Wet & Wild
Reflections of the Gardening Projects of 2019
This is my 12th year of garden logging. What did I just say last year in my decadal review? That’s right: “the deer remain the big issue”. Well, this past summer, they jumped the temporary netted fence around the corn and tomato patch, and ate all my tomato plants. And I had a lot of tomato plants! The deer did not even wait until the fruit had set! Meanwhile, the ground hog got in and dug up all my corn the same day I planted it (twice!). Then I planted sunflowers for my beans and squash to trellis on in place of the corn, and the deer hopped in and ate all the sunflowers and squash, and pumpkins and beans. So, the field crops, although perfectly mulched with cardboard and woodchips a la Back to Eden gardening method, for water conversation and weed barrier, were a complete loss. It was particularly sad because I started all my squash and melons from seed this past year, with great variety. The plants were vigorous and blooming before I transplanted them. I hardened them off on the patio before lovingly transplanting them. Years past when I have tried to direct sow squash, the squirrels have always dug up the seeds and newly germinated seedlings.
As noted last year, the past few years have been wet and wild - too much rain and too many snap heat waves that have been the most disruptive events. Still considering rain barrels, but still haven’t done it because there is no shortage of rain in this region. The spring was very wet. The summer was fairly cool. The fall was quick and dry. If anything, we just didn’t get enough sun and heat for the fruiting crops or the long growth crops. For instance, peppers were drowning in the garden until I rescued them, re-potted them and put them on the warm stone patio. Potato crop was measly though not reduced by disease, insects or rodents. The beets also did not grow, though hilled up in the same conditions under which carrots flourished. They germinated nicely and then stopped growing when they were only 3 inches high.
By contrast, we had a huge crop of peas in the spring and well into June. Unfortunately that meant I had nowhere to plant the cucumbers because I had planned to put them on the pea fences. I won’t make than mistake again. Fresh raw peas were abundant in the first 3 months. But when I sacrificed all the saved peas and tried a fall crop, even though it was warm enough, it was too dry and the shoots didn’t grow more than 3 inches before it frosted and I had to eat them. Even the fall greens did not germinate well. Carrots, we had a bumper crop of and harvested plenty fresh for Thanksgiving dinner, and we had several rows still standing in the garden, in January. Turnips did fine; I pickled them.
The broccoli and kale did well this year but the cauliflower and cabbage faltered, very disappointing because theses too were started indoors from seed to give them a good head start. And they were hilled up to keep them from getting too wet, but there was not enough sun or heat and their growth was severely stunted. There was never a chance for the Brussel sprouts – they need nearly as much heat and a long growing season as pumpkins. Collards just did not germinate. I was using old seed and it failed.
Spinach, a very fickle crop in recent years germinated and grew well last year, particularly where I was extremely brutal about thinning it. And like the peas, we had a bumper crop of bush string beans, the purple variety, which enjoyed an extended season of about two months. Did not get a chance to make pickled dilly beans because the dill did not germinate; the seeds were too old.
Shocker of the season, I grew and harvested radishes! Have not harvested radishes in 10 years. This variety was the Spanish black, sometimes used to pad out prepared horse-radish, very white and picante. These were the large breed that should have been the size of an orange, but mine were only the size of golf balls. Meanwhile I ate a vast quantity of watermelon daikon radish bought from the farmer’s market. I made radish and feta salad, shredded radish and cabbage slaw, thin sliced radish with burrata and honey. So aggravating that I could not grow my own!
Salad greens did very well, particularly in the spring and lasted well into summer because it was so cool. Again, ruthless thinning produced excellent results. The claytonia and the purple orach are still my favorite spring greens. Nasturtiums really took over the garden and they lasted well into fall, they crept and trailed all over the garden. I love the leaves in salad and the blossoms in scrambled eggs. I really like squash blooms in my eggs too, but Bambi ate all the squash.
Onions were tricky this year. The Egyptian walking onions, which are self-seeding and in my herb garden seem to be petering out. Not sure if the last crop tried to seed in the lawn and got mowed or were subsumed by the rampant wild violets I keep tossing in the herb bed. The leeks, I am sorry to say, did not get enough sun or heat. Result – NO LEEKY DANCE; very unsettling to the delicate balance of the universe, although the kids are teenagers now and would have been horrified if I had tried to make them dance. I bought some leeks in the fall because I am very fond of baked leeks au gratin, with some millet or brown rice.
The chives, as always were abundant. And they are perennial so I had to divide them this year. Love the blossoms scattered in salad like minced red onion. And, speaking of red onions, I planted about fifty red Cipollini onions, and harvested about fifty. They were neatly hilled up so they did not drown. Maybe they were smaller than they should have been, egg sized, but they dried and stored well; we are still enjoying them.
I had numerous gardening projects going this past summer and I am surprised at my own progress:
The community garden. I have joined quite a few gardening groups, both online and locally this year. One of them is the InterGenerate community gardens of my county, and specifically the communal garden in my village. The community plot I cultivated this past year was an experiment in high yield food production in a 16 square foot raised bed. The violetto string beans were part of that and a smashing success. This year there has been a lot of discussion about subsistence farming and the pretentiousness of growing the perfect tomatoes. The aim of the group is to teach people how to grow their own food and in that vein we donate both seeds and the harvest back to the community. So this year the focus will be on real subsistence crops: potatoes, beans and squash. I am enthusiastic and have gone completely overboard ordering potato seed, beans and squash which will proliferate my own garden this year as well.
