Red Russian and Lacinato Kale

I planted my Kale early last spring and let it grow all summer long. I have never grown Kale before, and the plants haven't really got as big as I  expected them too. but they went months with out a drop of rain. They seem quite foolproof to grow, The Lacinato or dinosaur Kale are more tender, and I would probably grow them next year, they seem to have gotten crowded out by the Red Russian which is a larger more robust plant/

Black Spanish Radishes

I grew a few of the round black Spanish radishes and was really impressed with them, They got about as big as tennis balls, and had a really good flavor. Early on they were too hot, but by the end of October were very good. I had some friends that liked them as well. I would like to grow more next year and the want to try the oblong ones also.

Argentum and Bright lights Swiss Chard

I

I would highly recommend planting Bright Lights Swiss Chard, because it is so pretty, and the stems add nice color when you are cooking. It doesn't get quite as big as some of the other varieties, but I think it is a little more tender. I also grew a white stemmed variety called Argentum. This is how my patch looked at the end  of October. I picked it over and over this summer, even when it was one hundred degrees out. I never watered it and it did great under semi desert conditions. I have really developed almost a craving for it cooked. I brown turkey sausage in a frying pan, with olive oil and water, so it doesn't burn. Then I put a tablespoon of peanut butter, and a teaspoon of fermented fish sauce in the pan. Also a pinch of hot pepper and black pepper. Then put in the Chard and cook until it is wilted. Serve it on rice or boiled, or steamed potatoes with some soy sauce.  

Calabrese Broccoli Rabe

This is my one plant of Calabrese Broccoli Rabe that made it some how through the summer, and rabbit attacks. The plants keep getting bigger and more productive as the season goes along. Really we couldn't keep up eating the broccoli from this one plant. I decided that I am not going to plant the conventional broccoli anymore. You only get one head basically and that's about it. If you planted 3 or 4 of these you would definitely have some to freeze. What you get is lots of small heads.

Final 2012 Tomato Photo

The plants never quite reached 16 feet. I did hit a solid 15 1/2. At the end they came on strong. I still have quite a few ripening in the house to eat. However it was a terrible year for tomatoes with excessive heat and drought. This was the first year in my life that I ever watered tomatoes. I intended to do so from the beginning of the year. I am not sure that I will again next year, given the expense of city water, and the time required. I am sure the water increases volume of production, and if one is attempting to grow giant tomatoes will help in size and quality of fruit. Really tomatoes desire much more water than is commonly imagined and also the roots go down much farther also. Under proper conditions as much as five feet. AsIi write this I think I have convinced myself to water again. I watered daily, and as much as 15 gallons a day, per plant. I was impressed with the Purple Cherokee, Brandywine, Radiator Charlys, and Gold medal.

Bastard Trenching

At times the mattock comes in handy.

I don't have a picture to go along with this note, however I discovered one evening that I have been misrepresenting myself as double digging my garden, when I have actually been Bastard Trenching it. Apparently here are the differences. In some soils or locations, you can dig down and remove two spade lengths (spits) of soil from your trench before you hit subsoil. I use both a Round Point Tiling Spade, a Square Point Shovel with a short handle, and at times a Mattock. The subsoil imagined, as soil not remedied with organic matter and undesirable to mix it in the topsoil. Then having removed approximately 24 inches of topsoil, the underlying subsoil is broken up once again by the Round Point Tiling Spade. Then one takes a potato fork and works in manure or compost in this layer which is three feet down from the surface. However  Bastard Trenching is used,( such as in my case where the subsoil is pure wind deposited clay), and only 12 inches down from the surface. The good soil is only 12 inches deep. So it is removed and then the second layer, broken up amended and so forth. In this case one inches deeper over the years until the soil can be properly doubly dug. Sorry if I have misled any one on this point of distinction.

Sweet Potatoes

I tried to get a sweet potato I had bought in the organic section to take root in a jar of water. This is what we used to do when I was a kid

It was obvious that it had been treated with something, and it took weeks and weeks to sprout, it finally did and this is what I got off of one plant.

