Danielle Meitiv's Barefoot Blog

Writing and life… without shoes

Tag Archives: sweet potatoes


by 9 Comments

I’m Diggin’ Friday: Growing Garlic and Greens

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.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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!

Danielle Meitiv is a writer, marine science geek, gardener and mother who goes barefoot whenever possible. Danielle is also a huge fan and sales affiliate for Holly Lisle’s online courses: How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers, and How to Revise Your Novel. Follow @Danielle_Meitiv on Twitter, and on Facebook: Danielle Meitiv’s Barefoot Blog, and Danielle Meitiv.

 


by 21 Comments

I’m Diggin’ Friday: Seed(ling)s of Discontent

My seedlings suck.  No really – they suck. After almost two months of nurturing well over a dozen tomato, eggplant, pepper and tomatillo seedlings under grow lights, it’s time I face the truth. They’re pathetic.

Eight weeks old and they’re only around four inches tall.  If you’ve never grown your own plants from seed, let me tell you: this isn’t good.

I tried to be a good parent. I gave them what I thought was quality soil, a good warm spot and grow lights on a timer. OK, so maybe one of the lamps isn’t working all that well, and I didn’t get around to setting the second one up until three or four weeks after the seedlings started.  That shouldn’t have made such a difference. But something did.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

No, I didn’t include the sad seedlings in this slideshow. They’re just too pathetic for primetime viewing.

Setting out on their own

In spite of their apparent unsuitability, I put them outside to harden off. Hardening off means getting them used to living outdoors gradually, so as not to shock their wee botanical systems. I do it by putting them outside under a plastic bin for part of the day so they get light and sun, but don’t get too cool in the evening or dry out.

I had planned to leave them in their pots for a few more days until I had a chance to clear their new home of leftover winter and spring greens. But my two-year old forced my hand, by upending several pots and scattering the inhabitants all over the path.

As if those poor buggers weren’t suffering enough already! So, yesterday I planted all of them I the one spot I had cleared and called it a “seedling bed” (as if that had been the plan all along!)

I should probably ditch them – they may be so little because they’re diseased (from a bad batch of soil or something). If they don’t appear to recover in the next week, I’ll just buy some plants. Hey, I got no problem with that. Fresh tomatoes are more important than pride!

How do my seedlings grow?

Failure aside, I will definitely try again next year. (Maybe even later in the season if I’m feeling ambitious enough to start some fall plants indoors in July). I’ve had seed-starting success before, so I will try not to won’t take this personally.

I started growing my own plants from seed two years ago. I do it ’cause it’s fun, it gives me something gardening-related to do when it’s too cold to plant outside, and it’s cheaper than buying plants.

My fancy-shmacy growing set-up consists of a shelving unit from Home Depot (to keep the plants away from my daughter’s little paws), a couple of $20 shop lights, and four 48″ fluorescent bulbs. My seed pots are re-purposed yogurt containers. (I’m not a fan of peat pots, which I find often do not breakdown as promised).

I picked up a bunch of cafeteria-type trays to hold all of these and reused some of those long black trays from a nursery purchase years ago.  The whole thing was less than $100 and I’ll have it for years!

The seeds…well, they’re a different story. It’s really a matter of personal interest and restraint. You can spend $10 on a half dozen packets and be done with it – or spend closer to $100 and gets lots and lots of seeds!  (Guess which one I did last year).

I don’t mind having lots of extra seeds ’cause I’ll use them for years. I disagree with the folks that say seeds only last two years and should be tossed if less than 85% are viable. (They’ll do germination tests in wet paper towels to get the percentage). If the seeds are old, and fewer may be viable, just plant more.  Drop two in the pot instead of one. I two come up you can always thin them out later. Still cheaper than tossing unused seeds.

Garden porn

It’s HARD to resist those shiny colorful garden magazines with their beautiful pictures of lush ripe tomatoes and firm succulent melons. Have you ever seen the Bakers Creek heirloom seed catalog?  The photos are so gorgeous my friend calls it “garden porn.” Even my frugal husband can’t resist recommending a few purchases for the garden when he thumbs through those catalogs. I’m an advocate of getting almost anything electronically, but I can’t stop requesting those catalogs  They keep me warm and happy thinking of summer when the ground is covered with snow.

Other favorite catalogs: Southern Exposure Seed Exchange and Territorial Seed Company. While I’m plugging gardening companies (and no, I’m not getting anything for these endorsements), here are the folks I go to for live plants, seed potatoes and the like: Steele Plant Company (sweet potato slips ), Potato Garden (white seed potatoes), and J. W. Jung Seed Company (Jerusalem artichokes and berry bushes).

What’s coming up?

The rest of the garden is growing well.  I set my sweet potato slips out last week and they’ve taken really well. As I’ve written before, I’m a huge fan of growing sweet potatoes. So, don’t be surprised if they get a dedicated post when they really get growing.

The white potatoes are also doing well. The early varieties are blooming, which means that I’ll be able to dig up some small “new” potatoes soon!

I had no success with these guys last year, but that’s probably because I planted them too late. Unlike sweets, white potatoes do not like heat so they have to be harvested before the DC summer really sets in. This year they were in the ground around St. Patrick’s Day and will be out by early July.

Snow and snap peas are coming in (and my kids are eating them as fast as they appear). The salad greens I planted near the door are looking and tasting great. The mulberries and strawberries are ripening and getting eaten right off the plants and the raspberries, figs and currants are showing the promise of great harvests. (I see a dedicated fruit post in the near future as well).

The Jerusalem artichokes (not from Jerusalem, not an artichoke) are growing strong, and are expected to completely take over the yard around 2014. Yes, they’re aggressive but they’re also yummy and easy to grow and harvest so I don’t mind.

Overall, the garden is doing well.  I’ll keep an eye on my sad seedlings, empty out the rest of that bed, and head on over to the farmer’s market for some plants. I’m looking for tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers.  Suggestions?

How does YOUR garden grow?  Have any garden failures to confess? Successes to share? Leave ‘em in the comments below!

Danielle Meitiv is a writer, marine science geek, gardener and mother who goes barefoot whenever possible. Danielle is also a huge fan and sales affiliate for Holly Lisle’s online courses: How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers, and How to Revise Your Novel. Follow @Danielle_Meitiv on Twitter, and on Facebook: Danielle Meitiv’s Barefoot Blog, and Danielle Meitiv.


by 16 Comments

I’m Diggin’ Friday: Gardening Bums

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!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

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 cut Your 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!

Perennial herbs: rosemary, lemon balm, parsley, purple cone flower (Echinacea), lavender, chives. mint. Annuals: basil, dill, cilantro.

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!

Danielle Meitiv is a writer, marine science geek, gardener and mother who goes barefoot whenever possible. Danielle is also a huge fan and sales affiliate for Holly Lisle’s online courses: How to Think Sideways: Career Survival School for Writers, and How to Revise Your Novel. Follow @Danielle_Meitiv on Twitter, and on Facebook: Danielle Meitiv’s Barefoot Blog, and Danielle Meitiv.

Continue Reading →

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

Join 38 other followers