Here is a great pictorial online source aptly called The Diagnosis of Mineral Deficiencies in Plants

I’m using this to figure out why my romano bean plants are yellow when everything else (peas, lettuce, cilantro, dill and Italian parsley) are all doing well.

Check it out.

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In the Fall, we had planted: garlic, carrots, beets, daikon, watermelon radishes, kale, chard, mustard, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuces, spinach, sorrel, italian parsley, favas and english peas. We had mixed success due to inexperience, the ongoing battle with rats and the eternal “short on time.”

Out of Hibernation
So far this Spring we have been enjoying lots of mustard, chard, lettuce and kale. A little bit of favas and english peas. Carrots are coming out in the next few days and sadly I waited too long before picking the beets and radishes so while the roots were a bit fiberous we had lots of the green tops.

We’ve been busy working in the garden most weekends and I’ve been lucky enough to have some time during the week (but not as much as I want!:( .)

The biggest chore is weeding. We started weeding about 6 weeks ago and managed to fill 5 – 90 gallon green bins. Some of the contents came from pruning and yanking up dead plants but most of it was the result of back breaking weed pulling. Phew! There are still some weeds lurking about but that part of preparing the garden is done.
We have a call into our local tree trimming company to drop off a load of free wood chips next time they are in the neighborhood. This will get spread between the raised beds to cut down on the weeds next year.

Next up, amending the beds and irrigating.
After pulling up the previous crop, we amend each bed with horse manure (which we had gotten from the stables in the Fall and let age under a tarp in the corner of the garden over the winter), compost from our kitchen scraps, bone meal, humate, azomite and a bit of potash. Don’t ask me how I came up with this – I read a bunch here and there and decided this is what I will do – it’s all an experiment. If anything, Compost is probably the most important.
There are still 3 more beds to clean up and amend but that can wait until next weekend.
This weekend I will work on setting up some beds in our front garden and laying out the drip irrigation. This is a big job and may extend into next weekend. Always so much to do!

Irrigation is simple soaker hoses and a mish mash of drip using odds and ends parts. Last year, I spent a lot of time hand watering everything – this year the garden is even bigger so having the drip will save a lot of time and make for hopefully a bigger crop due to a more consistent watering schedule.

Planting!
This weekend calls for warm weather so we will plant half of what we plan to grow. The other half will go in in a few weeks.

• Veggies from seedlings (transplants): tomato (early girl, cherokee purple, roma, yellow pear cherry and celebrity), cucumber, butternut squash, zuchinni, bell pepper, basil, japanese eggplant

• Veggies from seeds direct into the ground: beans (green and yellow romano, red noodle) went in last week, peas, dill, cilantro, basil, lettuces, dino kale, chard and radishes

In the next few weeks, as the weather (hopefully) continues to warm, the south facing front garden will get the heat loving veggies such as the melons (honeydew, watermelon and bitter melon) and we’re trying out corn this year. That should be a sight – corn stalks in the front yard! -Most of these will be seeds direct into the ground.

Now I just have to remember to record where I am planting everything so that we can rotate next year! Knowing how well things stick to my brain these days I have to resist the temptation to tell myself, “I’ll remember…”

That’s it for now,
What’s happening in your garden?

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Yams – like potatoes – are a tuber.

Sweet potatoes are roots and part of the Morning Glory family that grow on trailing vines and root at the nodes.

Yams have less sugar and more starch than sweet potatoes. They’re native to Africa and Asia. And… Louisiana decided to call the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes they grow yams to distinguish them from white-fleshed variety grown elsewhere.

Sweet potatoes are native to the more tropical areas of South America. They were favored by the French and Spanish who brought them Louisiana.

Sweet potatoes are grown from “slips” or sprouts. Plant them about an inch apart and two inches deep. Maturation time is 90-120 days. They need warmth – preferring soil temperature between 70 and 80 degrees F.

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We’ve had rain 5 days going – a very good thing in this state (California) after a few drought years.

