Last week, we celebrated the vernal or spring equinox, when the Earth leans neither towards (summer) nor away (winter) from the sun. On that day, the hours of daylight and darkness were exactly equal.
What does that mean for us gardeners? Time to get out there and dig in the dirt – summer’s coming!
If you’re like me (impatient and congenitally unable to follow rules or even “guidelines”), you’ve already been playing out there for weeks now. Especially if you live in a region like the mid-Atlantic, where winter hardly showed up this year and the spring weather started sometime in February.
So what’s happened in the barefoot garden so far?
Asparagus!
After two years of waiting (I can be patient when necessary) we harvested the first tender spears of our own asparagus. Delicious! Asparagus is one of the few common vegetables that are perennial, meaning that a little patience up front will be rewarded for years to come.
If you’re so inclined, now is the time to plant the crowns (small rooted plants). Pick a sunny spot that you are willing to dedicate to asparagus forever; the plants can last produce for 15-20 years! For the first two years you must force yourself to let the tender, tempting shoots grow into tall fern-like fronds, allowing the roots to develop fully. Then in year two you can snip the first two weeks of shoots, in year three: three weeks, etc.
We harvested three or four meals worth. Now we’ll let the spears grow into tall fern-like fronds, to feed the roots developing below ground. They’re quite beautiful, so I don’t mind giving up the tasty spears.
FallWinter Spring Greens
I’m a big fan of fall and winter gardening. When temperatures and light levels drop, plants grow more slowly but that doesn’t mean the growing season is over. Eliot Coleman, garden guru extraordinaire runs a CSA in Maine that produces greens and other tasties year-round! If he can do it, so can we.
Here’s the plot that I planted back sometime in October. It’s been producing all winter long and with the advent of warmer weather it’s taken off! Last week I harvested these two baskets of greens and that’s probably only ten percent of what we’ve eaten from this plot so far.
I’ve scattered some lettuce and spinach seeds in there to fill out the spots where we were over-zealous in our harvesting and expect this bed to continue to produce until June. Then I’ll clear it out and plant sweet potatoes.
What Can I Plant Now?
Even if freezing temperatures are threatening your area tonight (I’m looking at you, mid-Atlantic!), there are still many seeds you can sow now to get a jump on the growing season. In fact many of my favorite veggies prefer the cooler temperatures of spring to the roast ‘em and toast ‘em summer. These include:
most leafy veggies: lettuce, spinach, corn salad and all of the lovely cabbage-family greens like collards, kale, mizuna, arugula and mustard.
cabbage-family root and “head” veggies: radishes, turnips, cabbage broccoli, cauliflower
peas – snow and sweet
white potatoes.
All of the above can be sown directly into the garden. Red radishes and lettuce are are super fast; plant them today and you’ll be eating them by Mother’s Day!
Welcome to I’m Diggin’ Friday, a weekly feature here at Danielle Meitiv’s Barefoot Blog that explores the ins and outs of Barefoot Gardening, a fun, family-friendly, low-stress way to grow fresh produce right at home!
The temperature hit 102 degrees today – too hot to even think about gardening. But with the A/C and the ceiling fan working hard, I can blog about it. At least a short post.
Wilting pumpkin vines I know how they feel.
I watered yesterday but these poor pumpkins are still wilting. I know how they feel. (Don’t worry, the water is on as we speak. They obviously need some more).
The good news is the wilting allowed me to find a few more pumpkins amid all that foliage – there were seven, including a cool green and orange-striped one that I harvested this afternoon.
Why do plants wilt?
Herbaceous plants – those without woody stems – rely on water pressure to keep them upright. Like a hose, they can only stand straight when their cells have sufficient water. Not enough H2O and they flop over or wilt.
The cure? Give ‘em a drink!
However, not all leaf-curling is wilting. Plants lose water from their leaves through a evaporation – a process known as transpiration. When it’s really hot, transpiration increases. To avoid losing too much water some plants curl their leaves, thereby reducing the amount of surface exposed to the sun.
So, if your tomato plants are otherwise healthy and well-watered, but their leaves are curling up, they’re just protecting themselves from the heat.
The Seventh-Month Slump
It’s official: I’ve hit the mid-summer gardening slump. Veggies are ripening, beds need watering and the temperature is climbing. And yet, while summer is still going strong, now is the time to start planning for fall veggie gardening.
Yes, now is the time to start those long-growing veggies, the cabbage family crops that 4-EVER to ripen. Every year I have great plans to start them as seedlings indoors in July. And every year I hit the slump.
This year I will embrace my laziness and decide upfront (instead of accepting the inevitable later) that there will be no broccoli, Brussels sprouts or other time-hogs in my garden come fall.
Instead I will enjoy the lazy days of tomatoes and cukes and plant lettuce, spinach and other quick and easy crops in September and October – when the beans have come up and my energy has returned.
The return will still be great. I’ll be harvesting THOSE greens all winter – and into the spring, too! More on that in a future post
BONUS: July Poster Giveaway
This month’s special giveaway is this fabulous out-of-print NOAA poster, Marine Mammals of the Western Hemisphere. Everyone who leaves a comment between now and the end of July gets one entry in the drawing. Link to this site on your blog and get two entries. Get your comments in now!
Welcome to I’m Diggin’ Friday, a weekly feature here at Danielle Meitiv’s Barefoot Blog that explores the ins and outs of Barefoot Gardening, a fun, family-friendly, low-stress way to grow fresh produce right at home!
As any home veggie gardener knows, when squash happens, it REALLY happens. That is to say, unlike eggplants or bell peppers, which produce in modest amounts, when you plant squash you almost always get more that you bargained for.
Pumpkin plants spilling onto the path and the first orange pumpkin of the year.
Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Barefoot gardening is all about getting the most food and fun out of the least amount of effort. Squash definitely fits the bill, especially summer squash. They’re easy to grow from seed and have relatively few pests.
(I’ve had problems with squash vine borers wiping out my plants in August, but I got a good harvest before then).
Squash are members of the cucurbit family, which includes cucumbers, cantelopes and melons. There are two basic types of squash: summer and winter. They’re named not for when they grow – both types need warm summer weather to grow and ripen – but for when you eat them.
Summertime – and the squash is prolific
Summer squash include the “soft” squashes like zucchini, patty pan and yellow crookneck. These kinds don’t store well unless you freeze them. They are super easy to grow and VERY prolific.
Let me repeat that for those of you who are tempted to rush out and plant two or more plants: they are VERY prolific. Even a family of dedicated veggie-eaters couldn’t eat the number of zucchinis that 3+ plants would provide. Ratatouille, zucchini bread, stir fries and the like are nice – but everyday???
The really large leaves closest to the hose and rain barrel are summer squash plants. (The rest are sweet potato vines).
Also, they grow so fast that the cute 2″ long zucchini you admired last week will be a 18″ long club as thick as your calf if you so much as look away. So whatever you do, don’t blink!
(Bonus points to the geeks who can ID that reference).
That said, I planted some in my garden this year, after swearing that I wouldn’t because I get dozens from our two CSA shares every summer. They grow so fast and produce so much they make you feel like a freaking gardening genius!
Winter squash are the hard-skinned varieties, which can be stored for months. There are dozens of varieties including : butternut, acorn, delicata, spaghetti and of course pumpkins.
Can you spot the four pumpkins in this picture?
These guys take a lot longer to grow and are usually not as prolific as their summer cousins, but their still pretty easy and totally worth it if you have the space – they’re vines tend to spread out, unless you plant a variety that is specifically bred to stay contained.
Come Halloween, what could be more fun than decorating a pumpkin you grew yourself?!
I did not plant ANY pumpkins this year. I planted a few butternut and delicata seeds, but I knowing that pumpkins took up more room than I was willing to give them, I held off.
This morning I counted seven soccerball-sized pumpkins in various shades of green and orange and at least half-dozen tiny ones. They’re growing beneath platter-sized leaves on vines a half-dozen feet long or more in two different beds.
Clearly, it was not up to me.
On the right: volunteer squash (and tomatoes) taking over the potato beds. Luckily the last spuds are ready for harvest.
No, my family did not sneak out in the middle of the night and sprinkle pumpkins seeds liberally throughout the garden. They’re ALL volunteers – plants that came up on their own because their seeds were dropped on the ground sometime between last fall and this summer.
These particular seeds came from a pumpkin that my son brought home from a school trip to a you-pick farm last fall. We kept it on the porch until it started to get soft, then tossed it in the compost pile.
Now its progeny are taking over my yard. I even found one climbing up a weigela bush and it’s already set a little pumpkin
A pumpkin plant growing up a bush! Note the little pumpkin already forming at the base of the flower.
The vine won’t be able to support a full-sized pumpkin, but I’ve read about fashioning a sling from an onion bag or an old pair of stockings. (I’ll let you know how that goes).
I’m not really a big fan of pumpkin pie, so what am I going to do with all these pumpkins?
The ones that are babies now will be perfect size for carving come October.
The others? We’ll eat them, of course, but since they store well, we can do so over a number of months. Whew!
When they think “pumpkin”, most people think of only sweet dishes. But pumpkin and other winter squash because a favored part of my diet when I had an Afghani dish that features pumpkin cooked in olive oil, garlic and salt.
My husband also makes a great millet and pumpkin dish.
Basically, pumpkin can be used in any recipe that calls for squash. Try it in a pureed curried squash soup. Delish!
How does your garden grow?
Confession time: have you ever gone crazy with the squash? Had so many you were dropping them on your neighbors porches in the dead of night, slipping them into open car windows? Or maybe you’ve had the opposite problem: vine borers or some other pest doing away with your crop before the first zucchini could make an appearance.
Let us know – in the comments below!
I’m also open to any all and garden questions. If I don’t know the answer I’ll try to find someone who does. Those also go in the comments below.
A hardy thanks to all the folks who have piped up so far – keep those questions and blog topic suggestions coming!
BONUS: July Poster Giveaway
This month’s special giveaway is this fabulous out-of-print NOAA poster, Marine Mammals of the Western Hemisphere. Everyone who leaves a comment between now and the middle of July gets one entry in the drawing. Link to this site on your blog and get two entries. Get your comments in now!
Barefoot gardening is all about making life easy. What could be easier than plants that plant themselves – or stick around year after year with little to no help from yours truly?
Annual herbs fall into the first category, perennials into the second. And if you like to cook, few things will save you money like fresh herbs, which are so much cheaper to grow than to buy.
Not all herbs will seed themselves or survive year after year in your garden – but many will. Here are a few of my favorites:
Annuals gone wild
Some of my favorite herbs are annuals. That means that the plants don’t overwinter, but have to grow from seed each year. However that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to plant them each year. Many of them will plant themselves!
What happens when dill goes wild - it plants itself in cracks in the path!
Dill is one such herb. I love it in cucumber salad, or with garlic, butter and new potatoes (see this post for more on that fabulous dish). It also goes well with cucumbers, fresh or when making pickles, and is delicious in soup.
If you do decide to use it in a hot dish, be sure to add it in the last few minutes of cooking or afterwards – its taste will be lost if it’s cooked to long. Fresh dill can help sooth the stomach after meals.
You say cilantro - I say coriander. These plants are going to seed - and re-seed!
