Kitchen Garden Seedlings.. 4.6.2021

These are seedlings for the tomatoes that I was overthinking.  There are Roma sauce tomatoes, nonhybrid determinate heritage types that I wanted to grow and save the seeds.  I got them growing before April 15th, which is usually my deadline to start tomato seeds.  The dwarf tomato varieties all germinated as well - Brandy Fred, Tanunda Pink, Dwarf CC McGee, Extreme Bush (not a statement about political families, just a tomato), Dwarf Johnson's Cherry, Dwarf Improved Champion, and Alpatieva 905A all germinated.   I usually plant several seeds for each, and most of the cells have more than one seedling.

I planted the cilantro and lettuce seedlings in a raised bed.  Both should be OK even if there is a frost.  Also in both cases, there are seedlings germinating in small rows that I direct seeded a few weeks ago.  Those are smaller.  It's interesting that the latest cilantro had very poor germination inside, but the seeds that I planted directly into garden soil are looking better.

The tomato seedlings  that I started earlier are getting too big to keep indoors, but the weather is not warm enough to plant them.   I knew there was a chance of that when I started them.  However, my mental state needed the optimism of starting tomato seeds, so there you are.   I have a few ideas.  First, planting some of the hardier seedlings in the garden will clear up some space on the plant shelves and reduce my trips taking them outside in the am and inside in the pm.  Second, most will go into larger conatiners soon.

 

 

Third, maybe I can plant a few tomato plants outside with protection.  I've used these "Wall'o'water" covers in previous years.  They do the job.  Awkward to work with but they do work. The sides are plastic that has been bonded so they can be filled with water.  One shelter holds about 4 gallons of water.  The sun shines through the water so the plant grows.  The water absorbs heat during the day, and releases it at night, warming the plant.  It's OK as long as the plant doesn't outgrow the covers.  When the nights are warm enough, I can remove the covers.

 

I set up two, and have a soil thermometer inside so I can see how warm it gets, especially at night.  If the soil is above about 50 inside these in the am, I can plant three of the tomato plants.  I also ordered three more covers, which Amazon states will come in about ten days.

Planting More Seeds for Kitchen Garden. 3.24.2021

 This morning I planted more seeds for the kitchen garden.  With so many seedlings already, it can be a challenge to give them space under the plant lights.  Most of the early ones are tropicals, like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, but some should be able to go outside soon.  Like lettuce, cilantro, celery, chive seeds.

What I planted:

Two six-packs of Chinese chives.  We use a lot of those for dumplings.  Home-saved seeds from last fall.  We've been growing Chinese chives from our saved seeds for about 20 years.   They are perennial so I don't save and plant every year, or even every other year.  The seem to fail to thrive after four or five years, so it's good to regenerate them now and them.

Two containers of cilantro.  One from new seeds, one from seeds saved last fall. 

Paste tomatoes, experiment.  One batch is Roma II hybrid, one is Amish paste tomato.  One six-pack of each.  I have not tried either.  The best are Ranger hybrid from Territorial Seeds but they are WAY more expensive and their shipping and handling is horrendous.  If the Amish turn out OK, I can save seeds from those for future growing.  If not, there is the Roma II hybrid.  My main challenge with paste tomatoes has been blossom end rot.  I read that calcium spray will prevent that, so ordering that now.  Flavor-wise, it's possible that either the Roma or Amish will be better than Ranger, anyway.

I planted some old parsley seeds.  About 5 years old.

The last batch of cilantro seeds was interesting.  I thought the home saved seeds always did well.  This time, germination has been spotty.  Maybe I'm just too impatient.  Still, there is some.  Today, to do a side-by-side comparison, I planted a pot of new Ferry Morse cilantro seeds, and another pot of home saved seeds.  We can use a bunch of cilantro each week, so they can be planted every week or two.

Photo is cilantro seedlings.  I think this is about 2 weeks old.  It does look like more are germinating.

Flowers. 7.12.2020

Lots of flowers blooming now. It's turning out that a lot of them are from seeds I saved myself, but also seeds I bought, and plants that I've grown over the years.

