In the garden today...

[Gina]

Please feel free to post about anything you've done or seen in your garden today.

I just finished planting a round of new microgreens. I hope some will be ready for Thanksgiving, but it will be close. I'll cut them small if necessary. Or maybe stick them under light in addition to being in 'the warm room' to help them grow faster.

I started experimenting with microgreens about 6 months ago (?), but had stopped when lots was coming out of the regular garden. I had intended to start when the sun started to stream in the south-facing windows so the little micros would get stockier. And that means now. I've tried a number of varieties, but for now, I only grow sunflowers and peas. Sunflower shoots are amazing, as are peas. Sunflowers you only get one cut, but peas, if you cut high enough, you can get several harvests.

[grasshopper]

I did a lot of peas this season, they are best in early spring or colder temperature like now and I had to harvest early or they get stringy. I haven't tried the sunflower shoots. How tall do you let it grow? Do you use regular sunflower seeds or special ones?

[Gina]

For sunflower seedlings, it's not the height, but rather harvest either before or just as the first true leaf is forming. That leaf is fuzzy and not very appealing to eat.

The sunflower that is generally recommended is black oil sunflower. Right now I have both the black oil and striped seeds germinating, though I've never tried the striped. Got it on sale recently. You can use sunflower bird seed, but I've found the seed to be smaller and with lots of debris (they are not intended for human consumption).. as well as having around a 50% germination rate. Just not worth the aggravation. So I'm going back to sunflower seeds from seed companies - unless I grow my own.

[Zuny]

I have tried pea shoots but not sunflowers I should try that. Microgreens is a good idea as they can be gone easily indoors.

Today I went and pruned back raspberry bush and my peach tree. After an hr I went back inside because it is so cold. I have to go back and clean up my mess.

[grasshopper]

Yep, we can see your fingers frozen up You prune in winter? It is cold out there.. why not wait till spring?

[Zuny]

Yes I prune in spring, mostly because I like to finish things so I do not have to think about it. In spring I will be to busy planning out my garden and growing seeds.

[NangkitaKate]

Sunflower shoots are delicious. I was really surprised at how tasty they were when I first got into growing microgreens.

[Gina]

I have tried pea shoots but not sunflowers I should try that. Microgreens is a good idea as they can be gone easily indoors.
.

Try the sunflower seedlings. They really are good. Nutty with a very nice texture.

Yes, they are a good idea and once you have a system, very easy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I'm growing two new to me winter veggies. One is a very small bok/pac choi that only grows to maybe 4 inches called toi choi. Sounds perfect for sautéing whole. And the other new one is a white turnip very similar to Hakurei. I would have gotten Hakurai, but the seed co was out of them. The flesh is supposed to be sweet 'like a melon', and not bitter/spicey. We shall see. Their pictures are pretty.

I generally germinate such things in modules, one seed to a cell, and I just now finished dividing some of these that had been sown too many to a cell. Next time I'll be more careful.

[Zuny]

Toi choi sounds great. I enjoy bok choi and can only imagine how good a smaller more tender version would taste in a stir fry.

I have never grown turnips before are they mostly for soup or do you eat them raw?

[cjccmc]

I steamed some purple top turnips last night. Some people like them with butter and salt, I usually enjoy them with a little vinegar. My daughter also likes these, even when she was a little kid.

[cjccmc]

I dug out the top 12 inches of soil in my raised planters to add OM.

Re-familiarized myself with how heavy a 20 gal container of dirt actually is

[Gina]

20 gallons of water would be over 160 pounds. 20 gallons of soil would probably be in that range of weight. Yikes.

[grasshopper]

I don't know about you. I first got couple 25 gal pots thinking I only need 2 figs ( a brown turkey and a green fig). One look at the pots, I knew I couldn't even lift it when it is filled so they have been left empty since.

[Gina]

Toi choi sounds great. I enjoy bok choi and can only imagine how good a smaller more tender version would taste in a stir fry.