The Pollinator Pathway. This is a national movement subdivided down to extremely local chapters working to connect greenways, nature preserves and public lands with private properties where no pesticides are used to create green corridors that are pesticide free. Very enthusiastic participation on our cul-de-sac; we all registered our properties with the Pathway and promised not to use pesticides. This is very impactful because our cul-de-sac abuts a 200 acre Audubon nature preserve so we are an important bridge piece in the corridor. I am also very self-interested in joining this movement because this was my first year of bee-keeping and I harvested some superb honey. And I want to add a second hive this year
. Provence in New York. While puttering around Cape Cod this past spring we discovered a family garden farm selling huge lavender plants at irresistible prices. And while I would very happily have purchased one or two for my herb bed at home, my dear husband had a vision of the fields of lavender in Provence. And since the price was right, and we were driving my Toyota highlander from which I had not yet removed the winter weather mats, he bought 24 huge lavender plants and we brought them home. We planted them in place of the wildflower bed that had petered out and started to go back to grass. Applying my knowledge of lavender plants that have not survived the winter well in my herb garden, we planted each plant in a hill with gravel and sand under it for drainage. If the lavender field (conveniently located in the flight path of my bee hive) survives the winter, we will expand it by another 10 plants this year
The Wildflowers. All three of the windflower beds disappointed us and have petered out. We replaced the one in the back yard with a lavender field. The one behind that against the back property line is getting the Back-to-Eden treatment this spring so we can plant fruit trees there in the fall. Plums – I’m feeling a plum tree obsession building. Santa Rosa weeping plum trees... The wildflower patch in the front lawn has already received the Back-to-Eden cardboard and woodchip treatment, and we hugeled the old, rotten woodpile into it. This fall I planted the front of that bed with bluebells and the back of the bed with blueberry bushes. And I threw in a bunch of foxglove seeds in the western wall bed that have set six hardy rosettes I expect to bloom this summer (it’s a biannual). I may move those to the front wild-flower bed, behind the blueberry bushes.
The Western Wall – I moved the rhubarb, asparagus and horseradish to the new flowerbed by the western wall of the house. I also planted a couple of kiwi berry vines that now need a trellis. The asparagus had already been thinning in the vegetable garden and did not appreciate being moved, so I ordered 25 new roots. The rhubarb seemed to like the new location and actually needed dividing so I have high hopes for this spring. Horseradish is a weed so it will be happy anywhere, and oddly enough, I read somewhere that rhubarb-asparagus-horseradish is a good companion planting formula. But I’m a little confused about digging horseradish out of a bed without disturbing the asparagus and rhubarb roots. I couldn’t quite work that out so I planted a patch of each, in the same bed but not mingled.
Hugelkultur. (You have to say that word with guttural gusto!) What?? It is the method of building a raised bed over buried logs. We made a really good start in the spring and got the old woodpile in the front yard entirely buried and covered over with cardboard and woodchips, and planted with blueberry bushes and bluebells. The backyard wall of wood is much bigger (leftover from the nine pine trees we lost in hurricane Sandy) and quite a challenge because it is always a jungle of weeds and poison ivy. But we persevered and got half of it hugeled and covered over with woodchips. And we even got some hyssop and salvia, dogwood and a couple rhododendrons planted. This summer we’ll get the rest buried and then I want to plant an Echinacea patch and add a couple dwarf pear trees, and put bluebells in the front.
Back to Eden. Scored 20 cubic yards of wood chips, for free this past summer from getchipdrop.com. The woodchip and cardboard weed barrier method of gardening worked really well in the corn/squash patch. Such a shame the deer got in and ate everything. The children’s garden, mulched two years ago, was still so weed free that I planted a weeping persimmon there. It is a chronically wet area and persimmons don’t mind wet feet. I am thinking of adding a swath of river rock and making a permanent rain garden. Need to add some button bushes and Siberian iris, and cardinal flowers. I still have 10 cubic yards of wood chips and I am busy hording up more cardboard boxes for spring.
The Herb Garden. I had a little problem with the herb bed this year. I had 3, robust, Scottish thistle rosettes in the herb bed in the spring, and I decided to let them grow. And they grew. They grew about 9 feet tall and 5 feet around. Now, there is nothing prettier than a bright yellow gold finch flock hanging all over a giant thistle plant covered with vivid purple blooms. But, thistles are really really sharp and I couldn’t weed under them. And when they finished blooming, I still couldn’t cut them down because the birds needed the seeds. So the herb garden was a thistle and weed garden this past summer. I really was impressed with the thistles but think for their size they would look better from afar. So, I dug up a fine, large rosette (they are a bi-annual) in the fall and moved it to the back of the big hugel, in a patch that has already been mulched with cardboard and woodchips. And I see plenty of little thistle seedlings in the herb bed that will have to be weeded out in spring, but I might save a couple and put them in the hugel too for next year.
House plants. They were sadly neglected this past summer. First year in a long time that I did not put them outside. They suffered for being kept inside – the air-conditioning is not good for them. I won’t make that mistake again. My wax plant vine “Hobi” (Hoya Obovata) finally died, after 25 years! So sad because I took cuttings of a plant that I had grown up with. I am going to order a new one. My “Brutus II” (a kidnapped Philodendron Hope Selloum cutting from an apartment sublet 20 years ago) is down to a single green leaf. My Dracaena Warneckii (given to me by my mother-in-law as an engagement gift) is still alive after 23 years and thriving. The other Dracaena varieties which I adopted after a friend took a summer-long, cross country motorcycle ride and never reclaimed them, are still alive after 25 years. I gave my giant poinsettias away after the holidays – they are always dead by March no matter what I do. So I am only left with one, sad little Christmas cactus I don’t know how to care for. The Areogrow planter is up and running and the basil, parsley and dill have sprouted. It is an excellent little hydroponic system. The art glass terrarium was beautifully replanted in the summer and lasted a couple months before dying out. So it needs to be re-planted again, this time with plants that want less light.
The seed list this year is a fresh start and I’m scaling back, except when I’m not.
Seed List: will follow as soon as I stop buying seed packets.