1st Sunday in Spring.

I know...I've just jinxed it, but there are a few things that have helped me to the conclusion that today, Sunday February the 20th, is the unofficial first Sunday of Spring 2011. First:

I like to think of this as our lowcountry version of the groundhog. I spotted this guy on Thursday of last week. Behold, the first gator of 2011! He (or she) has come up out of hibernation (or whatever they do when it is winter and they disappear) and is taking in some rays alongside a lagoon. Certainly this has to be as good a harbinger as some rodent seeing or not seeing it's shadow? Second:

My pieris is starting to bloom. I really love this plant. I have found that the buds stay pretty tight while it is still cold and wintery outside. Once the warming trend starts, they swell and develop the white bell-shaped flowers that remind me of lily-of-the-valley. Third:

My beet seeds have finally germinated! I put a little thumb tack there so you can see how small they are. And today, I saw my first little rainbow carrots starting to come up. I said a loud "thank you!!!!" because we were getting pretty worried that they weren't going to come up at all. The peas are getting really big as well:

I'll thin these to 3" apart...time for an Epicurious search for sprout salad. Might be tasty alongside the oven roasted chicken we have planned tonight. A spring chicken, if I may be so bold.

One day, without no warnin', things start jumpin' up from the ground...

Before I left for a trade show and conference last week, I was pleasantly surprised by the sight of a few little green leaflets making their way up and out of our pea plots. Technically, these are referred to as the cotyledons. I read on another garden blog a very interesting analogy-how these leaves can be thought of as the yolk or placenta for the baby plant, providing food while the plantlet gets going with photosynthesizing. Just this week, I noticed the radish seeds had begun their own eruptions. Here's a look at a radish cotyledon:

This little guy should be harvestable in 25 days, according to the seed packet. I chose "French Breakfast" radishes because they are a milder variety. My nearly 4 year old son says he doesn't like radishes because "they are toooo spicey". Now-I have never told him this, and I don't think he has had any radishes yet, but maybe in a salad somewhere along the line he did. Now this fact seems to stick in his rapidly developing brain. I hope to change his mind in, oh- 25 days or so. By getting our kids involved in gardening and growing food, they are more likely to try new things.

As for the peas, here are some shots I took, they are a week along and have formed their first true leaves:

Germination rate is looking pretty good on these so far. Looks like I may have some pea sprout salad after all.

You eat like a bird!

We enjoy providing our feathery neighbors with victuals of their own. Creating an inviting environment for birds will help our kitchen garden fight the bugs that come to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

February has always meant goldfinches. They show up earlier in small groups, but the hordes always seem to arrive in February. And true to form, over the last few days there have been at least 100 of these hungry guys at the feeders-devouring all the seeds in sight. We have two large tube feeders with black oil sunflower seeds as well as a mix w/ millet, sunflowers and lord knows what else. We also have a cool double sock thistle feeder especially for the finches. And rounding it out, a couple of suet baskets. We tend to fill the tube and sock feeders every three days once the posse arrives. We also have a little clear plastic house-shaped feeder with suction cups attached for sticking it right to your window-so you can see the feeding up close. Here's a goldfinch who has gorged him/herself and, consequently, passed out.

Ahhhhhhhh....just like grampa after Thanksgiving dinner.

Waking up after a five minute "bird nap".

After you watch the way these little guys put away the groceries, you have to wonder about the phrase "you eat like a bird"...because birds can really pack it away. I'm counting on this when those hornworms and earworms start showing up...unfortunately, the goldfinches will be in the Hamptons by then, but our cardinals, chickadees and titmice will take care of it.

Side note-carrots, beets and radishes planted today. According to the farmers' almanac  today was a good day to plant root veggies. Let's hope the moon agrees.

Go together like Peas and Carrots

I always thought of this metaphor in a culinary sense. After doing a little reading about companion planting, I had one of those "Ah ha!" moments. On the companion planting chart, first on the list as compatible to peas...carrots. Maybe this is how the ol' phrase got started. Old gardening wisdom of "who plays nicely together and who doesn't". Kinda like garden astrology, only on a physiological level.

So-we did get those pesky, non-inoculated peas planted. A friend who studied at Clemson advised me that if I could not get my hands on the Rhizobia, to take an 8" core sample of soil from an area where legumes had grown before. I am simplifying his instructions- this works in the interest of keeping things short and sweet. We had grown green beans the previous season in a plot in the original garden..the OG. So...hoping this would count, I sent up a horticultural prayer and dug some samples.

I mixed these up in my wheelbarrow (wheelbarrel?). He said to spread this over the top of the planted pea plots. For good measure, I also rolled the soaked peas around in the dirt before I planted them. Farmer Bo double dug our two pea plots to ready the soil as I dug our core samples and inoculated (fingers crossed).

