Happily, most of the seedlings I started this spring have come along quite nicely and far exceeded my (previously somewhat unrealistically high and then dramatically low) expectations. Many have matured at different rates, even among the same varieties, which could be something of a boon as crops come in. My little tomatoes, which were (I felt, embarrassingly) behind schedule when planted, have more or less caught up to the larger ones my folks planted at the same time. Okra's been slow to grow, probably due to the cold--not a big deal since it was mainly planted for its looks (do I even like okra? I don't know). The melons, likewise, are probably not going to reach maturity before the season's over--something of a disappointment, after such a promising start, but they were set back considerably by an early planting followed by temperatures below their tolerance. I knew I was probably pushing my luck with the melons, but there's something so sensual, almost magical, about them that it inspires me to try, to hope for that luscious bounty. Next year I'm going to have a wheelbarrow full of them, mark my words.
In the meantime, we've got root vegetables. Yesterday I did a first thinning of the radishes (some having already been eaten), turnips, beets and carrots. Some folks say to thin early, but there are a couple good reasons to do it later: one, no one felt like doing it before and there was enough else to tend to; two, instead of pulling a bunch of puny seed leaves you yank out a nice crop of baby veggies. Actually, if we'd thinned the seedlings to begin with the second thinning might have produced a slightly better crop, but it's hard to say. Also doesn't matter. What matters is that we got eight pounds of roots, four pounds of beet greens and three pounds of turnip greens out of the garden.
It borders on silly, how much it excites me, the surprise of their emergence from the ground, the shape of them, their color, the culinary possibilities, much less actually eating them... I'll admit I was slightly less thrilled after spending a couple of hours cutting and washing all the greens, and then trimming and chopping (and cooking them into the largest "chard" casserole that's ever been attempted), but there are reasons we do this, beyond simple pleasure. I don't think I need to name them.
4 comments:
In this climate, we need to put peppers and tomatoes under a hoop house for sure. Now is the time.
Hi again. I'm the poster formerly known as Anonymous!
Now that I have a large chunk of unfettered time, I'm going to read your other posts because as I said I really enjoy your writing style.
And so I have a question - what do you yourself do with your dent corn? I have some at ~6" or so. When I bought the seeds I didn't realize exactly what I was buying. I'm not sure how many ways I can prepare it.
Thanks for writing. I love the internet - it has allowed so many great writers to have a sharable platform!
CM: I totally agree. Ideally I think we need a moveable hoop house system (a la Eliot Coleman) in order to get the most out of our short and variable growing season here. In the short-term, we need to start building something for this fall, soon.
DV: welcome back. Good question about the corn...I've never grown dent corn before, but from what I gather the ears should be harvested when the kernels have fully dried on the stalk (probably late Fall, depending on where you live). My intent is to grind it into cornmeal, for making cornbread and polenta. I'll be posting on the harvest and our findings, so stay tuned. And thanks for reading... hope you continue to find something of interest here.
Cool.
As you might have deduced from my nic, I'm gardening in the desert. This is our second try - our first try was many years ago and very defeating. We've bucked up now and are giving it a go.
We have pretty much year-round gardening here. Right now it's like winter in that I'm preparing beds and soil and getting seeds into pots indoors. Some things I won't plant for another month. We pretty much have to make soil from scratch as the dirt here is basically powdered rock.
Anyway, good luck - especially with your tomatoes! We hope to get some here in October which is still warm here.
~DV
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