Another wonderful annual is cilantro. If you like salsa or gazpacho, this herb is for you! Funny thing about cilantro – either you love it or you think it tastes like soap. (I believe it’s genetic, depending on how your taste receptors respond to the herb’s aromatic compounds).
Even if you don’t like the taste of the fresh leaves, don’t dismiss this plant so quickly. Any fan of Chinese, Indian, or Thai food will want to use its dried seeds, also known as coriander. (Yes, a twofer herb!)
Cilantro has self-seeded itself EVERYWHERE I planted it, giving me enough fresh and dried spice to feed much of Central and South America, not to mention Southeast Asia…
I love you again and again and again…dependable perennials
I planted mint in this concrete planter to keep it from taking over the lawn - and the neighborhood.
Many of my favorite herbs are perennials – meaning that a portion of the plant survives from year to year.
Mint is a classic and somewhat invasive example. When I first started gardening, I planted peppermint in my parents’ backyard. For years the yard smelled minty everytime they mowed. Yes, it had spread itself all across the yard, growing in little aromatic tufts here and there…
Unlike some of the other herbs I’m discussing, mint doesn’t reseed itself. It grows roots in every direction and sends up young plants every so often. I still love mint, but I’ve learned to confine it to a planter or container. It’s great for cooking and tea. I also like to toss a few handfuls into a pitcher of water in the fridge for a great fresh taste. Mint is also good for soothing the stomach and the rest of the digestive system.
Lemon balm has seeded itself into the cracks between the path and the wall. The parent plant is visible on the left.
Another yummy tea herb is lemon balm. It’s a combo herb – a perennial that self seeds like crazy. Here you can see where it’s taken root all along the path. I often toss a handful of lemon balm into the water with the mint, or put both in hot water for a wonderful herbal tea (or tissane, if you’re French ).
Parsley is a biennial, meaning that it grows for two years. however, the edible part – the leaves – only grow in the first year, so I treat it as a annual. It is not great about self-seeding, but I have found it scattered here and there, including on the ground next to the compost pile.
Parsley is widely used all over the world, both as a fresh garnish and added to cooked dishes. It holds up better than dill, but not by much, so only add it in the last thirty minutes or so of cooking.
It is used to freshen the breath after meals, is very health, high in antioxidants and may have cancer-fighting properties. The Italian or flat-leaf form is tastier (IMHO) than the curly form, which is often used as a garnish.
Are you going to Scarborough Fair?
Simon and Garfunkel were onto something: sage, rosemary AND thyme are perennials. (We dealt with parsley above). All three four of these herbs grow in my garden.
Sage and thyme are easy and some varieties are even evergreen. Rosemary grows really well in my area (Zone 7A/ the DC area for those who are wondering) but will not survive the winters further north.
Perennial herbs: rosemary, lavender, tarragon, lemon balm and echinacea.
One possibility is to let it grow outside in a container (a BIG one if you can) and bring it in for the winter. All of these herbs have an earthy taste (which my husband hates) are are used a lot in southern European (Italian, Greek, French) cooking.
Rosemary is wonderful on foccacia, is high in anti-oxidants, and may have significant cancer-fighting properties. (In this photo, rosemary is the plant with the pine-looking leaves in the middle/foreground).
Thyme is good with soups and meat, is used a lot in Mediterranean food, and is the primary ingredient/flavor in zatar, a spice mix popular in Lebanon, Syria and Palestine. It has antiseptic properties and its primary aromatic compound, thymol, is the active ingredient in Listerine.
Sage is good with beans and fatty meats like lamb, and it is traditionally used in Thanksgiving stuffing.
Sage’s scientific name is Salvia, which means to heal in Latin, an indication of how highly regarded this herb has been for it’s medicinal properties. It has been used as a astringent, anti-fungal and antibiotic among other things and one well-regarded study found that sage extracts were helpful in treating mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.
I love you again and again and again – More wonderful perennials
Lavender takes a while to get established but once it does, you will never be at a loss for potpourri. It is also used in cooking in the south of France in the relatively new spice mix known as Herbes de Provence. Lavender is also used to flavor cheese and the honey made from lavender flowers is exquisite!
Lavender has antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties an the scent is said to be calming. I like to spray a little of the essential oil on my pillow at night.(Tiny lavender flowers can be seen on the right side in the photo above. The flowers next to them are purple coneflowers, otherwise known as Echinacea, good for cold and general immunity-strengthening).
Tarragon is used a lot in French cooking. It is considered one of the four herbes fines which are used fresh. (The others are parsley, chives and chervil – of course I looked them up!) It goes well with chicken, eggs and fish. (Tarragon is the tall bushy plant that dominates the background in the photo).
Honorable mention
No discussion of herbs would be complete without the #1 favorite of gardeners everywhere: basil. I don’t mean to slight this wonderful plant, which is easy to grow and one of my all-time favorites. It’s just not repeat performer. As an annual it must be planted every year, but it doesn’t self-seed. (Why? My guess is that the seeds of this tropical plant – it’s originally from India – can’t survive even mild winters. If you live in the south, however, it might be worth a shot). Let some plants flower and go to seed – and let me know what happens!)
However it is SUPER easy to grow. In my area the seeds germinate very easily outdoors when the weather gets hot and the leaves are ready just in time for the tomato harvest!
If you want some earlier, get a plant from the nursery or start it indoors. I have heard that it’s easy to keep basil growing in a pot indoors year-round, but have never succeeded myself. (My green thumb stops at the door – I kill houseplants regularly!)
Basil is used in Italian cuisine (duh!) as well as Southeast and Northeast Asian cuisine. (I love it in Thai food!) Basil is important in Ayurvedic medicine and has been found to have antioxidant, antimicrobial, and antiviral properties and may fight cancer (as if you needed anther reason to love pesto!)
