gardening – monadnock mama

Here is a little garden update for anyone who is interested. Growing everything from seed is an entirely new experience for me. I didn’t realize how long it really takes everything to get going. Last year I bought all started plants, so it seemed like the garden just exploded overnight. Starting from seed requires patience, and faith! Today it rained for the first time in ages , and it is such a relief. I’ve tried to stay on top of keeping the baby plants watered, and they are still growing well and are healthy, but I’m sure they were happy to get a nice big drink from the sky this morning! Not too much to report at this stage, but here’s the latest: the peas are now tall enough to reach the twine lattice — I had to add in some extra rows because my original lattice was too spread out; the kale is doing pretty well, though not big enough to eat yet; the beets all seem to be growing at different rates — the “chioggia” variety seems to be the hardiest so far; the carrots are also finally growing (I’ve thinned everything out since taking these pictures). We also planted some mesclun (mixed baby greens) and Zane planted his radishes, too. I couldn’t believe how quickly the radish seeds germinated — I think we saw sprouts the second or third day! The next step is to decide what to plant in the second raised bed. We’ll definitely do zucchini, but I’d love to hear your suggestions. I think we’re going to do tomatoes in containers this year because of blight and the sheer size of the full-grown plants.

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I mis-labeled last week’s garden update, which should have been weeks 4 & 5, so now we’re on the sixth week! The garden is still blooming at full capacity, but there have also been a few setbacks. I will chalk this up to my being a total newbie at gardening. The first problem I’m having is something called blossom end rot , and it is just a horrid as it sounds. Zane first noticed it when he picked one of our butternut squashes prematurely. It looked really shriveled and gross, and the end was all rotten. I thought, oh, well, it was dead anyway. But, after a closer inspection of the other baby squashes, I noticed that several of them had the same problem! I Googled “end of butternut squash rotten” and found out that this is actually a common problem, and is caused by a lack of calcium. The roots could have trouble uptaking the calcium in the soil if there is a dramatic change in watering patterns (which could definitely have happened while we were on vacation and it was SO hot here in New Hampshire), or if the soil was not enriched enough to begin with (which could definitely have happened when I had to move my garden beds, thus disturbing my soil layers). Regardless of the cause of the problem, the solution seems to be a foliar spray, which I purchased from Amazon and had overnighted. I removed all the rotten fruits and bathed the heck out of the roots in a foul-smelling mixture of liquid seaweed and water. The good news is that the rest of the new fruits actually look fine. In fact, we have a fully ripe zucchini that we are going to eat tonight in one of my favorite dishes (see recipe at the end of the post). The second problem I’m having is also quite common, and that is sunburned leaves. I think I did a little too much watering of the leaves during the middle of the day (should have just concentrated on the soil) and now some of my leaves have little burn marks. Well, live and learn! The third problem is that two of my pepper plants are not doing well at all (read: practically dead). I think my aggressive removal of the blossoms, in the hopes that I could get the plants to grow larger, was a big mistake. I gave the peppers the seaweed treatment, too, in the hopes it might bring them back to life.

Our dinner tonight, based on the recipe
“Tuscan Style Pasta with Chickpeas, Zucchini and Rosemary”
from Vegan Planet , by Robin Robertson

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 small or 1 large zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into 1/4 inch thick half-moons
2 garlic cloves, minced, or about a tablespoon of jarred, minced garlic
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
One 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes
One 15 ounce can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper to taste
1 pound of rotini, or similar

Directions:
Cook the pasta, drain, and set aside. While the pasta is cooking, sauté the zucchini in the olive oil until slightly softened. Add the garlic and saute for about 30 seconds, then stir in the rosemary, tomatoes, chickpeas, and seasoning and cook for about 10 minutes to blend the flavors . Combine with pasta, and enjoy!

