Passionate About Asparagus

Another box from Pinetree Garden Seeds came in the mail on Wednesday, and I have been counting the hours until the weekend when I could get my new Purple Passion Asparagus crowns into the ground! Freaky looking things, asparagus crowns:
Dug a new 10' asparagus bed today. Actually it's the south half of last year's sod heap. That part of the yard doesn't drain very well so I constructed a raised bed out of the decomposed sod. I made a shallow trench and dumped an $8 (!) bag of manure down the center, and covered that with a couple of inches of decomposed sod, which is now very rich humus. I made 10 little mounds and spread the tentacle-like roots of each crown over each mound.

Then I covered all that with a couple of more inches of humus, just a little over each crown.

The crowns are a few inches below the top of the sideboard of the raised bed, and I plan to mound at least 6 more inches on top as the summer progresses. Because of the poor drainage I chose to build up the bed this way, rather than doing what is usually prescribed-digging a 12" deep trench and planting the crowns well below grade and gradually filling it in to ground level. Hopefully my method will prevent the inevitable crown-rot and produce a comparable harvest.

By the way, my Green Mountain seed potatoes also came in the same box--But I'm way too tired from today's earth moving to do anything about them now. On the counter they will sit, "chitting" away until the bed they're to share with tubers saved from last year's colored potatoes is prepared, most likely next weekend.

The Cake Garden

I knew I was saving those flimsy plastic cake domes from supermarket-bought birthday cakes for a reason.

Though nights are still below freezing here in early April, the bed against the house, warmed by radiant heat from the foundation and dotted with plastic cake domes, becomes a microclimate for early salad fixins.

Slugs prefer pak choi 10 to 1 over spinach.



Legend has it that a circle of copper deters slugs. The science behind that claim is that copper produces a mild electric charge when in contact with moisture, and slugs find that most irritating. Unraveled copper scouring pads twisted into collars for baby pac choi look like weird plant jewelry.

What the heck is erba stella anyway? I hope it's not like arugula.

Does this seem obsessive to you?

When English Gardens called last week and said their 4cu ft bags of vermiculite were finally in, I could hardly contain myself. Prepped 8 raised beds, planted 5 raspberry bushes and 2 blueberry bushes over Easter weekend, still can't bend at the waist without shooting lower back pain, but won't admit to myself that I "overdid" it. Just today spent half an hour outside right before sunset in the pouring rain planting the peas. And I never forget to say goodbye to the seedlings on the grow shelf when I leave for work.

Let The Madness Begin

Special thanks to Dan over at the Urban Veggie Garden Blog for the HTML tutorial!

Irony, the long version

The 18 year old boy was in his first accident a few weeks ago. His was the 4th car in a 4 car accident in front of the college he commutes to every day. He got a ticket of course for "failure to stop within an assured clear distance" and the car was in the shop for about a week, and nobody was hurt. We didnt have collision insurance, so this was a very expensive lesson. I looked it up on the website for the municipal courthouse- the ticket was for 3 points on his license and about $250 in fines, so a scheduling hearing in front of a judge seemed like it couln't hurt.

So here's the thing-while on the court website, getting general information about traffic fines and license points, I noticed on the sidebar a little link for a "job posting". I thought what the heck, I printed out my resume, rattled off a quick cover letter and sent it out in the afternoon mail. It was a routine so familiar to me lately that I do it in my sleep. The very next day I got an email from the Court Administrator to come for a clerical test the following Wednesday. I went to the clerical test, and did pretty well apparently, because I was called back for an interview 2 days later on Friday. 10 days after that interview, Monday November 2 they called me at 12:30pm and offered me the job. Did paperwork Tuesday and officially started Wednesday Nov. 4. Holy crap!

I was elated to say the least, after both of us being unemployed for so long. I couldn't believe it, because it is a full-time, union job with complete benefits. Not the highest salary in the world, but-did I mention benefits? Not really my chosen specialty, but- did I mention benefits? There was no question about taking it or not. Me-deputy court clerk.

So, here's the irony. There are about a dozen deputy clerks in the courthouse, each assigned a specialization from a wide variety of different tasks, such as cashiering, data entry, filing, scheduling, etc. Guess what the new girl's very first task on her very first day is? Entering new traffic tickets into the system. I kid you not.

So I guess in a weird way I got this job thanks to my son's lousy driving. I never would have found out about the job posting had I not had a reason to go on the court website that day. Everything happens for a reason, so they say. It's actually for the same city I worked for 3 years ago so I know I got a good reference from my previous supervisor. In fact, I went to see the gang at my old department the Tuesday before I started at the courthouse. Thanked my old supervisor for any reference he provided, and he let me know that the court administrator actually called him on Monday morning for one. I had been regularly checking that city website for job postings for months, but for some odd unknown reason this particular court job was not listed on the regular HR page with all other city jobs. Never would have seen it, except for the boy's traffic mishap.

It's alot less responsibility than what I did before. In fact, a college degree is not even a requirement for this position. But less responsibility translates into less job stress, which is actually a very nice thing. Did I mention the benefits?

