Add self-seeding edibles and flowers to the garden

Zinnia and Egyptian walking onions

Sunday, June 30, 2024

An easy option for a plant once and be done are self-seeders.  These are plants that produce many seeds.  One trick to self-sowing is letting the seeds sprout before adding a thick layer of mulch in the spring which may dampen how many seedlings can push up through the mulch crust if put down before they have a chance to sprout.

There are many self-seeding vegetable and herbs.  Here are a few we are growing:

*Amaranth (Love Lies Bleeding)

*Arugula

*Basil

*Borage

*Calendula

*Celery

*Chamomile

*Chives and Garlic Chives

*Cilantro

*Cocks comb

*Cultivated dandelion greens

*Dill

*Hummingbird vine

*Lettuce

*Marigold

*Giant Leaf mustard

*Giant Red mustard

*Miner’s lettuce (claytonia)

*Morning glory

*Nasturtiums

*New Zealand spinach

*Egyptian walking onions

*Orach

*Peppers

*Purslane

*Red Malabar spinach

*Sorrel

*Spinach

*Squash

*Sunflowers

*Tomatoes

*Winter cress

*Zinnias

The trick to self-seeders is you have to let them go to seed in the garden.  That means leaving the brown flower heads on the plant or the dropped tomatoes on the ground so they can leave their seeds.

A risk is the spread of disease.  If you have any plant that was diseased, dispose of the plant in the trash and pull any volunteers that come up.

I have "volunteer" tomato plants that sprout every year, here and there.  They are easy to pop out of the ground and plant where you want them or leave them where they are.  I always let them grow because they must be happy and adapted to my garden conditions.  It is always a surprise to see what type of tomato it is.  

In the garden right now, the edible volunteers I have are Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, garlic chives, amaranth, orach, cock's comb, squash, peppers, tomatoes and zinnias that have filled the garden and pots.  Several fully mature volunteer basil plants.  I have moved basil, tomatoes, peppers and cock's combs around the garden in spots I want them to grow.  

  

A caution with growing self sowing plants is that they can self sow a little too well.  The only one on the above list that I would not let loose in my garden is the purslane.  I only let it grow in pots.  The rest are easy to pluck out the ones you don’t need.

July 2024 Edible Garden Planner

Late July harvest-peppers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumbers

Saturday, June 29, 2024

July is the time of year for harvesting the heat lovers like tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, all types of peppers, basil and other Mediterranean herbs.  With the hot, dry weather here, watering and fertilizing are key to on-going harvests.  It is also the time to plant for fall harvests.

I got my summer garden in early May this year.  Our spring and summer weather moved up planting by 3 weeks or so.  Now, we are having a long string of 90's at the end of June and it is forecasted to remain above average for the next 15 days.  I started tomatoes, peppers, squash, cucumber, beans, basil, rosemary and sage from seed in my seed starting pots outdoors.  I did 2 rounds indoors starting in March then the last round outdoors as the temperatures were warm enough in April.

Since it warmed up early, I was hoping to have ripe tomatoes before the 4th of July.  The Tumbling Tom tomatoes I had indoors all winter starting giving tomatoes in March.  Our outdoor tomatoes are loaded and the Chocolate Pear is just starting to turn.  Small tomato varieties are usually the first to ripen.

Typically all my summer veggies are being harvested at this time-peppers, zucchini, eggplant, cucumbers, and green beans.  This year, I have harvested only a few cucumbers and overwintered tomatoes.  There is an eggplant that is large enough to harvest but I'll let it grow a bit more.  There are lots and lots of baby tomatoes, many baby peppers, squash and zucchini fruits.  The lima and snap pole beans are flowering so beans should be here soon. I had many volunteer squash plants and several have flowers on them but no fruits yet. The plants are growing and filling out well.  I got my okra started late so it is the only one without flowers of the summer veggies.  They all love thrive in hot weather so will be producing within the month of July. 

