Peas

They are done!  Next weeks pictures will show the pea plants exhausted and done producing.  I will likely pull them out of the grown and replace them with a fall crop.  I planted 8 plants of peas — the middle plants grew the highest and the plants on the ends grew the lowest.  That must be normal given that my bean plants are doing the exact some thing.

Swiss Chard

This is when Swiss Chard shines.  The spinach is wilting in the hot sun and it is unlikely I can keep it shaded and cool for the hot summer months.  I will likely replant in late August or early September when the sun is a little less strong.  Swiss Chard on the other hand is much more robust.  It is growing nicely and very large.  I prefer smaller leaves, but this time of year I have so much other work going on, it is easierto let it grow large.  I have a few plants spread throughout the garden and they are all looking good.

Beans

The bean plants are now higher than the fence.  But alas, no beans yet.  I check every day for greasy grit beans but they haven’t started to “fruit” yet.  Greasy grits are known for their “highly productive” vines, but they haven’t started to produce yet.  They produce about 60 days after planting which would be this week.  I’ll keep checking.

Cucumber

I over planted cucumbers this year because I just can’t get enough.  I have about 6 different cucumber plants planted.  They will each product about a dozen or so cucumbers this summer.  If you look in a grocery store, you’ll see that some have marks — this is where the cucumber laid on the ground (if you’ve been pumpkin shopping, you’ve likely passed up pumpkins with too many marks from lying in the dirt).  To prevent this, some people grow cucumbers on a trellis.  I just don’t have enough trellis space for 6 cucumber plants (plus pumpkins and watermellon).  My cucumbers will suffer a little dirt, but last year they tasted exactly the same.  Each plant is about a foot tall.  They’ll keep growing all season and start winding through the garden.  Sometimes I cut it back — or you can just wind it in a ball.

Peppers

The peppers are so close to fruiting.  A lesson in fruiting plants — they flower, then they fruit.  A flower is just about to pop up on the pepper plant.  The main problem this year with peppers is that they want a hot sun.  We just haven’t had enough 90+ degree days to help them along.  There is a good possibility that the pepper plants will flower but they may not fruit.

Watermelon and Pumpkin

At this point, you can’t tell much of a different between the two in the pictures above.  They eventually will look pretty different (other than one being orange and the other green).  These plants will get huge and they’ll take over the garden if left uncontrolled.  The watermelon is among the tomatoes so I’ll need to make sure they grow away from them otherwise they’ll grow right up the tomato supports.  In fact, two years ago, my pumpkin plant grew up a tree.

Tomatoes

Here they come!  There are tons of baby tomatoes on every variety of tomato plant in the garden.  Lots of them.  The early plants will turn red first while some of the late varieties will keep growing for another month.  One of the plants (oddly enough, I didn’t photograph it) only grew to about 2 feet tall (the rest are close to 4 feet right now).  The 2 footer looks like it hasn’t been getting enough sun — but it still put out a few fruits.  They are troopers.  Last year a suffered some bottom rot at this point.  I plan to add a bottom rot supplement this weekend to prevent it from occuring this year.  Last year at this point, we had the perfect combination of hot sun and good rain which allowed the plants to grow extremely fast.  That fast growth led to not enough nutrients reaching the tomato fruits themselves.  I doubt that will happen this year, but I also don’t want to lose the first few tomatoes.

Related articles:

1. On the Farm, July 17, 2009
2. On the Farm, June 19, 2009
3. On The Farm, June 26, 2009

Peas

This is it!  Pea season is officially over.  I pulled a number of peas off the vines today.  They taste great.  I got about 5 peas for each plant.  No fertilizer, just weeding and watering.

Cilantro

The cilantro bolted!  See the pictures of the pretty white “flowers” — that’s cilantro which went to seed.  I grew Slo-Bolt Cilantro.  So much for slow bolting.  Actually, it has been growing since the last frost.  It’s also from seeds that overwintered in that bed.

