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calendula concrete food garden planting schedule sunday february 07 2010 housebound after a 2 foot snowfall i took some time today to make a spring planting schedule it took a literal snowed in status to get me to sit down and finally do this each year for the last six years i ve consulted books and websites to determine planting dates for specific food crops i typically jotted down a smattering of to dos on my wall calendar but i never wrote up a complete schedule specifically for all my desired crops and their planting dates for an entire season it takes a blizzard to get me this organized here is my food garden planting schedule for spring it is based on an average last frost date of april 15 in usda zone 7 i came up with this plan after consulting the following information sources nancy bubel s the new seed starters handbook the university of maryland master gardener handbook grow it eat it website maryland home and garden information center s fact sheet planting dates for vegetable crops in maryland southern exposure seed exchange catalog garden guide 2010 i was also influenced by my own experience with certain crops over the last few years what i hope to do now that i ve got everything down on virtual paper is to keep detailed notes from season to season year to year and adjust planting dates according to my own backyard conditions and microclimate i also plan to watch for phenological cues environmental goings on that provide planting indicators for specific crops e g plant parsnips after daffodils bloom my next task is one of geography mapping each crop to a designated location in my garden perma link 15 comments post a comment snow days are for garden planning saturday january 30 2010 it s a perfect january day today snowy and cold i am sitting inside by the window thoroughly entertained by the 10 cardinals and other various birds clamoring for the feeders out back with a view of the garden beds nestled in snow i m at the computer punching in my order for this year s new selection of seeds my list includes fava beans blue lake bush beans detroit dark red beets vates kale mizuna chervil leeks jericho lettuce oakleaf lettuce parsnips wando peas salsify brussels sprouts white icicle radishes sweet banana peppers a quick check of my seed stash confirms that i have plenty of tomato eggplant squash and other pepper seeds left over from last year at some point i ll want to order potatoes i haven t grown potatoes since my community garden days and i d like to bring them back into the mix this year i have my eye on rose finn apple or russian banana fingerlings but really it could be any variety there is no potato i don t love coming up in february i ll be firing up the grow lights time to get the leek seeds started perma link 15 comments post a comment sunday december 06 2009 here s a look at what i picked from the garden on thanksgiving day beets kale and leeks we used the beets and leeks in our thanksgiving meal and the kale for another dish i have a good crop of leeks this year probably the best i ve ever grown beets however seem to be in constant shortage i never seem to plant enough to suit my appetite for them next year i ll definitely plant more and more kale too here s how the garden looks today we had our first snow yesterday last weekend i mulched around the artichoke plants and covered the asparagus and garlic beds with leaves raked from the yard i m trying to keep the artichoke plants especially well mulched so that the crowns of the plants will make it through winter in our zone 7 we are teetering on the edge of temperatures that would kill globe artichokes in the winter so this is a bit of an experiment to see if they ll make it we had 5 very tasty artichokes this year not many but they were so delicious and such pretty plants that i feel they re worth the effort earlier this week our neighbors gave us some of their extra jerusalem artichoke bulbs to plant unfortunately the timing and weather make it impossible for me to get them in the ground right now jerusalem artichokes will grow here but they can be invasive unless we eat them all of course here are the brussels sprouts i grew this season i haven t harvested any yet as i was hoping they would get a little bigger they seem to be opening up more than getting any bigger though i will probably harvest a few and try them out this week last year i had no success growing brussels sprouts so this is good progress perma link 13 comments post a comment tomatoes for dinner tuesday august 11 2009 here s a look at the latest treats from our garden the first peppers are coming in now and we ve been trying to keep up with a bumper crop of heirloom tomatoes i know what a problem to have right we planted four varieties of tomatoes this year cherokee purple green zebra san marzano and gold medal favorites wise i d rank them in that order with the cherokees reigning supreme we ve been knocking out a lot of these in gazpacho a perfect refreshing meal for hot summer days we ve also had various tomato salads and here s a tomato stack filled with a tangy chive goat cheese we picked up from the stonyman gourmet farmer the finishing touch is a homemade chive oil made by my own resident gourmet michael he creates and i happily eat we made this season s first batch of tomato sauce with the san marzano tomatoes and then we promptly taste tested it for sunday night s dinner mmmm we finished off dinner with this fresh nectarine tart i made there aren t any garden ingredients in there but it was so pretty i figured it was blog worthy perma link 21 comments post a comment eggplants coming along friday july 31 2009 i have at least 5 eggplants that are plumping up now so far this is my best success with eggplant ever the variety i m trying out is black beauty which can grow fruits 8 10 inches long 1 3 pounds each the one in the foreground of the photo is not quite tennis ball size yet so we still have a way to go before picking not a problem since we are presently trying to keep up with an abundance of ripening tomatoes perma link 4 comments post a comment new use for