Raised bed changes. Planting Summer Seeds for Fall Crops. 7.24.17

 I decided to make some changes in the raised bed kitchen garden, for easier gardening.    I added another level of 2 X 6, so the bed is 6 inches higher, then added a 2 X 6 edge to each side to support me.  I can lean or sit on that edge.  This bed contained bearded irises that never did well.  I moved them to a sink-or-swim out of the way border, where they will either grow, or not.  That gave me a new bed to plant seeds that grow for fall kitchen crops.

I used old seeds, turnips, Chinese radish, Chinese cabbage, Daikon.

That was last week.  They do need daily watering, but otherwise no special care.  Some rows have germinated nicely.  It's possible that some seeds were too old, and I intend to replant today.

I didn't label the rows.  I think some of the Chinese cabbage did not germinate, and one of the two rows of turnips.  Those seeds were 5 years old.

The current raised bed arrangement is 12 4 X 8 foot raised beds, 1 foot high, separated by mowed grass paths about 3 feet wide.  Those paths are too narrow for a riding mower.  The plan, which will develop as crops mature and are gone in the fall, is to replace the 2 middle rows with 1 middle row.  That will make paths wide enough for riding mower, which really reduces maintenance.  The sides will be higher, with edge as described for this bed.  Most of the wood will be reused from either the old beds, or from a deck that I tore apart this Spring. 

Kitchen Garden. Sunchokes and Chinese Radishes. 11.11.17

Green Luobo Chinese Radish.  11.11.17

Sunchokes.  11.11.17

Even though I don't do much in the vegetable beds, they continue to provide interesting crops for cool weather use.  The Chinese Green Luobo Radishes, planted late summer, finally plumped up very nicely.  The Jerusalem Artichokes / Sunchokes were growing in an out of the way spot.  They were planted, I think, in 2014 and I gave up on them because either deer or rabbits ate the plants.  This year two big Jerusalom Artichoke plants grew in that spot, and here is the harvest today from one of those.  Tasty, crisp, a little peppery.  Nice.

Kitchen Garden Harvest. 10.18.16

Turnip.  10.18.16

Root Crops.  Chinese Radishes, Daikon, Turnips.  10.18.16

 It's been raining every day, and heavily, so I have not been out in the kitchen garden as much.  Today was a reprive.

The July-planted turnips are great, as is the Daikon and a few of the Chinese radishes.  Many of the radishes have exploded, I imagine from the rains.  Still, this is a lesson that there are some that can be planted successfully from seeds, in July.  The broccoli and kohlrabi don't look like much, so I'm leaving those in place.  Ditto for carrots, more an issue of deer eating the tops, than because they didn't grow.

The red-centered Chinese radishes have a mild crispy flavor, nice raw.  Daikon is similar, a bit more peppery, and very good shredded and eaten raw as a slaw, or as a dumpling filling.

Lettuce did very well.  I don't know why deer and rabbits didn't eat it.

The scallions that I rescued mid summer, staged a come back and we have been eating them.

Red-centered Chinese Radish.  10.18.16

Now we are getting a lot more peppers than we can eat.  I planted them too early.  The raised beds with low fencing was perfect, no herbivore predation and yield is amazing.

Still harvesting corn from seeds that were planted in June.  This variety is "Bodaceous".  The ear is more full than it looks, I didn't pull the husk back far enough.  Bodaceous is a high-yielding, really good "corn-tasting" sweet corn, unlike Mirai which was watery and sugary and no much corn flavor.

Leaf Lettuce Mix.  10.18.16

Scallions.  10.18.16

Peppers.  10.18.16

"Bodaceous" Sweet Corn.  10.18.16

Kitchen Garden Update. 8.15.16

Peppers.  8.17.16

 Kitchen garden is at an in-between stage. 

Sweet corn is midway through the multiple plantings.  I have finished off the first to patches, 3 or 4 to go.

Tomatoes aren't as productive this year but we are getting a few every day.

The peppers recovered from what I think was planting too early in Spring.  They are lush and green and loaded with peppers.

