This has been the summer of the lupine. Last week the sun was out for a couple of days, but now we are back in the fog. As the moist Pacific air is sieved by the treetops I was glad not to have to water last week. The grass is growing by leaps and bound, making for great compost and mulch.
Last Sunday we opened Café Szarze to some of our friends. On the menu were crepes filled with fresh fruit crème cheese and a frittata with greens and onions from the garden. This is the best way to share the bounty of the garden.
In the garden love is in the air. The ladybugs are doing their thing creating the little ladybug larvae that will eat many insects, especially aphids and other sap feeders.
Last week I spent a lot of time amending the plants with compost, weeding, and spreading mulch around plants. The compost is an amazing thing. Last week steam came out of the vent for three days in the primary composter.
All is growing well in the garden this past week, although we think the cool weather has slowed growth of some plants, i.e. broccoli, cabbage, and alums. The lettuces, greens, and peas seemed to be doing fine. In the hoop house the zucchini and pumpkins have flowers and small fruit. All around the garden the flowers are making a show.
The currents, goose berries, strawberries, and service berries all were in bloom.
In the yard the wild flowers are putting on a show as well.
Another interesting note are the spruce trees are producing male cones on the south side of the trees along with a few female cones. Some trees are burst with male cones.
As of this week I am still planting seeds of beets, onions, lettuce, and pac choi for harvesting the last part of the summer. Within the next few weeks it will be time to consider what greens to plant for the fall.
As I start thinking about fall plants I should mention how mache has been a great producer up until this point, the cool weather has prevented it from bolting. However, the plant of the week has to be cress or pepper grass. In the photo above it is on the left. This wonderful green fared well in the cool weather and continues to produces leaves. We use it salads and tortillas. It is great to snack on in the garden when browsing.
Being gone on a river trip in the beginning of June is the best time to leave a garden. All the starts are in place and the seeds have been planted. I was happy to see everything flourishing with only little weeding needed. Nicky was on top of the watering during a few nice days after I left, but fortunately weather last week has been wet and cold, with plenty of moisture for the young plants. Much to my surprise are the oriental greens that stared out so poorly in the seedling mix. They are bountiful and full-grown and very tender. Not only are we eating these greens, we are eating arugula, pac choi, tot soi, radishes, mizuna, and tomatoes from our indoor plants for dinner every night.
The last few days have been spent mowing, and gathering valuable lawn clippings for compost and mulch. This year, I am mulching more areas than in the past (http://www.savvygardener.com/Features/mulch.html). I decided to mulch the entire hoop house, because the soil can become dry on hot days. This also helps keep the weeds down. As I pull the oriental greens out of the hoop house I will plant carrots in their place, they like the warmth now and can stand the cold later in the year. Walking trails of grass clippings are great along the strawberry patch. Notice the PVC hoops that will be used later in the season to prevent the sparrows from eating the berries.
The compost has been cooking for the last few days. It is great to see the steam rising from the perforated pipe that runs the length of the primary composter.
We are impressed with the tomatoes this year, they like the new green house addition. I was busy pruning and clipping suckers the day after I got back.
Even though today is the summer solstice and our hours of daylight begin to decline, it is still important to continue to plant. Today I planted beets where there were holes among the first seedlings. They will have plenty of time to grow, given the 60 days to harvest, which will equate to the last part of August. I also planted more cilantro, romaine, bunching onions, and pac choi. Tomorrow I will be planting more romaine, nasturium, and pac choi starts. By only planting four of these plants at a time using the soil blocker I always have room in the garden now as I am harvesting daily.
A fun green this past week is miners lettuce (claytonia). I like the flowering head in the middle of the leaf. The tastes is sweet and succulent. This green is a great early and late season green that can handle cold weather and frost. Apparently, miners in the west used this plant as a basic green.
As far as the river trip goes, I must say it was exciting. Here is a blog by our trip leader Dan Niemela (http://falconmtn.blogspot.com/2010/06/middle-fork-of-slammin.html). The Middle Fork of the Salmon is a river to be reckoned with when it is close to peak run-off. Every morning we drank enough coffee to get our confidence up, every afternoon we drank a few beers telling tales of rivers past and present, and every night we ate like kings.