The garden is benefiting and especially the potatoes. I didn’t plant many but some green has bursted through.

This is the International year of the potato, so anointed by the United Nations.

The humble potato is a rather amazing food:

• Originally grown near the border of Peru and Bolivia 8,000 years ago
• Brought from Latin America to Europe in the 1500’s by Spaniards
• Grown all over the world in many different climates
• China is the largest grower, followed by India, the Russian Federation and the United States
• The worlds #4 food crop and #1 non-grain food
• Unlike the better known grains (wheat, corn/maise, rice) it’s NOT a globally traded commodity. Potatoes are not widely exported.

Potatoes don’t actually need dirt. Strange at that seems. You can grow them in virtually any pile of mulching type materials. Of course you can also grow them in dirt. Additionally, potatoes grow similarly to a (upside down) tree… vertical and horizontal. So you can continue to put material on top of the stem and leaves as they grow… leaving about 6″ visible.

I planted my potatoes in a small no dig bed and a recycle bin we weren’t using. I throw straw on top them as they sprout up. If I had planted them in dirt, I would mound the dirt up around them.

You’ll know the potatoes are ready when the above ground green plant turns brown.

Potatoes prefer cooler – but not cold – weather. Plan to harvest yours before frost. Germination takes 1-3 weeks. Depending on the variety, they take 3-4 months to mature. You can grow a spring and a fall crop.

potato eyes

A potato seed is an “eye” from a potato. The eye sprouts to form the tubor. You can buy “potato starts” or take a potato and cut it into pieces, each piece having 1-3 eyes. Plant each one about 6″ deep.

Keep them well moist until they sprout, then back off some on the water.

Potatoes have always been relatively inexpensive so folks tend to not grow them… the “cheaper to buy than grow” argument. However, potatoes are a fairly heavily sprayed crop and organic potatoes aren’t so inexpensive. As well, regular potatoes have seen a hefty price increase this year. Go for fresh, go for organic, grow your own.

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If you love broccoli – there is nothing better than home grown. It is so sweet and tender all it needs is a quick saute with a nice pat of butter and a sprinkle of sea salt. Yum!

For a spring crop, start seeds indoors sometime in February so you can transplant them into the ground the end of April or early May. For a fall crop, you can put seeds directly in the ground early to mid summer. Plant seeds about 1/4″ to 1/2″ deep. The best soil is at a pH of 6.5 to 7.5, well draining with a good amount of composted manure. Broccoli does best in full sun but can tolerate a bit of shade – it doesn’t do well in heat. Plant from 16″ to 2 feet apart for best production. Broccoli is in the cabbage / brassica / cole crop family so rotate planting spots at least every 2 years.

Broccoli is a slow grower and thrives with day temperatures in the 70’s and night temperatures in the 60’s. Frost will damage the plants – luckily for us we rarely get frost and we have our handy row covers. Make sure the plants are watered well and stay moist. Mid season, gently dig in some manure around each broccoli plant. With broccoli you will get a main central head which when harvested will make the plant begin to produce side shoots. Many broccoli aficionados prefer these tender side shoots over the central head.

Harvest the broccoli when the flower buds are still green and tight. If you wait too long the flowers will open and you will be very unhappy. Cut about 6-7″ below the head at an angle to prevent moisture from accumulating and causing stem rot. Side shoots will appear and you can cut those at the point they grow out of the main stem.

Don’t forget the leaves! Broccoli leaves can be harvested and prepared the same as kale, collards or other like greens.

The main pests that we see are aphids which can be easily taken care of with a dilute soap spray. The other which we got to experience first had are cabbage worms – big green and voracious. I knew they were coming as a few weeks before I discovered big chomps off the broccoli leaves – the garden was fluttering with white butterflies – ha! Moths really. Part of my morning routine for a few weeks was to go out to the garden and search & pluck out these green oozing worms.

Oh yes, one more pest that we seem to have at the moment – flea beetles. This I know as many of the leaves of our broccoli and kale have neat small holes rather than big chomps. More about these critters and how to take care of them in a future post.

