August 2016 Edible Garden Planner

Saturday, July 30, 2016

August sees the full production of the summer garden harvests.  Late sweet corn (plant corn in succession and different varieties to lengthen the harvest), summer squashes (like zucchini), peppers of all types (sweet to hot, hot), tomatoes, Mediterranean herbs, cucumbers, okra, apples, peaches, pears, grapes, beans, melons, figs, eggplant, honey, artichokes, blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, onion, tomatillos, and fennel are all in season right now.  

A secret to maximizing your peppers, tomatoes, eggplants, tomatillos, and zucchinis is to harvest them continously.  A plant’s driving force is to reproduce so by continuing to harvest, it causes the plant to put on more fruits.

Continue to fertilize with a natural, organic fertilizer every month for veggies in the ground and biweekly for those in containers.  When fertilizing, scratch the fertilizer into the soil around the plant.  If you leave the fertilizer on top of the ground, you will need twice as much as the nitrogen will off gas into the atmosphere if not covered.

Summer garden tips

Keeping consistent moisture to your plants is key.  Irregular watering causes tomatoes to crack.  Water weekly, being sure to water deeply at the base of the plant and not on the leaves.  Many warm weather lovers like squash, tomatoes and cucumbers are susceptible to fungal diseases.

If you had any lettuce from early planting, they will have bolted by now.  Take the flower heads off and save the seed.  You can shake the seeds into your self watering pots to get your fall lettuce growing.

Never ending salad from one packet of seeds

Planting for fall and winter vegetables

I know it sounds crazy, but now is the time to plant for fall and winter harvests.  You need to plant early enough for your veggies to be full size when frosts hit.  Add 14 days to the days to maturity listed on the seed packet and back it up from your last frost date.  

Daylight hours determine the growth rate of plants.  Since the days are getting shorter, it will take longer for the plants to come to full maturity in the waning daylight hours of fall than the lengthening hours of spring.  By the first of November, all growth has come to a full standstill until the beginning of January.

You can pick up transplants like broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, kale, as well as herbs at many big box stores and nurseries since gardening has become so popular. 

Fall planting guide for cool season crops

August is the month for the rest of the greens (arugula, corn salad, lettuce, miner’s lettuce, spinach, mustard, endive), kohlrabi, onions, scallions, cabbage plants, radishes, peas, fava beans and turnips.  

In September, plant more greens, carrots, and radishes.  October is the month to plant garlic for next year’s harvest.  Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......

For more details on varieties to plant, Fall garden planning and planting

Caring for your new seeds and transplants

Like in the spring, newly sown seeds need moisture to sprout.  Keep seeds and transplants moist until they get their first real set of leaves and are well established.  Then water as needed.

Many crops you can harvest into December and beyond, depending on how cold fall is.  Some get sweeter with some frost, like carrots, chard, and lettuce.  With cover, you can harvest all the way through winter!

A quick reminder, save the seeds from your best performers to plant next year.  You can replant seeds from any heirlooms or open pollinated plants.  Not only does it save you money, but it also gives you the plants that do the best under your garden and zone conditions.
10 tips for a sustainable garden & yard

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What's happening in the mid-July garden

Butterfly on zinnias in the garden

Sunday, July 17, 2016

We are harvesting Japanese white egg eggplants, zucchini, peppers, green beans, sprouting broccoli, herbs, garlic, onions, and a few tomatoes.   We are getting steady amounts of rainfall each week so only the pots are needed water.  The flowers are very happy, too! 

Both the hot and sweet pepper plants have peppers on them.  So far, the sweet pepper Tangerine is the only one with ripe peppers for harvest.  The Pimento has peppers that are getting close.  Most of the hot pepper plants are covered in green peppers so it should not be long for them.  The habanero has blooms but no peppers so far which is unusual for this late in the season.  Peppers are for every taste and garden

Tomatoes are not producing as much as is typical for this time of the month.  We have gotten way more rain than usual this year.  Our grass is still green and lush!  The small tomatoes have given us a few ripe ones.  The plants greenery are not as full as normal and have had baby tomatoes on them for weeks.  Peppers and tomatoes are both pollinating by insects.  With all the rain we have had again this summer, it is likely washing away the pollen, impacting the production of fruits.  

