Raised Beds.

Got up to 100 here today. I expect it Fall to arrive like gangbusters any day. Thought it was here last week. * No rain yet. One drizzle, doesn't count. That's not unusual in my area. Last rain was.... June? Will be glad when the rains start. Watered all of the newly planted trees, after applying a thick compost mulch. Labor of love, and maybe a new generation will benefit from the oxygen, shade, and beauty, some day, so a little water invested now is a good thing. *

(Pic from practicallygreen.com) Today I built a raised bed. For engineering simplicity, I used 2X6s that were 8 feet long. Cut some in half, so the beds are 4ft by 8ft. Somewhat like these from Rodale Institute, with modification. They are 2 timbers high, which makes them a foot deep. On the bottom, I screwed on chicken wire. That's to keep moles from tunneling upward and disrupting the plants. Then bottom liner of cardboard and old cotton factory-made quilt that was about to disintegrate. That's to keep perennial weeds and thistle from growing up through the new soil. Eventually the bottom will degrade, so the beds will be connected to the underlying soil structure, which is good. I think. I filled it half full today. Then wore out. The filler is about 3/4 topsoil and 1/4 yard debris compost. Roughly. I get the compost at a composting center locally, $25 per cubic yard, which is what my truck holds. The dry soil is too hard to dig. I made use of mole hills, filling my wheelbarrow with the tops of mole hills. There are many, many, many, many of those. The moles make the topsoil nice and granular and loose in their hills. I figure they are bringing up minerals too, from the lower layer of soil. Thank you moles. We also had a fence put in, and the post holes were surrounded by the finely ground 'waste' soil, so I used that too. Watered it in, mixed together, watered in, mixed, and raked.

Plan on filling the rest of the bed on Sat or Sun. Then I can plant garlic and heritage onions - white multiplier onions, my favorite. I've been growing the multipliers from just a couple, to now a few dozen. Now there are enough that if next year's crop is generous, I will finally have a lot to eat. So far just eating a rare few, to save and expand the "seed" crop. Sticking mainly with Inchelium Red garlic, which grows so well here I find it hard to believe. Love that garlic. Last year I grew them in barrels which worked great, but the raised beds have more room, and with the larger amount of soil should need less watering. Plus, it's in the countryside and the sun is really brighter there - I hope that makes for bigger and tastier crop. Onions and garlic are considered deer resistant, so I'm not worried about the deer problem with this raised bed.

May put in a row of garlic chives too. Saving seeds from existing plants, and there are some I can move there. Plenty of room in the 4X8 bed, I think. The only fall-planted veg's this time, for me, are the onions and garlic. So that is the only bed that needed "urgent" preparation. The others can be built through the winter. Maybe set one or two up as cold frames? Depends on my energy level.

I'm exhausted and my back hurts. And my knees. All of which is good. There was much to get out of my system. * No pics today. Forgot camera. Except for the Rodale pic, which is attributed, all of these are from wikimedia commons.

Onions, Garlic in Containers. Allium harvest.

It's July in the Maritime Pacific Northwest, so onions, garlic, and other alliums are ripening off. The garlic and elephant garlic are not quit there, so I've left them in their containers. They won't get further water, however. Same for the container of Egyptian Walking Onions.

This was my first experiment growing White Potato Onions (heritage multiplier onion) in containers. I didn't get all of the weeds pulled in late Spring, but they did well anyway. Pleased at the size and number of onions. Two weeks ago, I moved the containers out of the rain and sun, to the north side of the house, to dry off without baking. That's a good part about the containers.  I was concerned about these last fall for 2 reasons.  First, I planted them late, so I didn't know if they would get off to a good start.  Second, I was concerned the plastic containers would either heat up too much, or freeze too much.  They did fine.

Here are the White Potato Onions,  pulled up. This is one container of onions. I don't think you could have so many in an equivalent 2 foot diameter disk in the soil. I will leave them here to dry out. It's in the 80s today so they should dry in a week.

One of the garlic containers. This one is hardneck garlic.  Hardneck garlic forms a scape - the flower head that creates tiny bulbils if allowed to mature.  In early June, we removed the scapes and stir fried them - yummy flavor.  Early removal of scapes is thought to increase the size and yield of the final garlic bulbs.    The plants are starting to dry out. I hope it doesn't rain. These wooden containers are too heavy to move to a sheltered spot.  Since this is the hardneck, it's the  German White Porcelain garlic that I bought and planted last fall.  I forgot to label them, but that's how I can tell the difference.  Glad I sorted that out.  Also it makes sense, because I planted the extra cloves of German White in with strawberries and peppers, and those also sent up scapes.

