Spring 2020: Garden Roundup-Veggies

I’ve had a lot of time during this pandemic to plan and tend to this year’s garden. I can’t say I’ve minded this part, I’ve actually really enjoyed the time to get back to basics in the garden.

Like usual, I started a number of vegetables in the house from seeds and shopped for the rest at the local nursery (shout out to Vern Goers Greenhouse that was thankfully open, with appropriate restrictions of course).

We had a bad cold snap in early May, so I kept everything nice and cozy under grow-lights in the house and in the mini greenhouse on the porch.

I am so looking forward to a summer of fresh vegetables straight from the garden.

What did I grow this year from seeds in the house?

Red Russian Kale* (Botanical Interests)
Tom Thumb Butterhead Lettuce* (Botanical Interests)
Emerald Delight Summer Squash (Botanical Interests)
Lemon Drop Summer Squash (Burpee)
Squash, Summer, Fort Knox Hybrid (Burpee)
Lacinto Kale* (Burpee)
Fort Knox Summer Squash (Burpee)
Sweet Success Cucumber(Burpee)
Telegraph Cucumber (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
Green Tatsoi* (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)

What seeds am I starting outside?

Sugar Daddy Snap Pea (Botanical Interests)
Danvers 126 Carrot (Botanical Interests)
Desperado Bush Bean (Burpee)
Autumn Giant Leek (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
Carentan Leek (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
St. Valery Carrot (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds)
plus all the * items above as a second harvest

What plants did I buy?

Redarling Brussel Sprouts
Sun Gold Tomato
Early Girl Bush Tomato
Juliet Tomato
Sweet Million Cherry Tomato
San Marzano Tomato
California Wonder Sweet Pepper
North Star Sweet Pepper
Habanero Peppers
Kohlrabi

Here’s some of the seedlings I grew in the house, all ready to plant. Some I planted in one of the raised beds, others in my new fabric root bags.

What did I try new this year?

Tatsoi! I didn’t even know this was a thing until it popped up on an Instagram post by Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. We’ve had to change up our diet a bit to eliminate high oxalate foods like rhubarb, spinach and swiss chard because of kidney stones. 🥺 So out of the garden they went. Instead, I am growing an abundance of kale (which I’m not a huge fan of but learning to like it), lettuce, microgreens, sprouts, brussel sprouts and this new tatsoi green.

According to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, “Tatsoi is nicknamed Vitamin Green, and rightfully so. This gourmet green is known as one of the richest sources of vitamin C and it is replete with other incredible vitamins, minerals, and health-promoting compounds! It’s super sweet and easy to love, with a mild and refreshing flavor. The low-growing rosettes are comprised of tiny, glossy spoon-shaped leaves that boast crisp and juicy mouth-feel.” As a bonus for us, it’s related to cabbage/mustard, so low in oxalates! I can’t wait to try it out.

What else is new?

Lots more fabric grow bags! I couldn’t really expand my gardens very easily, so went in a different direction. I bought a variety of sized bags from A.M. Leonard and GeoPot and a LOT of potting soil/compost/peat. Watch for a future post on this adventure. I have so much more garden space, I’m making another trip to the nursery!

One more thing…

My herb garden has always been on the north side of the house. right outside the side door. Very convenient. The herbs grew “fine”, but they really could have used more sun. I finally decided to move them since I had the time to think where they should go.

They are a little further away near the grill, but still convenient. Definitely will get a lot more sun. On either side are the coleus pots I plant every year. They add some pretty interest to the area and attract pollinators. I started then from seeds inside this year instead of buying them. Much less expensive and easier under the circumstances. But I think I should have started them earlier. They’re a little small right now, but with some sun and heat, they’ll take off.

How is your vegetable garden this year?

Spring Into Summer

You may have noticed I took another little break from blogging. Nothing exciting going on, just got busy with some other projects. But, my garden is in full growing mode after a tough winter and spring. Winter was long, cold and at our place in Door Co, WI, very snowy. Spring came slow and seemed as though wouldn’t ever arrive.

