2008.03.27
Garden, Part II
Thanks to everyone for their great garden tips following yesterday's blog entry!
Here's a quick-hit list of the advice for first-time gardeners:
-- Don't plant too early.
-- Try watering with used dishwater.
-- Don't overwater your plants.
-- Mix in top soil and/or manure if your soil isn't already rich and dark. (This is a particularly helpful tip for me because my soil is almost straight red clay. Yuck!)
-- Hot peppers are a great beginner's plant because they are quite easy to grow.
-- Grow what is expensive in the grocery store in order to maximize the benefits to your grocery bill.
-- Try Liquid Fence to ward off deer. Hopefully, I won't have a big deer problem in the heart of Northwest Roanoke, but those little buggers will find a garden if there is one, I know.
-- Prepare well. Don't rush into the garden because if your soil and fertilizers aren't great, you'll have a big weed problem.
My next question has to do with controlling pests of the smaller variety. I know bugs can be a big problem with a home garden, but I don't want to use any harsh chemicals. If possible, I'd love to be able to use organic methods. Does anyone have any suggestions on that front?
Conveniently, I just received a big, beautiful cookbook in my mailbox called "Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden" by Jeanne Kelley. I'll attach a recipe after the jump.
Beet and Red Greens Salad with Walnuts and Maytag Blue Cheese
Dressing:
1/4 cup minced shallot
3 Tbsp. toasted walnut oil
2 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
Salad:
2 bunches baby beets, trimmed
Vegetable oil
8 cups greens (such as lolla rosa, red Belgian endive, radicchio, red butter lettuce and baby beet greens), lightly packed
1/2 cup toasted walnuts
4 oz. Maytag blue cheese
For dressing: Whisk shallots, oil and vinegar together in a small bowl. Salt and pepper to taste.
For salad: Preheat oven to 375. Arrange beets in the center of a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle with a small amount of vegetable oil and enclise in the foil. Roast until tender, about 1 hour. Cool. (Beets can be roasted up to 3 days ahead and refrigerated).
Peel and quarter beets.
Toss beets with half the dressing in a small bowl. Toss the greens with the remaining dressing in a large, shallow bowl. Mound the beets in the center of the greens. Sprinkle with walnuts and cheese and serve immediately.
Try watering your plants with used dishwater. The soapiness keeps the bugs away and the little bits of food will help keep the soil rich. Learned this when we had a water shortage a few years ago and couldn't water plants outside.
Comment by Tami — March 27, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
Plant marigolds around your tomato plants, the scent keeps the bugs away. And it's pretty, too, with the red tomatoes and bright yellow and gold marigolds!
Comment by Kathy — March 27, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
From what I've heard, cayenne pepper sprinkled over garden can keep the pests at bay... of course for me this is just hear-say.
Comment by Amy Hanek — March 27, 2008 @ 2:50 pm
1. You can plant early if you can warm the plant's "feet". I used black plastic to trap heat into the soil. I planted the tomato plants then I capped them with a 3 liter soda bottle with the bottom cut out and the top off. This helped them endure the sometimes freezing nights.
2. You badly need organic material and peat if you have red clay. Otherwise, it turns to bricks. Mulch can help stablize the soil.
3. Newspapers can help keep weeds at bay. Put down a layer of newspaper and cover it with mulch.
4. Leaves are a good addition if you run over them with the lawn mower first.
5. Tomatoes are vastly different. Heirlooms, purples and cherry have the best taste. Sweet peppers like Cubanelles are the best value for growing.
Comment by Henry — March 27, 2008 @ 4:08 pm
Awesome advice, all. I especially like Henry's newspaper tip. I think I know where I can get my hands on some of those
Comment by Lindsey — March 27, 2008 @ 4:28 pm
Don't just amend the soil, dig out that red clay and replace it with good potting soil/manure mix. And DO plant some rainbow Swiss Chard. Lovely stuff; I clip off the young leaves for salads & omelets, the larger leaves for greens fixed with olive oil. If you don't pull the whole plant out, it'll grow all summer into the fall. I even put seeds into a large pot and winter it over.
Comment by Marion — March 27, 2008 @ 6:05 pm
Forgive me if these are obvious--I'm pretty much a beginner, myself:
1. Staking and support really, really, really does matter for tomato plants. I got lazy a couple of years ago and had fruits on the ground overnight.
