Spring is SO ON!
The Test Garden is nearly planted for the warm weather, the poppy field is blooming and we're positively drunk with Spring around here.
Plus, the bees are extra busy which is so YAY!
So this coaching update is ALL SPRING ALL THE TIME with a Spring Must Do section to lead us off and updates on all of your warm weather crops.
| Spring Must-Dos | |
#1 MUST DO: Soil Prep
If I catch you skipping this step, I will spank your buns with my favorite trowel. And not just because that trowel is perfect for spanking, but because your soil needs you right now!
I know that all you want to do is race out to that garden and start slamming plants in the ground. I DO, TOO. But resist the urge to skip prepping your soil because this is the #1 way to make sure that you will get the healthiest, most productive, most GIANT FRUIT PRODUCING crops this warm weather season.
#2 MUST DO: Garden prep
Drag out those garden structures (bean trellises, tomato cages, cucumber and melon fencing, etc) and make sure they're in good order, make sure you're stocked with good organic fertilizer like worm castings or storebought organic fertilizer and get those garden tools working.
#3 Must do: Plant. Finally.
Plant to plan - If you already have a crop rotation plan in place, you're awesome. Follow it.
If not, plant this year's crops somewhere new - So, if you had tomatoes in one spot last year, don't plant tomatoes (or any plant from the nightshade family) there this year. Even better would be to avoid planting anything from that family in that spot for the next 3-5 years, but we're reasonable. Keep track of where you plant what so that next year this is an easier process.
#4 BONUS: Record your glory
This is a bonus in the truest sense of the word because recording and tracking your harvests throughout the season rewards you in a billion ways. Or, maybe a hundred. Or ten. Whatever - it's more than one.
Like, you'll know how long it takes you to go through your soil amendments, what crops are worth growing vs buying locally, how much of a yield you can expect from each crop and - the best bonus ever - the value of the crops you're growing. For instance - I know that I got 240 pounds of produce out of the warm weather Test Garden (which included 107 pounds of tomatoes) at a value of $658.12.
Do you know what your garden did last summer? You could.
Make a copy of this free online spreadsheet and get started tracking your harvests this year and see if you don't love it.
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| Beans (Fabaceae) | |||
Now: Grabbing those lines
Next: CLIMBING TO THE SKY AND BEYOND
To do: Dust the area around the plants with diotomaceaous earth so that critters don't chew the stems to nubs.
Some varieties we like:
Rattlesnake pole beans: Good fresh as string beans or whole beans, frozen or as dried beans. Plus - purple speckles! Cuteness!
Fortex pole beans: Our standby pole bean that stays tender and slim in its pod for way longer than other pole beans we've tried (like Blue Lake and Kentucky Wonder) that get huge and fat and tough. Plus the seed is wicked easy to save and grow again next year.
Silver Cloud Cannellini bush beans: This was an experiment last year that we thought we'd tired of until we had some of these dried beans over the winter and then HOLY MUTHER OF BEANS THESE ARE AWESOME and the big jar of beans from our summer harvests disappeared. So, we're growing them again. For more awesomeness. Also good as a fresh shelled bean - fun.
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Now: Sow your new crops
Next: Keep your eye to the soil for germination
To do: Keep that soil mo-ist.
Carrots, especially, take FOREVER to germinate and they need to stay evenly mo-ist in the soil as they're getting ready FINALLY ALREADY to germinate. So, for the 20 or so days while they're lingering in the soil being big fat teases, make sure their soil doesn't dry out. Otherwise, they'll just never appear and you'll be all BOO.
Try covering your carrot growing space with cardboard (write your sowing date on the cardboard and the date 20 days after that date so that you know when to remove the cardboard) after sowing and watering in the seeds so that the soil can stay nice and mo-ist while the seeds germinate.
Here are a couple that we like:
Miami F1 Hybrid: Super sweet, consistently cylindrical with feathery strong tops and good storage qualities. As though any will make it to storage...pfffffffffffft.
Romance: Well, who doesn't need more romance in their lives, right? Kinda seems odd to find that in a carrot, but who are we to judge? Oh right, we're totally judging. These are supposed to "glow" orange and be perfectly sweet and glorious at 6 inches. Que romantic.
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Cucumbers (Cucurbitaceae)
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Now: True leaves (the first ones that look like real cucumber leaves. They'll have little serrated edges.)
Next: Transplanting into the garden or putting on their first tendrils
To do: Sprinkle some diotomaceous earth around these guys to keep the nibblers at bay. Plant some nasturtium nearby for cucumber beetle repelling action.
We're always growing:
Lemon: These guys may not look like the cucumbers you're used to seeing at the store, but OH are they tasty. Nice mild and sweet flavor great for eating fresh, adding to gin cocktails (seasonal cocktails!) or pickling.
