Gardening In The Mud

Volunteer calendula

Remember "rain, rain, go away"? I've felt like chanting that some days, even though I know I'll be wishing for it when our summer dry spell hits. Seems like every time I make a date with myself to work in the garden, it rains! We've had about 7 inches of rain over the past 4 weeks, which is good to ward off drought status, but nothing seems to have had a chance to dry out. So I've had to plant in the mud (sweet potato slips), and harvest in the mud (potatoes and garlic). Though gardening in the mud isn't recommended, I'm finding that with permanent beds, at least I don't have to worry so much about compacting the soil.

My garden efforts have been sporadic because we're making the kitchen a priority. I need to get it done before canning season starts. In spite of all the weeds, and with the exception of the potatoes, everything is doing well, even if it was planted late. And all my volunteers are amazing!

Volunteers: a sunflower & 4 O'clocks.

Last year, I planted 4 o'clocks as companions to my potatoes. Also known as Marvel of Peru, they are truly marvelous. And colorful. The seeds were sold as annuals, which in most parts of the country they are. Here in our milder climate though, they can grow as the perennials they really are. My plants grew back bigger than ever.

Amish Paste tomatoes & borage

My tomatoes are blooming. I planted Amish Paste directly because I didn't have time to start plants early. As you can see, not all came up. I planted two beds and have 29 tomato plants. If all goes well I'll have plenty. In the past I've planted Romas, so this is a new variety for me. The borage (at least I hope its borage; this is another new one for me), is a companion for the tomatoes. I also planted marigolds in the bed.

Amish Paste tomatoes, marigolds, and volunteer broom corn

They're coming up along with some volunteer broom corn. At first I was going to pull these, but then I decided to try them as living tomato stakes. Plus, the goats love broom corn seed as grain and the leaves.

My sweet potatoes are doing well,

Row of Vardaman sweet potatoes on the right
Parsnips flowering in the back left

I'm still trying to root the last of the slips, but hopefully it won't be too late for them. Yesterday I raked the mulch back from the aisle. This has worked pretty well to keep some of the weeds down. Actually now would be the time to mulch everything to keep the moisture in the soil. Mulching will have to wait because we've got to get the kitchen done.

The Egyptian walking onions are walking,

Egyptian Walking Onion topsets falling to the ground

All parts are edible: the little bulblets, called topsets, the greens, and the onion bulbs that grow in the ground. By either picking or letting the topsets fall to the ground, you can direct where the onions walk.

Taylor Dwarf Horticultural Beans
and Marketmore cucumbers. I think. 

Ever in search of yet another dried bean, I'm trying Taylor Dwarf Horticultural beans this year. They are a bush bean. We love Black Turtles, but I'd like some variety too. Neither of the white beans I tried did very well. I'm pretty sure that with them, are Marketmore 76 cucumbers I planted from saved seed. Yesterday though, I found tiny cucumbers growing where I thought I planted butternut squash seeds. And I can't find my garden chart in all the kitchen clutter! Well, maybe it's butternuts that are growing in that other bed.

For those of you interested in companion planting...

Companion comparison: same bean in both photos, different companions

The above comparison shot is of the Taylor Dwarfs, all growing in the same bed. On the left, the beans were planted with the remnants of my fall planted carrots. On the right, they're were planted with the cukes, and are growing where collards used to be. Pretty interesting, huh?

One last shot of more volunteers...

Volunteer amaranth & dill

I have volunteer amaranth and dill, which reseeds itself every year. The volunteers always seem to be bigger and hardier than what grows from seed I plant myself. I need to plant lots more amaranth, because I use the seed heads as feed. I've not tried harvesting any for us because it seems a lot of work to process the seed as grain.

Actually I have a lot more to plant. In some ways I feel behind, but then remind myself that something is better than nothing. Plus, our first summer here we planted a late garden, (June) and it did pretty well.

So how are all you other mud gardeners out there doing? I've been reading your blogs, so I know I'm not the only one having to wrestle with the weather! We have more rain forecast for the weekend, so I'd better get off the computer and get gardening.

Gardening In The Mud © June 2012 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/

September Harvest

September has been my summer garden wrap-up month. Most plants are done producing, so except for seed, I've been gradually pulling things out to get the garden ready for winter.

Popcorn was harvested right before a predicted rain. Most of the stalks were still green, so it was earlier than I havested my popcorn last year. Then again, it was planted later too. With some on the ground because of the storm we had last month, I didn't want to risk mildew. Plus the ants were beginning to take notice, not to mention deer, who apparently have preferred my beds of buckwheat green manure.

Calico popcorn

The variety is Calico. Isn't it pretty? I planted a quarter pound, so we'll see how long that lasts me. I'm a popcorn nut.

Sweet Potatoes. I planted two beds, one of purchased Vardaman slips, one of Porto Rico slips I grew myself.

Vardaman sweet potatoes

We thought the Porto Ricos were okay in flavor and texture, which is why I decided to try another variety. The Vardemans are absolutely excellent. These are going to be my "main SP" from now on. Both are bush varieties, which I like for the terraced beds.

Okra always does well here and continues to produce more than we need.

Okra, both fresh and dried pods (for seed)

The variety is Clemson Spineless. We like it well enough that I've never tried another. It will produce until the frost.

Of potatoes, I got very few.....

Red Pontiac potatoes

This was it. One small basket and quite a few of these don't look that great. Last year I planted 8 pounds and harvested over 120. This year I planted 8 pounds and harvested 13. There were plants all summer, but no potatoes in the end. I might have assumed my poor harvest was because I used potatoes from last year's crop as seed, but my fingerling salad potatoes were newly purchased certified seed potatoes, and also produced very poorly. Interestingly, we got more from the bed that was not planted with beans, a supposed companion to potatoes.

Onions. These were hard to harvest because wire grass had invaded much of where they were planted. The onions are small, but then the sets were small.

Handful of my onion harvest

Green beans. These are Kentucky Wonder pole beans, which I planted as a companion for the field corn. Even harvested, the dead stalks serve as bean poles.

Kentucky Wonder pole beans, for eating fresh & for seed

In fact, the cooler temps seem to have given them a boost. Since I still have quite a few jars canned from last year, we've just been eating green beans fresh. Soon though, it will be time to pull even these out to prepare for a sowing of winter wheat.

I got in my broom corn...

Wheelbarrow load of broom corn stalks

Now all I have to do is learn how to make brooms. :)

I'm still getting an occasional sweet pepper, but not enough to brag about. I have one tomato plant left, a volunteer growing in the front yard. It still gives us a small tomato from time to time. In the past, I've gotten tomatoes right up until first frost, but this year almost all of them up and quit on me at the end of August. :(

There hasn't been much canning, freezing, or dehydrating. The popcorn, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, and onions will be allowed to cure for winter storage. Hopefully next month's garden harvest will continue with the fall garden. The beets have been coming up sporadically, but some are ready to thin. My ultimate garden goal is to be able to harvest something every month! Let's see how well I do this winter.

September Harvest © September 2011 by Leigh at http://my5acredream.blogspot.com/