The year in gardening 2009/Resolutions for 2010

My plot back in early September

The past year may go down in history as one of the worst years in gardening, at least in the past decade. Above-average rainfall and below-average temperatures during the crucial months of the growing season resulted in a below-average yield, especially with tomatoes. In November, I abandoned my experiment of determining how much I benefited monetarily from planting and harvesting edibles, reporting a negative balance. And on some days, I spent more time clearing out infected fruits and vegetables than harvesting healthy ones.

The Minton Stable Garden in bloom, August

However, I still find gardening to be a satisfying act, providing physical and emotional benefits to those who participate in it. Another year at the Minton Stable Community Garden led to more friendships with gardeners and other Steering Committee members. A community of bloggers provided advice and ideas for improving my garden practices as well. And the rain had some advantages, including a lower water bill for the community garden (only $141.82, down from last year's $203.40). As long as I have my 140 square feet in JP and land at home, and Massachusetts hasn't yet disappeared under rising sea levels, I'll continue gardening. Here is my second annual set of lists, with items not in any particular order.

Top 5 successful plants:
1. Kentucky Wonder pole beans
2. Fiesta organic broccoli
3. Forellenschluss Romaine lettuce (grown in Minton Stable Garden)
4. June-bearing strawberries (before the botrytis set in)
5. Volunteer raspberries--they liked the fall conditions

Top 5 failures:
1. All tomato varieties (except volunteer cherry tomatoes)--due to below-average temps and late blight
2. Anything I tried to grow in my backyard--too shady
3. Spinach after the invasion of leaf miners
4. Irises I tried to transplant to a sunnier location in front yard--maybe they'll bloom next year
5. Zinnias--planted late and not given enough room

Resolutions for 2010:
1. Continue growing the same volume of tomatoes, trying some different varieties, but make a point of pruning them to strengthen plants and ensure that they get more light.
2. Grow more varieties of broccoli, like Piricicaba and broccoli raab, and other plants, including kale and other greens, coriander, parsley, and other herbs, carrots, and cauliflower.
3. Reduce the size of the strawberry bed to make room for the raspberries.
4. Keep trying to achieve that fall crop of greens, perhaps by planting better varieties sooner, starting some indoors in August so they can grow out back under row covers, or by some other means.
5. Be more aggressive in thinning out perennials, to avoid diseases like powdery mildew or to keep them from taking over my MSG plot. Black-eyed susans, anyone?
6. Take better photos, including sharper close-ups and documentation of the garden over time.

Happy New Year! I'd be curious to read the resolutions of other gardeners.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October

I love these traditions in which I could be lazy on words and let the photos do the talking. It's the 15th of the month, time for the GBBD post, started by May Dream Gardens. To check out the floral treasures from other bloggers, click on their links at the bottom of the MDG post.

Despite a frost two nights ago that nearly killed half my basil, there is still color to be found, not just from the turning leaves. The zinnias at left, growing in my Minton Stable Garden plot, sustained a few battle scars but continue to persevere, but most of my blooms can be found in my gardens at home. One lone daisy remains, as well as a few cosmos that are growing along the sidewalk.
Most of the action can be found at one end of my front yard, where the maiden grass has sprouted red tassels,and these Lady in Black asters, which required extra watering and TLC last season, seem to thrive under the cooler, rainier conditions. The profusion of colorful blossoms is as intense as a fireworks display.Meanwhile, along the side of the house, the other deliberately-planted asters are preparing to call it quits for the season.However, the weed asters are taking over in a few areas, but that's okay. If kept at bay, those along with smartweed are among the most attractive invasives around.In the backyard, a few morning glories remain, but the highlight is the sedum; I am assuming the name of this variety is Autumn Joy because it resembles the one at the end of Daphne's post.More about herbs in the next post, out by Harvest Monday if not sooner.

Early/Late Benefits of Gardening update

Another rainy Saturday in Boston. The potluck barbecue that the Minton Stable Garden and Stonybrook Neighborhood Association were planning to hold today has been postponed until tomorrow. The JP World's Fair, which was supposed to happen rain or shine, ended up being canceled. So here I am at home hosting a playdate indoors, seems like a good time to get caught up on the blog. Since Monday's post will probably cover the barbecue, I'll break from tradition and tally my harvest today, so this post in one way is early. However, since I had no update last Monday of money saved this post is late.

