Trying to Catch Up

I’ve fallen behind in updating the garden progress this summer. I guess that should happen at this point, when there are so many fun things to do outside, it seems like it’s everyone’s birthday, and you have to go sit in an office most days anyway. So here’s a quick round-up of some news and photos from about the past month or so — the most-recent still at least a week or more old, I think.

I had just been really feeling awful about the garden’s progress so far (aside from all that lettuce), when I heard that it has something to do with the weather. We had tons of rain a couple of weeks ago and cooler than normal temps, so even other people’s tomatoes, eggplants, and so on aren’t doing as well as last year at this time. (The good news is that the lawn isn’t totally brown and crunchy yet this year.)

We’ve also had some issues with our wonderful soaker hose system we were previously so thrilled about. It needs some fixing and adjusting, but we can’t seem to quite get that done these days, either.

Things that are going well despite it all:

• I am happy with the Dahlia Lounge. It may look a mess to most, but it’s just what I wanted! Tomatoes hanging out with basil, fennel backing up the dahlias, corn leaning on squash, (one) big sunflower leaning in from the back.
  
• Basil! My first year ever when my basil has really grown easily like everyone says it does, instead of shrivelling off and withering away. I have pinched off handfuls and used in all sorts of things, and it just keeps growing! I don’t know what it is about this year. (I did buy starts and put in the Dahlia Lounge, where everything seems darker green and heartier than the raised beds.)
  
• Fennel. The fennel is planted in several places and is ready to start eating any day! I’m thinking about a French fennel and onion soup this week.
  
• Beans. We’re getting lots of them on the little bean bushes. They’re really tasty.
  
• Garlic chives. I’ve been cutting the leaves for several weeks, using in place of scallions on all sorts of things.
  

New Uses for Lettuce — The Salad Days Continue

For the past few weeks, we've been eating lots of lettuce and giving bags of it away. I've brought washed and cut bags of mixed salads to people at work. Two weeks ago, I even carried the laundry basked out to the garden, cut out a very full basketful, and then created large waxed-paper bags/containers, and brought them to my brother-in-law's 40th birthday party as (unrequested and odd) party favors. (You really couldn't even tell I had cut that much lettuce!)
When I tried that new-to-me broadcast seed method, and also started the garnet oakleaf lettuce inside in the Spring, I assumed it would be like most years, when I get some but it suffers a bit and is sort of sparse and then I don't want to cut it because I like how it looks. This is by far a lettuce year to remember!

Last Saturday night we had friends over for dinner, and I thought of a new use: How about a decorative bathroom arrangement?
Greedy me, I got nervous that we'd run out of lettuce before the end of summer, so I started sowing more seeds a few weeks ago, too!

Watering System

In March, J started putting together a soaker hose system on a simple timer package I happened to walk by and grab at Costco one day. We never thought we’d be able to afford a real garden-wide sprinkler system for the front, back, lawn, and so on. But since March and success with this initial plan for the raised beds, we’ve slowly been expanding. J has since added the same system to the side of the house, which allows us to use timed soakers in the front garden (where we started improving and working on an eventual mixed hedge), and another on the side for our blueberries and wee pumpkin patch.

Most recently, we tried adding pop-up sprinkler heads for another bed, which I converted from lily field (hated that they all went brown and died at once and that was that) to Dahlia Lounge (then realized I wasn’t getting as many dahlias as hoped because of gnawing-off) to a mixed vegetable and flower garden.We had a few things to learn getting started, of course. A little water hammer to learn about. And backflow valves. And timing issues. It all seems to be working perfectly now!

I love to hear the gentle shush of water out an open window as it turns on, when I am busy doing something else. I’m still not used to it and always a little surprised, but very happy. I think we’ll appreciate it even more when the weather here turns dry in August to September, but even now, it’s keeping things going during the week when we’re too busy.And it’s really helping the front garden get established. All those divided and transplanted stinking iris that hadn’t bloomed in a long time are doing much better now!
I haven’t looked at the water bill yet. That is sure to promote our rain barrel project to the top of the list.

Salad Days

After another incredible day of 80-degree, sunny weather full of weeding and getting ready to fix up the Dahlia Lounge (a mess of weeds, overgrown lilacs, and gnawed-on nubs of sad dahlia plants), we walked around the yard and picked 20 ingredients for our dinner salad. With prosecco and walnut bread, it was really fun to eat and taste all the different textures and flavors.

J washed everything (separately!), and I tried to count it up.