How does your garden grow?
Any favorite herbs? Self-seeders or perennials I haven’t mentioned here? Others you’d like to know more about? Fabulous recipes or medicinal uses for any of the above that I haven;t listed? Let us know in the comments below!
BONUS
This month’s special giveaway is this fabulous out-of-print NOAA poster, Marine Mammals of the Western Hemisphere. Everyone who leaves a comment between now and the middle of July gets one entry in the drawing. Link to this site on your blog and get two entries. Get your comments in now!
The first potato harvest came up this week! I didn’t intend to dig them up, although there were signs some of the plants were ready (past flowering and starting to brown).
I was reweaving the soaker hose through the bed when I saw a smooth purplish thing sticking out of the dirt. At first I thought it was a kid’s toy.
Some digging brought up more than two buckets full of purple, red and golden tomatoes! I was only planning to dig up one bucketful but when the kids saw them, they insisted on digging some, too.
My daughter enjoying new potatoes with dill and garlic - all grown in our garden!
We’ll be eating potatoes for weeks to come. (Months if we don’t eat them all ASAP. When their skins are intact – that is when you don’t have a 3- and 6-and-a-half year old helping you dig them up – they store very well).
This is my first successful year growing spuds. Tried last year but put them into the ground way too late (late April through early June). The temperature was too much for them in the steamy DC region: the plants wilted and the seed potatoes turned into gooey gummy blobs – gross!
White potatoes like to have “cold feet” – they need cool soil temperatures to develop well. This year I started putting them out the week of St. Patrick’s Day and finished by the end of March. Even my latest potatoes will be ready by mid-July.
Multiplying Tomatoes
Planting potatoes early also means that their beds will be available next month for more plants. I confessed to my husband that I didn’t know what to plant there and he looked at me with an indulgent smile, shook his head and said: “tomatoes, of course.”
A new tomato sucker - soon to be a new plant!
Of course and not just because we love tomatoes. From years of experience he knows that regardless of how many tomato plants I start with, dozens will be producing fruit by summer’s end. So how do these amazing plants multiple across the yard?
Suckers! (no that’s not an insult).
A sucker is the little plant that starts from notch between a leaf and the main stem. I’m a big fan of removing these and trimming my plants down to one or two stems, for ease of harvesting, to keep them upright, and to prevent them from becoming too bushy.
(This is true only for indeterminate tomatoes, the kind that will grow long rambling vines all summer. Check your seed packet or plant label or ask at the nursery or garden center if you’re not sure which kind you have).
Summer in my area can be very humid. Trimming the tomatoes helps air circulate around the vines, reducing mold and generally keeping the plants healthy. Trimming also results in lots of suckers that can be sprouted and planted to produce lots more tomatoes!
These tomato plants are sprouting new roots after a week in water.
You can remove the suckers with clippers or pinch the small ones off with your fingers. Put them in some water. I prefer a glass jar so I can see the roots develop.
Some folks say that you don’t need to do this, they’ll just develop roots in the ground. I tried that last year with only limited success.
Suckers are an important part of the barefoot garden – super easy to propagate easy and free! So pinch off those suckers and grow yourself some new plants.
A devilish party
This coming Tuesday, June 21st, YOU are invited to a devilish celebration, a worldwide party to celebrate the launch of the latest SIGMA Force novel, The Devil Colony, by fantabulous New York Times bestselling author James Rollins.
The Devil Colony is #7 in the SIGMA Force series, which revolves around a division of highly trained operatives and expert scientists whose primary focus is fighting terrorism and protecting sensitive and confidential information.
The SIGMA series includes Map of Bones (May, 2005), Black Order (June, 2006), The Judas Strain (July, 2007), The Last Oracle (June, 2008), and The Doomsday Key (June, 2009).
So where’s the party? Online! Rollin fans everywhere will gather for twenty-four hours on Twitter under the hashtag #DevilColony. What’s the party’s theme? You guessed it – Devil!
Dress fancy or put on your tails and horn,s and post pictures of your devilishness online. Eat deviled eggs, create devilish cocktails for you and yours, and let us know!
James will stop by throughout the day (and night!) to chat with fans. He’ll check out the pictures, selecting favorites to post on his site’s Wall of Fame. The best pictures will win a big mystery prize!
Never attended a cyber-party? Here’s your chance! Head on over to #DevilColony on Tuesday to see what it’s all about.
To get into the party spirit, follow @jamesrollins on Twitter. and check out this great interview between social media maven Kristen Lamb and Rollins right here.
See you on Tuesday!
BONUS
This month’s special giveaway is this fabulous out-of-print NOAA poster, Marine Mammals of the Western Hemisphere. Everyone who leaves a comment between now and the middle of July gets one entry in the drawing. Link to this site on your blog and get two entries. Get your comments in now!
This week’s Wonderful Waterful Wednesday post goes out to Virginia Kantra, in honor of the release of “Forgotten Sea” the latest in her Children of the Sea romance series. Virginia’s stories feature selkies, shapeshifter men and women fighting for the future of their kind – and ours. If you love stories of the sea, check them out!
Selkies – from the Scot word for seal, selch/selk – are mythological seals who can shed their skin and become human. The selkie legend originated in the Orkney and Shetland Islands and spread around the NE Atlantic, from Iceland to the Faroe Islands, Scotland and Ireland. Selkie stories are often romantic tragedies featuring humans who unwittingly all in love with the shapeshifters, only to lose them to the lure of the turning tide. (Rest assured, Virginia’s romances are anything but tragic!)
Real seals are no less fascinating their their magical namesakes. Seals are part of the group Pinnipedia or fin-foots, which includes true seals, eared or walking seals (sea lions and fur seals) and walruses.
