Harvesting what I did not plant…

I missed the my spring chore season. The tomatoes I started in March, for the most part, did not get planted. Squirrels ate the pea sprouts. I was so busy with school in May that the beans did not get planted, corn did not go in, there wasn’t even a good row of salad greens. The Fava beans I planted while Ray trimmed fruit trees got lost in a weed patch. Depressing. Even so, there seems to be an abundance.

August 1st I was feeling an urgency to get out and plant… AUGUST 1st! The garden is usually on a “harvest only” schedule. It is late for winter crops and I am too busy putting up baskets of tomatoes, beans, cherries, peppers and cucumbers. But I missed my planting target dates this year for different reasons.

Just add water and seeds. My soil had become hard, disinclined to embrace seeds in the dusty soil. We needed to re-hydrate while it was still drought season. Running sprinklers is not something we like to do, but there was no other way to bring the life back to the garden. Jade II green beans, Soleil yellow beans and our favorite Dragon’s Tongue beans, each got a row of garden space on August 1. Honestly, I was not expecting to harvest beans from such a late planting. It was a roll of the dice. Today I saw tiny beans developing. Hallelujah! We prayed for God to glorify Himself in the garden, but I sort of suspected He was very busy elsewhere. There are moments in life when I feel like the Almighty is showing off His love for me. We also put in cucumbers, as of this morning, they have blossoms that I dare to hope that the Almighty will show off his love again and make ripe cucumbers.

Volunteer Tomatoes. Like many of you, I am a collector and saver of heirloom vegetable seed. I have a greenhouse and a great collection of tools for seed starting, but the tools only gathered dust this year. Even so, I am eating sweet, Sweetie Cherry Tomatoes by the apron full. I did not plant any this year, so how do I know what they are? They grew in this spot last year. Heirlooms reseed themselves and come back the next year true to type without any fussing from me. God gave them one job, “Be fruitful and multiply” They seem to be really good at glorifying God.

Apples, pears, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, plums, raspberries, loganberries, cherries, herbs (both medicinal and culinary), cut and come again greens and the best eggs ever. Even if I do not plant another seed, God willing, we will have fresh food. I love reading about Eden. God put the man and his wife into the garden to work it and tend it. That is what we do. We can work it, crowding every unused space for plants that are beautiful and good for food. But we can also have seasons like this one, where we only tend to what is already growing. We still eat, knowing we are loved.

Debs in Everett, Washington… tending this years garden. There is sweat on my brow but it feels good.

Spring again… happy me!

Tiny Pink and White French Breakfast Radishes

Every year about this time, the daffodils bloom, the birds sing during the day and the frogs party by the light of the moon. We survived another winter. It’s good to be alive.

I have a couple of garden projects I like to start in January and February, but those are mostly to scratch what starts to itch with the first seed catalog. My Gardening starts to get honest when the peas and first potatoes go into the cold, wet soil.

I planted a lot of pea seeds, Tall Alderman, a French Heirloom sno pea, Sugar Snaps and a row of Green Arrow peas. I could show you pictures of those but right now they look a whole lot like clean dirt, wood chips and a nice structure Ray made for them to climb. These peas (a big pot of Cascade Snap Peas and another of Maestro) I started on Presidents Day. They seem to like it outside.

Potatoes: These were started in February. I’ve planted Vikings (Purple, Gold, Fight Fight) Yellow Bananas, and some kind of yellow that I saved from last year. I still have some Russet Burbanks and another fingerling still to put out. We do not have a lot of room for lots of potatoes, but we do what we can. A man once said that if I haven’t had a fresh from the dirt potato then you really do not know what a potato tastes like. He was right.

There is more to spring then peas and potatoes. I had a walk-about  this morning to see whats happening. Here is a small selection.

The Herb Garden …chives are looking good

Comfrey coming up in the Raspberry bed. It won’t be long until I’m pulling up big bundles of this daily for the chickens and all my medicinal needs.

Two years ago I planted some very expensive flowering broccoli (a kale-brussels sprout hybrid). It comes back, or maybe better, it doesn’t die. Every year it sends up a new stem and makes a new branch of kale flowers. I guess it was worth the price of the seed. My hens sure like it.

