Rossland REAL Food presents: Edible Garden Tour August 21, 2010 Summary of things learned, people met and skills acquired.
Summer is progressing and the gardens have changed with the season. Some crops have been harvested and replaced with fall plantings, some crops are yielding now, some have yet to bear ‘fruit’. The sudden heat of summer affected squash and cucumbers differently, depending on their aspect, degree of shade, and planting method.
Vegetables Beans & Peas Broad beans (Fava Beans) Sarah Flood left the 3 of best plants in her garden, in order to harvest seed. By August 21, these plants and their seed pods had dried completely, and she harvested the seed. Pole beans Pole beans of all varieties are yielding in all six host gardens. Janet & Terry Marshall are growing “Kaslo Green Beans” from Laird Creek Seeds, up strings suspended from an old swing set frame. These beans are great tasting pencil-pods. Barb and Bruce Robinson’s green “Emirate” beans are yielding nicely, and taste good even when large. Libby and Iain Martin’s bean pods are a dramatic purple color. Sarah Flood is growing a selection of 8 varieties as part of a trial for Seeds of Diversity and will be collecting data on their performance. Methods for trellising & supporting the bean vines vary from garden to garden, but mostly involve some sort of support frame plus lines of string. Marrowfat peas Marrowfat peas are not eaten fresh – they are dried and used for soups. Sarah Flood grew a highly productive variety called “Blue Pod Capucijners” , which she got from Heritage Harvest Seeds. These climbing vines have pretty purple flowers and are harvested when the plants are yellow and the pods are fibrous and almost dry. Sarah let the harvested pods dry completely off the plants before shelling the dry seeds. Fresh eating peas Peas are now ‘finished’ in some gardens and still yielding in others. All of the host gardeners grew peas of the vining/climbing types. Barb and Bruce Robinson use support frames that can be moved from one raised bed to the next, since they rotate their crops every year. Barb uses innoculant with peas and beans and says that this improves yield and decreases insect damage. Broccoli and other brassicas
Janet & Terry Marshall’s cauliflower is ready to harvest, and the surrounding leaves have been tied close around the heads in order to maintain the white color. Sarah Golling’s cabbage has been harvested and the brussell sprouts are starting to form. Kale is growing vigorously in several of the host gardens.
Corn Last year, Ed and Deyanne Davies grew their corn in the greenhouse, and were able to harvest it by midJuly. This year they planted it outside, and on August 21, the ears were still not ready for harvest.
Lettuces & Chards Early lettuces have been harvested in all gardens and Sarah Flood has allowed some of her best plants to go to seed. Several of the host gardeners have replanted lettuce for fall crops, often using the beds vacated by harvested garlic. Sara Golling likes to plant small numbers of lettuces every three weeks, to keep a modest supply of fresh greens going all season. She is pleased with a chard variety called “Discovery” from West Coast Seeds, as this plant produces a vigorous red-veined leaf crop as well as beet-type tubers.
Root Crops Potatoes are ready in some gardens and still growing in others. Janet Marshall has started harvesting hers. Sara Golling’s Yukon Gold and Kennebec are still growing vigorously. Carrots are coming along in all the gardens. Thinning the carrot rows at this time of the season results in some nice carrot snacks! Beets. Some of our host gardeners are also beginning to harvest their beets. Actually they are thinning the rows, eating what they pick, and leaving the rest to get larger. Radishes. Ed and Deyanne Davies recommend ‘Ping Pong’ radishes from Coastal Seeds. These are white and mild flavored. Radishes can go in now for a fall crop. Barb Robinson has a vigorous and very large clump of horseradish plants, whose roots can be used for making horseradish sauce.
Onions & Garlic Onions! The seed packets for Walla Walla onions advise fall planting, but Sara Golling has had success planting started bulbs in the spring. She bought started plants from Columbia Greenhouse. Half of these died for unknown reasons but the rest produced spectacularly large onions which were still in the ground as of August 21. Garlic sends up a curled stem and flower head, or ‘scape’, mid season – these are typically cut off and used for cooking or pickling. Harvest of the bulbs occurs mid summer. By August 21, most of our host gardeners had harvested their garlic. Barb Robinson grows a ‘hard-necked’ type that can be braided, so she pulls up the plant when the top 4 leaves are still green but the lower leaves have yellowed. Sarah Flood grows another type that can’t be braided – she cuts off the stem and air-dries the bulbs.