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We were on vacation last week and I didn’t have an opportunity to post a weekly update on our vegetable garden so this is a two-fer. My dad kindly agreed to take care of our vicious cat (he has scars to prove it — bad, bad Ollie!) and also to keep an eye on my gardens and water them as needed while we were gone. I was really worried that, with all the heat NH had last week, I might come back to a wilted pile of plants. Boy, was I wrong! Our garden is literally in bloom. There are blossoms galore on most of the plants, and some are even starting to look like, well, vegetables! We have a jalapeno pepper that is almost ready, and the start of some pretty tasty looking zucchinis and squashes. All four tomato plants have little yellow blossoms and grew about a foot while we were gone. I’m really glad I put the cages around them before we left. The cucumbers are now growing out from the main plant and, unfortunately, attacking anything they can reach. I’ll have to keep my eye on them! My neighbor also donated a couple more raspberry bushes, so we actually have a little raspberry patch now. I don’t know how well they will do this year, but I’m crossing my fingers, and the worst case scenario is that we have to wait until next year for berries. The only thing that suffered was my cilantro, which is now about 2 feet tall and has flowers — probably not much good as an herb anymore.

We’ve been trying to use up our explosion of rainbow chard by making green smoothies. I like to chop up a fresh pineapple, which I divide into four sandwich bags and freeze. Then, when I want to make a smoothie, I combine a whole banana, a bag of frozen pineapple, and about four leaves of chard and blend it with 1/4 to 1/2 cup of water with an immersion blender. It is delish — toddler & husband approved.

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This update is a couple of days late, but with all the rain and just life being busy in general this is the best I can do. So…the garden has exploded. I’m amazed! Our beans sprouted and are really thriving, which makes me so happy. Pole beans are so satisfying to have in a garden because they grow really fast. Also, I finally got the raspberry bush planted in the ground (it is not exactly thriving, but I still have hope!). I noticed that a bunch of my pepper plants were producing buds already, even though they are not very tall (maybe 10 inches?). I read a bit online about what to do, and several people suggested removing the buds so that the plant would put more energy into growing taller. So, I plucked off all of the buds and I am hoping that the plants will grow some more and then try flowering again later in the summer. If I destroyed my chances to have peppers by meddling with the buds I guess that’s a lesson learned!

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Sometimes simple things aren’t so simple. Take, for instance, our vegetable garden. It all started with my parents’s raised beds that they just built this year. They are beautiful. Although I didn’t know where, exactly, I would put them I knew I had to have some of my own. I thought it would be a great summer project for all of us, especially the kids. My parents are always incredibly generous, and they came up on a rainy afternoon and built us some beds of our own.

I picked what I thought was the perfect location. The backyard doesn’t get enough sun to grow vegetables, so I knew I needed to put the beds near the front. I picked an out-of-the-way location on the side of the front lawn, not too near my neighbor’s property. The first major obstacle occurred when the loam delivery guy took it upon himself to be “helpful” and dumped a ton of dirt directly into the beds…which I hadn’t prepared yet. So, I spent that whole afternoon shoveling the dirt out of the boxes, putting down the landscape fabric, and then shoveling it back in. I was pooped.

A couple of rainy days and a week of dance rehearsals and performances kept me from getting anything planted for the rest of the week. Then, yesterday, I finally made it to the store and picked up some already started plants (cheating, I know, but I’m doing the best I can here). Zane and I hauled all of the plants over to the beds, and set them in the dirt where we wanted to plant them. Then, with Zane literally holding the trowel in mid-air ready to dig the first hole, my neighbor came over and started giving me a hard time about where the beds were located. Long story short, in the end Damian and I decided that it was best to move the beds (the situation is complicated by several factors and I’m not going to go into detail). Being a good neighbor means knowing when to fight and when to compromise.

So, last night my whole family came over and helped me to dig up the beds and move them to the other side of the house (I had previously asked the neighbors on that side if it was okay with them, and they were so understanding and supportive, which was wonderful). This morning, Zane and I planted most of what we bought (we still need a little more dirt for the second bed, since we lost some in the move). I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will turn out to be fun for the kids, and we’ll get some yummy veggies to eat, too. So far, despite the obstacles, so good. I’ll update the garden’s progress throughout the summer.