There is still a lot of work to do but we are enjoying every moment.

That’s my Rudy Valentine standing in my new strawberry bed. It was supposed to be an asparagus bed but they didn’t take. So all of the strawberries that I pulled out of the herb bed went upstairs into my new strawberry bed. I think these are called Pacific Reliant. I bought two or three plants last spring and now they are everywhere… well they were everywhere, now they’ve moved to this bed. In front of Rudy is a stand of Fever Few, the tea from the flowers does everything an aspirin does without eating away your stomach. The echinacea (cone flower) is just coming up all burgundy and fresh. If I’m not careful where I step, the scent of peppermint fills the air. It’s nice. Welcome back Spring!

A Garden Journal for March

Perhaps the most anticipated month of the season, March is when things start getting real. The tomatoes that we all fuss over all year long are started. Actual outdoor gardening begins.

March the 17th, sleep the 18th has long been my personal motto. Not for the reason you may think. On St. Patrick’s day, after putting on a creamy green soup and popping soda bread on a cooling rack, I head outside to plant peas, potatoes and onions. Some years it is with a slicker and golishes (an old word for rubber boots), other years it is in shirt sleeves and tenny runners. Both give me joy under the Worm Moon.

Vivi at Vivie’s Kitchen Garden Adds a tray of celery to the list. That sounds good to me! On it.

Twenty-eight Packages of Tomato Seed

One 8 x 4 Tomato garden. 

Maybe there is enough room on our little urban farm. We start the season intending to give plants away, but we always have too many. By the time we are ready to part with our Toy Box Tomatoes, our friends and fellow teachers have already bought plants from different places. We end up tucking them EVERYWHERE

Soil Blocks and Tomato Seed  Twenty eight packets of different tomato seeds. Twenty-six of them are either OP (Open Pollinated) or heirloom. All of them are beloved.

It starts every year , right around the 2nd weekend in March. I used to start in December when the catalogs would come. I am easily seduced.

Every year they do what they were created to do. I’m such a sap, each season I get VERY excited …from the moment their little green leaves arch up, to the time when they are big enough to up-pot, and up-pot again… until they start spending their days out on the deck. That is when the work begins. We have jumped out of bed, Wrapped up in an old robe and sloggers when we hear the rain on the window, remembering that we forgot to bring in the seedlings!

Early in the season Ray and I carry trays of seedlings, including at least two trays of tomatoes, out for natural sunlight. We do not use heat mats or artificial lights. We get our best results without them. Everett, Washington is not tomato country. The sooner they adjust to our chilly maritime climate, the better they produce.

 

Planting day is a big deal. We used to be SFG’s (Square Foot Garden) but are transitioning to BTE (Back To Eden). The tomatoes go into a 4’x8′ foot SFG that is in transition to BTE. In early April I like to plant a salad grid. Different types of lettuce go in width-wise every twelve inches and radishes go in length wise to make a boundary. Tomatoes are planted in the squares that have been formed by the lettuce and radishes.

This structure (pictured to the left) used to be for pole beans. Ray had already put it in the ground one year when I needed to find more places to plant tomatoes. It is an eight foot 4″x4″ (sunk 2 feet into the ground). On the top it has a cross made of 2×4’s. The cross is attached to the top of the post and comes out like spokes. String or wire is attached to a tent stake, goes up and loops around the end of a 2×4, then comes back down to another tent stake. I can plant eight tomatoes or 16 -ish pole beans. It works great for both… though some modifications need to be made to the string for tomatoes.

A better view of the tomato-bean pole a bit later in the season. This was the first year. Now I spend time tying loops every 18 or so inches in the string when I use the pole for tomatoes. Beans hang onto the string but tomatoes need to be tied on. Without the loops to run the tie tthrough, the weight of ripening tomatoes accordions the vine to the ground.

I am fairly sure that there are tomatoes growing under the cold frame in the lower right of this picture. I get a little excited by 28 packages of tomatoes. It’s like finding a box of color crayons I have not used in a while. I want to try them all… again.