Inspired by the Herb Farm Cookbook again, I made their vinaigrette. It uses both red wine and balsamic vinegars and a bit of shallot. Just as the description said, it was flavorful but light enough to allow the flowers and greens to stand out.

J's favorite ingredient was the pea blossoms (tastes like fresh peas!). We both liked the borage leaves for their novelty (slightly thrilling to eat when you realize how sharp and bristly they are in the mouth — dangerous! They taste of very subtle cucumber). For flavor, I liked the chive blossoms the best, huge peppery and, of course, onion-y flavor.

After the salad, we used more sorrel to make a sorrel sauce for copper river salmon, poached in a tisane of tarragon and various store-bought ingredients (The Herb Farm, again). I have never grown or cooked sorrel before, and decided last night that I am a big fan. And now we don’t have to cook today since we have leftover cold salmon and lots more salad to pick.

The weather is predicted to turn rainy and cool by tomorrow. Maybe that will keep the lettuces happy longer, but we really need to keep eating them to make room for lots of things in the raised beds, plus I have vowed not to let the lettuces bolt this year just because I like to look at them all fluffy in the garden.

Planting Vegetables

This past weekend I finished turning the soil in the raised beds and getting them ready for planting. I wanted to do this a few weeks ago but got busy.

Soil Building & the Results of the InterBay Method
The layering of mulch and compost worked fairly well. We got started a bit late on this last Fall, and I think a couple more weeks of aging under the burlap would have been good. We also probably layered in too many leaves, in general. And a lot of our leaves were taken from the backyard, where we have more than I’d like of a neighbor’s sickly pine tree needles around. So I ended up cleaning up handfuls of extra leaves that were dry from between the burlap or getting rid of clumps of things that didn’t decompose as much as I had hoped. And as I turned the soil, I also kept stopping to pull out as many of those darn needles as possible (I have heard that they can make the soil too acidic). I also turned in lime into each of the beds to “sweeten” the soil.

In the first bed on the left, I also mixed in a bag of Harvest Supreme soil amendment, which is an organic mix of chicken manure, bat guano, kelp meal, peat, and all the good stuff you need. I had ignored this bed last year so it needed a little extra attention.

The Plan
For the last couple of years I have tried mapping out a plan before I plant. It seems that I like to plan it out, to help me think about rotation ahead of time, think about how many plants I can fit as I look at my long seed list and consider that I can’t turn down those lovely starts at the nursery. So I draw it out as a draft. Then I head out and start putting seeds in. Things seem to evolve once I’m actually doing it, and things may move as I discover those irresistible starts. And of course, everything needs to take into consideration the tomato plants. I need to pack those in as much as possible when the time’s right!

Here’s the draft plan this year (sorry, I'm still learning how to use the camera). Some of it’s crazy and some of my seeds still have no place to go. But then I know from the past that I can’t count on everything doing well anyway.


And the Planting
By Sunday night, I had finally sown these seeds, watered them in, and covered each bed with black netting to discourage the wildlife from digging and pilfering my seeds before they have a chance. That’s a whole other topic.

I'm happy with my plant ID tags this year. I thought to add the date they were sown, for once. On the backs, I added some notes on thinning and harvesting as I can never remember later. Maybe I’ll remember to look at those when the time comes.

Here’s what’s in the beds now:

Onion, evergreen white bunching
Parsely, Italian flat leaf
Lettuce, bib limestone
Rocket
Mache, winter lettuce
Swiss chard, bright lights
Spinach, smooth leaf
Lettuce, looseleaf blend
Radish, icicle
Radish, French breakfast
Peas, Alaska early bush

Coming Up Next
Here’s what’s happening in the makeshift greenhouse (taken this morning):

True leaves!

Waking Up

The raised beds are still covered and cozy in their burlap blankets this week. Big plans for them in the next few days!

Last Fall, we took a class from the Seattle Tilth called “Putting Your Gardens to Bed.” We learned about a soil-building technique, which we’ve tried here, called the InterBay Method. It was very simple and promises to replenish the soil naturally and grow lots of beneficial, hardworking microorganisms.

Basically, we layered “greens” and “browns” on top of the existing soil, wet everything, and then placed burlap (free from the coffee roaster) on them. We just left them alone all winter. The greens and browns are things like leaves, other garden matter, compost, and used coffee grounds (free from the Starbucks down the street). We also kept a few things in the garden and kept gaps in the burlap — lavender plants and some parsley. They said leaving some things like this can help reduce soil compaction and also put good things in the soil, too.

I haven’t even peeked under them yet, but J has and says it looks like great black stuff under there.