Weekly Gardening Outlook

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

The sunchokes continue to put on a show

Now that we know what sunchokes look like, we are seeing them EVERYWHERE.  They are on roadsides, field edges, even already growing in the "native" portion of our backyard.  We had them right under our noses and didn't know it.  Keep an eye out for them in your area, but remember to wait to harvest until after the first frost for maximum tuber size.

Learning Opportunity:

This Saturday, we will be attending a workshop entitled "Extending home vegetable production beyond Summer."  If you are interested in coming, preregister with Berni Kurz at 444-1755 or e-mail bkurz@uaex.edu.  There may or may not be any spots left, so contact him as soon as possible. 

Here's the information from the flier:

"The Fayetteville Community Garden Coalition, in conjunction with Ozark Alternatives and The Blackberry Farm Community Garden, will host a garden walk and workshop to discuss techniques that home gardeners can adopt to extend vegetable production beyond the summer months.

The Fayetteville Community Garden Coalition (FCGC) will host this event on Saturday, October 2 from 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. at The Blackberry Farm. This event is free, though donations are welcome. All proceeds will help FCGC and Ozark Alternatives put on more workshops.

The workshop will feature a tour with Paul Chapracki, local farmer at Ozark Alternatives and manager of The Blackberry Farm Community Garden. Berni Kurz, Washington Country Extension Agent, will discuss cold frame and mini hoop house construction. Craig Andersen, Washington County Extension Vegetable Specialist, will discuss planting and mulches, and Calvin Bey, Washington County Master Gardeners, will discuss soil preparation. Finally, Patrice Gros of Foundation Farm will give an overview of hoop houses in the garden."

Our Garden:

The lettuce is loving this Fall-like weather

The bane of my beds (Bermuda grass) continues to be a problem

 Bermuda grass, seen in the lower right corner of the picture, continues to pop up amongst my lettuce.  Not wanting to use chemicals in the garden, physical removal is our best option.  Big hint:  When placing your beds, remove all Bermuda grass within 100 miles or at least remove the Bermuda grass from where the bed will be built.

The radishes are still a week or two away

With the cooler weather, the kale is growing, but it still has an off taste

The chard keeps rolling

It's a good salad addition, but we were reminded this week that it's not quite tender enough to be the only salad ingredient.  It's very good cooked, serving as a spinach substitute.

The tomatoes are spilling out of the beds with growth, but are not setting new fruit

The peppers on the other hand, are loaded with fruit and are still flowering

The purple beans are producing enough for 3 meals a week

We harvest every other day, picking any bean that is straight and smooth.  Any beans that have begun to bulge are left on the vine to mature into next year's seeds.

Weather outlook:

-Cooling down; mid to upper 70's early in the week, falling to upper 60's later in the week.  Dry with no chance of rain.
-Ten day forecast

What's being harvested:

-Green beans

-Peppers
-Chard
-Celeriac leaves, basil, mint, and other herbs
-Apples

Asparagus

Bushy plants in early September

Asparagus is a low upkeep perennial that will produce for 25+ years without replanting.  Once established, the asparagus bed will produce up to 2 pounds of asparagus per square foot every year.  With fresh asparagus being relatively expensive, the investment will pay for itself quickly.

Thin first shoots in mid June

Asparagus likes a rich, well drained soil.  They do very poorly in constantly wet soil.  This makes a compost-filled raised bed nearly ideal.  When planning for your bed, determine how many times a week through the year that you would like to dine on asparagus.  Go to the store and purchase some to get an idea of how much asparagus each meal requires and how many pounds of asparagus you want to grow each year.  In a sunny location, build a raised bed that is approximately 1 square foot for each pound of asparagus desired (example a 4'x8' bed will produce at least 32 pounds per year).  This bed should be 8" deep and no wider than 4' to allow picking without walking on and compacting the soil.  Our customer's bed (pictured) is 2' wide because it is against the house and accessible only from one side.

