Late Winter / Signs of Spring / Chinese Chives. 2.16.14

Chinese Chives starting to grow - Illinois strain

Chinese Chives 1 year seedlings.  Illinois Strain

 Chinese chives are growing.  These, along with daffodils, some alliums, and onion chives, are among the first early signs of Spring.

The Illinois strain originates from a small cluster of plants I dug from my parents yard about 10 years ago.  I originally planted those when I was a boy, probably more than 45 years ago.  Here they have multiplied vegetatively.  The cluster is several times larger than originally.  I also planted seeds last Spring from flowers late 2012.  Those are finer, but growing nicely now too.

The commercial strain of Chinese chive, grown for a vegetable, is more robust.  This is all seed grown, through several generations of seeds / plants / seeds / plants.  They start growth later than the Illinois strain, but when growing are larger and faster growing.  The Illinois strain is more delicate.  I've been holding off as many harvests of those, wanting to build up a supply.

Chinese Chives.  Commercial strain.

First batch of Chinese Chives for 2013

Well on their way to becoming the best dumplings in the world. These are the first Chinese chives from the Battleground raised beds. They grew stout, fast, early, and have a strong aroma.

Raised Beds. Progress report.

Here are the raised beds now. I added another this weekend. Planted the new bed with Snow Peas Oregon Giant, Bok Choy, Spinach, Radishes, Lettuce, Onion sets, between the onion sets planted Evergreen Bunching Onion seeds - packaged for 2011, might not grow. Also Swiss Chard 5-color Silverbeet, Beets Detroit Red, and Chinese Cabbage, Napa variety. Most of the rows are short, 2 foot rows. The Snow Peas and onions are full 4 foot rows. Also a row of mixed color Ixia. For color. The allium raised beds, planted last fall. Growing by leaps and bounds. Amazing to this small town Illinois boy, a garden with rapidly growing plants before March first. Garlics are about 1 ft tall. Shallots about 6 inches, White Potato Onions about a foot, and Egyptian walking onions about 6 inches. Illinois Chinese chive is about 2 inches and Changchun Chinese Chive is about 1 inch but thicker and sturdier and growing faster now. The Chinese Chive seedlings from last fall have reappeared, I think, although those might be seeds I planted last month.

Raised Bed. Progress Report.

I pulled the soil thermometer out of the soil.  The air temp outside was 50F. The temp of the soil was 60F inside the row cover tunnel. This row of radishes has germinated. The snow peas seem to be germinating.  At the front are some cuttings I stuck into the soil.  Buddleia, a rose. And German Camomile plants. This is the first raised bed.  I started itlast fall. Garlic and Multiplier onions have perked up nicely. Chinese Chives starting to grow.  Looking nice for Feb.  On the right, the "Illinois" heritage Chinese Chives have put on 2 incesh of growth, thick and lush. The bigger growing, less delicate Changchun Chinese chives are on the left.  Very hard to see. They are starting to grow.  They will catch up and pass the Illinois Chives, growing much larger by mid Spring.  I also planted more seeds of the Changchun Chives. If they germinate I'll have a big stand of them.

Winter Gardening, continued

Planted some seeds in the first "Conastoga" bed. That includes spinach, icicicle radish, napa cabbage, bak choy, seeds from garlic chives.  Pic from Bok Choy, ink and color painting on paper by Wu Changshuo (1844-1927)

I found some unplanted sets for egyptian onions.  I don't need more, but not wanting them to go to waste, so planted them.

Also, in unprotected bed, Laburnum seeds collected last week from Laburnum tree. So those seeds were exposed for winter, and stratified in situ. Those are along one edge of iris bed. Along another edge, Chinese chive, my Illinois strain.

Onion and Chive update. Raised bed.

Already, the Chinese chives are filling in with new leaves, stout and firm. The smaller, finer "Illinois rescue" garlic chives are filling in faster than the Chang Chun culinary Chinese chives.  The Egyptian Walking Onions have many new shoots as well - some 3 inches tall.  I think about 2/3 have started growing above the soil.  Fast. Both the bulbs and the topsets are growing fast. There are 2 bunches of cilantro that I planted a week or two ago.  Almost ready to eat.

The Yellow Potato Onions are sending up new shoots.  That's about 2 weeks?  No garlic up yet. I'm not greedy, they will grow in their own time.

Update

No photos today.

Weekend in Quincy IL. Things look stable there.

Interesting - growing up there, everyone had a backyard garden. I didn't see any this time.

Back in vancouver, lots of beans on Ning's Chinese Bean vines. There have been several batches to eat.

Grapes are "almost" there. Sour but starting to sweeten up.

Roses are blooming nicely.

Another bud on the Epiphyllum.

There have been 3 breba figs plus one main crop fig on the petite negri. None yet on the others.
Too much going on otherwise. I hope that I can weed and prune a little this weekend.

Garden Log March 17 2007

Geranium Overwintering Experiment. These are scented leaf geraniums. The brown sticks were kept "dormant" in the garage. The smaller, but leafy plants were cuttings taken from the plants behind them, last fall, and kept in the bathroom windowsill with minimal watering. Unless the "dormant" ones start to do something, I think I know which method "wins" for these varieties.
Back Yard, Strawberry bed and Chinese Chive Barrel. The Chinese chives were fertilized wtih granular "Alaska fish" fertilizer, then about 1/2 inch leaf compost added. The strawberries were thinned to about 1 plant every 18 inches or so. The thinnings were planted elsewhere. The daffodils add character and in the summer, the strawberries fill in when the daffodil leaves die down. There are some iris bucheriana. Slugs love it. The white spots are Sluggo which claims to be safe and organic, and works very well. I added some overwintered Tradescantia pallida for color, and some variegated "society garlic" Tulbaghia violacia for color and in hopes of deterring pests (even in the truck that plant is stinky! like garlic only more so)
Some overwintered Chinese Celery among the heirloom potato onions. I think there are finally enough potato onions to start eating them in large amounts at harvest this year, instead of saving all of them. I though they were dead - only a few grew last fall. Now it looks like they are all alive.
Even more daffodils, These are in about their 3rd year. Next to them is a daphne - barely seen flowers, but they make the entire yard smell like fabric softener. Yum.

Harbingers of Spring. Chinese chives. Asparagus. Anigozanthos #3

These were planted about 3 years ago. Each cluster was one bulb. I keep thinking of the old Carly Simon song, "Anticipation".
The Chines chives are one of the first plants to start growing. They are also one of the first to produce an edible crop in the Spring. I did have some scallions today from a multiplier onion.
Despite the problem of not enough space, I planted some asparagus today. This was a tomato patch this year, but the tomatoes did not do well in this location. The asparagus should at least provide some wispy greenery, and maybe some vegetables in 2 or 3 years.
It's a good thing that I dont drink or gamble. Here is another anigozanthos. The purpose of the trip to Lowe's was to buy new light fixtures for the bathroom project. That led to a stroll into the garden section. This (variety "Kanga red") and a Chinese apricot (for Ning, it was planted in a too-small location but with pruning might do OK) were the result.