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Under the sea
Pinnipeds are well-adapted to their aquatic lifestyle. Their bodies are sleek and bullet-shaped, with wide flat fins to propel them through the water. They have fully collapsible lungs, which allows some species to dive as deep as 7,800 feet (a record held by the elephant seal) and reinflate their lungs afterwards. A layer of blubber keeps them warm, allowing them to spend hours in the water even as far north and south as the poles.
Pinniped eyes are adapted to see above and below the water’s surface, including a clear membrane or lid that protects their eyes underwater. And when the lights go out? Seals use their super sensitive whiskers to detect water movements and identify prey.
A study released last month found that seals can even use their whiskers to determine the size and shape of objects, a useful skill when hunting for prey in dark or murky waters. All pinnipeds are carnivorous.
Who you calling a seal?
The names of two of the groups of seals point to the characteristics that distinguish them from each other. “True seals” (Phocidae) lack external ears, although they do have ears and excellent hearing. Their two rear flippers are partially fused into a tail-like appendage that makes moving on land awkward but aids them greatly in the water.
While not as adept in the water as their cousins, eared seals (Otariidae) such as the sea lion can rotate their rear flippers, giving them some (relative) degree of maneuverability on land. And as their name suggests, they have external ear flaps. The ‘seals’ often seen circuses or aquaria are usually sea lions rather than true seals.
Walruses are easily recognizable by the long tusks and immensity, with an average adult weight of 1,900 (female) to 2,700 (male) lbs! They live exclusively in the Arctic, the last remnant of a the once widespread family Odobenidae.
Walruses are not the largest pinnipeds, however. Adult elephant seals can weigh up 6,700 lbs and reach 16 feet long!
Elephant seals, members of the family of true seals (Phocidae) are also the most aquatic for the pinnipeds, spending 80% of their time in the water. They can hold their breath up to 100 minutes – longer than any other non-cetacean (whale) marine mammal.
Elephant seals get their name, not from their size (although it is impressive!) but from their long trunk-like noses and the trumpeting sound the males make when startled, defending territory or fighting for mates.
From land to sea
Like whales, seals evolved from terrestrial mammals that returned to the sea. (You can read more about whales and their evolution in this post). They descending form a bear-like ancestor and took the the water around 23 million years ago.
In 2007, scientists in Canadian uncovered a fossil that helped explain how seals evolved from walking ancestors. The creature Puijila darwini, also know as the ‘walking seal’ is not believed to have been a direct ancestor of modern pinnipeds. Rather, it illustrates a possible intermediate step between living primarily on land versus largely in the sea.
P. darwini lived in the Arctic between 20 and 24 million years ago, when the region was forested and much warmer than today.
And you?
I am always looking for authors who can transport me under the waves from my inshore home – how about you?
Love seals and selkies? Check out Virginia Kantra‘s Children of the Sea series! Know of any other good marine fantasies? Mermaids and mermen? Sirens and sailors? Ghost ships, kraken or creatures of the deep? Let us know in the comments below!
BONUS
This month's giveaway: an out-of-print NOAA poster marine mammals. Start your entries today!
In honor of Virginia’s book, this post and marine mammals everywhere, I am giving away a copy of this fabulous out-of-print NOAA poster, Marine Mammals of the Western Hemisphere. All of the critters mentioned above are featured and more! Everyone who leaves a comment between now and the middle of July gets one entry in the drawing. Link to this site on your blog and get two entries. Get your comments in now!
Garlic has an honored place in the barefoot garden. It’s planted in mid-fall, when all the hard work and harvesting is done, and the weather is comfortable and cool. It isn’t fussy and requires little care (a must for the barefoot garden). And it’s absolutely wonderful to eat and so much cheaper to grow than to buy organic.
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Types of garlic
There are two main types of garlic – hardneck and softneck, which describes the stiffness of the stalk. I prefer softneck. It’s a bit easier to grow/less fussy and it grows larger heads, although the cloves are smaller than hard-neck garlic.
Also you can braid softneck garlic into long twists and hang them on your kitchen wall, for decoration AND convenience all winter long. (OK, until January or so, when we run out). Softneck garlic is the kind you usually see in the supermarket.
What’s not to like?
Well…there’s one big trade-off. Garlic demands a good sunny spot and takes a long time to grow. In many cases, cloves planted in October aren’t ready until July. that means tying up prime garden real estate for six whole months, including the critical early summer.
Or so I thought.
This is my third year growing garlic. On the recommendation of my favorite gardening company, Southern Exposure Seed Exchange I decided to a sampler of Asiatic and Turban Garlic, “a must-try for Southern gardeners.” Their flavor is described as “strong and hot raw but smooth and mellow when baked.” Who could resist?
The garlic came up in the fall as usual and seemed to weather the winter just fine. Early spring came and went and everything looked good. Then the stalks started to wilt.
What happened???
In my experience, garlic plants will send up scapes, curly flowerheads that you cut off to use in salads and stir-frys, to encourage the plant to put more energy into bulb formation. That never happened. Instead the stalks started to brown and flop over.
Earlier this week, I decided to cut my losses and harvest whatever heads were there. I dug my fingers gently around beneath he stalk – and was shocked to discover a large, full-formed head! Under stalk after stalk I dug and was delighted to discover a whole patch full of garlic heads, ready to come out!
They knew it all along
Looking back at the SESE website I see the note: “These will be the earliest garlics ready to harvest in your garden. They grow big and mature early all at once.”
Yes, I’d forgotten that. But even if I hadn’t, I never would have expected to have my garlic patch harvested and ready for the next crop in early June. In fact, for the condition of some of the heads (paper cracking, cloves starting to split apart) I could have harvested them two weeks ago!