Let's hope it's more tender. I only ordered it because I needed another seed packet to get to 'free shipping'. But the thought of quickly cooking it with garlic/oil, or butter is very appealing. They say ready in 30 days. That would be cool if true. But bok chois do grow fast.

I have never grown turnips before are they mostly for soup or do you eat them raw?

Mom used to get purple top ones from the grocery, peel, and cut them in wedges to serve with other raw veggies on a plate. No dip, lol. She was a farm girl and knew how to select things at their prime. They were very mild and good. Hard to describe the flavor other than similar to other raw cole crops such as cauliflower, broc, kohl-rabi. I guess the easiest thing would be to buy one in the store, and eat it. I don't think I've ever eaten a cooked turnip. I've seen photos of the white Japanese turnips browned that looked like potatoes or even fries..., but the taste similarity? Probably wishful thinking.

My first sowing is a the half inch cotyledon stage. Just gave them their first weak fertilizing today. I intend to grow them as fast as possible.

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[JustJill]

My friend from the UK loves what he calls “Taters and Neeps.” These are cooked mashed potatoes and cooked mashed turnips mixed together with a bit of salt and butter. They were really delicious!

[Zuny]

I tried the turnip raw and I like it. It was nice and crunchy and reminded me of a radish with no heat. I am not sure if I did a good job at picking but it was good.

[Oaken Rose]

My kids munch raw turnips from the garden all the time! We roast them too, and mash them, we can never have enough turnips!

[Gina]

My little yacon starts arrived today. They were in bad shape - the grower had no idea how to ship living material cross county - unlike we fig growers. Anyway, I soaked the pathetic little things in water, then set them out. I think they will make it, though they did lose most of their leaves, and there were a few badly bent stems. It's my understanding that once you have them, you'll always be able to start more either from cuttings or tubers. They are vaguely like sunchokes, and in the same family. Storage roots are said to taste like melon or apple.

[ginamcd]

Thanks for starting this thread for those of us who can only garden vicariously through those in warmer climates!

I had my last day in the garden on Saturday. I started by admiring all the tiny green spikes just poking through from the garlic and shallots -- just enough growth to let me know they had put down roots prior to the ground freezing.

Then I bundled up all the stakes by length, and took them, my hoses, tub of misc. garden equipment, empty grow bags, and my garden chair over to the shed for winter storage up in the loft.

Next was mulching the beds. My husband didn't have time to shred up leaves for me, so I decided to use what was in the leaf compost bins we made and filled last year. Neither appeared to have broken down much which was disappointing.

The first was in a sunnier spot and the leaf mulch was mostly dry. There was enough there to add a good layer of insulation to the bed the garlic is in.

The other was in a shady, damp spot at the back corner of our yard. Underneath the dry outer layer of leaves, I hit gold! Black gold, that is... in the form of beautiful, rich leaf mold! It went into the second bed which is where the tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cukes and zukes will go next year.

The next day was leaf pick up day, so both bins got moved into the damp, shady corner and we'll work on filling them back up for next year.

[Gina]

That's a lot of work. The upside is you get several months of downtime, which I think is rather natural. In my part of the world, I also take breaks cuz I just burn out, but it can sometimes not be the best of times.

[ginamcd]

I'm even luckier for the break as I have a work schedule that really spirals out of control beginning in November, and the pace doesn't let up until May. But June through September are the slow months when my hours really decrease, just in time for gardening and motorcycle riding season. I'd probably suffer burnout as well if my job and the gardening & riding season didn't take such complimentary breaks. Still doesn't stop me from suffering from some of the same "Zone Envy" as Jill...especially now that figs are in the mix.