Collards.  8.17.16

Red Stem Scallion Starts.  8.17.16

Okra Flower.  8.17.16

The okra plants are lush and vigorous.  I think the shorter row is Baby Bubba Hybrid, a more compact variety.  The taller ones were mixed, but I think most of the plants are the variety "Star Of David".  The first few okra flowers fell off without producing pods.  Maybe due to cool nights.  Maybe they didn't pollenize.  Yesterday I pollinated a few okra flowers.  The Pistol is dark brown, and the pollen is bright yellow.  It's easy to see the pollen on the pistol after I transfer it.  I hope that helps.

Lettuce, Cilantro, and Evergreen Bunching Onion Seedlings.  8.17.16

Peppers.  8.17.16

 I found a bunch of dried out scallions in a container garden.  These were grown from seeds in 2015, and the remaining plants abandoned due to lack of interest at the time.  They stayed alive despite no watering all summer.  I separated the plants and re-planted in the Battleground kitchen garden, 3 separate areas due to no room for all in one row.  They look droopy, but with a few sturdy green leaves.  I don't know what they will do, but no harm in planting them.

Summer-planted seeds have all germinated and all growing great.  We got a crop of radishes and a crop of salad greens.  More to come.  The turnips, Chinese radishes, carrots, lettuce, kohlrabi, and broccoli plants all show promise.  Definitely worthwhile project.

Fall Kitchen Garden Seedlings.  8.17.16

Turnips.  About One Month.  8.17.16

Red Stem Scallion Starts.  8.17.16

Walking Around. 7.31.16

Bean Raised Bed and Trellis.  7.31.16

First New Bean Pod.  7.31.16

 Random notes.

Beans are looking good.  It looks like there will be a bumper crop of these Chinese pod beans, that were recovered from old seed packets.

Encouraged by presence of several okra flowers, and the okra plants do look vigorous and sturdy. 

Morning Glories blooming.  Seeds from plants that I grew last year from seeds.

The Lattarula that I started from cutting in 2014, planted at Battleground in 2015, now bearing it's first figs.  Nice crop from this tried and true variety.

Maxie pears looking OK.  Similar size to most other Asian pears, including Shinseiki which is a distant cousin.

Turnips, Kohlrabis, Broccoli, Radishes, Chinese Radishes, Carrots, Lettuce, Cilantro seeds have all germinated and growing.  They continued to need water once or twice daily.

Okra Flower.  7.31.16

 Yesterday I finished clearing out the second Fava bean bed, saved the seeds on the remaining plants, and turned the soil.  I soaked the dry soil overnight, hoed and evened the soil, and planted seeds for more turnips,  Chinese cabbage - old seeds, mixed together two packets - Parisian Market carrots, and more radishes.

Volunteer Morning Glories.  7.31.16

Maxie Hybriud Pears.  7.31.16

First Figs from this cutting-grown Lattarula Fig Tree.  7.31.16

Turnip, Kohlrabi, and Radish Seedlings.  7.31.16

Kitchen Garden. Another Way to Eat Zucchini. 7.26.16

Basal in Tree Ring Container.  7.26.16

Okra.  7.27.16

Mid Summer is a nice time in the kitchen garden.  Every day feels like a combination Easter Egg hunt and Christmas. 

Basil in Tree Ring Open Bottom container, ready to pick and make a small batch of pesto. 

I'm very surprised to have actively growing okra.  I had given up.  A true Southern gardener would rightly laugh at these puny okra plants.  The first flower buds are forming, and there are still 2 months of warm weather for potential crop.  I don't know which varieties.  I mixed together several packets and planted all of them.

I used tree branches that I saved to construct fenceposts or other garden infrastructure, along with black plastic trellis with 1-inch openings, to construct a rabbit / deer fence.  One might think okra spines would deter these pests, but they eat blackberry and squash growth tips, despite spines.

We continue to get zucchini, of course, and collard greens.  There are occasional peppers.

Use a mandolin with the thinnest blade, and slice zucchinis into leaf-thin slices.  Add the usual salad fixings and dressing, makes a great salad. 

Today the sweet corn appears ready to harvest.  I'm too tired to prepare it tonight, so leaving in the husks. 

