A good illustration of French Intensive Gardening.

I am experimenting with intensive planting  of Cabbage. I would rather have smaller heads but more in number. Next year I might only plant the mini size cabbage. They have a great taste and are much better sized for small family's. They are delicious steamed with a little butter on top. To the right is a bed of Mesclun lettuce. I try to have as little bare soil as possible showing. It's nice to always have some plants or seed to put in any available space.

Rabbits defeated? Pvc pipe and garden netting.

I think rabbits have been eating my Radicchio.I have cut off some 1/2 inch PVC pipe about twelve inches long. I drive these stakes in the ground, and then take five foot sections of 3/8 PVC pipe, which I insert in the stakes. It makes a nice hoop support.Then I covered it with garden mesh netting. this should keep the cabbage butterfly's out and the rabbits at bay. It seems the rabbits and ground hogs especially like the following: Radicchio, Red Beets, Romaine lettuce, and Brussels Sprouts. I think I planted 12 Brussels sprouts and one has survived. I think I know how to fend them off next year.

My 1st Cucurbitis maximus- 45 pound pumpkin

I was hoping for something a little larger. But still this is the largest pumpkin I've ever grown. The variety said it was Cucurbitis Maximus.We picked it yesterday.http://www.guy-sports.com/humor/stories/strange_pumpkin.htm

Hugelkultur- German style raised beds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sp_IObIkInQ   Check out this link. The Germans invented a raised bed system called Hugelkultur, where the bed sits on top of logs and brush. This would be a great way to raise your garden up if your ground floods. Also you can get some really good landscaping ideas. Its way better than burning your trees or hauling them away after a storm.

Starting to double dig a new row with compost.

In the red wheelbarrow is the dirt I removed from the raised bed. You can see the trench. In the other wheelbarrow is the compost that I will fill in the trench with.As I go along I throw compost in and on the dirt in the row. I'm going to later on  re-double dig and fill the trench next time with leaves. They have just started to fall here. Last year the city was  baling them with a hay baler into 600 pound bales. I'm hoping to get several next month.

Mustard Greens and Evergreen bunching onions.

Yesterday I scattered some Mustard green seeds ans some Evergreen bunching onion seed. I think if it rains there is still time for the Mustard. I also want to see if the Evergreen onions will over winter here. The note on the package from Burpee refers to them as being perennials. Well see what they do.

These are the corn pancakes (Cachapas) from my corn

Venezuelan Cachapas grown in the U.S.Venezuelan Cachapas grown in the U.S.

This pancake is made of ground fresh corn,sugar,oil and a little salt. The Cachapa is the real story behind Venezuelan oil. In Venezuela they have restaurants called Cachaperas. They specialize in the pancakes, delicious white cheese, open pit barbecued grass fed beef, and Batidas-iced tropical fruit drinks. This is my last untill next year. I haven't found any American corn that works and tastes the same.

Double Digging my raised beds with compost.

I have started preparing my raised beds for next spring. I might yet try to plant some mustard greens. This is where my corn was grown. I found out that in about three hours I can double dig a twenty by 3 foot raised bed. I dig a trench and then fill it  pretty much to the top with compost. Then you move over about twelve inches and dig a new trench and throw the dirt on top of the compost. So the whole bed is sort of floating on twelve inches of compost. At the bottom of the trench, before you add the compost, you take a potato fork and push it all the way. Then rock it back and forth to break up the subsoil. I also had to use a mattock/hoe. The subsoil is almost pure clay, and hasn't been broken up in several thousand years. The French Market gardeners who invented the intensive gardening system used to use horse manure and bedding. They would fill the trench and tromp it down every time they would work there beds. The horse manure heats up, providing bottom heat, and allowing the gardener to start his garden earlier in the spring and continue into early winter. They also used wooden frame sides and windows on top to have miniature green houses. This way in their intensive French gardening system they could have high plant populations and maximum production . In the 17 and 1800's near Paris they had a highly developed production system.

Turnips- Purple Top

I planted these July 30th. They are in a double dug bed with lots of compost. I think I am going to have some really nice Purple TopTurnips. They are about as big as a quarter. They will really grow the next five or six weeks. They love sunny days and cool nights.They are much easier to grow in the fall and taste much better too. They are at there best in November.To eat them we peel the skin off with a knife, slice, and sprinkle a little salt. They are a delicious snack.

