Waterwise Gardening Interview

This morning I was interviewed on KATU's AM Northwest Show about tips on designing and maintaining a water wise garden. Though the camera doesn't do the colors and textures justice, here is a peek at what is going on our garden right now.

Interested in learning more about incorporating water wise practices into your garden?

Check out the Regional Water Provider's Consortium's website www.conserveh2o.org where you can find all sorts of water conserving resources.

Potatoes!

Last year I read about growing potatoes vertically in one of the gardening magazines I subscribe to and ever since then I have been obsessed with the idea!

While in Seattle in April, I came across a nonprofit selling used burlap sacks that were originally used by local coffee roasters to transport their beans. I bought three and two of which are now at home on our driveway with potatoes growing in them.

Apparently I was too late to purchase seed potatoes this year, but we had a few varieties of organic potatoes that had begun to sprout so we chopped them up and planted them.

As far as I can tell, you plant them in about six inches of soil, let them grow about six inches, cover them with dirt and repeat. Once the bag is full and the plants begin to flower you are ready to harvest.

We won't know how successful this experiment is until the end of the season, but I will continue to document the progress and success/failures along the way.

It may be June(uary), but the salad days are here anyway!

The cooler weather may have the rest of us in the Portland area grumbling, but the greens in our garden have, for the most part, been happy with it.

Here is what we have (or had) going thus far:

Spinach - With the other night's dinner (pasta, fish spinach and lemon juice), we've had five batches this spring!

I planted one patch of about 10 plants every two to three weeks. This helped us keep up with these prolific plants - just as we harvested on batch another was being planted.

Mark incorporated the spinach into several soups and stir fry dishes (more to come on this in a future post).

The variety we selected has enormous leaves and no gritty metallic after taste.  A definite keeper!

Lettuce - We have four types of lettuce growing right now. One of the things I love about lettuce is that you can tuck it in between plants and it is ready to harvest about the time that its neighbors need a little more room.

My favorite short season variety is a butterhead called Tom Thumb which matures in about 30 days and is about the size of a softball.

I've also staggered my lettuce plantings every couple of weeks so we should have lettuce throughout the summer.  Looks like the salad days are here indeed!

 

Pak Choy - Sadly the variable temperatures we've been having have wreaked havoc on the pak choy. Over the weekend I noticed that it had definitely bolted, but for now I am leaving them in since the bright yellow flowers are attracting pollinators. I think that we will retry pak choy in the fall.




Chard - I have chard planted in several smaller pots along the base of the troughs and in an old wooden fruit delivery box.

The plants are coming along nicely despite the occasional leaf attacked by leaf miners. Right now my defense is comprised of plucking the affected leaves - anyone know another way to deal naturally with these pests?





Lacinto kale - I also have kale planted in smaller pots along the base of the troughs.

The cabbage moths have been busy laying eggs which hatch into voracious lime green caterpillars.






I have been removing eggs and caterpillars from the leaves diligently each night, but it seems that the caterpillars are having a field day eating the young leaves.  

The caterpillars have been really active on the purple cabbage as well, but the garlic I interplanted with the Veronica broccoli seems to be holding them at bay in that section of the garden. If only they chose a couple of plants and left the rest to us! 

My latest addition is purslane which is a perennial that you can add to salads and sandwiches. Yum!

The Pea Experiment Continues - Too Much of a Good Thing?

It is hard to believe that we are in mid-June and the peas are just starting to come in!

Later this week or next the onslaught will begin. In retrospect, 37 feet of peas may be too much for us and our urban Portland, OR plot to handle.

In the mean time, I have Mark on the look out for all meals that incorporate peas - shelling, snow, snap and soup.

Not sure how the soup peas differ from shelling, but in truth I bought them for their purple pods and  the contrast they would bring to the patch - if they taste good, even better.

The fava beans are also flowering so they should follow shortly.

If you have any favorite pea or fava bean recipes please share them with us!

Too much of a good thing? The jury is still out - ask us in a couple of weeks.

Gifts from the Wild- Spring Inspired Meals

It's good to have friends- especially friends who forage and fish. This past week has seen a few local spring delicacies bestowed upon us to inspire our kitchen creativity. The gifts from the wild were fresh caught salmon and Morel mushrooms. Both were so absolutely pristine and at the peak of their season that we really didn't want to fuss with them too much on the journey from the wild to our pots and finally our plates.