Asiatic and turban garlics will now have a permanent place in my garden. They’re a little fussier than the types I tried before, and I lost about 10% of the heads to rot or some other such problem. But they’re delicious. And did I mention EARLY?
My favorite garden blogger
No discussion of garlic in my garden would be complete without giving credit and kudos to my all-time favorite garden blogger, Kenny Point of Veggie Gardening Tips. Kenny’s blog was the first I went to when I was learning to garden, and where I still go for ideas, inspiration or advice.
Kenny was the one who convinced me to try garlic in the first place, as well as fall & winter gardening, goji berries, and many other gardening adventures. Whether you’re new to gardening or an experienced gardener looking for a few tips, check out Kenny’s free eBook, The Veggie Garden Primer.
The greens are going…going…
The summer heat has hit DC. Although today is cool, the temperatures over last weekend and the early part of the week climbed to the HIGH 90′s! At the end of May!
Aside from soaring A/C bills and new summer dresses, that also means and end to spring greens. I’ve enjoyed greens all winter and through the spring, so I have no reason to complain. (Will that stop me?Nooo.)
The greens I planted in August and October stayed green and fed us throughout the snowy months and all the way through April. Again, credit to Kenny Point for teaching me about fall and winter gardening. (More on that in a future post).
Then they bolted (sent up seed stalks and stopped putting energy into their leaves).
That was fine, because by then the seeds I’d put in with the peas took over feeding duty. They’re still going and will likely stick around for a few more weeks before they bolt. (The arugula has already started, as you can see in the photos above).
Greening the summer garden
In hot humid DC, it’s nearly impossible to grow lettuce or spinach in the summer so I’ve been forced to look for alternatives. Not for salads, but at least for cooking.
Last year I tried Malabar spinach a slightly gummy succulent that works just like spinach when cooked. It grows as beautiful magenta and green vines that covered our fence and prompted comments and compliments from all the neighbors!
I haven’t sown any yet (I’ll put them behind the tomatoes when I pull out the peas), but you can there’s a photo above of some self-sown plants already coming up.
Sweet n’ green
Another yummy summer green comes from one of my all-time garden favorites: sweet potatoes. It may be hard to believe form the photo above, but those little plants will produce a sea of foliage, enough to cover the ground (no need for mulch!), beautify the garden, AND fill the cookpot.
And don’t forget the dozens of potatoes you’ll get some the fall. The sweets will definitely have their own post, once the foliage really begins to grow.
What else do I dig about gardening? Showing my son and daughter where food really comes from – and no, it’s NOT the grocery store.
How does YOUR garden grow?
Ever tried to grow garlic? Gotta get some summer greens? Crazy about homegrown sweets? Let us know in the comments below!
…all things are one thing and that one thing is all things—plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on the sea and the spinning planets and an expanding universe, all bound together by the elastic string of time. It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the stars and then back to the tide pool again.
Bright green sea grass and shiny kelp at California's Bodega Head. Photo: David Liittschwager/National Geographic
I love tidepools, those bits of ocean left behind when the moon lures the water away for a while. They’re microcosms of the sea, featuring much of the diversity and spectacle that makes the ocean so extraordinary, in a tiny and accessible place. I wrote a blog post on these “sometimes oceans” a few weeks ago, which you can find here.
This week National Geographic has given me a wonderful opportunity to return to these incredible places. (All photos are from the June 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine, on newsstands May 31).
Photo: Brandon Cole/National Geographic
In “Brimming Pools,” author Mel White and photographer David Liittschwager explore the pools of the Pacific Northwest. The unique climate and geology of this region gives it the most diverse and spectacular tide pools in the world. The cold upwelling waters off the West Coast bring abundant nutrients to the shore. Frequent fogs protects exposed sea creatures from the sun and the absence of hard freezes mean the rocks are not scraped free of life in the winters.
Among the creatures described in the article is a species of Pisaster – a sea star. These creatures are remarkably strong and patient. A sea star will crawl along the tidepool floor looking for bivalves like mussels or clams.
When it finds one, it grabs onto the two halves of the shell and pulls, using its tiny suckers for leverage. When it’s pried the shell open far enough, it everts its stomachs into the shell and digests its meal. I kid you not.
Sea stars are far from the most bizarre creatures found in tidepools. Here’s a great composite of some of the creatures found in the pools of the Pacific Northwest.
The rocks and pools of the intertidal zone are home to an array of creatures fancifully named for their shapes and colors. Photo credit: David Liittschwager/National Geographic
For those so inclined, here are the names of these critters:
From top First row: red abalone, Cockerell’s dorid, ringed nudibranch, variegate amphissa, grainyhand hermit crab, ochre sea star, cabezon
Second row: red octopus, opalescent nudibranch, mermaid’s cup, smooth iridescent seaweed, San Diego lamellaria, purple sea urchin, hammerhead doto, leather star
Third row: red rock crab, calico sculpin, colorful dendronotus, stubby frond nudibranch, rough limpet, calico sculpin
Fourth row: red sponge nudibranch, chink snail, woody chiton, nereid worm, syllid polychaete, peanut worm, brown turban snail, red sea fern
Fifth row: shield limpet, sea clown nudibranch, red sea fan, monkeyface prickleback, bat star, green rope, red rock crab, flat porcelain crab
This article and more can be found in the June issue of National Geographic. Check out the article featured on the cover about how stone pillars in Turkey are inspiring anthropologists to re-examine their assumptions about when and why religion began. Enjoy!
Blogging and Writing and Blocks – Oh My!
