Lessons from the Garden - Part 5
So many lessons since my last blog on this topic, I'm not sure if I can fit them all in one piece, so here goes. It's interesting how my knowledge builds on prior lessons, so where it makes sense I'll tie this back to other blogs, in case you missed them the first time around. :)
First of all, pumpkins! I have been planting pumpkins every year, with limited success. From my first successful Cinderella pumpkin, planted by accident because I thought I was buying a butternut squash plant, to the saved seeds I got from various pumpkins, I have quite a few different pumpkins growing in the garden this year. I have learned not to plant them too close together as they will cross-pollinate (I swear that's what happened when I planted white pumpkins next to Cinderella pumpkins and got "pale" Cinderella pumpkins). Last year, I planted seeds from a bunch of different "found" pumpkins, and after the pale Cinderella experienced I planted them all over the front yard, anywhere I had space that was getting watered. While they were quite healthy seedlings, they didn't grow well at all once I put them in the ground. They say that pumpkins are "heavy feeders", so this year when I transplanted them I mixed in a shovelful of compost for each plant.
My big excitement this year is that I am growing two types of "big" pumpkins, the Atlantic Giant ones and some called "Big Max". I am actually starting to measure the Atlantic Giant one, you know this girl loves her data! The first time I tried this, I planted it in the front flower bed, being optimistic that it would grow so big I wouldn't want to move it. Hah! Also not a "rich" place to plant, I guess, as it petered out after a few months. I also asked Melissa, my neighbor the flower farmer who grows these quite successfully, what type of fertilizer she used, so I am starting to do that weekly. Fun!
My other learning, besides to plant them in compost, fertilize them, and place different varieties far apart, is that unless you KNOW it's an heirloom when you save seeds, you don't really know what type of pumpkin you will get. This year, Austin and I planted one of my raised beds kind of late, and we planted pumpkin seeds I had saved on both ends. I thought they were Cinderella pumpkins on one end and "green" pumpkins on the other end. Well, the Cinderella pumpkins look like this, so I either got the seeds mixed up or somewhere along the line they hybridized:
And the "green" pumpkins look like this:
The good news is I'll have a pretty pile of pumpkins for the porch steps, but the bad news is I gave away some of these plants thinking I knew what they were!
My worst experience in propagating hybrids this year was with sungold tomatoes. I learned about sungold tomatoes from my neighbor Lynn and have been planting them ever since. This year I got a plant from the plant guy at the Tuesday Farmer's Market, and I have to say it's my most successful tomato plant EVER! I have already picked hundreds of tomatoes and dried a bunch for Katelyn, and it's still going strong. Take a look at this monster!
A couple of years ago I learned how to save tomato seeds, and I did that last year from my sungolds. I was holding out hope that I could get more sungold plants that way, for free, even though I know they're a hybrid. I planted them in the triangle bed, and imagine my delight when they all came up! I potted some up and gave them away, transplanted some, and left the rest to grow.
When they finally got ripe, I was so disappointed to learn they weren't sungolds. Cute little tiny red cherry tomatoes, but not sungolds. Sad!
A couple more tomato experiences this year, I had more plants volunteer in the triangle bed. They are a small oblong shape, like a Roma, so I'm thinking they are
one I bought specifically because it had "tough" skins and I thought they would be good for donation. But so far they don't seem to ripen well, so we'll see. On the other hand, there is also a beautiful red tomato growing that I think is a beefsteak. I love how you are constantly surprised by what's volunteering in your garden.
One of the best things about having grandkids visit is that gardening is one of their favorite activities. Last year, Austin was perusing my Heirloom Seed catalog and fell in love with the "rainbow corn" seeds. The variety is called "Glass Gem", and the next time I was downtown I stopped into the seed store (LOVE THAT PLACE!) and picked some up. He wanted to plant them every time he came over, but we read the back of the package and waited until springtime like the directions said. Come March, we planted them, and they grew nicely on the sunporch (sticker on photo protecting Austin's image online).
I planted them in the triangle bed, where they were watered twice a week. The soil should have been fairly rich there, since I planted a cover crop and amended it heavily last year, but the corn plants didn't fare well. Austin is learning that usually blossoms turn into fruit on most plants, so he was very confused when I said we had to wait for the corn to grow ears! The ears have grown, but they don't feel very fat. I'll wait for Austin to help pick, but it's not looking good. I guess all garden lessons can't have a happy ending!
