Thursday, May 14, 2009

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Collards and Kale


Most of my experience with cabbage and kale in the past few years has been with the ornamental variety, which I love to add among the perennials and annuals in the flower beds. These long lasting plants not only add a variety of leaf shapes and colors, they last well into the late fall. However, you can't eat them.

Branching out a little this year and growing some old favorites and some things that I never tried. My first crop of leaf lettuce is growing nicely, because it likes the cool, wet weather we've been having. I am starting a second crop of Gourmet Greens Mixture from Ferry-Morse. This mix includes Arugula, Green curled endive, Red kale, Red romaine, Parris Island, Salad bowl, and Lolla Rossa. You can never have too many greens.

This brings me to the next subject- collards. Southern gardeners will be appalled that I have never grown these. In fact, I am pretty new to collards, but recently found that I love them. ( I fixed my first batch with bacon and onions). The bonus with collards is that they are one of the highest veggies in nutrients and vitamins.

I am planting Georgia Southern (Creole) collards, and, according to what I have read, they should do very well even in our cool seasons. I was amazed that collards can be blanched and frozen, which I will be trying later on. Collards, being a member of the cabbage family, however, are subject to pests, so this will be something to keep an eye on.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Containers

Every year about this time, when we start filling up the garden boxes, we realize that we need even more space for testing out, yet more variteties of heirloom tomatoes. We began planting in containers a few years ago, starting out by planting individual tomatoes in five gallon pickle buckets from my brother's restaurant. We have also used large clay pots, and plastic pots.

About anything can actually be used for extra planting space for veggies, and you are only limited by your imagination. I know people who use wooden crates, wheelbarrows, old wagons, and discarded kitchen pots and pans. But whatever you use, (and I found this out when I forgot to do it), you need to make sure that there are drainage holes in the bottom. Nothing kills a plant faster than sitting in three or four inches of water. It's also important to use a large enough pot to give your plant adequate room to grow. A tomato plant will need a three to five gallon pot.

Most container gardens can be filled with regular potting soil, but if you're already supplied with the good stuff, like top soil, peat humus (naturally decomposed material) and manure, you can mix up your own. Perlite, which is actually a form of volcanic rock that pops up and becomes light and airy when heated, can be mixed in to add some looseness to the soil. This is the little white pellets you sometimes see in potted plants. Peat will help retain water and nutrients in the soil of the container, but containers still dry out very quickly and will need to be watered more often than the rest of your garden.

Personally, I like plopping pots of peppers or tomatoes around on the porch or patio, close to the kitchen where I can get at them. And, while you're at it, you might stick some veggie plants in the flower beds. Squash, pumpkins and corn look good mixed in with the flowers, and add something special in the fall.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Gardening in a Box



Get out and get dirty

So, if you've got everything into place by now (see first post on boxes), and, you've got your brand new soil put into place, it will soon be time to plant the rest of your plants and seeds.
This can be a little tricky here in northwest Ohio, because our weather can go from the 80's to the 40's overnight, and most seeds and plants prefer nice warm soil.
I have to admit that I don't have all my new soil added to the boxes yet, but I will by the end of the week. The soil will settle over the winter months, and what was once a full box of beautiful growing dirt will have diminished by several inches. I will be buying more top soil, peat, and manure for these boxes.

If you've grown seedlings in the house, it's probably too soon to expose them to our temperamental weather, but the stronger and heartier tomato, cucumber, pepper, and squash plants can be planted soon.

My other love, perennial flowers, are doing well, because they absolutely thrive when the weather has been cool and very wet. This is the time to separate these, give some of them away, or move them to new locations. I started out with one Bleeding Heart plant about ten years ago that was doing poorly, separated it, planted it in several places where it would get partial shade and have five beautiful huge plants now. It's also the time to make sure that the old ornamental grasses have been cut down (I let them stay over the winter to add something to the landscape), and cut down the old sedum and phlox stalks from last year, if you didn't do that in the fall.

The Ohio lilacs are in bloom now. My bushes are about 80 years old, have been pruned many times, and still producing. They are the light purple variety, but I am planning this year on starting white, dark purple and pink.