This one is the softneck garlic.  Softneck garlic does not have a scape.  Inchelium Red garlic, which is what I started with a few years ago, is softneck.  So now I have identified the varieties.

These Allium gigantium were in an inconvenient location. The flower stalks were completely brown, dry, and crispy, so OK to dig up. These started as one bulb about 2 years ago, so pretty good yield here, 5 bulbs. They'll get stored in the garage in paper bags, when dried off, and be replanted in the fall. They are the size of a medium onion.  I don't know if they are edible, and not all that interested in finding out.  However, they area an onion and garlic relative, and are ripening at the same time as the onions, so I included them here.

This Egyptian Walking Onion was mixed in with the White Potato Onions. I could tell because of the "head" of onions that it produced. It's not quite ready to harvest, but I did anyway. I want to see if it will dry off like the other onions, for storage.

Kitchen Garden Progress Notes - Container Gardening

The yellow wax bush beans that I planted a 2 weeks ago. There appears to be some slug damage, so I added Worry Free organic slug bait.

Egyptian Walking Onions, multiplier onion, loves this method of growth. I planted these Oct. 29th. We did not eat many scallions this year, so these will go mainly toward eating onions and starts for a larger number for this fall. I don't know why we didn't eat more scallions, I love eating them.

German Garlic from Southern Exposure, also planted Oct 29th. They are also flourishing in the tubs. There should be some great garlic this summer.

Tomatoes I planted in a tub last week. The temp today is 49 - probably too cool, although last week it was in the 70s. The tubs warm up faster, so may be OK. This tub has seedlings from mesclun that should be ready to pull out in a couple of weeks. The sticks are mulberry prunings, an attempt to see if they grow by the "stick it in the ground" method that I use for figs, grapes, and forsythia. And roses.

Kitchen Garden Progress Report

I pulled the multiplier onions ("yellow potato onion") and garlic from a small bed south of the house. This bed got out of control with weeds, and it looks like most of them died. Or someone ate them. I think I have a dozen to make a new start next year. These are an heirloom variety and I don't want to lose them. Plus they taste really good, but there won't be any to eat this time. I will have a special raised bed or garden box for them next year.

So

In the place of the onions I planted 2 types of bush beans. The seeds are a few years old. If they don't grow, no great loss. But I think they will. If they do, that should mean beans in September.

Container gardens, early spring

The potato project was described yesterday. Here are a few others.

The mixed winter greens an vegetables are behind last year. Radishes, mesclun, spinach, lettuce, and some scallions from seed. They are starting to grow faster now. The chicken wire protect from kitty cat and squirrel doing their gardening. It works. I planted seeds more thinly this year. Less need to think them out now. The green onions have all been eaten. I recommend that everyone who likes early vegetables and loves green onions to grow Egyptian Walking onions. One of the stars of the early vegetable garden. I have many more in the ground. Some of those are too big to eat now, which is good. That means more for later.

Another of the barrel planters. "Inch by inch, row by row. Gonna watch my garden grow." Or in this case, "patch by patch." If I get ambitious I'll add tops to the barrels. That will let in light and warm them up more. That's if I get ambitious.

The potato project was described yesterday. Here are some of the other containers.

The strawberries are growing nicely. Each plant has several leaves. These were the bare root plants that I started 2 months ago. They looked near-death. Every plant survived and grew. I see that some have a few roots above the growth medium. I'll add another inch. Enough to cover the roots. Not enough to cover the crowns. The white spots are crush eggshells. I use them to add calcium.

Late January Gardening

It's that "Late January so it's warming up so the buds open then it freezes and destroys the flowers and possibly kills the tree" weather. It's in the 40s and 50s during the day. Inspecting, quite a number of roses have buds at about 1/4 inch long; peaches have buds swelling; daffodils are starting to peak out of the soil. The daffodils won't be bothered by even a hard freeze, but the peaches might. Some observations:

1. Peaches have quite a bit of what looks like freeze-kill on new growth, but overall look OK. Not sure why, but they did still have green leaves at the time of the first freeze. Most of the newest growth is stout and healthy appearing, and buds are swelling. I sprayed with copper micro-cop spray a 2nd time, hoping to have some effect on the leaf curl. I don't know if it will help at this late stage.

