with the salad table makes for a cleaner and more compact solution, and the peas aren’t as crowded this year. Hopefully it works out great.
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Two other thoughts:
We’re getting a lot of mileage out of the pea trellis. Here it is stuck into the soil at the edge of the walkway almost one year ago. After the peas were done we attached it to the lemon cucumber trellis for extra support.
The clamp light rig seems to keep the soil near the lights around 78F. No need for a heat mat. The other good thing is that the clamps can be attached to the top bar and pivoted to face downward. Lots of room for vertical growth:
No more posts about peas in the immediate future. Probably.
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Finally, one inspiration for the title of this post — From the album More Songs About Buildings And Food; Talking Heads version of Take Me To The River:
FlatbreadGarden 