Eggplant-add this native from India to your garden

Growing zucchini and summer squash

Peppers are for every taste and garden

Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes

Cucumber info and tips for growing

By the end of the month, there should be more summer veggies than we can eat and we will start preserving the extra for winter and spring eating.  Preservation garden

For salads, Red Malabar spinach, New Zealand spinach, Perpetual Spinach, sprouting broccoli, Blue Feather lettuce and orach are growing robustly and I have been harvesting from them weekly.  Red Malabar and New Zealand spinach greens love summer heat and humidity so are great substitutes for cool loving spinach.  Hilton Chinese mustard is growing nicely and volunteer multi colored Chinese amaranth plants are sprouting up in several pots.  Growing summer salads

The spring lettuce has flowered and is producing seed.  When you see the white fuzzies on lettuce stalks, they are ready to save the seed.  I just pull the seed heads, break apart, put in a ziplock freezer bag, label with type and date, and store in the refrigerator.  I will re-seed my self watering pots with some of the seeds by cutting off the seed heads and placing in pots.  If I don't have time to gather the seed, I just let the seeds spread throughout the garden and move the volunteers to pots or garden spots that I want them.  Never ending salad from one packet of seeds  

It is best to start new lettuce seed every 3 weeks to keep yourself supplied for salads.  This time of year, do start the heat tolerant varieties.  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces  Next round will be the fall and winter varieties that have cold tolerance.  Succession planting is key for keeping lettuce in the heat of the summer.  Start your lettuce seeds in a cool spot as they won't sprout when the ground is above 75 F.  You can start them in a pot indoors and then take outside when they have sprouted.

Pole green beans on trellis

The pole beans and winged beans are flowering.  I have put the pole snap and lima beans in the garden bed this year.  My winged bean with its beautiful blue flowers I put in a pot so I can move it where I want it.  Once we get the tile laid on our covered patio, I'll move it there.  When snap beans start producing, harvest them daily to keep them producing.  I keep a quart bag in the freezer and add mature green beans as they are ready for picking.  Any storage beans like lima beans will stay on the vine until the pod dries.  The 1500 Year Old bean vine just started flowering.  It is one you can either harvest young or use as a shelling bean.  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer

I had some garlic plants come up last year in a spot they used to be a couple of years ago.  I dug them and put them into the bed by the walkout basement where most of my edibles are at.  The plants now have garlic scapes and flowers so they are doing well.  Hopefully the cloves will be big enough to harvest this year.  Most of the shallots I planted last year did not survive, but the ones that did are flowering and expanding underground so I may also be able to harvest them this year.  I just planted shallots I got from the grocery store so I wasn't sure if they would do well, but they have.

Garlic harvest time is typically this time of year.  When the tops start dying, it is time to harvest.  After pulling, be sure to harden off in a shaded area.  If your soil has alot of clay, you will have to dig them.  Try to not cut into the cloves when digging.  After two weeks hardening, the cloves can be brought indoors for storing.  Hardening is critical for the garlic to not rot when stored.  I love elephant garlic as the cloves are as their name suggests, they are huge!  Save the biggest cloves for replanting in the fall.  Garlic harvest time is near!  My favorite way to preserve garlic is to pickle them in apple cider vinegar with a few hot peppers and store in the frig.  Have garlic any time you need it, just pickle some!

Our basil has been doing well.  I can harvest as many leaves as I want for cooking.  They need to get a bit bigger before I will cut them back to make pesto.  The trick to keeping the plants from getting woody is to make sure to harvest down to the first few sets of leaves before the plants go in to full flower..  Keep pinching off the tops when you see flowers starting to form.  I leave several to go to flower as the bees love them and harvest from the rest.  I get two-three good harvests before fall.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Oregano and thyme has been blooming for a bit along with garden chives.  The bees love these small herb flowers!  All can be cut and dried now, but I love the dainty flowers, too, and will wait until fall.  Make your own "Herbes de Provence"

