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.

Saving seeds. Cilantro. 8.18.15

Cilantro Seeds Ready To Collect.  8.18.15

 I left a bunch of cilantro to go to seed.  It's brown and dry, so ready to collect seeds.

I may use some for spice.  Cilantro seeds are the same as coriander.

Saving seeds is very easy.  I used scissors to cut seed bunches, placed them in a bowl.  Then worked them for a couple of minutes with my fingers.  The seeds fall off the stems.  They don't need to have all of the chaff removed.

I'll let them sit a little while, then they go into an envelope to save for next Spring.  I might plant some this late summer.

Partially Cleaned Cilantro Seeds.  8.18.15

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.

Kitchen Garden / Raised Bed Garden. Progress Report. 3.6.14

Chinese Chives, rejuvenation project

Garlic Inchelium Red and others

Cilantro, Yellow Potato Onion, and some iris starts

 Haven't done much, due to illness.  It only takes a small effort to do some things in the yard and garden.

Garlic Chives.  These are the ones I dug out of half-barrel bed in Vancouver and planted in raised bed at Battleground.  I've added a row cover to the bed, although it's off today to let in rain.  Probably due to warming effect of row cover, they are more vigorous than other rows of Chinese chives that I established last year.  Here they have more room, and a real local soil/compost mix instead of potting soil.  I hope they will rejuvenate and provide significantly more vegetable.

Garlic bed.  The Inchelium Red looks like corn.  It's big and vigorous.  The German Porcelain is doing pretty well too.  A few plants did not make it through the winter but most are sturdy and healthy appearing.  The row of unknown is a rescue variety.  The starts were smaller and later, so not a fair comparison.

The overwintering cilantro is growing nicely.  I didn't know until now that cilantro could be fall planted.  Good lesson to learn.  The Yellow Potato Onion is less vigorous this year.  I don't know why.  It seems to be growing now, including bulbs that did not germinate before winter started.

Egyptian Walking Onions

 The Egyptian Walking Onions are growing nicely.  Whatever was eating them seems to be leaving them alone now.  We should  have fresh scallions from these in 2 or 3 weeks.  We could now, if we will settle for small ones.  As apparent in the photo, on the left I replanted bulbs that I kept from full grown plants.  On the right are small topsets.  The bulbs have much larger, sturdier plants.  This difference should mean an extended window for harvesting scallions.

Raining - several inches in past few days.  Having prepared raised beds during the winter, no digging is needed to start some seeds.  I planted a row of cilantro, a row of spinach, and a row of Cincinnati Market Radish, a long carrot-like variety.   The spinach and radishes may need protection from animals.  Cilantro does not need protection.

Seeds Planted 3.6.14,  Radishes, Spinach, Cilantro

Not shown, the low tunnel bed has nice onion starts, about 2 inches tall.  The radishes, turnips, and mesclun are nice little rows, with big cotyledons but no adult leaves yet.  I don't know if the cover is protecting from animals - mice/voles - but so far so good.  Rabbits and deer can't get in, I think.

Peas haven't come up yet.  I will plant some in containers.

Overall I am very pleased.  Even though I don't know what I am doing sometimes, some useful and fun vegetables made it through a winter with historic freezes, and are growing earlier than the soil can be worked for Spring gardening.

Onions, garlic, shallots.

Green onions from Egyptian Walking Onions

 Nice to have some scallions from the garden this time of year.  These were Egyptian Walking onions, that I did not pull out.  They resprouted and are beginning to be big enough to eat.

The onion bed is starting to grow.  Planted roughly 5 weeks ago.  At the end is a row of cilantro, about an inch tall, planted the same time.  The Egyptian Walking onions are all up.

Onion bed at one month

 The Yellow Potato onions are starting to grow.  Most are still not showing above ground.

The garlic, planted about 4 weeks ago, is several inches tall.  Right on schedule.

Yesterday I cleared out a 3-foot by 4 foot section of the tomato bed.  I added 1/2 bag of chicken compost, and planted shallots.  The shallot starts were saved from this summer.  I planted 4 rows.  That is from the original 2 rows.  About the same amount is available for eating.  Starting them later this year.   These shallots might have been larger, if I didn't let them go to seed.  The honeybees loved the flowers, so I didn't want to remove the flower heads.

