Design

I had a lovely visit this afternoon with good friends from the Lowcountry of South Carolina to a biodynamic vegetable garden here in Asheville, grown by experienced vegetable gardeners and committed water recyclers (their gray water system was amazing). This tumbler works well enough to be the second one they've bought.  They compost animal manure, vegetable debris, and leaves in this tumbler in fast batches quite rapidly, so they can produce finished compost in several weeks. Their vegetable beds were perfectly maintained and extremely productive, reminding me (yet again) that vegetables are nutrient AND water hogs. Brussel sprouts side-dressed with compost, ready for fall production Their biodynamic treatments are nutrient-rich; although, as a scientist, I'm not inclined to think that energy is transferred to the mixtures through stirring,  I'm more than happy to see the results. Their garden was producing LOTS of vegetables, and their plants looked great.

Bare branches, open landscapes and remnants of snow greeted us in the mountains. The air was clear and the mountains visible, without the humid haze of summer. With more normal winter temperatures, it's not frigid, thankfully. But happily it's time to be thinking about spring and summer vegetables. I just have an order or two to still put in; I've already received the tomato, pepper, eggplant, and tomatillo seeds for growing for transplants (most will be donated to produce transplants for Garden Fest, an event to promote vegetable gardening in home gardens at the botanical garden where I work). The rest are for vegetables that benefit from direct seeding -- also many will be offered at Garden Fest. It's so encouraging to see the interest in growing vegetables and other edibles expand. It's part of a sustainable garden, for sure.

Every year is different. Some vegetables (and varieties) do well some years, and others are challenged. I've had lots of tomatoes this year, thanks to abundant spring rains, but largely of a few varieties. Thank goodness for sturdy hybrids that happily produce faced with the usual tomato diseases. My second round of plantings (from tip cuttings) are doing well, too, along with heirloom tomato plants growing in pots (in nice disease-free soil, of course). The second round of squash is flourishing, too, although between squash vine borers and woodchuck herbivory, the early plantings are just about gone. I've left the winter squash and tromboncino squash growing in the satellite garden (maybe they'll outgrow the woodchucks?). The tomatoes look good, maybe the eggplants will produce some non-bitter fruits (some of them have been truly nasty), and maybe the yard-long beans will shake off the aphids, which have been a major garden pest this year.

Maybe I didn't realize quite how remarkable this was before, but this piece in the NY Times was eye-opening. 60 years? Hmm, no wonder there was a campaign going to encourage the next inhabitants of the White House to 'Eat the View.' And thank goodness that Michele Obama is willing to give it a try, although I was touched to see her photo with the kids from a local elementary literally digging up the lawn, accompanied by one of the White House chefs, too. None of their garb seemed suitable for gardening, nor does turning over turf necessarily create a good garden. But, they'll learn, and enjoy the fruits of gardening, to be sure.

Rainbow carrots from my garden I was struck by a comment CEN made in response to a recent post: Growing Vegetables . Among other interesting points, she wrote: 'It's hard to work up much of an interest in vegetable gardening if people don't cook or enjoy a variety of foods or have a curiosity about them-- economic reasons or no. If all people know is to microwave packaged stuff, what's the point of growing vegetables?' Hmm, of course, she's right. But how could you resist these rainbow carrots? Why spend any time growing vegetables unless you enjoy eating them, first and foremost? Sharing and preserving the harvest, as well as the pleasure in gardening itself -- those things are nice, but vegetables and fruits almost nudge you towards harvesting them, no matter how much you might be enjoying their appearance. Thomas Jefferson reportedly took great pleasure in his vegetable garden from an eater's perspective, focusing on vegetables as the primary part of his...

