A boon to having a ridiculous amount of plants/herbs: self seeders.
Many years of letting the plants "just go" has made my garden basil/parsley/cilantro/oregano (a perennial.. I know, but it's flowered and seeded too!)/garlic (off shoot bulbs, yada)/Egyptian walking onion (YES!)/dill (sort of) and now recently feverfew, California poppy and bells of Ireland seem to be going on autopilot. I find my India mustard to be easily self seeding too, but I know I'm supposed to "rotate" my beds and etc to avoid pests and disease. I try to tear up the mustard from the bed each year and replant it in a different place, but those everlasting seeds always crop right back up in the bed or wherever I've dragged the plant off to.
Not that I mind (I eat all the errant little child plants), but it can be a little weird when I find self sown seedlings in the garden path or in the flower bed or by the trash can.
Ah, an entirely self seeded vegetable/herb garden is THE perfect garden for me...
Diane Meucci at Gardens Oy Vey has self seeded Siberian kale ALL over her nursery, not just for looks, but for eatin' too. Definitely a worthy goal to aspire to.
On top of the self seeders, I'm working towards the perennial vegetable garden and have the asparagus bed, mache/corn lettuce/lambsquarters, (hopefully sunchokes), strawberries and garlic down. I'll probably be getting rhubarb sometime soon-ish from my awesome mother in law. Artichokes are a possibility, but seems a bit limiting for the space they use and I understand that sunflower buds are just as nice.
I'm still working on getting the horseradish to take to the pot I've been babying it in, but it was an abysmal mess last year. Incredible for horseradish too.
I had an air potato plant that I was worried would be invasive but never got to eat it. Then I lost the little seed air potatoes in the great frost/amongst the vines.
This book: Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener's Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles caught my eye a while back and I am somewhat interested, but I think it's geared towards those who are lucky enough to live in very nice zones, ie 8/9+
If you live in the right climate, lots of vegetables can become perennial. I hear in Florida eggplants and tomatoes are known to live just about forever .
Either way, I can't move my garden to Florida (and I'm not a huge fan of beaches anyway). So it's best to make do, get tricky with Mother Nature and build cold frames. Lots of them.
Showing posts with label perennial vegetables. Show all posts
Showing posts with label perennial vegetables. Show all posts
Monday, March 15, 2010
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Fall/Winter gardening plans
It's August and flippin' hot.
My husband keeps saying, "It's almost fall! It's almost fall!" and I sort of look at him and say, "There's plenty of summer here, baby." After all, it's Tennessee and the temperatures are pretty warm even into October.
Last I remembered at least.
Despite the current and predictable early fall heat, I am pumped about fall gardening, to the point that I almost wish my tomatoes would be DONE already so I can get some peas back into the ground and be able to sit back again and not have to pamper anything in my garden like heat lovers force me to do.
Plus I've always found peas (sugar, snow and English) satisfying in their yields and I can eat their tips. Tomatoes mean only fruit eatin'.
This reminds me of my most likely unsuccessful attempt at sweet potato growing, as I got lazy/poor in getting proper soil/amendments to pile up in the large bucket I was growing them in. As long as I can get a few I'll be pleased and maybe I can still pile up some dirt at this point? Either way, what I was getting at is that sweet potato leaves and tips can be eaten too, like a tastier spinach (aren't other greens, nearly always?)
Multipurpose vegetables=good
But back to cool weather gardening (unfortunately having to be started in !@$#@ hot weather).
My plan is completely tear down the bean and cuke trellises by September, all the tomatoes by the then or mid-Sept. and plant various peas in their places. I like using bush-type/no-support needing peas too to delineate between my beds of parsnips, turnips and carrots (well, those are good delineators too).
I will be planting lucullus chard, sold at my local mom n' pop, Russell's, and nearby I will plant Perpetual Chard, a chard that I got from Territorial Seed (http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1129/s). It is apparently bolt resistant and can eventually perennialize in zones 7 up. Exciting as I like not having to mess with parts of my garden more than usual because it's plenty of work already!