Onto more fun topics, blackberries! I blogged indepth about blackberries a couple of years ago, so most of my learning is captured there, but recently I had the opportunity to share blackberries in the form of blackberry crisp at our PWC Farm to Table dinner. Sounds easy right? Pick blackberries, find a crisp recipe, and make it right before the event (since the juice from berries tends to soften the topping if left for too long). So the Wednesday before the Thursday dinner, I invited committee members over to help pick, and I got three takers. One of them wasn't even on the committee, but LIKES to pick berries, and for one woman, it was her first time picking berries ever. I calculated the amount of blackberries needed to make crisp for 70 people (thanks ChatGPT) and we successfully picked 36 cups of blackberries. I have to confess that usually I would have had a freezer full by now, but spending 3 weeks out of town during the peak of blackberry picking season left them all on the bush, so I was happy we were able to pick that much.
Now for the learning. I usually make blackberry pie, and though I made apple crisp regularly I wasn't sure the same recipe would work for blackberries, plus I wanted to make a gluten-free version, so I turned to the internet. The recipe I used was this one, and my learning was DON'T USE IT! I should have been suspicious when it called for 6 cups of butter (scarily enough, I had that much on hand). As I was crumbling the butter into the topping, I noticed it seemed like an awful lot. As I pulled it out of the oven, the top was SWIMMING in butter.
Of course, since I had left it to the last minute, I didn't have time to remake it, plus I had used all the berries I had, so I put it in the car and hoped for the best. Two of my committee members dished up the crisp, and since it's pretty juicy anyway, it didn't look bad. We served it with Mariapilar's vanilla ice cream, so I'm sure that helped turn it into a delicious dessert. It got rave reviews! Looking more closely at various crisp topping recipes, I see that most have about half the amount of butter as they do sugar and flour, so lesson learned.
Now I'll turn to my recent experience growing flowers. First of all, I want to share some good news, and the lesson is NEVER LOSE HOPE! I have a section of the garden that I call my memory garden, and it includes roses, violets and iris from my Mom's garden. I had also transplanted a lilac bush from her house, and for many years we enjoyed it in the front garden. Then the deer discovered it, so to protect it I moved it into the backyard, and decided to put it in my memory garden. A couple of years ago, the lilac bush keeled over, and I was upset to discover that the roots had been chewed through, likely due to a gopher or mole. I was really bummed, but also blamed myself since I didn't cage it. I resigned myself to having lost it, and as the bulbs spread and I got another rose from sister Fran, I forgot about the lilac that used to grow there. Imagine my surprise when it regrew! It didn't bloom this year, but I have hope for future years.
In other flower news, you all know that I planted lots of flowers last year for Katelyn's wedding, and absolutely fell in love with cosmos. This year, many volunteered, and I planted seeds I had saved last year from my favorite variety, picotee. Look at all the cosmos in my yard!!! They are taking over, but I'm happy.
Also, I always learn by observing what's happening in the garden. One day when I was out there with the grandkids, this happened. A good excuse not to deadhead if there ever was one!
One more flower topic and I'll move onto critters. I have enjoyed planting sunflowers in the garden, and last year I learned the leaves that get eaten close to the stem are not earwigs like I thought (and which made me mad!), but little finches. They hold onto the stem and eat the part of the leaf they can reach. So interesting when you actually have time to just sit in your garden and observe what's happening around you.
That's how I discovered the little "twitter birds" (as I called them) were actually bushtits, and they built a nest that looked like this! Unfortunately, they moved out while we were on vacation so I didn't get to observe the babies in action, but the nest is still there. I wonder if she'll use it again next year? Here's the video that drew my attention to the nest. Cool, huh?
So the lesson learned from this one, take time to sit in your garden!
OK, back to the sunflowers, here is the recent learning. First of all, last year I was gifted 16 sunflowers my friend Kara had started because we learned they were deer food and we didn't want to plant them at the Liberty Pumpkin field. So I stuck them in everywhere, including next to the carrots I had planted earlier in the spring. The learning came when I tried to harvest the carrots. I literally could not pull it out because the roots were so entwined. Since the sunflowers were done blooming I pulled it out and being the stubborn person that I am, tried to separate the carrot from the sunflower roots. It was impossible! Lesson learned, don't plant sunflowers too close to root crops.
