Daisies

Pictures of daisies in containers.

Carrots

Carrots are one of the best vegetables for the home gardener. The flavor is so much better than store bought and they can be grown in both spring and fall without a greenhouse or special protection.

I have found the most difficult part of growing carrots is getting the seeds to sprout. The seeds require constant moisture and cannot be allowed to dry out. If they dry out, they will not germinate. The accomplish this I plant the seeds in a shallow bed. Then, I top the seeds with a little peat moss and tap down the peat moss with the head of a rake to make sure the seeds are in contact with the soil. I water the seeds in immediately. The peat moss will help the soil to retain moisture so the seeds don't dry out. Even so, on warm and sunny days you may have to water twice.

Carrot seeds can take up to three weeks (!) to sprout. You have to be patient and remember to check the soil everyday so that the seeds don't dry out.

One problem with growing carrots is that they can fork. This usually is a result of clay or rocky soil. The root hits a rock or clay spot and splits off in two directions. We don't have much clay soil at One Love Farm, but almost all of New England is very rocky. We get around this issue by planting in raised beds with lots of compost and raking out rocks every spring.

Carrots don't like a lot of fertilizer, especially fertilizer with nitrogen, so go easy. Once the seedlings have established themselves, you need to thin them out. A lot of people I know are reluctant to thin out their crops. But, with root vegetables like carrots, beets and radishes, it is very important. Without thinning, the vegetable will be small and thin. The root needs space to develop and thinning is the only way to accomplish this. One friend of mine will thin out her root crops and plant the thinnings in another bed. If you are so motivated, feel free. But, I suggest that you take the thinnings and put them to good use on your plate. Radish thinnings, when small, make great micro greens. Beet thinnings are awesome sauteed in olive oil with garlic. And carrot thinnings are good raw and in salads.

Carrots, like all root crops, don't like to compete with weeds, so keep your planting bed weed free. Carrots are ready to pick in a couple of months. You will see the tops start to crown above the soil. Feel below the soil to see if your carrot is big enough and then pull it up by the greens. Carrots can be stored for a few months, but they require cool temperatures and high humidity. A root cellar is perfect, but since almost no one has a root cellar anymore, you can store in your basement. One good way to store carrots is to take a crate and fill it with a couple inches of sand. Add a layer of carrots (greens removed) and then another layer of sand. That will help your carrots keep until you have time to build a root cellar!

Tomatoes

I posted about tomatoes almost three weeks ago when I planted the sprouts. Here is a link to that post. Since then, the plants have done well, establishing themselves and starting to grow. A few didn't make it, but that is usually the case when you plant out seedlings. Some have transplant shock, some are vulnerable to pests and some seem to whither for no reason at all.

I used my own organic granular fertilizer to feed the plants. It is made from cottonseed meal, phosphate rock, gypsum and lime. Lime is especially important to tomato plants so this past weekend I added some extra lime to the base of each tomato plant and worked it into the soil.

Lack of lime in the soil tomatoes grow in is really a lack of calcium. Some people use eggshells to add calcium, but I prefer lime. Lack of calcium can lead to blossom end rot, but so can irregular watering and too high a ph in the soil. The lesson to be learned is test your soil and, if needed, add lime. Water regularly (more about that later in the season) and add a good organic fertilizer without too much nitrogen, because nitrogen has the opposite effect of lime.

Cilantro

Cilantro is one of my favorite herbs. It's great in Mexican food, Indian food and even cocktails. Check out this link for a cocktail with muddled cilantro. If that sounds a little weird, just use cilantro as a garnish with beans and rice or salsa.

The strange thing about growing cilantro is that it likes cool weather. Ironic when you consider that cilantro is used in spicy food like Mexican and Indian; not exactly cool weather climates. When it gets hot outside, the cilantro sends up a seed stalk and bolts. You can try picking off the the flowers to keep the ciltantro from bolting, but I've never had much success with this method. Instead, plant cilantro early in the season and pick it before it gets too hot.

Lettuce and Beets

Spring and early summer is prime growing season for so called "cool weather crops" like lettuce, arugula, beets, radishes and carrots. Right now we're harvesting quite a bit of lettuce (ten pounds a weeks or more).

I like growing head lettuce, but prefer growing loose leaf varieties. These mixes, or mesclun as they are commonly marketed, have a variety of leafs in them. Red and green, mild and spicy, tender and hardy, they offer a great variety for the plate and palatte.

One of my favorite leafs to add to the mix is beet greens. I plant the beet seeds thickly which means a lot of plants will germinate. When the beet leaves are a couple of inches high, I will thin them out to allow the root to fully form. But, I never throw out the thinnings. The smaller plants are added to the lettuce mix for a flavorful punch. The larger beet greens are great to sautee in a pan with olive oil and garlic.

Peony

I posted about Peony on Thursday. They had opened and looked great in the landscape. Thursday night a cut a few and put them in a vase (see pictures above). Good thing, too. Yesterday it rained most of the day. Peony have big, heavy blooms, so when it rains they get weighted down. Today, most of the flowers were lying on the ground.

Iris

We pland quite a few Iris at One Love Farm. They are easy to grow perennials, so they come back every year. They are easy to divide in the fall or early spring, so you can make more plants for your garden every year.

According to Wikipedia, Iris comes from the Greek word rainbow. This is apt because there are so many different varieties and colors for this plant.