Finding more places to put tomatoes. These potted tomatoes were all my determinant (Mostly Siletz) and cherry tomatoes. They actually did quite well. The Black Cherry on the end was not happy until it started weaving itself through the picket fence. The rest were happy with a tomato cage. We save the big pots from buying fruit trees. Ray remembers buying a few of them. We found out that you can get them for free from the recycle at LOWE’s. The lady at the check stand told us they go fast because the growers of medicinal herb use them for their closet growing operations.

 We still needed more space… Ray had some extra fence posts and left-over lattice from another project. We would like the lattice to go all the way to the ground, but this was all we had at the time. The 2×4 at the bottom is where I tied string from the board to the lattice. A girl can only keep track of just so many tent stakes. Tomatoes were also tucked into a ceramic pot (yielded a whole batch of tomato sauce… they really like growing in ceramic!) and in a more decorative SFG in the front yard.

 The so called “climate change” warmed up Everett’s chilly summer. Our son Chris kept finding canning jars on sale (he works with nurses, they know lots of good information) to help put them all up.

In a normal Everett Summer, I have to grow tomatoes in the Green House if I want a vine Ripe tomato. We plant them in the green house with basil (another plant that is not a fan of Everett) and had ripe tomatoes to the end of October. (the sad looking header picture shows our tomatoes in October)

Cherry tomatoes only needed to be picked once a week. They were like candy on warm days. They come in every color, yellow, red, blue, orange, even white but they all taste like sweet tomatoes. Imagine that!

The full size tomatoes need to be picked every three or so days. For some reason they go from just a bit too green to over ripe in the blink of an eye. The local wild life keeps an eye on our full size tomatoes but ignore the tangled mess of cherry tomatoes.

Last season, for the first time ever, we could have fried green tomatoes every week in September and not make a dent in the tomato harvest. I can hardly wait to see what this season has in store for us.

Potato Chitting Time

I just love saying that. Are you chitting potatoes? (another jr high garden joke)  Chitting potatoes is putting them on end (thus the egg carton) Rose-end up (the end of the potato with the most eyes) and letting them sprout. Why? Potatoes are a cool weather crop, but not cold weather. In Everett, WA I put my first potato patch in on March 17th (or there about). Once in the ground, they take their sweet time sprouting unless they have been chitted (or Chit). If you plant a 2nd crop in May you will not need to chit those. They will come up a little faster.

Plant your favorite. I like to put in a Russet and a early yellow. Sentinel is my favorite early yellow. I’m told that a Russet, is a Russet, is a Russet. It is true that there is not a lot of difference in taste, texture or storage of popular Russets. There is no better french fry (in our lovely air-fryer… yum!) then a Russet fry. There is however, one important difference between varieties.

The Potato Tower

Every spring, without fail, someone posts a wonderful new, space saving idea for growing potatoes in a tower. I hope you did not spend any money on this great idea! Potato towers forced me to learn that there are two kinds of potato vines. Like tomatoes they are determinant and indeterminant. Most potato varietys these days are determinant, meaning the vine stops growing at some point and concentrates on finishing potatoes. This is great for machine harvesting. Determinant potatoes will grow in a tower but will not make layers of potatoes. To date, every yellow, peanut (a.k.a banana or fingerling), red and Russet that I have grown in a tower will make a single layer of potatoes even though I carefully cover the leaves at just the right time… except for one type of potato.

The first requirement of a potato tower is an indeterminent potato. It is only in the last three or so years that I have been able to find potatoes that are described as determinant or indeterminant. An indeterminant needs to be “hilled” meaning to have soil hoed over them (thus making a hill) The old fashioned Red LaSoda is an indeterminant potato but it made only a single layer of potatoes at the bottom of the tower. Ray and I had to buy potting soil to fill the towers, an added expense that was wasted on LaSoda. Of the different potatoes we have tried, only one (so far) has made more then a single layer of potatoes, the Russet Burbank. But even the Russet Burbank does not make multiple layers of potatoes every year. It seems like a hot summer might be a factor but I am not absolutely sure about that.