Tomatoes

Tomato season is almost here!  The first early tomatoes have started to fruit.  They are only a half inch in diameter.  In another 2 weeks, we should have some cherry tomatoes.

Lettuces

The lettuce looks great.  The Rocky Top is a strong grower.  The European Mesculan was a bust.  I cleared out the cilantro bed and planted arugula, salad greens, and mizuna.  In another 3 weeks, I’ll have more greens than I can deal with.

Cucumbers and Watermelon

Both went in the ground two weeks ago and the seedlings look great.  I’m going to try to grow these two up on stakes and trellis in the hopes of growing more in a smaller area.  I’ve never done it like this, so we’ll see what happens.

Chard

The chard which got water logged last week came back under the hot, hot sun.  It doesn’t like too much sun, but due to the flood of water, it’s doing ok.

Clean Up!

It’s not all growing.  Today was a big clean up day.  Planted sunflower seeds in an area next to the compost bin and cleaned up some of the beds.  In the next few weeks, I’ll have more clean up as the pea plants come out and something new comes in.

Related articles:

1. On the Farm, June 19, 2009
2. On the Farm, June 6, 2009
3. On the Farm, June 12, 2009

In the harvest is peas, spinach, rocky top lettuce, radishes, and cilantro. Here is what’s going on around the farm:

Lincoln Peas

Pea harvest season is here.  I’m guessing I’ll get about 3 weeks of peas.  The peas are looking real good this week.  A couple of the pods are huge and the are tasty.  The smaller plants actually seem to have more pods on them than the really big plants.  I put down a little extra fertilizer today to keep the growth going.  All of this watering is doing them well.

Tomatoes

I’ll have to do a tomato comparison, but I believe some of the tomato plants grew two feet or more this week.  Two of the plants are approaching four feet today.  Still weeks away from a tomato, they are looking great.  Again, put some fertilizer down to make sure the plants get a solid start before fruiting begins.

Chard

The swiss chard appears to be the only plant in the garden that can’t take the rain.  A few of the chard plants are washed out.  Chard is a fast grower, so I’ll replant next week if they don’t recover (sometimes they do).  Chard likes cooler weather, so I’ll need to replant in the shady section.

Peppers

We have multiple branches now on most of the pepper plants.  I feel like the peppers are growing really slow, but they aren’t do to fruit for a long time.  When compared to the tomatoes, they look like slow moving turtles.  Next month I’ll complain how they are growing too fast, I’m sure.

Radishes

I’ve pulled all of the radishes out of the ground that I’ve planted.  About a 75% success rate — that is, 75% of the seeds I planted, I pulled full radishes out of the ground.  I’ll wait a few weeks and replant some more.  Essentially, you can keep planting radishes all summer.  I take a bit of a break so I can figure out mid-summer spacing and replanting.  Radishes are easy, go anywhere plants — I can put them where ever I have space.

Cucumbers

I’m so happy to say that the cucumbers are in full growth in the garden.  I probably planted too many plants this year, but that should be the least of my problems.  I’m growing a traditional pickling variety and the seeds sprouted and have a great start.

Rocky Top Lettuce

The rocky top lettuce looks like a great variety to grow.  They are growing tightly (which makes for less weeding) and strongly.  I cut four inch leaves today.  They’ll be great for sandwiches.

The rain is really accelerating growth this week.  With the temperature turning from mid 70s to mid 80s this week, I expect some great growth and harvesting next week.

Related articles:

1. On the Farm, June 6, 2009
2. On The Farm, June 26, 2009
3. On the Farm, June 12, 2009

Live from the Farm: Water Logged Chard

The rain recently has done wonders for the plants, but this swiss chard plant can’t take it.  I haven’t checked the actual count, but I’m guessing we received about 3 inches of rain today.  No flooding in the beds though.

Related articles:

1. Live from the Farm: Swiss Chard
2. On The Farm, June 26, 2009
3. In the Ground: Swiss Chard

Peas

The peas are looking good.  You can see from the photos that they need some training to work their way up the trellis.  But I’m confident they are good learners.