[NangkitaKate]

I planted out a brown turkey fig today after spending a couple of days preparing its new spot. I'm also fussing over a bunch of seedlings - bush lemon, feijoa, pink supreme guava, coffee, and medjool dates. Some I'll pot up, and some I'll plant out - but I'm procrastinating the decision. I went down to the landscaping place this afternoon for some perlite, peat moss and fresh rooting hormone, as I want to do some air layers of my peach trees and pink supreme guava tomorrow morning before it gets hot. I checked my Flick's Yellow Pummelo this afternoon too, and it has little marble sized fruit so I hope to get at least one ripe fruit next year

[DrDraconian]

I've been looking for a Medjool date tree, but have never seen anyone offering them for sale. Do you have seedlings (grown from seeds) or actual female medjool date pups (side shoots of actual producing Medjool date trees). I ask because dates are just like figs: they don't grow true from seeds, and seedlings can be either male (not fruit producing) or female, and you won't know for years which it is.

[NangkitaKate]

DrDraconian - I'm growing Medjool seedlings after thoroughly enjoying a punnet of fresh dates Like you - I've found it impossible to find a nursery that sells date trees, and I havn't found anyone growing dates locally who'd have pups. I do know of one nursery which has them listed - but they've never had any for sale. So I figured I'd just try growing some seeds and play the waiting game to see what develops Out of 13 seeds - I've had 8 sprout so far, and they're a couple of inches high.

[Oaken Rose]

I love the blooms of the feijoa, to look at AND to eat!

[JustJill]

It’s inspiring that you are growing so many varieties! I am starting to develop “Zone envy.” Maybe I should spend this winter reading greenhouse catalogs so that I can set one up for next year!

[NangkitaKate]

Have you dabbled in the world of microgreens yet JustJill? They'll keep you happy through the cold months, as you can grow them in the house if your indoors temperature is suitable.

[Gina]

"Zone envy" - good one.

[JustJill]

Kate, I would love to try micogreens but have not yet. I never thought of trying sunflower seeds...cool idea!

Right now I’m busy with about 75 Louisiana Iris that unfortunately got back ordered and then showed up a bit too late to plant out (so I’m now growing them on the porch/sunroom along with veggies and herbs in the same pot), Potting up 13 different varieties of dragonfruit cuttings (thanks to Tyro’s generosity!), Paw Paws and Goose Plum from Oikos Tree Crops from seed, and starting to root about 75 ish fig cuttings (some here, the rest now starting to arrive).Oh, and orchids and bonsai, but only about 25 total of those..... and then there’s a day job that seriously impedes gardening! But thanks really for the suggestion . I am totally going to try micro greens once I get these figs settled and growing!

[DrDraconian]

grasshopper, dragon fruit are actually a relatively friendly cactus. The spines are small, and once you get them planted, you don't have to handle the vines much except for the occasional pruning. Best thing is, unlike prickly pear, the fruit is spineless (except for an oddball yellow variety), so you don't get attacked while snacking on the fruit. The cuttings can last for months if kept shaded and misted with water every once in a while.

[grasshopper]

Isn't the yellow one being the super sweet one?

[DrDraconian]

Yes, the yellow skinned, white fleshed varieties are known for being the sweetest. However, they are small (the spined ones that you can actually find cuttings for), need a lot of heat to produce fruit, and can take up to 6 months for the fruit to ripen (vs about 45 days for the standard varieties). I thought I wanted to try to grow it, but after a week of feasting on my purple fleshed dragon fruit, I am quite happy with the sweetness level of the ones I have.

[JustJill]

Oh well Kate I forgot to mention “side” fine art business. I do painting and printmaking and have a studio downtown. But I also get tired hearing about everything you are doing in the garden!

I wonder, in hearing about bed preparation, if people have ever used hugelkulture practice as a way to improve the soil and conserve water? I have made a few beds and mounds (“hugelbeet” and “hugelmound” ) as well as one keyholegarden and have been pleased with the results. My inderstanding is that it’s quite helpful also for conserving water in arid/hot regions.

[NangkitaKate]

yes JustJill - I've got a bit of a hugelkulture process happening, but it's not the true form. I think of it as more "quasikulture", and it happened by accident when putting in water diversion embankments to manage hillside erosion.