For dinner Wednesday night the salmon was lightly dusted with a spice mix similar to Old Bay, then sauteed until lightly browned on top and the skin crispy underneath. Cooking it until medium-done left it so tender and moist... yum. We served the fillets on a bed of braised Savoy cabbage topped with a scattering of sauteed Morels. The mushrooms were cooked in butter with a little shallot, thyme and a splash of Marsala wine.

We used the leftover Morels for breakfast this morning. Scrambled eggs with sauteed Morels in butter topped with Tails & Trotters pancetta-wrapped local asparagus. Served on toast and sprinkled with chive blossoms from Bonny's garden. All the flavors really shone through individually, yet worked so well together, almost like they had always known each other. The chive blossoms were the surprise star. Beautiful on the plate, but so tasty on the palate with their onion-garlicky savor.

The local Spring bounty has provided us with a great start to a season of good eats. Thanks to the generosity of our friends and the green thumb of my wife. Can't wait to see and taste what crops up next...

A new discovery for me in Ptown

I love having out of town guests visit because it gives me an opportunity to explore my home town with new eyes.

I typically take visitors up to the International Rose test garden in spring to check out the rhododendrons.

But, they were pretty closed up the weekend before, so I didn't want to risk disappointment.

A friend suggested that we check out the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Garden in SE Portland which I had driven by for years without knowing that it was there - what a pleasant surprise!

My Aunt Joanie and I packed a picnic lunch and headed over to check it out. We were amazed by the variety of rhododendrons and azaleas to be sure, but the way that the other plants created interplay and contrast with them was a sight to see.

Lighter and darker primroses planted at the base of a rhododendron mirrored the color combination of the shrub's blossoms.





























Wild, native yellow violets danced in the dappled shade (sadly, not pictured).

I love how the bright colors of these azaleas contrasted with the maple behind them.








































With almost 9.5 acres, there is sure to be something interesting to gaze at through out the year. And, I think that it may be my new, in-town hot weather escape for kicking back with a good book in the shade.

Field Trip to Seattle

Last weekend Mark and I journeyed up to Seattle to visit with the cousins.

It was a wonderful trip and I had the fortune to hang out with Barbara most of Saturday doing "garden stuff." Here are some highlights...

Barb and I kicked off Saturday morning by checking out her garden. She and her husband Ted had planted their front garden beds about five years ago and the now well-established plants needed some pruning to reshape them.



Pictured here is a Nandina (common name heavenly bamboo) that has gotten leggy and heavy at the top. Barb wanted to shorten the height of the plant so that she could more easily walk the path that winds around the front garden beds.

Fortunately, Nandina like many other shrubs give us visual cues as to how and where to prune them. In spring to early summer Nandina send out new shoots of growth - the new growth on this one is burgundy-purple.

To prune, simply use sharp loppers and cut the stem back to just above the new growth.

Some general rules of thumb that I keep tucked in my head when pruning are:

If possible, prune when the plant is in a stage of heavy growth as this will allow it to rebound from the trim quickly.

Cut no more than about a third of the plant away during one year.

Plants are resilient, so if you cut too much they will oftentimes come back if given time and proper care.

Barb and I also talked about using some of plants from their front garden beds to fill in their back yard.

For example, the patch of Hakonechloa (common name Japanese forest grass) is encroaching on its neighbor shrub's space. By dividing the existing clump, Barb will help shape the front garden bed and gain planting material for the back garden area.

From there, we traveled up the street to the Seattle Tilth's edible plant sale at Meridian Park.

The sale was organized so that there were a variety of the same type of plant to choose from - e.g. mints with all sorts of scents like chocolate, peppermint, and orange. It was also a parade of flavors from the anise-like flavor of tarragon to the biting lemony taste of sorrel.

Barb picked up a few plants to add to her garden and I picked up some used jute bags that coffee roasters use to transport coffee in - I think that I will use these to grow potatoes in this summer (more on this in a later post!).

Pictured left is a mini green house at the Seattle Tilth demonstration garden...hummm ideas for how to use our old windows.

Before dinner on Saturday evening I took a few moments to stroll around the neighborhood and look at gardens. Here are a few snapshots.

Lady's mantle - love how the foliage holds water.












Now that Mark is a partner with Tails & Trotters it seems like I see pigs everywhere - this sculpture was on someone's porch.

Oregano mixed in with Berberis. Beautiful!

Golden hops with Berberis.

Inventive ways to utilize parking strips.

We stopped by the Maximus Minimus food cart for lunch before heading back to Portland. Delish!

On the way to the car Claire (pictured right) told me about the garden that she is growing with her family - so far squash and cucumber seeds have been sown.

Can't wait to hear more about your garden Claire!