Ground Cherries August 27, 2008

 

I was very curious about ground cherries after my mom sent me an article on them.  I decided to give them the end of a row in my vegetable garden to see what they would do.  These are tough plants!  I rarely remembered to water them because they were hidden by my giant popcorn stalks and while everything else in my garden succumbed to some disease or insect, these babies are lush and producing like mad!  

 

I was completely in the dark about how and when to harvest their little fruits encased in a papery husk not unlike tomatillos.  With repeated testing over the season, I finally realized they’re ripening when they turn tan/brown.  But the truly ripe ones are the ones that are….wait for it…wait for it… ON THE GROUND!  I finally get why they’re call ground cherries!  And boy are they delicious! 

 

The article that inspired the planting said they tasted like a cross between a pineapple and a tomato.  Like you are no doubt now reading this, I was pretty skeptical.  But, honestly, that’s exactly what they taste like.  I love eating them in my morning yogurt.  And I have plans for baking them in a pie this weekend.  The harvest is just getting started so I suspect I’ll even be making jam or some other preserve with them by the end of the season.

Top Ten: Cut Flowers August 27, 2008

 

A suggestion was made that I compile a list of my top picks for cut flower production this year in my garden.  I decided to take this idea and extend it just a bit to include flowers that I harvested from both my garden and from the area immediately surrounding it (namely my house and the greenhouse).  So, without further ado, here’s my list for Top Ten Plants for Cut Flower Production in 2008.

 

1) Hydrangea paniculata ”Floribunda’  – elegant and long lasting
2) Dahlias hybridia, in particular ‘Melody Gypsy’  – beautiful color, long stem
3) Zinnias elegans, in particular ‘Polar Bear’  – prolific bloomer, antique white
4) Agastache foeniculum  (Anise Hyssop)  – fragrant filler
5) Agastache ‘Tutti Fruiti’ – tall spike of pink punch
6) Platycodon grandiflora ‘Florist Blue’  (Ballon Flowers)  – one of the best blues for cut flowers
7) Calendula officianalis  – cheerfulness on long sturdy stems
8) Verbena bonariensis  (Purpletop Verbena)  – airy filler
9) Cosmos bipinnatus  -  prolific and romantic with great color
10) Echinacea purpurea  (Purple Coneflower) – great native cut flower, long vase life

 

                    

                    

Cleaning up Summer Crops August 21, 2008

 

I had just been thinking about how little time I had to get into my garden with this current class schedule stealing all the hours of my day when I found out our entomology class was canceled this morning. A whole morning free to be in my garden…halleluiah!  And what a lovely cool morning it was for August – high 60’s and light breeze.  The weather has just been perfect this month.

 

 

My to-do list included pulling out the skelatonized bush bean plants that really had reached the end of their collective ropes with the Mexican bean beetle infestation. I also wanted to pull out the lemon cucumbers as they just weren’t performing well anymore – just petering out, I think, rather than a disease or pest.  And lastly in the “take out” column, I wanted to chop down the majority of my corn stalks since there wasn’t anything left on them to merit keeping them around.  The squirrels cleaned every last ear off!  I did, however, keep a few stalks around for the winter squash to climb up if it’s so inclined. 

 

 

After clearing out all these problem children, I got to work planting a few fall crops.  My mustard and endive seedlings have been very slow to grow but I needed to get them in the ground if they were going to have any shot at a productive growing season this autumn.  I’m a huge fan of the Osaka Purple mustard greens and can’t wait to have them to eat.  I fell in love with the Fiero endive at first sight in the Idea Garden this spring.  I haven’t tasted any yet but they’re so pretty in the garden, it’s worth growing them just to look at.

 

 

My winter squash transplants seem to have taken well to being put out the other week.  Two of them are very vigorous, while the others just look “ok”.  I hope they have missed the last of the squash vine borer as I really want a lot of winter squash and squash blossoms.  Yum! 

