The Vigor of Plants

  


   The dill and chinese cabbage plants that I moved to the porch for the winter just don't want to give up the ghost yet.  As a matter of fact, they are trying to go to seed to produce the next generation.  The seeding efforts are certainly fun to watch here near the early spring.  I would expect that the dill will be pretty scraggly by the time it could survive outside, and the chinese cabbage looks like it will be done in a couple of weeks.  Out of pure curiosity, I will probably cut off the cabbage seed stalk and leaves, and plant the stump one more time in the garden to see what happens.

Chinese cabbage flowering,  2/26/2012

Dill about to flower,  2/26/2012

Plant Rescue 105 - Chinese Cabbage

      Back in November after the harvest of The Chinese Cabbage, it was my thought that that plant had gone to plant heaven, never to be heard from again.  And you were hoping the saga was over, too.

Chinese Cabbage, 11/23/2012

      This magnificent plant had grown as a volunteer, and I constantly feared for its life against the appetite of deer or rabbits.  But it survived, only to be mowed down by my blade for the Thanksgiving harvest.

Picked for Thanksgiving, 2011

      End of story, right?  Wrong.  There still was a stump, promising all sorts of possible rescue plans:

      I cut off all the little leaflets except the one shown in the middle of this shot.  Put the rest of those leaf thingies in my compost:

      Where they promptly rotted from too much moisture.  End of story, right?  Not so fast.  The old root with the one attached leaflet went back into a pot.  And did well:

Coming back strong, 12/28/2011

      I have some chinese cabbage started now from purchased seed, so I should let this poor survivor alone to live out its life and produce seed.  As it is trying to do:

Still growing, 2/17/2012

      Or I could cut it back another time and use these leaves for a salad.  It has a nice seed head forming, yet the cole crops are notorious for cross pollinating, meaning I might not get chinese cabbage from the seed.  Maybe I will cut it up for trying to clone some of the pieces.  Yes, that might extend its life a little bit more. Long live the Chinese Cabbage.

Bring on the Clones

      Most of us vegetable gardeners either start our plants from seed, or buy plant starts were were started from seed in a nursery.  Unlike most of the higher animal species that are difficult to grow starting from cloned material, many plants are quite easy to start using material from the "mother" plant.  This poor Savoy cabbage plant was ravaged by voles, both chopping off the head, and girdling the stem.

Oh, and they ate most of the roots too.  So I gave it up for dead and added the poor thing to the top of the compost pile, where I found it three weeks later trying to put out a little tuft of greenery.  And you can see several other little growth nodes too.  As a former biology major, I am always yearning to experiment, so I couldn't stop myself from pulling this battered and abused plant from the compost heap.  I potted it up with straight compost, and intend to try to separate cuttings if they grow.  I believe they will.

Savoy Cabbage stump, 12/4/11

      Remember I promised to quit talking about the Chinese Cabbage?  The beauty carved for Thanksgiving?  Sorry.  But since I didn't dig up the root system, the plant figured it would try again.  So, it is back.

Chinese Cabbage stump, with leaflets, 12/4/11

  
   This time I dug it up and to it home to perform surgery.  It had sprouted six little plantlets that I cut away with a little bit of the stem included. 

Chinese Cabbage plantlets, 12/4/11

Planted in straight compost, 12/4/11

      And now I am going to pot the stump and put it on the porch for the winter to see if it puts out any more little babies.  Maybe the saga will continue.  A further part to the experiment was to take the leaf stems in the above pictures, and cut them into one to two inch pieces.

Chinese Cabbage stem pieces, 12/4/11

      These were planted in straight compost, some laying on top of the compost, some covered by compost, and some standing up in the compost.  All are in covered containers to maintain high humidity.  I expect, or at least hope, that many of the pieces will develop little plants attached.  Which I can then pot out for early additions to the cold frames.
      I found this article to be helpful: 

http://www.ideamarketers.com/?Cloning_vegetable_varieties&articleid=1456412

and this one too:
                     http://www.ehow.com/how_7842272_clone-vegetable-plants.html

      I would love to hear about any vegetables that you may have started as clones or cuttings.