Fall Calcot planting

I've been busy planting y Calcots, which will make nice spring green/scallion onions. Yesterday I planted 50 lbs/25 kilos and I plan on doing 50 more today. They are my  manure winter cover crop. You have to use the Spanish White bulbs, otherwise they don't taste so sweet, nor grow tall and slender. Last year I tried the Yellow Spanish and the worked ok, but sort of wanted to bulb up. Go with the White Spanish.

Papaya in Illinois

Last spring my granddaughter and I saved some papaya seeds from a papaya. We dried them on a paper towel for a few days, and then planted them in sphagnum moss in a little fish bowl covered with saran wrap. About ten sprouted. I transplanted them into my hotbed, and one finally survived to the garden bed. It has done quite well and is about three feet tall. I am going to try to dig it up and put it in a planter inside for the winter.

Evergreen Bunching Onions in a box.

A while ago I made this bottomless box.  I removed and sifted the soil and transplanted 60 plants. About 20 have survived the hottest July on record. I am going to begin to fill in the box to blanch the onions. They are just about big enough for the first layer.

Black Spanish Radishes

About July 30th I planted Watermelon Radishes, Black Spanish, Giant White, and Purple Top Turnips. It cooled off enough that I could sprinkle them and I have pretty good germination. I have found out you don't want to lose a couple of weeks waiting on it to rain.I am kind of intrigued by the Spanish Black and Giant White radishes which I have never grown before. The Watermelon radishes are green on the outside and red interior. They are really crisp and good in salads. I have some Romaine lettuce started under shade cloth to transplant for later.

Celery-Naked and with clothes.

I don't have enough experience with celery to know whether it is doing good or not. It hasn't rained ( except 1/2 inch), but at least it has cooled off with highs around 80. I am spraying it once a week with a copper based fungicide because the leaves picked something up. I give it tons of water, but I don't know if it gets enough sun. I guess in about 8 weeks I'll know. I forgot to take pictures of my celeriac which looks real good. Also I have some cutting celery with very nice flavor, I'll definitely grow it again next year. It has grown all summer under a shade cover.

Tomato cage Extensions.

Some of the tomato plants were nine feet tall in eight foot cages, and  we have approximately 3 more months of growing season left. So I added another eight foot cage on top of the original cages. I think potentially the plants might hit 15 feet. I am also hoping that we don't get any wind storms. I just started picking ripe Tomatoes last week. With indeterminate Tomatoes grown under good conditions , I don't know what you can do but keep going up. There is a certain correlation between size of plant and volume of Tomatoes produced. The plants are getting about ten gallons per day per plant. It has been really hot, 103 yesterday, but they keep growing. I'm hoping for it to cool off so they can start setting fruit again.

My Venezuelan corn July 26th.

Some of the corn is doing good, seeing how it has never had rain. I have watered it a little bit several times. Some is shriveling up and dying. This is the worst year to garden since 1956. We have had less than an inch of rain since may.This corn is no till, it is growing in a place where it has been mulched for three seasons with nothing planted. It is pure clay filled with rocks, you can't even dig in it.

Here is a shot of my vertical watermelon and muskmelon trellis.

Here you can see my first Sugar Baby Watermelon of the year. I took some netting and made a sling for it. I have Sugar Baby and Yellow Doll. I have spotted about 7 watermelons growing. The muskmelons are just setting. The melons don't seem to be really good climbers so I tie the runners with string until the tendrils take hold. I haven't grown them vertically before but they are really taking off and it looks like a good idea so far. I haven't watered these plants and it has basically never rained since the day I transplanted them. The drought doesn't seem to phase them.

Trumpet Zucchini Rampicante and trellis

I planted one of these Trumpet Squash/Zucchini and picked my first one just yesterday. I built a trellis that you can see to the left of it out of wire fencing and scrap lumber. It is also starting to spread to the right on top of my cucumber trellis. It has set five fruit so far. It has been really hot 95-100 for a week and it looks like it is shutting down blossoming for a while.

Surviving the heatwave.-My temporary shading for my tomato plants.

All this week it has been in the 90s and the next three days 100 degrees. I don't know if shading helps, but I'm thinking it  should. I don't expect them to set fruit but I am hoping they keep growing. I am watering each tower about 5 gallons of water a day.

