A Vegetable Expansion

With my ever growing heirloom tomato obsession we were long overdue for an expansion of our kitchen garden. After growing all our herbs and vegetables for years in a relatively small raised bed along the South side of our house, a new patch of rich soil is poses exciting prospect!  Armed with my spring veggies, both from seed and from the garden center, Ive been spending the weekends planting tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, squash, peppers, dill, basil... and all my other favorites!

Last year, although our vegetable bed looked luscious and full in the spring, a nasty virus spread through the tomatoes, a chance I took by planting them in the same spot year after year. But with tomatoes taking up more than half of the bed, and a big hop vine in the way,  I really had no option. Luckily, we had a spot in the full sun that was free this year. After taking out a dead dogwood tree, we had converted this sloping spot into our little hop yard last winter.

Erecting the hop trellis system last winter.. look at that clay soil!

 With a little bit of convincing, Brian let go of a little hop space and knowing that he had to dig up all the hops, was willing to build us a new bed... a level one, with good soil fitting a production area. With a few 2 by 4s from a local lumber yard, a yard of garden soil plus a half a yard of home-grown compost, and a lot of hand-tilling with our two shovels, the spot transformed in an afternoon.

We decided to only build up one side to keep with the natural look of the beds in the back yard. Stacked rocks from the stream behind our property were added to the sides to prevent any erosion. The terracotta pot was my little addition... I cant wait for the Dahlia to pop up later this spring! And Brian's hops should enjoy the new soil and a little more attention this summer.

First Tomatoes

Over the last week, while I have been holed up inside, the tomatoes were starting in the vegtable garden. I wasn't sure whether the title of this post fit, because the tomatoes are not ripe yet, but early signs of the deliciousness to come is something to celebrate. Pictured below is 'Smarty' Grape Tomato, a purchase from my local plant indulgence, Fairview Garden Center.

The 'Mountain Fresh' Tomatoes are also producing small green fruits, but they will take much longer to mature into large red slicing tomatoes.  This little powerhouse pictured below is the only hybrid of my tomatoes, and has been producing huge yellow flowers for weeks now. A product of the NC State University breeding program, this is part of the 'Mountain series' which touts disease and crack-resistant fruits with a great taste. Ive grown 'Mountain' tomatoes for 3 seasons now, and they are always the most prolific producers. It has about the best taste I've had for a hybrid, and although it might not taste quite as good as the heirlooms, I grew 3 plants of this variety because its perfect for canning and makes an amazing salsa. Plus I love growing a local variety, that way I know its going to preform well in the North Carolina heat.

 

The tomatoes are filling out nicely. You can see my original plant list on my Preparing the Vegtable Bed Post, although I've swayed only a bit..  For tomatoes I'm growing 2 'Green Zebras', 3 'Mountain Fresh', 1 'Smarty Grape', 2 'Black Krim', and 1 unknown heirloom that was in the 'Black Krim' seed packet which looks to be 'Brandywine' or 'German Johnson'. I just couldn't resist planting it to see what it was. I also added some Italian oregano and lemon grass at the far end.

  

The larger cages in the picture above were a great find, left by the previous homeowner and obviously handmade from fencing. At 6 feet tall they are about they best support you could ask for. You will also notice the marigolds scattered throughout the vegetable bed. Although I'm not a huge fan of the marigold look (too common perhaps) they do bring some amazing benefits. Besides being deer resistant, they help keep aphids away and their roots secrete toxins that help treat soil nematodes that are harmful to vegetables. I figure its worth the 6 bucks for a couple six packs!

Holy hops! The hops are growing fast, and since I took this picture a couple days ago, the 'Centennial' hop vines have already met in the middle of the grape trellis. They grow 4-6 inches a day right now, and should set cones within a month, hopefully, otherwise the heat will start to stunt them. The dill is also going crazy. I use fresh herbs almost every day in cooking, I can always find a way to make them fit, but I still grow too much. Good think a couple friends joined me to help eat the dill. I expect the swallowtails to come every year, so I plant a few extra dill seeds to share.

 

To add a little color, the chives added some blooms. The first is beginning to open, but there are signs of more to come. I probably use these the most of all my herbs, as the onion taste works with all types of dishes.

So begins the summer vegetable garden. I wonder how long until my little green tomatoes will be ripe enough for a salad...

"I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in."  ~George Washington Carver

Preparing the Vegtable Bed

Today is the official last frost date for Raleigh! Ive been waiting for months, but its finally time to put in the warm weather vegetables. But first, some work had to be done...

 

Having our raised vegetable bed on a moderate slope, summer irrigation waters slowly wash down the organic matter, leaving the top layer of the soil with mostly sand. To remedy this, and add nutrients to the bed, each spring we prepare the vegetable bed by turning composted cow manure into the top 6-10 inches of soil. We also apply earthworm castings and TomatoTone to the top of the soil after planting.

However, this was not the first step in preparing the vegetable bed: it was harvest and clean up! The first thing to go were the Brussels Sprouts. Planted late in the fall, these guys shot up after overwintering, and although sprouts were beginning to form along the stem, the warm weather caused them to flower and the sprouts stopped developing when only the size of peas. We left them in for a few weeks to enjoy the flowers, but they ultimately ended up in the compost pile. The spinach and parsley fared better, although what looked like a bountiful harvest of spinach turned out to be infested with aphids. The parsley was really the standout, and the 10 plants I started from seed last spring yielded a huge bag of parsley. The individual plants were very impressive, the largest measuring over 1-inch in diameter at the base (pic below left). I was able to get 13 bunches of parsley out of this. Figuring out what to do with it has been the hardest part, and everyone Ive asked either has parsley or does not use it. Luckily an area garden center patricipates in Plant a Row for the Hungry, a great program that delivers fresh produce to those in need, and they will take my parsley! The 'Quinault' strawberries were left in place (below right), and are now covered in little white flowers, a promising sign of a big May harvest.

 I already put a few herbs and veggies in, but have plans for more. Ive learned over the last few seasons what I do and do not use from the garden, and have put together a good list of edibles for this year.... although I'm sure I will be forever adding to it!

Herbs in the garden:

• Sweet Basil
• Genovese Basil
• Flat-leaf Parsley
• Boquet Dill
• German Thyme
• Chives 
• Kentucky Colonel Mint
• Arp Rosemary

Veggies in the garden:

• 'Mountain Fresh' Tomatoes
• 'Green Zebra' Tomatoes
• 'Black Krim' Tomatoes
• 'Smarty' Grape Tomato
• 'Brandywine' Tomato
• Jalapeno Peppers
• Mixed Bell Peppers
• 'Black Beauty' Zucchini
• Straight-neck Summer Squash
• 'Homemade Pickles' Cucumbers
• 'Kitchen King' Garden Beans

"Shall I not have intelligence with the earth?  Am I not partly leaves and vegetable mould myself."  ~Henry David Thoreau