Garlic bed at one month

Holland White Shallots

Generous fall harvest, tomatoes, peaches, chives

Also mint, basil, volunteer cilantro, bell peppers, chilis (still green).

A couple dozen fell off with the heavy rains the past few days. They taste very 'peachy' although not super sweet. There are also about 2 dozen left on the tree. Cool!

Tomatoes continue to produce. The heavy rains caused splitting of the cherry tomatoes, and a few big tomatoes. The Better Boys have given us some humongous juicy tomatoey tomatoes, and the others have done well, as well. "Fourth of July", while not producing until mid august, has been quite rewarding with plum-sized juicy fruits.

This is very late for a chive crop. These gave enough for a big batch of chive-filled dumplings.

Super-Early Seed Planting

It's been nice and warm, seems amazing for February. Here is a screenshot from weather.com:

"Tropicals" like tomatoes, chili peppers, eggplants, and basil, can't go into the ground until May, due to the risk for frost and the cool ground. I do need to measure the ground temperature. Cool-weather plants, some of which can even be winter-sown, are another matter, I think.

I've been wanting to do this project for a long time. Ning found a couple of "free-for-the-taking" wine barrels, and scarfed them up for use as planters. They've been sitting for a year or two. Today I got out the Skill-saw and cut them in halves, then drilled multiple 1-inch holes in the bottoms of each. Ning wanted to be able to move them around, so we added casters.

The main incentive was a warmer and more controlled environment for chili peppers and eggplants, which are challenging in the Maritime Pacific Northwest climate. It's still 3 months too early for those, but with unseasonably warm weather, I decided to try greens and radishes. Being above ground, South side of house, on a masonry patio, they should be much warmer. Today is 54F. The past week has been in a similar range. If it freezes, I can cover them as long as I have some warning. Freezing should not harm these plants. Weeds are growing actively, and brassicas are a lot like weeds in hardiness. The onions survived hard freeze down to 15 F in December, without damage.

Here's what we planted:

Some lettuce, Black Seeded Simpson - 40 days
Radish, Daikon Miyashige White - 60 days
Radish, French Breakfast - 28 days
Carrot, Scarlet Nantes - 65 days
Radish, Cherry Belle - 24 days
Cilantro, Slow Bolting - not listed
Mesclun, Asian Salad Greens blend, 21-45 days

Plus, I pulled a couple dozen struggling top-set onions from a garden bed, where they had been neglected, separated them, and planted individually for use as scallions.

It's always an experiment. I'll look for a sheet of plastic to cover them, keep them warmer. This is 2 of 4 half-barrels, so I can plant more in a couple of weeks.

They will probably take longer than listed. That's OK. If they are not fully developed by the time that we plant chilis and eggplants, we can harves them as 'baby vegetables' or feed them to the chickens. But given that we have about 85 days, I suspect that we'll have some garden-fresh greens before that time

I like the "controlled environment" aspect of using a prepared potting soil, raised above ground level. Less liklihood of disease problems, easier to plant, harvest, weed, thin. No getting feet muddy and tramping down the soil. Expense is an issue - it takes a lot of soil to fill the barrels. If they were not free, that is another issue. They should last a long time - I have 10-year old half-barrels that still look great and show no signs of falling apart. Yet.

Tomato Progress notes

Tomatoes now range from 20 inches to 32 inches. Tallest are Supersweet 100 and Lemonboy, both at 32 inches. Not actual tomatoes on the vines, but many blossoms.

Cilantro is blooming like crazy. The purpose, other than to have seeds for next year, is to attract hoverflies and tiny wasps which are considered beneficial.

Seed germination

From the recently planted seeds, so far:

Cilantro (2 days ago)
Tiny Tim tomato (today)
Lemon Boy tomato (today)
Cherokee Black Tomato (barely, today)

Germination time for these, then, is 9 days. For cilantro, 8 days.

Poodles Love Spring Weather

Other weekend garden tasks -

The 'winter sow' letttuce didn't come up. So I replanted the container with cilantro.

The Chinese Apricot was planted (from Lowes, "Prunus armeniaca "Chinese").

Picked up a back of used coffee grounds from Starbucks.

That's about all.

Interesting web site on gardening by nature's signs: phenology. This will be a topic to develop.