Northwest Vegetable Gardening

[Eden]

My radishes were all tops and no radish when I used organic veggie fertilizer on them. So I started just seeding and watering, no fertilizer, and they are great (French breakfast and cherry belle).

I wonder if this is the problem with my carrots - we have crappy soil as a starting point (love that seattle glacial till!) so we've got a ton of steer manure over the top, but that might be encouraging the green fluffy bits up top while the roots just sit there...

We can't eat peas fast enough to keep up with the snap peas around here, and the lettuce is totally out of hand! I ate my first wild strawberry yesterday

[Eden]

I hope everyone's gardens are doing well in the heat. At least it's a change for them

The lettuce has started to bolt in mine. I'm going to plant the next round someplace shadier... lots of little strawberries are ready to be picked & the birds and I are fighting over the cherries...

[kiliki]

I got my first tomatoes, from "Glacier" that had a Wall O'Water on it until June.

[beauxbrie]

We've had about a dozen and a half sungold tomatoes, starting about a week and a half ago. They are sweet, but seem smaller so far than what I've had in the past.

The favas are finally ready to pick--but quite a few plants had to be pulled because they were completely covered with black aphids. We have never had aphids so bad!

Fennel is happy too--braised some last weekend and had it over pasta with some pancetta--yummy!

[Eden]

I'm jealous. My favas are no-where near ready, ditto the tomatos, but at least there's more than one tomato now - for a while I thought it was going to be an "only child"

I was reading that you're supposed to rotate your tomatoes to different beds every few years, but there's really no better place inside my yard to grow them except where they are now. Is this really necessary? My only other sunny option is the parking strip.

we've been eating Blackberries by the bucketful! We've gotten a nice handful or two of raspberries as well & expect that by next year we'll be harvesting these in notable quantities as well. The Wineberry has lots of clusters, so I'm hopeful that they'll open soon.

There are 4 count them four little berries on the black currant we just put in this year!

We also harvested our first round of carrots. We decided to grow the little thumbellinas this year because we'd had no luck with regular carrots in the past, but these little round guys are doing great. I'm thinking of tossing in some radish seed, now that I know shallow rooted root veggies will work for me.

What are other folks planning for their fall/winter crops? I'm not a big fan of the brassicas so I'm just not feeling inspried...

[beauxbrie]

Eden, I'm glad your tomato is not an only child! Have hope for the favas, if they are not getting eaten alive by aphids, then there's hope.

I plant my tomatoes in a different section of my p-patch every year, so that in general they are not in the same place as they were in the previous 2 years (does that make sense?). I don't know how much it matters, but crop rotation is always suggested for organic gardening, so I do it. Being in a p-patch, it's all sunny, so I'm lucky that it doesn't really matter where in the patch they are.

My carrots are poking along slowly--I always grow regular (purple and orange) and usually they grow really well, but this year they have been slow to germinate and somewhat sporadic in their germination as well. No idea why.

I have a seasonal p-patch, so don't do fall/winter crops.

[kiliki]

I've read that rotating tomatoes is necessary, too--garden experts seem pretty adamant about this--but so far I haven't done it. I'm like you, Eden, in that they always get my sunniest spot, and there really isn't any other good place for them. I suppose I could put them in containers one year to give the raised beds a break, and just supplement by buying at the farmer's market.

I've never done much fall/winter gardening--what have people had the most success with?

[duck833]

I think this is the summer of basil, just went out and cut all the seed head off the crop, hope it keeps growing.

Tomatoes loved the heat of July, we have lots and they are starting to get light color. Have picked a few from the early varieties.

[v. gautam]

Eden,

A. Alliums

Right about now, you could sow Japanese scallions, Ishikura and nebuka types, available from Kitazawa Seeds Oakland CA and elsewhere for overwintering. Elephant garlic are leeks that also overwinter well in some microclimates. Of course, there are the garlics, the hard-necks and the soft-necks. Other alliums like shallots for next year [get ready], multiplier onions, ramps.

