2015 Growing Season Has Begun!

This afternoon I spent 2.5 hours in our basement planting seeds.  Four flats in all that include:
-Perfection Drumhead cabbage
-Tendercrisp celery
-Utah 52-70 celery
-Boston Pickling cucumber
-Florence fennel
-Bullnose bell pepper (sweet)
-Orange bell pepper (sweet)
-Georgia Flame pepper (hot)
-Craig's Grande Jalapeno
-Black Beauty eggplant
-Musselburgh leek
-Bianca Di Maggio onion (white)
-Flat of Italy onion (red)
-White Libson onion (scallion)

TOMATOES:
-Stump of the World
-Kim's Civil War Oxheart
-Ferris Wheel
-Abraham Lincoln
-Black Krim
-Nepal
-Big Rainbow
-Mexico Midget
-Green Giant
-Lillian's Yellow Heirloom
-Black Seaman
-Paul Robeson
-Sweetie

Basil
Thyme
Tarragon
Parsley
Rosemary
Marjoram

Once the Earth is warm enough to direct-sow seeds, Wright Gardens will also be growing:
-Cherokee Trail of Tears beans
-Hidatsa Red Indian beans
-Brockton Horticultural beans
-Good Mother Stallard beans
-Empress beans
-Crapaudine beet
-Detroit Red beet
-Golden beet
-Atomic Red carrot
-Kaleidoscope carrot
-Carl's Glass Gems corn
-Country Gentleman corn
-Nero de Toscana kale
-Long Scarlet radish
-Anonas D'Amerique a Chair Verte melon
-Waltham Butternut squash
-New England Sugar Pie pumpkin (pie)

The countdown begins until the first germinated seed sprout is visible.

If you haven't already ordered seeds for your garden, now is a good time to remind you of the Useful Sites & Sources section of this blog.

Go, grow!

The Cool Down

The growing season is beginning to wind down and although this makes me a little sad, I've learned plenty that will make next year's garden even more successful.

Tomato plants need loads of room to grow.  Each year I've allowed more space between the plants than the year prior, but it never seems to be enough.  When the wee seedlings are transferred to the garden bed, the space between each plant seems so vast.  Yet, inevitably, a tomato jungle forms and surrounding plants are swallowed by the jungle or shaded to the point that their growth is stunted.

The plan for next year is to give the tomatoes their own beds.  This strategy worked out very well for the two melon and two squash varieties grown in Wright Gardens, so why not for the tomatoes?  Having their own bed will guarantee that the plants will get proper air circulation and sunlight.  It will be much easier to pick the tomatoes as well when there is one plant per bed.

Watermelon and butternut squash have been coming off the vine left and right.  Both will continue to be grown in Wright Gardens each year.

Our first pie pumpkin was picked on Monday.  It will soon be transformed into pie.  Pumpkin ice cream is a distinct possibility as well.

After picking the ripe pumpkin in the above photo, I checked on the other two pumpkins to see how they were doing.  When I neared the smallest pumpkin, this is what I found.  Imagine a wild creatures face all sticky with pumpkin.  I did and it makes losing this pumpkin less painful.

The butternut squash and pumpkin vines were infected with what appeared to be white mildew on the leaves.  In an attempt to prevent whatever it was from spreading, I cut off the affected leaves and discarded them.  This didn't work, however, as each leaf soon became infected.  Whatever the substance is, thankfully, it did not seem to affect the plants ability to produce fruit.

The watermelon vine, although a vigorous grower, struggled, too.  Perhaps the soil lacked, or contained too much of something, as the vine nearer to the main stem yellowed rather than remaining green.  This happened when the plant was still young, too, and only one tiny green egg-sized watermelon was present on the vine.

Research over the winter months will be to learn what caused these vines to react this way and, hopefully, prevent the same thing from happening during future growing seasons.

"To be a successful farmer one must first know the nature of the soil."  

-- Xenophon, Oeconomicus, (400 B.C.)

When I was deciding whether or not to grow okra, the selling point was the plants flowers.  They're gorgeous! As you can see, they resemble hibiscus flowers.  The Burgundy okra is delicious, too.

Two new flower beds have been added to the yard.  The first, technically, isn't new, but the bed is now more substantial.  Four tall bearded iris rhizomes have been planted in the bed.  Two named Tour de France, one Blueberry Bliss, and one named Hello Darkness.

With our order we received a free tall bearded bonus iris named All Night Long, which we planted in one of the flower beds in the front yard.

While clearing out the hostas originally growing where the iris' above are now planted, I discovered a praying mantis!  Seeing her head turn to look up at me as I took her picture made me grin.  Still does.

The second flower bed was added along the south side of the garage.  Planted there is a common purple variety of the tall bearded iris.  The contrast of the flowers soft organic shape against the brick wall should be striking.  The colors should be complimentary, too.

"Plowed ground smells of earthworms and empires."  --Justin Isherwood

 Chet relaxing.

Chet chomping on grass.  This picture cracks me up.

"Dirt is a lot more fun when you add water!"  -- Dennis the Menace

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Bountiful

An edible artist's palette.  Red and golden beets, butternut squash, cucumbers and tomatoes.
The zinnias are from our garden, too.

The tomatoes from L to R are Costoluto Genovese, Mama Leone, Djeena Lee'a Golden, and Black Iceicle.