Oregano in bloom

I harvested our garlic a couple of weeks ago and is getting hardening in the shade on our outdoor, covered deck.  Garlic harvest time is near!

Our basil has been slow to get started but is now off to the races.  I will take my first harvest next week end, cutting down to the first few sets of leaves.  It will regrow to give me at least one more good harvest before fall.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Oregano is in full bloom.  The bees love the purple flowers!  It could be cut and dried now, but I love the flowers and will wait until fall.  Harvest and preserve your herbs

Lettuce gone to seed

I fertilized all the pots again as well as the veggies in the garden.  It is good to fertilize pots biweekly and garden plants monthly during the growing season to give them the nutrition they need to produce well. Summer garden tips

  

The lettuce has gone to seed.  When you see the white fuzzies, they are ready to save.  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 also re-seeded our Earth boxes with some of the seeds.  I had a few small volunteer lettuce plants elsewhere in the garden that I transplanted to the Earth boxes as well.  The lettuce seeds I planted last month have sprouted, but aren’t quit ready to transplant.  Never ending salad from one packet of seeds  Seed saving-fun, easy and a cost saver

In the greens department, summer is a hard time for most greens.  Sprouting broccoli, different types of sorrel, arugula, dandelion greens, corn salad and herbs are all available.  The heat increases the sharpness of greens.  Succession planting of lettuce and planting types that are resistant to bolting can keep your lettuce crop going.  Plant them in the coolest part of the yard where they are not in full sun all day and get shade in the afternoon.  Pots are a good option to be able to move them to the cooler part of the yard.  Growing summer salads  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces

Our zucchini plants have kicked in and we are now getting 1-2 zucchini fruits from each plant each week.  I just love grilled zucchini!  I also found that using it as a substitute for pasta is a great way to use them.  What to do with all that zucchini?!

We had another 2.5" of rain this past week.  Looking ahead, the extended forecast is calling for 90’s and a slight chance of rain.  If we don't get any rain this week, I will water the garden beds next week end.  

Summer garden is in full swing!

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Fruit for small spaces

Orange tree on the left, fig in the center, kumquat on right

Saturday, July 16, 2016

There are many options for growing your own fruit in small spaces today and more come on the market every year.

We are growing apples, figs, passion fruit, goji berries, strawberries, kumquats, and oranges.  The kumquat and orange trees are growing in the house during the winter and taken outside each spring.

You have 3 options with apple trees.  You can grow columnar apple trees which do great in pots (this is the kind we have), you can purchase a dwarf apple tree that you can espalier against a wall, or you can put an apple tree in your landscape.  Apple trees require full sun and either a second apple tree or crabapple tree in the neighborhood to pollinate with to get fruit.  Apples are ready to harvest in summer, fall or winter, depending on the variety.  Our “Scarlet Sentinel” columnar apple tree ripens in late September.

A fig tree is cool looking and very easy to grow either in the landscape or in a pot.  We had ours in a pot for 5 years and recently put it in the ground.  We got great fruit from it throughout the summer.

Ripe figs

If you decide to put your fig in a pot, this will lower the zone it can survive the winter in by at least one zone.  You can always bring the fig in for the winter, either into your home or a garage.  We have a a “Chicago Hardy” fig that is hardy to Zone 6.  It can grow to a height of 25 feet if planted in the ground.

You can eat your figs fresh, dry them or make them into preserves.  Growing “exotic” figs

“Maypop” is a hardy passion flower vine that survives down to Zone 5.   It is a very hardy vine so either grow it in a pot or make sure it is blocked off from being able to expand into other areas.  They taste a lot like guavas and their flowers are beautiful.

I grew the goji berry vine from seed.  Goji berries are high in antioxidants and easy to grow.  They are self fertile so only one is needed to produce fruit.  They are a vining shrub that can grow 8-10 feet at maturity.  If you keep them in a pot, they will remain smaller.  They are hardy down to Zone 6.

