Greens Update

The micro-green project has turned into a salad greens project.  I have lost count of how many times I have cut these mixes.  They just keep on growing, and growing, and growing.....just a fish feed every couple of weeks has been all that is needed.

DELICIOUS!!

Growing Greens

Grow light system arrived today, and it was perfect timing.....the seeds have sprouted and are reaching for the sky.

The Dreaded Bolt.

The wide swings and temperature have arrived in New England.  These swings along with the accompanying heat wave cause much stress to the vegetable garden.  The tomatoes in bloom this week will likely not set, and the lettuce and greens will likely bolt.  Not so great news all around.

This year I have two beds under shade cloth, and I have been watering the lettuce daily.  So far there are no flower/seed stalks going up, but I have not been able to sample the lettuce to see if the bitterness has increased.  Brassicas and cilantro have however bolted under the cloth.

The 'Slobolt' lettuce seed I ordered has offered zero germination so I can't count on that one getting me through the summer.  I do have other supposed heat tolerant mixes to sow for summer and fall cutting as soon as I make some room.  It seems as though starting the seedlings under fewer hours of light may lengthen the number of days until bolting occurs.  (Just how does one accomplish this without grow lights in the basement though?)  Maybe sow them in trays or lettuce boxes on a shady porch?

Interestingly enough I have noticed another benefit from using shade cloth this year, it seems to be keeping the little green worms of my asian greens and mesclun mix.  From now on I will keep shade cloth over those greens even in cooler weather.

So here is my question for all of you, what varieties of lettuce and or greens do find to be tolerant of longer days, higher temperatures, and large fluctuations?  Do you have any tricks that seem to help prolong your harvest season?

Busting at the Seems

Before I go into detail as to why there is seem busting,  I wanted to go into a little more detail on the pea greens.  I sow a specific variety just for cutting tendrils.  One needs LOTS of peas to thickly sow them in this manner.  Last year I bought three or four standard packets of the Dwarf Gray Peas.  This barely got me anything for cutting.  Then I smartened up and bought the big bag I posted yesterday.  Now I can sow lots of thick rows for cutting.  I also sow peas for peas, two separate things in my garden.  Harvesting young growth results in a sweeter, more tender green, and the Dwarf Gray is said to be the best variety for greens.

The rows shown above are on there third cutting or so, and they are getting a bit unruly.  As a matter of fact the kids complained last night the greens didn't taste good anymore, so it is time to rip them out and sow a fresh batch.  The best part about sowing peas for greens is that in a couple of weeks you are harvesting what you sowed (if you soak those peas before planting), it is practically immediate gratification in the garden.  This year I put them anywhere there was bare dirt.  Some of them are there just for their nitrogen fixing abilities.   Some I yank and toss in the compost pile, some I just turn into the soil.

Okay, now on to the rest......a few years ago I planted a beach plum.  I had never tried (or seen) a beach plum, or tasted the jelly that is made from the fruit, but I love any edible that remains small in size so I went for it.  I was told it did not require a pollinator.  This information was not correct, and so this year I ordered two bare root plants through mail order......you see, this winter I tasted Beach Plum Jelly.  I was immediately hooked and now I must get my tree to bear fruit!   The newbies arrived recently and are just sticks.  Here is the larger of the two pictured below, it is just starting to leaf out:

This wee thing is not going to get me plums is it?  No.  So yesterday in a moment of delayed genius, (note the sarcasm), I called a local nursery rumored to carry the plants.  Sure enough, in stock and flowering, so off I went to buy one.  I am afraid it may be too late however.  My plum began flowering over a week ago, and now we are in this lousy rainy weather pattern, so I don't see the rate of pollination being very high, if anything at all.  But check out the blooms on my new little beauty:

Gorgeous.

If only there were bees buzzing about.  Sigh.  If you have been following along with me you now realize this is my fourth beach plum.  Not sure where to put it.......but the good news is that it won't be picky about it's sight.  And some day if all goes as planned I will have enough tiny plums to make delicious jelly.

Stay with me now, the troublesome part is coming folks.  My little guy was insisting on walking around the nursery while we were waiting for our plum to be brought up.  We went to the closest greenhouse, and what was it filled with?  Low bush blueberries.  It was a sign from the heavens.  We just HAD to bring some home.  The thing about low bush blueberries is that I am a little obsessed.  I have fantasies of landscaping the entire yard with neat little blueberry hedges.  They are so pretty, and of coarse tasty.  They stay nice and compact.  We picked out as many as we could carry, and here they are waiting for a home along with the new plum, and the old plum behind it (most of it's blooms now gone).