 

 

As a final chore today, I tried to corral the tomatoes so that they didn’t overflow onto the bed where the new seedlings were planted.  I’m sure they’ll find their way back there shortly as it doesn’t seem to matter what I do to the tomatoes to keep them fenced in.  I’m tempted to grow determinate varieties next year to avoid this problem with the vines.  But I don’t really like the flavor of determinates.  Still, in the past I have had the luxury of space and in this garden I most definitely don’t. 

 

 

Right now I’m harvesting: a mix of cherry tomatoes, the start of the heirloom tomatoes, eggplant, ground cherries, swiss chard, sorrel, and herbs.   And I took off the last of the cucumbers and beans while pulling them out.

 

Wanted: A Wedding August 20, 2008

 

I have every ambition of becoming a cut flower grower when I leave Longwood.  I already get paid every weekend to cut and arrange market bouquets for Weavers Way Farm in Philly, and I enjoy it immensely.  I absolutely love the act of growing and then bringing fresh flowers into the home or, even better, to a special event. 

 

 

The flowers I picked from my garden and arranged this week were stunning.  I felt like I really needed to find a blushing bride pronto to have her carry them down the aisle!  I’d love to do wedding flowers and think there’s a real niche market yet to be tapped for locally grown flowers for weddings.  I hope to make a business of it some day!

 

 

In the meantime, I’m practicing my photography skills for flower arragements.  I find the light and color very hard to capture on flowers in a vase since both are usually very intense.  These photos are an improvement over my last batch so practice is paying off.

 

 

Oh, To Have a Little More Space! August 13, 2008

 

I’m enamored with this Hydrangea paniculata ”Floribunda’ (or maybe it’s a ‘Tardiva’?) that’s growing by the tool shed and flowering here in late summer.  Actually, there are three of these upright shrubs, all in profuse bloom.  The plant is stately in the landscape and the flowers are strikingly elegant in cut flower arrangements.  I’d love to have this plant in my garden, if only there was a little more space and a few more years to have it.  That being said, this Hydrangea is definitely on my “must grow” list for future cut flower production at my urban farm. 

 

 

Polishing Touches August 13, 2008

 

Here we are at the middle of August already and it’s time for the first – and perhaps most nerve wracking – garden evaluation.  In truth, I’m not that concerned about this evaluation since it pertains only to maintenance and labeling.  When the design evaluation rolls around, it might be a whole new kettle of worms…

 

 

I’ve had my plants labeled since the day they went into the garden.  Although, now that those small transplants have gone wild with growth all summer, the labels need to be fished out and put around the edges – a task easy enough to perform.  As for maintenance of my herbaceous plot, I am a compulsive weeder and mulcher so there’s not much to do in that category.  I do want to edge one last time though to get a clean crisp border.  

 

Deadheading really isn’t an issue in a garden that was created for cut flower production.  I’ll be deadheading a few Dahlias and Osteospermums but not much else.  My container will get a little selective pruning though.

 

 

 

So really, the only big task I had before me in preparing for this evaluation this week was to create a “name plate” for my garden.  A bag of craft supplies and a free evening resulted in a nice sign that feels representative of my garden’s theme and my personal flare.  I chose to call it a “jardin” instead of garden since I’ve long been drawn to gardens when traveling to other countries (France, Argentina, Uruguay, Spain and Portugal) for their cooling and relaxing respite from often intensive cultures and climates.  Plus, the Old World “jardin” sounds a lot more romantic than the modern English “garden”.

Kennett Farmers Market August 11, 2008

 

Seeing as how I love working farmers markets and how much extra produce was coming out of my garden that ultimatley just went to waste, I decided to see if I couldn’t get the ball rolling on starting a table at the Kennett Farmers Market for the PG Program.  Mark was super supportive of the idea and help pull some supplies together at the last minute.   Our first market day was this past Friday and it was encouraging, although not as successful as I’d hoped.   The location for our table was less than ideal with a BBQ smoker right behind us and being a little bit on the edge of the market instead of in the middle.   Our assortment of vegetables included tomatoes, summer squash, a few eggplant, a few green beans and peppers, swiss chard, lots of basil, several varieties of herbs from my tea garden, sorrel, and some decorative gourds.  The biggest draw were our flower bunches, which Dan Hill helped me put together.  It’s difficult selling flowers in a community that tends to have very elaborate home gardens so many customers have flowers at home.  I think the key will be to make our bunches somewhat exotic.  All said, it was a great learning experience and I hope we can keep the market table going every Friday until the end of the season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honey Harvest August 6, 2008

We harvested honey from our established hive on July 29th.  Here are photos from the “fun” of harvesting.  We did it in the equipment garage with the door pulled down to keep the bees from coming in after their honey.  The lighting was terrible and the temperature was soaring, but the 50 or so jars of glorious golden honey were worth it!