[JustJill]

Grasshopper, DrDraconian is right. I am growing these as an experiment, but I do have a moderately sized sunroom attached to the house. It’s not a tropical Greenhouse, but it doesn’t freeze in the Winter. Dragonfruit can grow well without huge amounts of light. They need stronger light on the ends of the plant and for the end to hang down in order to trigger flowers and fruit. This mimics what happens when they grow naturally up trees in the jungle and the finally reach the sunny canopy.

Sorry, wanted to answer Grasshopper, but didn’t mean to hijack Gina’s post!

[Gina]

This is the kind of open thread that really can't be hijacked. Discussing various things we are doing with respect to plants is the goal.

[grasshopper]

Thanks, Jill. It is good to know they can grow mostly under shade until the last section. The ones I saw in photo seemed to be mounted on some post higher up and then hang back down like tree branches.

[JustJill]

Good to know. Thanks for clarifying!

[grasshopper]

Someone/something was digging up the dirt and munching on the sweet potatoes underneath. I sprinkled some chili pepper powder and black pepper but the citter seems to be fine with it. I am going to get some habanero to kick it up a notch.

On the plus side, my stinking the neighborhood project seems to be going well. I made couple buckets of fish hydrolyate the other day from the fish scraps I got from the market. With some added seaweed, banana peel and eggshells, a bit yogurt and compost, I am quite certain it is going to stink badly pretty soon

[DrDraconian]

You do realize that your stink project is going to attract every critter in the neighborhood, right?

[grasshopper]

That is the biggest bait I have set so far

[NangkitaKate]

Tasty

[Gina]

Today is the start of 3 entirely free days to work in the yard. What a luxury!

The compost pile in the back is up to about 150*F this morning, as is the pile of city mulch in the front. I'm thinking of building a pile with just that mulch since it seems to have the right balance to get up to heat. Hmm- maybe under a tree in the front where it would be close to some veg beds.

Seeds: Burpee seeds is having a 20% off sale that ends today. (Friday, Nov 17, probably midnight eastern time)

http://www.burpee.com/

And free shipping with 3 seed packets or more. There are seed companies with ... more 'status' ...in the gardening world, but if you need a few packets of radishes or zinnias or the like, it's worth looking around. I'm running low on zucchini and will look at their selection of cukes.

[Gina]

Yes, compost close to the veg beds would ... will... simplify things a lot. That is going to happen.

I haven't grown that many varieties of cukes, but one I really like for season extending is 'cool breeze'. It is tender and good with edible skin, but many don't like it because the skin is covered with little projections. But they are tender as well so no problem. I planted 9 seeds the other day (old seed), and 7 germinated. These will be grown in 5 g pots against a S-facing windows, where it is usually hot with sun all day. No frosts here. Another garden experiment - winter cukes. This variety is only female flowers so unfortunately no seed collecting.

I also really like some of the smaller Mediterranean cukes. And also the very traditional National Pickling (or something like that). There are many new ones too, but the seed is more $$ than I want to spend. Regular cukes are no longer that appealing to me.

[grasshopper]

Do they need a lot of water? I keep thinking they have big leaves and they are mostly water, so they may need a lot of water, which may mean difficult in our climate unless we water them often.

[NangkitaKate]

Cool breeze looks like a nice cuke. I often grow the small varieties "Lemon Cucumber" and "Apple Cucumber", as they're good for snacks and sandwiches. They do well in both pots and in the ground too. Out of the two small varieties - I prefer the lemon cucumber, as it tastes better and has better flesh. The lemon variety also grows well almost all year in my location which is z9a.

[Gina]

Today's job - redo the salad table. Because of all the critters, I have to grow lettuce in containers off the ground, which has worked out very well. Before the drought, when there were even more critters, the bottom, sides, and top of the table was enclose in wire. Now, especially since the ground squirrel population has remained low, I don't have to cover the sides or top. Birds get a few things, but not that much. And I like birds. When off the ground, the veggies are also very clean - and slugs/snails are almost rare. Aphids can be a problem, but not that often. There is often a resident tree frog living in the greens that eats them. I assume.