There is more.

Wait for it...........

Yuppers, I have officially gone mad.  Where oh where am I going to put these new crowns?  I only bought five.  Just five.  But still, must now find/create/steal them a home.  But more asparagus is never a bad thing right?  These are the Purple Passion crowns.  At least they are suppose to be.  The farm carried two different varieties and these were in the purple box, but the bunch was not specifically labeled as many others were.  Again- in my delayed thinking I now realize I should have pulled five crowns from a bunch that was labeled to insure somebody did not pick up a clump of Jerseys and put it down in the Purple Passion box.   Now I am paranoid and worrying over the variety of crowns I hold.  I kill me.

My husband commented that we are running out of room.  Yes we are.  But my goal is to have lots of stuff to eat growing at home, and by golly I am achieving it!  Personally, I think we ran out of room some time ago, and now I am just plain pushing it.  Wouldn't it be so freakin' cool if I really had no front lawn some day?  Just edibles?  There are people out there who have done it.  And I like it.  (Honey if you are reading this avert your eyes. )

Whats Cookin'

Last year I mentioned wanting to focus on greens in the garden this year.  At first I was feeling as though I fell short, but now that the season is picking up a bit I think I made a good effort.  We are eating a sizable salad or using greens in other ways daily.  Buying the giant bag of pea seeds (5#'s) was the best thing I did.  Wilted pea greens in our mashed potatoes, a couple of handfuls thrown in a stir-fry, spring rolls with peanut sauce, salads, bunny food, the list goes on.  We -L-O-V-E- our pea greens.

Claytonia, arugula, baby kale, baby chard, mache, and spinach add interest to standard lettuce and mesclun mixes.  The variety of greens growing is greater than anything we have had in the past, it is exciting to have fresh ingredients after a long cold winter.  (Isn't the little lilly pad leaf with flowers enough to make you smile?  Simple pleasures, like claytonia in my salad thrill me.  What a garden geek I have become.)

Today I made garlic-chive pesto pasta with last year's dried tomatoes and canellini beans.  Also,  some quiche with an herbed crumb crust instead of the standard pie crust fare.  Garden asparagus, dried tomatoes, and onions comprised the filling.  Yum.  Garden eating is good, and green tastes great!!

Herbed Multigrain Crust (for quiche):

1/3 C prepared bread crumbs, seasoned is fine

1/3 C AP flour

1/3 C whole wheat flour

1/3 C cornmeal

1/3 C butter, melted

1/2 tsp salt

dried herbs to taste

 (I use a good quality Italian Seasoning blend)

Mix ingredients with a fork and press into pie plate.  If your bread crumbs are un-seasoned consider adding a sprinkling of onion or garlic powder to the mix.  Prepare quiche as usual.  This crust comes together in a pinch if don't want to make pie crust, or don't have any pre-made on hand.  It is savory and crumbly-crunchy.   You will either think it is great, or swear to never make quiche that way again.  Just thought I would share.

HAPPY GARDENING!

The Last Dig

I FINALLY made it out to the garden today to do my final dig for the year.  All the recent rain made pulling dahlia and gladiola tubers an easy task.  Well, aside from the dahlia that was intertwined with a rat's nest of asparagus roots, that one took a beating as I tugged and ripped the tubers off the main stem one by one....I am hoping rot does not set in in all the newly exposed flesh.

I also pulled most of the remaining carrots.  One of the later sowings had not put on much growth, so I left them...here is the bunch I pulled, disappointing!

I have so many carrot varieties growing in three different beds, too many for me to keep straight....not sure which 2 varieties these are, but I can at least narrow it down:  the carrots in the spinner basket are either Mokum or Bolero.  The bunch to the left of the basket are either Petite 'n Sweet or Short 'n Sweet.  They smelled so good as they were tugged from the earth, it will be interesting to see if the cold weather sweetened them up or not.  The Napoli I sowed never took off (my bad, they went in quite late).  I am going to cover them with straw and hope they winter over for an early Spring carrot.

Lastly, some Rouge D' Hiver romaine will be on the menu tonight, nothing like being spoiled by crisp greens from the garden in mid- December!

(P.S.- we have a Christmas tree on the premises, though it has not made it IN the house.  Baby steps.  :)  )