Garden Review 2016: Peas, Greens, Corn, Nightshades, Sweet Potatoes

Peas
Child 1 and Child 2 grew old fashioned Sugar Snap on 120cm trellises in back of their patches, as seen below.

This variety is so far still my favorite and produces well, but of course needs support. The girls grew Oregon Sugar Pod II on 40cm trellises in the front. Child 3 and I grew OSP II on short trellises too, though I'm not convinced the trellises did them much good; they didn't grab onto the strings much anyway. Maybe next year we'll just grow them without support. OSP II is easy to grow and a good producer, even if the large snow peas are not quite as tasty as snaps.

It's hard to imagine having too many peas, and so far we have never achieved that happy state. Mostly I try to not grow legumes in the same spot two years in a row, instead alternating years with early season greens.

This year (2017) we will try Super Sugar Snap and Sugar Magnolia Tendril as well as OSP II.


Favas
Along with the peas, I planted a small row of Ianto's Fava. Something kept digging these up while they were in the process of germinating, and the ones that grew up had a tendency to fall over. But they ended up making a small bowl of beans by the time they were done. Wow did they ever attract black aphids; but to be fair these afflicted many other plants in early season 2016. I'm feeling like in a space constrained garden I'd probably rather just have peas. The fava flowers did look nice, and the plants look interesting.

Greens
Once again we had Tokyo Bekana, which continues to amaze. Also had some Tatsoi and Green Wave, which grow quick and easy, if not quite to the level of Tokyo Bekana. Becky is always a little annoyed at how many greens I bring in during late spring, so we end up giving some shopping sacks of greens away to friends, which I consider a fine use of homegrown produce. We also blanch and freeze some, but I feel with these varieties at least they taste rather bland after coming out of the freezer.

It just seems like a waste to NOT grow early greens in space which will not be planted until late May or early June.

For instance this year, I had greens in beds that would later get corn and potatoes.

The greens are not totally done by the time the main season crop wants to start, but the main planting is small for a while. In my 90cm wide beds for both corn and potatoes I put two rows, each 25-30cm in from the edge. So one row of greens running down the center works well; I can plant the next thing in the outer rows while the greens are getting big in the center. Then I cut the greens down when they are done and the next plants are gaining steam.

Another green which is a little too easy to grow, and perennial to boot: horseradish. I grew some in the orchard in 2015 but it got too tall so I moved it to the sidebar by the driveway where normal plants have difficulty. I made a point of giving extra water the first year, but it did grow well and looks interesting.

Once it gets established it seems pretty hard to kill. Remember those spots in the orchard I moved it from? Knowing its reputation for coming back from tiny pieces of root, I put two layers of cardboard over it and some salt marsh hay. Well, it came blowing right through that by July. I began cutting leaves taller than 20cm down to the ground every week, but it just kept making more.

I'd rather have kale, but horseradish greens are fairly edible. They get somewhat bitter late in the season especially if you let the leaves get big and old. They wilt very quickly once cut, and are thin. But especially if you have other greens to mix them with I think they are worth having. Their flowers are nice too.

Speaking of kale, we removed one of our sea kale plants this year because they were getting too big. This is another perennial green which is not as good as you wish it was. But again, when mixed with some other greens it is ok. The flowers in spring are really cool and smell strongly of honey.

Corn
Tried about 1.8 square meters of Parching Starburst Manna from Carol Deppe. Planted in groups of three in early June, thinned to one plant later on. The germination was good and the plants grew well, if not to a very impressive size. Here they are right before I took out the border greens and planted beans by them.

I was constantly shaking the plants to help pollination, which turned out ok but still had room for improvement. We let the corn dry most of the way on the stalks, then brought it inside.

I made two batches of cornbread for a chili cookoff at work entirely from this batch of corn:

It was a fun way to spend a couple hours; first I picked the kernels off the cobs, then ground them in the C.S. Bell #2, then made the batter and cooked it. I used this recipe.

Still have probably 1/3 of the corn left. I was saving it for a potential tamale making effort we may do with some friends; it would be cool if we had some token amount of home grown corn to contribute. I do want to make sure to try some parched which I have not done yet.

Tried to plant some pole beans at the edges of the beds after the spring greens came out. They came up well, but were apparently irresistible to the pack of rabbits that plagued our garden this year. Might need to figure out a way to cut back on the rabbits in future.


Beans
A few groups of Cosse Child 1ta pole beans were planted around, but all were a near complete fail. As mentioned in the corn section, young bean plants must be especially delicious to bunnies. Up on the orchard terrace level, I had about three plants growing up a piece of bamboo which the bunnies did not find. However after the first picking of beans, the leaves were near completely skeletonized by some insect overnight. The plants did not recover.

Tomatoes
A relatively small tomato effort in 2016, with just 3 Sungold, started inside and moved out in the second half of May to grow on a string trellis in the grain maze area. True to form for everything grown in the grain maze, they did better than terrible but put in a weak performance. I'm starting to think the root competition from the nearby sycamore maple is more oppressive to plants in this area than the shade cast by the tree.

