The Incredible Garden

So I didn't have much time to set up a winter garden this fall, but there are a few things growing in the Incredible Garden.  

Broccoli is growing.  I started a few plant at the end of July that I transplant at (maybe) the end of October.  The ones in the ground garden are doing the best.  The quartet in the eastern bed aren't doing so hot.  They seem to have been decimated by bugs ...I assume mostly slugs.  I put crushed eggshells around them, in attempt to deter the slugs.  It didn't work so well.

I recently purchased a worm 'hotel'.  I was driven to my purchase because I was sorely disappointed at the small amount of compost I got from my compost barrel this year.  Composting needs to be done on a larger, more permanent place than my rental house, and worms will be able to handle my house's food scraps.  I got the worm house online and picked up the worms at the local urban farming shop, The City Farm, in St John's.  Within a few months, the worms I purchased will have grown in population and should be able to compost all of my house's food scraps.  The compost the worms produce is full of nutrients, and will be a great addition to the Incredible Garden.  The shopkeeper informed me that at this time of year the worms, Red Wigglers, really need calcium.  An easy addition of calcium to the worms' diet is eggshells, which also aids in their digestive process.  The book Composting, Inside & Out by Stephanie Davies had a lot of helpful information and inspiration for the upstart worm farmer.

Sometime in early December I planted garlic.  I planted 2 rows, one in a raised bed and one in the ground garden of each of two types of garlic.  One I purchased at Livinscape, the other I planted from garlic I bought at the grocery store.  All 4 spots have successfully started.

Oregano that I planted in the SE corner of the western raised bed is one of  the few things that has survived since summer.  It has overwintered so well.

A few arugula starters are surviving.  I purchased them at LivingScape and transplanted them in December.  Cali dug them up; I've been able to 'recover' them.

  Harvest as on August 1.  From left: Cucumbers, two types of eggplant, a very spicy mole pepper, tiger zucchini, black beauty zucchinis from seed; bottom row: scalloped squash, purple bell pepper and a hot jalapeno. All topped with loads of green beans!

 Articokes.  I picked and ate my first on on August 9.  I cannot believe how well it's doing in its first year, especially after the massive aphid attack it encountered.  The Neem seed oil really worked.

 The tamatillos have gotten so big, they are out of control!  They are fruiting, flowering and still attracting tons of bees.  The plants have way out grown their trellises.  The eastern one has even partially collapsed.  Francis recommended using a ladder as a trellis next season, since the plant gets so gigantic.  

  The corn is looking stately. Tassels appeared a couple weeks ago and the silk atop the ears are apparent through out the crop. 

  Cucumber vines are doing well throughout the ground garden.  Shown here is one that has trellised itself onto the laundry room window.  There are two large plants producing more fruit then I can manage picking on a daily basis. These large fruit we are enjoying in stir fry and raw salads.  There are 4-5 more plants a bit smaller that I intend to harvest early to pickle.  

This is a satin eggplant on its plant (covered in a bit of dirt).  This one I picked and made into eggplant parmesan.  The eggplants in the raised bed are all doing incredible; the one in the ground garden is very stunted, but still producing fruit.  The Japanese varieties have begun producing much earlier than the other varieties.

  This is a mole pepper, which have proven to be the hottest in the Incredible garden.  I've harvested two golden bells, a hand full of hot jalepaneos and one purple bell.  The Italian roasters are huge, but not red yet, so I'm leaving them on the plant a bit longer.  The Anaheim pepper plant is the biggest in the garden and is covered in growing fruit.  I'm quite surprised at how well my peppers are doing, since most people in the area claim large peppers don't grow in Portland.

  I've finally started to get red, ripe tomatoes.  This sweet 100 plant is out of control.  It's collapsed one tomato trellis and a wooden stake.  It's gotten so large, it's taken over half of the western bed.  Today I harvested my first heirloom roma from the eastern bed.  The bigger varieties are laced with green fruit, working on ripening in the sunshine.  The tomatoes have really grown over the past 3 weeks.  Even the ones I didn't expect to do so well, due to late planting, are huge.  I have a whole lot of canning in my future.

I did a good job stagering the green beans, so i could harvest them for almost 2 months.  They are finally all coming to the end of their harvest season.  I think I'll continue to start more for late season veggies.

The okra is small, but one has a couple flowers on it.

Peas are going well, although quickly being overtaken by the tomatoes.

Calliope has finally let something grow in the side "dog" yard.  It just happens to be about an 8 ft sunflower that has yet to flower!

  The hops have successfully reached the inside of the upstairs bathroom.  Check out these awesome buds.

I harvested the onions.  Even though they didn't go to seed, it was time to pull them because their tops had almost all collapsed.   What a harvest!  Now I'm letting them dry in the summer sun on the dog fence. 

I'm still collecting lots of green beans and zucchini. 

