Winter Experiments

This last fall I experimented with sowing some Primula seeds, elatior 'Silver Lace Black' and veris, mixed cowslips.  Part of them I planted outdoors, and then covered them with one of my TunLCovers after temperatures got down around freezing.  I looked at them today and they are doing very well, larger than when I planted them and in good condition, P. elatior-

and P. veris-

By contrast, here are the same age seedlings that have been kept under lights all winter.  They are noticeably smaller.  A few still have good color, some were underwatered and died, and one looks pale, not sure what is going on with it.   I'm in the process of putting them in sheltered outdoor conditions on my east-facing front porch to get them ready to start growing with the warmer temperatures of spring, then I can observe further how the two over-wintering methods compare.

Another nice surprise is that the Meadowfoam, Limnanthes douglasii, seedlings that I noticed last fall, which had self-seeded themselves from the plants that I grew last spring, have made it through the winter unscathed.

I was disappointed previously with how much slower the Meadowfoam was to bloom that was direct-sown as compared with the ones I grew indoors under lights and transplanted out in early spring, now I see that they are tough enough to fall-sow or summer-sow and make it through the winter.  They are also called Poached Egg plants and are very cheery.  I may try sowing some in very early spring to see if they can come up in the cooler temperatures.  It is great to find a plant that will naturalize.

Another plant started in late summer and planted out vs growing under lights is yarrow, Achillea, either millefolium 'Cassis' which is red, or filipendula 'Cloth of Gold'.























Here are a couple of Achillea that have been under lights, one looks actually comparable in size to the outdoor plant but partially dried out, the other dried out and died.

I also tried to start some plants from cuttings last fall, here are the ones that survived, some roses and Santolina-

This is not a very good photo, taken without flash, but of Vernonia (Ironweed) seedlings with pretty good growth.  One dried out and lost its leaves but stayed green so I think it will get some new leaves when planted out.  It will be interesting to see if the early start will be enough for them to bloom this year, I haven't grown them before and they may like more watering than I usually give plants in my dry season.

The final surprise outdoors was the first bulb coming up, Galanthus, Snow Drop,

I planted a few more new bulbs last year and am looking forward to seeing them bloom.  Meanwhile, I am now starting seeds of annuals and perennials, a few are chilling in the refrigerator for a month or two, and the rest are already coming up under lights.   It is so cheery to see little seedlings coming up when the garden is pretty bleak outside.

Happy Gardening!

Hannah

Winter Garden- Black Spanish Radishes

Here is another great winter vegetable, the Black Spanish Radish.   Unlike the long oval purple-topped Italian turnips, freezing weather doesn't seem to cause damage to the flesh of these radishes, which have very dense flesh that cooks up firm but with a nice taste.

This radish has made it onto my permanent winter sowing list.  Winter is half over!  Soon I will be harvesting greens from turnips, radishes, chicory, and possibly cabbage and brussels sprouts.

Hannah

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day December 2012

Welcome to What's Blooming Now,  join other blogs from around the world on Carol's blog, May Dream Gardens, for GBBD.  I actually found a couple of flowers blooming outdoors.   I've been waiting years for my 2 Camellia sasanqua varieties to bloom in the winter like they are supposed to.  I'm still waiting on Yuletide, but there were a couple of blooms on Apple Blossom, which I didn't catch until this one was overblown-

Down in Portland near the river and up in Seattle near the Sound, roses can practically bloom all winter, but here not so much, but a blossom is still lingering on my personal Queen of the Roses, Zephirine Drouhin.

But the flowers that are the cheeriest now are indoors.   My favorite little geranium was divided into 3 little plants that have bloomed nearly continually, here is the current one blooming for the second time under lights at night-

And charmingly in the daytime under natural light, a delight while I'm washing dishes-

And again, looking ethereal-

My Christmas cactus was a little early, I like the color of the flowers, a little closer to red than my even earlier one.

Finally, I was gifted with the ubiquitous flower of the season, but admittedly a nice red-

I hope you have some flowers cheering up your winter.  Happy Holidays!

Hannah

Twisting Together some Turnip Tunnels

I grew long oval Italian turnips last year in a new bed reclaimed from lawn, and last winter I killed the grass to make a new bed 4x as large.  This is the bed, loaded with turnips, and also  Black Spanish Radishes from J.L. Hudson; a few Asian radishes from Kitazawa- Giant Luo Buo, Hyb. Big Time, and Miyashige Green Neck, which have been mostly disappointing; Italian Chicory Galantina, Brussels Sprouts Mezzo Nano, Cabbage San Michelle, Kale Cavalo Nero aka Lacinato, from Seeds from Italy; and saved Wild Red Kale.  Somehow those little seeds, broadcast, amount to a lot more plants and especially turnips than I can imagine when throwing them around, apparently too exuberantly.