Strawberries are another easy to grow perennial fruit.  They prefer full sun and should be planted in the spring.  There are two types of strawberries, June bearing or Everbearing.  June bearing have one large harvest in early summer whereas the everbearing types produce berries from spring through fall.  They enjoy a rich soil so plant with lots of compost and bone meal.  If they begin to decline in production after 4 years, plant new plants in a different area of the garden.
Back yard strawberries  

There are a couple of blueberries that are compact and acceptable for small landscapes, “Draper” and “Tophat.”  Draper is a bush that grows to 3-4 feet.  Tophat is a nice little bush that can easily be grown in a pot.  It grows to a mere 16-24” high.  Blueberries require an acidic soil, a pH of 4-4.5.  Blueberries are self pollinating, but you will get a lot more fruit if you plant two bushes.  You get fruit in the summer.  If you have an extra, you can easily freeze or dry.

Honeyberry is another fruiting bush and they bear in late spring/early summer, as early as two weeks prior to strawberries.  They are a blue oval type berry and is hardy in Zones 2-8.  The “Smokey Blue” reach 3-4 feet in height, making them a good candidate for a pot as well.  They are high in antioxidants and taste similar to blueberries.  Two are needed for pollination for fruiting.  No special soil type is needed, but prefer partial shade.

Strawberry

Another fruit for small spaces is kiwi and they are hardy for Zones 3-9.  These are vines that can grow to 10-20 feet.  You can use these over an harbor or on a fence.  A male and female are required.  They prefer a part sun location.  The foliage of the Artic Beauty is beautifully variegated with pink, white and green leaves.  These vines fruit in September.

For raspberry lovers, the “Shortcake” variety is a thornless dwarf that grows to a 2-3 foot mound.  It can easily be grown in a pot and is self fertile so only one plant is needed to bear fruit.  It is hardy in Zones 5-9 and fruits in mid-summer.  Both raspberries and blackberries prefer full sun.

“Doyle’s” thornless blackberry plant can be grown in a pot and can produces enormous harvests of fruit.  In the ground it can reach heights of 7 feet.  It is hardy in Zones 3-10 and bears fruit in the spring to early summer.  Another option is the dwarf red blackberry which grows to 1.5 feet in height. 

A slow growing fruit tree that reaches a height of 12-15 feet is a native to North America is the pawpaw.  It tastes tropical with a banana/mango like flavor.  It is also high in protein, vitamins and minerals and hardy to Zone 5.  The fruits weigh around a pound each and are ready to pick in late summer/early fall.  Two plants are required for the tree to bear fruit.  Foraging for wild edibles

Fall garden planning and planting

Fall garden

Sunday, July 3 2016

I know it seems crazy to even think of fall in this heat wave we are having, much less start planting for it, but it is actually time!  When you think of fall gardens, think of the veggies that thrive in the cool temps of spring.  Summer is when you have to get your fall garden sown.

Daylight hours have a significant impact on the growth rate of plants.  Since the days are now getting shorter, it will take longer for the plants to come to full maturity in the waning daylight hours of fall than the lengthening hours of spring.  By the first of November, all growth has come to a full standstill which lasts until the beginning of January.

To know when to plant for fall harvest, first find your area’s first frost day.  Then, look at your cool season crops seed packet.  It will have days to maturity.  Add an extra 14 days and back it up from your last frost date to know when you should sow your fall garden seeds.  For frost date, here is a link you can use.  

Frost date look up

Good choices for fall planting:

Root crops-Beets, Burdock, Carrots, Celeriac, Kohlrabi, Parsnips. Radishes, Root Parsley, Rutabaga, Salsify, Scorzonera, Turnips

Greens-Chard, Lettuce, Mustard, Collards, Chicory, Kale  Growing fabulous lettuce and greens

Brassicas-Broccoli, Cabbage, Cauliflower  Broccoli and cauliflower growing tips

Choose varieties that have terms like cold hardy, frost tolerant, overwintering to extend your season into early winter.  

