Stickman's other 2012 garden

stickman · May 7, 2012

Having so much fun with the truck garden I thought I'd post some pics from that as well. I have a lot of greens planted outside since they seem to do best in the early spring. I picked the last of the Claytonia tonight but still have Mache and Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce to pick from. I've also planted Mizuna, Chinese Mustard, Garland Chrysanthemum, Collards, French Breakfast Radishes and Korean spring Radishes that are up but still pretty small.
I still had some room in my hoophouse after planting my chiles so I planted Eggplant and Tomatoes in there as well.

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes and Amish Paste Tomatoes

Italian Eggplant

stickman · May 20, 2012

Two weeks have done wonderful things for the tomatoes and eggplant. I notice though, that the closer they were planted to the outside of the hoophouse the slower things grew. I'm sure they'll catch up, but good to know for next year...

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes

Amish Paste Tomato

Black Beauty Eggplant

Ho Bak Squash that BootsieB put me onto.

Champion Collards

Black Seed Simpson Lettuce

Patterson Yellow Onions started from seed in late January

roper2008 · May 20, 2012

Those eggplants are looking really nice. I'm growing ichiban, sungold, amish paste, sandul moldovan, dana's dusky rose,
large pink bulgarian, plus other heirloom tomatoes. I'm hoping beginning of July some will be ripe. Looks like you will be
making some salads soon with all the lettuce. Black seeded simpson is a good lettuce. I have some Johnny's all star mix
lettuce in my garden right now.

stickman · May 20, 2012

roper2008 said:
Those eggplants are looking really nice. I'm growing ichiban, sungold, amish paste, sandul moldovan, dana's dusky rose,
large pink bulgarian, plus other heirloom tomatoes. I'm hoping beginning of July some will be ripe. Looks like you will be
making some salads soon with all the lettuce. Black seeded simpson is a good lettuce. I have some Johnny's all star mix
lettuce in my garden right now.

Hi Linda
We've been eating salads for the last month, supplementing lettuce thinnings with Mache and Claytonia. I Just pick up a cucumber and a pint of grape tomatoes after work and throw together a viniagrette. I'll bet your garden is rockin' about now. Sounds like a great selection of tomatoes. I have some Principe Borghese that I started late. I plan to dry those in the sun. Most I'll put away in jars, but some I'll cure in olive oil after they've dried. I also want to put away some eggplant and pepperoncini cured in oil.

stickman · May 20, 2012

More pics of the square foot garden

Edible Chrysanthemum (Shungiku) and Mizuna

Scallions and Garlic Chives (can you say Pa jeon?... http://www.globalgou...l#axzz1vSLtoKET

Korean and French Breakfast Radishes

Red Cranberry Pole Beans, more Radishes and a few marigolds in the corners to keep the critters away

More Cranberry Beans and Basil

stickman · May 24, 2012

Garden truck is looking bigger. Transplanted Sungold cherry tomatoes to the square foot garden because they were starting to shade out the peppers.

Carrots

Shungiku

Mizuna

Radishes

Ho Bak squash

stickman · May 29, 2012

I'm glad I got my garden all planted before Memorial Day weekend.

Blossoms on the tomatoes... The white stuff is shredded paper mulch from my wife's office.

Korean radishes for making Yeolmu Mulkimchi.

Collards. I've got big holes in the ranks caused by beetle grubs eating the roots, so I planted some more to fill the holes.

Pole Beans and Radishes looking good. I planted Marigolds in the corners to help keep down the critters.

highalt · May 30, 2012

Things are really coming along now! Are you planning to put a cage around those Sungold's? The year I grew them, they got at least 6' tall. My carrots and radishes are just now sprouting, but he lettuce is almost big enough to start harvesting.

stickman · May 31, 2012

highalt said:
Things are really coming along now! Are you planning to put a cage around those Sungold's? The year I grew them, they got at least 6' tall. My carrots and radishes are just now sprouting, but he lettuce is almost big enough to start harvesting.

Hi Bonnie, Yeah... they're starting to pick up for sure. It rained again last night, though not as violently as the night before, and things have shot up! Rainwater is always slightly acidic and it dissolves some of the nutrients in the soil and washes them down to the roots. I have a couple of five foot tomato cages I got that can be assembled around the plants, so it wasn't necessary to put them up while the tomatoes were still small. Last year I had to whack off the primary growth when it got too far above the top of the cage. The info on the Sungold packet said they'd grow from five to seven feet tall so I thought I'd better get supports taller than the wire cages.
It's a good feeling to be able to grow enough fresh produce to significantly reduce the grocery bills isn't it? I've only got myself and my wife to feed... you've got a teenager too!

stickman · Jun 1, 2012

Boy, having a good shot of rain followed by lots of sun sure made the eggplant shoot up!