It can seem hard to figure out when to start transplants or sow seeds outdoors. You certainly can't rely on when transplants become available in local garden centers (it's usually WAY too early to put warm season vegetables in the ground). But the best starting point advice (in the U.S.) is information from our state networks of the Cooperative Extension Service, and their equivalents in other places. In my state, I can rely on fact sheets from Clemson University (our state's land grant institution, which through its Public Service Activities includes in its mission to provide science-based agricultural information to end-users.) Our CU Home and Garden Information Center 's factsheet, Planning a Garden , is a great reference for sowing and planting times in the Piedmont, Midlands, and Coastal Plain of South Carolina. Our neighboring states (and states through the U.S., for that matter) have similar useful information distributed through their equivalent Cooperative E...

It would be fabulous if the Obamas diverted part of the White House lawn to an organic vegetable garden. Why not, really? Lawns are fine, in moderation, but huge expanses don't make a lot of sense, ecologically or otherwise. Kitchen Gardeners International has been using blogging and internet power to encourage this idea since WAY before our US election in November. And this idea won a non-profit contest for best initiative from OnDayOne.org. And why shouldn't we try to grow more food in the city, as this link suggests? And those of us in rural and suburban areas, with available space, certainly why not?

Cabbage is a crop with many relatives. They include broccoli, kale, collard greens, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, broccoli rabe, and kohlrabi, in addition to other variations. Brassica oleracea , or Wild Mustard, has given rise to an impressive diversity of crop plants, illustrating the selective possibilities in a single species, to be sure. A keen and experienced local (near where I garden) vegetable gardener (CEN) mentioned cabbages in a comment on a recent post. She mentioned a large cabbage with a pointed top, that was so large that it's chopped off in pieces for sale. It got me thinking about cabbage variations, and the HUGE cabbages that we saw in northern Vietnam. An early morning outside of Sapa found us poking around in nearby vegetable and flower gardens. There were the largest cabbages I'd ever seen growing in the understory of a forest canopy. This photo doesn't really reflect how LARGE the cabbages were, without a relative scale to compare. We were ce...

A brief mention of rotating vegetables in a talk yesterday morning encouraged a question about how to rotate garden crops -- important for a sustainable (organic) kitchen garden, simple in concept, but sometimes challenging in practice. The principle is simple: rotate crops that are grown in a single area by plant family. There are a number of plant families represented in common vegetables, but not so many that it's easy to avoid repeat plantings. Ground rules: Don't plant tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, or potatoes (tomato family: Solanaceae) in the same area for 3 (preferably four) years, ditto with kale, broccoli, cabbage (mustard family: Brassicaceae). Alternate plantings with lettuce, chicory, marigolds (in the Asteraceae, or daisy family), carrots, parsley, fennel, or dill (in the parsley family: Apiaceae), onions, garlic, and shallots (in the onion family: Alliaceae), beans and peas (in the pea family: Fabaceae), squash and gourds (in the squash family: Cucurbitaceae)...

The photos are from the market in Hoi An, Vietnam, the market in Pisac, Peru, and a vegetable grower in his home garden near Hoi An. We have two farmer's markets in our immediate community now -- the one on campus is associated with the Student Organic Farm, and the other is in a small historic town nearby. Both are wonderful to have; I like to visit both, even though we don't exactly need many vegetables this time of the year. (We did a CSA share with the Student Farm for several seasons, before I realized that there was no way that the two of us could eat all those vegetables, in addition to what I was growing - and finally, the huge bunches of edamame two weeks in a row - in pods and on their stems in a giant bag, was the tipping point). And, they're really nice students, but they don't always know that the secret to delectable vegetables is to harvest them at the perfect time -- when they're young and tender, not when they're big, especially with squash an...

It's hard to imagine in mid-summer, when it's so hot and humid here, but I should already have stout brussels sprouts and broccoli seedlings ready to transplant if I want to attempt a fall crop. The seedlings that I have are pretty small, so I'll have to hope that they'll do OK. But, I have all the seeds I need to start sowing the last rows of summer beans and squash, and gradually work my way through the sequence of planting beets, carrots, kale, lettuce, peas and spinach (not necessarily in that order!) A friend was lamenting the absence of any tomato transplants for fall in our local big box garden centers. It's a pity since it would be a great time to put in a 'second shift of tomatoes' in our warm climate. For us, as odd as it seems in a rural area, either growing your own seedlings, or ordering transplants through mail order are the primary options, unless you manage to get some at a local farmer's market. I was delighted to read a By Design ...