My salad table is about 3.5 X 8 feet. I have a tendency to stick almost anything I'm growing in containers on it. Basil, spring onions, lettuce, seedlings and starts... It's sort of in a gridlock state right now, and some of these things can be on the ground.

[Gina]

"" I grew lettuce in nursery flats earlier this year which worked really well and kept us in baby leaf lettuce for ages.""

I use those too. Not in a single layer, but I stack them. 2 or three depending on the season (how often I need to water) , and depending on the height of the flats. Today I just planted some up - 3 layers. The bottom one I put plastic in the bottom so it would not drain quickly, and then two layers with mix on top. Any water than needs to drain can go out the sides of the layers - but I really do want the roots to have access to water at all times. Roots have no problem growing through the holes too. I like the square shape since they push together well and you use all your surface area.

Much of my salad table were finds in people's trash on the curb for special pick-ups. I got 8 of the grate things (metal railings). 3 help form my salad table, the others I'm using as sides of my compost pile in back.

[grasshopper]

I never dumpster dive before until I got on this forum. I drove past the back of an art museum one day noticing all the paper packing materials they left in the dumpster. Being an art museum, their dumpster is pretty clean so I didn't hesitate load up a car load of those packing materials. Next target : nursery flats. I actually have one and was not sure what to do with it

[NangkitaKate]

grasshopper - I usually find nursery flats down at the local council dump in their recycling area. A couple of other hot items for me include the large square plastic bread crates and plastic bottle crates. I normally use the bread crates to hold small pots of plants and to transport trays of microgreens, and the bottle crates will hold 4 large plastic tree tubes. After this discussion on salad tables - I can see the bread crates could be put to use as a large table top salad garden

[grasshopper]

I set new traps for the critters last night. It was the first time they didn't disturb the sweet potatoes this week. Cautious type I guess

This season, I managed to catch roof rats live twice without even putting baits in. And I was holding one of them in a stacked plant containers in my hand while it decided to jump off. I saw them climb up the side of the stucco wall like squirrels. They have strong legs relative to their body and can scale wall pretty well.

[NangkitaKate]

ah - about lab rat size Are your possums the "opossums" with the funny rat-like tail? They do look sort of clumsy. The Australian possums are very different, and natural climbers. I've often seen them use the power lines to get from one house to another, and then they'll jump across into a tree to feed.

[grasshopper]

Yep, they are the opossums with rat like tail and menacing look. Showed me its teeth couple times while hissing. I was waiting for it to play dead It just backed away slowly. It probably can climb but may be nervous under pressure. The Australian possums look very different. Many Australian animals look different

[NangkitaKate]

hahaha - the opossums do indeed have a menacing look with their teeth

[grasshopper]

I just planted some Mara de Bois today. Not sure if it is the right time since we are heading into the coldest part of the season in a few weeks. I still have half in bag. Should I put them in the fridge and wait till Spring or plant them now as winter and rainy season approaching? Our weather forecast to be in the 80 in couple days and then drop back down to the 70s.

[ginamcd]

Yesterday we had our first snow of the season. About 7" fell here and my raised beds are now blanketed in white--pretty to look at, but at the same time depressing...

My garden related task today was finally getting around to grinding up all the peppers I had dried and stashed in ziploc bags. They spent the night in the dehydrator to crisp them up, and then into the coffee grinder to be pulverized into paprikas and pepper flakes. Did a great job clearing out the sinuses as well!

[pjb]

Hi all, new member, Pat, here just checking in from the High Desert, California, USDA hardiness zone 9. The cold is starting here but I believe it will be a very,very cold, snowy Winter ((lots of chem-trails overhead for weather manipulation)) here so trying to "batten down the hatches", get the firewood up close to the house, prune what is needed - and lots of it to do. It all becomes kindling and firewood for later on. The early morning weather is in mid to low 30's, days in the 60's to 70's. The lettuces are growing nicely once they recover with the warm sun from the overnight cold/light frost so far. Here in the High Desert of Calif. is the best time to plant trees, shrubs so they have time to acclimate for the hot, dry summers here. Picked the last of the pomegranates a few weeks ago. Plant is now leaf-less. Planted 2 Elderberry (Sambucus Mexicana) shrubs last week as they are fast growers and grow tall and wide. Elderberries are excellent good-health-givers for treating colds, flu and for jams, jellies and wine.

