And the Onions are In...

I always seem to have problems with onions every year. Leeks and scallions are much easier to grow in my own personal opinion. For one thing, my onions never seem to germinate consistently though I seem to have gotten a good batch of seeds this time around. I'm growing a yellow and red variety - 'Copra' and 'Ruby Ring'. Also, I haven't been able to grow an onion larger than two inches in diameter. But I plan on doing things a little differently this year, which I hope will pay off come harvest time. For starters, during the past two years, I've tried growing onions both from seeds and from sets. Both years, most of the onion sets I planted ended up bolting so I'm done with them. Also, I'm not setting my onions out this year until the weather has warmed up significantly (maybe the last week in May here in Vermont). Hopefully that helps too. If anyone has any additional onion growing advise, please let me know!

Finally, I had wanted to start my onion seeds in soil blocks but haven't been able to source the ingredients. I ended up sowing 3 seeds in each plastic cell. Now I have to decide whether to thin them now or let them be. When grown together, onion seedlings are generally easy to divide at planting time so I may just let them be. Though I'm sure they'd be much happier thinned down to one at the start. What do you think?

End of July Harvest

I can't believe that July has come to close, which means that we only have one full month of reliable warm weather left this year. I'm really hoping for a hot August as most of our slicing and paste tomatoes are still green on the vine. We're down to about five jars of tomato sauce from last year and it would be a shame if we weren't able to preserve as much this time around. Then again, I did cut down the amount of tomato plants this year to 20. We'll see if that was a wise decision.

In no particular order, here are a few things we harvested this week:


We picked and ate our first ears of Argent corn today. Out of all of the veggies we grow, I think we look forward to the first corn harvest the most. It tasted just as I'd remembered from last year. Unlike the bland, tough and overly sugary corn you find at the market these days, Argent has an old-fashioned sweetness and a very tender kernel that explodes in your mouth. I plan on growing this variety year after year.


Another good week for artichokes, I also picked a ton of basil to make pesto.


The string beans have peaked this week. It took me quite a long time to pick them all. The bulk of this will be blanched and then frozen for future use. I've never eaten frozen string beans before. Hopefully they retain at least some of their crispness.


Aside from the usual suspects, I picked our first long beans. I have a feeling they will continue to produce for us long after our bush beans have given up.


I'm still waiting for the BIG one. Hopefully it'll come soon.


I keep forgetting that I have scallions in the garden. These grew well while the red onion sets I planted this spring were a complete bust.


I'm very happy with my savoy cabbages. They took much longer to head up than I'd expected but are of a good size now.

Finally, I pulled all of my Paris Market carrots. I love the round shape of these carrots and have a feeling they'll be very tasty roasted.

Summer's Bounty - Picks of the Week

We hand another bountiful harvest this week. The Hungarian Wax peppers are producing abundantly at the moment. I'll have to set aside a night this week to pickle and can them.


Tomato season has officially begun. (Hurray!) The near triple digit temperatures of the past few days have really helped to produce our first vine-ripened beauties. Not surprisingly, our first ripe slicing tomatoes of the year were Cherokee Purple and Amish Paste.


Our cucumber harvest was a bit out of control this week. The Tasty Jades are producing like mad. We picked at least two dozen - much more than we can consume as a family. What we didn't give away, I'll have to pickle this week.


We also picked about a dozen zucchinis this week as well.


I love Napoli carrots. They are the perfect size for kids to munch on and are reliably sweet.


The first wild blackberries were very sweet this year. I picked a small bowl-full today and Jonathan gobbled them all up before they made it into the house.


It's nice being able to pick more than one or two artichokes at a time. Our plants are producing well this year.


The chipmunks left me these two tiny ripe Seascape strawberries to pick. It's my own fault really. I still haven't covered the bed with bird netting yet.


The string beans are beginning to roll in as well. I can't wait to cook these up.


A bouquet of cilantro, (pathetic) red onions and beets. I think it would be fun to open a store that sold organic vegetable bouquets and arrangements instead of flowers. I'm surprised no one has done it yet.

Late May Veggie Blooms

The blooms you find in a veggie garden this time of year may not be as obviously spectacular as those in a conventional flower garden, but if you stop and look closely enough, there is still plenty of color and interest for the discerning eye. I realized this as I worked in the garden today. In no particular order:


The mizuna has bolted. Like most other brassicas, the flowers are yellow and remind me of little exploding fireworks.


My Seville orange tree is blooming. I'm crossing my fingers that we'll have some orange marmalade in time for Christmas since we won't have any Meyer lemons this year.


I've been meaning to pull up what's left of last year's scallions but haven't gotten around to it...


I'm glad I didn't because the blooms are really interesting and complex close up.


Last year's sage and thyme are taking over the herb bed and will have to be trimmed back.

The purple sage flowers remind me of lavender. I wonder if they are in the same family.


The crimson flowered broad (fava) beans have the most stunning blooms in the garden right now.

I can't get over how beautiful the crimson flowers are. The plants are stockier than the more common Windsor variety. I wonder if the beans taste any differently.


My white-flowered Windsor fava beans are growing vigorously now. I have to remind myself to water them everyday now that our daily highs are in the 80's. Last year, I didn't do so during a hot dry spell and had a lot of blooms drop as a result.

I read somewhere that fava bean flowers and shoots are very tasty. I could never bring myself eat them as I love the eventual beans too much!