Giant Pumpkin Cucurbita Maxima

This  pumpkin is only about ten days old. It is still growing. I have one other pumpkin that turned out nice. We'll weigh it later. I guess the trick is to dig a very big hole and fill it with compost. Your supposed to do it in the fall and then plant your seeds or plants there in the spring. This variety has been very insect resistant, and is still sending out new growth It sends out new roots as shoots and has traveled ten feet from where it started 

originally.

These are some of the roots left over from my Venezuelan corn.

The plants grew to be thirteen feet tall, and none of them blew over and lodged. They have these incredible root systems. I need a spade to dig them out, they are almost like tree roots. The corn is really kind of primitive with some of the tassels growing out of the end of the cobs.

Possum

I caught a little baby possum in the live trap. He looked pathetic so I just turned him loose there on the spot. I don't think they do any damage to the plants. I've been sending 7 bundles of Basil to the farmers market each week.

Venezuelan Corn

I was cutting down my corn plants and found another 30 ears of corn. I thought I had it all picked. I'll try to get a picture of the Cachapa pancakes I'm going to make with them.

All the basic tools you need to garden.

A rake, a potato fork, a spade ( I like a tile rounded spade.) and a sprinkling can. I probably should have added a scoop shovel.

September 8th. I planted green onions/scallions today.

They used to call them winter onions (Winterheckenzweibel). It used to be you could plant them in the fall and they would be ready to go in the spring. With some varieties they have bred this ability out of them We'll see what happens with these. On September 15 I'm planning on planting Bloomsdale Winter Spinach. This variety should get a good start and then take off early in the spring. I broadcast ( randomly scattered)  the seeds, raked them in, patted them down with my hands ( for capillary action and better germination). Then covered them with burlap, and watered them with my sprinkler can. You can buy the burlap at home centers and sewing stores. I use it over and over.

The onions are Cipollotto Da Mazzi, I purchased them from Seeds of Italy.

A wind storm this weekend wiped out my pole beans.

We had winds of more than 30 mph. Next year I'll have to anchor them better. It's a shame they were really starting to produce. They were Kentucky Wonder, which is a Roma style bean. Fatter and meatier than bush beans.

Cilantro

I think I planted this Cilantro/Chinese Parsley July 30th.

It's pretty easy to grow just broadcast it and rake it about 1/4 of an inch deep. You can plant it all spring and summer long. look for any available space in the garden and do succession plantings.

Purple wine grapes.

All the netting is to keep the birds away.These wine grapes were very tasty as well.

White grapes for white wine.

These grapes were very sweet, on the small side and lots of seeds. Still good to eat.

Visited Park Farm Vineyard In Durango/Dubuque, Iowa Today.

We had a great time visiting the Vineyard. An old friend of mine is the owner.

Imperator carrots

I think they did pretty good for a first year garden. We won a first place ribbon with them at the fair. I think the secret to carrots is to have a seed bed dug really deep.

Black Beauty Eggplant

It's not a real good picture, but you can get the idea. I think I only grew six plants that I started from seed. One of the plants is almost five feet tall They have really done well. the only thing that bothered them a little was the Japanese beetles.In every garden every year there are successes and failures. My bell peppers hardly set any fruit, some plants none. I think maybe some nutrient was missing in the soil early on. Well see what happens next year.

Purple Potatoes

I planted these with my grandchildren one week before Easter. I don't know the name of the variety. I bought them in a local hardware store.They are an indeterminate variety, meaning that they will keep growing until frost kills them. Also if I don't dig them they will take off growing again next spring. With potatoes you don't want them to get frosted, so about October 1st I'll cut all the leaves and vines off. Shortly thereafter I'll harvest them. They are purple inside even after you bake them, so you can make purple mashed potatoes for Thanksgiving. I'm going to try to raise them next year in a raised bed with wooden sides and keep adding taller sides. Kind of like a wooden box that keeps getting taller. Then you fill in the box with compost as you go. I think I might plant them this fall, instead of next spring. With this variety if you miss some in digging they come up next spring as volunteers.

Basil september 3rd.

I think I planted this in early June, right after radishes were done. It has been really foolproof, no pests have attacked it.It was unfazed by the hot weather, and seems to like the cool as well. We blended it in a blender with olive oil and a little water and then spooned it into ice cube trays. Then we froze it and saved it in plastic bags to use later. I cut and bundled up a bushel to send to the farmers market this morning. I've cut this four or five times this summer.

A visitor I had last night.

I don't treat all of the visitors to the garden this poorly. One less raccoon to dump over the garbage bin, and eat plants.