The Carving of the Thanksgiving Cabbage

      Bear with me for one more story about the chinese cabbage.  You will be thrilled to know that with Barb and Em taking some home, there is very little evidence left.  But back to the carving...

Thanksgiving morning, 2011

      This beauty was a volunteer from some plants from the spring season.  Those were less than spectacular, and I never had a harvest, though they were pretty to see in bloom.  I really wasn't expecting volunteers for a fall harvest, but there are several, and boy were they champs.  Illustrates the benefits of fall gardening.

Breaking off the outer leaves

      I am after the tender leaves of the "head" of the cabbage.  The outer leaves are kept for stir fry, saute, or a baked casserole.  Those inner leaves are used for dipping in the sour cream dip.  Calories don't count on Thanksgiving, right?

Finally on the table, 11/24/11

Veggie plate

      Fresh from the garden to the veggie plate were radishes, broccoli, green onions, and celery leaves as a garnish.  Garnish nothing, grand son Wesley asked if he could eat it.  And did.
      A good time had by all.  Happy Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Bounty

      Our Thanksgiving will be celebrated early tomorrow at noon, so that Emily and family may move on to a second glutinous sitting in the late afternoon.  Whoops, I meant to say gourmandish.  Well what can we come up with from the garden for the Thanksgiving feast?

      Oh no, where did the chinese cabbage go?  I am happy to say It went home with me, foiling the deer and the voles for maybe the first time.  So to the young buck who was waiting till Thanksgiving to share this delicacy with Dosey Doe, I got there first.  The outer leaves will be saved for making a delicious baked cabbage dish, and the smaller inner leaves are going on the veggie platter.  The chinese cabbage has a much milder flavor than regular cabbage, and it is crispier too.  Can be used raw, stir fried, or baked.

Safely cut and ready to transport, 11/23/11

Ready to pick, 11/23/11

Egyptian Walking Onions, 11/23/11

      Emily is in charge of the salad, but I was in charge of the salad greens.  The green onions may go either in the salad or on the veggie and dip platter.

Salad greens and green onions, 11/23/11

Rogue radish patch, 11/23/11

      And remember that little patch of spilled radish seeds?  The ones that had the audacity to grow right in the wood chip path?  Well they continue to provide the nicest radishes that I have ever had.

Radishes from wood chip path, 11/23/11

       Together with a more familiar red radish volunteer and three beautiful young heads of broccoli, we have a fine addition for the veggie platter.

Broccoli and radishes, 11/23/11

      And lest we forget the days of summer, we harvested one of the white Casper pumpkins from our stash on the porch.  We are actually going to have pumpkin as a side dish, but there is so much that I think we will freeze some for muffins or pies.

Casper Pumpkin, 11/23/11 but picked months ago

George and Casper trying to find out who is bigger and badder, 11/23/11

George won that battle

      So preparations are being made for the feast tomorrow.  Had I talked with Barb and Em, we could have pooled our supplies of swiss chard for Cindy's spanekopeta.  But instead, we will have to settle for using frozen spinach.  Bummer.
      I am thankful for the opportunity to have family together for Thanksgiving, and I am happy to have so much fresh organic produce from my garden.  I am thankful for Moira Sheridan and Bob King showing me the possibilities of fall gardening.  Way beyond just the tomatoes and cucumbers of the summer.  Maybe you can have your own Thanksgiving goodies next year.
      Gobble gobble, have a great turkey day!

No Walk in the Park

      Today has been down right miserable, rainy and dreary all day.  I can usually find a break to get outside and play in the dirt, but not today.  Makes me happy that I got out yesterday, even though it too was overcast and called for rain.  I worked on improving one of the cold frames that had basically been a leaner last year.

Cold frame for rebuild, 11/21/11

      This frame was made of 6 by 6 timbers laid in the ground front and back.  The back timber then had an additional 2 x 6 to elevate the glass panels.  The ends were just boards leaned loosely against the glass.  The improved frame will have an additional layer of 2 x 4's front and back, as well as fixed ends.

