Spring Planting

Portland's spring weather has really warmed up a bit in the last few weeks, so it was finally time to get around to planting our veggie garden for summer and beyond. We were really fortunate this year to not only get our same raised bed over at Project Grow's North Portland Farm, but they also offered us two more beds. So, with a total of three raised beds, we can grow a lot more produce this summer. And, we even have room to grow some winter squashes for fall harvest. Plus, our two additional beds came with a surprise, a whole bunch of Fava bean plants and some garlic...not a bad surprise at all.

With three beds, we could get a little crazy this season about what to plant. Dan and I ended up spending some quality time over at our local nursery, Garden Fever, buying a lot of starter plants to transplant to the beds. And, yes, we buy starters. We have tried growing our own from seeds but we have had zero luck with that method. So, except for those veggies that we can directly sow from seed (greens, radishes, beets and carrots) with some success, we buy starter plants.

We picked the following to plant for summer harvest:

• Black Cherry Tomato (cherry variety)
• Gold Nugget Tomato (cherry variety)
• San Marzano Tomato (paste variety)
• Vorlon Tomato (heirloom variety)
• Black Krim Tomato (heirloom variety)
• Zucchini
• Black Beauty Egglant
• Rosa Bianco Eggplant
• Blue Lake Beans (bush variety)
• New Queen Watermelon

 And, since we planted 3 San Marzano Tomato plants, we are hoping to have enough to can this year. The watermelon is an experiment since we never had any luck growing them in Los Angeles. They would just grow to the size of a golf ball and then die. May be we will have better success here.

And, then for fall harvest:

• Cinderella Pumpkin (AKA Rouge vif D'Etampes)
• Baby Blue Hubbard Squash
• Lunch Lady Gourds
• Sweet Dumpling Squash

I am very excited about the prospect of growing my own pumpkins since I am overly fond of them. We tried growing pumpkins and gourds in Los Angeles but with zero success. So again, hoping for better luck here in Portland. Of course, there are no guarantees what will grow and thrive and what will not. But, that is the fun of gardening.

End of the Summer Season

The end of the summer season has been pretty good to us. We did a lot better this year with our tomatoes, radishes, eggplants and peppers. Radishes seem to be the one thing, other than herbs, that we do well with all year round. But, we had some challenges as we learned about growing bush beans, shelling beans and squash. The lessons we learned we will definitely be applying in the spring. We are still waiting to see if our winter squash plants will yield anything or not. Yes, I sowed the seeds late but our cooler-than-average summer weather has been a bigger issue than my lack of appropriate planning. 

We were more vigilant with our figs this year, so we actually were able to harvest some before the squirrels got to them. Sure, six figs isn't exactly a lot, but considering we got zero last year, this is a triumph of sorts. A couple of them even ended up in one of our batches of fig jam.

As we head into fall and winter planting, we have a new foe in the garden... raccoons. Until now, they have ignored the garden. But this year, they have been digging up not only parts of our perennial beds but also our vegetable beds as well. It's the vegetable beds that I'm most concerned about since these little gangsters. The first thing will be to eliminate the grubs and then I need to tackle the raccoons. I am hoping that beneficial nematodes will take care of the grubs and that a healthy dose of a hot pepper spray on the soil and on the plants will deter the raccoons. I don't want to resort to pesticides or poisons. We garden organically and humanely for a reason.

...More Bush Beans

I'm very excited. It finally happened, we have beans. Blue Lake string beans and Roc d'Or wax beans to be more exact. Monday, these beans were really tiny...less than an inch long. Now, some of them are over 3 inches long and are almost ready to harvest. Not enough for a side dish but there are a few mature ones. And, there are more to come.

Spring in the Garden - Part II

All of the lovely spring rains are making the garden flourish. And, in case you were not aware, not all of our garden is edibles, we have a lot of plants that are not. Over the last couple of years, we have been planting more and more California natives. Above is an image of a flower stock from one of our Coral Bells. We have a shaded area behind our garage/carriage house thing and it desperately needed some sprucing up with some vegetation. The only thing back there is a 70 foot Ash tree but the ground around it was barren. So, last year we started planting some natives. Some took and a few died but the Coral Bells have been doing great. Though this is the first flower stock that we have seen off of any of them.

More natives, this is an Indian Mallow (Abutilon Palmeri). This is located in our front yard. It took about a year for it to really come into its own but it's doing great now and can really handle the hot afternoon sun in the summer. It's drought tolerant and it loved by native hummingbirds and butterflies. It should continue to bloom all spring.

Back to the edibles, these are part of our new arugula crop.  We have two 4' long rows of these. Hoping that we will finally be able to harvest some by mid-May.

Well, our bush beans have really taken off. We have four containers of them. Our friend Beth named our first little sprout Timmy. Well, as you can see Timmy has a lot of friends. Sadly, we cannot remember which one is actually Timmy or may be...they can all be Timmy.

This is what happens when you think that your lettuce is really pretty and you cannot bear to harvest it. Instead, it bolts, starts to go to seed and looks like a tree. When gardening books say that bolted lettuce tastes bitter, they are not joking. It was nasty. So, lesson learned...harvest edibles when they ready. Or, like us, you will end up with lettuce for our compost instead of your dinner. 

New Life - Bush Beans

I am so excited. It finally happened. The seeds that I planted more than a week ago for the Blue Lake and Roc d'Or bush beans have finally sprouted. I was getting a little worried that they wouldn't germinate. Then suddenly, they started poking their little heads out of the soil. Crossing my fingers that I can grow them into nice healthy plants with a lot of beans on them.