A very garden weekend

I think we have finally turned the corner with the weather in Milwaukee.  We had snow flurries in the air on Friday night, which we pretended didn't exist as we were driving home in it.  Saturday morning dawned beautifully and the day was sunny and warmer.  It was an especially beautiful morning as I had been looking forward to a woody plants grafting class.  I won't go into great detail about the whole process as it has so many fine points.  I enjoyed the instructor, Michael Yanny very much.  I have heard him speak at other events, so I knew that it would be a quality class.  It also came very highly praised by other friends who did it last spring.  We got individualized instruction with just four people in each session.  He checked our technique and work to guide us through.  Time will tell how successfully we joined two plants together.  I will be purchasing The Grafter's Handbook by R.J. Garner.  We all went home with six pots that we grafted ourselves.  I was partial to the antique apple varieties we had to choose from.  I also did a lilac, amur cork tree, and witch hazel.

 Plants have started popping after a spring rain (Wednesday/Thursday) and a bit of following sun.  I can see the rhubarb poking through.  The dwarf iris are now blooming along side the snow drops.  I covered over a few things in the vegetable garden with straw in November.  I pulled that off on Saturday afternoon and can see some Swiss chard, kale, radicchio, and I think the late planted baby cabbage plants made it as well.  

 

     

It was the official first day of line-dried clothes day today.  I have been putting out sheets and light weight t-shirts most of the winter, but today was an all out, fill up the lines wash day.  Everything dried on the lines without laying them around on chair backs, so that is what makes it the official first day.  I watched birds coming and going the past couple days which we haven't seen since last fall.  Turkey vultures circled the neighborhood while I stood watch over the grill. It was just such a fine day to be outdoors.

I didn't spend as much time outside as I would have liked today.  Between loads of laundry, I was busy making more cutting of coleus, geraniums, and ibosa vine.  I cleaned out some of the old stock plants to make way for more seeding.  The coleus from the last cutting was well rooted and was put into cell packs for spring planting.  I saved a few stock plants in larger pots, back up for failed cuttings and possible starters in the garden.  I seeded my Tidal Wave Petunias and Purple Tower Petunias as they have 8-10 week start time.  I also put in some Red Acre cabbage and Bonsai Pak Choi for early planting out later.  I already have the Brisk Green Pak Choi and the Baby cabbage ready to go.  I set the plants out with my onion seedlings for a few hours today for hardening off.  There is only two weeks until Easter which is my goal for planting them all.  Welcome back, Spring!

My Cold Weather Crops

 All the tomatoes have ripened and are not going to wait for us to eat them all fresh.  Tonight, they became spaghetti sauce with one lone tomato on the window sill as a tribute to all the tomatoes that have gone before.

I am still holding on to my lettuce and cilantro.  The late crop of radishes that I put in have a couple sets of leaves, but I doubt that the gamble I took will pay off in late radishes.  I have a double cover on the bed of row and frost cover.  The rain has been getting through, the sunlight is too low to really push any growth at this time of year.  Nothing ventured, nothing gained.

The two varieties of kale that I grew for eating are powering through this time of year.  Kale thrives in the cold weather and the flavor improves.  I have to get out and get some of this on our plates soon.

There is still some Swiss chard and radicchio hanging in there.  I haven't prepared as much of the chard as I have in years past (not one of John's favorites).  The radicchio is a new plant for me.  My coworkers enjoyed the first crop preparing it in different ways.  They shared how well it worked in their cooking.  I think this will be on our plates soon.

 Parsnips are just starting the process which makes them best in cold weather.  The starches start to turn to sugars making the plant fused with anti-freeze qualities.  It also makes them very tasty.  I used a couple in some beef pasties a few weeks ago.  They are only getting sweeter as they get colder.

The Alpine strawberries are still trying to put on some fruit.  It is taking so long for them to turn red.  Sunlight is waning and so it the ripening power.  They are still a delight whenever I find one on the plants.  I think the squirrels have been beating me to the picking, though.

 On the other side of cold weather plants are the ornamentals.  The sedum in the background is a lovely back-drop to the Sunrise flowering kale.  The sweet alysum fills in with a bed of snowy white flowers.  Right behind this bed are the stars of the garden right now.

As everything else has died back, the 4-pack of flowering kale I purchase this spring is just glowing!  While walking back from voting on Tuesday, I was astounded at how vibrant these are even from the distance.  It is no wonder I have had so many people stop and ask what they are.  They are like the neon signs of my fall garden.  I apologize to those wondering what variety it is since I did not have a tag with them.  Next year...more flowering kale.  They really do look best when in full sun.

