Garlic

This is the beginning of garlic season.  I planted the garlic back in October of last year to grow over the winter and into the spring.  Around July, some of the bulbs are ready to be pulled.  Unlike most of the things I grow, garlic will store for a long time.  I pull about 5 to 10 garlic bulbs a week, they cure in a cool, dry spot and then go into the kitchen.  All of this garlic should last until next year when the cycle repeats.  The only really trick is to be careful pulling the garlic out of the ground.  I try to break up the dirt around the garlic and then pull the bulb out of the ground.  You don’t want to get too close to the garlic because if you break the outer covering, the garlic won’t store very long.

Garlic can stay in the ground until early September.  It probably won’t grow too much bigger but it will allow me to keep it just a little longer through the winter.  If you wait too long, the bulbs will start to send up shoots and regrow.  This past winter I accidentially lost some garlic cloves (likely fell off the bulb?) and this spring there were garlic plants popping up in places I didn’t plant them.  I guess that shows you just how easy it is to grow garlic.

Greasy Grits Beans

I’ve been worried about my beans — well, the plants haven’t been growing beans yet.  Today that changed.  In the third picture above is a close up of a bean just beginning to grow.  There are many, many beans growing right now.  Many.  I’m quickly going to have to figure out the proper way to dry and store beans.  I’m guessing they’ll all mature at about the same time.  Other than setup the trellis, the beans have maintained themselves so far.  I planted the plants 3 inches apart, so as they’ve grown, they’ve crowded out any weeds.  In the next 10 to 14 days, I should have a bean or two to try.  These are Greasy Grits Beans… so picture a standard green bean that is a puple brown red color with a shiny cover (hence greasy).

Green Peppers

The peppers have struggled all season long as they thrive in 90 degree weather and we just haven’t had enough of it (off the top of my head, I can only think of two 90+ degree days).  Just like the beans, the peppers also have started to grow.  The peppers will take a bit of time to fully grow into a green pepper and the 70 degree days this week aren’t going to help them.  I’ve specifically laid some extra fertilizer down in the hopes that I can help these guys grow.

Ground Cherries

I’m going to write an entire post on the ground cherries, so look for that soon.

Tomatoes

They are looking great!  The sunburst (little cherry-type orange tomatoes), roma (long skinny), green zebra (green striped), and others all look great.  There seems to be a little compression between the maturity dates this year.  They are suppose to be spread out among 5 weeks to pace out the number of tomatoes I’ll harvest.  It looks like the early varieties are running a little late and the mid-summer and late varieties are running a little early.  Just means that I’ll have many more to eat.  I’ve tried to take some real close up pictures of the tomatoes to give a good idea what they all look like and where they are in their maturity.

Cucumbers, Pumpkins, and Watermelons

Based on the pictures, you can clearly tell that all three plants are related.  The pumpkin plant is starting to go crazy.  This is very typical.  A pumpkin patch is a really easy thing to grow.  Lay down some seeds and a patch will be created.  I’m trying to grow the pumpkin up a trellis.  It’s a novel idea, but when a 10 pound pumpkin starts to grow, it’s going to pull the trellis down.  I just don’t have the room right now for a full pumpkin patch.  I hope it will grow up for a little bit which will give me time to harvest the other plants in that plot.  Otherwise, they are all growing strong.  I’m thinking cucumbers will be ready around August 1.

Lettuces

I planted a nice selection of lettuces — mizuna, rocky top, and arugula.  I had to pick a shadier part of the garden to plant it in as lettuces do not like the super hot heat of July and August.  Of course, we really don’t have that kind of heat right now.  With each of these lettuces, I cut a little bit each week so I end up with baby lettuce, “sandwich” lettuce (the size leaf perfect for putting between two pieces of bread), and eventually full salad lettuce.  The lettuces took forever to start to sprout but once they did, they were off.

Sunflowers

I planted an unused section of the garden next to the compost bin with sunflowers.  It’s a little late to be starting sunflowers (they’ll probably reach full height just before the first frost) but they’ll add some color to the garden and encourage more bees to hang around.

Related articles:

1. On The Farm – July 5, 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

Cilantro

Wow, the cilantro is growing strong.  I’ve picked a number of bunches of cilantro today.  Too bad the tomatoes aren’t ready to go as they would make great salsa.   The cilantro smells so good.  This is slow bolt cilantro.  Cilantro bolts or goes to seed and becomes bitter very quickly.  Slow bolt cilantro is suppose to go to seed much slower.  You can see from the first photos a slight difference in some of the cilantro.  This is the cilantro slowly starting to bolt.

Radish

The radishes are huge today.  I’ve pulled a number of radishes out of the ground today.  Also for the first time in 5 years, we have a critter in the garden.  Based upon what was eaten and the location (and also what I normally see in the garden), I’m guessing I have rabbits.  I’ll keep an eye on it and hopefully the rabbits will eat only a reasonable amount.  They are hungry after all.

