Undaunted Gardening

Friday, July 9, 2010

Again we are haunted by a cold wet summer, I think the last one was two years ago. I looked the other day at the historic highs and lows and found that we were below the mean high temperature for June, but above the mean low; in other words it has been colder than normal. Although, we are behind by a couple of weeks compared to last year and because we are gardening on the edge we push on. Gardening in this country is work, and like anywhere else it is about paying attention to the present while preparing for the season ahead. With that, today I purchased frost hardy seeds for the fall planting; frisee endive, spring raab, orak, and winter spinach. The rest I have in my portable bucket of seeds, which I receive a ribbing from Nicky every now and then. The bucket allows me to go back and forth, from school and home, carrying seeds that can be planted whenever there is an opening to plant. Nicky teases me when I occasionally assess what I have, one must take inventory now and then.

I have been amending this week with compost, for the heavy feeders, and grass clippings for keeping back the weeds and holding in the moisture. I cannot believe how well this works. It is something I recommend to all gardeners. Mulch also provides organics to the soil. This week I am going to use fertilizers with my top dressing. In the book Square Foot Garden, Mel Bartholomew has two recipes:

All Purpose Mix

• 1 part blood meal
• 2 parts bone meal
• 3 parts wood ashes
• 4 parts composted leaf mold

High Nitrogen Mix

• 3 parts blood meal
• 2 parts bone meal
• 3 parts wood ashes
• 4 parts leaf mold

Instead of leaf mold I am going to use my own compost and top-dress the heavy feeders: such as zucchini, broccoli, and cabbage. The next thing to consider is once the plants are large enough, plant green manures around them. I experimented with this last year using clover. It takes clover 60 days to start fixing nitrogen. Last year I had mature clovers in late August and they did not flower, eliminating seed formation. The jury is out as to whether I will give this a go this year, because of all the mulching I have been putting down. Remember gardening is one big science experiment.

Thanks to friends and fellow gardening freaks, Tarri and Marlin at Moose Run Metalsmiths, I was able to grab a bucket of chicken manure for manure tea. I ended up place the manure in a big gunnysack or tea bag and soaking it in a 45 gallon black container in the greenhouse. The tomatoes, basil, and beans received the first batch of tea. Next will be the broccoli and cabbage plants. By the way it needs to be mentioned that Tarri Thurman has some great brocolli plants, she has been harvesting for the last three weeks. Awesome. The picture above is from Tarri and Marlin's hoop house, the broccoli are on the right.

I went fishing this week and caught a couple of ten-pound halibut. I ended up throwing the carcasses in the compost. I was sure to bearing it deep avoid any bear snouts catching a whiff of the carcasses. I only do this when the compost pile is the size of a four-foot by four-foot cube. The halibut, or salmon, carcasses really give a local kick to your compost. However, you must realize that this is gardening on the edge and there may be consequences.

Today was the last planting of onion sets. We just started harvesting golf ball size plants last week. I plant onions through out the year. Most do not get any bigger than a tennis ball, but we always have onions. The sees I planted three weeks ago of bunching onions are up, these plants will be part of the late fall harvest.

I need to mention that I am covering my zucchini in the hoop house every night with Reemay row covers. I am also experimenting with covering tomatoes in the greenhouse. The reason for this is to cut down on the light for increased production. If it is not the cold, then it is too much sunlight. Crazy. By the way, the tomatoes really started to put fruit on this week.

Cucumbers are also putting out fruit. However, the Alaska Cooperative Extension says, “If too many fruits are allowed to form at any one time, a large proportion will abort because the plant may not have sufficient food reserves. If a heavy load of fruit sets, fruits will be malformed, or poorly colored. Only one fruit should be allowed to develop in a leaf axil.” For our cucumbers it is time to prune. I will be using the umbrella method as describes in the Alaska Cooperative Extension Service’s Cucumber Production in Greenhouses.

The plant of the week is cilantro. Cilantro has been a plant that we relish. We cook a lot of tortillas and like it in salads. This year the cilantro was transplanted in the hoop house, and in containers in the greenhouse, and it is very happy. I also plant four cilantro plants every two to three weeks, that way you get enough plants to plant in any open spaces and have a ready supply.

The harvesting has been great considering the cold. Tonight Nicky is cooking wild bolete mushroom spaghetti with green garlic, onions, oregano, thyme, and basil form the garden. She tossed in a few ronde and green zucchinis. Meanwhile, I made a mixed gourmet lettuce, mach, and cress salad. Garden on!