The tomato addition is finished and planted. We have basil, a great companion plant for tomatoes, in the same beds and they are happy. Cucumbers are planted in this area as well. This project took longer than planned, I am still going to experiment with a heating system for the beds. I am using concrete mesh for the tomato cages. I will prune the suckers and let the plants grow TALL. Nicky has more room for planting even more beans; purple, yellow, green, and spotted beans. All the starts are in and covered for cut worm protection and protection from the drying winds at the 1300 foot elevation. They floating covers also help keep the soil moist for the seedlings.
This week I learned about planting leeks using the dibble method; planting the seedling up to six inches in the soil eliminates the need for rowing later. The intention is to cause blanching of the leek ends. The other lesson was to plant onions with the bulbs exposed and the roots in the ground. If the bulb is exposed, then the bulb will become bulbous.
Finally, the potatoes are planted in the pig garden. This past fall we planted 30 plus garlic plants in the pig garden and the plants are enjoying this space. The straw was pulled off and laid on newspaper on the walking paths next to the garlic. We also added more lettuce, onions, and broccoli in the pig garden. A fence is soon to come for keeping those pesky moose out.
In the morning meadow, the paintbrush, geraniums, chocolate lilies, and lupine are growing by leaps and bounds. Every day that I walk down to the garden I am amazed by how fast these hardy Alaskan perennials grow. We have had some great weather this past week; warm and sunny, followed by cool and wet. A great combination for planting. This post has been rushed, but I hope to get one more entry in before the big trip to Idaho for the Salmon River trip. Garden On!
The following is sent from Neil Wagnor. There is some great information on potassium and heat tape.
Potassium and Heating tape from Marion.
Hi Neil,
Here is my most recent article which deals with heating tapes (story 1) and potassium (story #2)
More coming,
Cheers, Marion
Jeff Werner in his High Tunnel talk at the college a couple weeks ago also mentioned using Epsom salts for added magnesium. I gave all my greenhouse tomatoes a drink of Epsom salts last week. My goal over the next week is to mix up 5 g buckets and give all the plants in the garden a drink.
TWO TALES OF BROCCOLI
Allan Thielen expects to be eating broccoli by the first week in June -- at least 6 to 8 weeks ahead of schedule -- thanks to a set of thin heating cables that warm the soil.
As Allan explains: “I started a batch of 60 broccoli seedlings on April 15. Then on the first of May I transplanted them in the hoophouse, 30 seedlings into raised beds without the cables and 30 seedlings into raised beds with the cables.
“By mid-May, the plants in the cable beds were 5 times bigger than the other seedlings.”
As one observer said, “It’s like comparing giants and babies.”
The cables, called Gro-Quick Soil-Warming Cables, help speed seed germination and seedling growth to help gardeners get a jumpstart to the growing season. Allan purchased them from FarmTek (www.growerssupply.com; 800-476-9715). They’re also available through Charleys Greenhouse in Mt. Vernon, Wash. (www.charleysgreehouse.com; 800-322-4707).
The cables come in a variety of lengths, from 6 to 48 feet, and are covered with a tough, moisture-proof PVC jacket. “The cables are very sturdy,” says Allan. Last year, at the end of the season, he unplugged the low wattage cables and left them in the soil all winter without any problems.
A thermostat automatically activates the cables when soil temperature falls below 74 degrees. “Within three days of plugging in the cables, the soil was 14 to 18 degrees warmer. And they heat an area much bigger than the literature claims,” he added.
“The surrounding air may be 40 degrees, but the soil temperature is what’s important, especially with young plants. So for just a few dollars per month, you really extend your growing season. Ten degrees in soil temperature makes a huge difference.”
Known for his watermelon, cucumber, zucchini and pumpkin crops, Allanfirst used the heating cables last year for growing cucumbers and pumpkins in his hoophouse on the mountainside above town. “Out of the 5 x 10-foot raised bed I harvested about 150 cucumbers.”
