The Warm Welcome

This is what I think of when I feel the chill of autumn.

Or maybe a string of pearls -the puffball, or rather the giant puffball, Calvatia gigantea, growing in the back woods among the hog peanut.

These are the things of late September and early October.

 Not basil!

 And green as can be green beans!

 Eggplant that simply won't quit.

And tomatoes that continue to produce -only now beginning to show the wilted leaf of cooler nights.

The vegetable garden here is as green as my beach farm plants were in late July. A rarity, maybe? Not the norm, say some. The coming five days are looking to be quite autumnal -blue skies, cool air, days in the lower sixties, nights in the lower forties. This should bring an end to the vegetable patch, and not a moment too soon as the garlic seed is on its way, and more front lawn needs to be tilled under. But wow, what an exquisitely long growing season.

Beach Farm Bye Bye

By the time you read this we'll have completed our 1250 mile drive, in our twenty two year old van with cat in tow, to Hennepin County, Minnesota. I'll blog from there when I get the chance -there's been a lot of rain there, so I'm expecting August mushrooms. Also, I got a replacement Olympus XZ-2, just days before the price went back to $599 (double what I paid, but then I had to buy it twice!). Today was the first day the camera got out of the house and I am very happy to be able to occasionally disappear into photography during our time in Minnesota. 

It's hard to believe our two plots were all garlic only three to four weeks back. I haven't seen the beach farm since then, when all the garlic was pulled and buckwheat seed planted in the newly empty space. 

Our new plot is kinder to warm weather vegetables than it was cool weather garlic.

I've let the bulbing fennel bolt. Just haven't been around for a proper harvest.

I'm amazed at the size of the Swiss chard stems -like baseball bats, believe me they are bigger than they look here. The leaves are gigantic and we can't harvest them fast enough. The weather has been chard perfect. These were started from fairly old seed, too. Good to know not to throw those out too soon.

Let the cilantro bolt -that is the plan. Took me years to figure out how to cultivate cilantro and the answer is to plant seed, hope for the best, and should it sprout and grow then allow it to self seed and it will hardly ever require replanting.

Some lettuce has bolted and I'm wondering if it will seed itself and true.

I wanted the other plot to rest after years of cultivation, so I planted what amounts to probably too much buckwheat. It's growing like mad now, necessitating a weeding along the edges of the row of vegetables I planted three weeks ago.

On one end, basil.

On the other, Japanese eggplant.

And the middle? Sweet peppers.

Without much tending other than a few applications of organic fertilizer 5-5-5, they seem to be doing okay. Some have begun flowering and fruiting.

 The sea of buckwheat should grow another foot or two.

And threatens to swamp a random tomato plant and the row of vegetables. Buckwheat is a vigorous grower, used not only as a green manure when turned it, but also to keep weeds in check by shading them out. Of course, some eat the seeds and some the flowers. Not me, however, not me.

We have some green tomatoes, although all my neighbors have red. After all, we planted in July, after the garlic was lifted, and hope tomatoes will be ready when we return from Minnesota.

Nothing special this year (general 'plum,' 'beefsteak' and 'cherry') as I bought only from Larry's, although there may be an heirloom or two in the plots that have volunteered from the prior year.

Fingersnail

There was a snail in our cut basil. They don't do much damage down at the beach farm so I still have a heart. A snail slithering (if you can call it that) on your skin is a strange sensation. Try it sometime. The best way to remove a snail from your skin is a quick flick of the wrist.

Rooting For Basil

We've lots of basil, twice harvested over the last two weeks. It had been seriously humid during that time, which explains why some of our cut basil rooted while sitting in a bowl of water on the counter. It usually goes south in summer, wilting after a only few days. We saved two cuttings, and processed the rest.



The Order of Things

I finally got the side vegetable garden organized.

