Potato Update and Freeze Warnings

This past week, I harvested another 0.93 lbs of radishes. Jonathan has developed quite a taste for them so I'm glad to say that I am no longer the only person in the house who eats them.

On a sad note, all of my white-stemmed mini bok choy bolted while I was away. (I have found that the white-stemmed varieties tend to bolt much more easily than the green.) And so, they all ended up in the compost pile. I hate wasting food and the feeling becomes much more acute when you put so much time and energy into growing it yourself.


I thought I'd update everyone on my potted potatoes. Pictured above is the "Red Thumb" variety...


...and here are the "All Blue" potatoes. I never knew that potato leaves were so striking. I just love how the stems and leaves are streaked with the distinct color of these varieties. I'm also impressed by how fast these have grown.


The "Rose Finn" fingerlings are growing a bit slower than the rest, but for some reason, I had expected this. I'm just glad that they have all made it this far. Hopefully growing potatoes will be as easy as they say it is.

Finally, before I say "good night" to my fellow New Englanders, I just wanted to remind you all to protect your outdoor plants. Apparently, we have another frost warning tonight. Hopefully, this will be the end of it.

From Cool to Warm

My indoor seed-starting is slowing winding down. It's been over 3 months since the first seeds were sown and I've had my fair share of successes (notably tomatoes and brassicas) and failures (artichokes and lettuce). Hopefully, I will learn from my mistakes next year. The cool weather crops are long gone from the shelves and what's left are your typical warm season veggies (tomatoes, eggplant, peppers/chilies, melons, summer squash and cucumbers).


I had 100% germination from my Sugar Baby watermelon seeds. From what I've heard, it can be difficult to achieve a full-sized watermelon from a home garden here in New England. Since most of my garden is part shade, I'm not that optimistic about my chances. I'm also growing Charantais melons this year, an heirloom variety I've heard so many wonderful things about. Hopefully it will grow well for me as I'm very excited to taste it.

My Sweet Delight honey dew melon seeds did not germinate well at all. After a failed first attempt, I was finally able to coax 2 seeds to sprout. (Also pictured here are zinnias and nasturtiums.)


My bush beans (left) also did not germinate well, only 8 out of an entire packet of seeds. The zucchini (middle) are beginning to form their first true leaves. (Also pictured: more broccoli, cauliflower and morning glories.)

Finally, my Spacemaster cukes are coming along well. I have 4 total along with 1 long Asian variety. In my opinion, there's nothing more refreshing than a freshly picked cucumber from the garden. I think I'll sow a few more seeds to make sure we have an over abundance this summer. (Also pictured: Calabash gourd - an edible Asian variety.)

Cardboard Pots - Two Thumbs Down

In early April, I used some cardboard paper towel rolls that I had saved up to make mini pots. Into them went my basil, Thai basil, cilantro, dill and tomatilloes.


Over a month later, the seedlings are still looking small and weak. You can see that some of the young leaves are also turning yellow. I think the problem here is soil depth (1 1/2 inch), or lack thereof. If I were to try this again (which is doubtful), I would make the pots at least twice as deep. I ended up transplanting the seedlings into my garden earlier this week (a bit early, I know) in an effort to save them. They definitely seem happier now.

New Beds, Sore Back

I spent a good chunk of time this past weekend putting in these two new 8 ft x 4 ft beds. In my opinion, the worst part in starting a new garden is removing the sod, especially if you're doing it by hand and with a garden fork like I did. I tried to shake off as much soil as I could from the roots but since the ground was pretty wet, I still lost a lot of top soil, which I will have to replace.


In one bed, I interplanted my artichokes, more lettuce and leeks. To the right are my ground cherries, which have been flowering for some time now but are still too small to set fruit.


This is pretty much it for the side garden. I don't see myself adding any more beds. Now I need to focus on smothering away all of the grass you see here.


Finally, as I mentioned earlier, I transplanted 25 asparagus crowns in the middle section above. I should have spaced the crown MUCH farther apart, but frankly, I just don't have the space to adequately accommodate them. Also, I will be expanding this plot by another 100 sq ft to the right. Since I refuse to remove that much sod, I will have to find a more passive way to kill off all of that grass.

The First Garden (Bad Photos Alert!)

I'm currently in Washington D.C. for work and of course had to check out the White House Kitchen Garden. Please forgive the less than spectacular photos, which were taken from my Blackberry. I would have loved to go on a White House tour, but since you have to book at least 6 months in advance, I had to enjoy the garden from afar...Oh well, hopefully next year.


The garden seemed smaller than I had expected but looked lush and healthy. To the right of the garden is a tall stack of bee hives.


The cynics can say whatever they want... to see the garden is to witness a truly beautiful thing to have come out of this administration.

Spring Garden Tour

I just thought I'd update everyone on some of the things I had growing in the garden at the moment. In no particular order:


My mini white stem bok choy is already starting to bolt. I wonder if they are still edible.


Here are some of the Yellow and Red Wonder wild strawberries I started from seed. I wonder if they will produce any berries this year.


Speaking of strawberries, about 90% of the runners/crowns that I transplanted from the old garden last fall survived the winter and are beginning to flower.


