Kitchen Garden Starts, Potatoes and others. 3.1.2021

 Today I sorted through some of the potatoes that I stored in the garage from last summer.  It was cool and dark, and most of the sprouts don't seem excessive.  They were a mix of types, difficult to recognize.  I usually don't regrow from my own garden, preferring inspected, certified starts.  However, I plant in a different spot each year.  I did not notice any scab or rotting diseases.  There was no significant fusarium wilt.  So I will take a chance.  Last year, I also planted some sprouted home grown and grocery potatoes, and those did fine.

Most looked like the small ones on the right.  I cut up the big potatoes, a yellow flesh type, and sat them in the sunroom for the wounds to dry out.  They can be planted in a week.   If the sprout is a little long, I lay it horizontal or remove it to give the shorter ones a better chance.

Cut potato chunks sitting in the sunroom, with the cut edges drying.  These are yellow flesh, although not necessarily Yukon Gold.  Last year, I had some sprouted yellow potatoes that were from the grocery store, so grew them.  These might be descended from those, or from potatoes that grew on their own in the compost pile.

I also bought some actual tomato seeds ("True Potato Seeds",  TPS) - real seeds, not cut up tubers.  Those are not easy to find.  The variety is Clancy hybrid, an AAS winner.  It's not possible to predict how they will do, and while I have my doubts, it is always interesting to try new things. 

Clancy Potato seedlings.  So far germination is about 30%, which is OK.  Some might germinate later.  It's only been about a week since I planted them, so not too bad.

The marigold photo I forgot to upload yesterday.  Four cells are from the Volunteer French Marigold, and 2 cells are from the Volunteer Yellow Cherry Tomato.  So these are the "Volunteer's Offspring".

 

And one of the tomato six packs.  All of the tomato varieties have germinated.  It's the start of a good gardening year.

Last fall I saved flower heads from chives.  Even though they are perennial and last year's plant will return, I wanted to have some more.  Plus, growing new ones from seeds seems to result in more vigorous plants.  It's easy to separate the seeds.  I did the same thing as I did with basil, storing the flower heads upside down in a paper bag, then crushing them in my fingers to release the seeds, and using my fingers to remove most of the chaff.  A little chaff doesn't hurt anything.  Here are the germinating chive seedlings.  Also, about one week to germination.

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.

Allium Family Perennial Vegetables. 2.10.16

Chive Beds and New Raised Bed.  2.10.16

 All of the overwintering Allium family perennial vegetables are growing.

The 2 raised beds of garlic chives broke dormacy last week, now 2 to 2 inches of growth. 

I priced these concrete blocks today at Home Depot.  They were 99 cents each.  I think they are less expensive than the wooden beds, will last longer, and are easier to assemble.  I don't know about thermal properties.  The corners have openings that would be good for posts.

Garlic Chives.  2.10.16

Chives.  2.10.15

Garlic Raised Bed.  2.10.16

Egyptian Walking Onions.  2.10.16

Standard chives are growing fast.

Garlic is showing great growth.  My subjective estimate is the garlic in the raised bed is about  twice as big as the garlic in the ground, probably due to warmer temperature although the soil mix could also be better.

Egyptian Walking Onions are also growing nicely.  I protected them from deer and rabbits this year.  There was still evidence of something foraging - maybe slugs.

Not shown, the new starts of White Potato Onions are about 6 inches tall.  This time around they are also protected from herbivores.  There is no evidence of foraging on those plants.

I'm not concerned about potential frost or freeze.  These are hardy plants.

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.

