We’re so close to our average last frost date I felt brave enough to plant seeds in the ground with no covering today. There have been a few frosty mornings lately, but we’re near the end of that and these are all cool-season crops. They are in a little bed that’s facing North and East, so it doesn’t get quite as much light as it could, but I had okay luck with greens there last year. Slugs were an issue, but this year I prepared the bed by mixing in the roots of the cover crops that overwintered there and added lots of compost. That should make the tilth and drainage better which deters slugs.

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

Baby Bok choy ‘China Baby’ (Brassica rapa)

Broccoli ‘Early Dividend’ (Brassica oleracea)

Radish ‘Cherry Belle’ (Raphanus sativus)

Curled Chervil (Anthriscus cerefolium) I didn’t know that I liked this herb until I got a free packet of salad mix with a copy of BBC Gardens Illustrated. It had arugula, red Russian kale, chervil and a couple other things. Delish.

Lettuce ‘Farwest Blend’ (Lactuca sativa) by Territorial Seed Company. This was a favorite last year of both the people and the rabbits in my household.

Swiss Chard ‘Bright Lights’ (Beta vulgaris var. cicla) A vegetable is so pretty it can be grown in a flower bed or container and double as an ornamental. This variety is a mix with six different colors of stems.

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

Mulching day!

All of that cover crop is coming in handy as we prepare beds for planting. The straw that protected new shrubs over the winter is laid down in the raised garden, and covered with the green manure (cover crop mix) that I cut down in a different bed that I planted today (the root portion with the nitrogen nodules got mixed into the soil there). A final layer of 3-way mix (composted bark, sand and organic composted cow manure that we purchased but in the future will be compost from our bins) tops it off.
The straw is carbon-rich, the living green material is full is nitrogen and this should attract a lot of worms, microbes and other soil life and become a wonderful bed for growing veggies.

Finally got around to starting seeds indoors. I usually do it around March 15 but I just didn’t feel ready yet.

Here’s a list of what I planted today (grouped by family), the first batch of seeds to go into my indoor mini-greenhouse. It holds 4 standard flats, 3 with 72 cell trays and 1 with 2″ pots for the delicate-rooted melons and things. I’ve got a few fixtures rigged up (nothing fancy, just the kind sold as under-cabinet lighting,) with 18″ florescent grow light tubes.

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

SOLANACEAE, The Tomato/Pepper/Eggplant/Potato family
Tomatoes - some favorites from years past:
‘First Lady’
‘Green Zebra’
‘Fourth of July’ not really ready on the forth, but definitely an early one.
‘Bloody Butcher’
‘Chadwick Cherry’ a large cherry.
‘Peacevine’ a very prolific cherry type.

plus a few new-to-me varieties:
‘Amana Orange’
‘Chocolate Cherry’
‘Husky Gold’

Peppers
‘Hungarian Yellow Wax’ Hot Pepper
‘Early Crisp’ Bell Pepper
‘Corno di Toro’ Sweet Pepper
And I’ll probably buy a few starts to round out the mix. Peppers are tough here. Get stout seedings in the ground in your sunniest spot by mid-May and then it’s all about the weather from there on out. Last year we were lucky with a streak of 90 and 100 F days, but usually even if it gets warm enough during the day the temperature will cool off each night. They don’t like that.

Eggplant
‘Long Purple’ a Japanese type, best for stir-fry and Thai dishes.
‘Black Beauty’ a large heirloom, good for stuffing or eggplant parmesan.
Same deal as with peppers. They like it hot.

Tomatillo
‘Toma Verde’
I probably will have plenty of volunteers to choose from, but just in case I planted three cells.

LAMIACEAE, The Mint family
Shiso
‘Crispa’ A red leafed Perilla (Akashiso).

Basil
‘Verde a Palla’ a green globe type with tiny leaves.
‘Genovese’ basic sweet Italian basil.
‘Siam Queen’ spicy Thai basil.
‘Lime’ amazing shredded over slices of melon, or in salad dressings or tacos.