I am also devoting one of the smaller beds to blue and red kales with mache/corn salad on the the far sides of the bed. Mache is described as being so tender it will melt in your mouth, so THAT sounds delish (from Botanical Interests: http://www.botanicalinterests.com/store/search_results_detail.php?seedtype=V&seedid=436). Mache supposedly is a perennial too, and with it being on each end of the bed, it can fill itself in if it likes or I can just pull the middle annuals out if I like. I understand that I could potentially let the kale's self seed, but in the summer, kale's not that great and slightly bitter and got super bug-ttacked.
Finally, another small bed is being devoted to Strawberry Spinach/Beetberry (http://www.territorialseed.com/product/975/s) which I hope germinates well and will perennialize too as it's a pretty cool looking plant and "very European." Oh I feel so debonair saying that ;) I purchased this as well from Territorial seed.
If all goes well in my garden I should be building up the perennials (maybe even malabar spinach will continue to love me next year with enough mulching to keep it warm until spring!) and then I can stop with the whole hard work thing! (ha ha.)
(I'd also like to grow Tom Thumb buttercrunch lettuce (http://www.territorialseed.com/product/897/s): because it sounds so darn cute, but I'm the only salad eater here :(
This fall (true fall when it's consistently below 80 degrees, hope), with the assumption that all my fall vegetable planting is done I will be working on prettifying the garden so that not only does it look tidy and full of vegetables, but will have flowers year round (if I plan this correctly) to keep the pollinators here and always busy.
Now if I can just get a hold of some butterfly plants to stop the swallowtail butterfly caterpillars from decimating my parsley/cilantro that'll be nice.
My husband keeps saying, "It's almost fall! It's almost fall!" and I sort of look at him and say, "There's plenty of summer here, baby." After all, it's Tennessee and the temperatures are pretty warm even into October.
Last I remembered at least.
Despite the current and predictable early fall heat, I am pumped about fall gardening, to the point that I almost wish my tomatoes would be DONE already so I can get some peas back into the ground and be able to sit back again and not have to pamper anything in my garden like heat lovers force me to do.
Plus I've always found peas (sugar, snow and English) satisfying in their yields and I can eat their tips. Tomatoes mean only fruit eatin'.
This reminds me of my most likely unsuccessful attempt at sweet potato growing, as I got lazy/poor in getting proper soil/amendments to pile up in the large bucket I was growing them in. As long as I can get a few I'll be pleased and maybe I can still pile up some dirt at this point? Either way, what I was getting at is that sweet potato leaves and tips can be eaten too, like a tastier spinach (aren't other greens, nearly always?)
Multipurpose vegetables=good
But back to cool weather gardening (unfortunately having to be started in !@$#@ hot weather).
My plan is completely tear down the bean and cuke trellises by September, all the tomatoes by the then or mid-Sept. and plant various peas in their places. I like using bush-type/no-support needing peas too to delineate between my beds of parsnips, turnips and carrots (well, those are good delineators too).
I will be planting lucullus chard, sold at my local mom n' pop, Russell's, and nearby I will plant Perpetual Chard, a chard that I got from Territorial Seed (http://www.territorialseed.com/product/1129/s). It is apparently bolt resistant and can eventually perennialize in zones 7 up. Exciting as I like not having to mess with parts of my garden more than usual because it's plenty of work already!
I am also devoting one of the smaller beds to blue and red kales with mache/corn salad on the the far sides of the bed. Mache is described as being so tender it will melt in your mouth, so THAT sounds delish (from Botanical Interests: http://www.botanicalinterests.com/store/search_results_detail.php?seedtype=V&seedid=436). Mache supposedly is a perennial too, and with it being on each end of the bed, it can fill itself in if it likes or I can just pull the middle annuals out if I like. I understand that I could potentially let the kale's self seed, but in the summer, kale's not that great and slightly bitter and got super bug-ttacked.
Finally, another small bed is being devoted to Strawberry Spinach/Beetberry (http://www.territorialseed.com/product/975/s) which I hope germinates well and will perennialize too as it's a pretty cool looking plant and "very European." Oh I feel so debonair saying that ;) I purchased this as well from Territorial seed.