Here are Barb Robinson’s tips for braiding hard-necked garlic: “Pull the garlic plants when all but the top 4 leaves are dyeing back. Trim off the roots and any dry leaves. Leave 1 pliable leaf and trim off the stem above it. Carefully rub off outer covering of bulb to remove dirt and outer coat. Let garlics rest in an airey place for 2-3 days so that the stems wilt and become more pliable. Gently manipulate any spots beyond 3"-4" from the bulb that are still too firm. Tie some string around a post and group 3 bulbs of garlic together (stems pointing down throughout this whole operation) and tie them together where the stems emerge from the bulbs. Use a bow that can be untied after the braid is complete. To do a 3 strand plait, place a garlic closely below the the beginning group. Fold over the right-hand stem so that it is in the middle (you now have 1 stem on the left, 1 stem in the middle, 2 stems on the right). Add another garlic and fold over the left-hand stem so that it is in the middle (you now have 2 stems on the left, 1 stem in the middle, 2 stems on the right). Add another garlic and fold over the righthand stems so that they are in the middle (you now have 2 stems on the left, 2 stems in the middle, 2 stems on the right). Continue in this way until you have added all the garlic that you want in your braid. The braid can get get a bit bulky but the original trimming of the stems reduces this problem. This requires good hand strength but that is something that gardeners already possess. Continue braiding the stems and leaves until the end. Using a latch-hook or largish crochet hook, poke it between the strands through the braid just below the last bulb. Catch the skinny end of the braid and draw it through. Draw it through far enough to put an overhand knot in the skinny end that prevents it from slipping backwards through the thick part of the braid. This forms a convenient loop for hanging the braid up. Alternatively you can stop braiding 5" after adding the last garlic, tie off well with string and trim off remaining stems and leaves.” Barb hangs her garlic ropes to dry down in the basement from nails in the floor joists and brings up one at a time to the kitchen for use.
Squashes & Cucumbers We all know that squash plants need sun and heat, but did you know that there can be too much of a good thing? This summer, the squash that Ed and Deyanne Davies planted in metal tubs in the full sun, and the squash and cucumbers that they planted in their greenhouse were burned by the sun. The leaves of these plants yellowed and the growth was slower than for squash plants that received shade during part of the day. All of the other squash plants we saw on August 21 were growing large and sprawling over their gardens. The Davies’ special-for-the-Fall-Fair pumpkin is adding inches per day, with help from Deyanne, who pinched off all other flowers and fruits. Sarah Flood left for a week and returned to find a monster zucchini.
Fruits Tomatoes ‘Stupich’ is a Russian variety and the first to ripen in Janet Marshall’s garden. Janet saves seed from the first tomato to ripen. “Gold Nugget” cherry tomatoes from West Coast Seeds are ripening under a plastic tent in Sara Gollings garden. They have a real tomato flavor with a sweet aftertaste. The greenhouse-grown tomatoes at the Martins, Davies and Floods are also yielding now. Outdoor tomatoes are still green.
Eggplants Small eggplants are nearing harvest size under plastic tents in Sara Golling’s and Sarah Flood’s gardens.
Strawberries Determinate varieties have been harvested and are no longer producing, while indeterminate varieties are still bearing fruit. Ed Davies grows strawberries in two beds of different ages. He keeps the mother plants for 2 years only. They produce a little the first year, then come into full production during the second year. At the end of the second year, he removes the mother plants and runners, digs composted manure into the bed, and then re-plants the runners. Sara Golling is using pine needles as a mulch for her strawberries, and she has heard that the pine needles enhance the flavor of the berries. She also works rock phosphate into the soil for her berries.
Raspberries The raspberries started yielding in August and are still going. Don’t forget to water during this time!
Kiwis The paired kiwis in Barb Robinson’s garden are a few years old now and have climbed her fence. The female plant is growing well and the male is only just starting to bloom this year. Barb is looking forward to next year and some fruit, which will apparently be grape sized and hairless.
Medicinal & Culinary Herbs Elencampane. The roots from this tall, water-loving plant can be used as a cough remedy. Janet Marshall donated one of these plants to the Community Garden, and it is planted at the lower end of the raised berm, across from the herb spiral. Elencampane is available from Richters Seed Company. Clary Sage. Janet Marshall uses this plant as a gargle for gingivitis, and as an immune system booster. When we visited her garden on August 21, this plant was flowering profusely, and she harvested the flowering stems. Lemon Verbana. This plant (which almost looks like a small bush) has lovely, lemon-scented leaves and is good for making teas and sleep aids. Summer Savory. Cook this with beans and no gas, says Janet! Rosemary. Rosemary can grow outside here in the summer but must come inside in the winter. Janet Marshall grows several different varieties, all of which live in pots. Horseradish. Now there’s a big plant! Give this one room to grow (up and out), and you can harvest the roots to make horseradish sauce. Barb Robinson has a great big plant in her garden.