CUCURBITACEAE, The Squash family
Melon - I chose small, shorter season varieties in hopes of this not being a total waste of time.
‘Minnesota Midget’
‘Vedrantais’

Pumpkin - Small, useful variety. (Last year we let a volunteer pumpkin seeding take over 1/3 of the back yard and ended up with 8 tasteless jack-o-lanterns.)
‘Small Sugar’

Squash
‘Fordhook’ Zucchini
‘Delicata Honey Boat’ a winter squash

Cucumber
‘Sweet Slice’
‘Homemade Pickles’

LILIACEAE, The Lily family
Onion
‘Walla walla’ sweet onion. I think in the new raised bed area with all that sun and perfect drainage, the onions will rule.

I also started a selection of flower seeds:

RANUNCULACEAE, The Buttercup family
Columbine ‘Magpie’ (Aquilegia) “Haunting Black Blooms”

ROSACEAE, The Rose family
Lady’s Mantle ‘Thriller’ (Alchemilla mollis)

ASTERACEAE, The Aster family
Meadow Blazingstar (Liatris ligulystilis)
Scotch thistle (Ecinops)
Sea holly ‘Miss Willmott’s Ghost’ (Eryngium giganteum)

AIZOACEAE, The Ice Plant family
Go-to-Bed, or Livingstone daisy (Mesembryanthemum)South African flower with the tiniest seeds. I grew these as an annual in Minnesota, but they might over winter here and like the sunny part of my parking strip.

LAMIACEAE, The Mint family
Bells of Ireland (Moleccella laevis)

FABACEAE, The Pea family
Sweet pea ‘Tara’ Cerise stripes. These seeds are really old, don’t know if they are viable. I soaked them overnight.
Sweet pea ‘Restmorel’ Cerise/Coral

CONVOLVULVACEAE, The Morning Glory family
Morning glory ‘Grandpa Ott’ purple flowers, 1930’s heirloom. I hope this doesn’t become as weedy as Scarlet O’Hara did in my last garden. Oh my. I soaked the seed overnight before planting.

TROPAEOLACEAE, The Nasturtium family
Nasturtium ‘Canary Creeper’ (Tropaeolum peregrinum) It’s a trailing/vining yellow flower with pretty leaves. I tried these last year, planting directly in the ground and got one seedling out of about 10 seeds, then it didn’t make it. Trying again now under controlled circumstances. Seed is pretty old, I might just need to get a new pack.

LILIACEAE, The Lily family
Freesia (Freesia x hybrid) These are a specialty which can take quite a while to germinate - a month or longer, and are best grown in a cool greenhouse. But with gardening you don’t know till you try, right? I had the seed and this is one of my favorite scents ever so I’ll give it a shot.

Cover crops, or green manure, are an attractive and effective way to improve soil. Choose one species or a blend to sow in a bare spot in your yard or in your veggie garden over the winter. Cover crop seed can even be sown now in the Northwest for a quick boost before planting heat-loving veggie starts like tomatoes and melon in late May. Cover crops protect soil from erosion, prevent weeds, loosen clay soil with their roots, then add nutrients when you mow them down. They can be mixed right into the soil or added to the compost bin. Cover crops in the bean and pea family take nitrogen from the air and ‘fix’ it in the soil with the help of beneficial bacteria - this makes it available for other plants. It’s natural fertilizer!

Photos:
Crimson clover, ready to mow [now]
Crimson clover in bloom, mid-May
Garden way mix, lush [now]
Fava in bloom, mid-May
More fava here.

Crimson clover

Crimson clover in bloom

Garden way mix

Fava in bloom

Veggie_Garden_Plan_2010

Originally uploaded by mulysa_may

Dreaming of dilly beans.

Saccharum sp.
POACEAE, The grass family

Boy does the grass family cause a lot of trouble. And make us who we are right now: Corn (monoculture, destruction of the North American prairie and 10,000 years of topsoil, genetic modification, ethanol, Monarch butterfly decline, grillin’ out, high fructose corn syrup, corn bread, obesity, factory farming, tortillas, etc.), the American lawn (monoculture, American dream, croquet, suburbia, homogeny, pesticides, grass stains, noise and air pollution, draining aquifers), sugar cane (slave trade, rum, cavities, candy, my grandma, served up with a sugar rim, Palm beach cooler at Pambiche).

Anywho, try my sugar cookie recipe!