In late winter, order asparagus crowns to be delivered in early spring (April in Northwest Arkansas).  The number or crowns ordered depends on how quickly you want the bed to reach maximum production.  At a minimum, order one crown per square foot.  For quicker maximum production, plan on four crowns per square foot (do not exceed 4).  There is also the choice of one year old or two year old crowns.  Again, two year old crowns will reach maximum production more quickly than one year olds.  Determine what balance of cost and time until maximum production is the right balance for you.  Our customer wanted maximum production as soon as possible, so we planted 2 year old crowns, 4 per square foot.  As you can see, they took off like gangbusters.  When the crowns arrive, fill the bed with a 1-2" layer of compost.  Arrange the crowns as desired in the bed, while spreading the roots out horizontally as much as possible.  Now, cover them with 5-6" of well finished compost.  After planting the crowns, water the bed as necessary to maintain the soil moisture as damp as a well wrung out sponge.  Small, spindly shoots should begin emerging in the ensuing weeks.  Do not harvest them.  For the first year, the crowns need to gather energy from the sun to establish themselves and to make it through the winter.  The next season, when spears are the thickness of a pencil, you may begin harvesting.  When the diameter of 75% of the spears become too small to harvest, stop harvesting for the year.  In the first year or two of harvest, you may have a shortened harvest season.  When fully established, the bed will produce for up to 8 weeks.

Harvest by snapping the spears off by hand.  When harvesting, take every spear available.  Do not allow any spears to begin to open up until you have determined that harvesting is done for the year (when 75% of spears are smaller than a pencil).  Once harvesting is over, the plants will grow fern like stalks up to 5 feet tall.  Do not trim these.  More greenery = more photosynthesis = more and bigger spears for you.  Leave the dead stalks in place all winter to insulate the bed and retain moisture.  In early Spring, trim the old stalks close to the ground and remove them.  Apply an inch of well broken down compost.  When the spears begin to emerge, harvest as described above.

Tips and Tricks:

• Build the bed from materials that will last as long as the asparagus, such as stone, masonry block, thick metal, concrete, etc.  Avoid wood.
• Purchase an all-male hybrid variety.  They produce three times as many spears as older varieties and do not produce seed, which produce a weedy mess.  
• Place a thick layer of cardboard in the bottom of the empty bed to serve as a weed barrier.
• Asparagus grows very thick later in the summer, which reduces air flow through the bed.  This lack of air flow can keep the interior from drying out, increasing the odds of fungal issues.  To reduce this, we prefer to bury a soaker hose 1/2" below the surface to allow us to water in a way to reduce moisture on the greenery.  Fortunately, our customer has not experienced any fungal issues thus far.  

Putting up the Harvest:

• Freezing
• To avoid mushy asparagus, we want it  to freeze as quickly as possible.  This makes smaller ice crystals, which means less cell damage
• Turn your freezer to its coldest setting and place a cookie sheet in there the night before
• Wash and trim freshly picked asparagus as desired
• Blanch by plunging into boiling water for 3 minutes 
• Quickly, plunge asparagus into ice water and leave it there until thoroughly chilled inside
• Pat dry and place on a cold cookie sheet (straight from the freezer) in a single layer
• Place in your freezer in the coldest location
• For forced air freezers, this is in the path of the cold air coming from the vent
• For chest and still air freezers, this is the lowest spot available
• Put in airtight freezer bags with as much air removed as possible
• Canning
• Aparagus cans up to a texture very similar to green beans
• Consult a quality canning manual, such as the Ball Blue Book
• Dehydrating (best for use as a recipe addition such as in soups)
• Wash, blanch, and ice as described above
• Pat dry and dry in your dehydrator at its lowest temperature setting over night or until hard as a rock

Weekly Gardening Outlook

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

Rocky Top lettuce mix (week 2)

Pink Beauty radishes (week 2)

Dry weather this past week has required frequent watering of these new seedlings, especially the lettuce.

Swiss Chard

 These gems continue to produce for us, regardless of the weather.

Blue Scotch Kale

The kale hasn't taken off again like we had hoped, but the temperatures have been close to 90 over the last week.  Maybe when it cools down.

Celeriac growing nice big roots

 These aren't ready to harvest yet, but they are growing great!  Should be good recipe additions this winter.  We have enjoyed the greens as a celery flavor addition to many recipes this summer.

Purple "green beans"

 This was part of dinner last night.  Nothing like fresh from the vine to the plate in less than 30 minutes.

Jalapeño peppers to the left; Serrano peppers to the right

 The cooler weather has rejuvenated these peppers.  Believe it or not, they don't prefer scorching hot temperatures.

Evergreen bunching onions

These have provided us with fresh green onions for cooking all summer.

Things to be on the lookout for:

Harlequin bugs atop Swiss chard

TIP:  Spray the plant with water for a few seconds and, within a minute or two, any harlequin bugs will climb to the top of the plant.  This works for squash bugs and leaffooted bugs as well.  Once at the top, they can be sprayed with an organic contact killer like pyrethrin or hand picked/vacuumed off.  Even though pyrethrin is considered organic, we hand picked these off.  We will be eating the greens and don't want to spray them directly.

