Rosslyn Redux

Tag: Vegetable

  • Rosslyn Gardens: Mid-July Veggies

    Rosslyn Gardens: Mid-July Veggies

    [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mQqE7yNGkA&w=600&rel=0]

    After the rainiest spring/summer in years, the summer of 2012 appears to be one of the driest, and Rosslyn gardens have mostly profited. Time for an update on our mid-July veggies, plus an important question about squash blossoms at the end.

    Lake Champlain water levels are plummeting (waterfront/dock/boating update soon) and lawns are either crispy, crunchy or perpetually showered by sprinklers. With the exception of new grass we’re starting as part of ongoing repairs to the damaged waterfront, we’re trying to minimize our environmental impact by letting the lawns dry up but drip, drip, dripping the vegetables, herbs and orchard.

    Eggplant and Blossom, Rosslyn Gardens
    Eggplant and Blossom, Rosslyn Gardens

    It’s a curious twist of fate that we were just beginning to repair our waterfront from flood damage at this point last year, and this year we’re experiencing a sustained drought. But we’re taking advantage of the heat for lots of Lake Champlain watersports and Adirondack Coast bike rides. Life is good!

    What about that mid-July veggies update I promised?

    So far, the drought winners in the vegetable garden appear to be the zuchini and yellow squash (Are they are channeling their “inner tropics”?!?!), Imperial Star Artichokes, eggplant, peppers and tomatoes. Although I keep expecting the watermelons and cantaloupes to explode, they’ve been sluggish. Bizarre. Many years our seasons are too short for them, and yet when we blast them with dry heat day after day, they get logy. Why?

    The leeks are also struggling. I suspect they need even more water than they are getting… Will try to keep them wetter this week. The pumpkins and cucumbers are also way behind where they’d normally be at this point in the summer. I’d hoped to trellis the cukes this year. Never done that before, but intrigued by the smaller plot and self-shade possibilities as well as the opportunity to keep the cucumbers up off the earth so they’ll be less vulnerable to pests. Unfortunately the plants are still so small I haven’t been able to train any of them up onto the cedar trellises yet. Soon, I hope!

    Zuchini Squash Blossom, Rosslyn Gardens
    Zuchini Squash Blossom, Rosslyn Gardens

    The good news is that we’ve been devouring radishes (see French Breakfast Radish) and greens for over a month. Already finished with the first radish and lettuce patches and making good headway through the second patches. Will plant more lettuce this week along with beans and another squash crop. No more radishes. I think I’ve already hit my limit.

    Why so much squash? Yes, we too get sick of squash, but each year I plan to harvest and prepare squash blossoms. But so far it’s never happened. This year I’ve vowed to learn several good ways to prepare squash blossoms. I have some interesting recipes, but would love to hear your favorite way to prepare squash blossoms. And I need to figure out the best way to clean the squash blossoms before cooking. Seems that ants in particular love to get inside. How do you prepare your squash blossoms?

    Thanks to Sacha Marcucci for her tasty sounding recommendation:

  • Broccoli Bonanza

    Broccoli Head, July 2015
    Broccoli Head, July 2015

    For the first time in my gardening life I am enjoying homegrown broccoli from our vegetable garden. Better yet? It’s totally organic and totally pest free! That’s a broccoli bonanza!

    Our friend, neighbor and gardening guru Catherine Seidenberg asked me back in May why we weren’t planting broccoli. She had just agreed to join “Team Rosslyn” for the summer, and she was sorting through my garden geek database, seed orders, and seedlings.

    “I’ve always heard and read that it’s too difficult to grow broccoli without using some sort of pesticide,” I explained.

    She told me that she was confident we could grow broccoli without pesticide if we used plant covering to keep creepy crawley critters away from the tender plants. I was wary, but she seemed convinced me that we should give it a shot.