Two small artichokes have started.  This is great, since I thought I'd be lucky if I got one this season.  Artichokes generally take a year to establish, then produce heavily in their second season. 

I've spent a lot of time trellising lately.  Cucumbers are easily trellised and seem to really enjoy the task of climbing.  I have lots of gherkins in my future.  I also trellised peas (sweet and unknown, maybe telephone) that I transplanted into the front garden. 

The peppers are coming along nicely.  Yes, the bells are very stunted, especially to someone coming from sunny southern California.  The jalapeno is thriving as well as two other, smaller, hot peppers.

  Half of the cabbage heads were eaten, so I pulled them out.  Three plant remain in the eastern bed.  I've started some more for late season. 

The tomatoes are still green.  I wish just a few were ripe, already.

The okra is taking, slowly. 

  The corn is approaching as tall as I am.  I looks great.

I spent the first portion of gardening just harvesting today. I harvested all the green beans that were touching the ground, so they don't get attacked by insects and slugs.  If they feel a bit sticky, they aren't ready to harvest.  I harvested zucchini as well as my fist hot pepper.  I pulled out all of the Pak Choi.  It had all gone to flower.  It was too late in the season for me to plant it.  It will do much better as an early/late season, cold tolerant plant.

  The tamatillos, tomatoes, most of the peppers and one eggplant have begun to fruit. 

    These are the flowers on the Heirloom Cherokee tomatoes I started from seed way back in early March.  I only got three to survive. 

  My Zinnias have finally flowered.  I planted them way back in March on my birthday. 

The front garden looks great.  The fuchsias are still going strong.  A few of the sweet peas came up, but aren't doing too well do to its lack of access to rain water.  The couple of the sunflowers are huge.

With my adoption of an additional garden, my gardening blog has lost a bit of its steam, but the Incredible Garden sure hasn't.  The green beans, buck Choi and peas from seed are all producing like crazy.

 Although I think I should start the buck Choi either earlier or later in the season since it won't stop flowering.  

  The other day we had stir fry with the buck choi and beans and today Joe made Matta Paneer or "cheesy peas" with the peas.  

The onions started from bulbs are great to harvest now, as the tops can be used as "green onions" and the bottom is has much fresher flavor than store bought dried onions.

 The organic starters of lettuce, zucchini, cilantro, oregano and basil are all in constant harvest mode. This is the second harvest for all of the lettuce, so I'm pulling it out as I pick it.  Here, I've planted peas where the arugula used to be.

  The dill and mint that came back from last year are thriving in the alley way. The radishes, arugula and pea starters have all finished and been pulled out.

The "volunteer" tomatoes that came up (i assume from last years tomatoes) are doing surprisingly well.  

Look how much better this Cherokee Heirloom tomato is doing in the ground, opposed to a small pot.  I can't believe I started these way back in early march.

  Lots of the tomato starters have little green tomatoes.  The Sweet 100 cherry tomato is so big it make its trellis fall over today.  I sure did put the little trellises on all the big plants and the small ones one the giant plants.  Opps.

The transplanted okra is still doing poorly.

I finally planted some marigolds (from Fred Meyer) 2 days ago in the place where some terrible cat continues to dig.  So far its worked.  I've also started a few pots of marigolds from seed. 

I'm attempting the trellis the cucumbers.  This way they'll take up less space and it will help keep the fruit off the ground.

The artichoke has a major aphid issue. The ants have built up the colony and begun to milk them.  Ugg. I bought organic spray, which seems to have stopped most of the ants, but loads of aphids still remain.

My front and dog gardens are filled with flowers.  The red snap dragons have been great for cut flowers inside.  One of the zinnias finally bloomed today.  Most of them got eaten.  There are a few really big sunflowers that are about to burst and tons of smaller starters rapidly growing (sprouted from seed in pots).  All the fuchsias look awesome.  I wish I'd bought twice as many.  Some of the sweet peas sprouted in the front garden.  They look a bit scraggly, due to both a lack of water and sunshine.  they're big enough to trellis. (pictures to come)

Even though I thought I was nearly done in the Incredible Garden, I found myself spending a few hours there on June 14.  The weather has been incredibly hot the past three days.  I've actually had to water the previous two days.  Its the first time I've consecutively watered here in Portland.

I've been spending lots of time adding nitrogen fixers to the raised beds.  Beans and peas add nitrogen to the soil, which other edible plants take out of the soil.  I planted a row of Edamame (Sweet Sansei Soy Beans) in the eastern bed, where I just pulled out the second round of radishes.  Beans can be planted through out the spring and summer.  I started four pots of peas (Tall Telephone, Alderman), a new variety for the Incredible Garden.  It is in between early and late season peas, but I figured I'll start a few and see if they take.  The peas in the western raised bed sprouted from the ground today.