I fertilized all the flowers and vegetables again to keep them growing last week.  Pots lose nutrients at a much higher rate than garden beds so I supplement them with liquid fertilizer.  I am using a liquid fertilizer for all the potted plants at least every other week and using a solid fertilizer monthly around each plant.  I like Espoma since it is an all natural product.  I use tomato fertilizer for all fruit producing plants and their general purpose vegetable fertilizer for all other veggie and herb plants.  If the plants need just nitrogen (leaves are yellowish and not dark green), I use blood meal, alfalfa meal or a liquid fish emulsion.  Decorative container gardening for edibles

I have been using a mineral supplement in spring for my plants for the last few years, both the garden bed, pots and the potting soil I make.  Right now I alternate between Azomite and kelp meal each year.  So many soils are low in minerals and micronutrients.  Your plants can't absorb what the soil does not have.  Kelp has growth hormones in it as well.  They can cause your plants to outgrow their pot.  If your plants get a big boost when you add minerals to the soil, you know that it was needed.  Adding minerals to the plants and soil will significantly increase the minerals in the plant itself, giving you minerals in the veggies you eat.  The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals

A key to keeping the garden productive this time of year is to keep even moisture to all the beds and containers.  Inconsistent moisture can cause tomato fruits to crack and blossom end rot.  Water the beds weekly and deeply; they need a good inch of water a week.  During hot, dry periods, your containers may need watering every other day.  Self-watering pots with reservoirs in the bottom are the trick to extending time between waterings.  Summer garden tips

If you are getting higher than normal rainfall, you'll need to fertilize more often as the rain can wash away the nutrients.  Keep an eye on the growth of your veggies and if they are not growing and producing as expected, they may need some extra food.  

The wild blackberries are already ripe.  If you want wild blackberries, you have to get them quickly or the critters will beat you to it.  Do leave some for the wildlife.  My strawberries and raspberry vines are not flowering again yet.  They are both ever bearers so they will produce until frost.  Back yard strawberries 

Finally, there are many summer flowers in bloom.  The hollyhocks, daylilies, petunias, echinacea, carrots, fairy lilies, amaranth, zinnias, celosia, sunflowers, morning glory, mums, gladiolus, as well as many herbs are all in full bloom.  The hummingbird vine, sedum, jasmine vine will be blooming sometime this month.  The early spring mustard, carrots, lettuce and broccoli have all bolted and are flowering.  The bees just love their tiny flowers!  Flowers are not only beautiful, but attract pollinators making the garden more productive.  

A butterfly on zinnias in the edible garden

At the end of this month, it will be time to start your seeds and seedlings for fall and winter harvests.  You have to start early so they are at full size before frost.  Time to plant for fall and winter harvests! 

Pests and fungus can also be a problem during this time of year with the hot temperatures and high humidity.  I have been finding which vegetables aren't bothered by our heat and humidity and making these my standbys.  Trombetta squash is one that can be used as zucchini but doesn't overwhelm in production.  It's an heirloom variety from Italy.  In my garden, it resists powdering mildew and squash bugs unlike zucchini.  I tried a Warsaw spaghetti squash that was supposed to be disease resistant but it was overcome early in the season.  I am trying it in another spot to see if it does better there.  I am also trying Mashed Potato squash again this year.  If either does not do well this year in my garden, I will not plant it again.   Preventing and treating powdery mildew

You can try and stay ahead of pests by monitoring the garden closely and picking off the pests.  If they do get the best of you, here are some natural ways to combat them.  Natural, organic pest strategies and how to make your own bug sprays    If you want to let pests come into natural balance, the rule of thumb is that it takes about 7 years for the "good" bugs and other "bad" bug predators like toads, birds, lizards, to take up residence in your garden to keep the "bad" bugs in check.