My favorites turned out to be the Black Spanish Radishes, I even leave the black skins on, and they cook up firm but not tough, bland yet intriguing, and are supposed to keep rock hard all winter.   Here is one on a scale-

A few did bolt in late summer, I mostly pulled them so I don't know if they will reseed.  Here is one in the ground, the yellow tag is 5" long for reference-

The turnips are very good, and I eat the greens as well, but they can have a few fibrous areas to trim off or chew and spit.  Here is one still in the ground-

Last year the long turnips were damaged by freezing weather, since the tops sticking out of  the ground turned brown and mushy, though the part underground was sometimes still usable.  So this year I decided to experiment with making tunnels to cover the beds and see if I could protect them from freezing enough to harvest more of them.  I tried putting some mulch on some beds to try to insulate the tops somewhat.  I am also using my extensive collection of PVC 3/4" pipe from previous tomato house endeavors to make tunnels.   I start with a pipe going across the width of the bed, grouping some of similar length, then add elbow joiners, spacers cut from pipe, then a "T" joiner for the vertical pipe.  A length-wise piece, these are grouped in 3's, is attached running down the side of the bed;  on the other side a longer spacer moves the T down so the vertical piece goes into the second of 2 T's at the top, staggering them.  I prefer the verticals to be close in length but here one side is longer because of the pieces of pipe I was working with.  I then add a top length-wise pipe.  Working down the bed, I add T's, vertical pieces, occasional pipes across the bed, and top pieces, then end with the elbows again at the end.  I have added some straight tubular joiners to make longer pipes out of 2 short pieces.   I use heavy plastic sheeting 10' wide from a 100 ft roll from Home Depot.  It has held up well so far for 3 years.

Here are the rows of tunnels I have made so far, I ran out of plastic.

I use spring clamps from Home Depot to hold the plastic on the pipes at the top/ends, they had a nice mesh bag with assorted sizes cheap, though some were too small for PVC pipe.  I also have some from Harbor Freight.   I will give a report later when I see how well the turnips are protected from the lower temperatures, it has gotten down to 6* F here a few times.  Smaller round turnips have in the past had no problem living through until spring, unprotected.

The one disadvantage of just twisting the T's and connectors together with the pipe is that they can stick or else untwist by themselves.  This can be prevented by drilling holes in the T's and pipes and inserting a screw, but that would be a lot of work and perhaps weaken everything, so I haven't resorted to that.

Here is the Chicory, I cooked some as a green, and they were OK as a spinachy type green.  I will use them more as the turnips are used up and I am curious how they last over winter and into spring.

What's still harvestable in your garden?   I can still go out and pull as many turnips and radishes as I care to cook every day, and hope the cabbages and brussels sprouts will make a crop in spring.  I can also usually count on some turnip, kale, and other cole crop greens and flower buds in spring for very early greens.  I'm thankful for winter vegetables and year-round harvest.

Hannah

Experimenting with Beans

Now that the bean growing season is over, I have trays of bean seeds drying and am assessing the varieties I grew and oogling online seed sources for something new to plant next year.   The Pacific Northwest has a cool climate in summer rather like that of Great Britain, so runner beans, Phaseolus coccineus, which are about the only beans that do well there, also excel here.   Insuk's Wang Kong scarlett runner beans have been my best producers.   I've also tried a couple of varieties of other red-flowered, purple to black seeded runner beans that can get longer and stay tender longer but were not as vigorous or productive.  Here is a former post about beans I grow.  IWK can actually throw a few white-seeded plants, I guess recessive genes.  I found a few this year in my harvest.   Because another distinction of runner beans is that they need cross-pollination to set seed, they also are harder to keep from crossing so it is better to grow only one variety at a time, though I am going to compromise by growing only white-seeded varieties next year if feasible.