Last year, I made some flavored vinegar from these chive blossoms. I have to admit that the flavor was a bit strong for my taste. Maybe this year I'll try something different and steep them in some olive or canola oil. This giant cluster of chives is growing alongside my cantaloupe, Imperial artichokes and relocated wild strawberries.


Finally, this may be the saddest looking flower of the bunch but who wouldn't be excited to see the first tomato blossoms of the year?

Around the Garden this Week

The garden seems perpetually covered in rain drops this week. In some ways, I don't mind so much as I think the garden tends to be at its prettiest right after a rain storm. Here's a quick update on how things are looking this week. In no particular order:

On Sunday, I made a pea trellis out of wooden stakes and some leftover wire fencing. I like being able to recycle materials in the garden. Both my shell and snow peas germinated really well this year. In front of them, I sowed bush beans (Contender and Dragon's Tongue) and edamame (Envy) last week. With the cold and wet weather we've had lately, I don't have much hope that they will germinate well.


I also used some dead branches to prop up this planting of shell peas. I used this method last year and it worked out well for me. Plus, I think it looks pretty.


My broccoli and savoy cabbage are starting to really grow now. It always amazes me how certain plants will look for weeks as if they're not growing at all and then suddenly take off.


My overwintered scallions are sending up flower stalks. I'll be interested to see how they look.


My overwintered sage is also flowering at the moment. The beautiful purple flower buds also have an intense sage scent. Maybe I'll make a flavored oil or vinegar out of them.


The beets are growing rather slowly. I'm just glad the garden rodents and bugs are leaving them alone. I'm trying to do successive sowings to maintain a steady supply of beets this year.

Finally, I had planted some Seascape strawberry crowns a few weeks ago. Seascape is a day-neutral variety that should produce fruit all summer and into the fall. The plants are starting to flower already. However, I'll have to pull all of them off for at least the next six weeks so that the plants can put all of their energy into growing healthy roots and leaves.

Around the Garden - A Slow Start

How Depressing....the weather forecast is predicting nothing but rain for the next five days. As I walk around the garden, I can't help but to compare this spring to last year's. Everything seems to be growing slower this time around. Is it just me or are my fellow gardeners living in New England noticing this as well? Hopefully it's just my imagination.

I caved this year and purchased a Asian permission tree. This is a non-astringent variety called Ichi-Ki-Kei-Jiro that is supposed to be hardy down to our zone 6. I have it growing in a pot that is the size of a half barrel. I know, I know - I'm not expecting much from it in this potted state but I couldn't find it in me to plant it in the ground. If we end up purchasing a new home within the next few years, I wouldn't want to leave it behind just when it was starting to produce. Call me selfish. As a result, it'll have to spend the next few years of its life in this pot. I will however plant two less-exotic fruit trees from Home Depot and leave them for all future owners of our home.


The only things seemingly unaffected by the weather are the wild strawberries. Hopefully we'll be able to pick some of these tasty little yellow and red nuggets of strawberry goodness soon.


My red onion sets are looking good. I have a feeling I planted them too close together though (about 4 inches apart). As you can see, some critter did away with two of my Brussels sprouts! I had to buy transplants today to make up for this loss.


My Napoli carrots have germinated very well - close to 100%! I'm excited to see how they will grow in my raised box. On the other hand, only 50% of my Paris market carrots germinated. I hate having to reseed gaps.


The fig trees I purchased last year are showing signs of life. I really hope we get some fruit this summer. To increase the chances of this, I really should move all of my fruit trees to a sunnier location.

Around the April Garden

I thought I'd give a quick update on what's happening in and around the garden right now. In no particular order:


Now that the weather has warmed up a bit, the spring greens are growing rather quickly.


I will begin harvesting the Shanghai bok choy (right) in a couple days. Personally, I like my Asian greens on the smaller/younger side. The tatsoi (middle) will require another week or two.


I can now harvest some spinach leaves as well (right). The variety I'm growing this spring is "Regiment" and I have to say, I like it much better than "Space". I'm growing several varieties of lettuce this spring. Winter Density (middle) is growing particularly fast.


The French Breakfast radishes are up. Unlike carrots and beans, radishes always seem to germinate well in our garden.


My red and yellow wonder strawberries are leafing up fast. The first flowers don't seem too far behind. I have a second bed with three times as many plants, which will need to be located to another part of the garden. I'm hoping to use them as a mini hedge around my garden fence to keep the weeds down.


My snow and shell peas are up. I was really happy that germination was close to 100%. These will have to be thinned. The shoots are really tasty in salads or stir-fried.


Another photo of my speckled romaine lettuce.


It didn't take very long time for last year's thyme and sage to bounce back.


After a very long wait, the fava beans are up. I'm growing three varieties this year. I decided to hedge my bets and start additional seeds indoors. Germination ended up being around 90% so I transplanted my excess seedlings in another bed. We have about 80 fava bean plants - 10 times as many as last year, which is fine by me since they are one of our favorite veggies.


I also planted some red onion sets this weekend. Is it awful that I don't feel bad about not starting them from seed this year?


Finally, I harvested my first Jersey Supreme asparagus spears today! They sort of sneaked up on me as the shoots were tiny this past weekend. Luckily, I made a point to check on them again today. I would hate to have missed out on this first crop. Oh, and boy were they delicious simply steamed with a bit of butter. I'd never eaten asparagus that was cooked within minutes of being picked. I don't think you can find anything as sweet or tender at the supermarket.