Christian's Garden: Revisited

In the past week Christian has seen the germination of his final row of seeds, the carrots. All of his other crops have made some fairly decent strides in their rate of growth, despite the shortening of the photoperiod. With the advent of autumn comes a shortening of the day's length. It also means the sun's position in the sky will be progressively lower until the winter solstice on December 21. For his plants this means that less available light will slow their growth to a barely distinguishable crawl, however they will keep growing. In the meantime, crops hoping to overwinter successfully will need to grow to an appreciable size before the weather turns too cold. Christian's garden should fare well considering we still have a decent month (fingers crossed) of relatively pleasant weather ahead of us. His garden's proximity to the Puget Sound should also soften some of winter's more brutal effects.

From left to right: beets, spinach, leeks, carrots

Kale in the foreground, followed by arugula and endive

Winter Garden Installation

Two days ago I lent a hand to my good friend Christian in building his first vegetable garden. Because of the lateness of the season, his initiatory gardening adventure will be of the over-wintering variety.

Christian just moved into a quaint, old (1920's) rented home that sits atop a bluff alongside the Puget Sound. His proximity to the water could offer the added benefit of slightly warmer temperatures in winter. To begin construction, we first designated a spot, southwestern facing, that receives the most sunlight for the longest part of the day. Lacking a tape measure (which I forgot to bring) we used a flattened cardboard box to measure out the basic shape of the garden, which we estimated at about 4' X 10'.

Christian gloves up

Next we dug a line to form the perimeter of the garden, and then began to dig up the grass. This is the most labor intensive aspect of the installation, though it was ameliorated by the fact that the grass was dry and dirt separated from the roots quite easily. The removed grass will be used to start a new compost pile and, after it is decomposed, returned to the same soil to fertilize the ground. Cycle of life.

Christian's friend Steve(at left) stopped by to lend a hand as well.

As this is garden installation on a budget, we made due with the soil that we found beneath the layer of grass, which, all things considered, was not all that difficult to work with. With the exception of one large, head-sized rock, only moderate sized stones were found and subsequently pulled from the new bed.

Christian pulls the last of the sod from the bed

Once the bed was cleared of grass and rocks, compost was added to amend the soil and prepare it for the next phase.

Christian looks over the dark, rich humus of the added compost

With the addition of a thin layer of compost, we were ready to plant seedlings and seeds in the final step of installation. We first planted a chocolate mint and dill plant at the southern end of the garden, which will be reserved for herbs. Three broccoli seedlings (which I started indoors a couple of months ago) followed the placement of the herbs. The remaining space was sowed with seeds of various overwintering vegetable and greens varieties: collards, kale, arugula, endive, spinach, beets, carrots and leeks. Each row is marked with a small stick at either end and a diagram was drawn up so that we can be sure of where each variety is planted.

Christian and I pose behind the planted garden

The seeds will have a good month-plus to get established before seasonal temperatures begin to drop, which should be an adequate amount of time for them to get set. As long as there are no continuous below-freezing days this winter, the plants will continue to grow, albeit very slowly, until temperatures begin to increase in the spring.

Peas no more

Ripped out the two rows of ailing pea plants this morning to make way for some winter crops. In all actuality I should have planted seeds for the purpose of growing them through the fall and winter several weeks ago. No excuses.

I planted a row of carrots and next to it leeks and spinach. There are still a good six weeks or so of legitimate summer left, barring early fall rains, so they might have a chance of establishing themselves before the weather gets too wet and cold. I'm going to have to pay close attention to keeping the soil moist so that the seeds actually germinate, a task that may be near impossible if this hot, dry spell we've had lately continues. Inside I've already started several broccoli seedlings which are about 3 inches tall that will go outside as soon as I have more room in the garden.

The trellis pieces will be stored somewhere dry for next year's garden.

An updated shot of the tomatoes planted at the front of the house. I've had to tie several additional pieces of support twine to hold up the abundant fruits on these Better Boy hybrids, and still they hover just above the ground. I'll be keeping my eye out for slugs.

Final Composting/First Meal

After a gloomy and quite cool spring morning the sun decided to show and warm the ground a little. I broadcast the rest of the compost and pulled a row of leeks that had (unintentionally) overwintered. Here's the complete composted grow space:

With last year's garden I made the mistake of planting my seedlings much too close, largely forsaking the recommended plant and row spacing for just about everything. Not this year. These leeks struggled under a perpetual zucchini shadow. But once I pulled the zucchini at the end of the season, the leeks kept growing. They even survived two weeks under several inches of snow. I think I'll make my first meal of the year from the garden tonight: leek and herb souffle.