Red Sails lettuce interplanted with some white onion sets...Florence fennel in the bottom right...parley, sage and thyme in the top right...snow peas top left.

Yesterday, I finally made a pea trellis out of old branches. I still need to make a couple more.


My mini Napa cabbage is getting huge! I hope they don't decide to bolt...Red of Florence scallions in the bottom left.


Pictured: white onion sets, Pirracicaba broccoli, several varieties of cauliflower, celery and Rhubarb chard. I have these veggies planted throughout my garden.


Behind the broccoli are snow peas and Fava beans interplanted with even more onions.


In the foreground are more cauliflower interplanted with leeks.

The garlic is getting HUGE!


Finally, I think I forgot to mention that I transplanted 9 of my February sown tomatoes a week and a half ago (Siberian, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple and Sungold). I planted them pretty deep with all but the top few branches snipped off. Into the hole went some compost, a good amount of slow-release organic fertilizer, bone meal, a bit of Epsom salt and some crushed Aspirin and calcium tablets. As you can see, they are starting to flower. They're pretty slow growing at the moment. Hopefully they will take off as the weather warms.

Weekly Harvest

Unfortunately nothing too exciting this week...The radishes are sizing up a few every day. Already we'd harvested about 0.5 lb of these crunchy nuggets. They are tasting great this time of year - perfectly crisp and mild without the slightest hint of bitterness, which is just how it like them. I also harvested all of my remaining mizuna (0.82 lbs). They'd started to bolt but still taste perfectly fine.

I had a very busy weekend digging in the garden. My Jersey Supreme asparagus crowns had arrived from Nourse farms on Thursday (25 large crowns total) and I was able to get them into the ground on Saturday. I also received my Jaclyn raspberry canes, an everbearing variety that I'm very excited to grow. Unfortunately I won't be able to plant them until next weekend so at the moment they are resting in a bucket, the roots covered with some potting soil.

That's all I got. Hopefully you all had a lovely weekend too! Now it's back to "work" work.

A Crispy Change

Today we picked the first Easter Egg radishes of the year. They were a welcomed change from our usual harvest of leafy greens. And I couldn't think of a better person to model them. Say, "Radishes!"

BUH-BYE, or Should I Say, "TRASHED!"

What was once this...


...is now THIS! I have tried everything in my power to get rid of these f@%#&!g aphids and still they bounce back each time. In an attempt to kill every last one of them, I even tried dunking the entire plant into an organic pesticide solution. Sadly, that didn't work either. To make matters worse, the organic pesticides I used (even insecticidal soap spray) burned through the leaves and my only option was to cut them off. But the worst part is that the new leaves never develop properly because the life is literally being sucked out of them.

I don't care what anyone says, aphids are a formidable enemy. At this point, I am ready to throw in the towel. Not only have they cost me much time, money and aggravation during these past couple of months but in all honesty, I can't even stand the sight of these plants now. Also, I refuse to let these aphids migrate into my garden. So I say treat these sorry plants like you would any ex-lover - pretend they are dead and move on.


Call it divine providence or just good luck but this past weekend, I came across these beauties (Imperial artichokes to boot) at Lake Street Garden Center in Salem, New Hampshire. I knew the moment I laid eyes on them that my enemy's days were numbered. This morning, I happily threw away all of my infected plants. The way I see it, there's enough suffering in this world. After what I'd been through, at 3 dollars each, these flawless artichoke plants were a steal.

Again, the lesson to be learned here is: no matter how reputable the nursery (in this case, Companion Plants out of Ohio), you must always quarantine your new plants until you are SURE they will not introduce a foreign pathogen or pest that will infect and potentially kill the rest of your houseplants.

Expanding the Garden and Planting More Potatoes

For the past week, I've been slowly reclaiming the prior owner's abandoned garden. I haven't measured it exactly but the area looks to be at least 20 ft by 10 ft. It is located in a much sunnier spot in the yard and will be ideal for growing most of my warm season crops like tomatoes, peppers and melons. Therefore if I were to expand my garden even further, here is where it would be.

Clearing the space is proving to be a lot tougher than I had expected as it was completely overrun by strawberry plants and mint. If anyone is interested in growing mint, I suggest you do so in a pot. Having dug up several HUGE piles of thick roots, I can appreciate now how truly invasive the herb can be. In fact, it has already begun to creep beyond the garden.


After clearing most of the area, to make life easier for myself I'm overturning the soil one section at a time and as needed. This past weekend was all about planting the remainder of my potatoes. As you can see, Jonathan and I decided to have another pajama gardening party after Sunday breakfast.

I started by digging a double row of trenches that were about 6 to 8 inches deep. I'd amended the soil with a bit of compost and some slow release organic fertilizer. In went the potatoes (cut side down)...

...which were then covered with about 3 inches of soil. As the plants grow, I will fill the trenches and hill up. I should have spaced my potatoes at least 12-15 inches apart but since I had so many, the spacing was more like 10 inches. Hopefully that won't affect the yield too much.


And yes, I still had enough potatoes left over to plant 6 more pots for a total of 12. For all of the effort that has gone into this, I will be gravely disappointed if I don't get at least 3 potatoes for every one that I planted. On the bright side, planting potatoes can be enormously fun.