PNW: October 2013

I love roasted veggies too, especially with some herbs thrown in. Thyme has become a real favorite. It's incredibly durable in the garden, too. It seems to be able to take every condition with aplomb. I'm also a big fan of garlic; that's why I'll be planting a lot of it right after our first frost.

Re tomatillos, aren't they cool? They really do taste like a fruit when fully ripe. Some people think of them only in terms of salsa, so they don't get excited about ripe ones, but I love that you can pick them at a variety of levels of ripeness and still be happy with what you get. I even made tomatillo soup recently, which was really interesting. And green!

Hope you have better luck with your tomatillos next year. Mine produced at oddly spaced intervals, and are producing most of all now that the season is shutting down. Not ripening, but producing anyway. Enough so that I didn't pull them up, though the tomatoes are gone.

Re: the other purple flower ... must be lavender. But I'm a dual-purposing kinda guy, so where I'm really gonna go nuts is on the borage. They don't just attract bees, but they're edible! Plus supposedly they discourage many bad insects, so ... what's not to like? Next year will be very flower-heavy.

Borage! That's it. I am depending on you to remind me next spring!!!  

That seed packet was so hard to find. I looked everywhere locally and finally found a single packet. If I were you, I'd keep an eye out and snatch up a packet if you see one.

Well, I got onion starters a couple few days ago and they started sprouting in the netting bag right on my desk! It's been hard to clear free time, but I guess I'd better try to get them planted right away.

Planted onion sets, spread bark fines on top as a mulch, about an inch.

Tore out some of my few remaining plants and dug three or four inches of soil out of my neighbor's over-filled beds to do it. They're so full water runs off the top of them and there's no room for any more compost or any mulch.

I'm wondering if the bark fines will be too hard for the onion sprouts to come through, or eat up too much nitrogen.

Will probably get some PVC tubing tomorrow to put a row cover over the onions and over my brussels sprouts in a different bed.

It's very hard to find any row cover that is wider than three feet around here. I've got some that's six feet, but I will have to use it sparingly or I'll soon run out.

Ah Lavender. My plan is to grow tons of it next year.... I have this retirement plan that involves Lavender chocolate chip cookies and farmers markets..........

I've never had lavender in cookies, but it sounds like it would be a really interesting flavor.

Heck, you could be "The Lavender Lady" and make lavender into soap and satchels and candles and decorative cuttings and ...

no actually I have a friend in Bandon Oregon who really IS the Lavender lady. I will leave that to her, I have PLENTY of other garden things I can sell
I figure just the Lavender chocolate chip cookies, exotic squashes, artichokes, exotic dried beans ...... I can see it all now
The cookies are very very good though

Well, you could certainly qualify to be the Squash Lady, then. Though that does sound a little squished.

I took some artichoke volunteers and replanted them in some neighbor's beds. But they didn't do well last year, they said, and they take up a lot of room, so I think I'll pull them.

On another note, I think I'm going to order some more vermiculite this week for next year's garden and perhaps for some of this year's garlic planting.

Artichokes need LOTS of water and lots of food.
They will not grow here because it gets so cold in the winter. WHen we liived in Bandon they almost grew wild. So what I do now is to take the tubers in in the fall and put them in peat moss (might try wood chips this year) and then plant them in the spring.

They only produce in the second year and do not over winter here. Oh yes..... plant more garlic....you can never have enough.

So the volunteers won't produce for two years? Well, that seals it. Out they come.

Marc Iverson wrote:So the volunteers won't produce for two years?  Well, that seals it.  Out they come.

Funny thing... timing... they have been in there a year, and will produce next spring......... yummy artichokes!

Oh, I guess that's right. I've never dealt with things that grow that way and I guess my mind is just stuck in seed-and-transplant gear. I never even thought to count this year as the first year!

GWN,

Do you cut your artichokes back (if so, how far), then dig the tubers?

My sole plant in a pot didn't grow large at all, but eventually flowered.

I have to say that this is pretty much unchartered territory here. I have been unable to find any info from anyone on overwintering artichokes in cold climates.  What I did last year was to cut them off at about 2-3 inches above ground, after they had started to look stressed.  I then stored them in a bin filled with peat moss, and tried to keep the greenhouse just around the freezing mark.
It was quite successful, and I am thinking this fall of trying a few different things.  Just to see which is easier/more successful.

we leave our artichokes to die off....cover with woodchips and they sprout back up in the spring ......we started them from seed not this summer but last summer....that same year one of them produced and the other didn't....this year they both produced and were larger in size this time as well.....the taste was fantastic!

GWN..... just for giggles could you keep one artichoke in ground with a thick layer of woodchips and see if it comes back up next spring? not sure if you have the space or not but I keep hearing in my head what Paul says about how he is able to grow things that people say cant be done  

we are starting to eat some of our fall/winter carrots  that are planted in some containers....

three nice size cabbages are ready to harvest  

fall/winter broccoli grew nice with tiny heads  cauliflowers too...no heads yet from them  

leeks, green onions and kale going strong!.....need to figure out why some of our leeks went to flower?

we did get some sweet potatoes that were grown in the green house  

we have another pumpkin growing on our fence that is just now turning yellow....hoping it makes it before frost....its pretty cool how its growing..