My harvest seems to be winding down. The cooler temperatures of fall are already here, yet my vegetables still need summer to progress. As a result, many of my pole beans seem to be stuck in an infant state, tomatoes are ripening more slowly, and broccoli side-shoot production is down from last week. My fall snap peas are around 8 inches high and already flowering (actually, that may be due to the warmer temperatures of late August/early September). Temps should be returning to the 70s starting tomorrow, so I haven't lost hope.Earlier this past week one of the neighbors had spotted and reported a garden thief who was helping herself to whatever produce she could grab. When I visited the garden the next day, I couldn't find any tomatoes in my plot ripe enough to harvest, but I doubt the thief was attracted to my plot as there are many redder and more reachable fruits in other plots. On Friday, I found one of these tomatoes in the above photo (excuse the silliness) on the ground, and the other had some rot on the other side. Because the plants had been healthy for most of the summer, I had ruled out late blight, but now I'm starting to notice that the rotted sections on the fruit that look more and more like this fungus. Since I haven't had this problem in other years and the epidemic is so widespread, I now suspect that tomatoes have fallen victim to it as well.

As for tallying the value of last week's and this week's harvest, I took a blighted tomato out of the equation, and the amount of broccoli and cherry tomatoes is negligible. The price of organically-grown tomatoes has come down a little, but green beans remain constant at 99 cents a pound, though in one place they were $1.59.

Previous benefits total: $110.73
1 pound (estimated) of green beans at $0.99/lb.: $0.99
4 pounds (estimated) of tomatoes at $3/lb.: $12.00
New benefits total: $123.72

Current costs total: $171.57
New balance: -$47.85

With less harvesting to do, I have more time to deadhead, as you see below. Fewer flowers hanging over the path, and a little space for the zinnias, which are finally blooming.

Plot update: Better Late Than Never edition

First, a news blast that, by the time I publish this, will be old news, but I have just learned that the Sounds of the Garden concert scheduled to take place in the Minton Stable Garden at 6:30 tonight has been canceled due to the weather forecast. It has been rescheduled; once the date is confirmed I'll post it here and, of course, it will appear on the MSG website. It's a shame that the show won't happen tonight; I had missed Lloyd Thayer's performance last year so I was happy to learn that he was scheduled for this season's show and that tonight worked for me. I'm not sure if the new date will.

So, instead I'll blog about the usual. Life in my plot has been moving forward. The black-eyed susans are dominating as they did last year, the echinacea volunteers I inherited last season are proving themselves as an excellent cut flower. My Kentucky wonder pole beans are reaching the top of my trellis (see the rear of the above photo) and a few flowers have already appeared.

But the most encouraging news of my Monday photo shoot was about some plants that are behind schedule, due to the spring weather extending into summer and late sowing. They seem to be coming along nicely and I have decided to remain optimistic about the long-term.First, a few of my tomatoes are now bearing fruit. I have six plants in my MSG plot (I had planted out five, but when I cleared away my spent peas, I discovered another that had self-seeded--based on previous years I suspect cherry tomatoes). Only my two Cherokee Purples have reached this stage, but given the weather we've had and other gardeners' reports of blossom end rot, I have decided to look at the glass as half full.

Next, the sweet basil I planted a month late out of despair because the seeds I planted at home were not thriving are coming up. Unless we get a ridiculously early first frost, I am confident that they will amount to something harvest-worthy.

Finally, it appears that I'll have a small patch of zinnias after all. I should probably clear away some of the invasive California poppies and black-eyed susans and give them some more sunlight and growing room.I spent a little time on Monday weeding, a process made easier because of the effectiveness of the salt hay I had spread around earlier. The strawberries continue to spread into the other areas so I have to remain vigilant. I cleared out some more of them to make way for my new raspberry patch. It's not clear if I'll see any berries this season but based on the fact that the plants that Asa put in last year bore fruit, I wouldn't rule it out.