Flower buds on the Eggplant too!

stickman · Jun 4, 2012

The mix of rain and sun the last week has been just perfect! Everything shooting up, including the weeds. The eggplants are almost 3 feet tall, with a stem thicker than my thumb. Pole beans are beginning to send out runners and we've picked and eaten most of the second planting of French Breakfast Radishes. The Korean spring radishes are continuing to grow well. When they get to about an inch across and 4 to 5 inches long it'll be time to pull them up and make Young Radish Water Kimchi (Yeolmu Mulkimchi). I'll have enough large green Gochu pepper pods to put in it too.

"Good Luck" Korean radishes from Kitazawa Seed Co

Red Cranberry Pole Beans from Seeds of Change

Asian greens... At the top is Edible Chrysanthemum (Shungiku) from Kitazawa Seeds, in the middle is Japanese Mustard (Mizuna), also from Kitazawa and on the bottom is "Black Summer" green baby Bok Choy from Johnny's Seeds of Maine.

"Champion" Collards from High Mowing Seeds of Vermont. About a third of my first planting of Collards were killed by beetle grubs eating the roots. I made a second planting to fill the gaps in the ranks. I'll have to thin them all soon.

Sungold Cherry Tomatoes have set fruit

And so have the Amish Paste Tomatoes.

mygrassisblue · Jun 5, 2012

Looks Great ! I am happy to have finially found the other Glog section !

stickman · Jun 5, 2012

Hi Dan, thanks for stopping by. By the look of it your lawn is as much garden as grass. Cheers

stickman · Jun 7, 2012

A couple of things that I didn't have room in the garden for... Also, I didn't want the tomatillos anywhere near it. I've only got a 18 by 20 foot plot and couldn't handle all the volunteers...

Tomatillos Verde... These were an afterthought... I hadn't planned on putting in Tomatillos at all this year, but with all the chiles I have coming in I figured I'd need a few for salsas.

Yukon Gold Potatoes in a 2 and a half foot grow bag. It started out filled with soil 10 inches deep and the sides rolled down. When the potato leaves grew over the top of the pot I added more soil and rolled the sides up a little more. It's only been about three weeks and the bag is nearly completely full.

My wife has this Lobelia planted all along our front walkway, and it's quite striking with its purple leaves and stems and intense blue flowers. The picture here doesn't really do them justice... They're a darker and more vivid blue.

highalt · Jun 8, 2012

Looking good! Do you eat the leaves on the chrysanthemum or just the blooms? I wintersowed some, but got zero germination. I think the seed was from a trade, so maybe it just wasn't fresh enough. How many potatoes did you plant in there? That's the one thing I've never tried to grow, but I like the grow bag idea! Can't wait to see how many lbs. you harvest compared to what you planted.

stickman · Jun 8, 2012

highalt said:
Looking good! Do you eat the leaves on the chrysanthemum or just the blooms? I wintersowed some, but got zero germination. I think the seed was from a trade, so maybe it just wasn't fresh enough. How many potatoes did you plant in there? That's the one thing I've never tried to grow, but I like the grow bag idea! Can't wait to see how many lbs. you harvest compared to what you planted.

Hi Bonnie. Thanks for stopping by. I planted four round potatoes that were each about two inches wide. I'd be happy to get a return of ten or fifteen to one.
We eat the leaves of the shungiku mostly... the flowers can be eaten too, but something in me says they really ARE rabbit food... My wife and I like the leaves in salads.. (both garden salads and in the Korean style... blanched and served with a dressing) and I use them in soups and as a garnish.

synclinorium · Jun 9, 2012

I'm in awe of the Eggplant... I've never gotten mine to look that good. Granted, the flea beetles usually do a number on them, so that doesn't help...

stickman · Jun 9, 2012

synclinorium said:
I'm in awe of the Eggplant... I've never gotten mine to look that good. Granted, the flea beetles usually do a number on them, so that doesn't help...

I think it's a combination of soil preparation, starting early, the thermal plastic mulch I got from Johnny's Select Seeds and the sandy soil we have here. The first year we planted here the eggplant did very well... I didn't know how well until after the hard frost took them out completely. I was cleaning up the garden to put it to bed for the winter and when I pulled up the dead eggplant the roots ran for ten or twelve feet in every direction!

stickman · Jun 13, 2012

Things are progressing nicely at the veggie garden. The only slacker is the Ho Bak squash. I mulched with shredded white paper and I think I cooled the soil too much when I did that. They're just languishing at the moment. Planted a few Black Zucchini in the same square and we'll let the fittest survive. For the rest...

Staked up the Sungold cherry tomatoes... they're about 3' 6" tall and setting fruit.

Amish Paste Tomatoes, also setting fruit

Eggplant looking REALLY nice.

Principe Borghese late starts beginning to pick up

A blurry shot of Epazote... You can't have Mexican black bean soup without it!

stickman · Jun 14, 2012

Checked the eggplant today and found their first flower...