Double digging is when you dig a shovelful of dirt first, then dig another shovelful in the layer below-loosening this sub soil, then loosening and returning the first shovelful of dirt. It's a lot of work, but really helps the roots of your plantings to easily grow. We also incorporated our amendments-composted cow manure-at this time. Once the plots were ready, it was time to plant.

I spaced them close together, so we could make up for any poor germination. I'll thin them when the time comes-pea sprout salad??? With carrots??? Hmmmmm. My seed packet said to plant the peas an inch deep, so I pushed each one in with my thumb-up to the first knuckle. After I got them all in the ground, I top dressed the plots with my "hopefully-inoculated soil". We shall see...48 days for Cascade and 56 for Knight. Still trying to get a gadget countdown on here...so, for anyone wanting to keep track, March 13th for Cascade. We'll keep you posted. 

Rhizobia, rhizobia- where for art thou?

Lesson number one-learned. When you may need a certain bacterial inoculant powder to roll your pea seeds around in before you plant them, better make sure you can get your hands on some first before you go ahead and start soaking them. I am new at pea planting, and have read from my favorite organic gardening bible-Rodale's-that I should treat my seeds with rhizobia before planting, especially if they are going into a spot where no legumes have grown before.

Confidently, yet not 100% enough to drive on over before calling first, I rang up Hyam's. Bust-on order, supplier doesn't have any, don't know when it'll be in. So, called Cordray's here on the island. Nope! But he pointed me in the direction of Wendy in the Lowe's garden center over on James Island. Nix! But she was awfully helpful and steered me over to Possum's (supplier of all types of fertilizers and chemicals, but notably, lots of organic products) or Pete Ambrose, a long time and successful farmer on Wadmalaw Island. Matt at Possum's was out as well, but said he may have some at his house left from last year. When you buy this stuff, it's $7 per bag (packet?) and can treat 50 lbs. So, the average home gardener will only use a fraction. He is going to call me in the morning and let me know if he has any to share. What a guy, huh?! I also called Pete, since I know the family and frequent their produce market and cafe here on John's Island- The Stono Market- great place for lunch, shrimp, produce and cool food items like Carolina Gold rice and local honey, among a host of other things. Pete had used every last bit of his getting his crop planted a couple of weeks back, so had none to share. I then asked the million dollar question: "Do you find that it makes a difference whether you use it or not?" Pete explained to me that he had planted his peas for years without inoculation. Then his seed salesman said "You gotta use it!" and he did. Now, I am planting on ground that has not grown a crop aside from centipede grass in at least 60 years. Pete is growing on land that has birthed crop after crop of many varieties over many years, so his soil truly may not need inoculation. He explained to me that he hasn't noticed a difference between his old method and the new. So...I may be embarking on my first part in a two year study-to inoculate or not??? That may be the question.

So here is the layout of the garden: turf paint is a wonderful thing!

And here is my plan for the spring-early plantings to be done now, and the later rotations when the time is right.

To be planted now:
Peas: Cascadia and Knight
Beets: Golden and Early Wonder
Spinach
Carrots: Rainbow and Atomic Red
Radish: French Breakfast
Collards

When they go into the ground, I am hoping I can grapple some cool little countdown tool for this blog so I can track the maturity times listed on the seed packets. Any of you who are more blog savvy and know how to do something like this, please email me! OK-time to get started. Fingers crossed for my rhizobia romeo.

Getting Started-Harvest 2011 on the Horizon

So here we go! My first blog and I am truly lost. Can't figure out how to customize my background, so hopefully that will change in the near future. It's not that I don't like the birds-I love them and feed the ones in our area everyday. It just doesn't say "victuals"!

My husband and I have been kitchen gardeners ever since we moved to our half acre on Johns Island in July of  1998. The gardening started the next year. I've always enjoyed the kitchen garden concept-growing veggies, fruits, herbs and flowers all in one garden to supply ingredients you need in the kitchen and on the table.

This year, we are having to create a new garden area. Our old plot, which was a sunny spot when we moved here, has now become much more shaded as our oak trees have grown. A tree can grow a lot in 12 years! So, we are lucky to be renting the half acre lot next to us to run our landscaping business. There is a perfect, sunny, south facing plot next to the property line we share. This will make it super convenient to tend to. And when you garden w/out chemicals, there is a ton of tending to do.

So the goal of this blog-other than motivating yours truly to keep up with the garden and not get lazy come August-is to follow the complete journey of a 36'x36' plot of grass to a productive and diverse "victual" garden. Ground breaking begins tomorrow am!

                    Original garden-pic from last year-will still be used this year.