Discussions on the GardenWeb legume forum have interested me in growing runner beans next year that have white seed and white blooms, in search of more delicate texture and marvelous nutty flavors.    I hope the hummingbirds are not too disappointed.   They love the red flowers.   White-flowered/seeded varieties are difficult to find from seed companies or else expensive, so I am attempting to circumvent these problems by growing seeds sold for cooking.   I bought 3 kinds of white runner beans and a fourth bean for cooking described as having a nutty taste, and just did an experiment trying to sprout the beans.  The source was Purcell Mountain Farms, who state that their beans will sprout.  The 3 white beans are, starting lower left and going clockwise, Corona (AKA Bianco di  Spagna), which sprouted well; Runner Cannellini, which did not sprout, turned a little brown, and smell bad; and Sweet Runner Cannellini, which developed several kinds of mold before finally sprouting a couple of beans; and the lower right is the beautiful brown mottled bean Spanish Tolosna, which is a chef's favorite for nutty flavor, and  sprouted 100% a couple of days before any of the runner beans.

I decided to try the sprouted beans in my aquaponics system, which currently just has basil plants.  If they succeed there I will post a photo.

So I am still perusing heirloom beans on various websites and will be trying some new beans for next year, which is very optimistic since rabbits decided my little bean plants were their favorite food last year.  I did find that putting netting over the seedlings kept the rabbits away.  I've decided I like the beans that have edible pods more than the shelly type of bean which develope tough pods which are not edible and must be shelled to eat just the bean.  Appalachian heirloom beans are supposed to be strong in the characteristic of the pod staying non-fibrous to a large size and even until the pods start to dry up, so they are my focus.

Happy seed shopping and garden planning,  Hannah

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day November 2012

There's not much blooming outdoors now, we had one small non-killing frost so far.   Some of the roses struggle on, I had a couple of magnificent blooms on Apricot Nectar but didn't take photos.  I'm taking a few cuttings and attempting to root some new plants.

A surprise was that Tithonia finally started blooming, one plant is as tall as me, but the flowers I expected to be red are only gold.

We had a slight frost last week that damaged some of the blossoms but did not kill the plant, so perhaps it can continue a while.  Since I started the seeds very early this year I don't know that I would bother to try to grow this again.

The magnificent Geranium Rozanne continues to bloom-

The fantastic bloomer Anemone tomentosa robustissima continues with a few blooms after starting in August.  I'm going to try dividing the fall Anemones next spring and making root cuttings, they are wonderful fall bloomers and over time spread into marvelous clumps.

Finally, a colored stalk of oregano, which is a very reliable plant even on a ramp as here, and with very little summer water-

I'm going to be sowing a lot of Oregano, Marjoram, and Lavender soon for next year to try to populate some weedy areas with tough plants that can hopefully suppress weeds.  I have had limited success with native plants and have decided the herbs will do better in those circumstances, having little summer water and fighting grass weeds.

I hope some flowers still grace your garden , to see what else is blooming around the world, join us at hostess Carol's May Dreams Gardens for "What's Blooming Now"!

Favorite Fall-Winter Windowsill Bloomers

Part of my windowsill bloomers are geared to bloom in the spring and summer, like my Hoya vine which pumps out blooms continually in that time frame, but now has entered a rest period, along with others.  But some plants are just beginning to shine.  My favorites would have to be Pelargoniums, Geraniums that are not hardy in my zone and therefore kept in pots.  They stay small, the two shown are part of three that resulted from dividing my plant that bloomed last year.   One of them already finished blooming.  I like to have them by my sink where I can enjoy their cheery blooms.

Another plant that mainly blooms in the summer but is holding on is Oxalis triangularis purpurea, but it likes to plaster itself to the window pane so flops without it, here propped with a hat.

Streptocarpus (Cape Primrose) possibly Amanda,  can bloom for a long time, here are the latest blooms

I put my Epiphyllum anguliger outside for a while in late summer, and perhaps that is why it is blooming profusely now.  It is on my aquaponics framework.  The blooms only last a day when fully open, and tend to flop, but smell divine.

Epi's are very easy to root from cuttings, even have preformed roots, and this one is also known as Rick Rack cactus, from the leaf formation as in this photo-

Finally, there is my Christmas cactus that blooms early, I keep it downstairs in a mostly unlit basement by a south-facing window.  The blooms look like a burst of birds in flight.

So, I am solacing myself from the change in seasons with my indoor garden blooms.  And this weekend is the end of daylight savings, how depressing is that?  Today I went out in the wet garden and transplanted bamboo.  I hope it takes.  It's my latest strategy in the war on weeds, occupy and conquer.

If you would like to show off some of your indoor flowers, feel free to put a link to your post in a comment.

Hannah