Peppers

The peppers are starting to grow.  They’ve been about 3 inches tall for the past few weeks and they’ve added about two inches in the past few days.  We are a long way to actually eating a pepper, but they are looking good.

Rocky Top Lettuce

The rocky top is going strong.  I took a small batch of baby lettuces out today and they tasted wonderful.  The rocky top is delicate when it is in the baby stage, but in another couple of weeks we’ll have a strong batch of lettuce.  At this point they are growing very tightly together and require almost no care, which is a treat.

Peas

Check out the peas — we’ve got pods.  I’m so excited.  I’ve never grown peas before so I was surprised to notice the snaps growing on the vine.  There are about 4 pea pods per plant — a little less than I expected.  I was able to pull a pod and took a picture of the inside.  I think they need a week or two more but so far they taste great.  I also took a picture of the pea blossoms.

Garlic

The garlic is growing perfectly.  It was planted in the fall and is about 3 to 5 feet tall today.  There are a variety of theories on growing garlic, one of which is to cut the tops of the garlics — called the scapes — to allow for the bulbs to focus on growing.  I’ve cut the scapes and I haven’t cut the scapes and have found no difference.  Anyway, I cut some scapes — enough for me to throw in a stirfry.  I have some pretty good pictures of the scapes.  It looks to be a great garlic season.

Beans

The greasy grit beans are going strong.  This is also my first year growing beans so we’ll have to see how they grow.

Related articles:

1. On The Farm, June 26, 2009
2. On the Farm, June 19, 2009
3. On the Farm, June 6, 2009

Carrots

Carrots among the Garlic

The carrots were planted on a windy day.  Good news, they’ve seeded and are growing nicely.  Bad news, they aren’t all in the places that they were planted.  This happens and I don’t get too worried about it.  The picture above shows a carrot growing among the garlic plants.  It will be interesting growing two in-the-ground plants right next to eachother.  So far — so good.

Tomatoes

Tomato Plant, May 27, 2009

The tomato plants are looking good.  For the first time, I planted the plants in the order in which they’ll bloom (early season, mid-season, and late season).  Not suprisingly, the plants are growing at the same rate.  Above is an early season tomato plant which is growing considerably faster than the other tomato plants.  It’s hard to tell from the angle, but the plant is about a foot tall (the other plants are still in the 8 to 10 inch range).

Peppers

Peppers, May 27, 2009

The peppers are strong, but they haven’t been growing high.  Peppers thrive in heat (which is the reason no many people grow hot peppers in the Midwest — the hotter the pepper, the more heat and sun you need).  We’ve been averaging upper 60s for the past few weeks and the pepper plants need 80s.  I’m hoping the weather picks up a bit and they’ll start to take off.

Herbs

Parsley and Cilantro, May 27, 2009

Cilantro and parsley are tough herbs to start.  I’ve had many failed attempts at getting both to sprout and I’m happy to say there were no problems this year.  Above you’ll see a few solidly growing cilantro and italian parsley plants.  If you’ve never grown the two, it’s actually a little hard to tell them apart.  Usually the smell test works — cilantro has a strong distinct smell.  Please disregard my lack of weeding.  Honestly, I’ve made mistakes and pulled herbs instead of weeds so I like to give it just a little time to establish themselves to figure out whether it is a weed or not.

Peas

Peas, May 27, 2009

The spinach is also going strong.  I have three different stages of spinach growing right now.  The picture above is from the first batch.  I can start cutting each of these plants for some baby spinach, but I think I’m going to let it grow just one more week.  There is another set of plants about 2 weeks behind and then a third set which just popped out of the ground.

A good start and plenty more pictures to take and a couple of more seeds to get in the ground in the next week.

Related articles:

1. Peas, Spinach, Radishes and More…Growing
2. On the Farm, June 19, 2009
3. Friday Growing

Peppers

The pepper plants went in the ground about two weeks early.  I was fearful that they would not handle the 40 degree nights very well.  The pepper plants made it!  The have not grown as much as some of the other plants in the ground, but they definitely look strong and healthy.

Pepper Plant Growing, May 3, 2009

Spinach

The spinach is still growing much slower than I had hoped but looking very strong.  The two plants below are about 2 to 3 inches high and very strong looking.  Hopefully I can cut some baby spinach in 2 to 3 weeks from now.

Spinach Plants Growing, May 3, 2009

Peas

The pea plants are the current rock stars.  They are growing rapidly and looking very healthy.  They are still only about 4 inches tall (they have to start climbing the trellis behind them).

