Category Archives: gardening tips

gardening tips

Early October to-do’s

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Early October to-do’s

If you have planted cool season veggies like cabbage, cauliflower, kale, broccoli or brussels sprouts be on the look out for small holes in the leaves, which are signs of cabbage worms or diamondback moth larvae.

Cabbage worm adults are the white butterflies frequently seen around cabbage plants in the daytime.  Their yellow, bullet-shaped eggs, attached to the undersides of leaves, hatch into 1 1/2" long green worms with a light stripe down the back.

Diamondback moths fly in the evening.  Their larvae are tiny 1/4" long green worms that feed on the undersides of leaves and when disturbed, wriggle rapidly and often drop from the plant on a silk thread.  Adult moths spend the winter hidden under plant debris.

Clean up after harvest and cultivate the soil thoroughly to expose and destroy overwintering moths and the pupae of cabbage worms.  In the meantime, treat your current crops, when leaves show feeding damage, with organic BT while the worms are still small.

Happy October. 

 

gardening tips

Late September “to do’s”

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Cool Season Vegetables

Plant cool season veggie starts like broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, chard, lettuce, spinach, brussels sprouts, onions and leeks in soil enriched with 4-6" of compost as summer vegetable crops will have used up much of your soil’s nutrients.

You can sow seeds of beets, carrots, radishes, spinach, arugula, mustard and peas directly in the ground.
If you aren’t going to grow vegetables in the garden this fall consider planting a cover crop like crimson clover after you’ve harvested your summer vegetables.  Next month I’ll talk about how to go about doing this and how this benefits your soil.

rocking garden saying

This is also the time to start perennial flowers seeds so that they’ll  be mature enough to bloom next year. 

 Now through October, divide summer blooming perennials like agapanthus, coreopsis, daylilies and penstemons that are overgrown and not flowering well.  You can also divide spring blooming perennials like candytuft, columbine, astilbe, bergenia and bleeding heart but sometimes they don’t bloom the first spring afterwards due to the energy they use re-establishing themselves.  If you’re on  a roll out in the garden, though, go for it now.  You never know what other projects you may be working on next spring. 

Enjoy our early fall weather out in your garden.
   

gardening tips, vegetables

Homegrown carrots

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 If you love carrots like I do,  now is the time to plant  the seeds  directly in the ground.

Carrots as we know them originated from forms grown around the Mediterranean.  By the 13th century carrots were well established as a food in Europe and came with the first settlers to America, where Indians soon took up their culture.

Flavor differs greatly among varieties and planting time affects flavor, too.  September is one of the best months to plant.  Carrots achieve their sweetest taste when the last few weeks of growth occur in cool weather.  Also, unless a carrot is bred to be harvested young, it won’t develop full flavor until mature.

Two ingredients determine a carrot’s flavor- sugar and terpenoids ( volatile compounds that impact the carrot flavor ).   Because terpenoids develop earlier than sugars, a carrot that is harvested too young might taste bitter. For peak flavor and texture, dig carrots anytime after they’ve developed a deep orange color.

Commercial carrot varieties have been developed for uniformity of shape, as well as for color, disease resistance and ease of harvest.  But home gardeners can select a carrot more for flavor than appearance.  So how do you choose the sweetest ones to grow?  

Carrots are normally grouped into several types-  Nantes,  Chantenay, Danvers, imperator and Paris market.   For flavor it’s difficult to beat a Nantes.    Nantes Coreless or Little Finger are two popular varieties.  They’re not a carrot you’ll find in the grocery store because they’re difficult to harvest commercially and don’t store well.  Both are juicy and sweet.  Nantes coreless grows to 6-7 " long, is blunt-tipped and fine grained.  Little Finger is unmatched for snacks, pickling or steaming.  It grows to just 3-4" long and is ideal for container gardening. too.  

Red Cored Chantenay has broad shoulders and strong tapered tips.  This wedge-shaped carrot is rarely grown by commercial growers.  For the home garden it produces 6" long carrots that keep well when left in the soil, store well after digging and are sweet and crunchy.  They perform well in heavy soil, too.

Danvers Half Long are another variety that are tasty raw, cooked, or juiced.   Carrots found at the super market are usually Imperators just so you know.

Whichever variety you choose to grow, prepare the soil by deeply working in organic matter.  Avoid fresh manure or your carrots will develop fine, hairy roots.  Remove exposed clods and stones from the soil and soak the bed before planting.  Scatter seeds thinly on top and cover with 1/4" compost to keep soil from crusting so the seed can punch through.  Firm soil gently and keep moist.

Germination take 10-17 days.  To help keep the tiny seeds moist, you can cover the seedbed with wet burlap just until they germinate.   When seedling have 2 or 3 leaves, thin them to 2" apart.  Keep soil deeply and evenly watered.   Control weeds with shallow hoeing.  Fertilize once a month and in a 60-75 days your carrots will be a deep orange color and at their peak flavor.  You just can’t beat pulling a sweet carrot straight from the earth for sweetness.