that old pickup truck too bad we traded in the old pickup truck we could have grown food in it check out this video about the truck farm fun idea inspirational and i love the singing the arugula grows the basil grows the lettuce grows oh oh sweet sweet truck farm grow you ve never seen a csa like this perma link 2 comments post a comment beans tomatoes beets brussels tuesday july 21 2009 we ve eaten a lot of beans from the garden over the last month wax beans green beans purple beans we ve had them by the colander full my favorite way to eat fresh beans is in salads with a simple vinaigrette quick easy no fuss summer food after several rounds of picking though and yet another colander full i was getting tired of beans i m absolutely hankering to move on to green zebra tomatoes tomatoes it s been a long wait for the tomatoes we started from seed back in february this past weekend we had our first couple of ripe green zebras i love their beautiful green contrast when paired up with regular red tomatoes in a salad we are about a day away from slicing into the season s first cherokee purple those were our favorite among the heirloom tomatoes we grew last year elsewhere in the garden one of my favorite scenes is this one a riotous mess of greens and reds in all manner of textures in here is curly endive so bitter that we never eat any of it and bolting red lettuce and red russian kale the spiky plants are my globe artichokes which i m really excited about no sign of any chokes emerging yet but the plants are absolutely gorgeous whether they get any artichokes or not i d consider keeping these plants in my landscape just for their pretty and unusual foliage here s one of my pickings of beets these were from a gourmet blend of seeds that included golden chioggia and bull s blood red no matter how many beets i get i never seem to have enough to suit my liking for them i perpetually have on my garden to do list plant more beets i ve started sowing seeds for fall crops yes beets are in and so is kale kohlrabi carrots and cauliflower i have five brussels sprouts plants growing last year i failed miserably with brussels having planted them too late in the season this time around i planted seedlings right after we dug out our garlic at the end of june so far the plants look healthy and content and i can see an add on of growth with each passing day promising brussels sprouts perma link 19 comments post a comment growing eggplant wednesday june 24 2009 one of the things i m most looking forward to from my garden this summer is eggplant we tried growing eggplant at the community garden several years ago but we were terribly unsuccessful with it at best we got one marble sized fruit from a plant that had leaves as lacy as a bridal veil because of persistent flea beetle damage i came to the conclusion that it just wasn t possible to grow eggplant around here eggplant and catnip growing together on the left peppers and marigolds on the right but i ve since heard that others have had success growing eggplant in our zone 7 and so i decided to give it another go this year this time i did more research and wanted to try out a few tactics i d read about 1 i sowed seeds early indoors in february so that i would have good sized plants to put outside after any danger of spring frost had passed flea beetles are less attracted to eggplant foliage that has toughened up they prefer to feast on young tender seedlings something i witnessed first hand with my own past plantings eggplants like peppers are tropical plants that need a long growing season so i started my seeds under grow lights around the same time i started my pepper seeds in february eggplant plants like to stay warm so i used a heating mat under their pots by the time i put my plants in the ground in mid may they were about 6 8 inches tall admittedly they weren t the healthiest looking plants i d ever grown the long stay indoors and the extended hardening off process repeatedly interrupted by this spring s cold snaps made the plants suffer but these were still the earliest and biggest eggplant plants i d ever started with and that s progress 2 i put bricks near the base of the plants when i planted them outside somewhere i read that putting stones near the base of eggplant plants will help them stay warm the stones absorb warmth from the sun in the day and then give off residual heat in the night creating a cozy micro climate for these sensitive plants that don t like to be in anything below 55 degrees fahrenheit the plants have grown up enough now that the bricks are shaded during much of the day so they probably aren t helping much anymore early on though perhaps they helped 3 i made catnip the companion catnip is said to be a natural deterrent to flea beetles i divided the catnip i grew last year which by the way my cat wanted nothing of and i put it to good use in the bed where i put my eggplants the two companions are growing well and i think they look nice together too so here we are today and i m happy to report that i have my best looking eggplant plants ever there s even a blossom on one of them i do see a few flea beetles around and there is evidence that something even bigger has been sampling the leaves but the damage overall is far less severe than what i d seen in the past when we sowed very young seedlings i can t say for sure if this conquering of the bugs success can be attributed to any or all of the above tactics but something seems to be working we added mushroom compost to our soil too this spring and that seems to have helped all of our plants come along i just hope all goes well from here on out we are already daydreaming about eggplant meals perma link 13 comments post a comment subscribe and share subscribe to my rss feed contact the author christa food gardening classes in maryland 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that old pickup truck beans tomatoes beets brussels growing eggplant fresh pea soup plant diversity and benficial insects archives all text and photos on calendula concrete unless otherwise noted are by christa carignan 2006 2010 christa carignan all rights reserved