Anxious to extend his harvest, Allan plans to use the cables far into the fall. The third week in October marks the point where daylight dips below ten hours per day, slowing plant growth.
I’ll give you an update this fall from the Hoophouse on the Hill. Meanwhile, if you have any questions about hoophouse cultivation or the heating cables, contact Allan at 486-8738.
LESSONS FROM THE MASTER GARDENER CLASS
If you stop, look and listen, plants will tell you what’s wrong. Last year, Heather Preece was looking forward to a healthy harvest of vegetables, but it was not to be. “I got huge broccoli plants with lots of big leaves but very small heads.”
Heather, a long time, organic gardener who lives in Bells Flats, realized something was wrong. Knowing that soil is the foundation of every successful garden and that broccoli plants are “heavy feeders,” she fertilized her beds with blood meal and all-purpose organic fertilizer during the season. Still, it wasn’t enough.
During this winter’s Master Gardener class, Heather learned the value of testing your soil. “I sent a soil sample in to Brookside Labs in New Knoxville, Ohio (www.blinc.com), the lab recommended by Tom Jahns, who taught the class. She recommends asking for soil test package S001AN, which gives basic Alaska soil test requirements, and organic matter, plus micronutrients. Brookside Labs, she says, is less expensive and provides a lot more information than the labs in Alaska.”
In mid-February, she mailed two samples: one from all her annual vegetable beds and the other from her perennial beds (raspberries, strawberries, rhubarb). “The soil wasn’t frozen so it gave her some lead time to make corrections.”
If you’re thinking of sending in a soil sample, you’re not too late. Heather’s results came back in less than two weeks, and the lab was happy to interpret the findings.
In a nutshell, the amount of organic matter in the soil was excellent (25 percent), but the phosphorus levels (the “P” in N:P:K:) were very high while the potassium levels (the “K” in N:P:K) were very low.
Fueled with new data, Heather referred back to her class notes. “It all started to come together.” Potassium, she learned, helps with fruit development, which explains why she ended up with small broccoli heads. “We ate the leaves anyway, but this year I'll be interested to see if there is a change.”
“So I needed primarily potassium (K) and magnesium (Mg), which you can correct easily with adding Epsom salts.” (Epsom salt recipe: Dissolve 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt in 1 gallon of water.)
Magnesium, which is quite water-soluble, leaches out quickly in areas of heavy rainfall. Leaves are a great source of magnesium, so it’s important to add them as a mulch or to your compost pile. You can also correct a magnesium shortage with Epsom salts: Dissolve 2 tablespoons of Epsom salts in a gallon of water.
SOIL NUTRITION AND HUMAN NUTRITION
At this point, Heather, a Pediatric Dietitian and Lactation Consultant at Providence Kodiak Island Medical Center (“Basically I'm all
about food, personally and professionally”) had an aha moment.
“Funny, it said in my garden notes that potassium and magnesium deficiencies often go together. I've been studying for re-certifying my pediatric nutrition specialty exam and found that in malnourished hospitalized kids, potassium and magnesium deficiencies often go together.”
A magnesium shortage can also cause a calcium metabolism problem in people and animals, because calcium cannot be used without magnesium.
EVERYTHING IN MODERATION
Because Heather’s soil had plenty (too much) phosphorus the lab suggested she avoid adding any more because it can prevent plants from taking up other nutrients. This presented a problem: She needed potassium (K) but no more phosphorus (P), yet most sources of potassium (potash rock, granite dust, wood ashes) also contain phosphorus.
Heather contacted Allan Thielen because he’d experienced a similar shortage of potassium. He gave her a bag of greensand, a mineral mix from the East Coast that has an N:P:K rating of 0-0-3; only potassium. (For more information about greensand, call Marion at 486-5079 or email: mygarden@alaska.net)
And so the story has a happy ending. “Getting the soil tested really helped to take the guesswork out of fertilizing,” says Heather. “From the lab results, I feel I’m sitting pretty well, though I might try to find a liquid source of potassium, like blended comfrey leaves that Allan told me about.”