When I planted okra seeds, the package recommended sowing them directly into the ground.  When I did this, the cats immediately dug them up.  I decided to start a few in pots and transplant them.  Most, but not all of the seedlings took when transplanted.  Just in case they don't take well, I've started two big pots with okra seeds from the same package.

Seeds packets are designed to be used with in one season.  With all the extra flower seeds I have, I've started a bunch of pots.  I'm not sure the sweet peas I sowed into the front garden are going to sprout.  The are located under the awning, and don't get any rain water.  I need to be more diligent in watering them.  If they don't start, I've begun four pots of sweet peas.  The sun flowers are doing awesome.  A few sow directly into the ground in the dog garden have sprouted.  I also started four sunflower pots in order to use up the packet of the Mammoth Grey Stripe variety.

The Incredible Garden is almost full!  I planted my starters in the few spots left.

The beans in the ground garden have started to flower.

The bush beans planted in the western bed have nearly all sprouted!

Along the fence of the ground garden, I planted the last batch of cucumbers started from seed on May 22.  I built four hollow mounds with the clay filled soil and filled them with compost.  I planted 2-3 seedlings in each mound.  Joe is a bit concerned the cucumbers won't get enough sun ...we'll see.

I added two more rows of corn seeds to the ground garden.  One was added on each side.  I planted one relatively close to the peas, but the peas will be be pulled out way before the corn has ears.

I took one last trip to Living Scapes and picked up three eggplants and one pepper starter.  The Mini Bell Pepper was planted in the eastern bed, added to a row of two other peppers.  One Little Finger eggplant was planted in the ground garden among the bush beans. Two eggplants were also planted in the eastern bed, where the first row of radishes once grew.  Closest to the fence is an Imperial Black Beauty. In the opposite corner, with purple spikes covering the leaves and steams, is an authentic Japanese 'Kamo' eggplant.  The second row of radishes (planted about 2 weeks after the first row) are coming out nearly perfect!

There were strawberries planted by the previous tenant in the alley garden.  I picked the first batch and made a strawberry rhubarb pie.

I've transplanted most of the okra.  One is in between the two new eggplants in the eastern garden.  Another I planted in a the middle of the onions, since there was a big gap. One of the tree previously transplanted into the eastern bed has died.  

Finally, I've pulled up the swiss chard from the western raised garden, opening up a huge amount of the bed.  Once I turned all the soil, I went inside for a minute, only to come back to Sophie cat digging in the garden.  I realized the cats like the fresh turned, loss soil with out any plants in it.  This meant I needed to get established plants (and not seeds) into this area quickly, so the cats don't see the garden as a digging pit.  I planted an oregano in one of the corners.  Since it is an perennial herb, I'm a bit worried it might spread easily, hence putting it in the corner to help control spreading. Next to the oregano, I transplanted one of the pak choi starters (started May 17) into two half rows.  They're relatively small, but should be transplanted early, if not directly sown into the ground.  There were about 7 seedling in the pot. 

I also transplanted one pot of okra seedling (started May 17) into the eastern bed, creating a small row of three.  There are still two more pots of okra seedlings, which I'm going to let grow a bit more before I transplant. 

Since I finally went out and bought squash starters, a bunch of my zucchini seeds sprouted.  Now that they are ready for transplanting, I built two more, larger mounds in the ground garden.  I added them in a row to the two squash already in this garden.  This time I added much more compost to the center of the mounds.

Two more Purple Bells were added to the raised beds, one in the eastern bed near the other peppers, and one in the western bed near the eggplants. 

The cucumber seeds (started May 22) have sprouted and it seems like every seed planted has taken.  Considering this is my third attempt to start cucumbers, I'm really surprised.  I guess I'll not bother to start my cucumbers next year until at the end of May or early June.

I have started a couple pots of Pumpkin (Big Max) seeds.  This variety has the potential to grow up to 6 feet around and weigh 100 lbs.  I'm not expecting that size (since I don't live in the easiest place to grow squash), but I'm excited to see how big I can grow a pumpkin.  Once the plant has established two fruits, all the remaining flowers need to be removed.  "Mid-season, sacrifice one pumpkin to direct all the plant's energy into the remaining fruit" (Ferry-Morse seed packet).  The seeds should take about a week to sprout and be ready to harvest 120 days after that, making the pumpkin sacrifice around early to mid August.

I harvested a ton of the shelling peas and put them in a tasty stir fry.

The fuchsias have loads of pods, and one plant has begun to flower. 

I finally got around to pulling up the beets.  They are tiny, even though their stalks were huge.  I imagine its because the soil in the ground garden is full of clay, which tends to stunt root vegetables.  Joe thoroughly turned the soil in this row and we're started putting in squash.  Squash, like cucumbers, likes to grow from the top of a mound.  I have a few zucchini seeds(started 4-14) that have finally sprouted.  To add variety to the garden, I purchased three other organic squash plants from Living Scapes. In the corner of the western bed, I planted a zucchini (Green Tiger), which produces a stripped squash.  In the ground garden I planted one zucchini (Dark Green) and a Summer Scallop (Peter Pan), which produces white, squashed scalloped vegetable.  