My pot of Sunset flowering kale is also looking pretty good.  The plants brightened up after moving them into brighter light.  I will tuck a few evergreen boughs into the soil to fill it out and take it into the Christmas season like I did last year.  Maybe some lights as well.

Seeding the outdoor garden 4-12-12

After a fairly easy bike ride home, I had the energy to go out and look things over.  We also had our spruce stump ground today and my husband had me out raking away the chips.  With the work energy started, I knew I could get in the seeds before our anticipated rain tomorrow.  Since I had done all the bed prep this weekend, it would go pretty quickly.  
The funny thing about growing older is that you don't get everything done in the same amount of time as you did even a few years before.  I had managed to sift two large wheelbarrows of compost, weed and work the bed, and spread the compost.  

After all was said and done, I only got my garden peas and flowering sweet peas in the ground.  If they hadn't been soaking overnight and HAD to go in the ground that day, it probably wouldn't have happened.  The garden peas and beans fall victim to the chipmunks in my yard so after planting, I place some expanded metal over the top to keep them safe.  Once the plants are up a couple inches, I can easily lift the 1" mesh over and off the beds.  

I used some single ply twine to grid the bed.  I tied a knot in the end, stapled it to the edge, knotted the opposite and and stapled it down.  It really is good for distinguishing beds in the square foot gardening method.  You really get the most use out of the soil space.  
Kale had overwintered in one corner of the bed.  I have started a second variety of kale in the house which I will pop in next to these.  I also put in Swiss chard, parsnips, green bunching onions, radishes, lettuce, and beets.  I still have to transplant my onions, but I digress.  

I have some tools that I really like for seeding.  Plastic tags and a grease pencil are a must.  I do not rely on my memory and sometimes I put in more than one variety. The grease pencil scrubs off and the tags can be reused until they break.  I have a dibble (blue thingy), a seed dispenser (green thingy), and a seed shaker (red thingy).  The seed shaker was a pretty good purchase as I can use it for lots of different size seeds and the clicker vibrates the tray to move the seed out pretty evenly.  The hand cultivator is very useful for making furrows for larger seed or raking in smaller, shallow seeds.

For plants that "bulb" out like beets and radishes, I make furrows at least twice the depth that is recommended.  I add in the recommended amount over the seed and reserve the extra soil to the sides of the furrow.  As the plants grow, I push the soil up around the plants to encourage the plant to round out rather than get long and leggy.  This is not something I read, but something I learned through trial and error.  It may be our heavy, clay soil that makes the plants push up more than down, but I know it works for me and recommend it to others who don't get nice round radishes.
Radishes were not always on my "must plant" list.  I have acquired a taste for them over time.  French breakfast are my favorites, but Jung sent Purple Plum radish seeds as a freebie so I divided my space for trying both.  Early planting is a must.  They don't like heat and get woody fast when the summer temps go up.  The spring radishes are cool and crisp and don't seem to have the bite of late season radishes.  Give them a whirl if you haven't planted them.  They also come fast and are ready to eat in about a month (almost instant gratification in garden terms).

So after all was said and done, I had 10 different things planted in the vegetable beds. The garlic has been composted and the herb garden is giving me some fresh additions to my cooking (what says Spring better than chives?).  I still have to get the storing onions planted.  They have spent four nights outside in their pots and it has been in the low 30's so they are ready for whatever the weather has to throw at them.  I hope to post some pictures of the new seedlings soon.

The Garden is Officially Closed for the Season

My kitchen sinks have washed the last of my garden produce tonight.  I went out in the fading light and cut the last of the Swiss chard and kale.  Both of these are cold loving crops, but the plummeting temperatures and snow in the forecast will not be kind to these crops.  I pulled out the salad spinner one more time to clean up these two leafy crops before tucking them in the refrigerator.

The Red Russian Kale became a part of supper with just a quick toss of olive oil and salt.  I put this in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes until it was crispy like potato chips.  A little bit of flake salt and you have good eats.

I forgot to clip off the stems but they made a nice little handle for picking up the kale to eat.  If you make this yourself you will easily tell what is too tough to eat.

I like to make Swiss chard by lightly sauteing coarsely chopped leaves with bacon fat.  I reserve bacon fat from frying in a small 2 cup crock that I keep in the refrigerator for this use.  Just a tablespoon of bacon fat with a healthier oil is enough to add flavor to the whole dish.  I find it ironic that I grow Swiss chard after the first summer's garden of endless Swiss chard when I was 13.  I swore then I would never eat it again.  Mom never cooked it with bacon, though.  Her method was cooking it to mushy consistency.  Thank you, Food Network, for making me see it in a different light.