Watering Methods Some of our host gardeners use sprinklers, some use soaker hoses, and some water by hand. Tomatoes and some other plants like their water deep underground, so Sarah Flood drills tiny pin-holes into the bottom and lower sides of large plastic jugs, then buries these up to the neck in her garden plots. She fills the jugs with water and screws on the cap. Water seeps slowly out of the jugs into the soil.
Hoop & tent houses These are hand-made frames draped with clear plastic. Sarah Golling uses a wooden frame for a ‘tent’ effect, Janet Marshall uses an old swingset frame and gets the same ‘tent’ shaped ‘house’. Sarah Flood made a low ‘hoop’ house to cover one of her beds. The hoop-shaped supports are made from pieces of flexed irrigation pipe. The hollow ends of the pipes fit over short pieces of rebar which is pounded into the soil at the sides of the bed. In both styles of ‘houses’, the plastic lays over the top of the supports and is anchored to the ground with weights or clipped onto the frame. The plastic sides can be left down or clipped up for watering, ventilation or cooling. Some garden hosts use clear construction-style plastic purchased in large roles from hardware stores, others used ventilated plastic made specifically for garden use. Often the plastic covers are used for the cooler parts of the season and removed during the height of the summer. Some plants respond well to continual cover, and both Sara Golling and Sarah Flood have kept their tomatoes and eggplants under cover for the whole season. As a result, their tomatoes and eggplants were ripening by August 21.
Pollinators Many of our garden food plants require insect pollinators in order to set seed and make fruit. There seem to be fewer honeybees these days, and some of our host gardeners have noticed a drop in productivity. There are a few things we can do about this. • Plant flowers. Lots of flowers attract what pollinators there are to the garden. • Plant extra oregano and thyme. Flowers of these herbs attract bees. • Provide nesting sites for mason bees and other native pollinators. About mason bees. These native bees are effective pollinators. They do not live in colonies. Instead, they live and forage as single individuals. The females lay their eggs inside tunnels within wooden objects. By providing appropriate nesting sites (habitats), we can encourage mason bees to frequent our gardens, and we can help to increase local populations of these bees. Fortunately, it is easy to make mason bee habitats, given the right drill bit and a big-enough piece of wood. Castlegar entomologist Lynn Westcott
[email protected] has been teaching people how to do this, using nest block directions from the Xerces Society (Xerces.org). Ed and Deyanne Davies learned the techniques from Lynn, and immediately made a mason bee habitat from a large post. They installed this in their garden, and bees have been laying eggs in it. Yay, more pollinators! To help the rest of us get started, Rossland REAL Food group will organize a habitat-making workshop this fall.
Insect & slug pests Here are some tips and tricks offered up by our host gardeners about how to discourage or repel insect and slug pests. • • • • • •
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Interplant rows of onions and carrots for insect control. The onions repel carrot pests and vice versa. (Marshall) Carrots planted in raised box beds are not found by carrot flies, as the fly flies along the surface of the ground and does not get high enough to find the carrots. (Davies) Horseradish planted at the ends of potato rows protect the potatoes from bugs (Robinson). Using innoculant when planting bean and pea seed results in more vigorous plants and less insect damage. (Robinson) Spraying plants in the early morning with cold water will cause aphids to drop off (Robinson). Lupins attract aphids and can be used as a trap crop. Barb Robinson reports that some people plant lupins throughout their gardens to attract aphids. Since the aphids prefer the lupins they stay there instead of moving onto the crop plants. Copper wire mesh deters slugs (Robinson). So do crumbled eggshells on the soil around plant stems (Marshall). And there is always the ‘pinch and squish’ method.
Seed Saving Always save the very best plants for seeds! Decide what characteristics you are looking for – earliest, tastiest, disease/insect resistant, most productive in your garden environment, etc – and save seeds from those plants. We are fortunate to have some experienced seed savers and seed starters in our community. They will be sharing their knowledge during the September garden tour and via workshops during this fall and winter. Meanwhile, here are some seed saving methods for food plants.
Tomatoes: The classic method involves fermenting the seeds before drying them. Here is a simpler method that works for Janet Marshall. Cut the tomatoes, squish the pulp out onto parchment paper and dry it on a window sill. When dry, fold the paper over the seed and store the paper packet in a paper bag.
More Seed Sources: Sarah Flood gets most of her seed from the following suppliers: Heritage Harvest Seeds, http://www.heritageharvestseed.com/index.html Jim Ternier in Saskatchewan, http://www.prseeds.ca/ Salt Spring seeds http://www.saltspringseeds.com/ … and the Slocan Valley Seedy Sunday seed swap Libby Martin gets some of her seeds from: William Dam, http://www.damseeds.ca Veseys, http://www.veseys.com/ca/en/ … and Gardenimport, http://www.gardenimport.com