Deer unfriendly, dry tolerant border

Here is my attempt at a deer unfriendly, drought tolerant border. My timing is bad - except for the irises, it would be better to plant in Spring or Fall. There wasn't much choice, since we just took title of the place, and I wanted to get started. On the plus side, there are lots of perennials on close out. The majority of irises are divisions from home, cleaning up beds that went to weeds, and separating some that desperately needed separating. A couple are new starts, and a few are from the new place, cleaned up and replanted. Two patches are left alone, other than weeding and applying compost. The borders were prepped with a layer of compost, watered a couple of times but otherwise left for a week. That killed much of the invading grass and weeds. Then I dug in the compost, broke up clods, raked with garden rake, and planted. Finally, a layer of compost was added as mulch. This border gets mainly Western sun, with some parts getting Southern sun. While digging, I repeatedly hit stone. Finally, I used a flat shovel, and discovered a walk made from pavers. It's cleaned up and left in place. The Irises are a mix, I did not label except for the new purchases. I'll know when they bloom. I should do a winter project of making labels. The dry tolerant, supposedly deer-unfriendly plants include Lavender, Sage, Marjoram, Monarda, Asclepias, Hibiscus, Oregano, Lemon Thyme, Rosemary, and of course the Irises. I did not plant mints or lemon balm because they are too invasive, but may plant some in the orchard where that doesn't matter. Asclepias was an impulse buy. I had read about it but didn't expect to find any. It seemed difficult to grow and transplant, based on what I read. One problem is the long tap root, which apparently doesn't like to be disturbed. I broke a rule, and planted from the container without pulling roots out from the rootball. Maybe that will work. If not, it isn't a big loss,. They were 60% off. All of the new starts were on close-out. This border is south of the deck and gets Southern and Western sun - hot! It includes sage, chives, Monarda, yarrow, Coreopsis, divisions from Bumble Delite Iris - a small variety, and a daylily. The daylily is not deer repellant, so we'll see what happens. Impulse. The chives was a sizable semi-dormant cluster that I moved from my yard at home. I like eating fresh chives in some sandwiches and in eggs, and they are nice to look at. There are some shasta daisies, which grow wild around the yard. I left those in place. This is a closeup of that front border. There are also some chrysanthemums and lantana. I don't know if deer like those. Also some dusty miller, drought and deer safe, from what I read. Those sausage-shaped brown objects are pine cones. This bed also gets southern and western sun. It contains 2 columnar apple trees, Red Sentinel and Golden Sentinel; some small shrubs, but mostly irises. Deer can destroy small apple trees, so I sprayed with deer repellant. The irises were the remainder of the divisions, I had removed from my home front yard, some rescues that were hidden in grass and under shrubs. Some had been sitting for a couple of weeks before planting, but irises are tough. I trimmed the leaves and stray roots, and planted randomly. Finally, I also planted the Allium gigantium bulbs that I dug up from home, in several places, and and a dozen Allium that appear to be a bit smaller, in a mixed bag that I bought at a big store. I marked the locations where the Allium were planted, so I won't overplant them with something else, since they won't come up until next year. As onion family plants, Alliums are not liked by deer, and they go dormant for the summer so dry is not an issue. The big flowers are fun and bees love them.

Chinese Chives

No photo today (Ning has the camera in China) but this is what Chinese chives look like. Yesterday I made Chinese dumplings for honored guests. The filling is a mixture of finely chopped Chinese Chives (garlic chives, also called Chinese leek), some finely chopped tofu, and some finely chopped scrambled egg. These are combined with some soy sauce, and packed into wrappers made from flour and oil, then boiled. This is not exactly the same recipe, but amazingly similar, considering that it it is from a Thai recipe.

The Chinese chives grow easily. They are perrenial and once established, grow rapidly after cutting each crop. We have them in two half-barrels, which makes them accessable for cutting, and allows for close management (especially keeping weeds out, since young chives and grass look so much alike). This is about the 3rd cutting this year. They will get a dose of fish emulsion to speed the next crop. There are several varieties in China. The better ones here came from a packet of seeds that Ning brought from China. They are a Winter Dormant variety.

As a onion/garlic family plant, the flowers should attract beneficial insects, and the plants may keep away some harmful insects. They are supposed to be pest free, but there was a problem last year with a tiny black aphid. Some soap spray solved that problem but it took a couple of tries.