Park Garden Update, 3/1/2012

Arugula overwintered without protection,  3/1/2012

      With it being the first of March, I have a feeling that the worst of winter has to be behind us.  We should have seen the coldest temperatures of the season already.  So hopefully anything that has overwintered so far will make it.  The arugula in the photo above has done well, and it is putting up seed heads.  I want to harvest those seeds, as this plant is obviously quite hardy, and also has a powerfully good taste as well.

Cold frame arugula,  3/1/2012

Garlic and collards,  3/1/2012

Cardoon and baby garlic sprouts in cold frame,  3/1/2012

Overwintered celery and garlic

      These garlic plants are from small cloves that I planted two years ago.  I lost track of them last year, and did not pull the plants when I could see them in June.  They either died back or were just ignored, but now they are doing quite well.  The plants are in clumps of six to eight stalks, where the smaller bulbs from the year before had divided.  So now I have to dig up the clumps and separate them, then replant individual plants on 5 to 6 inch centers.  If I leave them crowded, I will get a bunch of small cloves.

Compost pile volunteers,  3/1/2012

Unprotected Tango lettuce,  3/1/2012

Various cold frame greens,  3/1/2012

Spinach starts under glass,  3/1/2012

Late February Harvest

      Usually I try to write a paragraph first to open a post before using any pictures.  Well I was so pleased with my leek harvest that I just had to share it first thing.  And the little turnip.  The bag on the right is mixed salad greens, and the bag on the left is tatsoi with immature flower stalks.  Talk about delicious.

2/27/2012

       You can see a dark hole in the photo above, that is where I just picked the leek.  Fortunately this year there are more than just the one.  The red russian kale at the bottom of the photo is bouncing back nicely after overwintering unprotected.  All the short stuff is chick weed.  As it is edible, I left it alone to grow.  Now it looks like a good source of green stuff for the compost pile.

New leeks at top in plastic packs

      Pretty uplifting pickings for February.  Garden on. Or maybe soon to begin.  There is green at the end of the tunnel.

Tatsoi Salad

      I have often looked at various greens and thought they would make a nice salad when spruced up with some cherry or grape tomatoes.  Tatsoi and tomatoes or even just chickweed and tomatoes.  Well the original bed of tatsoi in one of the frames at the park was forming seed heads, so I figured it was now or never.

Tatsoi,  2/19/2012

      The tatsoi is just about to burst out into full bloom.  You can see a couple of yellow flowers just getting started.  I cut off the emerging seed stalks that I could find.  This bed is going to seed early because it was too crowded and the plants must feel stressed.  The plants that I transplanted to a cold frame with more room in the back yard garden have retained most of their rosette growth habit:

Tatsoi with more room to spread

Just about to flower,  2/19/2012

      So I will go add some cherry tomatoes to my little stash of tatsoi stalks.  And some Greek Salad Dressing on top.

Simply scrumptious!

      It was wonderful.  And fresh.  Right from my winter garden an hour before.

Park Garden Update, 2/15/2012

  
 Feb 15th:    Day length:   10 hrs, 42 min   -   That's 31 minutes longer than 2/1
                Sunrise:         6:55 AM
                Sunset:          5:37 PM
                High Temp:    49 degrees F      Low Temp:    28 degrees F
  
      I was driving into the park today just to have a quick visit to the garden.  Then I thought, yesterday was Valentine's Day, February 14th.  Wow, that would make today the 15th, a day to update photos.  Luckily I had the camera in my pocket and did not have to go back home to get it.

      This particular cold frame is still looking pretty good.  The little packs at the bottom are leek starts from my recent paper towel germination experiment.  The starts should harden off nicely in the cold frame.

      This is the frame used for the blog winter header picture that shows at the top of the page.  The little plastic container also contains leek starts.  It probably gets too much moisture with the lid closed.  Good experiment.

Arugula,  2/15/2012

      This is a shot of the cold frame that contains the 500 bulblets of garlic.  They are starting to sprout, but I am a little disappointed because my expectations were huge.  Thought there would have been more growth in a cold frame.