It seems like the flea beetles are being kept in better check this year.  However, the cabbageworm still decimates my sprouting broccoli.  I keep hoping this will be the year it comes into balance, but it has not happened yet.  I first tried to use BT sprays or dust that needs to be reapplied after a heavy dew or rain or inspect and squish daily, but those did not solve the problem over the long term and it was a lot of time to do religiously.  The cabbageworm starts in June.  If I harvested all my mustard, cauliflower and broccoli by the beginning of June, this would eliminate the problem.  I don't because sprouting broccoli leaves are ones that stay sweet all summer long so I use them in summer salads.  I have enough volunteers that there is always a plant to harvest from.  Maybe later this year, they will come in balance.

Freeze and dry extras in small batches

Daily summer harvest from small space garden

Sunday, June 23, 2024

To keep plants producing, you should harvest often.  I like to do a garden tour to start off my day, every day.  Some may be wondering how to preserve a handful a day.  I either dry or freeze in small batches what I don't eat that day to preserve the peak flavor and nutrients.

To get the maximum production from your plants, pick the veggies as often as they are ready.  As soon as a vegetable is picked, it signals to the plant that it needs to make another vegetable.  Some plants can only grow a limited number of vegetables at once.  Until you pick one, the plant won't make another one. 

 

I keep freezer bags going in my kitchen freezer so I can just process and add to them every time I have extras.  I like to freeze tomatoes, green beans, squash, okra, and berries in quart size bags.  Sweet peppers and hot peppers in pint size bags.  This is the quantity I use them in for cooking.  I label each bag with the vegetable or fruit type and the year.  You get the best flavor if you eat frozen goods within a year.

For tomatoes, I wash and slice and put into a quart bag about daily.  When it is full, I move them on to the chest freezer in the basement.  Same for green beans, I just wash, snap and put into a quart bag until it is full then move to the chest freezer.  I wash, slice off the stem, then slice each okra into about 3/8" slices and put in a quart freezer bag.  Berries are just washed, allowed to dry off, then frozen in quart bags.  If you make sure they have dried off before putting into freezer bags, you can easily remove just a few berries for your yogurt each morning.  

For the vegetables that would freeze together, you can slice them and place them on a cookie sheet in the freezer to freeze solid before putting them in a bag so you can grab one or just a few for cooking.

The sweet peppers and hot peppers I want to use in salsa and cooking, I wash, remove the stems, slice and put into pint bags.  When a bag is full, I move from the kitchen freezer to the chest freezer.

For the peppers that I am going to use for chili powder, I slice in half and put outside on a screen to dry.  As they dry, I bring back inside and store in a quart jar with a paper towel over it until there are a few to go ahead and grind into chili powder.  

For our shiitake mushrooms, I just let those dry on a paper towel on the counter.  When completely dry, I put into a quart jar and cover with a paper towel or towel until ready to use.

For cucumbers, I use the extras for pickles and pickle relish.  It only takes 1-2 cucumbers for a quart jar of pickles.  I will wait until I have 4-6 fresh cucumbers and then make a few jars of pickles or relish. 

Squash has to be blanched or cooked to preserve the flavor.  For the extra summer squash like zucchini or Trombetta, I make these into zoodles and blanch before putting into quart bags to freeze.  For winter squash like spaghetti squash, I bake, scrape and put into quart bags.

The only way I have found to preserve eggplant where it maintains its taste is by making the dip, baba ghanoush.  I have tried baking and blanching but the taste wasn't good after a few months.

For herbs, I cut them back by about a third, put into paper bags loosely and put in an upstairs warm closet to dry.  You can dry outside or in the garage or attic as well.  After dried, I remove the leaves from the stems and put into quart or gallon ziplocks until I am ready to make a seasoning mix or refill a spice jar.

By preserving a little at a time, it makes it a much more manageable task and ensures you are preserving the flavor of your edibles at their peak and maximizing the production of your garden.

Top 10 Tomato Myths (And Some Truths)

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Tomatoes are by far the most popular vegetable to grow in the United States. There is nothing like a tomato ripe from the vine! Many people started gardening by way of the tomato. They were the very first vegetable we grew. Many gardeners have the techniques they swear by to get the biggest and best tomatoes. 