Peas Plants Growing, May 3, 2009

Radishes

I was concerned about the radishes as they look longer than I thought to sprout.  But they are all looking good today.  They are only an inch tall, but the idea is not to grow up but down (into the ground).  Hopefully in 3 weeks I’ll be able to pull a few from the ground to eat.

Radish Growing, May 3, 2009

Garlic

Garlic is definitely the low maintenance plant.  The angle of this photo isn’t the best but I wanted to show the number of garlic plants growing.  The plants are up to a foot and I’ll cut the scapes (the top portion) when they reach about 3 feet.  This is very unscientific (and probably wrong) but I generally cut the scapes when I can smell the garlic near the plants.

Garlic Growing, May 3, 2009

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are looking good as well.  They are all growing at different rates so I have plants that are already at a foot tall and others that have only grown an inch or two in the last week.  I planted the tomatoes very deep so hopefully they are also growing the root structure deep in the ground.

Beans and corn went in the ground.  I’ll have more on that later.

Related articles:

1. A Growing Farm, May 27, 2009
2. It’s Growing Season!
3. Friday Growing

A couple of things that are important to me when I buy seeds.  First, I want unique versions of the vegetables I grow — no standard grocery tomato for me.  Second, I’d prefer an organic seed although with many heirloom varieties that is not possible.  Finally, I tend to buy from a few companies rather than one or many.  It just makes it easier.

In non-scientific speak, an heirloom variety is a variety of vegetable that was grown “way back when.”  Being in Illinois, I look for heirlooms traditionally grown here.  Of course, we don’t grow very many peas in Illinois today, but “way back when” we grew Lincoln Peas.

Tomatoes

I buy my tomato seeds from Tomato Growers Supply Company.  Tomato Growers has over 500 varieties of tomatoes and peppers to choose from.  I will end up writing many posts on my selection of tomatoes, but I purposely grow early maturing, mid maturing, and late maturing tomatoes to try to get as many tomatoes as possible throughout the growing season.  I also grow Green Zebras and a few other specialty varieties.

Vegetables

Baker Creek Seed Company has just about the best looking seed catalog out there.  I will keep buying from Baker just to get next year’s catalog.  Baker has an incredible selection of heirloom seeds that many other seed companies do not carry.  With vegetables, in particular, their selection is broad, descriptions fun, and seeds always germinate.

Herbs

In terms of Organic herbs, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange (SESE) is my choice.  They have a very classic looking seed catalog that makes me feel like I’m back in the 40s.  SESE has a great selection of vegetables, herbs, and flowers of very high quality.  I have had a lot of success over the past year with SESE seeds.

Others

A few other recommended companies that I use:

Peaceful Valley is an excellent source for the serious gardener.  I’m jumping way ahead to the fall, but I buy my cover crops, beneficial plant seeds (more on this later, but I plant seeds to encourage insects to hang out in the garden), and fertilizer.

Gardeners.com is where I buy all of my supplies — vegetable stakes, trellises, etc.  Good prices and very high quality.

Seed Savers Exchange is where I find the rarest of the rare seeds.  Because I’m an urban gardener, it makes it very difficult to grow for seed (you must maintain a distance between plants so they don’t accidentally cross pollinate).  I feel very guilty not giving back.  I’ve always bought my potato seeds from SSE.

This should give you a hint of what is to come this summer in the garden.  Things move quickly after the last frost!

Related articles:

1. Planted: Rocky Top Lettuce
2. Transplanted: Mule Team Tomato
3. Spring Preparations

Square Garden Plot, April 2009

This picture was taken this morning and shows one of the square foot gardening plots moist after a good days rain (and the Cubs still got their game in — two wins!).

As I described yesterday, I’m trying square foot gardening this year.  Many of the plots do not have the squares marked with rope, but this one does.  The bottom right square is currently planted with 16 radishes about a week ago.  We should see them sprouting soon with the radishes ready to eat in early May.

Friday will be another day of planting – swiss chard among other early spring plants.

The tomato plants started inside are looking great.

Tomato Plants Inside, April 2009

The tomato plants were started a while back and can go in the ground after the last frost — which is around April 25 for Cook County.  I will probably start letting them outside to acclimate starting this Friday (I’m a nice guy — it’s going to be almost 70).

The plants are about 6 inches tall.  I hope they’ll reach 8 inches before they go in the ground.

I still have many more posts on tomatoes – varieties, growing tips, etc.  I probably spend more time with the tomatoes than any other plant in the garden.

Finally, and not to be forgotten, also growing with the tomatoes are peppers.  The peppers are looking good.  They need much more light under the grow lamp from day one to get strong.  They are about 3 inches tall right now and I will probably baby them a bit longer than the tomato plants.  Below are six sweet pepper plants in the APS seed starters.

Pepper Plants Inside, April 2009

Related articles:

1. Spring Preparations
2. It’s a tough day for a Tomato
3. Seedstarting Mistakes