Planting Cucumber and Swiss Chard Seeds. 5.1.2121

 Today I planted old cucumber seeds.  I forgot to plant the cucumber seeds I saved, last fall, so will go back and do that.  The potential problem with those is, I don't know if they were hybrids, so I don't know what they will be like.  I planted these seeds in 4 inch flower pots. 

I also planted some Swiss chard seeds, directly into the garden soil. Swiss chard is my favorite green, although sometimes they are other colors.

I planted a short row from each packet.  Those from 2014 are pretty old.  We'll see if they grow.

Overwintered Kitchen Crops and Buried Treasures. 4.6.2021

 Egyptian Walking Onions are doing very well.  We got some nice scallions today.  There should be scallions for another month or more, as smaller starts mature.  The overwintered Swiss Chard was quite tasty too.

As I was digging the garden bed, I found buried treasure.  I know I didn't plant these last year.  They somehow snuck in a year of growth between snow peas last year.  I must have planted them 2 years ago, or more, and always miss digging them all.  I think these must be russets.  Inside, they are still snowy white.

Kitchen Garden Update. 5.11.2020

 Here are some photos of my current kitchen garden (potager).  About half is newly worked soil, formerly sod, which I treated during the winter with a cover of black plastic to kill the grass, then added dolomite lime, some compost, and eggshells.  That is not the tomato / eggplant / peppers / squashes / bean area.

The greens and snowpeas are in what was tomatoes last year.  There is mesclun from old seed packets, swiss chard and radishes, collard greens and turnips.  There were all 3 to 8 year old seeds.  The snowpeas were 6 to 8 year old seeds.

I now have a seven foot chain link fence, to keep rabbits and deer out.  I don't know if that will work.

 I set out the fresh eating tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants yesterday.  Also bush cucumbers in a raised bed, for pickles.

This strawberry pot is doing better than I expected.  Last month, I transplanted these strawberries from a raised bed, where they appeared to be dying off.  At least not thriving.  I wanted the space for cucumbers this year.  In the strawberry pots, they need better attention to watering. but I have them in fresh potting soil with some added osmocote.  They perked up almost immediately and started blooming..

 This bed is fresh-eating tomatoes, slicers and cherry tomatoes.  Down the center I planted radish seeds, which should not take up much room and will be done before the tomato plants reach much size.  Along one edge, I also planted a row of Roma II bush beans.

 This view shows the sauce tomatoes.  I gave all of the tomates some osmocote when I planted them, about 1 1/2 tablespoon per hole.

 These squashes may not have enough room.  Space is at a premium.  I may be able to direct the vines of the long vining types, into spare locations as other crops such as potatoes are done in midsummer.

Same comment as for squashes above.  This batch is in ground that was sod last year.

The soil temp is 74F at 10 am.  I've had readings as high as 80F and in early am, as low as 65F.  I think this is high enough for the squashes, tomatoes, peppers, to be planted.  Not sure about sweetcorn and bean seeds, but doing a trail of them now.  May 15th is my usual target date for that.  I also wonder about the eggplants, which need warm conditions.

These are the first three rows of sweetcorn.  They are outside the fenced area.  I have the seed rows covered with screening to keep birds from eating the seeds.

These are the bush cucumbers I planted the seeds a few weeks ago inside.  Now they are in the former strawberry bed, along with some dolomite lime and compost treatment.  I also have a row of dill seeds planted, now germinated, in there, and some cilantro from seeds saved several years ago.

 These are the grafted fruit trees, and oak seedlings.  The fruit trees appear to be taking nicely.  These are on the north side of the raised bed, to shade the pots a little.  I stratified the oak seedlings by planting acorns into these containers last fall.  There are white oak, from a magnificent tree in my neighborhood, and some other white oak from a location in Salmon Creek, and some red oak.  I'm not sure where I will plant them when they are bigger.

Starting Amaranth, Swiss Chard, and Chive Seeds. 2.25.19

 I've never grown Amaranth before.  Today planted some seeds in 6-packs.  They will go into the sunroom for a while before planting outside.  I'm hoping the leaves are tasty. 

I also planted Swiss Chard and Chive seeds.  The chives will go into the border where deer hang out.  Deer don't eat chives.  They make a good bee plant, when in bloom.

