The Garden on November 29, 2014 & December Garden Share Collective

We've had very mild weather through the month of November so there's still a few "summer" vegetables lingering in the garden. But now most of the garden is devoted to greens and roots.

The drought continues. We've received less than two inches of rain since the beginning of the official season which starts on July 1. There's been a few "storm" systems that have come through the area but the forecasting seems to have been more wishful thinking than accurate predictions. It seems like there's been just enough moisture falling out of the clouds to make the dust congeal on my car. At least the weather is mild enough that I only have to irrigate the garden about once a week or so. (Finally, this morning as I finish writing this post we are getting some real rain!)

Here's a look at Bed#1. I had to swaddle the pea trellis with lightweight Agribon rowcover because the birds were obliterating the pea plants. They seemed to have discovered the tasty pea foliage one day and started to feast. Of course it was one of the few days that I was away and didn't spend any time in the garden. I walked into the garden the next day and immediately noticed the the plants had shrunk, the birds had pecked the tops of the plants away.

Fortunately, I discovered their dastardly deeds before they could do too much damage. The snow pea plants received the least of their attentions so I'm still harvesting some nice handfuls of snow peas. The snap peas were hardest hit, especially since they were less mature than the snow peas so I lost a lot of flowers.

The cloth covering the soil in front of the pea trellis is protecting a sowing of Kodiak mustard that I'm growing as a quick cover crop. This corner was where I grew Purgatory bush beans. After I harvested all the dry beans I chopped up the plants and dug them into the soil and then I sowed the mustard. At the end of the month I'll dig the mustard into the soil as well and then a few weeks later I'll be setting out some onion seedlings.

Next to the mustard is a few lingering Purgatory bean plants from a late second sowing. There's just a few beans left to mature. I'll clean out the space soon and prep the soil for the onion seedlings that are due to arrive in early January. The trellis behind is where the Tarbais beans grew. I need to clean that out but there's no rush, I don't need the space until January or February when I'll be setting out more allium seedlings.

There were various radishes growing next to the Purgatory beans this fall, most of which have already been harvested except for a few Watermelon radishes. Through the summer there was a block of Floriani Red Flint corn growing behind the space occupied by the radishes. I left the roots behind when I cut the stalks down and I recently sowed some mustard around the stumps. All this will be turned in at the end of the month and then I'll plant alliums in the space in late January or early February.

Next is the fall sowing of carrots (with some cilantro in front). They are growing slowly but not so slowly that I shouldn't be able to harvest at least some baby carrots by the end of December or in early January when I'll need the space for onions.

At the far end of the bed is the garlic patch. The garlic was set out on November 8 and if you look closely you can see the first green shoots that have emerged.

Bed #2 is where I'm growing the overwintering brassicas and other winter greens. Those big beauties front and center are Romanesco. I think they are happy, they've become enormous! They should start developing heads in January, I think...

I'm always testing the limits of the growing seasons, so here's one of the experiments for this winter, a late sowing of chard. I've got them protected (mostly from the birds not the weather) by bottomless water bottle cloches and so far they seem to be quite happy. I hope to be able to harvest some tender young chard by the end of the year and perhaps through January, with luck into February, but no doubt they will bolt sometime in the spring.

I"m less optimistic about the celeriac that was set out quite late. It's putting out some nice green growth but the roots look puny. I don't need the space for now so I'll let them continue on...

Monarch celeriac

The celery was a late comer to the garden as well, but it looks like I'll get at least a few tender young stalks and I should be able to harvest a few quite soon to use in a celery leaf salsa verde. (You might find the recipe here.)

Dorato d'Asti celery

The Tronchuda Beira Portuguese cabbage has just enough room and light to grow. I've been harvesting a leaf or two from the plants occasionally to use in soups. Two plants are perfect for my needs.

And here's one more winter experiment. The cloches are protecting newly set out seedlings of escarole and radicchios. What the heck, I've got the space.

The radicchio experiments are occupying the space left after I cleaned out the cauliflower plants which I didn't expect to produce so early, and also the space that was occupied by bean trellises until a few weeks ago. I'm reserving the very end of the bed for strawberry plants that I hope to find soon, or at least by January or February. The raggedy plants to the left of the cloches are the spring planting of Di Ciccio broccoli, still putting out delicious if small shoots. Look at the hillside, there's barely a hint of green growth, we've had only enough rain to prompt things to germinate but they aren't growing much. It looks like it will be another year without a wild flower display.