Tomato Growing Myths (and Some Truths)

1. Tomatoes love as much sun as possible! This depends on where you live. In very hot climates, 6-8 hours is plenty. Your tomatoes can actually scald in intense sun and heat. For hot climates, plant your tomatoes in a north to south row so each side gets some shade each day.
2. You should prune your tomatoes for the best harvests. This again depends on your climate. If you live in a hot climate with intense sun and heat, you want to keep the leaves to help protect the tomatoes from sun scald. If you live in a damp area, you want to prune the tomato plant to allow good air circulation and sunlight to help prevent disease.  Our climate is hot and humid.  I do some pruning to get good air circulation.  Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes
3. Tomatoes love fertilizer! Actually, you only want to fertilize when you plant and again when the plant flowers. Too much nitrogen encourages leaf growth. Some that really sock the nitrogen fertilizer to the plant end up with a giant green plant with no tomatoes. To help with flowering, fruiting and blossom end rot, be sure to get a fertilizer with plenty of phosphorous and calcium or one specifically for tomatoes.  There are many fertilizers available just for tomatoes.    Summer garden tips
4. Tomatoes can’t be grown in pots. Tomatoes can be grown in pots, but not the big tomato plants or you have to grow them in a very large container like a whiskey barrel. Look for dwarf, pot, or patio types to plant in medium size pots. You will need to be prepared to water often.  Compact tomatoes for small spaces and pots
5. Tomatoes need to be watered a lot. Actually, if you water your tomatoes a lot, you can end up with fungal diseases and mushy fruit. The trick with tomatoes is to keep their moisture even. Letting the ground crack and then drowning the plant will result in cracked fruit. In the hot times of the summer with no rain, you will likely need to water at least weekly for those in the ground and 2-3 times a week for those in pots. Be sure to not water the leaves, but the roots.  Summer garden tips
6. When you see leaves dropping, something is wrong. This is a natural progression of the plant. As fruits begin to form, there is less energy for the leaves and some leaves will turn yellow and die.
7. A spindly tomato transplant is an unhealthy one. Actually the nodes on the stems can easily be transformed into roots. I take my transplants and remove the bottom leaves and plant deeply or on its side with only the top 4 leaves above ground. Roots will grow all along the stem buried in the soil.  This gives the plant a good root system.
8. You can only transplant in early summer. Actually, if your tomato plants are starting to fade in mid summer, you can put out new transplants that will give you fruit until the first frost.  June is a great time to start new tomato plants.
9. When you make sauce, the skins and seeds have to be removed. I put whole tomatoes into the food processor.  This saves so much time!  Some say that the skin and seeds can impart a bitter flavor. With the many types of tomatoes I have raised, this has never been a problem for me.  Preserving the tomato harvest
10. Only paste tomatoes can be used for sauce. I use all my extra tomatoes for sauce. The best for sauce for me are the most prolific tomato plants. These have been smaller tomatoes and Cherokee Purple for us. I would ask your neighbors which ones give the most fruit if you are looking to put up by freezing or canning.  You may have to cook the sauce longer to get the thickness you want over all paste tomatoes.  I like to have one paste tomato in each quart bag that I freeze to give a silky texture to my soups and sauces.  Choosing which tomatoes to grow 

The last tip: Tomatoes are susceptible to fungal diseases. Do try to not plant your tomatoes in the same spot for at least 2 years and ideally four years. Fungal diseases stay in the soil and take a while to die out. The same goes for a pot. A way around it for a pot is to use new soil and disinfect the pot each year.  Also, do not water the foliage as this will encourage fungal diseases.  Practice crop rotation.  You can also use hybrids but they will not come back true to seed if you enjoy seed saving.  Crop rotation made easy for small gardens

The heat is on!

Potted eggplant and petunia

Sunday, June 16, 2024

The summer loving edibles from the tropics love this time of year.  My eggplant, cucumber and squash plants seem to be growing inches every day!  The crops from temperate regions like peppers, tomatoes, beans, peppers and Mediterranean herbs are also growing quite well.  The humidity brings higher risk of disease and the lack of rain during peak summer heat can put a damper on garden production.  

