New Varieties
I’m a sucker for trying new varieties of all kinds of things, especially vegetables. I have six different kinds of strawberries in the garden and I just acquired a new one.
These ‘Old North Sea’ strawberries were said to have been found on an ancient ancient, viking village site in Denmark.
I thought this variety would be a nice addition to my collection of interesting strawberries. It should be interesting to see how it performs and reproduces in the garden. I’m looking forward to tasting one of the berries next summer.
Do you collect different varieties of the same plant?
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A New Favorite Vegetable
A few years ago I started growing broccolini and rapini and fell in love. I love that you can direct seed it very early in spring. I love that it reaches harvest very quickly. I love that it has a slightly bitter taste.
It’s different than broccoli, though the essense is the same, it has a much more complex flavor. I cook it very simply, blanching it first in a pot of salted water for 2-3 minutes. Then I sauté it in a skillet with garlic and olive oil. Like spinach, you’ll need more than you think for each serving.
This year I actually grew three different varieties, each one had unique characteristics (Sessantina Grossa, Spring Raab, and Happy Rich all from Johnny’s Seeds). Two had that bitter essence that you get with raab, the broccolini florets had no bitterness at all. I actually prefer the smaller leafier version with bitterness. I’m a bit fan of bitter notes when it comes to my food. I’ll continue growing these beauties to add more variety to our plates. They definitely fill that void when you want something other than salads as a vegetable and head broccoli isn’t even close to maturity.
What new vegetables have tried to grow recently?
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Using up Seeds
I start onions from seed each year, mostly because I can find varieties that I can’t get in sets/plants and because they store longer than onions grown from sets. I like to grow 4-5 different varieties, which means I always have loads of extra onion seed.
Since it doesn’t store from year to year, I plant all the seeds thickly in rows and either harvest them as small set onions for quick growth the following spring, or as scallions during the summer/fall.
The direct seeded onions have germinated and are growing nicely, though the ones I seeded indoors back in March are much larger.
This year I may try transplanting a few of the direct seeded onions to see how they size up and store. It would be nice to direct seed onions and save a bit of time, but I might have to experiment with different varieties. Either way, I enjoy scallions, pearl onions, and onion sets and I don’t have seed going bad.
Do you grow onions from seed, sets, or plants?
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Planting in the Low Tunnel
This past Sunday we had a beautiful day, highs near fifty and sunny. Perfect for working in the garden, only the ground is still frozen. The soil in the low tunnel is thawed and workable, in fact the spinach in there is starting to grow new leaves. I have lettuce seedlings under the grow light that can be planted outside any day now, I’ve just been waiting for the weather to be above the single digits at night. I finally broke down and ordered a four pack of these probe thermometers, one will be put in the low tunnel so I can monitor the temperatures in there during the day and at night. I’ll use one under my grow lights too so I know the ambient temperature there as well.
I decided to take a few of each and plant in the low tunnel. We have a night that’s supposed to be 3 degrees, tomorrow evening – brrr. I decided it was worth planting a few seedlings out to see how they survive that kind of a night. That will give me a good idea of the weather inside the low tunnel. I’m thinking about giving them an additional layer of protection on that night, perhaps a milk jug or even another layer of frost blanket. I also seeded some arugula and cilantro in there.
I transplanted a few spinach seedlings as well, we’ll se how all this stuff does on that one frigid night. If it does well I’ll be filling the low tunnel with other lettuces and greens. We shouldn’t really have any more of those. Soon enough I’ll have enough garden chores to keep me busy on beautiful days, I can hardly wait!
What are you planting this week?
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I Spy…
On Sunday, I was checking the soil and spinach plants in the low tunnel and spotted a ‘Bowles Black’ violet blooming in there. What a wonderful sight it was!
I love having plants like Johnny’s jump ups and violets in my potager because they tell when I can do certain things. When I see them blooming I know that I can start planting and seeding spinach, arugula, cilantro, and other cold tolerant crops and they will germinate. The violets in the rest of the potager are nowhere to be seen, it will be a few weeks before they show their faces. Thanks to this beauty, I know it’s time to transplant some of the lettuce seedlings I have under grow lights into the low tunnel.
Do you have any plants that are signals for you?