Broccoli seems to be a pretty easy vegetable to grow and we’ll report on our progress.

If you love broccoli, give it a whirl…
Broccoli…plant it, grow it, eat it!

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But hey, Broccoli is oh so good for you!

• Loads of vitamin C and with a light steam you will retain a good amount of this heat sensitive vitamin
• vitamin K and beta carotene galore
• A good number of B’s including folic acid, B6, B2, B5, thiamin and niacin
• a gold mine of minerals: manganese, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, calcium and zinc

but wait there’s more…
broccoli is full of amazing phytonutrients that in lab studies block compounds that promote tumor growth, help detoxify the body of carcinogens, slow tumor growth and stimulate cell death in cancer cells. I say, “broc on!”

I tried to grow some last year but I now know that rats had chomped them down to the ground. Luck for us,  our friend and fellow gardener gave us some homegrown broccoli. Wow! I was in heaven – it was the sweetest most tender broccoli I ever had. This year I had to try again…
Round one of the seedlings started this summer suffered the same fate as last year. But this time, we knew what was eating our broccoli, so…

After getting rid of the rats, We got more seedlings started and they are slowly but surely growing under our row covers. To be honest I’m not sure how many broccoli plants I have out there since some did get munched on by a second swarm of ratlings but now we think those are gone (hopefully for good.)

Tomorrow, tips on growing your own sweet tender broccoli.

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Don’t have much space but love really fresh salad…
here’s one of our boxes of lettuce.

Very simple. We got a banana box from a local grocer (actually, we’ve gotten many banana boxes). Typically it comes with a plastic liner bag with aeration holes. We double the box by putting the bottom half into the top half. Fill about 75% with good soil and you’re ready to go.

In this box I grew a couple varieties of leaf lettuce from seed – Red Sails and Rouge D’hiver from seed. Lettuce seeds shouldn’t be planted deep… only 1/8 inch.

Here’s how I planted this box:
– keep a little dry soil aside.
– water the soil in the box completely through.
– pinch some seeds between your index finger and thumb and sprinkle them into the box.
– then take the dry soil held aside and sprinkle it over the seeds.

Keep well moistened until they sprout, then back off the water some. Germination is generally 1-2 weeks.

You’ll notice this is densely planted. As it grows, thin by harvesting the leaves rather than entire plants. You can also space them out more if you have more room.

Leaf lettuce matures more quickly – around 45 days. Head lettuce – 60-75 days.

Lettuce prefers the cooler and moister weather of spring and fall. During the summer we plant it in shady areas. For now we’ve staggered out 4 boxes of lettuce to keep up eating very frash salad until at least the end of the year.

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Since we got a late start to our fall and winter garden we took a chance by direct sowing some seeds a few weeks ago. We have a nice Indian summer going and our mini-greenhouses so germination has been great! Hopefully, we will have some baby beets to pick for our holiday table.

Otherwise, early spring is a great time to start sowing beets. Usually two weeks to a month before the last frost date. Seeds will germinate at a soil temperature of 50-70F. Some gardeners like to sow their beets right after harvesting their early spring peas. If you want a continuous supply, sow every two to three weeks. I’d venture to guess that in our temperate zone (9b) we can keep sowing until September. Cool weather is key so skipping the hot summer months is best.

Beets are in the same family as Swiss chard and spinach so if you want to rotate your crops keep this in mind. Good companions include lettuce, most root vegetables, onions, chives, mint and the cabbage family: brussels sprouts, cauliflower, kale, turnips.

Beets are fairly easy to grow provided you keep them well watered. Beets love sun but can tolerate some shade. Beets do best in well draining sandy loamy soil with a neutral pH from 7 to 7.5 – if you have had trouble growing beets in the past your soil may be too acid. You can correct this by adding in some wood ashes or lime.