To the left of the broccoli is the Lacinto kale, not yet pecked to death by birds nor infested with aphids. No doubt both will find it soon, it always happens.

Moving on to Bed #3, there's one of the remnants of summer, the Tromba d'Albenga zucchini vines.

They keep blooming, but either the bees aren't around to pollinate the blossoms or the male and female blossoms open on different days, most of them don't seem to get pollinated or fully pollinated. But the squash get big enough to harvest despite the pollination issues, the bulb end shrivels a bit but the neck part of the squash stays crisp and delicious. I hope to get a few more before the first frost hits or the plants succumb to disease.

I've still got two tunnels going in this bed. The original spring and summer greens have been cleaned out and now the tunnels are protecting winter greens and roots.

This is an unusual spinach with dandelion like leaves, Guntmadingen, a Swiss heirloom. I got my seeds from Adaptive Seeds but they don't seem to be carrying it any more. Too bad, it's a very tasty winter spinach. I'm not sure I'll be able to leave these plants in the garden long enough to save seeds since I'll need to clear out this bed in early spring to plant a cover crop. Maybe I can try to move them to another bed.

I'm also growing Summer Perfection spinach, Early Rapini,

a mix of radishes,

Mikado baby turnips and China Rose radishes. China Rose is a large cylindrical winter radish with a rosy skin. My seed packet says the flesh is supposed to be a deep rose color but every other seed source says white, I'll find out when I harvest the first ones. The greens are supposed to be tasty as well, good for stir frys and soups.

And at the end of this tunnel I've snuck in a sowing of Speedy arugula, which isn't quite as speedy as usual at this time of year. And I tried sowing some Cilician parsley which is supposed to prefer cooler weather and is also supposed to be well adapted to mild winter climates. I definitely sowed it a bit late, but again, I had the seeds and the space and I can't resist the temptation to push the limits.

In this corner of the bed is one more remnant of summer, the August sown Green Fingers Persian cucumbers.

Still producing!

The tunnel on the other side of the bed is still protecting strawberry plants which I need to pull out, most of them are riddled with disease. It's easier to buy new bare root plants each winter, they'll start producing in the spring and continue on through summer into fall. The rest of the tunnel is sown with beets and lettuces.

I started the beets in paper pots and set them out not long after the seeds germinated. They are alive (most of them) and growing very slooowly, that's the best I can say for them.

I'm pretty happy with the lettuces, they've only been in the garden a few weeks and I set them out when they were really small, just a couple of true leaves. I start my lettuces in 4-inch pots and then separate the seedlings, setting them out as little tiny "bare root" plants. It's so much easier than direct sowing, I can set out the biggest healthiest seedlings at the desired spacing, no thinning or gaps.

Michelle batavian and Ruby Gem romaine

Superior iceberg and Rhapsody butterhead

Sweetie Baby romaine

Also still lingering in this bed are a few of the old chard plants. The Peppermint Stick and Golden chards are trying to make a comeback from a severe powdery mildew infection. The poor little (once upon a time huge) Italian Silver Rib plant got the double whammy of powdery mildew and bird pecking, it's hiding under the water bottle cloche. I had a Flamingo chard earlier but it decided to bolt early.

Look at the sowing dates - Peppermint stick was direct sown.

Golden was sown in a 4-inch pot.

Now for the last bed. Number 4 was home to tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants for half the year. I cut down the tomato plants last week and removed the cages. I'll scratch a few amendments into the soil and then replace the tomato cages and plant favas inside the cages. The tomato cages will support the fava plants when they become heavy with beans so that the plants don't flop all over the place. The cages also provide a handy support for bird netting, it's impossible to grow favas here without protecting the seedlings from birds. Which is why there's mesh over part of the remaining pepper plants, the birds have pecked away most of the tender new leaves. Grrrrrr.

There's still a few little peppers on the Padrons (the covered plants), but not much. The pepper patch is next up on the cleanup list.

Most of the eggplants made quite a surprising comeback from their bout with a spider mite population explosion.

Perhaps you can see the young eggplants hanging in the foliage.