Viking Potatoes, Purple (skin) and Gold (flesh) Ray went to Lake Stevens High School.

Potatoes love water. If you  happen to have a wetter place in the garden, plant your potatoes there. They are not a good choice for aquaponics as far as I know; they do not want to sit in water, they just want to be able to access to as much water as they can get. Young back to Eden gardens with their thick layer of wood chips holding in water are great. Barrels cut in half with just a few drain holes work well, just don’t forget to water them.

I hope that is enough to get you started. Today (February 5, 2017, the rest of the world is watching the Super Bowl just to see what crazy thing Lady Gaga will do) there is time to look at catalogs, make your plans, build any structures you may want. My plan is to get out and get dirty with potatoes on St. Patrick’s Day, but for now, I’ll be happy Chitting.

Every season starts with onions

Tiny onion sprouts. I need to look closely at the container of dirt on the window sill. The morning that they suddenly show themselves my new garden has begun. I am a long way from onion rings or soup, but hope spring up with the onion sprouts.

It is almost obscene how many stony black seeds will be sprinkled on the plastic container of soil. In January I do not need to worry about where I will plant, or what I will do when I discover that I have far too many babies to find homes for. My eagerness to get dirty overcomes any good sense that may have been passed on to me. I will worry about that later. Today I just want to plant something.

Just in case you wonder (and the video titles roll by too fast)

• Cipollini: a small speciality onion that Ray loves in a roast. The right balance of sweet and pungent. Even these tiny bulbs need a full season.
• Italian Tropea: or Red Torpedos as most Americans call them. These are somewhat sweet, purple to pink summer onions. They can be used at nearly any stage… and should be since they do not store well. We start using the biggest torpedo in the onion patch about mid June (really they will still be scallion like) and continue to use them until late September when they can get to the size of a small nerf football. Beautiful!
• Ailsa Craig: A huge sweet onion that we put in everything from Late September to mid November. They are good enough to give as gifts. I no longer bother much with Walla Walla’s AC’s are so good (and do not need to be started in September for best size!) No real store-ability, eat them fast, eat them often.
• New York Early: The very first storage onion I have had success with (in wet Western Washington) I’ll stick with what works. In a good year we have had New Yorks into March.
• Ed’s Red Shallots: I do plant cloves of shallots in the fall, but these shallots grown from seed are just as amazing!
• Leeks: This year they are the Italian Gigantia. Just when your storage onions get scarce, it is time for the garlic of the onion family… make sure you cover them in fall with straw and leaves so that you can still pick them with out a pick-ax from the frozen ground.

That’s it… here’s the 2017 Movie.

Fava Beans in Fall

Reformation Day (October 31). How do we celebrate? 

I already mentioned that we plant Garlic, We also plant Fava Beans.

On a lazy summer day, Fava Bean Salad is the ultimate slow food. It takes a bit of work to free the nutty goodness from it’s fuzzy pod and thick protective layer, but once you do, you will have one of the delights of early summer!

Fava Beans are easy to handle when your fingers are freezing. We plant some for Reformation Day but if we happen to miss the fall planting day, then we watch for the first crocus to poke its pretty self out in the icy air. When the crocus’ bloom, it is time for spring planting Fava Beans. Honestly, fall planted Favas are only about 10 days earlier to harvest then spring planted. I just like my traditions.

My Garden Journal for February

If you do not have Crocus’ one of your neighbors probably does. The good news is that now (late autumn) is also the time to plant crocus for early spring flowers. You are in Luck!

I have not tried this yet but I watched a video that assured me that I can eat the tender beans shortly after the flower fall off. Something I keep forgetting to try. Apparently the leaves are also good food. I’ll have to ask my chickens.

Ray and I have done fava beans in Square foot gardens and in our Back to Eden garden. We were successful in both. I’m told that both black and green aphids are a problem with fava beans. I hesitate to report that we have not had a problem with either of these. Paul Gautschi of Sequim, Washington (the Back to Eden man) tells us that aphids are a problem in a garden that is too dry. Maybe that’s it. Back to Eden protects soil moisture even in dry years, and it was seriously wet the years we grew them in Square foot gardens. But enough of what can wait until summer. Just get out and get dirty ….plant some Fava Beans.

