the miracle of cabbage

My cabbage has been growing and growing -- dominating more than its alotted square foot in my raised bed -- but it hasn't been looking like cabbage.  I was wondering if maybe I planted a non-heading variety.  And then I happened upon a post over at Modern Victory Garden that said her savoyed cabbage has large exterior whorl leaves that are just turning inward to become heads. 

And I thought two things: "I didn't plant the wrong type of cabbage" and "I have savoyed cabbage."  Well, one out of two isn't bad ... I planted the right cabbage but it isn't savoyed.  Apparently savoyed refers to the crinkled leaves found on winter cabbages.

I looked up my seeds online.  My parel cabbages have blue green wrapper leaves (check) that protect the white-leaved head core (not yet.)  My cabbages are growing slowly -- as I am pretty sure they are getting close to the 50 days advertised on the packet.  Maybe it is the cool weather.

Or maybe it is my spacing.  When I read that they produced 6 inch heads I thought: "I can put 4 in a square foot."  I knew nothing of wrapper leaves or how a cabbage grows.  I think in the future I will give my 6 inch cabbage a full foot to grow in.  Right now three are duking it out for growing rights -- and the nearby marigolds, beets, and spinach are trying not to be overwhelmed.

aphids, again

This tomato leaf is infested with aphids.  I am so tired of aphids.  I had them in my garden window starts.  I had them in my raised bed (and they get worse every time I use the remay cover).  And now I have them on my Topsy Turvy tomato plants.  Not much to do but go out with the hose on this rather rainy day, spray the heck out of the leaves, and hope they don't return. 

returning

I have been missing in action lately.  Buried under a mile long to-do list that included spreading my grandparents' ashes on the ground that used to be my grandmother's garden. 

Now I am hoping I am back, literally and figuratively -- my Grams' garden is in NJ, all the way across the country.  As I settle back in the weather is not cooperating.  We have little sun and no heat.  Today we are socked in with rain and clouds -- and not the variegated ones we are used to.  All in all, not a very inspiring day.

But I spent my morning at a Molbak's lecture on "How to Eat Your Front Yard," by Marianne Binetti (she has a new book, Edible Gardening For Washington and Oregon, that came out this spring.)  She was very engaging -- and apparently hosts European garden tours too.

I went because I was intrigued by the idea of integrating food with ornamentals -- plus I am always a sucker for a lecture that promises information specific to my climate.  She offered four steps: start with a plan, improve the soil with raised beds (or grow herbs instead), grow up, and create edible fences/borders.  The information that I took away that was particularly useful for me was:

• find garden hotspots for warm weather veggies.  Hotspots are located on the south and west sides of the house and are often near concrete (which will increase heat by holding it and releasing it overnight.)
• swiss chard will last for 2 years (while you slowly harvest the outer leaves) if planted in a raised bed that offers good drainage.  Which made me think: why am I reseeding it every 4 weeks??!
• harvest herbs between 10 am (when the leaves dry) and noon (when the essential oils start to burn off.)
• blueberries only need to be protected from birds when they are at their ripest.  She likes "tutu" tulle for the task.
• cover seeds with flat boards or tulle for three days when first planted to keep birds from eating your seeds as treats.
• red mulch has been shown to speed tomato growth (though only by 2-3 days).  You can buy red plastic mulch -- or use red plastic plates to get this effect.
• in the Pacific NW, you shouldn't pinch out the suckers that grow between branches on tomatoes.  The plants need every leaf they can get to absorb our limited sun.

more trouble

I was taking a peek at my large raised bed while I worked around the yard today and heard myself wondering -- why does it look like a strobe light in the garden?  And lo and behold I found a perfectly white butterfly flitting beneath a broad cabbage leaf.  All I could think was cabbage worms!

Really, how do people grow vegetables without insects?

I shooed the butterfly away and replaced the remay -- and cursed myself for taking it off in the first place.

Please, please, please let me raise some edible food.

oh no!

A wireworm (click beetle larva) has attacked my radishes!

The little devil fell off one of the radishes as it was plucked -- and I failed to squash it, being bare-handed and all.  And by time I had run around to get my 'nearby' scissors -- it has scurried back into the earth.  Where is beyond me. 

