Blog vs Garden…Garden Won (& Onion Harvest!)
It happens regularly, I drift away from blogging about the garden because I’m OUT in the garden all the time I’m not working! (Note: gardening, even chain-gang style busting up rocks to plant trees around here never counts as “work” to me. Family and friends have gently let me know this feeling is not universally shared…)
OK, so I’m not really in the garden “all” the time because it’s so hot mid-day to mid-afternoon that there’s a long retreat time that would be perfect for blogging…but ahhh, what can compete with a summer nap? Not much.
Meanwhile the onions are in. And I must say, an onion harvest like the one above, makes me feel RICH.
It took me a long time to figure out that onion love rich soil and never being too dry or too wet. They look tougher than that to me so for years, my onions were pretty small. But get the soil and the watering down and onions really plump up well.
While “too wet” was the theme of May, the raised bed must have saved them because they look pretty good. The pics above are from June 5th. I planted these quite early — the last of Feb I think — in a heavily mulched bed because I had to plant *something* or go winter crazy! Turns out they seem to like that and I’ll try it again next year.
I let them cure in the sun for a day since rain was expected the next. Normally you would let them cure a few days in the sun, with the green tops somewhat over the bulbs to protect them from sunburn. I had to hurry, so after their day in the sun, they were moved to a dry & shady open porch to finish curing. Still, because of all that rain in May, I wouldn’t expect these guys to keep as long as usual, so we’ll be using LOTS of onions this summer and fall. If they don’t store well, I will chop them and freeze in typical recipe portions to be easily grabbed when needed for any cooked dish or soup.
—A Larrapin Garden www.larrapin.us
Posts most wednesdays & weekends —except during garden season and then I just don’t know! But you can subscribe by Email here. You can also get bonus links and recipes by “liking” our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/larrapin.garden. Geesh, we’re even on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LarrapinGarden. If you have good onion growing tips, please leave a comment and tell me about it!
Weekend Holiday!
Garden's growing like mad with all the rain just past...
Mulching paths with wood chips over newspaper...love those beets too!
Garlic still growing...LOTS of kale, collards, sugar snaps to eat...
West & East Queendoms...Beekeeping IS addictive...
Gift of this little vase: the way to a new beekeepers heart! (Thank you Mendy!)
Enjoyed the brief sunshine!
After days of rain, when the sun cames out briefly last week, even rain soaked blooms look really good to my eyes! The irises were a gift from our friend Merrill in Tennessee.
This is an heirloom cottage rose we bought several years ago in Austin, Texas. It’s growing and blooming even though it’s planted in only half day sun. Lost the tag long ago. Bad gardener!
Those sweet blooms are delightful too when viewed out the bedroom window. For once, I planned it that way!
Meanwhile, the girls were all ears (and eyes) regarding the rumor of sunshine. There was some furious foraging activity during that brief bout of golden sun….alas, we’re back to more rain now… Hey to cheer myself up I think I’ll sign up for the Chicken Tractor workshop at Chicken Moon Farm coming up on May 21st! If you are in Fayetteville, you can join me and sign up for this hands-on workshop by two of my very favorite farmers, Charity and Cheri.
—A Larrapin Garden www.larrapin.us
Posts most wednesdays & weekends —you can subscribe by Email here. You can also get bonus links and recipes by “liking” our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/larrapin.garden. (Still hoping to get to 250 “likes” so I can start giving gardening books away!) Larrapin’s on Twitter too at http://twitter.com/LarrapinGarden.
Update 5/2/2011: Here are pictures over at FayettevilleFlyer.com that show what was going on in town during the recent flooding…from the city update and from community photos. (There are some good things about living on a rocky hill!) My thoughts go out to who dealt with floods in Arkansas that week, and to those in Alabama and other parts of the South dealing with mass tornado destruction last week. To donate to help with tornado and storm relief, go towww.redcross.org or text the word “REDCROSS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
Read MoreHow I stayed sane in week of pouring rain…
Playing with plants on the light table!
Getting these little guys ready to go in individual paper pots…
And visualizing the future beets and basil and more in this tray above.
Meanwhile, these guys above just need some warm weather and a garden bed that isn’t ‘too wet to plough!’ ( I love that expression even though we do essentially no-till after first breaking ground….but do use a tiller to break ground in order to avoid broken legs and knees!) Am running out of shelf space…send blue skies!
—A Larrapin Garden www.larrapin.us
Posts most wednesdays & weekends —you can subscribe by Email here. You can also get bonus links and recipes by “liking” our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/larrapin.garden. Geesh, we’re even on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LarrapinGarden.