Weather outlook:

-Warm; upper 80's early falling to upper 70's later in the week, with a chance of rain every day.
-Ten day forecast

What's being harvested:

-Green beans

-Peppers
-Chard
-Tomatoes
-Celeriac leaves, basil, mint, and other herbs
-Apples

Weekly Gardening Outlook (The Third Season Begins)

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

The protracted rainfall over the last week has been ideal for germination and growth of our recently planted salad mix and radishes.

Lettuce popping up (1 week)

Radishes coming up (1 week)

The late summer flush of produce is underway. The cooler, wetter weather has reinvigorated the garden.

New growth and blooms on tomatoes

New leaves, fresh beans, and new blooms on the green bean vines

Weather outlook:

-Warming back up to the mid to upper 80's all week, with a slight chance of rain Thursday.
-Ten day forecast

What's being harvested:

-Green beans
-Peppers
-Chard
-Tomatoes
-Celeriac leaves, basil, mint, and other herbs
-Apples

Jerusalem Artichokes (Sunchokes)

Eight foot tall sunchokes

Jerusalem artichokes (aka sunchokes) are members of the sunflower family that produce edible tubers in their roots.  They are not related to the globe artichokes with which you may be familiar.  The tubers are similar to potatoes in texture and taste when cooked.  Eaten raw, they are similar to water chestnuts.  Unlike potatoes, they require virtually no maintenance once planted.

Stand of sunchokes growing amongst the weeds

We ordered 1 pound of Red Fuseau Jerusalem artichokes in the early spring.  We specifically obtained this variety because the tubers are straight and easy to peel.  More traditional varieties are tedious to peel due to thier shape.  On April 8th, we planted them 4" deep in the area of our property that we allow to grow wild.  That's it; no further attention was paid to them.  Just plant them in a sunny location.  They began to emerge in late April and grew to 7 or 8 feet tall.  In late August they began to put on yellow blooms.  Today, we dug one plant up early to check on tuber development and found 10 young tubers forming in the roots.  Each one was about the size of a quarter, but will grow to 3 to 4" long and 1 to 1 1/2" thick.  They can be harvested anytime, but optimal size and taste will be after a frost has killed of the top of the plant.

Root bundle with several small tubers

Developing tuber

Jerusalem artichokes are known to be quite invasive (i.e. easy to grow), so we aren't sure if they will require replanting each year.  We hope that they are like our garlic and will return even after being harvested.  This year we will conduct an experiment.  We will harvest all of the tubers we can this winter, then we will see if new plants emerge from missed tubers on the Spring.  If so, great!  If not, we will have missed a year of production, but will have learned something.

Putting up the Harvest:

Harvest from the soil as needed.  Store for short periods of time in the refrigerator.

Weekly Gardening Outlook

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

Late season tomato plants

It's late in the season and all the garden plants are showing their age.  Gone are the lush, blemish free leaves of early summer.  Nonetheless, the tomato plants keep plugging along, producing fat red fruits for us.  

Planting the fall salad garden:

Prepared location for lettuce planting

With about 5 weeks left until the first frost of the year and rain predicted for the next three days, it was a perfect time to rough up some dirt and spread some seeds.  Knowing that temperatures are going to continue to drop and the sun is moving lower into the southern sky, we chose the southern-most, sunniest locations to plant in.  All it took was a light raking of the soil surface, scattering seed by hand, followed by another light raking of the soil surface.  The soil needs to remain damp until the seeds emerge (about 7 days).

Rocky Top lettuce mix

Pink Beauty radishes

Free water.

Weather outlook:

Huzzah!

-Upper 70's to mid 80s, with a significant chance of rain throughout the week!!!

-Ten day forecast

What's being harvested:
-Peppers

-Chard 

-Tomatoes
-Celeriac leaves, basil, mint, and other herbs

-Apples

Salad Garden Update

White, pink, and yellow Swiss chard in our garden

During the hottest months of the year, our salad gardening is fairly boring.  Swiss chard with a few scraps of things like lambs quarters, nasturtium leaves, carrots, radishes, etc fill our bowls.  With the cooler weather comes the fall/winter salad crops.  We will be planting a salad mix called Rocky Top in the next few days.  Our kale has weathered the summer and is beginning to put on new growth.  We've never over-summered kale before, so we aren't sure how it will go.  The mighty chard will continue to produce for us even in cooler weather.  It, along with the lettuce mix can handle some light frosts before dieing back.  If the kale reemerges as we expect, it should produce for us well into the winter.

White chard in our garden

Pink, yellow, and white chard in a customer's garden

Blue Curled Scotch Kale left over from the Spring

New growth