I thinks that about all that is growing right now

need to get our garlic in and figure out how to prune our grapes

happy gardening
rose

FG wrote:GWN..... just for giggles could you keep one artichoke in ground with a thick layer of woodchips and see if it comes back up next spring? not sure if you have the space or not but I keep hearing in my head what Paul says about how he is able to grow things that people say cant be done

Rose I HAVE been working on this for a few years BECAUSE everyone says you cannot grow artichokes here. I started mine from seed in 2011, then covered with a thick layer of straw and then tarp.
Many of them survived, but I did not like how it iced up under the tarp and so the second year I planted many more.
THIS TIME I started them very early and introduced them to the cold early to try to get a crop the first year.
I DID pretty well and so did all the people I gave plants to.
 SO now I have people who are unbeknownst to them... .experimenting for ME.
Last fall I dug up all of mine and put them in peat moss, they reproduced and thrived and even produced several artichokes for me. My friends left theirs in the ground and we had a mild winter and their survived, but neither of them produced at all this year. 
So I am actually trying several things this year.
Some dug up and then placed in a pile of wood chips, some in the ground with a large pile of wood chips, I might even put some in the greenhouse.
Last year I maintained the greenhouse at a temperature just one degrees above freezing. This year, I have a few very successful tomato plants growing and flowering int he greenhouse (in wood chips I might add)... I am going to attempt to see how long I can keep them going.
Question rose, ... why sweet potatoes in greenhouse. I have never grown them, but are they that tender??

cant wait to see how things turn out for you GWN

this was our first year to try and grow sweet potatoes.....everything I have read says they love heat and cant be grown in WA state.....so....we decided to give it a go in the green house to see if we could grow any ...... we did get some....they look more like really fat carrots....but hey....we are going to eat them and see if the family likes them better then store bought.....next year we may give it another shot in wood chips if the family gives a thumbs up  

hugs
rose

Rose and GWN, so nice to hear from you both. Rose, congrats on getting a few sweet potatoes! I'm laughing picturing those fat carrot shapes.

GWN I enjoy hearing about your artichokes. That veggie is a good one that I so very rarely buy. Not sure why I can't remember to make that part of my regular rotation. Would love to hear how all of you serve it. I've only known to dip the ends in melted butter but my butter days are far behind me.

Hi Gwennifer
I cannot find the actual recipe... however it has been years since I needed it.

What I do, I boil the artichokes for about an hour in water that has lemon juice in it

And we then eat artichokes over an hour or so..... dipping the pieces in a mix of balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, dill, olive oil .... I usually mix this together and briefly heat it (not that it was suggested in recipe, but I find brief heating makes the garlic better.

YUM and a little healthier than all the butter.... but then again tons of salt.   We usually get a loaf of french bread and dip that as well..

Artichokes are good grilled or braised as well.


Artichokes: grilled
1.
First set a bowl of cold water to the side, and squeeze in the juice of one lemon. To prepare the artichokes, discard the tough outer leaves with a small sharp knife. Keep going through the layers until you reach the light green, tender leaves.
2.
Trim the stem and base of the artichoke, then cut the heads into halves or quarters. Remove the furry ‘choke’ in the middle (if they are really young this may not have formed yet, so the whole thing is edible). As you prepare each one, rub all of the cut sides with one of the squeezed lemon halves, then place in the bowl of lemony water. In a large saucepan, bring a few inches of water to the boil. Add the vinegar and the artichokes, and simmer for 15-18 mins, depending on the size of the artichokes, until tender. Drain and tip into a bowl, toss in the oil and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Heat a griddle pan over a medium heat until hot. Griddle the artichokes on all sides, a few at a time, until golden and charred at the edges.

Braised..... oooooooooh, sounds so good!
http://www.lidiasitaly.com/recipes/detail/1063

Cut the bottoms flat so they will stand up.  Large diameter pot with 1" of water, red wine vinegar, cooking oil and Italian seasoning.  Bring to a boil, turn on low and cover for 45 min or until leaves pull off easily.  dip in butter (or low fat mayo).  Haven't changed Mother's recipe except for low fat mayo.

I cook artichokes using the same basic method Sanderson does, although I generally use an Italian vinaigrette-style salad dressing for dipping pusposes.

Wow thanks for all the suggestions for cooking artichoke!  

I steam my artichokes and dip in butter  our son loves them this way too!

glad to be back Gwen  our little guy has been sick....back to baseline...so all is as well as it can be...........

need to get busy again in the gardens  .....need to plant the garlic....we wanted to plant some of our potatoes from this year harvest to see how they do....need to raise some of our beds and add compost with woodchips as mulch......need to start raking leaves to add to our compost......yikes....so much to do with little motivation LOL

hugs
rose

35 degrees expected for Monday morning, time to make sure everything is covered that's gonna be covered. Got some 1/2 inch PVC and 1/2 inch rebar to stake it on. The stuff at home is almost all covered, but none of the stuff at the neighbor's place, where I have onions, daikon, and brussels sprouts, is.

Got two Compost Saks, made by the SmartPots people. 38 tall by 30 wide, if I recall correctly. Layered horse poop and leaves into it till it's full. My neighbor has tons of easily collectible fallen leaves, and another has free horse poop, so I'll fill the other sak the same way I did the first, and then keep piling leaves and poop and kitchen scraps onto my big poop pile out back, and also use them to top off the beds in my neighbor's garden. OMG that's a lotta poop!!! I'm going to wind up with one very strong back, and I'll owe it all to poop.

Everything under the row covers so far, back at home, is doing extremely well even with little to no watering for weeks. The row covers catch the morning dew and let it drip onto the plants. Having MM for soil doesn't hurt either.