Tomatoes

The tomatoes are coming up slowly but surely.  They are at about 16 to 20 inches right now.  Last year, the tomato plants reached about 4 to 5 feet so they have a ways to go.  At the point, I’m more concerned about the root strength than the height.  A 5 foot plant needs a really strong root structure.

In one of the pictues, notice a huge batch of tomato plants (almost looks herb like).  I left some tomatoes on the ground at the end of last year and tilled them into the soil in the spring.  Much to my amazement, they are growing.  They aren’t in a great place to grow 4 feet, but I am letting them grow just to see how they fare.

Chard

After a couple misses, some of the chard is finally coming up.  I’m not sure why it didn’t all sprout (I usually don’t have chard problems), but the few buds look good.

Spinach

No complaints on spinach.  This is the second week that I’ve been able to cut the outer, larger leaves for spinach salads.

Radish

The biggest radish came out of the ground.  Take a look at the pictures above.  It’s about 2 inches in diameter.  I happened to go to the Green City Market today and found 3 inch radishes, but I’m happy anyway.  The radishes have a great spicy punch and are really crisp.  I also replanted another 16 radishes that should be ready in about 3 weeks.  They are just that easy to grow.

Rocky Top Lettuce

The rocky top lettuce has grown a lot in the last week.  You can see about 3 to 5 different varieties growing.  In another 2 weeks, I’ll start to trim back for baby greens and let some other plants grow for fuller heads.  I also replanted Rocky Top today.  I am growing this batch in a shadier area of the garden.  I’ll grow the lettuce all summer, but it needs a reprieve from the hottest sun.

Planted Today:

I’ll have a longer description of each variety but I planted basil, pumpkin, watermelon, and two varieties of cucumbers today.  All from seed.  Descriptions on the way.

Also notice the permaculturephotos.  I have taken one bed and I’m growing — in random — a variety of herbs, lettuces, radish, etc.  I’ll write up separately on my lessons on permaculture.

Related articles:

1. On the Farm, June 19, 2009
2. On The Farm, June 26, 2009
3. On the Farm, June 12, 2009

Swiss Chard about 3 inches high.

Live from the Farm: Swiss Chard

Originally uploaded by Farmer_Jay

Related articles:

1. Live from the Farm: Water Logged Chard
2. Live from the Farm: Radish
3. In the Ground: Swiss Chard

I think people forget why April showers bring May flowers.  This weekend was a great example — Saturday was a great day to work in the garden.  Since then, we’ve had 2 great days of rain — .9 inches on Sunday and .16 on Monday.  That’s a full inch of rain.  With freshly planted seeds in the ground, the rain will keep the seeds moist and encourage the seeds to sprout.

Among many vegetables in the ground on this Saturday was Swiss Chard.  I’ve become a big fan of swiss chard after growing it.  It’s another real easy vegetable to grow.  Also called silverbeet, the leaves have a hint of beet flavor to them (they are in the same family as the beet).  Sauteed, chard tastes much like spinach.

The picture below shows the plants much further apart then I’ve planted them.  Since I’m using the square foot gardening principles, it will be grown tightly.  I plan to cut some leaves early for baby chard and let others grow out.  I’ve found chard doesn’t get bitter or change taste too much as it grows, so there is no need cut it too early.

Here is the description of the variety I’m growing:

Red Chard growing in the garden of Slow Food Nation, Photo by mercedesfromtheeighties

Five Color Silverbeet (Rainbow Chard)
60 days. A beautiful chard, its colors are brilliant (pink, yellow, orange, red and white). This chard originated in Australia. Very mild, ornamental, and tasty. Great for market growers and specialty markets. Pretty enough to plant in the flower garden, so delicious, one of our favorite greens! (Sold in stores as “Bright Lights”)

Related articles:

1. Live from the Farm: Swiss Chard
2. Live from the Farm: Water Logged Chard
3. On the Farm, June 19, 2009