I was late getting the flowers and vegetables in the ground because of a combination of the ground being too cold, and some poorly timed travel plans. Really, who plans a vacation right at the peak of planting season? But, it was fun visiting Seattle and Olympic National Park, and having both college kids home for a visit.

Then finally, spring and summer arrived almost all at once. All the spring blooms seemed to explode at the same time making for a spectacular show.

Back in early April, I started some of my favorite vegetables indoors;

English Telegraph Cucumber (Botanical Interests)
Sweet Burpless Hybrid Cucumber (Burpee)
Emerald Delight Zucchini (Botanical Interests),
Gold Hybrid Gourmet Gold (Burpee).
I tried growing Kohlrabi, but again they just didn’t grow well for me. Luckily, my local nursery had plenty!

Mine in the front, nursery grown in the back

Outdoors in late April, I planted my early, cool temperature loving seeds including

Chiogga and Cook’s Blend Beets (Burpee),
Bright Lights Swiss Chard (Burpee),
Little Finger Baby Carrots (Botanical Interests)
Tom Thumb Butterhead and Parris Island Romaine Lettuce (Botanical Interests)
Sugar Snap Peas (Botanical Interests).

More recently, I got the rest of the seeds planted including a second planting of the cool weather plants, and added Danvers and Calliope Carrots (Botanical Interests). I also bought beautiful

Tomato (Sweet Million Cherry, Early Girl and Champion)
Sweet Pepper (Yolo Wonder, California Wonder and North Star)
Herbs for the “right outside the door” herb pots
cabbage and kohlrabi plants

from Vern Goers, a local nursery. I was also gifted a lovely yellow pear tomato plant from my mom. (I’ve switched to growing my non-cherry tomatoes in bags to leave more room in the raised bed for the squash, zucchini, cucumbers and kohlrabi.)

I also got my bed of zinnias sowed, and this year added a bed of marigolds from seeds I collected last fall. Check out my previous post, Cheerful and Bright Zinnias Bed, for an easy how-to.

Last but not least, I got my potato bags going with three different varieties (for more info, visit these past potato posts) and planted lots of Lancelot leeks, shallots, and yellow sweet Spanish onions (Dixondale Farms).

Almost forgot, I got all my flower pots planted too!

So I think I’m all caught up for now, but lots more to write about! Hope you’ve had a good spring and your gardens are growing beautifully!

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Garden Season has Officially Begun!

After quite the long winter, I finally have been able to get out in the garden and get started for the season. Woohoo!! Because it’s a little later than usual, we skipped over the garden clean-up temporarily and worked on preparing the vegetable garden, building 2 new raised beds and seed-starting. Normally, with the last frost date being the end of April, I would have liked to get all this started a couple of weeks ago. But, with the weather as awful as it was, and spring break thrown in, this weekend was better than never.

First off, I prepared the current vegetable bed by adding compost to refresh things a bit. I always seem to have trouble finding it early in the spring (and haven’t started making my own yet), so I bought it last fall and left the bags there for spring. Nice to not have to go searching for it this weekend!

Once I got the compost worked into the soil, the garden was ready to add the cold weather seeds. Hopefully, it’s not too late. Looking at the long range forecast, I think I’m fine.

Today I planted rows of:
Beets (Gourmet Blend Organic)
Carrots (Danvers Organic)
Cabbage (Copenhagen)
Lettuce (Tom Thumb Butterhead)
Lettuce (Red Sails Leafy Organic)
Radish (Cherry Belle Organic)
Spinach (Bloomingdale Organic)
Swiss Chard (Bright Lights)

These seeds were all from Botanical Interests. In another week-10 days, I’ll plant a second row of seeds to try and get 2 harvests before the summer heat hits us.

All seed packets give specific instructions as to how and when to to plant the seeds. Most are planted either 1/4 inch or 1/2 inch deep. The 1/4 inch deep seeds I usually spread according to instructions, then just lightly cover with some dirt sprinkled from my hand. You want just a very light cover of dirt. The seeds planted 1/2 inch deep, I’ll push in about fingertip deep and cover. Then water gently.