National Pickling: This is our favorite variety of cucumber for pickling as gherkins (pick them when they're the size of your thumb) or whole dills when we find big ones hiding in the plants. SNEAKY HIDERS! They're back!
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Early spring greens (Asteraceae)
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Now: They're germinating, alright.
Next: They'll start crowding up.
To do: Keep that soil mo-ist and thin them to 1 plant every 2-3". If you're growing a succession crop (a row every few weeks for greens that go on and on), sow a new row this week while you're thinning the row from two weeks ago.
Greens we love:
Rocky Top Mix: We have a block of this in the Test Garden growing between the beans and below the trellis. When the sun starts to get hot, the beans will climb the trellis and shade the lettuce area just in time to cool the space and let the lettuce grow into summer. And because we can't get enough of spring greens, we usually plant a container or two that can be moved to the dinner table when it's ready for salads.
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Herbs & Flowers | |||
Cilantro (Apiaceae)
Has your cilantro germinated yet? If so, sow a new row so that you get a successive crop.
Did you plant it from a seedling? Harvest it often (leaving the center leaves and stalks alone to continue growing) so that it doesn't go to flower (bolt) right a-fricken'-way.
Nasturtium (Tropaeolaceae)
It's time again for ALL NASTURTIUM ALL THE TIME until first frost that's waaaaaaaaaaaaaay off in, like, December or something.
Grow the easiest starting, fastest growing, best cut flower making, best cucumber beetle repelling crop of all time (in NorCal anyway) in your garden this year.
Just get your hands on some nasturtium seed and go nuts. Plant it around your cucurbitaceae crops (cucumbers, melons, squash, pumpkins) to keep the stupid cucumber beetles (don't be fooled - these are NOT green ladybugs) away and you're set.
Marigolds (Tagetes patula)
These guys are your best defense against vegetable loving pests. Sow seed anywhere and everywhere and then, if you're not a big fan of their flowers (like yours truly), just appreciate the fact that they're keeping your garden safe all summer long with very little (aka NONE) attention. Plus - their petals can be added to salad, compound butters and all kinds of dishes to fancy them right up.
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| Onions (Amaryllidaceae) | |||
Now: Harvesting as bunching onions
Next: Harvesting as bulb onions
To do: If you can't possibly wait until your onions form full bulbs, you can harvest now as bunching onions. Just pull, rinse and enjoy. Or don't rinse - be a daredevil like that, you hippie.
Fertilize with a nitrogen fertilizer or worm casting tea every couple weeks until you see the actual onion-y looking bulb start to push its way through the surface of the soil.
To harvest as full bulbs, feel the neck of the bulb (where the green tops and round bottoms join up) for a soft-ish spot. Squeeze here and, if it's bendy, bend the tops over. This will dry them out and then you can harvest the full bulbs when the tops are fully dry.
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| Peppers (Solanaceae) | |||
Now: Getting settled in the soil
Next: Putting on a little height
To do: Make sure they're caged or netted and getting infrequent but deep watering (we like 30 mins, 3 days/week unless it rains).
Keep some good organic fertilizer or worm castings handy so that when they start to set flowers, you can give them a side dressing of fertilizer so that they have the food to make more flowers and then FRUIT.
How to side dress: Dig a shallow trench near the plant's base (but not too close - you don't want to damage the roots or main stem), add the recommended amount (per the bag) of fertilizer, cover with soil and water in well.
Peppers we love to grow:
Magnum Habanero: It's orange and hot and makes the crazy best margaritas ever. Grow it you love and hate yourself.
Purple Jalapeno: Purple jalapenos in salsa is a nice way to change up an old favorite and, plus, it looks extra spooky.
Padron: It is impossible to have too many of these. We eat these like everyone else does - by dry sauteing and then dousing with good olive oil and some sea salt. We've thought of eating them some other way, but whatever.
Corno di Toro (sweet): WE'RE SO STOKED FOR THIS SWEET PEPPER. We grew it last year and couldn't get enough. Sweetest, reddest, hugest - it's a total winner.
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| Tomatoes (Solanaceae) | |||
Now: Getting settled in the soil
Next: Putting on a little height
To do: Make sure they're caged and getting infrequent but deep watering (we like 30 mins, 3 days/week unless it rains
Keep some good organic fertilizer or worm castings handy so that when they start to set flowers, you can give them a side dressing of fertilizer so that they have the food to make more flowers and then FRUIT.
How to side dress: Dig a shallow trench near the plant's base (but not too close - you don't want to damage the roots or main stem), add the recommended amount (per the bag) of fertilizer, cover with soil and water in well.
Tomatoes we always grow and love:
Jaune Flamme: We pledged our undying love to this tomato a few years ago when we first tried it out in the Test Garden. We love it so much that we made a movie out of it.
Better Boy: Our most reliable fresh and canning tomato that reliably gives us 50 pounds of fruit per plant every year. Love this guy.
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