Greens. 9.3.15

Greens at 1 month.  9.3.15

Greens at 1 month.  9.3.15

Greens really took off with the last couple of days, a little cooler and rainy.  Swiss Chard about ready to eat.  Ditto with nasturtiums.  Spinach further behind but growing.  EW Onions are nearing edible stage.  Cilantro is hidden b the Swiss Chard, but I expect it to take off once the larger vegetable is eaten.

Late Summer Kitchen Garden. Starting Seeds. Barrels. 8.26.15

Barrel #1.  Asian Greens, Kohlrabi, Bunching Onions.  8.26.15

 This is a progress report on some of the seeds I am starting for later Summer, or early Fall starts, for Fall and early winter benefit.  These are all barrel planters that I either had with something earlier that finished, or had left alone for a year or two and now being called back into service.   If there were weeds, I pulled out the weed plants - easy with soft potting soil, then turned the top layer of soil with a hand-spade, and added a top layer of a few inches of potting soil.  The one with the dead bamboo, was too root bound, so I just added some potting soil on top.

Barrel #3.  Chinese pole beans and last year's garlic.  8.26.15

Barrel #4.  Roma beans, Turnips, and a few E.W.O. Scallions.  8.26.15

 I want the beans mostly for seeds.  Seeds take longer than fresh beans, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

This year is projected for a warmer winter due to the impending el Niño effect.  I speculate that will extend the season.  If not, that's OK too.

Days currently in 90s.  Nights in 50s and 60s.  Seeds are germinating quickly.  The barrels need daily water.  The plants are concentrated in small spaces, so shade the soil and not needing as much care as if in the ground.  I am watering with 1/4 tsp miracle grow in 2 gallons of water.  Basically fertigating.  For some, I occasionally peecycle with 1/2 liter of home-grown fertilizer in 2 gallons.  Not more, because I don't want salt build up.

I'm getting excellent, rapid growth for Egyptian walking onions,  nasturtiums, and Swiss chard.  Should have some for cooking in 2 or 3 weeks.  Spinach might also be ready in 3 or 4 weeks.  The nasturtiums are for adding leaves too salads.  The E.W. onions are for scallions, and to maintain my crop.  I got about 80% viable from the ones that were in the bed I wanted to renovate, chewed off by rabbits or deer, crowded by wild carrot, and left dry.  E.W. Onions are a damn hardy breed.


As I dig more into the old E.W. bed that I want to renovate, I remove more, clean them up, and plant them in random spots among other plants.  That will give a more extended Fall harvest of scallions, and also some to leave through the winter for Spring harvest and to maintain the clone.

Barrel #6.  Nasturtiums, Spinach, and some E.W.O. Scallions.  8.26.15

Today I planted seeds for Kohlrabi - expect harvest in 60 days, and Turnip - expect harvest in 50 days.  With the hot summer weather, they should get a fast start, then slow down a little as it cools.

Barrel #7.  Egyptian Walking Onions.  ~3 Weeks,  8.26.15

Some of the seeds I am starting.  8.26.15

I also planted an Asian Greens mix that contains equal parts Arugula, Chinese cabbage, Japanese spinach, mustard-mizuna, mustard-green, mustard-Ruby Streaks, and tatsoi. Those were planted about one week ago and now are all germinated.  Cilantro seeds are also included in the barrel gardens, and growing.  The goal with those is to plant a few more each week, for extended harvests.

I planted scarlet bunching onion seeds because I saw them in the store and wanted to try something different.  At the time I didn't know if the E.W. onions would grow.  The scarlet bunching onion seeds are also germinating.

All in all, I think the late summer planting in large containers, has a lot of potential for kitchen gardening.  Easy, more accessible for the older or less vigorous gardeners, and grow more in a very compact space.   Not much bending over at all, very easy to pull out tiny weeds and putter.

Half barrel / summer vegetable planting. Progress Report. 8.11.15

Egyptian Walking Onions at One Week.  8.11.15

Nasturtiums and Spinach at One Week.  8.11.15

Chinese Pole Beans at One Week.  8.11.15

Considering these were almost zero effort, I'm excited about the early progress.  At about one week. there is germination of some Egyptian Walking Onion divisions, nasturtiums, spinach, a few Swiss chard, some Chinese pole beans.  I scratched some of the areas with no germination and planted seeds of cilantro and red scallions.