Small but good. I'm waiting as long as possible before I harvest them and clean out the plants.

 So that's it for the latest garden tour. Here's my Garden Share Collective Report.

November sowing and planting activities -

• Nov. 8, set out four varieties of garlic - Lorz Italian softneck, Mild French softneck, Early Red Italian softneck and Chesnok Red hardneck
• Nov. 8, direct sowed Speedy arugula and Kodiak mustard. Set out Michelle batavian and Ruby Red romaine lettuce seedlings. Set out Golden, Red Baron, and Baby Ball beet seedlings.
• Nov. 17 Set out Italian Silver Rib and Peppermint Stick chard seedlings. Set out Iceberg Superior, Sweetie Baby romaine, and Rhapsody butterhead lettuces. Set out French Gray shallot sets.
• Nov. 19, Sowed more Kodiak mustard cover crop. Sowed Yellow Cippolini, Rossa Lunga di Firenza, and Tonda Musona Binaca seeds into 4-inch pots.
• Nov. 21, sowed Zebrune shallot seeds into 4-inch pots.

November harvests - here's a summary of the harvests for the month. For more details see my weekly Harvest Monday posts.

November Summary	Lb.	Kg.
Beans, dry	1.7	0.8
Broccoli	7.5	3.4
Cabbage	1.4	0.6
Carrots	0.9	0.4
Cauliflower	9.1	4.1
Corn, flint	5.3	2.4
Cucumbers	5.2	2.3
Kale	3.4	1.6
Onions	2.6	1.2
Peas	0.7	0.3
Peppers	5.4	2.4
Radishes	2.9	1.3
Tomatoes	11.3	5.1
Zucchini	7.6	3.5
	65.0	29.5

Here's a comparison chart of this November to past November harvests (all in pounds).

November	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
Beans, dry		1.1		9.1	1.7
Beets		2.9
Broccoli		5.7	1.3	4.5	7.5
Cabbage, incl. Napa		7.1
Cabbage, Portuguese			0.9		1.4
Carrots					0.9
Cauliflower					9.1
Celery		5.6	0.7
Celeriac	4.3
Chard	1.0		1.4
Corn					5.3
Cucumber		2.9		2.5	5.2
Eggplant	2.6	3.4	4.1	17.5
Garlic				1.1
Kale	2.8	1.0	0.9	4.7	3.4
Lettuce		1.5	0.1	1.2
Melon				4.7
Onion			6.1		2.6
Pea, snap and snow				0.6	0.7
Peppers	22.1	4.4	11.1	39.8	5.4
Radishes					2.9
Rapini				1.9
Spinach		1.9
Tomatoes	1.9	22.1	53.6	59.1	11.3
Winter Squash	13.2			25.4
Zucchini			2.3	7.9	7.6
	47.9	59.6	82.5	179.7	65.0

My plans for December -

• Sow fava (broadbean) seeds where the tomatoes used to be.
• Remove pepper plants and sow a cover crop mix.
• Harvest eggplant (!) and sow favas to complete the row along once side of the bed, the other side of the space to be sown with a cover crop mix.
• Clean out the dying bean plants in bed #1 and prepare the soil for alliums.
• Scrape out the remaining old wood chip mulch from the main garden path and replace with gravel.
• Sow seeds for leeks in 4-inch pots for planting out in February.
• Remove zucchini, cucumber, amaranth, and strawberry plants from bed #3. Unfortunately I will also have to start to remove soil from the bed because oak roots are invading and I need to line the bed with a root barrier - at least I can do that over the course of a couple of months.
• Locate bare root strawberry plants to set out in bed #2.

The Garden Share Collective is a group of bloggers who share their vegetable patches, container gardens and the herbs they grow on their window sills. Creating a monthly community to navigate through any garden troubles and to rival in the success of a good harvest we will nurture any beginner gardener to flourish. Each month we set ourselves a few tasks to complete by the next month, this gives us a little push to getting closer to picking and harvesting. The long-term goal of the Garden Share Collective is to get more and more people gardening and growing clean food organically and sustainably.

The Collective is hosted by Lizzie on her blog Strayed from the Table, there you will find links to gardeners in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Europe, and United States. There's lots of garden inspiration waiting for you there!