Below are some general planting times for cool season crops for our Zone 6/7 garden:

July

Beets, carrots, Asian greens (pak choi, tat-soi), cilantro, collard greens, endive, escarole, frisee, fennel, kale, kohlrabi, leeks, mustard, onions, parsnips, scallions, and Swiss chard.  Use transplants for broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, Chinese cabbage.

August

The rest of the greens (arugula, corn salad, lettuce, miner’s lettuce, spinach, mustard, endive), kohlrabi, onions, snap peas, scallions, cabbage plants, radishes, and turnips.  Peas and Fava beans can be planted in August for spring harvests in Zone 6 or higher.  

September

Plant more greens, carrots, and radishes.  September is also a great month for starting perennial veggies, fruits, and herbs as well as flowers, trees and shrubs.  Midwest Perennial Vegetable Garden

October

The month to plant garlic for next year’s harvest.  Order your favorites early as many sell out quick.

Like in the spring, newly sown seeds need moisture to sprout.  Keep them moist until they get their first real set of leaves.  Then water as needed.  I like to start my seeds in self watering containers in shade.  Self watering pots that have water reservoirs in the bottom of the pot.  This really helps keep the soil moist.
Indoor seed starting tips
Ideal soil temperatures for seed starting

There are some cool season crop seeds that don't like to sprout in temp's that are too warm for them.  Lettuce is one.  You may have to start your lettuce seeds indoors and then move outside if your soil temperature is 80 degrees F or above.

Many crops you can harvest into December and beyond, depending on how cold fall is.  Some get sweeter with some frost, like carrots, chard, and lettuce.  With cover, you can harvest all the way through winter.  More on that as time gets closer.......

July Edible Garden Planner 2016

July garden bounty

Sunday, June 26, 2016

The summer garden is in full swing.  July is the time of year for harvesting the heat lovers like tomatoes, eggplant, zucchini, cucumbers, sprouting broccoli, green beans, all types of peppers, garlic, basil with other Mediterranean herbs.

Peppers, zucchini, and eggplant are just ready to start harvesting, but will be in mid July.  My tomato plants have many baby tomatoes and are typically ready to start harvesting by the 4th of July.  I just re-planted my cucumber plants for the third time.  They love this heat and humidity so should be producing within the month.

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 will be more summer veggies than we can eat and will start preserving the extra.  Preservation garden

The spring greens have bolted, but there are summer greens that are robust during the hot days of summer.  My favorites are salad burnet, Swiss chard, collards, Malabar spinach, mustard greens, New Zealand spinach, orach, sorrel, sprouting broccoli and cultivated dandelions.  Growing summer salads

The spring lettuce has gone to seed.  When you see the white fuzzies, they are ready to save.  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 also re-seeded our self watering pots with some of the seeds.  I had a few small volunteer lettuce plants elsewhere in the garden that I transplanted to the pots as well.  The lettuce seeds I planted last month have sprouted and are ready to transplant.  Never ending salad from one packet of seeds

There are even a select few varieties of lettuce that can stand up to summer heat:

Leaf lettuce-”New Red Fire”, “Simpson Elite”

Butterhead-”Optima”, “Winter Density:

Romaine-”Jericho”, ”Green Towers”

Batavian-”Magenta”, “Nevada”

If you haven't already, now is the time to plant these heat champions.  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces

Edible and decorative garden bed

The pole green beans are putting out beans consistently.  Harvest them to keep them producing.  I keep a quart bag in the freezer and add mature green beans as they are ready for picking.  The other legume, my snow peas, have finished producing for the season.  I love to eat them right off the vine.  Not many of these beauties made it to the kitchen!  Legumes-peas for spring, beans for summer

I have already harvested the garlic, including the elephant garlic.  I love elephant garlic as the cloves are as their name suggests, they are huge!  When pulled, I will harden both types in the shade outdoors for two weeks before storing indoors.  Hardening is critical for the garlic to not rot when stored.  Save the biggest cloves for replanting in the fall.  Garlic harvest time is near!