After you are done in the garden, if the weather goes chilly and wet, come on over to Rainsong and read today’s post. Amy Carmichael’s Edges of His Ways for November 3. Ray and I went to the funeral of a beloved family friend last night. Today’s post was a source of joy.

The sun is shining brightly in my window this morning, I’m told it will keep shining for at least another day. We have less then ten hours from sunrise to sunset, but there are still nearly 11 hours of actual light if you count twilight… and I do.

The Raw ingredients

Spring planting season was simply a blur. Maybe I am starting to feel my age, or maybe it really was that busy at school. I hardly got anything planted. My potted plants all died of neglect. Ray kept the puppies, the nuggets and fish healthy, but my pots! me oh my oh! Deer took out nearly all the leaves and fruit from the trees in the front garden, and some kind of bug ate the salad out front. Those are what I see everyday. Yesterday, I ventured out a little farther.

In the midst of all the schoolwork I had to bring home to score, I vaguely remember popping a few seeds into the soil on the occasional Sunday night. I am overwhelmed with Joy!

Green rows of lush Swiss, Peppermint and Rhubarb Chard! This is Peppermint Chard

Volunteer Broccoli. No Idea what kind it is. We grow open-pollinated Thompson’s, Solstice and Umpqua.

Joy! I had forgotten that I put in a few rows of snap beans! This is the blossom of a pink podded snap bean, simply called, “Pink” I also see evidence of yellow French beans, Jade, Purple and I think there might be a few Dragon Beans. We like a pretty plate of tender raw beans with a ranch dip.

I love seeds! This is a thick row of lush summer lettuce. Most of it is different kinds of Roman (Green, Red and one of our favorites, Flashy Trout’s Back) I’m also seeing Grandpa Admire’s and a butterhead called Divina. They are growing in a bed with some randy snap beans and the peppers that I didn’t think would get so crowded… but I always think that in spring.

I also found potatoes ready to harvest, loads of apples, herbs, sweet peas, tomatoes (wow do they need some attention!) garlic and shallots, even a very few summer onions. I just had to get myself past the disaster that is my back porch. Maybe it is time to clean off the porch so that I feel more like a farmer and less like a failure.

The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end;  they are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness.
Lamentations 3:22-23 RSV

Spring means Peas

On a suburban farm in Everett, Washington.

We have been eating raw peas for a couple of weeks. More are on the way. Our peas do not like hot weather, and we sure have been having unusual heat. The main crop is just coming on.

Cascadia Snap Peas…. about the best snap peas I’ve ever had.

Golden Sweet sno-peas

Golden Sweet sno-peas live up to their name. Though they are small for a flat, Chinese style pea, (traditionally used for stir-fry) they are sweet and golden. The flowers are a pretty lavender and purple that age to a deep blue and magenta. When I first saw them years ago, I thought, “If all these are good for are the pretty flowers, then they will always have a place in my garden.” Then I nibbled my first crisp golden pod. They live up to the “sweet” part of their name. I bought my original seed from Uprising Organics. It is nearly impossible to harvest all the pods, even though they are easy to find with their sunny yellow pods, so saving seed from these heirloom vines is really effortless.

Golden Sweet sno-peas

Purple Pod Shelly Peas

Just for fun, I picked up a package of Purple Pod shelling peas from Ed Hume Seed Company. I have not seen any pods yet, just a load of beautiful flowers. Like Golden Sweet Sno Peas, these are full size vine peas, meaning they need a good support for the six foot-heavy vines.

Purple Pod Shelly (English) Peas

The original: Sugar Snap Peas

These are the peas that turned my pea-hating husband into an enthusiastic muncher of peas. We have tried dozens of different types of snap pea in the 20+ years since growing our first crop of snap peas. With the exception of Cascadia, none of the short vine snap peas come close to being as tender and sweet as a plump Sugar Snap in our seldom humble opinion. The six foot vines require strong support. It is still a little early for sugar snaps, the pods in the picture (June 5th) will plump up before they are ready to harvest.