Update 5/2/2011: Here are pictures over at FayettevilleFlyer.com that show what was going on in town during this time…from the city update and from community photos. (There are some good things about living on a rocky hill!) My thoughts go out to who dealt with floods in Arkansas that week, and to those in Alabama and other parts of the South dealing with mass tornado destruction last week. To donate to help with tornado and storm relief, go towww.redcross.org or text the word “REDCROSS” to 90999 to make a $10 donation.
Read MoreWednesday’s Walkabout (a day late): Spring Veggie Patch
Spring garden is going strong at Larrapin thanks to the wonderful light table! I’ve been able to start with seedling vs seeds and the immediate gratification factor has been exquisite. The pics above are a row by row walkabout a couple of days ago. (If you are reading on email and the pics don’t show up, click to the actual post here to see them…)
Starting with the top left and moving across is the most recently dug bed with little rock piles still nearby. Don’t be fooled, those handfuls represent about the third rock-clearing sweep. At least rocks don’t grow back right away…. Anyway there are potatoes under the soil in the trench, planted quite late…like, um, a few days ago vs the traditional St. Patrick’s day planting. The next two beds are peas, kale, broccoli and collards—yum. I’m crazy for cole crops, as you’ll soon be able to tell. In the top-middle pic there is the happy accident of using large tomato cages turned on their sides as a makeshift pea trellis. Will use this again.
Second row, starting on the left: garlic!! I love garlic. Why did I plant so little last fall? What was I thinking? Note to self, plant about 3X that much this fall! Middle pic: not done. Those beds have to be rearranged to run in wide rows so the irrigation t-tape will work. Oh, I love t-tape and it saves SO much time come summer, not to mention water and the plants just love it. Well, heck, spring too since there hasn’t been much rain. That’s a huge pluffy bed of chickweed going to seed in back. Don’t laugh, I love chickweed and make wonderful salve from it. It’s actually kind of rare on our rocky terrain so collect the seeds and plant little beds of it wherever there’s enough soil to support it. Also a great salad green, though I’ve never tried it. Finally, more cole crops. You can see the t-tape down in this bed..
Third row, starting on the left: Spinach and onions (red and texas super sweet). That’s my very favorite spinach “Monstreaux de Viroflay,” a heritage variety from Baker Creek that I LOVE since we can’t grow any faint-hearted spinach around here during Spring planting. The leaves of this will get as big as your head and it’s vigorous. Love it. Middle pic: that enormous green mass is what will happen if you don’t cut down your cover crop of Austrian Winter peas in time! But will make compost when I clear it and meanwhile it’s provided chicken greens for weeks now. Lastly, that bare looking row has cilantro, parsley, beets and other stuff. The blank spots are from the banty hen flying over the fence and eating the chard, which apparently was her favorite and she clearly doesn’t care for cilantro. Wing feathers clipped: check.
Fourth row, far left: new strawberry bed, all June-bearers so we can net them while the berries are green…otherwise the squirrels eat them green. In the middle, the old Ozark-beauty strawberry row, which I’ll be pulling out after they bear (which they will if I go out and put the net down!). They are ever-bearers which means they keep putting out berries a little at a time, which doesn’t work if you have to net them for squirrels! So I’ve switched to June-bearers which come off in one big burst. I refuse to grow more strawberries for the squirrels than we already have… Lastly, the ‘bad’ row. Plants don’t like this row, haven’t figured out exactly why. Will probably just cover-crop it for the season (with bee forage of course) and see if it gets better… As you see, the garden overall is not mulched yet, and it needs to be. See: to-do list.
Bottom row left: this is one way to kill bermuda grass: weighted tarps for many weeks. This is actually a wide path (made necessary by a tree stump) right beside the new asparagus bed. Asparagus hates weeds, hence grass killing in progress. Will mulch this in a few weeks with wet cardboard covered with straw. Boards are nice way to walk over the tarp without disturbing the snakes beneath. (Just kidding, kind of!) Next is the new Asparagus bed in it’s second spring. Asparagus key: Year one-take none. Year two-take a few (but I don’t). Year three: W00-Hee!! Made that last one up, but you get the point. If you can be disciplined those first two years, you’ll be rewarded with really strong plants that third year. We’ve eaten Asparagus all month from the three-year old bed (not shown here) and it’s nearly time to let it grow and recover too. MMMMMMM, it’s been delicious!
And finally, last pic on the bottom right — blackberries! They have been covered with blooms and I’m nearly drooling at the thought of berries to come. The bees have been all over them too. Thanks for taking a walkabout in the veggie patch! What’s going on in your garden about now??
—A Larrapin Garden www.larrapin.us
Posts most wednesdays & weekends…like this one on Why Eat Local Food? Don’t miss any posts— subscribe by Email here. You can also get bonus links and recipes by “liking” our Facebook fan page at www.facebook.com/larrapin.garden. Geesh, we’re even on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LarrapinGarden.