B. Greens

B.1.Lettuces Buttercrunch, red lettuces are very cold tolerant,

B.2. mizuna though a brassica may surprise you, great for cutting in salads

B.3. choi sum likewise a great tasty cooking green different from run of the mill brassicas like kale or collards, good for salads in baby stages as well

B.4. around august 22 Spinach cv. Olympia for fall crop; cv. Monnopa for low-oxalic acid

B.5. Overwintering spinach cultivars; see Territorial Seed for availability or Univ. Extension services; John Navazio, spinach breeder etc.

B.6. Sow fenugreek if inclined to experiment with this delicious green avidy consumed by Indians: buy seed from Indian grocery or wherever fenugreek is sold as spice

B.7. Cilantro.

B.8. Beetroot, chard, black spanish radish, Parmex type carrot, small-seeded mache for succession sowing [Verte de Cambrai type], claytonia [miner's lettuce], dill for cutting.

C. Peas: for pods and shoots [especially from snowpeas]

Short and medium duration accordng to your microclimate

1. Dualis

2. Alderman [tall]

3. Frosty short, fast maturing

[kermie]

for slugs - try half a grapefruit (cleaned out more or less) turned over then at night or in the morning they all climb in there and you can just pick them up in one go and toss.

for earwigs (sp?) - get a stick with an overturned little pot stuffed with straw. they climb in there and again pick and toss.

am about to go check whats in the garden now.

[Eden]

<with much snipping>

A. Alliums

B. Greens

B.6. Sow fenugreek if inclined to experiment with this delicious green avidy consumed by Indians: buy seed from Indian grocery or wherever fenugreek is sold as spice

C. Peas: for pods and shoots [especially from snowpeas]

Thanks for the suggestions!

I enjoy using fenugreek in cooking occasionally, but have never come across it in plant form. I did find this re it's cultivation though: "Fenugreek likes warmth: its growth is slow and weak in cold temperatures or wet soils." which makes me wonder if it is well adapted for Pacific Northwest winters.

I'll look for some spinach seeds for sure, and put in another round of carrots. I already have a good snow pea that will grow so happily through the winter, people stop in amazement when they pass it by on the street (Ferry Morse: Melting Sugar snow peas)

[LaurieA-B]

The Edible Plant Sale at Seattle Tilth is today and tomorrow (May 2 and 3). Great selection.

[MT-Tarragon]

We put in our first garden this year; always lived in Seattle apartments previously with no room to grow anything. Now we're out in Prosser and have some room.

We put our tomato starts out too early this month and three days of cold and rain killed them all. Well, it also killed the peppers, broccoli and Brussel sprouts. It was very sad. Lesson learned. We've since bought some new tomato and pepper starts from a neighbor and planted some new seed just to say we grew some tomato plants of our own.

Our lettuce got off to a rocky start as it was being mysteriously eaten all the time down to little nubs. When we discovered that the culprit were quail, a bit of netting fixed the problem and we now have some really nice lettuce. Spinach is also doing well, though the chard is moving a bit slowly.

Beans and peas are growing rapidly, though we are having a devil of a time with ground squirrels eating the peas. They dig right under any fencing or netting we try.

The squash plants appear to be doing well, along with the cucumbers. Watermelon and charentais melon are coming along more slowly.

We planted a lot of herbs, too, and have tarragon, oregano and basil. We transplanted some mint, thyme and another oregano from indoors and they are struggling, but surviving. Cilantro, parsley, marjoram and more basil are just coming up. Dill, too, but it was recently victimized by the ground squirrels as well. Or birds. Hard to know sometimes.

The onions and beets are doing very well. I was given some shallot seed, but they haven't come up, yet.

We ate the first strawberry a few days ago -- the first food we have grown ourselves other than herbs.

We planted asparagus late and it is growing, so we hope that there will be a crop next year. Same with the rhubarb.

We also planted several types of flowers to aid in attracting insects and birds as well as some medicinal herbs.

We probably went a bit crazy with our first garden and planted way too much, but it's been a great learning experience so far and will continue to be, I'm sure.

More pics at imageGullet