2. There was left over spray. Since the apples had a fair amount of fungal or bacterial disease last year, I sprayed them as well. No significant bud swelling on them.

3. Ditto for figs, so I sprayed them and used up the spray. I'm concerned that there is some freeze-kill on branch tips and brebas. Only the coming of spring will tell.

4. Some Chinese Chives are starting to grow, poking up through the soil.

5. I bought a truckload of medium bark nuggets, and spread them on areas that I have cleared so far. The theory this year is that kitty cat won't like it and will leave it alone. My theories are often disproved.

6. The grapes also appear to have some freeze-kill. If there is significant damage, this will be the first year for them to be damaged by a freeze.

What a waste. These great home-grown organic gourmet potatoes and I forgot them until they sprouted and shriveled. I set aside four of the "gourmet white" which had some stout short sprout in addition to the lanky ones, and threw the rest into the compost bin.

It may be too early to try the potato barrels, but not much to lose. I planted them deep, then covered the sprouts completely with potting mix. This time I was less greedy. I think 4 plants is enough for this small size of barrel. So that's all I planted.

Then a screen for the feline beastie so she doesn't use this for litter.

This barrel contained peppers last year, and some mesclun and greens and radishes last winter. These vegetables are limited not by freezing weather, but but gummy soil too cold to work. That's not an issue in the barrels. I pulled out the remaining pepper roots and stems, loosened the soil, and planted:

Radish, French Breakfast
Radish, Cherry Belle
Mesclun, Gourmet Blend. All of these seeds are from "Ed Hume Seeds".
Onion, Evergreen White Bunching. These take a lot longer, but have fresh scallions when the other varieties are not usable.

So there they are, 4 little rows. In a few weeks, I may plant a second barrel. I plan to wait for these seeds to sprout, first.

Kitchen Garden. Fall planting for Winter & Spring.

I remember the day the airplanes were diverted into the twin towers. I was post-call an was planting multiplier onions and garlic that day. That's how I remember it's about time to plant them again. It's impossible to forget. Last fall it took a long time to get around to planting them, and I planted in December. About half survived and grew, but not as well as earlier planting. Usually almost all will grow. They can be planted into October, but after that it's getting too cold here to get a good start before the freeze.

This location went to weeds this year. It's a bed on the south side of the house. Closest to the house, I've been trying for many years to get a row of asparagus growing. This year, there actually are multiple, fairly tall (3 to 4 feet) asparagus fronds, and even more smaller ones. I think they will finally be growing. Unfortunately, the bed was let go this year, and full of weeds. I pulled the weeds, added some compost and eggshells, and turned it over with a shovel. This will be the onion and garlic bed for this winter.

Here is the layout. I managed to salvage about 25 medium and large white multiplier onions (also called white potato onions). Planted in the fall, a large one will split into numerous small bulbs. A small one will grow to produce a single large onion the following early summer. They are great for scallions, but I always try to save enough to keep the cycle going.

Not realizing that I actually did manage to salvage some garlic, and had saved the bulbs along with the multiplier onions, I bought 2 garlic bulbs at a local nursery. These were German garlic. This is a great variety, large very strongly flavored cloves. I like it a lot.

The other multiplier is known as "Egyptian Walking Onion". They seem to tolerate any care or neglect. They grow a cluster of small bulbs at the top, where other onions have flowers. That cluster can be planted in the fall or spring. Planted in the fall, they give scallions even before other crops can even be planted. This is the main charm, although the onion bulbs are quite pungent. These were pulled out of the bed that now contains beans, and left to dry out of the sun on the North side of the house, sitting there since mid July. They are starting to shrivel a bit, but still look quite viable. I also have some that are starting to sprout while on the tops of the still-planted bulbs. I separated all of the small starts, and planted about 4 inches apart. They will make great scallions, and I'll save enough for a continuing crop to perpetuate the cycle.

I also planted the large Egyptian Walking Onion bulbs. They will make scallions even sooner than the little sets. This will mean a long season when I can just walk out into the kitchen garden and pull some for a treat.

While digging the onion bed I discovered that we had planted some fingerling potatoes there, and forgot about them. Nice crop.

More Kitchen Garden

First, some tree fruits.