I put two layers of "landscape fabric" underneath a layer of wood mulch. You can see it here where I brushed away the mulch. The roots of the tomatoes reach through the wooden planters and tap into the soil beneath, which has a higher concentration of some heavy metals. So I placed this barrier to assist in my effort to contain the tomatoes.

I finally got the path cleared. Also, quite late, but finally got the gleaming white bush bean seeds in underneath the soil, underneath the squirrel-protection-screen.

The basil and other herbs are doing quite well. This year we have thyme, oregano, sage, cilantro, parsley, rosemary, and chives. In a lot of ways, the garden is all about the herbs -they're used every day.

And the side yard broccoli 'Calabrese'. C'mon little guy, you can do it.

How Grows It?

The snap peas are producing lovely flowers, but barely a snack's worth of eating. Sorry snap pea 'Sugar Ann,' your probably off to compost land. I want to put in the tomatoes, so I will snip all the shoots and eat them instead.

The tomato seedlings, after many hardships are waiting to be potted up. They almost fried, they almost drowned in all that rain (I forgot to take them out of the pan), got pelted by roof drip, and then the slugs worked their stems a bit. Its time.

The broccoli 'Calabrese' has taken off, but warm weather looms. I do think it'll be better to grow the broccoli in the late summer and fall, tenting them when it frosts. The plants are sporting some mini florets.

The side yard broccoli already has the flat leaf parsley planted in its pot. The broccoli moving along slow, so I thought I'd give them some motivation. Its the parsley planter after all.

Leafy greens shooting back after their first haircut. Soon they'll have tomatoes to skirt.

Basil and cilantro are potted up.

A Season's Knowledge

I think it is late enough in the growing season to make some sound judgements regarding my vegetable planting boxes. First -they worked. They held together, held the soil, supported the plants, even did not dry out too fast.

• For green beans, the box worked out excellent. Ten to twelve inches wide and the same in depth, I was able to get an amazing amount of bush beans in a small planter. The longer the box, the more plants. I planted mine with two parallel rows down the length of the planter. A great success.

• My 12 x 12 x 12 parsley box has worked quite well too. Similar sizes work great for basil.

I have a varying sizes for the tomatoes and this is where my critical judgement comes in.

• Twelve by twelve by fourteen inches deep is not enough soil space for a rapidly growing large tomato plant like the San Marzano, Brandywine, or German Stripe I planted. These plants have meaty stems and grew 5 feet tall in one month's time. The plant's roots went through the planter bottom and tapped the ground. If you are growing on a rooftop, or concrete pad, or wherever, the roots may not be able to do this and the large plants will suffer during hot, droughty periods. They may also succumb to disease due to stress or become stunted.So my judgement is that large tomatoes, like those indeterminate heirloom types, require larger, deeper boxes. What depth? I can only guess at this point to say at least 20 inches, maybe 24 inches deep. The depth seems to be more crucial than the width.

• Smaller tomatoes, like cherries, grapes, and anything labeled "Patio" should do fine with 14-16 inches of depth. But stay on top of the watering. These boxes dry out sooner than the earth and the bushy plants shed water around them, not into the planting box.

My planting was very dense, 7 tomatoes in less than 40 square feet. The more room you can give them, the better for air circulation and light penetration.

I had some questions about whether or not to line the box with plastic. I do not do this anymore because I do not want to grow in plastic. I prefer to have the soil hold the moisture, then let it drain out. The plastic may prolong the life of the wood planter on the interior. But I don't think it is a significant increase in life of the planter to warrant it. However, the plastic may increase resistance to blossom-end rot and cracking of tomatoes by maintaining a steadier moisture level. So this is a matter of personal choice, although you do want to be sure there is some drainage in your planter. Over wet soil is as bad for plants as drought.

For a reason that has remained a mystery all season, my cilantro has been sickly. I think this is because the soil has remained wet no matter what the weather conditions. I do not understand this, there is drainage in the planter (is it clogged?). Not until I empty the planter will I find out.