Quote of the Day: Jessica Prentice
“What if I had simply grown up in a time when food was seasonal? When there was, in each year, a time of more and a time of less? When food was not just there in packages on the supermarket shelf all year?”
– Jessica Prentice from Full Moon Feast: Food and the Hunger for Connection
Right now I’m hungering for asparagus. Every couple days I check the patch for signs of spears peeking out of the soil, every day I see nothing. It shouldn’t be too much longer, but it seems like it’s taking forever.
To me asparagus is the epitome of seasonal food, it really is best picked and eaten right away. There is a definite season for asparagus and I only eat it during this time unless I’m visiting someone who serves it. I love food that has such a short season and so long in between, it makes those few short weeks of gluttony so much sweeter!
What vegetable do you see as the quintessential season food?
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Favorite Places
I’ve visited a lot of greenhouses in my day, small mom and pop places that specialize in rare plants propagated right on the farm and giant super store type places with so many plants you could never see every single one. Back in Ohio I have my favorite spots to visit each year, I have yet to visit a lot of greenhouses in Maine, but I’m working on it. I did visit Snug Harbor last year and I went again earlier this week.
This place is wonderful, it’s small and yet there are so many wonderful things nestled into the space. There are dovecots, chicken coops, peacocks, greenhouses, espaliered trees, hedges, ponies and so many wonderful succulents.
There’s also this lovely birdbath there that I keep eyeing whenever I get to visit. I have no idea where I could put it in my not yet organized garden so I haven’t purchased it yet. Though I must admit, I was tempted to get it earlier this week.
This place is just my kind of place, it’s exactly the kind of garden I want, not too formal, not too messy – perfectly imperfect. This place is an inspiration to me, I get so many ideas whenever I visit.
Do you have a place you like to visit to get inspiration for your garden?
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Friday Favorite: Planting Things
It’s always nice to finally start planting things I started as seed so long ago. Yesterday evening I planted three of the four flats of onion seedlings. It’s always excited to start putting seedlings in the ground after nurturing them for so long.
The empty seed flats will be filled with more seeds: leeks for fall planting, warm weather flowers, herbs, and other random seeds I haven’t had the space to start yet. The best part about planting seedling is that the garden is finally starting to look like a garden.
What are you planting this week?
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Growing Again
Yesterday we headed down to Al’s Quackery in Saco, Maine to pick up 12 Ancona ducklings. I actually ordered these ducklings last year, but a few things happened and the ducklings weren’t meant to be at the time. This year however, it looks like we’re in business. Al gave me a great mix of colors: chocolate, silver, white, black and one crested bird, they should be really pretty when they feather out. This morning they actually headed off to a local preschool for a week so the kids can watch the difference between ducklings and chicks.
These ducks are listed in critical condition by the The Livestock Conservancy, which is why I decided on this breed for a small laying flock. These are egg ducks, unlike my Muscovies, they will lay eggs all year long providing delicious duck eggs for all my baking needs. With the ducks I can reduce the number of chickens I have or not worry so much about keeping my flock filled with younger birds. These ducks will pick up the slack for my aging hens.
Do you use duck eggs in cooking? Can you find them in your area?
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5×5 – When/How Do I Fertilize
This week in our 5×5 Garden Challenge series we’ll be talking fertilization. When and how to fertilize is something that can be daunting to new gardeners. There are hundreds of products claiming to be the right thing for your garden and most of them will be unnecessary for your small garden. You will need to add organic matter and nutrients to your garden to optimize plant growth and to make your vegetables as healthy as possible.
One way to fertilize your garden is to add a topdressing of compost before each crop. In spring you would add a layer of compost before planting, then again in summer if you plant another round. It’s also a good idea to add a layer before you put your garden to bed in the fall.
Generally compost won’t be sufficient for the home garden unless it includes some animal manure. Depending on the source, compost can be deficient in some vitamins/minerals. In my garden I use a liquid kelp/seaweed for my fertilization needs to help add micronutrients to my vegetables, compost and soil. Neptune’s Harvest is the brand I purchase most frequently. Dr Earth brand products are also great and very convenient to use.
You may wonder why I chose a liquid fertilizer? Because I find it works best for me. The plants absorb some of the nutrient through their leaves so it works faster than the granular fertilizer that you mix into the soil. Soil microbes play an important role in how plants take up nutrients and they can be deficient in a garden that has been tilled or worked. This will affect how quickly your plants can use fertilizer mixed in with the soil. This is not the case with foliar feeding through liquid fertilizers, they are absorbed very quickly. I also like using this method because I can fertilize some plants more than others. Heavy feeding vegetables like cabbage and broccoli can be fed more often than vegetables that require less feed like beets. In a small garden like the 5×5 it can beneficial to be able to feed some plants and not others. Of course you can just as easily feed every on an every other week or once a month schedule if that works best for you and you don’t want to think about which plants need more nutrition that others.
Liquid fertilizer is also valuable to your plants when the soil temperatures are low. The lower the temperature of the soil the more difficult it is for the plants to take up nutrients through their roots. A foliar feeding is recommended if you are growing early spring greens or late fall crops. They can languish in cold soil unable to take up enough nutrients to for proper growth.
One note of caution if you choose to use liquid feeds. Never mix them up more concentrated than the packing recommend or you can burn your plants. It’s also not advisable to water your plants with them in the morning on a hot sunny day, this can cause burnt foliage. I prefer to water with a liquid kelp/fish food in the late afternoon so the leaves dry by nightfall and the plan has time to adjust before the sun comes out again.
What type of fertilizer do you use most often?