I've started covering the most tender plants with frost cover, towels and old blankets for frost protection. Even opened up the big empty, heavy duty dog food bags to place over the Aloe Vera's. Will test their frost protection. I think they will do good. Put some potted plants under cover of patio/porch. Still "planting" kitchen waste for next Spring vegetable garden.

With a "champagne taste", the checkbook closed, for now, and sitting before a nice warm fire and cup of hot coffee or Cocoa, it's time to go flying madcap through those beautiful seed and plant catalogs making my most fool hardy "wish list" for seeds and plants for next Spring growing. It's fun to choose everything my heart desires while the checkbook is closed. In a month or so it reality sets in and the champagne taste becomes a beer budget and down to earth. When the cold weather hits those gorgeous catalogs provide a measure of forward thinking and delight in what is yet to come from the garden for a delicious and healthy lunch or dinner.

[ginamcd]

I think this thread has hibernated long enough!

Today I cleaned up all the leaves that had collected inside my garden fence. Then I pulled the heavy top layer of mulched leaves off the garlic and shallots, and took a head count. All 108 garlic bulbs, four of the six shallots, and most of the 27 garlic bulbils have sprouted! Looks like our stretch of sub-zero temps didn't even phase them.

The lettuce, kale and onion seedlings are camped out under lights in the basement and will hopefully be going out for a little hardening off soon.

We're still going to see some night time lows below freezing over the next week,so it'll be a while before my next update.

what's everyone else up to?

[drew51]

I grow shallots from seed, do you plant bulbs (cloves) in the fall? Tell me about it! I know nothing about this method? I have one small onion left from last season. It is sprouting so I think I'll plant it for seed production. I planted my tomato seed a few days ago. My peppers about 3 weeks ago, They have sprouted now. and my onions I did a month ago. I also rooted about 10 fig cuttings, and got some rare cold hardy Morus nigra (black mulberry) seeds to sprout. These are from Bulgaria and harvested from a tree in zone 6. All known Morus nigra trees will live but not fruit in zone 6, and many die too. This one is fruiting. All I can get is seeds, so the genes are there, maybe i got lucky? It should be fairly cold hardy.
I put in 2 heirloom strawberries this week I ordered. I like to grow heirlooms and also feel that they are great breeding stock. I have a hobby within a hobby and I like to breed plants. It's not easy and sometimes takes me years, but is a lot of fun. I bred a yellow raspberry with a red raspberry and got about 10 seeds to sprout. 9 died the first year, but one grew to full size in no time. It fruited last year a few fruits. They are pink! I should get a couple dozen or more this year. Better evaluate it.

I uncovered my garlic and it seems behind this year? Maybe more normal? I have only grow it a few years. I have about 5 different kinds growing. Three of them are from saved seed (cloves), and two new ones. Three hardnecks and a couple hardy softnecks.

[ginamcd]

Shallot bulbs can be planted just like garlic in the fall. And like garlic, one bulb multiplies into several as long as the bulb you plant still has some of the root plate attached. I also grow some from seed as I had some over wintered shallots send up a flower stock two years ago. For garlic I grow all hardnecks because we enjoy the scapes as much as the garlic. I still have about a dozen heads left from last year's crop and it's just now starting to develop shoots, but it's still usable.

[drew51]

I don't grow a whole lot because we don't use it that often. I did use some today. I like the softnecks because of the long shelf life. my hardnecks don't last that long. I usually freeze them after a bit. I clean and freeze the cloves. With softnecks I braid them. Those are shallots from seed on the right.


This cultivar produces big shallots, they are very mild and can be eaten raw, like in salads etc.



I braid my onions too