Unprotected collards and garlic,  2/15/2012

Various unprotected greens,  2/15/2012

Volunteer overwintered greens,  2/15/2012

Closed for the night,  2/15/2012

Winter Harvest

      It is going to be a little colder tonight, somewhere just under twenty degrees.   One the cold frames at the park does not seal tightly unless I put a log on top of it, so on this damp, dreary, and snow spitting afternoon, I had to go over to the park for emergency duty.  Not wanting to waste the time, and starting to crave a salad, I picked from greens during the snow shower.  Here is a nice harvest for February 11th:

From park garden cold frames, 2/11/2012

      The haul includes arugula, black seeded simpson lettuce, rouge d'hivre lettuce, tatsoi, red sails lettuce, tango lettuce, oak leaf lettuce, celery tops, and miner's lettuce.  Simply scrumptious beginnings to tonight's fresh salad.

The Snow is Gone

      The weathermen were correct about the snow melting yesterday, but oh what an ugly rainy gray day.  Today is still gray, but there is a brighter spot in the sky that must be the sun trying to break through.  Not having been to the park garden for a couple of days, I had to go over to check on things.

Ah, the snow is gone,  1/24/2012

The frame in the header above, updated 1/24/2012

I just got the craving for a salad for dinner

      It was time to pick one of these Winter Marvel Bibb lettuce plants that I never harvest, waiting for them to be perfect.  But the heads at home passed that perfect stage without alerting me, so I will not make that mistake again.  The beauty in the middle joined me for the ride home, along with some of the pretty leaf lettuce and a big handful of the arugula.  I stopped at the produce market, gasp, to buy a small container of heirloom cherry tomatoes and a bag of radishes.  Is it dinner time yet?
      Not all of the gardens at the park look so productive.  Actually few do.  After the snow and a day of rain, most of the gardens look more like this:

1/24/2012

      I have to pick the route to my garden depending upon the weather.  Today I had to park on the lot by the barn, so I came this way.  And hoped that I wouldn't slip on a muddy path and end up in the soup.  After three years of lots of wood chips on the paths and leaves, leaves, and more leaves on the beds, my garden remains workable even now.  You can see my cold frames in the background in the photo above.

With Just a Little Help

Still no snow,  1/19/12

      This picture shows the corner of a cold frame, and an unprotected bed just above it.  There is a patch of lettuce at the left of the above bed, and although the lettuce may be alive, it is not worth salivating over.

Surprisingly alive, but barely

      I am surprised that the unprotected lettuce has not turned to mush, as a month ago we had a low of 13 degrees, just had a recent 15 degrees, and last night was 18 degrees.  I may dig up the lettuce to repot to the porch for some recovery time before replanting to a cold frame.

Cold frame,  1/19/12

      But with just a single pane of glass on the cold frame, this lettuce looks delicious.  Pickable in fact.  In time for a trip to daughter Emily's fridge tomorrow.

Park Garden, 1/15/2012

      Here we are at the 15th of the month again, so time for a recap.  It is cold this morning at 11:00 AM, with the car exterior thermometer registering 23 Degrees.  And some wind to boot.  I would not usually open a cold frame in such conditions, yet Cindy wants some greens to top a Taco dip.  So I will try to harvest quickly so as to not freeze anything.

Collards, alive, yet not happy

      The thick stem chinese mustard on the right side of this shot is supposed to be capable of handling temperatures down to 6 degrees F.  The small inner leaves are still alive, but the majority of the leaves do not appear to be edible at this time.  I may end up transplanting some of these into cold frames if some space becomes available.  There are Beedy's Camden kale plants to the left of the mustard.  They too should be alive, but look even less enticing than the mustard.

Oops, the Artichokes don't look happy at all

Egyptian onions await warmer weather

Newest cold frame

Same cold frame, left side

Unprotected bed, mixed greens and garlic

Mizuna mustard, top left corner

      Most of the rest of the garden pictures will be covered frames, as I did not want to expose the plants to the sub freezing air.  This shot is of the transplanted mizuna, and lots of volunteer celery.

Arugula ready to pick when weather improves

Picked from this frame today, 1/15/2012

Last of the frames

Unprotected Tango lettuce

Sleave of lettuce picked 1/15/2012

Nice harvest, 1/15/2012

      I picked the lettuce as quickly as I could, as I had to open up the cold frame.  Saw nary a slug, as they must have been hiding from the cold.  I tucked the bag of greens into my jacket for the walk back to the car, and as you can see, they turned out just fine.