The Garden of Doom

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

I’m the only person in my neighborhood who grows anything more than a tomato plant or two (although there is a guy down the street with black walnut trees in his back yard - I’m trying to become close friends with him).  It would be surprising if that didn’t start to change this year - even my mother, who vowed never to keep a garden because of the trauma of growing up on a farm, planted a little mini garden this year to cut down on food costs.  There’s an element of thriftiness in my gardening adventures, but mostly I just like knowing where my food came from and how it was grown, and the ability to eat food minutes from harvest.

There is a small garden at our house, which I endeavor every year to intensively plant using the Square Foot Gardening method.  This year I sort of threw that out the window, and did a combination of Square Foot and row planting.  Is it a good idea? Only time will tell.  Things seem to be going well, but it’s planting is a little behind thanks to all the weird, cool weather we’ve been having lately.  I have to plant a few last minute things tomorrow and Thursday, but I’ll definitely be done by the end of the week.

So what’s growing in my garden this year?  Well, there are the things that come back year after year - rhubarb, a nice strawberry patch, chives, sorrel - and the four varieties of garlic I planted last Fall: Georgian Crystal Purple, German Extra Hardy, German Red, and Musik.  Sadly, my asparagus patch seems to have not gotten a good start and will have to be replanted this year.

I planted lots of herbs: Genovese basil, flat leaf parsley, rosemary, French tarragon, a few varieties of thyme, sage, oregano, cilantro, dill, and mint.  One thing I learned from my fellow Farm to Philly contributors last year is this - don’t rip up the herb garden at the end of the season.  So many FTP-ers continued to harvest herbs well into the Winter months.

There are the Hakurei and Scarlet Queen turnips (pictured above).  With only 38 and 43 days, respectively, to maturity, I should be cooking up a mess of sweet little turnips in only a few more weeks!  I’ll never forget the first time I had “hooker eye” turnips last year - I can barely wait!  I suspect I’ll be harvesting just about the same time as the strawberries ripen.

Here’s the rest of the list:

• Thumbelina carrots
• Tadorna leeks
• Lacinato kale
• Golden Swiss chard
• Flash collards
• Brilliant celeriac
• Bloomsdale Savoy spinach
• Cipollini onions
• Caspian Pink tomato
• Yellow Jelly Bean tomato
• Peas
• Akahana Mame dried beans
• Ichiban eggplant
• Golden beets
• Orion fennel
• Presto watercress
• Sessantina Grossa broccoli raab

Like Allison, I also just purchased two raspberry plants.  I have yet to decide on a permanent home for them.  Then there are the two fig trees I bought last year (there’s a fig growing on one of them), and the single apricot tree that will finally get a mate this year.

Everything that has managed to get planted is doing just fine.  With dragon boat season in full swing, it’s hard to keep up with all the weeding, but I’ll be happy I did when everything is ready to harvest!