Writing is going well. Checking in during the Round of Words in 80 Days? Not so much. I’ve come to the conclusion that Sunday blog posts are just not going to work for me. Sunday is for family and it’s really difficult to get time in front of the computer. When I do, I prefer to work on my fiction. So I’m dropping the Sunday update and focusing on Wednesday instead.
Overall, blogging has been a bit erratic lately. I’ve started a new writing project with a serious deadline – getting it up and running took up a lot of attention. I kept to at least one post a week but I prefer to do more than that.
I’ve committed to at least twice a week (“Wonderful Waterful Wednesdays” and “I’m Diggin’ Fridays”) and I’m thinking about adding a mash-up post on Mondays. An odd day for a summary, I know, but it’s the only one that fits into my schedule.
The fiction is going well. For the first time I’ve written out a synopsis before starting to write. It’s functioning as an outline, which is totally odd for me but working.
I hit a serious block about 4500 words into it. (It’s a short – I’m aiming for 10,000 to 15,000 words). What I’d written was awful. Not the first draft kind of crap – I mean totally flat. There wasn’t a single line that I liked. Not a good sign.
I took a step back and thought about the problem and realized that I just didn’t like my main characters. I didn’t get them and couldn’t write them. After some brainstorming with my husband (he’s great at it) I figured out what I needed to do; how I needed to change them.
It worked. In the last two days I’ve written 2500 words with very little effort. Whew!
And You?
Ever played in a tidepool? Touched a live a sea star? (Never gonna look at them the same way, eh?) Found your way over, under, around or through writer’s block? Let us know in the comments below! And remember to check back on Friday to see how my garden is growing – and tell me all about yours.
Who doesn’t dig Fridays? I do – and I dig digging! I’m passionate about playing in the dirt, planting veggies and fruit and gorging myself on the harvest. So this Friday I’m launching I’m Diggin’ Fridays, a brand-new feature here on Danielle’s Barefoot Blog. Once a week I’ll write about what’s going on in my garden and I hope you’ll share what’s coming up in yours!
A bit of background: I live in a semi-urban area, walking distance to shopping, the metro and a community college, among other things. Not Manhattan but not suburbia either. All of my gardening takes place in the spaces I’ve carved out of the flower beds and the lawn. It’s not much, but I grow a huge amount of food there. And you can too!
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But first, a little drama…
Garden bums
A couple of weeks ago I received a nasty letter in my mailbox. It was anonymous, of course as nasty letters always are, with no return address. Written on a torn-off piece of paper in a spidery scrawl, here’s what it said (I’ve used boldface for the words that were underlined):
To the bums at (my address)–
Can’t you see All your neighbors take pride in their homes — Yours [triple-underline] is an eyesore with your tumble-down side porch — you dont even cutYour grass. Why did you buy a house? Our next move will be to call the county zoning. you are the only Bums [triple again] in our neighborhood.
If you’re wondering what the hell? you’re in good company. If you’re thinking that my place must look like an abandoned-lot-druggie-flophouse, you’d been in for a big surprise.
Odd grammar and emphasis aside – oh, and the reference to us as “bums” I mean who uses that kind of language? – this note is freaking ridiculous. And I’m happy to say a minority viewpoint. Neighbors wander by all the time to ask what this flower is or that plant tastes like. Everyone who actually speaks to me face-to-face (rather than anonymously through nasty notes), says how much they like our yard.
I’ve been given so many compliments, I should be in Better Homes and Gardens!
There are few people in my area who take more pride in their garden. In fact, I’m willing to bet my whole potato harvest (and I planted for than 30 seed potatoes, so it will be substantial) AND my garlic harvest (100+ cloves) that I spend more time I my garden than almost anyone in the neighborhood. (The editor of Washington Gardener magazine lives down the street, so there’s some serious competition here ).
We spend so much time planting, growing and harvesting food crops that my six-year old refuses to be called a gardener – he’s a farmer.
What’s growing on?
Let’s see what us bums have been up in the yard so far this year. Here’s a list of what’s growing on right now (#s in parentheses indicate # of different varieties of a plant):
Planted last summer/fall& harvested through the winter until now: collard greens, kale (2 ), arugula (2), lettuce (half-dozen or more), radishes (2), spinach (2), gailan/Chinese broccoli, pak choy, mustard greens (4), cilantro, salad burnet, mache/corn salad, Swiss chard (2), turnips. (I’ve pulled up one overwintering bed to make room for sweet potatoes – the rest will come out when the peppers and eggplants are ready to go in).
So far this spring: White potatoes (7), peas (2), Malabar spinach (self-seeded from last year), patty pan squash, winter squash (2), cukes (2), other squash (pumpkins? no idea – transplanted seedlings from the compost pile), volunteer tomatoes, lots of garlic (4).
Yesterday, I planted sweet potatoes. I cannot recommend growing sweets strongly enough! They are super easy, super prolific and you can even eat the greens. They’re similar to spinach when cooked and grow at temperatures that would defeat the most heat-resistant spinach.
Seedlings growing under lights, ready to go out when the beds are ready: tomatoes (6), tomatillos, hot peppers (3), sweet peppers, eggplant (2), ground cherries. (What are ground cherries? No idea – the seeds came as freebies with another order).
Perennials, bushes and trees, oh my!
Perennials, bushes and trees – planted last year and coming up on their own or put in recently in the hopes of future harvests: walking onions, Jerusalem artichokes (they’re going crazy!), strawberries, thornless blackberries, mulberries, gooseberries, goji berries, red currants (2), raspberries (2).
We also have four 20+ year old fig trees (2 or 3?). I’m hoping to propagate them this year and plant more trees – you can’t get enough fresh figs, especially when they’re $4.99 for 7 at Whole Foods!