Here are my no till Venezuelan Corn plants.

Two years ago this was a steep hillside covered in weeds, and wild onions. I smothered them out with cardboard and have mulched continuously with leaves and straw. The soil was or is rocks and clay, but it finally looked plantable, so I pulled the leaves aside and planted the corn and covered them up again with leaves. I have been watering them a little with manure tea.

Blanching my Blue Solaise Leeks.

I mixed up my Mammoth Pot leeks and Blue Solaise Leeks in the hot bed and I am just now figuring out which is which. I put these 12 inch drainage tiles on to blanch them just this morning. I've never done this before.

Garden update for June 22nd

I have a few peppers coming along.

I have two Moon and Stars Watermelon plants, which as I understand it will become very large plants covering lots of ground.

These are my Florida Speckled Lima Beans. As soon as the soil temperature hit 70 degrees they began to sprout and grow. Next year I will sprout them in the hot bed. I think I could gain a couple of weeks with them. They had some slugs on them this morning so I blasted them with Diatomaceous Earth.

I have about 70 different Cole plants potted up that I plan to transplant in a few days. I realized that taking them directly from the hot bed to the garden was causing a lot of shock. So I put these in little Dixie cups. As soon as they show a little growth in they shall go. I have some Broccoli Romanesco that I am quite interested in.

This picture shows some of my Venezuelan corn in with my Sugar Baby and Yellow Doll Watermelons.

It looks like the tomatoes have hit the 5 foot mark. They are growing an inch and a half per day. I am watering them daily.

The different varieties are all inter-planted so it will be a surprise when they ripen. It looks like the herbicide damage is spreading uphill. I think maybe the root systems are inter twined and some bad stuff is spreading. I hope it stops. The first green tomatoes showed up about June 10th.

I took the Celery collars off this morning and they go back on tomorrow. So they got a little sun today.

Ground Cherry plant. Physalis Pruinosa

I love to eat Ground Cherries. In Colombia they sell them on the street and in the grocery stores. They call them Uchuva. I never knew what they were, but one day I figured them out and am growing them in my garden. I bought the seeds on Ebay, and are an unnamed variety. After they had been planted a few days wood chucks (evil demons) ate them to the ground, three succumbed but eight have survived and are finally making a comeback. I saw the first flower today, and am kind of excited. They taste almost like little oranges. I don't know too much about them, but am watering them daily and have them mulched as well.

I am seed saving with these lettuces.

These lettuces survived the winter so I am letting them cross breed and produce some kind of a hybrid. They were both leaf lettuces and one was red tinged. I am looking forward to planting them this fall and see what I end up with, They are quite slow growing and don't seem to be in any hurry to do their thing.

Seed Saving Swiss Chard

I had one Swiss Chard plant survive the winter, and I have let it go to seed so I can harvest it. I have developed an addiction to this plant. I've already cut this years plants twice and it is almost ready again. It is a great plant to have in the garden, it grows back as long as you just cut the leaves. The insects and heat don't bother it and it will produce into November.

I am growing one plant of Rampicante Zucchini this year.

I am interested in this variety of zucchini because it is supposed to be prolific, resistant to the wilt that kills regular zucchini, can also be used for winter squash, and has very unusual shapes. Note the curly cue tendril. They grow normal until they latch on to something then they twist and put spring like tension on the plant against the wind to hold it in place. The spring like form would give it some give as well. Quite ingeniously devised by our maker.

A tomato progress picture.

It has been really dry and we have basically not had a real rain for 5 weeks. I read somewhere that the man that set the world record for maximum fruit production watered his plants daily. So that is what I have been doing. He said they should grow about 1 to 1.5 inches per day, and I think mine are. They are somewhere between 3 and 3.5 feet tall and filling in the crw cages nicely. His record was some where around 300 lbs per plant. If they continue their growth they should hit eight feet some time in August. If necessary I plan on putting another 5 foot cage on top of the eight footers to keep the plants going. Last year I never watered once and all the plants over grew the eight foot cages. I was picking really nice tomatoes into October. So my experiment is to see what happens with growth and fruit production if they are never stressed or limited with water availability. I have a 3 inch drainage tube with holes buried underneath the plants and in two or three minutes with the hose the watering is done. The varietals this year are Purple Cherokee, Radiator Charlies Mortgage Lifter, Neve's Azorean,Big Zac, Opalka,Gold medal, and Brandywine Sudduth strain.