To keep your plants thriving and your harvests at their peak, here are a few tips for summer edibles:

1. Harvest frequently!  Plants are in the business of reproducing.  Their entire life is dedicated to giving the best possible chance of maintaining more plants for the future.  The more you harvest, the more babies the plant will produce.  I have noticed that my cucumber plant can only support one large cucumber on each vine.  As soon as I pick the big one, you can see one of the small ones jump in size by the very next day!  Harvest in the morning for peak juiciness of fruits and in the afternoon for peak flavor of summer loving herbs.
2. Mulch your beds. The mulch keeps the moisture from evaporating, allowing more infrequent watering.  It also moderates the temperature of the soil so it doesn’t get baking hot.  I use natural wood mulch in both my garden beds and pots.  Weed free, self fertilizing, till free garden beds
3. Water consistently.  The cause of cracked fruits is inconsistent water.   The plant gets used to very little water and when deluged the fruit’s skin can’t expand fast enough and the fruit cracks.  Inconsistent watering can also cause blossom end rot.  Over watering can be a problem, too.  Too much water will cause your fruits to be tasteless and mushy.  If in the ground, your plants need either a good soaking rain each week or a deep watering (1" total per week).  I use soaker hoses in my mulched garden beds.  It is best to water in the morning; you get maximum absorption (biggest bang for your water buck).  For pots, you will likely need to water 3 times per week during the height of summer heat.  I like pots with a water reservoir built in the bottom.  
4. Do not water the foliage of your nightshade plants!  They are very susceptible to fungal diseases and water on their leaves encourages fungal growth.  It is recommended to spray every 7-14 days for natural fungicides on all nightshade plants (tomatoes, potatoes, squash, watermelon, and cucumbers) when the risk for fungal disease starts.  In our Zone 7 garden,  late May is not too early to start preventative spraying.  I rotate using Copper, Serenade and Southern Ag as a preventative.
5. Fertilize monthly with side dressing of compost or slow release fertilizer.  It is also a good idea to add minerals to the soil annually.  You can purchase minerals just for gardening.  I like to rotate between Azomite and kelp meal.  If your plants have more minerals, their fruits will too!  The next step in garden production and your nutrition-soil minerals
6. Pick insects off daily.  Keep a close eye on your plants to you can stop an infestation before it gets started.  If I do get an really bad infestation, I will use diacotomus earth (DE) or insecticidal soap.  It is organic and not a chemical.  Some people even eat DE!  DE works by scratching the exoskeleton of the insects which leads to dehydration and death.  Be careful, though, as it will kill good bugs too.  I use it very sparingly and only if desperate.  A few bugs don’t eat much :  )  Another option is the use of light covers to keep the bugs from your plants.  Natural, organic pest strategies and how to make your own bug sprays
7. Keep any diseased leaves groomed from your plants and do not compost them.  Diseases can be killed if your compost pile is hot enough but if not at high enough temperature and duration, disease will survive composting.  I haven’t progressed far enough yet in my composting skills to trust I am getting the pile hot enough and I don’t want to spread diseases to all my plants.  I put any diseased leaves and plants in the trash.
8. Compost.  For all the trimmings from the garden and the kitchen, start a compost pile or get an indoor composter.  I have both.  I have an indoor Naturemill electric composter in the garage and an outdoor tumbler for all the kitchen scraps.  Right now,  I am using the outdoor plastic tumbler.  Troubleshooting your compost pile  
9. Plant a second round in mid summer.  Summer veggies can get tired by the end of the season or overcome with disease.  A strategy to make sure you have an abundant harvest all the way through fall is to plant a second round of the heavy producers like summer squash, tomatoes, and cucumbers.  End of June is a great time to get a second round of summer lovers going.  Keep the harvest going, do succession planting
10. Give some shade.  If you live an area with scorching heat and sun, even the summer lovers would benefit from some afternoon shade.  Tomato and pepper fruits can get sunburned, called sun scald.  Many eggplant varieties can get thick skins and a more bitter taste in intense heat and sun.  Even in our Zone 7 garden, I have experienced all these.  You can move potted plants or plant on the southeast side to get your veggies some afternoon shade.  I did try shade cloth last year, but the plants did not seem to thrive in our Zone 7 garden under shade cloth cover.