As for non-food pants, I recently transplanted two suckers from the lilac bush into the ‘hell strip” between the sidewalk and the street, and they’re doing well. We also trimmed our monster rose bush from a brier patch the size of a VW bug – I’m not kidding – to something closer to an extra-large beach ball. And it looks great!
And the verdict is…
Does that sound like the work (or non-work) of a “bum”? OK maybe my root veggies didn’t do too well – I always get more greens than roots on my turnips, kohlrabi, and beets (no idea why – suggestions?) – but otherwise I’ve been pretty successful. And damned busy!
So what’s this guy’s beef? OK, I confess, my yard is not neatly manicured and picture perfect. The weeds always have a good run in my beds before I get around to picking them (if I ever do), and the lawn sometimes grows until we legally have to mow it. (In my neighborhood that’s 10″).
Fancy fertilizers aren’t my thing, not even the organic kind, so I have a monster compost pile for yard waste and a smaller one for kitchen stuff. (I also got a few cubic yards of leaf compost from the county, which is piled in my driveway and doubles as a jungle gym.)
It is lovely, in a way. I have lots of flowering bushes and bulbs – the asparagus is nestled among the false indigo, the hydrangea and the peonies, the Jerusalem artichoke is making a space for itself between the butterfly bush and the lilies. (The latter have edible tubers, by the way, although I’ve never sampled them myself).
A girl’s gotta eat
The truth is that most of the plants I tend are for food. If I’m going to sweat out there – and in the DC area in August I mean sweat! – I want more payoff then just something pretty. I want to eat.
And the tumble-down porch? it’s made of stone without a chink in the mortar. Yes, the screens are torn and I would LOVE for my irate neighbor to come over and repair them. In the meantime they’ll stay on my to do list – I have some more weeding to do.
What else do I dig about gardening? Pushing the wheelbarrow when it’s full of dirt. It’s damned heavy and makes me feel strong.
How Does YOUR Garden Grow?
Have any stories about nasty neighbors? Garden favorites or suggestions? Questions about how to grow any of the above? Let us know in the comments section below!
This weekend the Blue Frontier Campaign and its partners will convene the Blue Vision Summit. Hundreds of ocean activists from all over the country will descend on Washington, DC to learn about ocean issues, experience ocean-inspired music and art and lobby Congress for better ocean policy. Among the speakers and guests will be some of the best known and passionate ocean advocates in the world. This week’s wonderful waterful post is dedicated to a half-dozen ocean heroes and the wonderful work they do.
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A Stylish Blogger
I’ve been given a Stylish Blogger Award! Yes, Danielle Meitiv’s Barefoot Blog has been recognized for it’s substance and style (well, it’s style at least) with this prestigious accolade.
So, what makes me a stylish blogger? No, it’s not the bare feet. I’ve been nominated for the award by my fellow blogging buddy and writing group member (writing groupie?), Patrick Ross. I first encountered Patrick’s creativity through his tweets about creativity (Conveniently enough, he tweets as @on_creativity), and have since become a big fan of his blog, The Artist’s Road.
There are three obligations that come with the award: as I recipient I have to post seven random things about myself, nominate five other blogs, and link back to the wonderful person who nominated me. As a bonus, I get to display the Stylist Blogger Badge on my blog! (Check it out at right).
Seven random things:
At the age of 6 or 7 (?) I proposed and debuted the role of Toto in a summer camp production of the Wizard of Oz.
I have a naturally deep, scratchy voice, which prompted double- takes and comments from strangers when I was young: “Where did you get that voice?” (Occasionally, I told them I stole it).
On a family trip to Senegal when I was ten, I was chased by a baboon wielding a dead parrot. My father had to scare him away.
I pursued majors in bio and French in college and one of my professors tried to convince me to pursue a PhD in French lit. I can no longer read the papers I wrote back then.
I shook hands with Nelson Mandela and attended a private speech he gave to the Independent World Commission on the Oceans in Capetown, South Africa.
While recovering from a break-up in grad school (you know who you are!), I learned to knit, spent a month brooding and completed a sweater. In the process, I developed a wool allergy and have never been able to wear it.
Before my first pregnancy, I couldn’t stomach the smell or taste of tomatoes or olives. Now I love both.
My five Stylist Blog Award nominees:
Eat The Damn Cake. Kate is an author and blogger who writes about beauty, body image, women and dessert. She does an “unroast” with each post, highlighting something she likes about herself. @EatTheDamnCake
Three New Leaves. Blogger Matt Madeiro turned over three new leaves in his life: he lost weight, started to travel and embraced a minimalist lifestyle. In addition to blogging about it, he wrote two great e-books: Simpler and Roots. @MattMadeiro
I met Jen, Shellie and Damian through a wonderful online blogging course given by social media maven Kristen Lamb, who’s pretty stylish as well.
Round of Words in 80 Days: Wednesday Check-in
Writing is going well. I’ve done my morning pages everyday except, gulp, today! (Will get to those as soon as I finish this post!). I sent a synopsis to my agent friend on Saturday. It’s for an erotic short story.
While waiting for her feedback, I started revising an older piece story that I think would also make a good erotic short story and I’m pleased with how it’s going.
This AM comments came back from the agent, however, so I’m putting the older piece aside. This week I’ll revise the synopsis to make it editor-ready (I’d sent her a rough draft to get feedback on the story) and enxt week I’ll start writing the story itself. I’ve agreed to get it to her in a month. Wish me luck!
I’ve met my blogging goals so far this week: Sunday and Wednesday posts and ROW80 check-ins. I’ve put aside the learning goals because I have so much writing to do. Of course, I’m learning while I’m learning “on the job” this way, so it’s all good!
For a description of the Round of Words challenge and my ever-shifting goals, check out this post. To follow everyone else’s progress go here.
Happy Spring!