Beet seeds have a hard shell which actually contains 1 to 6 seeds.
To help with germination, I like to soak the seeds overnight but even a soak for a few hours help. After soaking, strain out the water and dry them a bit on a paper towel.
Sow the seeds a 1/2″ deep, 5″ apart.
Since we are into intensive gardening, we space them at about 3 to 4″.
Beets grow well from transplants so if you want to skip the seed part buying transplants is an option.

Once the seeds germinate wait until the plants are about 4 to 5″ high and thin them to keep with your desired spacing. I like to thin by pinching the plant at the soil line rather than pulling them out so as to not disturb the root of the remaining plant.
Use the thinnings in salad or you can enjoy as a quick saute.

While the plants are growing, make sure they remain well watered. Any disruption in water will stop the growth of the root and make the roots turn ‘woody.’
Beets don’t do well at temperatures above 85F so try to provide some shade during the summer or skip planting during the summer altogether.
Cool soil will raise the sugar content giving you a sweeter beet.
Mulch to the rescue! Put down straw or chopped up leaves to help maintain the moisture and keep the soil cool.

If you like, harvest the greens when they are about 5″ long – just cut the outer leaves, leaving the center leaves so the plant can continue growing.
You can harvest ‘baby’ size beets as soon as they are about 1″ in diameter.
When harvesting the beets, be careful not to scratch the skin as this will allow the beet to ‘bleed’ when it comes time to cook them.
Cut the tops off, leaving about an inch of the stems – also leave the ‘tail’ of the root.
Doing these two things will also help prevent the beet from ‘bleeding’ during cooking.
If you want to store the beets longer, cut the stems off near the top of the root.

Once harvested, our favorite way to prepare is to:

• put the beets in a baking dish with a 1/4″ of water at the bottom of the dish,
• cover tightly with foil and bake in a 350 oven for about 30 minutes or until you can stick a knife into the beet without too much resistance.
• Take the beets out of the oven and keep them in the sealed baking dish while it is cooling.
• Once cool, the skin will rub right off. You can also eat the skin so if it doesn’t come off not a problem – especially since many of the beets nutrients are concentrated in the skin.
• Cut into bite-size chunks and “marinate” in your favorite vinaigrette.

A simple Balsamic Vinaigrette is the old standby. During citrus season, I will add a quarter to a half of the zest and all the juice of an orange or tangerine.

Here is another favorite vinaigrette for beets or any salad:

Pomegranate, Dijon, Ginger Vinaigrette

– 3 tablespoons pomegranate concentrate
– 1 tablespoon Sherry wine vinegar or white wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
– 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
– 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated or ½ tsp of dry powdered ginger
– ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

In a small jar, combine the pomegranate molasses, vinegar, mustard, and ginger. Shake. Add the oil and shake some more. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Makes about 3/4 cup.

Beets…Plant it, Grow it, Eat it!

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If you are only familiar with the canned beets typically found in salad bars you are in for a real treat if you grow and cook your own!

Beets are believed to have it’s roots in Africa, migrating to Asia and Europe where initially only the green tops were used as food. The Romans were the first to cultivate beets and begin to enjoy this veggie from top to bottom. In 19th century Europe, beets became an important commodity as an alternative source for sugar besides the sometimes hard to come by sugar cane. Other commercial uses are rooted in its brilliant red color – a great natural dye for foods from dairy products to condiments to Red Velvet Cake.

There are so many good reasons besides taste to dedicate a small patch of garden to this wonder root.

If you don’t want your heart to skip a beat

• research published in the journal Hypertension showed beet juice can lower blood pressure
• a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that the betaine in beets lowered homocysteine – an inflammatory marker associated with heart disease
• animals fed beet fiber showed a significant decrease in cholesterol and triglycerides

If you do want your heart to skip a beat

• since Roman times, beets have been considered an aphrodisiac – beets are rich in the mineral Boron which is required to make our sex hormones

May aid in beating down risk of cancer

• studies have shown beets can increase the number of immune cells in the colon responsible for detecting pre-cancerous cells
• compounds in beets increase the detoxification and antioxidant capacity of the liver reducing free radical damage – damage that can increase your risk for cancer
• beet juice has been found to reduce the formation of carcinogenic nitrosamines in the stomach. nitrosamines are formed from nitrates found in cured meats like bacon and ham. Hmmm, maybe a side of Red Flannel Hash with breakfast may be a good idea…

With beets you get two for one as the green tops are packed with many of the same nutrients as it’s close cousin Swiss Chard.