The Hollywood plum tree is branching nicely. I pruned it back a couple of weeks ago to maintain shape and compact "backyard orchard" size.

The ONLY fruit on the Hollywood plum tree. That's OK - this is just the 2nd season. Given favorable weather, this and the Shiro could potentially give more next year. That's a big if. Still, a taste in the 2nd season - great! It's still hard as a rock, but should ripen in August.

Trilite peach-plum. Lots of red fruits. All are small and hard, but I expect them to ripen in a few weeks. This is great! I thought I couldn't grow peaches here due to leaf-curl.

Now to the annuals. The zucchini and yellow summer squash are catching up. Again, in one or two weeks, we should be getting some great meals from these plants.

I made the first ties of the cucumbers to their trellis today. They are blooming as well.

Other Kitchen garden plants:

Tomatoes, none ripe yet. I tied more to their posts today.

Onions -
Egyptian Walking onions are ripening the top sets. They will be ready to plant in September. I have plenty - was concerned, thought I overharvested this year.
White bunching onion (potato onion) - The tops were thoroughly dried off. I was worried that these were fully lost, due to late planting (spring instead of fall), then they were lost in the weeds. Not enough to eat many, but at least I saved them for next year.

I may create a raised bed or large container system for the onions this fall - seems to work quite a bit better, and will be easier to maintain. Just requires some ambition.

Garlic - similar, dug up some, but most is lost. Just didn't have time to take care of them.

Beans - no idea if they will produce this way, but I cleared out some weeds in front yard vegetable bed (last year's tomato bed), which was out of control. Then planted Roma II bush beans and Yellow french bush beans. I think we SHOULD get some beans from these in Sept, but it's a maybe/maybe not situation.

Container gardens

The wine barrel container gardens are growing nicely. I do think they got a head start due to coveirng with plastic. Now I'm leaving them uncovered, except for some chicken wire to discourage birds.
Everything has sprouted, with the exception of the old chinese celery and the onion seeds. Maybe they just need a little more time. The seeds that have sprouted and are growing actively are spinach, chinese radish, radish, brassica mesclun, lettuces, and cilantro. I don't know if they will give edibles in the claimed 20 to 30 days, since it's chilly. Still, very encouraging.

Garden Log 2/18/2010

Amazingly warm February. Taking advantage of it, but always with the knowledge that this is way too early and we may yet get freezes and frosts, even severe ones.

The half barrels seem like a great idea. The radishes and mesclun have already sprouted. I tried to plant them thinly, so I would not have to thin them out too much. I did remove a few, so they are about 1 inch apart. Counting, this leaves about 100 plants per barrel, plenty for some early vegetables or greens.

I planted a 3rd barrel. Under the plastic, the temperature was 74 degrees F. In contrast, my remote thermometer gives 53 F in the shade.
I uncovered the radish seedlings, at least for the day, to give them air and reduce risk for fungal disease. I gave them some fish emulsion.

The new barrel was planted with spinach, an Asian Radish called "Rabano" icicle, some 5-year old seeds for Chinese Parsley, interplanted with seeds for Evergreen White Bunching onion in case the Chinese Parsley doesnt grow. Finally, a Lettuce Bon Vivant Blend, multiple colors and shapes of lettuce.

In the front yard bed that had last years' tomatoes, I planted a small patch of Sugar Snap Peas. Assuming they germinate in a couple of weeks, then I'll add a trellace for them.

Ning set up these raised beds for tomatoes and other summer plants. They'll need to be topped off with some bedding soil.

The rose bed, with a little fence to keep nosey dogs out. The fence is more of a suggestion than a barrier.

Barrel with plastic cover, in the sun.

Radishes and other brassicas are sprouting nicely.

Peaches are blooming already. I'm almost thinking 'bummer' because of the risk for frost damage. It is what it is. If a frost is predicted, I'll look for some blankets to cover the peaches and apricots.

And finally, I also bought a bundle of Asparagus roots at Fred Meyer. This was an impulse - given past failures, I thought I would give up this year. It's likely that about a half dozen plants will come up form last year and, if so, that's finally a start at an asparagus bed. This bundle contained 7 roots. I had more success last year by planting them in pots, then into the bed afgter they were a foot tall. I did the same today, planting 6 into pots, but the last and smalles one was planted directly in the bed. We'll see what happens. If I get just one edible spear this year, I'll feel a little like I've made progress.