Planting, Planting...

I haven't been very on top of the blogging lately. I've been a bit busy planting. So this post is going to be a lot of catching up.

Nearly three weeks ago I set out lettuce, celery, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage. About a week and a half after that I planted out some of the tomatoes and all of the ground cherries. In case you aren't savvy to ground cherries they are a type of tomatillo that supposedly has a citrus or pineapple taste (depends who you ask or maybe on cultivar, not sure). Anyhow they are suppose to be great for fresh eating and pies so I figured I would give them a shot. The variety I planted is called Aunt Mollie's. At some point during all this I seeded a second planting of carrots, spinach, and lettuce.

The more present activity started with beans and sweet corn going out last week. For beans I planted “Provider” which is a old standby heavy producing bush bean. I also planted “Dragon Langerie” which is a bush type that makes flat long romano type purple streaked pods that are supposed to be great cooked or eaten fresh. The variety of corn is “True Gold”. I didn’t pick the corn for any particular reason other than that it is an open pollinated variety so I could potentially save seed from it if I wanted to.

This past Monday I planted cucumbers, melons, and asparagus. The cucumbers are planted north of the celery and I will fence them to provide the celery some shade. The variety is a heavy reliable producer called “Marketmore 76”. The melons include watermelon “Sugar Baby”, Cantaloupe “Hearts of Gold”, and Honey Dew “Green Flesh”. The asparagus is “Mary Washington” which is the old standard. I started it from seed back in February. From a pack of 100 seeds I wound up with 110 seedlings. I am thinking I need more asparagus though for market and I have been eye balling a French heirloom variety called “Precoce d'Argenteuil ”. It is a purple variety that is often blanched white. It has a few advantages in that it will produce a harvestable crop the second year from seed and it comes on earlier than most varieties.

On Tuesday I planted the “Evergreen Hardy Bunching” onions that I started from seed back in January. They are supposed to multiple, never make a bulb, and be perennial. It should be a never ending supply of green onions considering I planted around 200. I also tilled a spot in the lower swampy area where the natural spring originates. I tilled it for my cranberry plants that are supposed to be in the mail on April 26th.

Finally today I planted the last of the tomatoes, all the peppers, more carrots, and more beets. The varieties of peppers include “California Wonder”, “King of the North”, some saved seeds from an unknown huge bell type, “Orange Sun” and “Shishito”. All are standard bell types except “Orange Sun” which is a orange bell and “Shishito” which is a small slightly spicy bell that is popular in Japan.

So there it is in all its really lengthy glory. I am sure I have left things out but that is most of whats going on. The market starts May 8th for me so maybe between now and then I can get a few more posts up while I still kind of have the time.

Ready For Winter?

Despite the radical weather fluctuations common in the Midwest the unseasonable November weather has been truly bizarre. Over the Thanksgiving holiday my Uncle John, now living in California, confessed that the warm morning air of the Bay area felt cool compared to that in St. Louis. Just yesterday, December 1st, as I was headed outside in a t-shirt to pick leaf lettuce for dinner, I noticed the wireless weather station read 71 degrees Fahrenheit. Although I am grateful to still have fresh produce in the garden (lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage) it is now December and I am ready for winter to come...well, at least I think so.

Even though, Nathan had mentioned last night that the forecast was calling for extreme temperature drops over the next few days, and I also heard yesterday on NPR that they were predicting snow in today's forecast, the truth is, it just sort-of went in one ear and out the other. When it's 71 degrees and your outside working in the yard on December 1st, well, I guess I just didn't pay that much attention. However, I should have know that when it comes to weather in central Illinois...anything is possible. Pictured above, today, the first snow of the season!

Frost

It always humors me how everyone has their gardens torn out by September. I always try and tell people how they could be harvesting produce into November even here in the Midwest often with no special care. Most people look at me like I'm insane. I currently still have cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, lettuce, spinach, and kale in my garden despite having had at least four frosts already. We just had another pretty hard frost yesterday; it dropped down to 29 degrees fahrenheit on my thermometer.

I also wanted to give an update on the mini greenhouses. My transplanted spinach is hanging tough and the first seeds have emerged! Interestingly enough I noticed the first seedlings the morning after the 29 degree night. So far the greenhouses are working very well. There are a lot of pictures below. I hope you enjoy them.

Notice the chewed up cabbage and cauliflower leaves. I am starting to think BT is overrated. The cabbage worm damage has had no effect on my harvest. In fact the cabbage heads themselves are nearly undamaged.