For my regular readers, expect fewer posts, and fewer posts about gardening...at least for awhile while we all re-adjust our lives. Now spouse is still contemplating what this will mean for him...now that he's relieved of the sole responsibility of providing health benefits for the family...he is for the first time in 19 years allowing himself to enjoy the thought and possibility of pursuing types of jobs that more suit his interest and aptitude, like commission sales, part-time teaching, or ventures that require risk or have long dry stretches between windfalls. Novemeber is turning out to be an exciting time for all of us.

Garlic, Shallots and Potato Onions

A sure sign that winter is on its way--allium planting time in the garden. Garlic and and shallots are planted in the fall, just like tulips and daffodils. So, after digging some bagged manure, high nitrogen fertilizer and peat into one of the old tomato beds, I laid out my new allium bed.

I got some French grey shallots from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange-never seen them at my local vegetable market, but I understand they are the ultimate gourmet shallot. I'm also trying something new I read about and found intriguing called "potato onions", which is a type of multiplier onion. They look like regular onion sets that you plant in the spring, except that when these grow the bulbs are supposed to divide, alot like garlic and shallots. Come next August, I could get 5-8 fair sized onions from a single bulb planted now, so they say. They're supposed to be very winter hardy, and excellent for storage. Word is, if you get your bed growing properly, and set aside a few bulbs at harvest for replanting, you shouldn't have to buy onions ever again. Sustainable agriculture. cool.

I am also going to start some garlic "bulbils" I got on the cheap from tomatobob.com. Bulbils are the topsets from hardneck garlic varieties that have "bolted"; not a clove from the actual bulb, so these will take 2 years to make a full-size head of garlic. The names sounded interesting: Shvelski, Music, Ontario Purple Trillium and Persian Star. And while I was at it, I threw in a few dozen cloves from the white supermarket garlic I always have on hand in the fridge. We shall see if there really is a taste difference between garlic varieties.

(8" apart-hope I didn't plant them too close together!)

Call Any Vegetable

Tonight was last call for many of the frost-tender crops, as tonight marks Fall's first "frost advisory" for outlaying areas, with a forcast overnight low of 37 degrees. Remembering what happened the last time there was a forcast low of 37 degrees, I thought it best to err on the side of caution and haul in every tomato, green or otherwise, and eggplant, pepper, swiss chard, beans, okra, and I also gathered all the winter squash to spend a cozy night in the wheelbarrow in the garage. I probably could have left the squash outside without much damage, but they store much longer if they're not exposed to frost first. Noticing that the long term forcast has about 2 more good weeks after tonight's frost, I thought it wouldn't hurt to cover the pepper and eggplant beds with plastic, to try to force a few more weeks of production. The tomatoes are probably done for though, as there is no easy way to cover the seven-foot-tall trellises. Looks like I'll be spending good portion of tomorrow afternoon blanching and freezing. I need an appropriate soundtrack for such work.

Pink and Purple Potatoes

Tom Wagner's Paint Jar and Skagit Beets as french fries:

Skagit Beets were on the small side, and the skin had some sort of scab, but pared and cooked up they were creamy inside, crunchy outside, perfect for frying. Paint Jar, on the other hand, although the large smooth picturesque tubers lent themselves well to slicing, when fried they were disappointingly dry and mealy.

Which led me to believe that Paint Jar would be more suited for baking:

Technicolor dinner a few nights later: Salmon, baked potato and green beans. Talk about a feast for the eyes.

and yes, it tastes just like a baked potato!

Dog days

I just got done tearing out most of the cucumber vines from the trellis. They didn't even grow halfway up, and were mostly decimated by powdery mildew and probably 5 other unnamed and exotic maladies. Also threw out 6 "gigante" kolrabi that had begun to elongate and therefore were past their prime. Tomorrow probably will be the melon trellis' turn, they look almost as bad as the cucumbers, and the pole bean trellis, which are being mercilessly shredded by bean beatles. Probably 50% of the sweet peppers we pick have pepper maggots. Mainly the Tequila Sunrise, which are thin-walled and not very tasty at all anyway, and the chocolate pepper, which makes me kind of sad. Purple bells, Giant Aconcagua and sweet cream peppers seem less affected. Every turnip, beet and radish I pull has little brown tunnels in it. The tomatoes, overall, are doing fairly well, all things considered. We have way more than we can eat, but that's mostly because after it rains I have to pluck the most badly cracked ones before they rot on the vine, and there have been alot of those. Lots of crackd half-ripe toms this year. The first round of corn was exciting, and pretty good, but a small harvest considering the 50 plants. The "2nd tier" ears that were left on the stalks to continue maturing are small, misshapen and now bugs have discovered them. Okras are finally producing, about a dozen pods every other day...the only problem with them is minor aphid infestation.

Ah, August. Time for the gardener to shift gears for the first time in the season, away from planting and weeding and nurturing, to pause and take stock of the overall situation, and begin making judgements, adjustments and plans for next year. I have already decided not to even try to grow broccoli, cauliflower or brussels sprouts. On the other hand, an entire 3x8 box dedicated to nothing but carrots is looking mighty appealing. I never will grow Coyote tomatoes again even if somebody paid me to. Sucrine is the only lettuce variety I have grown so far that is not rendered inedible by my summer heat. And the list goes on...

No pictures this time, just picture in your mind's eye diseased plants being thrown into one of those brown paper yard-waste bags.