Peas and Greens are Not Enough--Good Thing We Have Ramps!

Organic fertilizer honor wagon near Roseboom, NY

It's mud season up here in the Northeast, and this is the time of year I start itching to get in the mud  pit. It's also the time of year I envy you folks at more southern latitudes, who are probably already eating things from your garden. We're still a few weeks away from eating the ramps (aka wild leeks) that have poked up through the leaf carpet in the woods behind our house, little oases of green in the sea of brown.

Harvesting ramps, by the way, is considered foraging, but since they're just a few steps away from the back garden rows, and we take careful steps to make sure they spread (we only take 25% of each patch, we collect the seeds and spread them in new areas, and we sometimes plant bulbs in new areas), it's kind of like they're part of the garden. A delicious, garlicy, spinachy, oniony, leaky, mouth watering part of the garden [Homer Simpson gurgling sounds]...

All the muddy beds were overwintered with our local, organic nitrogen source, pictured here bagged and for sale in its honor wagon down the road. There's not much I can do until that mud dries up and I can get out there and plant. In the mean time, I've been bringing in more manure and building beds in areas that dry out faster, where I've been planting early greens, spinach, and peas. The deer really love the young pea shoots, but when it's still dropping below freezing at night (the forecast low for tonight is 25), I have to put a plastic tunnel cover over the row anyway, to keep the ground temp up, and that keeps the deer away from the peas until they're big enough that the deer aren't interested anymore.

Someday I'll stop playing those silly games with the wild animals, and just put an electric fence up, but for now, it's all about row covers, timing, and trapping and relocating. Last year I didn't get the trap up until after the woodchuck had eaten all the dill. This year, the trap is out already.

A Foot of Snow in One Day!

What the hell was that? A little "welcome to upstate New York" snowstorm caught all but the old-timers off guard up here in the "snow pocket" as I now hear it's called. I was out there in the pouring snow, the wettest snow I ever saw, building a make-shift cold frame around half the garden with what I had laying around (green maple branches are very flexible).

And everything lived! Seriously, this cold frame gardening is a great way to extend the season! I couldn't believe it got down to 22 degrees, stayed below freezing for hours, and yet the spinach, arugula, lettuce, collards, miner's lettuce, and even a few of the peas are still showing signs of life. And it's all so delicious. Obviously, when I've read that cold weather makes these vegies taste better, they weren't kidding!

We went three days with no power. The first night we could sure tell why, when we first thought we heard gun shots in the woods, and we realized it was limbs breaking under the weight of all that snow. I don't envy those power workers out there clearing all those miles of electric lines.

Now that the snow has mostly melted, even the late planted side with only baby kale, spinach and collards still shows signs of life, albeit stunted.

28 Degrees and There's Still Lettuce

All you old snowbirds will have to forgive my wonder at growing food through frost. We felt a little like we were stealing from mother nature, planting a fall garden on Aug. 15 in zone five. We started having light frosts in September, with each frost getting a little worse. We'd just stretch plastic over the garden as they started to get heavier and lasting longer.

Last night it dropped below freezing before midnight, and it was below freezing until 9 am. We covered, but when I uncovered just before 9, everything was pretty crispy under there.

And yet, here it is at 2 pm, 64 degrees out there, and even a few of the peas (which dont get covered) are hanging in there, though none are showing signs of blooming, and their growth is obviously stunted.

But the lettuce (black seeded simpson) is going crazy, as is the spinach, collards (which could probably live through a blizzard), miner's lettuce, and a few other cold hardy greens. I don't even see many locals with anything growing now, although I'm sure you're out there, sneaking in those last few treats before the tundra takes over!

4 frosts now and everything's fine!

This morning was the fourth frost we had up here (zone 5, near Cooperstown NY), and all of these cold weather vegies did just fine. The low was 29 degrees, so it wasn't really a hard freeze. Looks like it was only below freezing for a few hours.

The spinach actually seems to like the frosts. It positively glows as it melts away. The collards definitely love the cold. What's left of the peas (that the deer didn't eat) are doing well as well.

So, we're really impressed with the quality of the plants. We got the seed from Johnny's Selected Seeds, an employee owned company in Maine. They have an excellent selection of organic seeds.

I forgot how much I love fall gardens! Every frosty morning I feel like I'm stealing something from nature by not losing any of these plants!

Fall Garden Deer Delicasies

It is so nice to have a vegetable garden again. After years of living in the concrete jungle of the LA Suburbs, with very little soil, we moved to upstate NY this summer just in time to get this little fall garden in.

The snow peas are a real treat for the deer, who ate half of them before I admitted I was way out of practice on this, and asked the Wizard of Wells, organic gardening writer Mort Mather, what to do. His special deer spray recipie is one gallon of water, two tablespoons of hot sauce, and one tablespoon of biodegradeable soap. Sprayed them on the peas, lost a few more the next night, but that was it. I have a funny image of a little deer running to the nearest water hole with his stinging tongue hanging out!

I'd been sprinkling cayenne pepper on the spinach to keep the rabbits away, and as you can see from the picture, that's been working fine. Also found some stuff called liquid fence, which has petrified eggs--stinks to high heaven--and works well. A little expensive, though (the owners left a bottle), and I don't know if I want to develop a home-made recipe for that!

We also scatter our hair around the perimeter. I urinate around the yard occasionally, and I've hung chimes all around the place. Any other suggestions for keepin' the critters out?

I have ignored this poor little blog for too long! Until last year, I was working full time as a stage technician in Los Angeles, living in the suburbs with very little land for gardening, and even less time.

A diagnosis of osteoarthritis has put an end my days of heavy lifting, and so, I'm no longer a stage technician. I have to get a lot help with the gardening, but it's good easy exercise, and it helps me to get out and stretch a little.

We moved to the east coast to live more cheaply, and to be near family. I planted a fall garden in the middle of August up here in zone 5, and it's coming along nicely. We'll be eating spinach and lettuce soon, and if we don't get too hard of a frost, we'll be eating collards and snow peas in a few weeks.

My old buddy Mort Mather, an organic gardener and philosopher, has a new web site and blog. My friend Cherie Attix, owner and operator of the Hale Hookipa Inn Maui Bed and Breakfast (which features an awesome organic garden) has started writing a blog as well. She calls it Ho'okipa Aikane, or "home sharing friend." I'm looking forward to reading both of their posts!

Much more to come, including pictures!