Volunteer dill, 11/21/11

      This volunteer dill was getting quite smashed whenever I had to put the glass on.  I think I will pot up the dill, and keep it on the porch.  Anybody want a dill plant?
      The following pictures are just for record keeping.

Lettuces, 11/21/11

Bellevue garden. 11/21/11

      The frame at the bottom is the one I was working on last week.  It still needs the left end piece built before cold weather sets in.  The upper frame is the current project.  When finished, a lot of the stuff in the upper bed can be transplanted to the completed frame.  A heck of a lot of activity still going on in the Thanksgiving week.

Tango lettuce and others for transplanting, 11/21/11

Oft mentioned Chinese Cabbage, 11/21/11

      I have been planning to cut the chinese cabbage for Thanksgiving, even if it doesn't get on the menu.  Well, Cindy is planning on having veggies and dip for Thursday.  Those inner leaves should be pretty darn scrumptious with a little dip.  So, I am hoping it is not on the deer's menu for Thanksgiving Eve.

A Walk in the Park

      I was itching to get out the door and over to the park garden, but delayed my visit after seeing the frost on the back yard leaf pile and cold frames.  Used some time to tidy up my seed packets.  Still more time needed to finish that project, but it was then 9AM and safe to go to the park.  Well, the little frost was actually a pretty hard freeze, so doing more work on the cold frames with bare hands wasn't so appealing.

Frost on the Chinese Cabbage, 11/19/11

Frost on the Tango Lettuce, 11/19/11

      Since it wouldn't be much fun working in this frosty patch, I decided to get some exercise and take a walk instead of gardening.  So although it was chilly, the sun was shining and the sky oh so blue.

So a walk it was

The blue sky I mentioned

Reflections off the pond

The geese perfectly happy with the chill

Finishing the walk

      Then back to the garden.  What a difference an hour makes.  The frost was gone, yet so was my desire to work in the dirt.  But an enjoyable morning nonetheless.

Frost was gone, 11/19/11

 

And the Chinese Cabbage was happy

Mischief Night

      There was a time in the past when mischief night, the night before Halloween, was possibly a scary evening.  On a couple of different occasions on the mornings following that night, our trees and lawn were full of toilet paper trails.  Not too bad on the damage scale, but when it gets wet, it is a sticky mess.  Well after our girls graduated college, got married, and moved out, their friends, ha, quit visiting us on mischief night.
      So on this Halloween morning I was not expecting to see any evidence of mischief night.  But alas, I was wrong.  Somebody visited my gardens and laid them to waste.  Knocked over plants, left ice crystals in their wake.  Mother Nature had visited with her first hard frost of the season.  The day after the nor'easter.  When the cold air backed in.  I had covered some beds with glass, but other areas suffered.

      The walk to the back garden revealed grass blades covered in frost.  My terra cotta pot below with a beautiful mix of lettuce textures and colors wasn't so beautiful as a droopy mess.

      The canna lily clump above sure didn't like the frost.  The easiest way to deal with the cannas at the end of the season is to cut them down with a knife, load them on the pick up truck, and take them on a vacation trip to the yard waste center.  Trying to shred or chop the cannas at home to compost them is a waste of time.

      Even the swiss chard took a hit.  I was hoping to get another meal out of this patch before winter.

      Over at the park, there was serious ice on the emergency cold frames.  In many places, the veggies were frozen to the underside of the glass.  I need to make the cold frames permanent, with a front wall of at least six inches.  Yeah, we know that is going to happen soon.

      Spinach, thick stem chinese mustard, and Beedy's kale, all looked quite the worse for the frost.  And all of those plants are supposed to be relatively cold hardy!

      The cardoon didn't look happy.  This is my first year growing it, so I really didn't know what to expect.  Still have not figured out how to eat it.

      My poor little Tango lettuce patch.  All the leaves with a rim of ice.

      Ditto for the kale above.  And the leeks below.  Not a good visit so far.

      And my longing for this beautiful head to be of chinese cabbage may be dashed not by a hungry deer, but by a killer frost.

      But if Mother Nature was going to be cruel to the plants, she at least presented me with a couple of her Frostwork art pieces that morning, above and below.