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.

Spring in the Garden - Part III

It's still spring but just barely. In just a couple of more weeks, the solstice will bring us the beginning of summer. But, for now, we are still enjoying the spring weather. We have June gloom. It's overcast and cool in the morning and then gets sunny and warm in the afternoon. And, this weekend we are even experiencing a bit of heat wave with temps in this part of Los Angeles up into the high 80s and low 90s. The veggies are loving it. We have harvested our first little bunch of bush beans. It wasn't that many so we combined them some from the farmer's market to make a full side dish for last night's dinner.

Oh, that's not a bush bean. It's a shelling bean. Or we hope it will be shelling beans. They are Jacob's Gold. They are supposed to taste similar to Pinto Beans. We are cautiously optimistic that the plants will produce enough so that we can actually use them for chili at the end of the summer.

Our Dwarf Meyer Lemon has started producing fruit again. I've counted 10 of them so far. And, we are hoping for a few more. Unfortunately, they won't be ready to harvest till late fall or early winter but it is fun watching them grow.

And, last but not least, we are trying to grow at least 9 tomato plants this year. We did end up ordering seedlings since the ones that we have been trying to start from seed were not doing so well. So, this is a photo of an Isis Candy plant that I picked up at the farmer's market. Isis Candy is a yellow-gold cherry tomato with red marbling. They are supposed to be rich tasting and sweet. They are an indeterminate variety, so we are hoping it will produce well all season long.

And, I have good news about some our little starter seedlings, a few of them look like they are going to survive. I may even be able to start transplanting them next week. The more tomatoes the better! I dream of being able to can some my own homegrown ones.

Spring in the Garden - Part I

Spring has finally arrived and there are plenty of chores to do in the garden. One of the first things is harvesting some of our lettuce (Little Gem and Oak Leaf above). Then, we need to find a place to relocate the lettuce so that we can use that raised bed for tomatoes once the seedlings are ready to be transplanted. We're thinking of a railing box outside the back door. Might be our best option since it gets morning sun and will be protected from the afternoon heat.

I have been trying to keep up with succession planting of the veggies that we want to keep growing. These are some of the little sprouts for our next batch of arugula. We are also keeping the radishes, carrots (damn these take forever to grow), beets and chard.

Sure, they look like empty planters but looks can be deceiving. Hiding under all that nice soil and compost are seeds for some bush beans (Blue Lake and Roc d'Or). They should be germinating any day now. I have fantasies about growing enough of these beans so that I can pickle them. Learning to can is our next homesteading activity.

These are some of our soon to be seedlings for our tomatoes (9 varieties) and peppers (4 varieties). These should germinate within the next week or so. I am hoping to start transplanting them at the end of April so that we can have our first tomatoes in June.

Next up, finding a place to grow our squashes (summer and winter). We are thinking of tearing out the roses in the front yard and using that bed. Our only concern is the neighbors. We're hoping that they won't start helping themselves to veggies.