    Catherine with Broccoli, July 2015
    Catherine Seidenberg with Broccoli, July 2015

    We planted broccoli and kept it covered until about a week ago. The pet plants grew quickly, and the heads formed faultlessly. The heads were large but anemic-looking, pale yellow in color, more like cauliflower than broccoli. But a week ago Catherine Seidenberg removed the row covering and allowed the plants to absorb sunlight The heads quickly darkened, and last night we harvested two of the biggest and healthiest broccoli heads I’ve ever seen. And they were delicious!

    It’s worth noting that we soaked both heads for well over an hour in salty water to remove bugs/worms/etc. We found nothing. The broccoli was clean, healthy, tender and super tasty. Thank you, Catherine Seidenberg.

    Garden Fresh Broccoli, July 2015
    Garden Fresh Broccoli, July 2015

  • Why Are My Cucumbers Orange?

    Orange-Yellow Cucumbers (Photo: virtualDavis)
    Orange-Yellow Cucumbers (Photo: virtualDavis)

    Why are my cucumbers orange? They’re turning yellow-orange, to be precise…

    This summer we have enjoyed more productive cucumber plants than ever before, but recently the enormous fruit are discoloring from green to yellow to orange before we can eat them. Here’s the reason why.

    Cucumbers turn orange when they grow excessively ripe before harvesting, explains Veggie Gardener. The cucumbers first turn yellow, and if left on the vine, they quickly develop a vibrant orange hue. This happens because chlorophyll levels decrease past the point of peak ripeness… [They become] very bitter and unsuitable for human consumption. (Source: Ask.com)

    Bitter. It’s true. I taste tested just to make sure they were no longer suitable for human consumption. They aren’t, though our caretaker assured us that his wife can still turn them into pickles. I encouraged him to take all he could haul!

    Green, Yellow, Orange Cucumbers (Photo: virtualDavis)
    Green, Yellow, Orange Cucumbers (Photo: virtualDavis)

    Our yellow and/or orange cucumbers are an unfortunate result of the extended heat wave and drought we’ve been enduring. It’s true we may have overplanted. But our beautiful cukes growing, greening, and spoiling before our eyes is heartbreaking. What to do?

    The only way to prevent cucumbers from turning yellow and orange is to harvest them at the proper time. Ripe cucumbers have firm flesh with a medium-green rind and feel heavy for their size. Most varieties ripen between 50 and 70 days after planting. Size is also an important indicator of ripeness. Each cucumber variety has a different optimal size and quickly develops a bitter flavor if allowed to grow larger. Some cucumbers, such as those used for pickling, are naturally smaller than other varieties. Consequently, gardeners must know what type of cucumber they have planted and the target size for ripe specimens in that category. The most common cause of orange and yellow cucumbers is over-ripening, but the discoloration is sometimes a symptom of the Cucumber Mosaic Virus. According to Gardening Know How, the Mosaic Virus produces soft, mushy cucumbers with mottled patches and curled, withered leaves. This incurable virus also affects peppers. When a cucumber displays symptoms of the Mosaic Virus, the best course of action is to remove it from the garden. (Source: Ask.com)

    The good news is that we don’t have Cucumber Mosaic Virus. But the bad news is that our compost is becoming overwhelmed with yellow and orange cucumbers. Perhaps we should redistribute these technicolor cukes to our wild neighbors for their enjoyment? (See Woodchucks & Cucumbers!)

    Green, Orange, and Yellow Cucumbers (Photo: virtualDavis)
    Green, Yellow, Orange Cucumbers (Photo: virtualDavis)

    And if wild omnivores turn up their snouts at the curiously colored cukes, they’re not bad inspiration for a freewheeling riff…

    The oranging skin
    is a warning:
    I’m overripe,
    too mature,
    untasty, even bitter,
    and I’m 100% unfit
    for human consumption

    (Source: “Orange Cucumbers”, Rosslyn Redux)

  • Beautiful Broccoli

    Catherine Seidenberg, our now-year-two vegetable garden guru, has once again aced the Broccoli Bonanza. That’s right, my bride and I have been devouring 100% organic, pest-free broccoli fresh out of the garden for a couple of weeks now. Quickly steamed, it’s packed with flavor, and oh-too-sexy to resist!