Tomorrow, tips on growing and preparing beets.

*Be advised that any nutrition information suggested is not intended as a treatment for any disease. The intent of any nutritional recommendation is to support the physiological and biochemical processes of the human body, and not to diagnose, treat, cure, prevent any disease or condition. Always work with a qualified medical professional before making changes to your diet, prescription medication, lifestyle or exercise activities.

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A Piece of the Rainbow

After the rats ate all our chard, we began to go into withdrawal. We love chard!

Though it was the end of summer we went ahead and started some seeds in an undisclosed location to transplant when the invaders were gone. All the planting charts say to plant chard in the spring. We figured – we’re in zone 9b…we can do whatever we want. Actually, I just didn’t know any better.

In all, we have 12 chard seedlings that we put into the raised beds last weekend. To help them along we set up a frame and covered the beds with clear plastic – a mini greenhouse. We hope this will help them catch up a bit and become hearty enough to get through the winter. We’ve done this with most of our fall/winter beds since we ended up with such a late start due to the garden invaders. So far, all the plants are doing well. Plus we haven’t even gotten our Indian Summer yet. In our area, the best weather comes in early Fall.

Chard loves well composted soil with a pH from 7.0-7.5 and grows best in full sun but can do well in partial shade as well. Hot weather can trigger the plant to go to seed so if your area experiences hot weather, partial shade maybe preferable.

Sow seeds directly into your garden bed or in a pot at least 7 gallons in size from early Spring to late Summer. Chard is a member of the beet / spinach family so rotate accordingly.

The seeds are protected by a fairly hard shell so you can soak the seeds for a few hours before putting them into the ground to help germination. Each seed (as in the case of beets) is actually many seeds in one. When the seeds sprout, you will notice many plants growing in the same spot. When I first planted chard, I kept thinking I dropped too many seeds into the hole.

Thin the seedlings to about 6 to 8 inches apart. Most garden resources say that chard doesn’t like to be transplanted but I have had good luck moving the seedlings with 90% or more survival as long as the seedling has at least 6 leaves. Keep the seedlings well watered until they are establish.

There are a number of varieties: green leaves with white stalks – Fordhook and Lucullus; with red stalks – Ruby Red and Rhubarb; with five color rainbow stalks – Bright Lights. We like the added color of the rainbow in our garden so Bright Lights is our standby.

Leaf miners and aphids are typical pests. Use a dilute soap solution (about 2 teaspoons dish soap in a quart spray bottle) or use the vermin vinaigrette.

Plants usually mature in 50 to 60 days but you can start harvesting tender young leaves in half that time. These young leaves are great eaten raw mixed with your salad greens.
To harvest, cut the outer leaves at the stem an inch or two from the base. You can continue harvesting this way from the same plant for months and months. I’ve even had plants survive through the winter. With the Bright Lights variety, the cold weather makes the colors much more intense.

To prepare – I simply cut the leaves, stalk and all, into 3 or 4 inch cross wise strips and saute in extra virgin olive oil with a smashed garlic clove. I’ll cover the pot for about 5 minutes or until the stalks are tender but still have a bit of crisp bite to them. Generally, chard can be used in any recipe that calls for spinach.

Another idea is to lightly steam large leaves and use them to wrap fish before cooking or in place of grape leaves for swiss chard dolmas

One of my all time favorites is to make a ‘white’ pizza with sauteed chard, sliced cooked yukon gold potatoes and fontina cheese – or these toppings as a filling in a grilled cheese sandwich.

Chard…plant it, grow it, eat it!

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