We’re well into the growing season. Easter has come and gone, and we’ve already had several lettuce harvests that have made for wonderful farm to table salads! The big winners have been Roquette Arugula, which has always been reliable for me, Summertime, one of my favorites as far as flavor and texture go, and a new variety that we’ve tried this year, New Red Fire. Yields of Sunland have also been decent. More on that below.
Thankfully, I was able to get the fence completed, all of the tomatoes and peppers transplanted, and other seeds direct sown prior to undergoing a surgery that kept me out of the garden for anything but light watering for a few weeks. I had to accelerate some of my AI generated planting schedule in order to be strategic about it, which was fine because we’ve had an exceptionally warm spring.
The other challenge that we’ve had here in Zone 8 is an unusual April drought. This is typically our rainy season, but it’s been one of the driest springs on record.
Bed Roundup
Bed #4
I’ll start with Bed #4 since that’s where I planted root vegetables in early spring: Golden and Detroit Red Beets and 3 carrot varieties.
While some of the beets have flourished, others simply didn’t germinate. I’ve gone back and re-sown additional seeds it the gaps to see how they do. The Rainbow and Mokum carrots both have healthy foliage, but the Short ‘n Sweet did not germinate well. I re-seeded in the bare areas, and they’re starting to grow, but time will tell how they do. I also planted a row of Swiss Chard between the carrots and what I believe are some dahlia’s that are popping up on the eastern end of the bed.
This weekend was the first root vegetable harvest I’ve done out of this bed. I was a bit concerned the carrots looked better on top than on bottom because my southern soil, although augmented with compost, does have a decent bit of clay in it. But turns out that they’re doing great, and we harvested a bunch for roasting for dinner.
As an added benefit, I decided to make some carrot top pesto to serve on top of the carrots. It was so good we’ve been looking for other ways to use it, like on sandwiches.
I also went ahead and did a test harvest of red, golden, and chiogga beets for a roasted beetroot salad. We picked up some great looking bibb lettuce heads at the farmer’s market (since mine didn’t grow at all), added some goat cheese, some spicy pecans, and made up an orange citrus vinaigrette as a dressing. You can bet I’ll be re-sowing beet seeds as I harvest mature plants so I can keep this salad fix going!
Since I had such success with the carrot top pesto, I thought I’d try sautéing the beet leaves to serve as greens alongside a grilled skirt steak. I’ve never been a huge greens fan, although I’m really trying to develop a taste for them. This simple recipe of sautéing with garlic and shallots and some bacon was really a game changer both for the steak dinner & my own palate!
Bed #3
There’s nothing to see here…
Other than the peas (Super Sugar and Champion of England), which I planted a little late and which are just now flowering, this bed was reserved for direct sown bush beans and okra. My original plan called for one golden zucchini plant, but I decided that would crowd the bed too much and last year this was a prolific and produced far more than we were able to eat. I ended up also adding some asian eggplant seeds to this bed along with the sage that I started indoors and some dill that I direct seeded. I also just planted some cucumbers along the arbor that should start growing as the peas are reaching the end of their production.
Bed #2
This bed has been a mixed bag. Several of the lettuce varieties have grown well, but others were complete duds. I planted a row of Red Tabby Spinach and got nothing. I replanted it with the remainder of my seeds and literally 1 seed germinated. The arugula produced reliably. The Bibb and Little Gem (another one of my favorites) didn’t produce a single seedling. I tried over-seeding and then substituting a new variety (Tennis Ball), but still nothing. I finally threw in the towel and planed my Meiner’s Bush Bean Medley seeds in the empty space. The Summertime and Sunland both yielded healthy lettuces, though you can’t tell from the picture because we’ve harvested them both a couple times so far.
The arbor is home to Sugar Magnolia (doing well) and Oregon Giant Snow (not so well) peas, which are just now producing.
I also forgot to include Chiogga Beets with the others in bed #4, so I added 2 rows at the eastern end of the bed. Their germination was spotty, and I’ve since sown a few more seeds in the gaps.
Bed #1
In the tomato bed I’ve planted San Marzano, Brandywine, Cherokee Purple and Pineapple, all heirloom varieties. Per my plan, I’m going with the 4 plants in this bed instead of the 5 I put in bed #3 last year. The theory is that less crowding and more airflow will result in better yields. I’ve planted some basil – including some Osmin purple basil that you can’t really see in the picture since they’re not growing all that well – and parsley around the perimeter. Just this week I also sowed some nasturtium seeds to assist with pest management. I’m planning on adding a couple more basil plants, since I’m told they’re great companion plants and the more we have, the more pesto I can make!
Containers
I’ve got two of my 5 Gallon Container Planter Boxes that each hold 4 containers. The first has 3 transplanted pepper plants as well as some seeds that I direct sowed in the 4th one. The second has 2 additional tomato plants – Harvest Moon and Purple Bumble Bee – as well as a Jalapeno pepper. I’ve got room for something else, but I just haven’t gotten to it yet. I’m thinking about some herbs and flowers that could provide trap crops for pests that might be stalking the tomatos.
I also have a few extra plants that I didn’t really want to throw in the compost bin since they were pretty healthy and nice, but I’m don’t have a plan for yet. These may be give-aways to neighbors if I can’t decide what to do!
It’s still relatively early and there’s a lot of growing still to come. I’m seeing some of the bush beans make an appearance…
