Dr. Soil



I collected a few pounds of soil from various corners of the new plot. Despite how great the soil looks and smells, I am determined to have it tested for heavy metals, NPK, and PH. I emailed Dr. Zhongqi (Joshua) Cheng at Brooklyn College on Wednesday morning to ask if he could process my soil test before next weekend -the planting weekend, and short of the normal three or so weeks testing normally takes. He emailed me right back to ask if I would  be coming in today to drop off the sample. Yes I would.

I had never met Dr. Cheng, but we had email contact a few years ago when he was starting up his soil testing service at ESAC of Brooklyn College and had asked if I could advertise the service on my then fairly new blog. Even today, a good portion of visitors to my blog come to read about soil testing for lead. Of course, it was that which lead to the NYT article on garden soil lead.

I found Joshua at his office exactly at the time I told him I would arrive. I gave him my ziploc bag of soil which he quickly declared was an excellent looking garden soil. I concur. We discussed my reasons for testing, but then moved on to talk about community gardens and their sociopolitical importance and the value of the gardens being close by (ha, except for mine). We shifted to talk of compost, and his students' experiments with various composting methods on campus, the use of food waste as a source of fertilizer (he says this is happening), and experiments with rice bran and molasses as a killer of composting odors. He says that soil testing is not keeping him too busy these days, but work on storm water management with the DEP is.

I am grateful that Joshua was willing to give me an hour of his time. I also felt lucky to not be just another number when I asked to have my soil test expedited. Knowing the results before planting will leave me in a better position. Joshua also seemed genuinely interested in the garden blog and the service he believes it provides. He wished that his students had the time and inclination to communicate in such a fashion. I found that reassuring.



The G Train To Coeymans



The G train -that's the Garlic train. And Coeymans -that's a neighboring town and I like how it sounds. Say it with me - Kwee-minz. I suppose you could go as far as Koo-ee-mahnz, but then everyone would know you ain't from round here.

Upslope, view towards neighbor, and possible future growing location.

I tried, really I did -with that tiller back there. The soil was too wet from historic rains and heavy under thick sod. I couldn't even push it. I throw praise upon two tools: my handy forged spade which delivered the heavy clumps above, and the Toro Wheel Horse that clobbered them with the tiller attachment.



The soil on site is a near-perfect sandy loam. Not one stone, nearly zero grubs, and plenty of earthworms. The site has a triangle of large trees surrounding it, all which sent roots into the open expanse. I severed those with my spade. Sorry trees, this is farming, small time as it is.

Fortunately I didn't sever this young turtle who caught my eye as he traversed the newly tilled plot. After I put it in the woods, it looked at me sidelong. I also had neighborly run-ins with a hawk, white-tail deer, and a fox. And several ticks. I will not enter the woods again to search for mushrooms. Repeat.

The plot in mid-morning shade. They say it will be full sun in season (I have some doubt, but it will probably be enough given the harvest is in July). The square in the center was requested to be set aside should the owners decide to plant a vegetable garden next spring. Two four-foot wide paths will enter from opposite sides. The plot, minus the center square, totals roughly 1200 square feet. If that were a NYC apartment, we would call it huge. No matter, it is large enough to plant all my remaining garlic this year.

The cultivar tags, color-coded to identify variety. As insurance, the plot will also be mapped. I bought straw at Agway, then bought more at a local grower. Price difference? Fifty percent less at the local grower. Lesson learned. An old woman came out to collect the money, saying that this might be the last year they hay and straw. It's a lot of work she said, and they were nearing 80. I think I will go get some more.

I asked her to explain the difference between hay and straw, even though we understood in general that hay feds animals and is weedy and straw is bedding and is less weedy. Straight from the farmer: straw is the remaining dry stems of cultivated grains (oats, barley, rye) that have been threshed for their seeds. Hay is most often grass (rye, timothy) although sometimes legumes (alfalfa, clover). It tends to be greener than the drier straw, and, not threshed, it has many seeds (that we will later call weeds). And so it is that we buy bales of straw to mulch our garlic beds.

Up next: my visit with Professor Cheng of the ESAC at Brooklyn College.