We planted some morning glories to grow on strings up the edges of the trellis, which worked out pretty well.

This year (2017) I'm trying to get tomatoes earlier using wall-o-waters. My mom uses loads of these things, and they always seemed like a lot of work to me, but it would be great to get a few extra weeks of tomato season. We started Sungold seeds inside in February and put them out under wall-o-waters in late April, about a month earlier than I would normally put out tomatoes.

They look very happy in their jackets. We have not had a freeze that whole time, so they probably wouldn't have died even if I didn't put the water cloches over them, but the plants are growing significantly faster than they usually do when I transplant.

Child 2 is doing two plants in the terrace bed and I have four in the front box.


Potatoes
Planted about 4 square meters of Nicola bought from Maine Potato Lady into a grain maze bed. Green Wave mustard greens were grown in a strip down the center of these beds, then the potatoes planted on either side of the greens using a handheld bulb planter.

This worked out well and the plants were happy other than showing the usual failure to thrive in the grain maze. They were done pretty early and we dug them in August.

Sweet Potatoes
After growing them once, I like this plant! One downside to it is that our resident rabbits seem to find sweet potato leaves extremely tasty. I got slips of Molokai Purple, Korean Purple, Apache, and Laceleaf from Sand Hill Preservation Center. They looked pathetic when they arrived and I had my doubts about whether they would survive. But they quickly gained steam and looked set to do well, right up until they got completely defoliated by the bunnies.

I tried spraying castor oil, put on granular animal repellent, and a cage over some of them. The bunnies munched a few more times to a less severe degree, but I think the initial stripping really set them back.

Nonetheless we dug them in the fall and got an ok amount of tubers.

The rabbits didn't like the foliage of Laceleaf as much, but unfortunately some kind of root eating insect grubs preferred Laceleaf to the others and ruined all but one tuber. Molokai purple did not produce as much as Apache and Korean Purple.

Upper left is Molokai Purple, upper middle Laceleaf, upper right Apache, lower is Korean Purple.

I was hoping for more, but it was fun to eat these. No one except me was much into eating sweet potatoes, but Child 1 recently made some baked sweet potato fries that everyone liked pretty well. Over the winter I made pan fried and tempura fried sweet potato rounds a few times. Those were nice. Something must be done about the rabbits if I am going to grow them again though.

Another cool thing about sweet potatoes is that the above ground part is edible, unlike irish potatoes. Here is my friend from work Jim Serdy about to bike home with a box of apples and a couple of my just cut sweet potato plant tops.

Garden Review 2016: Berries and Compost

Another great year in June bearing Strawberries, plus significant contributions from the Alpines. A few tastes of other berries were had, but mostly still waiting for them to do anything. Compost is steaming ahead full bore.


June Bearing Strawberries
As a reminder, we have about 3.5 square meters each of Sparkle and Earliglow. They have were not quite
as tasty and prolific as the first year they bore, but they were still great. As usual, the plants came in profusely starting in spring.

Oriental poppies, garlic, and peas in the back. Strawberry plants (Sparkle) in front.

Here we have Comfrey to the left, lovage, sage, egyptian onions in back. Earliglow to the lower right.

Too robust sea kale in the center, pathetic asparagus patch in lower half.

Child 3 inspecting his garden patch with grandma, with strawberries crowding in by his peas.

We picked lots of berries almost every day for weeks in June, and had plenty to give some as gifts and even freeze a few bags for winter eating.

I think Child 3 and Child 1 are crushing some below up for homemade ice cream, which is wonderful made with homegrown berries.

Next year, I'm planning on replanting big strawberries down in the grain maze beds, using new plants from Nourse. We will try Rutger's Scarlet, a June bearer which I've read good things about, as well as Mara des Bois, an everbearing variety with strong recommendations on GrowingFruit. I was surprised we had too many strawberries to eat with all June bearing from our small patch, so on the second iteration of planting these short lived perennials I wanted to put in some everbearing to spread out the harvest. My hope is that the strawberries, which can take a little shade, will do better than other plants down in the grain maze. It is an area that takes a bit of shade from a nearby sycamore maple and the house, where annuals have generally underperformed (right side center in below picture)

So this coming season (third harvest) will be the last for Sparkle and Earliglow in their current locations. I'm looking forward to having that space for annuals starting in 2018.

After the berries were petering out towards late June in 2017, we did the yearly bed renovation. The plants were cut down with the scythe and raked off.

Ah, kids look cute using a scythe, right?

My mom tried the scythe too when she was visiting in May, but she thought it would be a hard sell to get her husband Jerry to cut the grass with it :)

Plant stubs were thinned severely, then compost was shoveled in and topped with salt marsh hay.

Last summer was atypically dry, and especially on the east side beds (Sparkle). I think this set back the strawberries badly when they were growing back from the bed renovation. I spent quite a bit of time watering with a hose through June and July, but it is hard to actually water properly with a hose to the degree necessary when there is no rain. So anyway, Sparkle filled in very sparsely and I anticipate a reduced harvest from them this coming season.

In future, I'd like to get my drip lines down so I'm less sensitive to rainfall and it will be easier to water well when needed.