Later this week, I’ll share the rest of the weekend’s projects!

I had a nice surprise when I went over to the side of the house to start the vegetable garden. My rhubarb was already up and looks beautiful. Both plants have returned, so now I have a 2 yr old and 3 yr old plant that can both be fully harvested. I think I will have plenty to share, so my friends are going to love me!

Did you get out in your garden this weekend?

Seeds are in the House

After spending quite a bit of time pouring over seed catalogs, I finally sent in my seed orders. I had lots of new seed catalogs come to the house, and some more companies I just visited on-line, making the choices this year really tough.

Ultimately, I went with some Burpee stand by’s and the rest from Botanical Interests. I ordered an assortment of vegetables and flowers. Some of the vegetables I’ve grown before (summer squash, zucchini, lettuce) and others are new to my garden (pattypan squash, beets and cabbage).

I’ve outgrown the raised bed on the side of the house, plus we’ll have new construction next door so I’m not sure what the sun situation for that bed will even be come next year. So we spent a great deal of time watching the sun pattern in the yard last year (full sun is a problem in my yard) and mulling over where we could tolerate more vegetable beds. We finally settled on a new location off the back of the patio for 2 new raised beds. I’ve promised to keep them under control and somehow “pretty” them up. You can imagine them out there under the snow.

I bought new raised bed frames last fall from Plow and Hearth, so I am ready to go after a trip to the lumber store. I’ll let you know how I like the brackets.

Are you ready to start planting?

Starting Seeds Indoors

I’ve almost always bought my plants from a local garden shop, but a couple of years ago decided to start my own seedlings when I couldn’t find quite just the right vegetables I wanted to grow. Went pretty well the first year, forgot to get them started last year, so back again this year. First off, when I did this ago ago in NJ, when I had the most perfect garden location, soil and plenty of time I discovered those seed starter kits and realized they really work. Somewhere in the last 15 or so years I decided I was never going to use them again and tossed it all. Costly and dumb mistake!

So, I started over again with the APS system (newer product is the GrowEase Seed Starting Kit) from Gardeners Supply company. Lots of companies make similar products. I bought the starter kit and an additional APS 40 (which seems to have gone missing, UGH). I love these systems because the kits are self watering, which means fewer dead plants when I fail to check them every day. You also need to be sure to use sterile seed starting soil unless you want mold and gross stuff growing all over your soil. It’s worth the money to buy.

To start the seeds, set up your kit; reservoir, water capillary mat, planting tray and cover. Be sure to wet the capillary mat and never let it dry out. You also need to wet your soil before filling the planting tray. Not sopping wet, just nice and moist. When filling the planting tray, I try to be careful not to pack it too tightly, but do tamp it down a bit or the spoil/root ball falls apart when transplanting.

This year, on 3/30, I planted seeds for

Cucumber, Sweet Burpless Hybrid (Burpee)
Summer Squash, Burpee’s Hybrid Zucchini ((Burpee)
Summer Squash, Sunray Hybrid (Burpee)
Sweet Pepper, California wonder (Burpee)
Summer Squash, Black Magic (Gurney’s)
Tomato, Sweet Million Hybrid (Park Seed Co)

I didn’t grow any full size tomatoes because I can get excellent varieties of those plants at my local greenhouse. I placed the trays in a west facing window, mostly because that’s where I have space.

Five days later, this is what it looks like:

The big ones are my cucumbers, and the tomatoes and zucchini have also sprouted. Today I added some fertilizer that came with the kit to the water and removed the covers. I’ll try to lay the cover across the areas that haven’t spouted yet, and remember for next year what comes up in what order and try to group them better. I might be having a problem with some leggy plants because I don’t have them in quite enough light. We’ll see what happens. It’d be better to have them under those grow lights at the beginning, but I haven’t quite made that investment yet. I do have to remember to turn the plants to get them to grow a little straighter.