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

Hop Projects

Hops (Hululus lupulus) hold a special place in our garden. Brian is a home brewer, and we both love our beer! Growing hops is one of the rare opportunities to combine two passions for us. We have grown them in our garden for 2 seasons now, and were needing to expand our trellis system, thus the hop project began with cedar timbers, some free ground, and a shovel.

Most of the hops grown in the US are from the Willamette Valley in Washington, with Oregon and Idaho being the other major producers. However, with the recent microbrewery craze people have started looking for local sources, and a few hop farms popped up in Western NC. There is little known about hop production in the state, and we are interested in trying out different varieties to see what does best. We use what we grow in our brews, but never get much of a harvest here in Eastern NC. Our summers are too wet for their liking, and the shorter daylight hours mean a late harvest. In the spring we dig and split the some of the rhizomes and pot them up in the greenhouse. Maybe one day we will have enough rhizomes to trade or sell.

We use a grape trellis for support for hops in our vegetable bed (see surviving vegetables post), but we wanted something more fit for the hops twining habit. This area used to have a mature dogwood and pink azaleas. The dogwood died last summer, our neighbor told us the older couple living in our house had left a whole bag of fertilizer to leak on the base. With the dogwood gone, the azaleas get too much sun so we took them out too, and have a big space for projects. For the arbor here we went with the traditional tee-pee style, it reminds me of a Maypole. Brian dug 2-foot deep holes to anchor in the 3- 10 foot cedar timbers. Its a easy design, upright posts with string strung from a stake in the ground to a screw in the top. I will note at this point that I mostly watched, or as I like to call it "supervised", and took pictures.

 The birdhouses give it a little interest... although they might be a little close together to get many birds nesting. The three poles each have a different cultivar. We have Humulus lupulus 'Mt. Hood', 'Chinook', and 'Willamette'. On the other trellis (in the veggie bed) we have 'Centennial'. 

Next update: Harvest Time!

 

"A mouth of a perfectly happy man is filled with beer." ~Ancient Egyptian Wisdom, 2200 B.C.

Surviving Veggies

Although by June I'm cursing the heat in Raleigh, I do love our mild winters. So mild, in fact, that we can grow some herbs and veggies year round! Besides gardening, cooking is another one of my passions, and I love where the two intersect.

We inherited this raised bed on the side of our house from the previous owners, an elderly couple who also loved to garden. Since this is a South facing exposure, they used it to grow annuals. We found it was more useful for us as our herb and vegetable garden. 

The trellis is one of Brian's projects, originally designed for Grapes, it now is used for growing Hops. I think it is a great way to make a bare wall interesting!

Besides our veggies, we do have a few perennials in the foreground. Some gorgeous Irises that one of Brian's co-workers brought to work 3 years ago have multiplied and will burst into a deep purple bloom in May. And we have a Yarrow stuck in there somewhere, a great "biocontrol" plant which attracts beneficial insects to the garden.

There is also a patch of 'Quinault' strawberries, which I guess is a fruit not veggie, but its perennial nature makes it a great transition plant to the perennials at this end. We got these strawberry plants late last year and only got a couple berries in the fall, but I'll let you know how they do this spring, as they are supposed to be a great all-season variety.

Brussels Sprouts

Lettuce Mix

This winter we chose some basic veggies that we could start from seed: spinach, lettuce, Brussels sprouts, and cilantro. The lettuce, a Mesclun Mix, was the stand out performer, and lasted through the snow beautifully. However, as you can see, no Brussels Sprouts to harvest yet, maybe with the warmer weather they will continue to grow... I'm not holding my breath. I wish things would have turned out better with them, but we got things in the ground a little too late. That seems to be the problem with Raleigh weather, our tomatoes last until October, making us not want to till the garden until late in the season, but in doing that we miss the best window for winter plantings!

Italian Parsley

Chives

 I also have been doing a little experimenting with which herbs will survive the winter in Raleigh. I know Cilantro will tough through, and have grown in for a few years now. This year I decided to let the Parsley go and see how it would handle the cold. I was amazed at its resilience! I could cut some sprigs, which looked wilted in the cold, and as soon as I put them in water in the warm kitchen they perked right back up and were great for cooking! Chives were another experiment, although I knew they were perennial bulbs. The foliage died down in late December, but since having these warm spells has sent up luscious new growth that I should be able to harvest in a few weeks!

Viola 'Marley'

And lastly, I had to show just a little color! I figured I'd include this one in the veggie post since the flowers are edible. This 'Marley' Viola toughed it out all winter in its pot and just put out a new flush of delicate violet flowers. I normally tend to go for Pansies over the smaller Viola's for winter color, but I couldn't pass up this little gem!