Update on my plot

The advantage of the medium of blogging is the ability to bypass the editorial process and post news as it happens. However, today I find myself breaking this important rule to present you with photos taken three days ago (the horror!) and report on Thursday's and Saturday's MSG visits. Imagine if the Boston Globe waited until today to report an incident that occurred on Friday? Luckily, My Dirt is unhampered by the pressures to keep current or suffer from more financial consequences; when you have no budget, you have no budget to lose.So with this in mind I'll keep to the business of earning through my harvest, which is now picking up, and I'll update you on the estimated value of my yield sometime this week. In the meantime, here's a photo of the first June-bearing strawberries, picked from my plot on Thursday. When I returned yesterday I filled a recycled pint container with more and picked four small heads of Romaine lettuce. I was rushing around on errands yesterday in preparation for company last night, so no time to take out the camera.The leaf miner on my spinach had reappeared on most of the few leaves I had left remaining, so I pulled out all but my two healthiest plants. But my biggest concern was that a few of the lower leaves of my broccoli plants were showing a similar blight. On Thursday, I pulled off those leaves and took this photo of one of my plants out of concern for a few holes in the upper leaves. Luckily, there were no new signs of the blight yesterday, and, surveying the broccoli in other plots, I have come to believe that the holes are not necessarily a sign of danger (alternative interpretations are always welcome!).
In the flower department, I planted zinnia seeds in a new location, because I needed last year's space to start some Kentucky Wonder pole beans. Better late than never, I guess. No worries with the California poppies, however, they self-seed every year, and have been in bloom for the past week or so. One of the coolest features of this annual is the contrast between the papery bright-orange fully-opened flower and the way it looks closed, a delicate light-green cone served on a bubble-gum pink plate. As for my perennials, I can see the white beginnings of buds on my blanket flowers, the plants' eggplant-colored leaves can be seen in the right rear of the poppy photo.

I will finish this post now so I can take advantage of the glorious weather we are having; it would be sacrilegious to squander this opportunity by spending it in front of a screen. I'll leave you with my garden envy photo for this post: some irises from another MSG plot. I had never seen irises of this color, sort of a combination of sepia and pink.

Annuals or Perennials?

Some time ago, some gardeners gave a friend of mine a bumper sticker that read something like, "Friends don't let friends plant annuals."  The obvious message is that growing perennials is morally superior.  I wondered if there was much of a polarization among gardeners over this issue, some analogy such as "annuals are to native perennials as genetically modified food is to locally-grown organic food."  In fact, on a large scale, there is some research indicating that annual cropping systems have a negative effect on soil quality and water use.  But when it comes to which flowers to plant in individual and community gardens, those who defend their preferences have different points to make.

Though annuals complete their life cycle in one growing season, some gardeners prefer their longer and sometimes more abundant blooming period.  They can be grown easily in containers and baskets, an advantage to those short on land.  Another point made in a forum I found is that a gardener can plant different flowers in different places from year to year, with ease.

I recently received a comment by a gardener who called herself "lazy" because of her leaning toward perennials, which live for more than a year and therefore do not require replanting.  If you don't plant your flowers from seed, perennials can be cheaper in the long run for that reason, though they are more expensive than annuals when first purchased.  Perennials can also be divided to give to friends and plant in other places.  As one commenter in the forum stated, "It's like having a garden centre in your own yard."

Many gardeners like the challenge of growing the right combination of perennials so there is always something in bloom throughout the season.  These folks may not only regard annuals as "too easy," but find some of their gaudy colors unnatural in fitting with the native landscape. 

Which do you prefer?  I think that many people prefer a combination of the two types.  If they are like me, they have a few favorite annuals, like zinnias and nasturtiums, and might throw a few others in a garden if nothing else is in bloom.  But in times of laziness there is still something that will come up.

In praise of zinnias

"Like an/Autumn flower/In the frozen rain," Langston Hughes described an old woman in the poem "Troubled Woman."  I think the flower he referring to was a late-season zinnia, one of the fall's last signs of color.  Sure, they are not alone at this point--some nasturtiums, marigolds, and phlox are also floral holdouts, but I visualize the zinnia because of the way it ages so gracefully, the color of the blooms still faded but beautiful.  Their stems stand with dignity until it's time to give in the the fall chill.

I've been planting zinnias since I was a child, probably for the same reasons all along: they're easy to grow and almost always a success (except for the one year I planted old seeds).  A few seeds in May, a little water and full sun and by late July you have a colorful reward.  Although I've leaned more toward perennials in recent years, I still can't give up that 3 by 4 foot patch.  During the peak of their blooming season, a bouquet can last for a week.  Zinnias are still there for me after I've deadheaded and cut down every other flower around them; they stand guard and distract the eye from the tangle of vegetable plants that I know I need to clear out, soon.

First believed to have been cultivated in Austria in 1613, zinnias have been selectively bred since the 19th century.  The annual plant as we know it has its origins in the southwestern US, Mexico, and Central America, so their love of sun should come as no surprise.  I find them growing in about at least a dozen of the 40+ plots at the Minton Stable Garden.  They might look a little garish next to native perennials, but in a plot of mostly vegetables they add a colorful contrast.