 
It's been quite awhile since I have spent any time in the garden at the apartment. Fortunately, most of it supports itself without my help -and now is the time when so many plants are in bloom that you would hardly notice the mess. Two things drove me from that work today. One is the asian tiger mosquitoes, rampant now after almost none at all for most of the season. They like the dense foliage after all that rain. They sting, they drink, I itch and simply want out. The other thing is the garbage. Yeah, yeah, you've heard it all before, but the nasty diaper? And the paper towels that literally filled up the poor man's patio. I know what they are for now, and if they're not, it doesn't matter because I think they are and that's enough for me to wish myself out of the garden.


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.




Early Autumn Herbal




While at first the basil was taking poorly, all those August rains spurred on lots of growth.

The Salvia elegans is blooming now, earlier than the one at home.

Sage anyone? These are known to get quite large here at the beach.


Short Days At The Beach Farm




I call this the weed gauntlet -mostly mugwort.

This is the predmoninant autumn weed at the beach farm -a weeded plot. This specimen is in my neighbor's allotment and fairly tall. It is Hairy Galinsoga, or Quickweed, Galinsoga ciliata. Quick because of how fast it grows? It's one I pull and pull again. And I hear it is edible.


Some plots are just full of weeds, even nice ones like this huge aster.

The basil and chard are having a good autumn.

Although something's been chomping the chard. Mind you, this is the same chard that I field-planted from seed in March.

The broccoli is heading up, but leaves me to worry that the heads will be small. Do you see the cabbage worm on the leaf? Damn, I didn't notice it until posting this.

The carrots were a mild success this year, with many left to harvest. All were stout, but some short and some long. I think this has to do with the relative softness or friability of the soil. Next year I will make sure there is no hard soil in the carrot bed.


The eggplants will produce until the frosty nights.

And so will the hot peppers. They are so easy. One volunteered in our apartment yard two months ago and now is full of green peppers.

I've never had good luck with larger peppers, like these poblanos. Too small, sometimes sickly. I write off certain plants, then try them years later. Someday I will write off large peppers so that they work for me at a future date.

And maybe it is time to write off the remaining tomatoes. Late summer rains made the whole affair rather blighted. But on this morning, fifty birds were in the garden, some caught under the netting that I have been rather lax with since the cooler weather. They are still pecking tomatoes.

Some Bella Rosa that were about to be harvested.

And the peas that have sprouted despite those soggy rains of August-Sept. Behind them, cauliflower.

I must admit to being a bad fall beach farmer. My focus has been on my painting for three upcoming shows, the money job, and of course, the garlic to be planted between now and Thanksgiving. This seven day period promises to be the best of the year -sun, mild temperatures. I will be upstate, this weekend, preparing a small field for my garlic cloves. If all is well, I will begin planting too. And there is an adjacent woods that I may traipse into looking for mushrooms. Wish me luck.






Head Of Garlic



I've reengaged the boy who hoarded green acorns in a pail. I've become Gollum, caressing his precious. It is
a sickness.

  
This coming weekend I will be traveling four hours north to the fields of a generous property owner who has agreed to host my garlic several miles south of Albany. Many questions remain. Should I be doing this? How will it work? Will they do well? What about next year? If all those questions are answered positively, I will have garlic for sale in limited quantities late next summer into fall. In the year after, should this madness continue, I will have a real crop to offer you.

This head of garlic is a Turban variety, a cultivar named Tuscan. I have 7 varieties of garlic (out of a possible 9) to plant this autumn, with a total of 18 cultivars. I have selected one of each variety as my main crop. My goal is to grow a good set of seed garlic from this initial investment.

I've learned a lot about buying garlic over the last three months, and have made some costly errors along the way. The price for seed garlic ranges widely, with certified organic, uncertified organic, and conventional practice the major influence over price. Most seed garlic farmers are unconventional growers whether they are certified or not because hardneck garlic demands a hands-on approach to growing. There is a wide range of quality out there, generally showing up in the size of each head. Seed garlic should be large, everything else is table garlic. You won't know if you are getting seed quality garlic unless they tell you outright (which they often do), but the price is usually instructive. That said, I paid high prices for some table garlic and I paid table prices for some seed quality garlic.