I shifted the largest pumpkin to slide a newspaper under it.  That was to protect it from potential rot underneat, something I read about.  BAD MOVE.  The pumpkin came off the stem.  A ripe one is almost red.  This one is golden yellow.   I will see if I can roast it tomorrow for pumpkin pie fillings and pumpkin puree for pumpkin bread.

This pumpkin was Rouge Vit D'Etamps.  I weighed it - 35 pounds.  What will I do with that much pumpkin?  Annoyed with myself for not letting it ripen on the plant, dammit dammit.  But there are many smaller pumpkins and winter squashes, so there will still be more than we can reasonably use.

Vegetables.  7.27.16

 Some of the radish seeds have germinated at 3 days.   I planted all of the Chinese radish varieties, mentioned earlier.  Meanwhile at one week the first Euro radishes, turnips, kohlrabis, are looking good  one week after sowing seeds.  The carrot seeds have germinated.  I also enclosed this raised bed in netting for deer and rabbits.  I don't know if that will keep out cabbage moths. 

Two days ago, we ate the first Sungold tomato.  Today there were a few more.  I'm impatient for tomato season to start, even though there are so many other things to be happy about.

Okra Cage.  7.26.16

Also noting- We are getting figs every day.  Not enough to overwhelm me, but a really good crop.

Not pictured, I harvested all of the potatoes, other than Burbank Russet, which are almost ready.  Probably 50 pounds total of potatoes.  I harvested about half of the yellow onions.  Maybe 10 pounds.   I pulled out one of the raised bed / cages of favas, and used that bed to plant more Chinese Radishes last weekend.

Sweet Corn.  Trinity is shorter variety.  Bilicious is taller variety.  7.26.16

Trinity Sweet Corn Ready to Harvest.  7.26.16

 Rouge Vif d'Etampes Pumpkin, Harvested Too Early.  7.26.16

Radishes, Turnips, Carrots Seeds Germinating.  7.26.16

The First of the Sungold, by a nose.  7.26.16

Planting Seeds in Summer for Fall and Winter Kitchen Crops. 7.18.16

Greens and herb seeds for fall kitchen harvest.  7.18.16

 As I clear out the kitchen garden areas from Spring planted crops, there is room for summer seed planting. The greens half-barrel got seeds from old packets of basil, mesclun, turnips, arugula, and nasturtiums, for greens.

Dates on packets:
Mesclun - 2009
Nasturtium - 2016
Turnip - 2015
Arugula - 2016
Basil - 2015

I also harvested garlic.  The garlic production and size of many of the heads, were awesome.  Info to follow.

The history of that raised bed:  Strawberries 2013, 2014. They pretty much died and were almost all weed by Summer  2015.  Then bush beans for the summer 2015, then garlic last fall and winter.  Now will be mostly brassicas for fall.

Vegetable seeds for fall and winter kitchen garden.  7.18.16

I planted the following seeds in short rows across the 4 foot width of the bed.  I alternated big-growing plants with small-growing plants which should be ready sooner.  That uses up the space and I hope I'm not overcrowding the big leaf plants.


Kohlrabi - Purple Vienna - 2015
Kohlrabi - Green Queen - 2012.  I interplanted the purple and green Kohlrabi so if the older green ones don't grow, there are still the purple ones.
Ideal Purple Top Milan Turnip - 2016
Radish Cherry Belle - 2015
Carrot Paris Market 2015
Radish Hailstone 2010
Broccoli Waltham 29 - 2013
Cilantro, I saved the seeds - fall 2015

According to Washington State Extension Service, now is good time to plant bush beans, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, carrots, lettuce, mustard greens, radishes, rutabagas, swiss chard, and turnips.  There are still more that can be planted later, to overwinter.  According to Oregon State Extension Service, I can also start collards and Brussels sprouts.

Baker Creek seeds has a beautiful website, with suggestions for fall planting.  I ordered some of the Chinese radishes, which look like they will be similar size to turnips and I am told have excellent flavor, to be used for cooking instead of just radishes for salads.  I ordered seeds for " Chinese Red Meat Radish", Qingluobo radish, and  "Misato Rose radish." 

Starting seeds now, they need watering at least daily and possibly twice daily.  Or cover with cardboard or newspaper, so they don't dry out, until germinated.