Oriental lilies.  I don't know the name any more.  They only survive here in containers.  7.12.2020

Echinacea, grown from seeds about 4 years ago.  7.12.2020

Cosmos from 3rd generation volunteers, cilantro from saved seeds.  7.12.2020

A daylily I created by pollinating two varieties that I liked, a few years ago.  7.12.2020

Chives, wild petunia, cilantro, and rose moss.  7.12.2020

A flower basket that Ning put together.  7.12.2020

My first attempt at growing poppies from seeds.  Now I know how.  7.12.2020

Crocosmia, descended from some I planted 20 years ago.  7.12.2020

Bee Forage Flowers. 7.1.2020

Over the years, I've tried to plant lots of forage plants for honeybees and native bees. Now that there is a successful beehive in the yard, that interest is renewed. Here are a few blooming now. I know that the vast majority of their forage comes from traveling around the area, with lots of dandelions, daisies, blackberries, and other flowers blooming. We also have some big areas of those on our two acres. I also think it doesn't hurt to add some of our own forage.

Bees like almost any herb.  This is cilantro in bloom.  7.1.2020

When garlic chives are blooming, they are almost always hosting honeybees and local bees.  7.1.2020

Lots of pollen here for honeybees.  The pollen sacs are filling up - rear legs.  7.1.2020

Probably not a significant source of nectar, but bees sometimes forage the daylilies.  7.1.2020

I planted these European lindens in 2012.  They are getting some size now.  Honeybees love them  7.1.2020

Linden flowers are quite fragrant.  7.1.2020

The lindens are buzzing with bees.  7.1.2020

This is a Greenspire European Linden that I planted in 2012.  I wondered if these would grow.  They did.  7.1.2020

Kitchen Garden Update. 6.11.2020

There has been a lot of rain, so not easy to get into the garden for hoeing and weeding.  It's warm, so stuff is growing fast.

Outside the deer fence, I've been planting things that the herbivores usually don't bother.  So far so good.  Most are moved from other locations in my garden and yard.  Mostly herbs and some flowers.  So far, chives, garlic chives, oregano, artichoke, cilantro, swiss chard, mesclun, a couple of smaller irises, marigolds, horse radish, poppies.  I recently planted some zinnia seeds and moved some volunteer Four Oclocks and cosmos to this area.

The first crop of sweetcorn.  Small, but I think that every year about this time.

Fence on other side of garden.  Similar idea.

Looking west from the east gate.  We've been eating lots of greens.  Squashes have female but no male flowers.

Also looking west from the east gate.  Those tomatoes were kind of a response to concerns for food shortage.  There will be a lot of potatoes this year.

Snowpeas in bloom.  These are Oregon Spring.  The Taiwan Sugar variety has white flowers.

Bush beans.  That row was mesclun and radishes.  As soon as they were gone, I planted beans.

Jalapenos are a bit small but growing.  I started them too late.

This bed was a mess.  More Chinese chives, and irises, and a lot of weeds.  Now it's those jalapenos and Chinese Pink Celery, little seedlings.  On the north edge, some slicing cucumbers that will get a trellis.

I have the posts in place for slicing tomatoes and cherry tomatoes.  Down the center row, radishes are almost ready.

Cages are in place for sauce tomatoes.  I will try to keep them upright better this year.  Starting to put out flowers.

Yesterdays root crops and salad greens.  Red radishes, Japanese Wasabi radishes, Japanese white turnips, swiss chard, some pea shoots, mesclun, mustard greens, chives and lettuce.

Old raised bed, was strawberries and garlic chives, neither doing well.  I removed those, transplanting them into fresh soil.  Added some lime, and compost.  Now it's compact pickle cucumbers, some dill and cilantro.

More Vegetable Seeds. 6.2.2020

I planted some more vegetable seeds.  Something seems to be eating a lot of my planted bean seeds.  Several rows vanished completely.  Something also eats some of the plants after they germinate.  I'll try again, Landreth and Roma varieties.  I also planted some more dill and cilantro, which seem to be slow germinating, and the third batch of sweetcorn, this time Ambrosia hybrid.

The garden is very lush.  As usual, I was over-enthusiastic and planted too much.  Photos may follow in a day or two.

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

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.

Greens in Container Garden. 10.3.15

Cilantro.  10.3.15

Mixed Greens.  10.3.15

 Greens, planted late summer, now eating regularly.  Most are doing well.

Radishes look like they might be woody.

I should thin the turnips.

I'm not as crazy about eating the Swiss Chard, as I am about growing them.

Spring Scallions and Turnips.   10.3.15

Chinese Greens and Cilantro.  10.3.15