Azulejos Bolaches
Blue Tile Cookies

Make 1 batch of sugar cookie dough, I recommend the recipe in Betty Crocker Cookbook, 1978 edition.
Chill dough as directed. Roll out 1/8 inch thick and cut into large and small squares. Bake as directed and cool. Meanwhile, make icing with butter, milk and powdered sugar. Scoop 1/3 of it into a small bowl and mix in lots of blue food coloring. Frost the cooled cookies with the white frosting and let dry. Put the blue frosting into a ziplock bag with a tiny bit of the corner snipped off, or into a frosting bag with small writing tip attached.

Pipe the blue icing on to the cookies in pretty tile patterns. Inspiration here and here. Make a pot of tea, share with friends and enjoy the sugar high.

Beta vulgaris
AMARANTHACEAE, The Amaranth family or CHENOPODIACEAE, The Goosefoot family

What do we know about the sugar we eat every day?

The majority of sugar produced is from sugar cane, the rest, roughly 30 - 40%, is from sugar beets. Sugar cane is tropical, so in the US if you were looking for a domestic, regional or local source of pure sugar, beets would be it. (And we could certainly start talking about sweeteners such as honey, agave, fruit juice, maple sugar/syrup and more. All these are way more exciting to taste buds if one reduces their overall sugar intake, something I have yet to try.)

I did not know, until I heard this OPB story today that 95% of sugar beets grown this year were genetically modified to be able to withstand being sprayed with herbicide. ‘Round-up Ready’ crops are produced by Monsanto corporation (the folks who brought us Agent Orange), which also makes the pesticide that they sell to go along with the GMO seed. Read about Monsanto’s close government ties at the Organic Consumers Association site (sidebar at lower right of page).

GMO beets were not approved until spring of 2008, and the current lawsuits by the Center for Food Safety argue that insufficient environmental studies were done before releasing this genetically modified organism (and every other GMO crop). Sugar beets can cross-pollinate with red beets, swiss chard and other closely related crops, many of which are grown organically in the Willamette Valley. Genetic pollution could ruin those crops, as well as cause unforeseen problems in agriculture, health and in ecosystems.

The recent rulings didn’t require the GMO crop to be pulled up, but future rulings could have a positive impact on the issue. In the meantime, precautionary principle prevails in our household, and organic sugar (and alternatives) are added to the list.

I cleared enough space under the cloche to put in some seeds:

Radish ‘Easter Egg’ (Raphanus sativus) These will pop up in no time.

Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum) Starting cilantro and parsley early when the weather is cool means a long season of harvest.

Lettuce ‘Salad Bowl’ (Lactuca sativa) A bright green variety with large, ruffled leafs that was popular in the 1950’s.

Spinach ‘Bloomsdale Long Standing’ and ‘Lavewa’ (Spinacia oleracea)

Scallion (Bunching onion) ‘Pacific Pearl’ (Allium cepa)

The kale and brassicas in the salad mixes we grew over the winter were such a success that I’m throughly tired of them and can’t wait for simple, mild, clean lettuces.

Didn’t know it was science at the time. The weekly lists of what plants are flowering are just another example of my obsessive record keeping nature, and a collection of data for one of my many, many career fantasies: to be a fanatically seasonal floral designer.

After keeping ‘What’s Bloomin”’ logs for the five years I’ve lived in Portland, I’m kind of shocked at what I’m seeing. The weather varies dramatically from year to year. For instance: Right now the apricot tree in my garden, and peach and apricot trees around the neighborhood, are finished blooming. Last year they were in full bloom on March 30.

Inspired by Tom Ward’s vision of the urban forest, the theme of March’s plant walk is “Nostalgic Landscapes.” We’ll walk around two North Portland neighborhoods that are populated by plants that hearken back to early resident’s homelands, chosen primarily for their ornamental qualities and sentimental value. Which of these plants have multiple functions? What other plants are hidden in this residential landscape? And first of all, how can one tell what is what, especially in late winter? Bring your questions.

After the walk we’ll head into the studio and do some relaxing sketching and have a chance to take a look at details of botanical bits we picked up along the way. And have tea. Mmmm. All levels welcome.

Email to register please, and to get directions.