Three out of four radishes damaged has me worried.  Not so much for the radishes since they grow so quick, but for the parsnips I planted with them.  At 110 days investment, that single wireworm could break my heart.  How are so many pretty vegetables sold at the food store?

going where I didn't want to go...

Today I stretched hose under the deck so I could set-up a soaker hose for a small, summer-veggie, raised bed.  I got the task done -- but it didn't look fun.

From either direction:

When you are a scaredy-cat with a big imagination -- even this is a tight space.  I seemed to make it through unscathed but then I am never really sure until a day later when the bug bites show up, or don't.

the kiwis are in ...

and aren't they cute!

(The male Artic Beauty is on the left/top and the female September Sun in on the right/bottom.)  Quite honestly, they have been abused.  Left in their pots for way too long, the September Sun was even dropped.  But they are rumored to be hardy plants and I hope they are itching for a second chance.

So look how far we have come recently.  Before:

After:

a nice, warm Mother's Day

It is not easy to gain momentum -- to go from 0 to 60 after a week of nothing -- but we did manage to get a few things done in the yard.  The one task done, from start to finish, was planting the Topsy Turvy containers.  Of course I couldn't do it as instructed, I had to make it more complicated -- though it looked like everyone else's in the end.

I found the TT a bit difficult to wrangle so I devised a way to hold the planter up, but not so far up that the kids and I couldn't get the soil in easy using string.  I found the hardest part of the whole exercise was getting the plants and the sponge into the planter without harming the plant -- but once that was done, it was all downhill.

I got a lot of help from the bigger kids.  They filled buckets with potting soil and brought them to the deck for me. 

I added some extra vermiculite to the potting mix -- worried that they might dryout too fast in the summer.

The instructions said to stop adding soil 2 inches from the top -- so I stopped at 4 and added some compost.

Then I put in a 'water spreader.' 

I thought that the water would drain slower with such a device (though that didn't seem to happen.)  Maybe it will still serve to disperse the water more evenly throughout the bag.  I am not sure at this point that it was worth the effort -- but I did it with some friend's milk jugs, a power drill, and a pair of scissors.  A fun and easy project.

And while this was the only completed project this weekend -- we got a lot farther on several more.  I did some necessary shopping for supplies, my husband got the kiwi trellises into the ground, and we got started on melon trellises and some of our watering systems.  Overall, a very productive weekend.

Off to the races

The move has been put aside and it is sunny and warm -- today is the day I will plant a whole bunch of things. 

I took the kids down to the Seattle Tilth Second Chance edible sale (missed the first chance last weekend to the maybe-move frenzy.)  They were incredibly well behaved after a rather rotten ride down (bad traffic, crying baby, mama bringing the wrong snacks and no water....)  We picked up some fish peppers and basil to replace the sad seedlings I have been growing, some Polish Linguisa tomatoes (a local favorite and we love sauce), and some white echinacea (because I am curious.) 

Right now I am plotting out what will actually make it into the raised bed garden, what will by my topsy turvey experiment (my neighbor had great luck with these last year but the more serious gardeners I follow online all seem to hate them,) what will go into self-watering containers (provided I have time to make them.)  There is a lot to do.  Wish me luck....

More odd weather

This morning we are off to a sunny start but yesterday we had a light dusting of hail (visible in the lower right corner of the first picture.)  Didn't keep spring from happening in the garden.

Moving?

Now?  Maybe.  We put a contigent offer in on a home we love -- but we have to sell our house first.  A big if.

So what about the garden?  So much work has gone into it.  I am hedging my bets.  If our house sells, I have to say goodbye and start anew -- but if it doesn't sell the garden here is the joy that takes away the disappointment.

But in the meantime I have to prioritize the hope of moving -- which seriously cuts into garden time at the height of planting season.  I had imagined myself shopping the plant sales, planting and prepping this weekend.  And that just didn't happen. 

I have to adjust.  I am pulling back my aspirations.  I will get this month's seed into the ground -- for us or for the next family that lives here.  But I don't think I will be building melon trellises -- though maybe I can sneak some seeds into the ground....  I am guessing we will know whether we are staying or going in a month -- I could always build the trellises then.