First Token Harvest of 2012

Chives and oregano harvested on April 3, 2012 for
The 1000 Pound Challenge.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

I had vowed to make a harvest and take the lead in the 1000 Pound Challenge on the first day of the competition which was April 1st. Instead I ended up helping my in-laws to move from Connecticut to our house here in New Hampshire and did not have any time to get out to the garden until today. Today, however, I did make a harvest of four separate crops: leeks, chives, garlic, and oregano.

The garlic and leeks were planted in our terraced garden bed last year and overwintered in place. Ordinarily, all the garlic that I let overwinter in the garden would be dug up, separated and replanted rather than harvested for the table. Each clove will grow a new garlic bulb to be harvested in late summer or fall. In fact, I only harvest three small cloves and the rest will be replanted. For those looking to propagate garlic using this technique, I have written up a tutorial on planting and propagating garlic. The slideshow has step by step photos and instructions. Once garlic starts to grow in the spring, the fullness is sapped from the cloves as the stored energy is consumed by the new plant. If intended for the table, therefore, it's best to harvest late in the growing season as the leaves dry up and wither. I did pick out three good cloves weighing in at 0.004 lbs with the tops that I will use in a vegetable soup along with everything else I picked today.

A leek prepared for cooking.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

I trimmed the fibrous green leaves off the top of the leek and the growing roots off the bottom before weighing it up. This is the part that will go into the soup later. It weighed in at a paltry 0.02 lbs. The other leeks that overwintered will be allowed to grow bigger this year.

Finally, from the herb garden, I picked fresh chives and a little oregano that will also go in the soup. The total weight of these two items combined was 0.026 lbs. Both oregano and chives can be used fresh as I will today, or they can be dried and preserved for later use. In the fall, when the plants in the herb garden are as big as they'll get and the threat of early frost is upon us, I'll harvest as much as I can and dry it out for use all winter long.

The young green shoots of spring garlic can be shopped and
used for cooking.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2012.

My total yield for the 1000 Pound Challenge, as of April 3rd, 2012, is 0.05 or one-twentieth of a pound comprised of four varieties of produce. It's not much, but it's enough for the lead over "The Good (& Simple) Life" in Georgia.

If you haven't seen it yet, there is now a Facebook page dedicated to the 1000 Pound Challenge.

Spring planting

After a week or two of rain and cold temperatures, known in New England as Mud Season, we are now into full summer with 80 degree temperatures. Technically it's not summer for another month, but close enough. Tomatoes that are hardened off (gradullay accustomed to the harsh UV of the sun and the temperature extremes of night and day) can be planted outdoors now with almost no risk of frost kill.

Already growing in our gardens outdoors are:
strawberries (blossoms forming now)
Concord grapes (flower bud clusters forming -lots of them!)
apples (several varieties- blossoms fading now)
asparagus (We've already harvested two batches this spring.)
chives (ready to harvest)
garlic (from outdoor overwintered bulbs)
leeks (second year for seed)
chocolate mint
cilantro (tender to frost, but it self-seeded from last year and I guess it knows when it's safe to start growing)
lemon thyme (ready to harvest)
oregano (ready to harvest)
lovage (ready to harvest)
wintergreen (growing wild throughout our forest)
rosemary (freshly planted)
blackberries
garlic chives (ready to harvest)
(I had also planted Jerusalem artichokes, but they were eaten by moles (or voles or some other such little burrowing beastie)

Today, May 26th, I planted:
red cabbage
summer squash (yellow straight-neck)
cucumbers (Marketmore)
fennel
pickling cucumbers
tomatoes (roma, brandywine red, and another indeterminate heirloom variety whose name escapes me at the moment)

In the house I have:
1 large brandywine red tomato which I plant to grow throuhg the fall and into winter as long as I can keep it healthy and fruiting
6 miscellaneous miniature hot pepper (chili) plants in an Aerogarden
two freshly cloned brandywine red tomato plants

Those are the edilbes that we have growing at present. I'll add more soon, beets, green beans and others to be determined.

Fragrant viburnum

Fragrant viburnum (Viburnum carlesii) in bloom
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2012.

Every year we attend the 4-H fundraising auction in Pomfret, Connecticut. Right outside the door of the hall in which the auction is held, there is a very large viburnum bush which is always in full bloom during the auction in early May. The clusters of pink blossoms are beautiful to look at, but even more notable is the scent of the viburnum. The fragrance is exquisite and pervades the entire area for a few weeks each spring.

Since the first time my wife saw the flowering bush there, she wanted one for our yard. Unfortunately, we hadn't been able to find one at an area nursery. We finally got a small one in 2009 and planted it beside the back deck of our house. The idea is that the fragrance of the viburnum will waft up as we sit out on the deck in the springtime, especially when it gets bigger.

Once it finishes blooming this spring, I'm actually going to take some cuttings from the fragrant viburnum and propagate it. I'd like to add a half dozen more of them around the yard. While some plants are relatively easy to root without rooting hormone, I find that most trees and woody bushes do better with some rooting hormone applied. I have a powder version containing 0.1% Indole-3-butyric acid. For a yield of six new plants that actually take root, I'll probably take 12 cuttings, so that I end up with too many rather than risk too few.

The Fragrant Viburnum (Viburnum carlesii), sometimes called Koreanspice, grows about six feet tall and six feet wide. Some specimens can get larger if conditions are right. They are hardy in growing zones 4-7. The one we've had for a couple of winters here on a mountain in southern New Hampshire is doing quite well and has had no evidence of winter die-off.

The flowers are a light pink to white. Like many plants that put on such effusive displays, the flowers of the fragrant viburnum are short-lived. In a couple of weeks, they wilt and fall away. Like the forsythia, next year's flowers are formed from growth that occurs shortly after this year's flowers drop off the plant. Unlike the forsythia, however, the viburnum tends to grow a bit more slowly and with more control. If pruning is needed, it should be done in the spring after the fragrant flowers have died away.