 

Late Comers August 6, 2008

 

In the early light on this cool August morning, I fell in love with my hollyhocks.  Finally.   I’ve ground my teeth over them more than a few times since I placed one beside each end pole of my front vista structure.  I’d envisioned a happy-go-lucky vine that climbed up each pole and embodied the cottage garden charm I’ve been going for this whole time.  They took forever to amount to anything and even longer to actually bloom.  But here they are and I love them! 

 

 

Another late comer is my calendula.  I grew several plants from seed, but only two made it out of the greenhouse alive.  Then I put the survivors in the tea garden and waited anxiously to see if they’d take off.  Over three months later, they’re finally putting on buds.   And here I thought these plants were easy and carefree in the garden.  HA!

 

 

Speaking of misperceptions, my borage has died!  The plant that was going to take over the world and is raved about for it’s ability to live anywhere with zero care has gone roots-up on me!  I’m very perplexed, although just a tiny bit relieved as it gives my yarrow some much needed sunlight.  I’ve tried to research why the borage might have died but everything I read just raves about how easy it is to grow anywhere.  If I had to guess, it might have gotten root rot after several heavy storms pummeled it and broke off big sections so it wasn’t taking up water quickly.  But that’s a fairly wild theory. 

 

 

One thing that has lived up to its hype is “Sedum Hill”.  All of the sedums are spreading nicely and providing a great layer of texture with just about zero maintenance.  Bravo, I say, bravo! 

 

Early August Work August 5, 2008

 

We had the morning off from class and with the beautiful sunny cool weather and an easy breeze, I decided to get an early 6 a.m. start in my garden to take care of a lot of items on my “to-do” list. 

 

First I harvested the usual suspects: beans, cherry tomatoes, sorrel, and lemon cucumbers.  My beans are now getting attacked by a bug that bores into the beans themselves.  I’m frustrated.  I’m giving them a week and some extra love and if the tide doesn’t seem to be turning, I’m riping them out and planting my mustard transplants earlier I had planned.

 

 

I also harvested all the remaining King Midas carrots so that I could prepare the bed with bone meal and direct sow a new batch (two rows, five feet long) of Rainbow carrots for a fall harvest.  I’m looking forward to trying the new variety as the King Midas looked impressive, but weren’t as tasty as homegrown carrots should be.

 

The rutabaga that I direct sowed on July 28th are struggling to germinate.  Of the 100 or so seeds I must have put out, there are only about 15 seedlings up to date.  I hope that some more will come on with time.  I think direct seeding is so challenging for me because it’s hard to keep the seeds evenly moist when they bake in the sun and any little bit of water runs right off these beds.  I will definitely think about using a drip tape or soaker hose next year is I can figure out how to set it up with our limited water supply.

 

 

I planted out six of my winter squash transplants, three Blue Ballet and three Early Butternut.  I put two of them in between the corn stalks since I am really strapped for room in my vegetable patch.  The popcorn is so far along, I think it’ll be a happy relationship without too much fighting for water.

 

Another big chore for the morning was pruning back tomatoes…again.  I thought after such aggressive pruning at the outset of their growth would keep them more in check, but it hasn’t.  I’m eager to apply my manure tea this Thursday to see if that sparks more ripening of the fruit that’s heavy on the vines of the heirlooms.

 

 

I aslo gave major haircuts to sorrel and swiss chard in anticipation of needing new tender leaves to sell at the Kennett Farmers Market this Friday. 

 

On a final note, it’s become apparant that flea beetles are ravaging my eggplants now and my peppers have a virus.  Ah, the joys of organic growing!