If all goes well in my garden I should be building up the perennials (maybe even malabar spinach will continue to love me next year with enough mulching to keep it warm until spring!) and then I can stop with the whole hard work thing! (ha ha.)
(I'd also like to grow Tom Thumb buttercrunch lettuce (http://www.territorialseed.com/product/897/s): because it sounds so darn cute, but I'm the only salad eater here :(
This fall (true fall when it's consistently below 80 degrees, hope), with the assumption that all my fall vegetable planting is done I will be working on prettifying the garden so that not only does it look tidy and full of vegetables, but will have flowers year round (if I plan this correctly) to keep the pollinators here and always busy.
Now if I can just get a hold of some butterfly plants to stop the swallowtail butterfly caterpillars from decimating my parsley/cilantro that'll be nice.
Sunday, April 26, 2009
The attraction to all things thorny
As I am attempting to add to my garden more “Methesulah” type plants (those that produce forever), the idea of artichokes caught my eye. As some of you may have been able to ascertain, I am not the most patient girl in the world and so I got really giddy which I heard of the Imperial Star artichoke variety that produces fruit in its first year.
Unfortunately I had to nix the idea due to lack of room/planning for a plant that gets that big. I was more saddened by the fact that I would not get to run around the yard chasing my husband with a big thorny ended stick.
Now the question is, why do I really want to grow artichokes? Answer: obviously because I like violence. No! I am really a peace loving person! I have contemplated growing patchouli in the herb garden!
Run free my plants!
For a while I was on the cuff as to whether or not I wanted to start an asparagus bed because my research showed that it took SO LONG (3 years to be precise) before you could even start harvesting. Luckily they do sell 2 years old and 3 year old asparagus plants, but I heard that the 3 year olds were not so great and were of very little difference in growth compared to the 2 year old plants (other than the exorbitant price hike).
The lure of plants that could provide me with 30 years (or more!) of harvests and fact that Gurneys does “buy one set, get one free” was too great of deal that we bit. Naturally I was bored and poked at the plants for the first year, scowling at the tiny q-tip thin fronds that came up the first year, but this year, yes, their older brothers have arrived (I am not anti-sister, sisters, I just have male plants, dig it?)
Despite not a huge harvest (potentially due to the fast we had to move the plants and their massive root systems elsewhere earlier in the year because the spot they were in was not good), we’ve gotten a good number of thumb-thick stalks and are lovin’ it. Take that McDonalds. (Dear lard, I just imagined Mickey D’s deep frying asparagus now and serving it in little cardboard boxes!)
Speaking of Gurney’s, this is the same supplier that enticed me with their “buy one, get one free!” strawberry plants. I foolishly did not plant them in a raised bed and they escaped, scampering their way underneath the fence into my neighbor’s backyard and the park. It’s somewhat amusing to see the plants meandering along the fence (they won’t do well I suspect because there is little light there with the huge trees and all, but still, they survive!) Nothing tastes better than Houdini produce.
The lure of plants that could provide me with 30 years (or more!) of harvests and fact that Gurneys does “buy one set, get one free” was too great of deal that we bit. Naturally I was bored and poked at the plants for the first year, scowling at the tiny q-tip thin fronds that came up the first year, but this year, yes, their older brothers have arrived (I am not anti-sister, sisters, I just have male plants, dig it?)
Despite not a huge harvest (potentially due to the fast we had to move the plants and their massive root systems elsewhere earlier in the year because the spot they were in was not good), we’ve gotten a good number of thumb-thick stalks and are lovin’ it. Take that McDonalds. (Dear lard, I just imagined Mickey D’s deep frying asparagus now and serving it in little cardboard boxes!)
Speaking of Gurney’s, this is the same supplier that enticed me with their “buy one, get one free!” strawberry plants. I foolishly did not plant them in a raised bed and they escaped, scampering their way underneath the fence into my neighbor’s backyard and the park. It’s somewhat amusing to see the plants meandering along the fence (they won’t do well I suspect because there is little light there with the huge trees and all, but still, they survive!) Nothing tastes better than Houdini produce.
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