About a hundred yards away from the edge of a new development nearby -- through a woods edge full of muscadine and poison ivy -- is quite a different sight. In an old city recreation park (the ball fields were moved to a larger park elsewhere), community garden plots have been available to residents for an annual fee. There are about 12 of them -- very generously sized and provided, at least in this initial phase, with tilling, water, planting advice, and soaker hoses. I think this is the 3rd season of the program and every plot is currently taken. I dropped by this afternoon, and several of the plot holders were harvesting tomatoes, okra, beet greens, and tidying and tending their plots. This is something that I'd like to see a lot more here!

My morning walk takes an occasional loop through a new neighborhood, not far from our established one. Developed on the site of a series of old horse pastures, it supported grasses and forbs with large trees on the perimeter. Currently, there are 4 completed houses with inhabitants, two houses for sale, and one in the final stages of construction. All quite large, of course, with expansive space around them. This is not remarkable, unfortunately, but what is fascinating (and scary) is how uncreative the landscapes are. This is not for lack of spending money on the landscape, mind you. The rows of leyland cypresses, ornamental shrub beds, and heavily watered turf sodded in great expanses strikes me as unmodern and not forward-thinking at all. The water is streaming from overhead irrigation in the morning. Why not add a diversity of interesting (and fast-growing) native trees to create shade instead of crepe-myrtles? Or native conifers and pine? And where are the vegetables? On...

It's a good thing that we're not totally dependent on my potato harvest for sustenance, although South Carolina is hardly a prime potato growing location. 'Caribe' potatoes seem to do the best, although I've had harvests from all the varieties I've tried. I'm still learning about potatoes - in my second year of growing them, my ecological instincts (about native plants) don't necessarily serve me well with nutrient and water-hungry crops. And, certainly, dry weather doesn't help. But we had some delicious fresh potatoes (along with new garlic and onions) for dinner, so I'm happy with that. But, I'm enjoying thinking about rotations, and what to put in the potato beds after they're done. (They still have small developing potatoes at the end of underground stems -- do I water and side-dress with compost and hope for more potatoes -- or do I dig up everything and plant beans, or wait until mid-July and plant fall-maturing cole crops, or ...

The main vegetable garden is looking nice, thanks to water still available from the faucet. But I'm worrying about the summer to come. It's been exceptionally hot for June (pushing 100°F) - yuck - and not a drop of rain for the last couple of weeks. Not 'normal' at all, and the midwestern U.S. has been deluged with rain. I've got spots ready to swap out for new plantings, for beans, more tomatoes, and peppers, and basil. It looks like the potatoes are ready to be harvested, too, and something put in their place. I'm hoping for thunderstorms this week!

Before planting late this afternoon, I swirled around a batch of soaked peas (sugar snap and sugar sprint) in the recently-arrived packet; it created a rather evil-looking dark inoculant 'slurry' boasting 200 million live Rhizobium spp. good for peas, beans and other legumes. I've had lots of fun sharing my enthusiasm for growing vegetables, edible flowers, and herbs in two recent programs. One was about Creative Uses of Herbs and Edibles , the other about Three-season Vegetable Gardening. I was inspired to extend my vegetable gardening seasons by Eliot Coleman, Four-Season Harvest , and Barbara Pleasant's Warm-Climate Gardening . If Eliot Coleman, in Maine, can be harvesting vegetables through the winter, surely here in South Carolina, even in the the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, I can grow things for three seasons, working on four. I had a great group of participants for both programs. I love my vegetable garden; gardening for nature may be a primary i...