We have been eating tiny Dakota, and our favorite early pea, Maestro, for a couple of weeks. I only planted a taste of the early peas. Their vines are starting to dry up, ready to pass on to the chickens. Working full time, I only have time to tend to short rows. School will be out June 8th, and if the Almighty is willing, there will be time for me to be a farmer, field-to-table epicure and prepper. Still to come out on the pea frame are  Tall Telephone Peas. An heirloom that will hopefully go into the freezer. (I’m am not a fan of canned peas).

Maestro Peas for a sweet treat in my bento

The pea frame

Early morning at The Toy Box Suburban Farm. Because we are making a transition from Square Foot Gardening to Back to Eden, we seldom need to water. But after a stretch of unusually hot days, I ran the sprinkler for 20 minutes in the morning, just to keep the vines from prematurely drying out. You can make out the pea and bean frame Ray put together (the Tomato tree can also be seen.) Climbing beans are just getting started on the other side of the frame. The legs of the frame are set about 18 inches into the ground. We hope that is enough to survive July storms. The plant in the foreground is parsley that I am saving seed from.

Late Spring at The Toy Box Suburban Farm

Blue Sky Sunday. Very surprising after the black smoke that rolled through the valley from a fire that ate a recycling center and two other big buildings on the water front. Thanks to the fire men who put on hot bunker gear to fight those fires !!

The First Half of April in the Garden

April at The Toy Box. I cannot say that I have been working hard to get where we are this month, I like to putter about for a couple of hours after school every day. Maybe it would be better to proclaim, I have been diligent. Yep, that’s it, I am going with diligent. We have been checking off the jobs that need to be done in the days working up to where we are. Getting trees planted or trimmed, adding wood chips, running flats of seedlings in and out of the weather, protecting them from frost and floods of rain. April is when the “diligence” comes together. We are already eating some of this years salad with the last of last years herbs, leeks and kale.

Morning Prayer

Just when it seems like Ray can sit back and enjoy the beauty of our Suburban Farm, I come up with another major, pain in his back, plan. This season it involves moving two established SFG’s (square foot gardens) to make room for more BTE (back to Eden) growing areas. As subsistence farmers we want to get as much food from our little bit of land as we are able. I (Debs) started out as a foodie/hobby farmer. Best use of space was not part of my plan.

Winter Sown Artichokes (up-potted)

Seedlings: We have soil blocks of tomatoes waiting to be potted up. I have been saving that job for a rainy day. As of today (April 2, 2016) I am on the last weekend of Spring Break from school. The weather has been beautiful so I keep putting that job off. I am reading that rain is coming. The job will get done. The salad greens (romain and mixed reds) have been planted in the front yard SFG, one of the pots of sweet-pea starts were planted in the front garden. Our broccoli and cauliflower are huge and ready for planting out. (suddenly I am feeling just a little bit overwhelmed).

Swiss Chard makes a comeback

Everett, Washington had a very mild winter. We are not quite safe from a “last frost date” yet so I am still holding my breath. We garden just north of “don’t worry about killing frosts in spring” land. I stand amazed watching winter food become beautiful plants. The Swiss Chard in this picture is one example. Light frosts and heavy rain reduced is to an unappetizing mess that I was sure I would be digging out; but look at it. Instead of digging it out I need to dig out my recipes! We have grown the white stem type of chard ever since we have grown it. I have not learned to enjoy it raw yet so the beautiful colors available have not found a place in my chard patch… until this year. I am looking forward to a new variety labeled “Peppermint Chard”. It looks like it has a red-pink base and white upper stem and veins. Am I the only goofy ol’ woman who gets excited about a different color of chard?

Spring Artichoke

One Artichoke survived winter 2015-16 in our Everett, WA garden. In truth we have had roots survive to send up fresh growth but we have never had a whole plant survive the winter. One hard frost could bring it down so I am trying to not get too attached. But I cannot help thinking how totally kewl to have 2nd season artichokes this summer! I also have a beautiful, thick stand of delicious red celery growing in the same garden. It smells awesome! I have not read any good reviews about red celery yet…. here is mine. YUM.