2. If you have any groundhogs hanging around, trap the things before your plants produce. I felt all triumphant last year when I caught one, but alas, he had a friend.
Comment by Tori — March 27, 2008 @ 7:48 pm
Ooh, rainbow chard! That does sound lovely. I think greens will be a good beginner planting. Dad says to start with lettuce greens.
Tori, I'm glad you brought up groundhogs. I am not as worried about groundhogs as I am rabbits. Howard and I sat on our back deck one summer evening and counted about seven rabbits in our back yard. I haven't seen as many in recent years, but I'm sure once I plant a garden those little buggers will reappear.
Comment by Lindsey — March 28, 2008 @ 10:06 am
Ooops...the Swiss Chard I told you about is actually called Bright Lights Swiss Chard. It is a beautiful plant, and has a mellow flavor, unlike other greens. I found a seed pack at Wallie World and it is coming up nicely.Some people grow it just because it is so pretty.
Comment by Marion — March 28, 2008 @ 9:19 pm
I went online this weekend and bought seeds for rainbow chard, radishes, zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. Now all I need are some Better Boys.
Comment by Lindsey — March 31, 2008 @ 11:50 am
When staking, I suggest using a metal wire and tie them up with nylons. When the wind blows, this combo creates static electricity, which attracts nitrogen.
Comment by Greg — March 31, 2008 @ 3:14 pm
In addition to my usual tomatoes this year I am experimenting with herbs. I got an indoor herb garden for Christmas. The herbs are growing nicely. Going to experiment with taking the pods outside and planting in the yard when it gets warm. Will keep you advised.
Comment by Tami — April 1, 2008 @ 10:01 am
Good luck Tami! I've tried for the past 2 years to do the opposite - start them outside in the spring/summer and bring indoors at the first frost. I've killed them each time. My mother has had better luck, though I think her marjoram and basil have died. Her rosemary, however, is thriving.
Comment by Lori — April 1, 2008 @ 12:34 pm
Amy -- recipe?
Tami, I'm going to try and start a small outside herb garden this year, too. I've seen lavender and rosemary thrive outdoors all year long, but I don't know about the rest. We'll have to compare notes!
Comment by Lindsey — April 1, 2008 @ 1:30 pm
My experience has been that herbs are annuals. The longer they grow, the dimmer the taste. Tarragon is really bad about this. It will come back next year but have very little taste.
I love small leaf basil. It has the best taste. We plant a lot of herbs because the deer don't like them.
Comment by Henry — April 1, 2008 @ 2:07 pm
Gosh, Henry, I've never heard that about herbs diminishing in flavor as they grow older, but it makes sense. What a great tip! Thanks.
Comment by Lindsey — April 1, 2008 @ 2:37 pm
I have never experimented with growing herbs before or really using them fresh. My rosemary is doing very well also - lasted all winter. I kept cutting it and putting it in a flower vase because I couldn't use it fast enough. The AeroGarden has a set of Italian herbs (basil,dill,cilantro, etc). That is what I am going to attempt.
Comment by Tami — April 2, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
So, Lindsey; have you got your seeds going yet? I wish you the best of luck! I did want to point out, however, if you're going the organic route do not water your plants with dishwater unless you use an organic dish soap. Like antibiotics, regular dish soap water will kill the beneficial nematodes and bacteria in the soil as well as the bad ones. The bacteria is needed for things like green beans to set nitrogen-fixing nodes on their roots, and the nematodes eat things like japanese beetle larvae that can do a lot of damage to garden plants. Also, newspaper does make a good weed barrier (and protects tomato transplants from cutworms), but again if you are going organic, make sure the paper uses soy ink and not regular or lots of colored ink, which is toxic. Use unprinted paper if you can - bet you got a source for that, too! For us, we have chickens so I 'manually' remove bugs (yes, the icky way) and feed them to the chickens. Nothing goes to waste if possible. The other thing you can do is collect bugs in a tupperware or ziplock, freeze them to kill them, and add to your compost. Sorry to be so long-winded, but I truly believe going organic is worth the extra effort. We saved more than $600. from our gardening efforts last year, and I know exactly what did (and didn't) go into our food!! Keep us posted on your gardening progress, please!
Comment by Julie — April 13, 2008 @ 3:38 pm