I am speculating, the 1/2 barrels are raised so warmer than the ground level plants.  So they may grow faster.

Summer Seed Sowing and Plant Starting Progress Report. 8.4.15

Stella De Oro Daylilies One Month After Dividing.   8.4.15

Bean Patch at One Week.  8.4.15

Sprouting Beans at One Week.  8.4.15

 These are the results of some of the summer seed planting and plant starting projects.  We have had multiple days near and above 100F during the past few weeks, and some days in 70s to 80s.   Nights are down into 60s and 80s.   The high temps may be too high for some seed germination.  Also, many of my seeds are old, up to 5 years old.

Nasturtiums - no growth at 1 week, but crabgrass sprouted like crazy in that container.  I covered with a few inches of fresh potting soil and sowed spinach seeds.

Swiss Chard - about 6 plants germinated out of about 30 seeds.  These seeds are a 3 years old.  I planted more seeds today.

Cilantro.  I planted seeds today in a medium container.

Roma bush beans.  So far about 10% germination.  Just barely germinated, so there may be more soon.  I also started some seeds soaking today, then will plant or use paper towel method to get them started, in case those in garden bed don't grow.

Chinese Market Pole Beans.  I don't know the variety.   These are from Chinese market, a wide and long bean favored in Changchun.   I know I had the packets before my cancer surgery, so at least 3 years old.  Maybe more.   Planted 1 week ago.  Germination is about 10%, which I think is pretty good.  Also started more soaking in the packet as a backup.  These are the last of some of the packets, and they are old.  My main goal is to get some for seeds if they grow fast enough.

Buckwheat at One Week.  8.4.15

 The timing on the beans may be close.  If they grow fast during the hot weather, there should be time to get some batches of ripe beans.  I don't know if there will be time to get bean seeds.

Buckwheat, growing vigorously at one week.

Celeste Fig Cuttings.  I found the cuttings in a zipper bag at the back of the refrigerator, about June 24th.  Planted in containers after incision / dip-and-grow treatment as I have done before.  I've been keeping them out of direct sun and trying to water every day.  There is bark mulch on top of the potting soil.  They are at the stage were, if there are roots, they will start to grow vigorously; if there are no roots, they sometimes wilt and die at this stage.  Keeping them watered and gave some dilute Miracle Gro today.


Celeste Figs at 6 Weeks.  8.3.15

Stella De Oro Daylily.   I divided this clump approximately in half, using shovel, one month ago.  They established and are blooming.  They did get some organic nitrogen once or twice in the past month.

These are Ipad photos.  My little camera does an even worse job in the bright sun.

Summer Seed Planting. 7.27.15

Image via Commons.wikimedia.org, old botanical illustration, public domain due to age.

Today I am off work, although I need to do remote work plus study.  For a brief break -

Cleared dead nasturtiums out of deck barrel.  Planted fresh nasturtium seeds in same barrel.  These were a mixture of ages, may not be viable.  I mixed all of the packets together and planted close together.  I can thin if too many germinate.

Did the same with swiss chard.

The plan is to have some fall greens and color.

I have one more half-barrel to plant.   This week, I also want to start some bush beans for fall.

If they don't do well in the heat, that's OK.

Final Seed Order for 2014. Seedsavers.org

Wikimedia commons photo

It's only Dec 1.  I know how much room I have.  There's not much to do in the kitchen garden.  So I planned for late winter / spring.  Might have bitten off more than I can chew.  Seeds are easy to plant.  The raised beds are in place.
The squashes can go into the wild area, with some compost for food.  Worked for 2013 with Butternut and Zucchinis.  This way I can see which squashes work in my climate and yard.  If they all produce it will be some to give away.  The chickens like them and the orange pumpkin types might enrich the egg yolks.

This time from Seedsavers.org.

Herb, Lettuce Leaf Basil

Herb, Flowering Chinese Leek

Swiss Chard, Five Color Silverbeet

Radish, French Breakfast

Radish, Cincinnati Market

Cucumber, Bushy

Cucumber, Japanese Climbing

Carrot, Paris Market

Carrot, Danvers

Melon, Noir des Carmes

Squash, Amish Pie

Squash, Golden Zucchin

Squash, Patisson Panaché Vert et Blanc

Squash, Winter Luxur

Squash, Waltham Butternut

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.