Once the rind of this watermelon turns golden yellow, it's ready to be eaten.  There are distinctive golden spots on this beauty so the change is underway.  We can hardly wait to taste these baby's. 

Don't let this shape fool you; it's pie.

A tiny muskmelon.  I was so glad to spot this little melon!  The five that have already been harvested
were unbelievably sweet and delicious.

Watermelon, melon, melon.

Wright Gardens profile

Wright Gardens as seen from our kitchen window.

"We might say that the earth has the spirit of growth; that its flesh is the soil."  -- Leonardo da Vinci


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A basket of nightshade

Yesterday's harvest was plentiful.  We've picked a few tomatoes here and there, but yesterday there were several pounds of tomatoes that were ripe.  The majority of the ripe tomatoes are Costoluto Genovese (the red tomatoes with "cleavage") with a few each of Black Icicle (thin plum shape) and Mama Leone (large red plum shape), and a single Djeena Lee's Golden Girl.  All four are heirloom varieties and, boy, are they scrumptious!

Djeena Lee's Golden Girl has mild acidity with a sweet and slightly fruity flavor.  Costoluto Genovese have a fantastic deep flavor.  Mama Leone tomatoes have a wonderful earthy flavor.  They are a paste tomato so they contain very little seed.  You can make a tomato sandwich with them, using the slices of tomato as the bread.  Tuck a basil leaf and a slice of fresh mozzarella between slices of Mama Leone and you'll have a tasty summer lunch.  Finally, the Black Icicle tomatoes have a robust, almost black pepper, flavor.  The flavor is so rich it is hard to describe.

Included in the harvest were many cucumbers that are the perfect size to be pickled,  jalapeno peppers, green bell peppers and enough celery stalks to include in a pot of turkey soup.  Celery stalks have been picked as we need it.  Otherwise, there are five celery plants growing in the garden.  Gardening makes me so happy!

The melons and squash are coming along wonderfully as well.  A muskmelon or two or three will be fully ripe any day now.  They look so lovely and are beginning to smell great, too.

The watermelon aren't far behind.  Although they are green now, as they begin to ripen the skin will turn a golden yellow.  They'll only be about three pounds as well.

This tiny pie pumpkin looks like a Flamenco dancer to me.

A nifty potters table was given to us by our pal Judy.  It fits perfectly on the side of garage across from the garden bed, between a patch of Lamb's Ear and Queen Anne's Lace.  Thanks, Judy!

Queen Anne's Lace being illuminated by the setting sun.

"All gardening is a landscape painting." -- William Kent

"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need." -- Marcus Tullius Cicero


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Tomayto, Tomahto

All four of the tomato plants have green tomatoes on them now!  The plants smell heavenly, too.

Mama Leone (A red paste tomato)

Black Icicle  (purple tomato)

Costoluto Genovese (red tomato)

Djeena Lee's  (orange tomato)

A jungle of tomato plants and borage in the center of the garden.
In the foreground are leeks (R) and celery (L).  

Does this image make you yearn for a pot of homemade soup or a Bloody Mary?

Nearly ready to be pickled.

Now, that's wee!

Mother Nature is the finest architect.

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August harvest!

Our first substantial basket of vegetables was picked today!  Included are Black from Tula, Green Zebra and Sweet 100 tomatoes; Serrano and Jalapeno peppers; pickling cucumbers, string beans and yellow squash.

The beets that were planted from seed have already been devoured, greens and all.  Out of all the seeds planted, three sprouted.  Of the three sprouts, two were likely munched on by some wild creatures velvety lips because they disappeared.  Luckily, the remaining plant didn't get eaten.  Additionally, the plant that continued to grow was the result of two seeds that sprouted side-by-side.  Two beautiful ruby red beets were pulled from the ground and promptly eaten by me!  I'd have shared them with John but he does not like beets.  I was so excited to have fresh beets that I neglected to photograph them.  You'll have to trust me when I say they were beautiful.  Many more will be planted next spring.

Time to make pickles!

Tomato Jungle

Lesson for next year's garden?  Plant fewer tomato plants.  A personal garden doesn't need 15-16 tomato plants.  The plants are so large and heavy with fruit that one row of tomatoes is literally laying on top of the next row of tomato plants!  Any minute we're going to be knee deep in tomatoes.  S'okay.  We're not opposed to canning homemade marinara sauce.

Speaking of tomatoes, we harvested our first today.  A few of the Beam's Yellow pear and five Black from Tula!  So.  Darn.  Tasty.  The cucumbers keep coming and they're beauties.  Pickling several jars is on tomorrow's agenda.  The Georgia Flame and Poblano peppers look great and seem to grow at least an inch per day.  The celery, leeks, beets and romaine lettuce are all doing well, too.  Overall, we're pretty pleased with our first official vegetable garden.  A number of tweaks will be made next year but mainly to the soil and incorporating individual raised beds within the garden plot.

Enjoy the latest series of photos.

Butternut squash

We're loving all the dragonflies that visit our yard.

Naked Lady lilies

Poblano peppers

Sunny sunflower with not one, but two bees!

Chewer!

See the little nubs near the stem and on top of each leaf arm?  Those are very wee Brussels Sprouts!

Leeks

Sunflower Row.  It's hard to capture the size of the sunflower that's closest to the fence.  It's at least 10 feet tall!