 

What's happening in the mid-June edible garden

Zinnias, basil and tomatoes planted in garden bed

Saturday, June 15, 2024

 

My summer edible garden has gotten off to a decent start this year.  There are baby peppers, squash, tomatoes, eggplant and cucumbers but none except the tomatoes and peppers I overwintered that are ready for harvesting.

  

Squash-I have many volunteers coming up in the garden.   Both the volunteers and the ones I planted are flowering with a couple with baby fruits.   Everything you need to know to grow squash

Eggplant-I started them all from seed this year.  I moved them to their large pot summer home about a month ago.  I have Rotanda Bianca, AO Daimaru, Turkish Orange and Amadeo seedlings.  The plants are all doing well aside from flea beetle holes.  I saw a baby eggplant on one plant so the rest should be flowering soon.  Everything you need to know to grow eggplant, in a...

Beans-I started all these vining types from seed in the garden bed with a trellis this year: Blauhilde-purple snap bean, 1500 Year Old bean that can be harvested fresh for snap beans or left on the vine for shelled beans, and Christmas Speckles heirloom lima bean.  The winged bean I have growng in a pot is slow growing; it is always the last to take off as it thrives only in hot weather and it has really taken off in the last week.  No flowers yet on any of the bean vines but it should be soon.  Growing beans

Cucumber-I am growing Bush Champion this year in the ground this year.  It is growing well and has flowers and baby cukes.  Everything you need to know to grow cucumbers, in ...

Tomatoes-I planted 5 in the garden bed and they all croaked for some reason.  We have voles so not sure if they ate the roots for them to wilt and die or if they got a wilt disease which is spread by cucumber beetles.  To be safe, I pulled them all and put them in the trash and then sterilized all my tools and gloves that I used.  I removed a good bit of the dirt, too.  I won't plant tomatoes in the same spot for a couple of years and when I do, I think I will go with hybrids that are resistant to wilt disease to be on the safe side.  

The 10 seedlings I gave my hubby to grow upside down in 5 gallon buckets with an auto watering system are doing well with lots of baby tomatoes and flowers.  The Chocolate Pear and Red October tomatoes are starting to have color variation so shouldn't be long for ripe tomatoes.  With the bucket system, they need daily watering and more frequent fertilizing.  He fertilized when he planted a month ago.  It is time to fertilize again.  You don't want to give too much nitrogen or you will end up with all leaves and no fruits.

  Everything you need to know to grow tomatoes

Snow peas-All are drying up.  Peas are spring lovers.  They love cool temperatures and lots of moisture.  When heat moves in, they give it up.  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer

Greens-All the spinach, all the mustards, all the sprouting broccoli and all the lettuce planted in March has bolted.  There are a few younger lettuce plants that have not bolted.  Usually, the Red Sails and Butter King stay sweet even after bolting.  Harvest first thing in the morning or after a rain for best tasting leaves.  Put in a bowl of water to plump up the leaves.  

The amaranth and orach are producing flower stalks but they will remain sweet all summer long.  The chard planted a couple of months ago is a nice size; the earlier ones have gone to seed.  There are volunteer sprouting broccoli in a range of sizes.  They will stay sweet all summer, too.  Red Malabar and New Zealand spinach love the hot temperatures and are growing quickly.  Their leaves can be harvested all summer long as spinach substitutes.  Carefree summer salad greens

Herbs-Cilantro has bolted; it is a cool temperature lover.  The seeds can be saved as coriander or left to self-seed.  The rest of the herbs are growing well-dill, sage, rosemary, thyme, oregano, horseradish, and basil.  Dill, oregano, thyme and a few basil has put on flower heads.  All do well right to winter except for basil; it dies as soon as the first frost comes.  Most winters in our Zone 7 garden, the sage, thyme, oregano can be harvested throughout the winter.  Start a kitchen herb garden!