Leeks and (umm) chicken food

The last of our leeks and celeriac have been lovely! This year the guys did not get out to gather fallen leaves so I never did get leaf mulch piled around my root crops, they were fine. There was only one day that I went out to harvest for a winter dinner that turned into a fail because of frozen ground. The last few leeks I have harvested have had woody centers, a sigh that they are getting ready to bolt so I need to use them as quickly as possible. The garlic I planted last October is beautiful. I made such a dumb mistake.

Green Roman and Valentine Mix Lettuce

I remember Paul Gautschi of the BTE film saying that I should put my very best potatoes right back into the ground for the next harvest; which I did. What I missed is that they will come up the following March, which they have. Mean while I thought the replant of potatoes was a total fail and planted my garlic over the former potato bed. While the potato sprouts are still fairly small, both are doing fine. Last year all of my garlic was volunteer. The garlic I planted was from the best of those cloves. This season I found dozens of new garlic volunteers while cleaning up a bed for early pea plants. I should have plenty of garlic this season (assuming everything goes well in my garden world). We have made so many soups and put up so much stock that we are plum outta garlic already! Lately we have been clipping green garlic with our parsley (another winter survivor) when we make a dish that needs a spicy boost.

Climbing pea and bean frame

For the first time since moving to Everett, I will not be planting my main crop of peas in a SFG. We have a whole system of support to attach to the SFG beds. Back when I planted tall peas in Robe Valley (east of Granite Falls, WA) I quit planting tall peas because they were too difficult to keep upright when the vines were heavy with our famous rain combined with the occasional wind storm. Ray has built a frame for the BTE garden that we have high hopes for. The legs of the frame go a little more then a foot into the ground. I have planted peas on the port side of the frame and plan to plant green beans on the starboard side in late May. There will be a short season when both are growing on the frame, but the peas should be done by mid July when the beans are just taking off. We are hoping for a fantastic harvest (knees bent, fingers laced!)

Fava Bean sprouts

Strawberries are coming up through the wood chips, raspberries are making buds, the logan and marian berry vines are already looking lush. Still no sigh of Asparagus, but I guess it is a little early. I have spotted early leaves of Rhubarb and it is beautiful. The comfrey is fixen to take over the berry beds. I’ve also seen early signs of deer damage. Gurrrr! The fava beans (also known as broad beans) we planted in February are looking great, except for one little problem. The garden looks so empty in February that I tend to plant far too many of , well, everything that gets planted early. Good thing we love Fava beans! (they are not really a reason to drink Italian wine… or so the  theory goes).

A living grid in the SFG

A living grid of carrots, radishes, spinach, mixed greens, fennel, scallions, bok choi, and I forget what else; was the plan for one of the tomato beds. Somewhere in the planting, I forgot that I was making a grid and started squeezing in as much as I could. Looking at the bed now, if everything grows, it will be a tight fit but I am sure I can still get those tomato plants growing and keep them happy. Some mistakes are happy accidents. That is what I am hoping for this one.

First, a cuppa jo, then we work

We have entered a time of year when there is a new check list every two weeks instead of every month. We are still looking for a multi-espaliered sweet cherry tree. Does anyone even make those? Beds need to be moved, seedlings planted out, framework put up for the tomatoes, maybe a new tomato tent if we have a sudden cold snap. The pepper bed needs more soil mix and the kitty kover should go over that bed. I really need to get busy on the new herb garden since Ray has terraced the hill side with the stones his mother chose for her porch so many years ago. It just needs a good weeding and the plants I’ve been growing for it. Beet seeds need to go in…. somewhere. So many happy puzzles to figure out.

For as long as this post is, this is the short version of how my garden grows. How about you? Be sure to include where you garden and let me know how you are feeding your self (or making the world a beautiful place with your flowers!) where you live. I hear that the strawberry harvest is already over in Texas.

Debs… who only has time to sit because it is Sabbath. Tomorrow we will be getting out and getting dirty, with joy!