Our basil has been slow to get started but is now off to the races.  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.  It will regrow to give me at least one more good harvest before fall.  Basil basics-harvesting, preserving, growing basil

Oregano, mint, and catnip is in full bloom.  The bees love the small lavendar flowers!  It could be cut and dried now, but I love the flowers, too, and will wait until fall.  Make your own "Herbes de Provence"

I fertilized all the pots again as well as the basil to keep it growing.  Pots lose nutrients at a much higher rate than garden beds.  I am using a foliar spray on all the plants at least every other week and using a solid fertilizer monthly around each plant.  I like Espoma.  I use their tomato fertilizer for all fruit producing plants and their general purpose vegetable fertilizer for all other veggie and herb plants.  Decorative container gardening for edibles

I have started using a mineral supplement for my plants this year.  Right now I am using Azomite.  So many soils are low in minerals.  Your plants can't absorb what the soil does not have.  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.  Water the beds weekly and deeply.  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 watering duties.  Summer garden tips

What we are harvesting in the late June garden

Garden at sunrise

Saturday, June 25, 2016

Right now, we are harvesting greens (lettuce, spinach, sorrel, peppers, sprouting broccoli, arugula, corn salad), peas, zucchini, strawberries, onions, garlic, herbs and potatoes.  This year we have gotten above average rain accompanied by way above average temperatures.  The rain was great for the lettuce and peas; not so great for any seed starting or summer veggies in the garden.  

B

The lettuce and spinach is now bolting.  I am letting it go to seed so I can save the seed to resow.  The bees love the flowers, too.  I am still harvesting lower leaves for salads and smoothies on the Red Sails, Grand Rapids and Romaine.  Their leaves have remained sweet tasting.  Bolt-free, sweet summer lettuces  Other varieties can become bitter and woody.  I throw in dandelion, burnet, and sorrel for added nutrition and taste.  Growing summer salads

Lettuce bolting

The cucumber seeds I direct sowed rotted.  I re-sowed in a pot on the covered deck.  They have sprouted.  I’ll wait until they have at least one set of true leaves before I transplant them.

Cucumber info and tips for growing

I have baby tomatoes and eggplants.  One of my Tangerine sweet pepper plants has full size peppers on it.  The rest of my pepper plants have baby peppers.  Peppers are for every taste and garden  All the tomato plants are blooming.  The Violet Jasper I planted in a pot is huge and has several small tomatoes on it.  I need to get a cage on it quickly while I still can!  Last year, the tomato I grew in the pot only needed a stake.  This one is monster and needs more support.  Tomatoes 101, everything you need to know to grow great tomatoes

The tomatoes and basil are not growing as quickly as typical.  I assume it is from all the cloudy days we have had this spring.  The zucchini has just taken off in the last couple of weeks.  Growing zucchini and summer squash

At our old house, we had our garden edged in daylilies and they would be in full, glorious bloom this time of year.  You couldn’t even see the veggies behind them when standing in the yard.

Kitchen garden with daylilies in front

In our lake house garden, I interplant flowers with my veggies.  The flowers attract pollinators like bees which increases the amount of fruits you get off your summer fruits and vegetables as well as being beautiful.

The sprouting broccoli has little heads on it.  The leaves and florets can be eaten in salads and frozen.  For freezing, you just blanche them (throw them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then dunk them in cold water), pat dry, and put them into freezer bags.  Freezing the extras for winter

I harvested the garlic this week end.  The onions are ready to be harvested.  There is a debate on whether to remove the flowers to get bigger heads.  I leave them.  The bees love them!  Remember to save the largest and tastiest cloves of garlic to plant in the fall.  Garlic harvest time is near!

When the onion or shallot leaves fall over, then they are ready to harvest.  Pull them and bring them in a hot, dry area to season before bringing them in for storage for 2-3 weeks.

It is not too late to start a garden now.
It is not too late to start a garden in June!

Garlic harvest time is near!

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Garlic is rich in lore.  This allium has been around for thousands of years.  It originated in Asia, was cultivated in Egypt and has been a Mediterranean cooking staple for centuries. Over the ages, garlic has been reputed to repel vampires, clear the blood, cure baldness, aid digestion.  