Another learning about sunflowers came from the Sonoma County Gardening group on Facebook. I had never heard of this, but sunflowers are allelopathic, which means they contain compounds that can impact nearby plants, reducing seed germination and stunting the growth of roots and shoots. I haven't noticed a lot of issues, but it's probably because it mostly affects plants that I don't grow, like rhubarb and potatoes. I had noticed that my pole beans, that I thought would LIKE climbing up the sunflower stalk, didn't do well. For more info, here's an article on the topic.
My two favorite sunflower learnings from this year are that they are "cut and come again", at least the varieties I planted. I usually don't harvest sunflowers for bouquets, but I was inspired to do so for our Farm to Table dinner at PWC. What happens when you pick the top flowers, which usually bloom first, is that the lower leaves produce branches that have another flower on them later. Neat!
The other learning is how determined they are to grow! I had started seeds in pots, and later transplanted them to the garden. Look how this sunflower had to twist around in order to grow straight!
One of the things I realized about growing flowers is that many people enjoy having bouquets. Several times I have used my flowers for events at PWC, and I give the bouquets away afterwards. People are thrilled to take them home! Last month I even had one of my committee members come by the day after the dinner to harvest more sunflowers to supplement the bouquets she was re-using for her niece's wedding shower. That felt good, to have my flowers go to a good cause. My most recent flower donation was to the Young Woman's Club, who hosted a pumpkin floral arrangement activity at their meeting this month. It was lots of fun, but sadly my pumpkin only lasted 3 days before rotting. Could have been the hot weather, though. But we sure had a good time! Here are some photos from my recent donations to PWC events.
Moving onto the critters in my garden, in addition to the birds I have lots of fun growing worms. I blogged on this topic twice before, and since this is the beginning of a new experiment I might end up doing a blog on it after the results are in, but it was so much fun I had to share it. Before I do that, I DO think that growing worms and paying more attention to compost in my garden is helping cut down pests and growing more vigorous plants. After all, that sungold plant is in the bed that I babied Katelyn's wedding roses in last year, and after giving them away and preparing it for this year I added a thick layer of compost, so maybe that had something to do with the growth of that plant! That book I read by John Jeavons "How to grow more vegetables in less space" continues to inspire me. If you want to read about my learning on soil health, here you go!
Back to worms, my latest project was inspired by my friend Mary Beth. I have been trying to convince her to grow worms for her garden, and she said she was planning to sink the tub directly in the garden. My worm bins are totally separate, and I add the worms to the compost bin or individual beds as I add compost to them, but I'm always willing to consider another approach. I do enjoy continuing to learn about what they like to eat. The latest foods they "swarmed over" were acorn squash and grapes!
Since I had to clean up the backyard potting area to make room for the painter who is restaining our shingles, I finally steeled myself to get rid of these three old buckets. Two were compost buckets that had small holes in the bottom, and one was a watering can from my Mom's. That "Flint gene" was making it hard for me to part with these things, so I was thrilled to borrow Mary Beth's idea to make them useful. First, I drilled more holes in the bottom (surprisingly hard to do, those compost buckets are tough!). Then I layered in "old dirt", fresh compost, damp cardboard, and worms, covering the top with more cardboard. The finishing touch was a piece of cardboard with a "finger hole" cut out, just like in all those "lift the flap" kid's books. I have two in my garden and MB has the other two. We'll see how they work!
My other "critter finding" in the garden is these lovely garden spiders. I had two growing in the triangle bed, and have been trying to not disturb the plants they are on. They are surprisingly hard to photograph, so here's the least blurry picture. I use every opportunity to educate the grandkids on the importance of natural gardening, and these provide a dramatic example of why it's good to leave them alone. They are highly beneficial for natural pest control. The other day I took a video of Austin telling me why it's good to leave spiderwebs. Love that kid!
I looked them up and they are called "Yellow Garden Spiders". There is more info here, including what their egg cocoons look like, which could be important.
On that exciting note, I'll wrap this up. I love the garden during sunset, so I'll leave you with this photo I took on the evening before the lunar eclipse late last month. Isn't the light gorgeous?
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