  • Soggy Soil Delays Planting

    Doug Decker tilling the vegetable garden
    Doug Decker tilling the vegetable garden

    With some Champlain Valley residents being evacuated by boat and the Wesport Marina totally flooded, we’re feeling fortunate that a submerged boathouse and waterfront is the extent of our flooding problems.

    Although we have our work cut our for us when Lake Champlain water levels drop, another short-term challenge is the super saturated soil. Tilling the vegetable garden has been out of the question, planting more grape vines, fruit trees and shrubs likewise has been suspended lest we drown the roots. Last year, I planted spinach and French Breakfast Radishes in the garden in mid-March, and my bride and I had been gorging on succulent baby spinach for weeks by this point. Not so this year. Some onions and leeks wintered over, but nothing new has been planted in the vegetable garden yet.

    The 7.88 inches of rain that fell in April in Burlington is of course a record, and is a full five inches more that what normally falls in the month… The soil is saturated and completely unworkable for farmers, gardeners, vegetable growers and others… To let farmers catch up, we really need at least a couple weeks of warm, dry, sunny weather… (Burlington Free Press)

    I received a call from Mr. Murphy, the gentleman who — with his son and sometimes his grandson — has done an unbelievable job of maintaining our lawns for the last two years. He wanted to know when to start mowing lawns for the season. He agreed that the ground was far too saturated and suggested we wait a couple of weeks. I agreed.

    Frankly, I’ve agreed with almost every decision Mr. Murphy has made over the last two years. He’s a lawn master. And a weather master. He keeps track of the forecast and works around it, advancing or pushing back our lawn mowing each week per the rain forecast. And so far we’ve never once had an unmowed lawn for the weekend! And he’s nice as can be, always smiling, always ready to let me in on an amusing story or anecdote. He’s famous in these parts for his tomato plants. He raises many hundreds of plants and then sells them to friends and neighbors, donating the profits to the local animal shelter.

    In short, I’m a big fan of Mr. Murphy, and when he told me that his greenhouse was flooded, I was sympathetic as only a sunken boathouse owner could be.

    Water, water everywhere! We’re all ready for a drought…

    Blooming hyacinth perfume the air
    Hyacinth perfume the air outside our breakfast room

    Actually, today I took matters into my own hands. Despite the notion that a couple of dry weeks would be needed to till and plant, I jumped the gun. Rising lake water had gotten its talons into my spirit, so I decided to ignore the flood and enjoy the first balmy spring day in a while gardening, pruning, landscaping. And you know what? It worked! I only wish I’d tried this approach a few days ago. Maybe Lake Champlain wouldn’t have risen so high.

    Doug and I spent part of the morning changing over the tractor from snow plow to backhoe, and then proceeded to rip out a lumber retaining wall at the southeast corner of the old clay tennis court. I suspected that the area contained objectionable refuse (a battery and part of a garden hose had floated to the surface) and the wall had been built altogether too close to the carriage barn resulting in sill and framing rot. I’ll tell the story of what we discovered in another post.

    Then we tilled the garden under for the second time, adding plenty of sphagnum moss to help lighten the soil. We were premature. The tines clogged repeatedly, but we made it through which will help the soil dry out. Tomorrow I’m hoping to make another pass and possibly — I dare not pronounce my wish lest I tempt the rain fates — just possibly I’ll be able to plant some spinach and kale. I’d hoped to have the vegetable garden so much further along by now because of some ambitious plans. We’re relocating the asparagus patch from south of the carriage barn to back by the vegetable garden. The strawberry beds will also be moved. And the rhubarb. And blueberries, raspberries and blackberries are arriving in a couple of weeks to be planted. None of these beds have been prepared yet.

    But today marked the first major step forward in preparing the vegetable and fruit gardens. And tomorrow, weather permitting, I intend to continue full steam ahead! Fingers crossed…