I also purchased organic pepper starters from Living Scapes.  In the eastern raised bed, next to the other peppers, I planted a Purple Beauty Bell and one Holy Mole, Hot pepper, Pasilla.  The Golden Summer Bell broke in a windstorm, but has surprisingly recovered well.  

Tons of the seeds I started have sprouted.  Pictured here: zucchinis, okra, tomatoes and pak choi.

The tomatillos have begun to flower and the peas are strongly producing. (Pictured are shelling peas)

The corn has begun to sprout! Two okra have come up.  The two purchased pea plants are producing pods.  We've picked two radishes, a bit of romaine lettuce and lots of arugula.

From seed I started catnip, which is a perennial that should sprout in a bit more than a week.  I also started pak choi, Ming Choi, which is a Chinese cabbage.  It should sprout in 7-10 days and be ready for harvest in 45.

Chris and Joe picked out two more tomato starters from Fred Meyer, these ones both producing large fruit.  I put them both in the ground garden, so later I can compare their growth and production to the tomatoes in the raised beds.  Near the compost and next to the lavender I planted a Super Fantastic VF.  This variety is supposed to be "meaty & juicy".  Amid the peas, I planted a Better Boy VFN, which should produce large fruit all summer and is disease tolerant.  About a week ago I planted a small heirloom variety that's fruit should be partially purple.  I bought this one at Whole Foods, and it is already doing very well in the eastern raised bed, next to the cabbages.

The radishes look great and are ready to harvest!

The few cucumbers I sprouted were starting to look yellow and lacking in nutrients, so I decided to transplant them.  Cucumbers are best planted on top of a mound, so the vines can grow down.  I planted one in three of the 4 corners of the ground garden.  I planted the one next to the compost I planted a few days earlier, and forgot to build a mound for it.  I think it should do fine, though, since the compost juices run directly towards it.

I also started 3 Black Beauty zucchini in bigger starter pots, since none of my zucchinis this season have sprouted.  I also started 3 okra pots as well, in case the seeds planted in the eastern bed don't come up.  The packet says to sow them directly into the ground, but I see no reason not to sprout a few in pots.  I started another tray of Zinnia flower seeds.  I used a mixture of the organic compost and mushroom compost.

There are sugar peas nearly ready for harvest!

The edible garden as a whole: 

I have some ideas on how to deter the cats from digging, rolling or pooing in the Incredible Garden.  They apparently don't like the smell of lavender, so I've placed potted lavender around the edible gardens.  Eventually, I'll plant them.  I've also put Catnip in the non-edible gardens, to entice the cats there instead of the food gardens. 

I planted a sweet Italian basil starter in the western raised bed, among the remaining leeks and next to the eggplants.  Basil like full sun.

I have transplanted the Zinnia flowers into the garden in the dog area.  I planted them around the flowers already in that garden.

There is what appears to be tomato seedlings coming up in the western raised bed.  My mom said they're probably cherry tomatoes, since most tomato starters are hybrids. 

The hops have hit the roof! 

  Upon acquiring compost, lots of things began to happen in the Incredible Garden.  From Fred Meyer I bought organic compost as well as mushroom compost.  

I loosed a square of soil in and made 4 rows for corn in the ground garden.  I added both composts to the rows.  The rows go east to west.  If I had done them north to south an entire row would be shaded in the late afternoon. For better cross pollination, corn is best grown in a few short rows, instead of one long row.  I planted about 20 seeds, a sweet hybrid of Golden Cross Bantam, in each row.  They should germinate in about a week, and then be ready to harvest 88 days later. 

I planted two tomatillos in the middle of the ground garden.  Tomatillo flowers are great for attracting bees. Tomatillos need to be planted in pairs for cross pollination. Tomato trellises were placed around them for support. They should be ready to harvest in 65 days.  There were buds on both plants, which I pinched off.

There are now 8 pepper plants in the Incredible Garden.  I planted two starters in the Eastern Raised Bed.  Closest to the fence is a Red Beauty Bell and next to it is an Anaheim Chili.  In the ground garden, parallel to the peas, I planted the remaining peppers in two rows.  Between the artichoke and the corn are Hot Jalapenos, Golden Summer Bell and another Red Beauty Bell.  In the second row, next to the tamatillos, I planted Valencia Orange Bell, Green Bell and Italian Roaster  peppers.  Both composts were added to the holes the peppers were planted in.

The peas I purchased as starters have begun to flower.  The three that come up from seed in the ground are growing well now that they've been trellised.