Fruits-Still getting strawberries.  Round 1 of raspberries has wound to a close; they will continue to produce off and on all summer.  There are some ripe blackberries.  Ground cherries are ripe and will continue all summer long.  Some blueberry bush production has come and gone while others are just now starting to have ripe fruit.

Flowers-Celosia, Love Lies Bleeding amaranth, daylilies, purple coneflower, bee balm, hydrangeas, blunt mountain mint, sunflowers, petunias, mums, spiderworts, blue morning glory, hollyhocks, lantana, gardenia, and zinnias are all blooming in my garden.  Many carrots have bolted, creating tall white flowers that look like Queen Ann's Lace.  Pollinators just love the small flowers on herbs and carrot flowers.  

My pollinator bed has several flowers in bloom, orange coneflower, echinacea, white yarrow, daylilies, and mountain mint.  It is filling in nicely.  I planted swamp milkweed and butterfly milkweed this week.  I really don't need any more flowers in the bed.  It has taken 4 years to get it full.  It gets a good deal of shade so natives don't grow as quickly as they would if it was a full sun location.  Most of the flowers I started from a pollinator mix.  I'd sow a few seeds in a pot and when they got big, I'd transplant them.  I'd get in 1-2 sowings sowings each summer.  Since the seeds were free, it only cost me time and patience.

Everything you need to know to grow Egyptian walking onions

Springtime garden with walking onions in pot on right and in the garden on the left with bulblets forming

Sunday, June 9, 2024

Egyptian walking onions in pot on the patio

Egyptian walking onions are a hardy perennial onion that can be harvested year round.  They grow well in a pot or in the garden bed.  You can use the bulb for cooking and the tops as fresh chives.

I got my walking onion from a bed and breakfast in Manhattan, Kansas.  She had hers growing in a pot.  This is in Zone 5!  They are very winter hardy.  

You can harvest from them year round.  In the winter, they will be soft on the outside, but the inner bulb is still firm and perfectly edible.  

Once or twice in the summer, each stalk will put on a set of bulblets on the top of the stalk.  They look like Medusa to me with all their curly tops!  These tops are where their name comes from.  The stalks will curl toward the ground so that the bulblets can take root and propogate.  They appear to “walk” across the landscape.  

I cut the tops off when the bulblets are ready and turn a reddish brown. You can plant the whole bulbet set 2" deep and will have a bunch of onions growing in no time.  I separate the bulblets and plant each to get a continuous supply of onions.  The bulblets are tough.  I send them through the mail with no ill effects.  I always have plenty to give away. 

Don't get concerned after the onions put on their bulbets when some of the stalks turn brown.  The plant will regenerate with new stalks quickly.

Brown stalks after bulbets are harvested

For the onions that you do not harvest, they will also divide underground.  They propagate both above and below ground!

The bulb grows to about the size of a leek.  It has the taste of a white onion.  The bulb can be used in cooking and the stalk as you would fresh chives.  To get the larger bulbs, the onions need to be thinned out so that the bulbs have room to grow large.  If crowded, they will stay small.  This works great for the gardener.  Just strategically harvest when you need an onion for cooking or salads!

Small, freshly pulled onion

Bulblet almost ready for planting

When pulled small, they can be used as you would green onions.  

The bulblets are edible as well.  The larger bulbs can be used in cooking as you would a typical bulbing onion.

Egyptian onions do not store well.  They will keep in the crisper for a few days.

Onions in general are fertilizer hogs and like moisture.  Be sure to give them plenty of fertilizer each spring and if growing in pots, a monthly feeding.  We also feed our coffee grounds to the onions and lettuce.  Coffee grounds are rich in nitrogen.

For more on typical bulging onions, Onions-everything you need to know to grow 'em.