Today’s studies have shown garlic has antibacterial, anti-fungal, antiviral properties. And, it tastes great!  For a breakdown of specific vitamins and minerals, garlic nutritional value

It is easy to grow and has little pest issues.  All you do is put them in the ground in the fall and by early to mid summer, they are ready to harvest.

The clove puts out roots in the fall.  Depending on how warm the winter is, there can be green shoots showing through the cold months.  Garlic will be some of the first greenery to start growing in early spring.  The stems resemble onion greens.  The hard neck garlic flower, or scape, has a cute little curl in it.  They are great in salads.  Harvesting them also gives you bigger bulbs.

For more on fall planting and growing garlic, Time to plant garlic! With growing tips......

Soft neck and hard neck garlic are slightly different in telling you when to harvest.  Soft neck garlic is ready to harvest then the tops fall over and die off.  They are ready to harvest about a week later.  Typically this is mid-summer, but ours is ready now.  Hard neck garlic is ready to harvest when about half of their lower leaves have turned brown.  Try digging one up and see if the bulb is large and firm.

                                               Garlic ready to harvest           Freshly harvested garlic

Be careful when you go to harvest.  It is best to dig your garlic when the ground is dry.  When you go to dig up your garlic, proceed carefully.  If you cut the bulb, it will not keep and needs to eaten soon.  The garlic should be left in dry shade for 2-3 weeks or brought inside and stored in a cool, dry location with good air circulation.  They can be hung or placed in a perforated bin or paper bag to dry and store.  

Don't be surprised if you have "volunteers" show up where you planted.  The tiny cloves that get separated when pulling the bulbs will sprout in fall.  These little guys may need a couple seasons to get big enough to harvest.

My favorite way to store garlic is to pickle it!  I simply separate the cloves, remove the "skin" and put in a jar of apple cider vinegar with a few hot peppers.  I just pull out cloves when I need garlic for a recipe.  

If your garlic dries up over the winter, I grind it into garlic powder.  If you have great tasting garlic that doesn’t store well or you have a bountiful crop, another preservation option is pickled garlic.  Just peel (Quick tip-”peeling” garlic) and cover your fresh garlic cloves in organic apple cider vinegar.  You can add a couple of hot peppers if you want to add some extra zing!

Of course, you can also add garlic to the tomato sauce (Preserving the tomato harvest), pickles (Easy, homemade pickles) or peppers you are going to can.  You can flavor vinegars or oils by popping crushed garlic into them (Quick tip-make your own flavored oils).  Many options for utilizing your garlic harvest!  

Everyone knows of garlic in sauces and on cheese bread.  A couple of years ago, we tried roasted garlic.  It dramatically mellows the flavor.  I just put a few heads in a small baking dish, add chicken stock to just about level to the cut heads, and let bake covered at 350 for 30-45 minutes, until soft.  It is a great spread on french bread!

If you are using fresh garlic for cheese bread, a quick way to prepare the garlic is to put into a small food processor with olive oil and just let it grind it to the size you want on your bread!

Garlic can be mild or hot.  Elephant garlic is very mild and not really true garlic at all.  It is a type of leek.  It has a great garlic flavor and produces huge bulbs.  The ones I am growing this year are from the previous year’s harvest.  I like growing them because you get so much for the garden space.  For me, they have stored very well.

Elephant garlic                                       

Leek flower

Garlic scape

You can tell the difference in the two by looking at the flowers.  Leeks have a onion type flower while hard scape garlic has a curly scape flower.

There is soft and hard necked garlic.  For the longest storage, soft neck garlic is the ticket.  It is also the strongest flavored.  Hard necked is milder and easier to peel.

I grow all three!  Elephant garlic as it gives the most for the space.  Hard neck garlic because I love to add scares to salads and how easy the cloves are to peel.  And soft neck for the variety of flavor.  It is always so hard to choose!  A great way to decide is to go to your local farmers market and talk to the farmers for the ones that grow the best in your area.  Take a few different kinds home with you and try them out.  Save the biggest cloves from your favorites to plant this fall.