Last week I put collars on my celery to blanch and force it to grow taller.

The variety I am growing is Verde Pascal. I really have very little experience growing celery, but it seems to be going well. I am using rosin paper that has not been dyed. A week ago I used for the most part 9x9 squares and a string to hold them on. Also the little bamboo sticks help them grow straight. Some plants had a little rabbit setback but seem to be recovering. I am watering them every day and they are mulched as well, they grew three inches this week. Yesterday on the taller ones I placed 12 inch collars on them. When you take them off you can pluck off yellowed leaves and side shoots. On the really hot days I am covering them with old bed sheets for shade. I grew them from seed and the were started in early March.

I harvested my Grey Griselle French Shallots today.

I pulled 67 bunches of these shallots today. Some of them had as many as 20 shallots per bunch. So I guess I have hundreds and hundreds of theses bulbs.  I am going to try to braid them like garlic and then hang them up to dry. This is my second season growing them. I bought about 20 bulbs a few years ago and now i have all of these. I planted them last fall and they were falling down and cooking in the upper 80 degree temps we've been having. It might rain tonight and it seemed like a step backwards for them to get wet and soggy.

I harvested my Red Janice Garlic yesterday.

Last week something happened to my Garlic. I thought an animal had gotten into it and knocked it down to the ground. Really what happened is it was ripe, and when soft neck garlic is ripe it falls over. So  I picked about 80 nice heads. The variety is Red Janice Garlic.  

Chioggia Beets, and Swiss Chard

I planted these out from my hotbed about a month ago. I am by far having my best Beet experience with these transplants, and really think it's the way to go. Its been sunny, warm around 80 degrees and dry, and I think they really like a little shade. The only plants I have direct sown this year are Pole Beans, and Corn.

Seed Saving Bloomsdales Spinach.

I have two or three male plants, and two or three female plants, that I am using to produce seed. The male plants have the flowers, and produce tons of pollen. If you shake the plants a big cloud of pollen dust is produced. The female plants which are the keepers, don't have the flower spikes. Next year I wont be so hasty to pull my plants, because the leaves are still quite edible and good quality, even at this stage, and have no objectionable flavor.

Seed Saving from Purple Top Turnip

I saved a few plants from last falls Turnips to go to seed. They look like they would go on all summer. When I have a good bunch of pods to dry I'm going to pull it out. Seeds can be so expensive, I decided to try to start producing some of my own seed.

This years peppers- Tri Color Mini Belle, Chimayo, Carmen, and Melrose.

I sowed my pepper seeds in my hotbed about march 1st. It was when we had daytime temps in the 30's and 40's. I thought at the time maybe none would sprout. But they did great, and last week I transplanted about 45 plants into their bed. Next year I think I will separate them and transplant them once in the hotbed, prior to planting out. I took a knife and ran it down between the plants a few days before setting them out, but they suffered a little that way. I have transplanted hundreds of plants from the hotbed, and literally have had maybe ten that didn't survive. After the annual  summer rain and wind storm comes, and blows the peppers over sideways I've always thought that the next year I need to stake the plants. But I've never done it until now. I used finger jointed wooden lathe. we'll see what happens. You can also so my homemade shade tunnel with some burlap I had laying around. In time I plan on purchasing a large quantity of 40% shade cloth, as I'm convinced virtually no plant likes temps greater than 80 degrees and don't need to bake in the summer sun.

I also am showing my double digging and burying manure under the beds. The cooking manure raised the bed temps abut 20 degrees which the plants are loving, however it isn't safe to do so, because of the wonderful new herbicide Clopyralid, which apparently is omnipresent in hay, straw, manure, grass clippings, and finished compost. The good news is it is only potent at  3 parts per billion or greater and that it breaks down in 265 days. Please call somebody to get it banned.