At first I thought that seed quality garlic was determined by the grower's development of certified disease free stock (there is a handful of very damaging diseases out there), but in the end very few to none actually mention this in their sales materials. What seed stock comes down to is head size, generally anything over 2 inches across. Prices are by the pound, averaging about 19 dollars, but  the quantity you get depends largely on the variety and size of each head. There may be as few as 5 to as many as 13 heads in each pound. Furthermore, some varieties produce high clove counts and some only four or five. Good seed garlic should give you many big cloves to plant.

If I cannot plant all my garlic in the space I now have, I may offer some this November to anyone who wants to try their hand at growing. In our area, November is a good time to plant. I'll keep you posted.




Tree Down



Rex has lots of trees down, and its changing the feel of the woods. This already open area is now more so and should fill with plants that will tolerate partial sun.

The oaks have been particularly hard hit thanks to the Oak Wilt. It's like a sudden death syndrome for oak trees. In this case, a thunderstorm took out this old white oak.


The base of the tree was quite rotted and hollow.

Although the upper portion was quite solid and heavy, explaining why the wind was able to take it down so easily. On its way down, it took out a cottonwood.
Leaving Rex an unending supply of logs and limbs for his trail projects -the new stair case from above.


Fowl Of The Woods

Rex said it had been dry for the last month after the record wet of spring and early summer. There wasn't much in the way of mushrooms, but at least there were no mosquitoes to hasten our search. I had great hopes of finding something to eat, but mostly there was disappointment. A few notable wood rotters:















There were spent chickens everywhere. Guess we were just a couple of weeks too late.







Autumn Preface


The air was crisp, nights were in the upper 40s. Coyotes howled and yipped every 3 am. I enjoyed walks.

The roadside view into the wetland. Only here grows posion ivy -in its fall colors.

Speaking of fall colors, they were coming on stronger each day we were there.



Even though this was Rex's 80th year, he still wields a chainsaw like a kid. A few weeks ago he made this staircase out of fallen timber.

And he added 200 feet to his network of woodland trails.

This Wooly Bear, Pyrrharctia isabella, was inside the garage, making its way to the basement. How does that speak to its winter weather prediction?



Yard Flower



The self-seeded cosmos

Perennial ageratum, or Eupatorium, has begun to bloom.

Gaura in white, been going all summer.

Asiatic Dayflower, Commelina communis, doing so well (thanks to the rain?)

They have more blue flowers on any given day than I've ever seen before.

Its pal, Smartweed, is doing well too. I think this is one of the most polymorphic, adaptable plants around.

Pincushion, Scabiosa.

And NY Ironweed, threadleaf style, Vernonia lettermannii.


Minnesota Autumn

                
In just two days we will be heading to Minnesota via metal bird. I'm excited, I've never been there in the Autumn.  It's my father-in-law's 80th birthday, so we'll be cooking up a storm for the party. But we will also hit the mosquito-less woods (yes!) for edible mushrooms -corals, chickens, hens, oysters. I also plan on getting back to the Minneapolis Farmers' Market to check out their offerings, with an eye for garlic. What are they growing and what's it go for?

Speaking of garlic, I am linking up with a couple of Hudson Valley gardeners who have space to share with my garlic overflow. What'd I promptly do -yep, bought more seed from a supplier with beautiful stock. So now to make a couple of trips to the sites; first to prepare the beds, then to plant. Must keep my eyes on the upstate weather now as I take my distance gardening extreme. Ha -I'll also be bringing some garlic to Minnesota. My father-in-law loves garlic, so what better to give an 80 year old man that has everything.



harvest



The basil has gone through an incredible growth spurt, when normally at this time it is decline. Must've been all of August's rain, leaving my to speculate that it hadn't been getting enough water from the spray system. Above it you can see the yellowing leaves of parsley that should be stout and green. It's because someone came by, yanked on it, pulled it from the ground, and left it to die. Sadly, I also found a smashed, large, brilliant yellow, striped German on the ground between the tomato rows.

The broccoli grows well, untented.

The haul. Several pounds of paste tomatoes, a few striped German, a brandywine, and a couple of black Russians. Carrots too, and the last of the greenbeans.