Harvest Pictures

The Birch forest that we live in, is absolutely brilliant this time of year. Our homestead and the hills surrounding us are on fire, glorious, spectacular. Tall white Birch trees decked out in splendid gold and copper finery. The list of chores to do before the snow flies, is not getting any shorter. Today I believe I am killing off my honey bees :( I'll discuss this issue more another time. Also on the list is lots of stall and pen cleaning - days and days worth. At least it is a sunny gorgeous day.

I spent most of last week house cleaning, meal planning and entertaining. We had two evenings of celebrating Avery's birthday with friends and family. Thankfully I'm feeling on top of garden harvesting. Last week I stored, blanched and froze celery. I put up the last of the scallions and shredded the last batch of zucchini for freezing. All the onions and garlic are indoors hanging. I've pulled the bean plants, tomatoes and squash. I've dug and stored half the carrots, all the potatoes and maybe a third of the beets. All that is left in the garden are beets, carrots, some remaining cabbages, lingering peas, kale, swiss chard and lettuce. I think it is time to switch gears and start picking cranberries, although now that the leaves are falling, the little ruby red gems will be harder to find.

Garden pictures

 Here are some pictures I've taken in the last week. Notice the tall fence posts outlining the south border of the garden. We've got two problem trees that bent over in our crazy ice storm last November. We should have taken them down before the garden went in. Now we have to cut them down before the fence goes in, and they will inevitably be falling on and crushing flowers and vegetable beds.

 My first fava beans, ready to pick.

 

 This has been a weak year for some crops. I made the mistake of thinking I'd put so much compost on the garden in previous years, that the beds might need a break, otherwise I might end up over fertilizing, or getting too lush of greens and not enough fruit - vegetables. Instead I've got smaller than usual broccoli heads, much fewer tomatoes and some of the carrots are woody and bitter, ugh. Every garden season comes with lessons.

 First tree that must come down.

Second tree that must come down.

Other garden notes to remember. Plant more shelling peas, fewer snap and snow peas. More cauliflower and bush beans. Start squash earlier. Pay more attention and add more compost to tomatoes. Add more compost to everything. Plant less onions and scallions. Can't succession plant cilantro enough!

Looks like the onion harvest is going to be better than last year. I ordered a Northern mix of onion sets this year. They are decent size now, if they can grow another few weeks, I should have some to be proud of. My beans and peas germinated late so I've only been picking them for a couple weeks now. I have five different types of zucchini, I'm managing to stay on top of them by picking them at six to eight inches, but I've gotten a couple whoppers when I've taken a break from checking under the plastic.On the other hand, out of all my winter squash I planted, I've got one decent size spaghetti squash. I think the season may be too short for the winter squash this year. If only they'd taken off faster. I'm great at growing lush green squash plants, that would provide many beautiful squash with a longer growing season.

As long the moose stay away, I'm going to have a nice number of cabbages. I've got around a couple dozen plants, a few red and savoy, but mostly a green storage type, which is doing well. It is time to do some mass beet and carrot harvesting, a thinning of sorts to allow the smaller ones room to grow. I neglect early thinning, and prefer to wait until the thinnings are of eatable size. Time will tell if this is a worthwhile practice or not. I should be eating a salad a day, or maybe a head of lettuce a day. Maybe if I make up some really yummy salad dressings, Caesar, blue cheese...

Well that is my garden, and geese... tell me, how does your garden grow? What did you learn this year? Successes? Things to do differently next year?

Garden Planning

I'm finally getting serious about garden planning, now that seed starting is just weeks away. Over the last few years I've gotten better at starting most seeds about the right time, not so early that they grow too leggy or root bound and not so late that they never amount to much. I set up a tall metal rack with five shelves, two sets of four foot long flourescents hanging above each level. I can fit four trays on each level. By the end of spring, some plants have moved outside to harden off in the greenhouse and there is room for a few more trays. Fortunately my husband sees seeds as food security. Therefor I am encouraged to invest in seeds. The last couple years I could have gotten away without ordering seeds as we have such a stock pile - but where is the fun in that?

Each year I greet the seed catalogs with much anticipation. Barbara Kingsolver writes in Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, (and I paraphrase from memory); "that she gazes at seed catalogs with the same misty eyed adoration as some women shop for diamonds." I looked for my copy so I could find the quote, as I do not do it justice. I remember reading that and thinking, she and I were kindred spirits as her words sum up my seed catalog fetish pefectly. I usually wait for a dull January afternoon before beginning to work my way through them, carefully taking notes. Over the course of a couple weeks I narrow my orders down to two or three catalogs.

This year I've deviated from my norm. I flipped through a couple catalogs and didn't see too much new. So I closely examined the Fedco catalog and have my order ready to place - today hopefully. I'm planning on ordering just from Fedco, so I haven't let myself even open up Territorial or Pine Tree. The greatest temptations will be when Seeds Of Change and Seed Savers come in the mail. They always have great pictures of something unique like hardy quinuoa or some beautiful South American root vegetable I've never heard of.

Some of the vegetable and flower seeds I've been tempted to try for the first time are Fava Beans, Scarlet Runner Beans, Celeriac, Arnica and Lemongrass. Some varieties I'm trying for the first time are Root Grex Beet, Honey Drop cherry tomato, Melissa Savoy cabbage, Charming Snow Cauliflower, and some different colors of Statice, Strawflowers, and lots of sweet peas, always. I've ordered Scarlett Keeper carrot for the first time in addition to Yellowstone, Atomic Red, Purple Haze and White Satin, all carrots I've grown that I was low on.

I did not allow myself to order any more radishes, turnips, green beans, peas, greens or broccoli - as I have enough seed for the next several years. Nor did I order any cover crops as I've done the last couple years. I'm going to see what comes back and just observe this year.

I am growing twice as many beets, carrots and shelling peas this year.The same amount of broccoli and green beans. More cauliflower, cabbage and squash. Less turnips, radishes and rutabagas. No corn! Less bitter greens and chard, more tender mild head and cutting lettuce.  Less full sized tomatoes, and more snacking cherry tomatoes. No leeks or shallots and less onions. Last year I planted over six hundred onion sets. We will be cooking with out own onions through March. As much as I enjoy this, the onions just took up too much garden space - and onions aren't expensive nor are my homegrown onions remarkable in their superior quality, so... I'm ordering two hundred Stuttgarter onion sets. I know it won't be enough to get us to this time of year but there will be more room for other crops. Like, I want a large lusty squash bed. I need to focus on starting medicinal herbs and making sure I plant them in prime locations. I have a habit of forgetting what medicinal herbs I've planted and what it was I was going to do with them. I never got around to harvesting Comfrey, Spilanthes or the Elecampane I grew last summer.

I'll be starting some herbs in the next week or so, followed by tomatoes, then peppers, eggplant and slow growing flowers. Time to set up that rack. What are you most looking forward to growing this year? What can't you live without? What is new?