Alpine Strawberries
Alpines are making an excellent groundcover, and providing a steady small volume stream of tasty treats all season. This walk down the side yard is all alpines along the immediate border.

I'm starting to have second thoughts about planting Atilla, a runnering variety, since it is taking over and proving unruly. While making a good groundcover, finding and picking berries from a thick carpet of overcrowded Atilla plants is not easy.

Other plants I have in this bed like dwarf monarda and coneflower are getting out competed by the spreading Attila plants. The grape vine is above the fray enough to not suffer.

As with many perennials, these guys are doing too well in some areas but refuse to colonize a long bar of bed along the east side of the yard.

We planted some Yellow Wonder alpines from StrawberryStore in beds created in 2015 for apricot trees and a grape vine. They grew well but didn't make many berries. Hopefully they are gathering steam for a good showing in their second year.

Though alpines produce all season, ours peak in June about the same time as the June bearers. You can see the take from our best day of picking the alpines in the lower left bowl below, along with the day's big strawberry picking and a harvest of spring greens in the shopping sacks to the rear.

Other berries
We ate a couple red currants from Jonkheer van Tets (left), a couple gooseberries from Hinnomaki Red (right)

one Goumi berry from this bush:

There might have been one Cornelian Cherry that fell off long before it was ripe. Or was that last year?

Nanking cherries are slowly sizing up, but blossoms were done in by frost; they do bloom very early in the season so I anticipate this will be a continuing issue.

The hardy kiwis managed to not die and grow a little. I finally got to taste some of these from a grocery in California; they were good! It is nice to not have to peel them like fuzzy kiwis. I hope we get fruit from our vines one day.

Blackberries were not too prolific and had a large percentage of inedible berries, though the birds ate almost everything before it was ripe anyhow. I planted a boysenberry my mom sent (it may die from cold in winter).

and a Prime Ark Freedom which I hope will succeed.

The kids enjoyed picking a few raspberries,

but they continue to not thrive for some inscrutable reason. The raspberries that is, not the kids.

We made a couple new tiny raised beds in the front side yard for more berries.

We planted two grapes in these from One Green World: Marquis and Seedless Blue Muscat. Also put in mint, chives, alpine strawberries, and two little Top Hat blueberries from Indiana Berry.

The frames are 2x rough cut local(ish) green oak from Brightman Lumber.

I was looking forward to eating some grapes this coming season from my Mars vine, which is entering it's third season in the ground and was looking good last fall.

But a late fall construction project broke the vine about 20cm above ground. Rats! I hope it will grow back from the roots in a couple years.


Compost
We continue to throw everything in the compost, including bones and small animal carcasses. In the fall, when I finally got my anti-squirrel system figured out and running smoothly, the compost got a little stinky for a few weeks when I was putting in a squirrel every day or two. Otherwise the compost system is just remarkably trouble free.

When we cut down the strawberries toward the end of June, we shuffled the compost down the bin line. My sister and her kids were visiting at the time and were happy to help with scything the strawberries and sifting compost.

So the bin that had been mellowing for a year with no additions was screened into the next bin down to await spreading in the garden.

The screened out big chunks were returned to the bin receiving active new material to have another go at breakdown.

Things that seem to need more than a year are avocado skins and seeds, some bones, mango seeds, and thicker woody debris from the garden. I must have picked out a thousand little produce labels, and resolved to take more care removing these when they are used in the kitchen rather than having to pick them out of the compost.

Actually it is surprising that most bones break down in a year. My compost is not particularly hot, but almost all bones get turned into stock before going out with compost. Spending a day in boiling water probably makes them break down faster once they go into the pile.

We crushed up some hardwood charcoal and threw it in, after I got excited about biochar. It didn't get that small though and it was a fair bit of work to crush in our haphazard setup.

Plus buying lump (not briquette) charcoal is not much cheaper than buying biochar. I bought a few boxes of biochar from Wakefield this year and was impressed with the product at least at time zero. It was fluffy and of a nice particle size; not so small as to be dusty, but still finely divided and without big lumps. Even though it is expensive to buy, my garden is small enough that it isn't such a problem, and of course I seem to love maximizing the money spent growing a little food.

For the last few months I've been collecting used coffee and filters from work. I put out a 20L pail with a sealing lid in the kitchen and told people they could put the used coffee from our communal machine in there if they wanted to support composting. I can bring home a bucket of coffee about every two weeks, which boosts our additions to the bin from the household by about 50%. I think this coming year will see roughly:

- 1 m^3 of garden waste (low density when put in the bin)
- 1 m^3 of kitchen waste (veggie scraps, bones, food scraps)
- 1/2 m^2 of coffee and filters from work
- 1/2 m^2 of hay (put in as layers with other stuff when it seems too green and moist)
- some potting soil, charcoal, ashes from the grill

This cooks down to about 1/3 m^2, which isn't much. I've been buying 1.5-2 m^3 per year the last few years.

I think for the next few years I'll still need to buy in compost, but maybe at some point I can get production on site up to meet my needs. Just need to collect more animal carcasses from around the neighborhood...