Winter-Harvested Carrots

The best carrots ever!!!

I always plant carrots early in the spring for a summer harvest, but last year I decided to plant them again in September for a late fall and winter harvest as well. I recently finished pulling those carrots and they may be the tastiest I’ve ever eaten – the winter chill definitely enhanced the sweetness! Yummy! 

Vegetables for Late Winter, Early Spring Planting Without a Greenhouse

Collards, red cabbage and Walla Walla
onion transplants just after planting
in one of my raised beds.

Cauliflower, Chinese cabbage,
and broccoli transplants.

Here in the High Desert of SoCal, it is time to start planting a few vegetables directly into the garden – without the use of a greenhouse. Since a couple of my raised beds were ready,  I started planting last weekend, and despite a couple nights of frost, the plants are doing well and have even grown. What kinds of veggies can handle the cooler temperatures found in this climate, you might ask?

Many types of greens do wonderfully in the cooler temps – lettuce, cabbage, collards, kale, arugula, spinach – plus broccoli, cauliflower, onions, carrots and more. I don’t think they would do really well if the temperatures went down to the mid- to low-twenties, but they seem to do exceptionally well in the upper twenties and above.

I went to our local Lowes and Home Depot stores to see what they had available and found a decent assortment of greens and other plants to choose from. Although I plan to grow many of them from seed, I thought it might be nice to get a head start with a few pony-packs of transplants. Keep in mind that just because the store is offering them for sale does not necessarily mean that it is time for planting – they had many tomatoes and peppers for sale even though the time for planting them outdoors is not until mid- to late-April in this area. My choices included collard greens, red cabbage, dinosaur kale, broccoli, Chinese cabbage, cauliflower, red leaf lettuce, and Walla Walla onion sets. I find it amusing that I am actually growing collards – up until I created a delicious soup that included collards as one of the ingredients (see previous post), my husband totally HATED them.

I also planted a few seeds last week, which included some sugar snap peas, cilantro, purple carrots, arugula and red Romaine lettuce. None have germinated yet – those results will be mentioned in an upcoming post. I planted similar seeds at the same time last year and they all grew nicely. In the next couple of weeks I’ll be sowing more seeds – more carrots and lettuce, spinach, radishes, assorted beets and maybe some parsnips.

Inside, I am experimenting with growing some of my own transplants, which I always do for warm-season crops such as tomatoes and peppers, but have not done for the cool-season crops. These “experiments” include Swiss chard, kale, and bok choi. All have begun sprouting and I hope to plant them outdoors in a couple weeks.

Sausage, Potato and Collards Soup

Yummy Italian Sausage, Potato
and Collards Soup

I made this delicious soup a couple of weeks ago, and will probably make again this week. It was so good, and the best part was that my husband, who HATES collards, LOVED this soup. I grow all of these veggies in my garden, but, since they are long gone from last season, this batch was made from produce in one of my Abundant Harvest Organics produce boxes. Give it a try … it’s especially good on a chilly evening with a side salad and some crusty bread.

Sausage, Potato, and Collards Soup

Prep Time: 5 Minutes

Cook Time: 45 Minutes 
Difficulty: Easy

Servings: 6

Ingredients:

1 bunch Collards, picked over, cleaned, stems removed, and roughly chopped

6 whole Red Potatoes, sliced thin

½ large Onion, chopped

1 pound Italian Sausage

¼ teaspoon Red Pepper Flakes (more or less to taste)

1 cup Low Sodium Chicken Broth

6 cups Whole Milk

½ t. Fresh or Dried Oregano

Black Pepper to taste

Instructions:

Prepare the collards and set aside.

In a medium pot, boil sliced potatoes until tender. Drain and set aside.

In a large pot, crumble and brown the Italian sausage. Drain as much of the fat as you can. Stir in the red pepper flakes, oregano, chicken broth, and milk. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Give it a taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Add the potatoes, a splash of heavy cream for richness if desired, then stir in the collards. Simmer an additional 10-15 minutes, then serve.

Building Raised Beds

One of my newer raised bed boxes
in progress. I used 8-foot two-by-eights
cut to the desired length, with
two-by-twos at each corner. The
two-by-eights are attached to the
 two-by twos with 3-inch wood screws.

Over the past few years, it has become increasingly important for to me to grow as much of my own food as possible such as fresh fruits, veggies and eggs, which are all possible on my slightly less than half-acre property. So occasionally I end up adding more raised beds so that I can grow enough for my husband and I to eat fresh produce throughout the summer and fall, and still have enough to preserve for winter meals.

A couple of years ago, I replaced the existing in-ground garden with six raised beds that each measured six feet by four feet. This arrangement allowed me to grow enough veggies for use by my husband, and me, plus some extra to share with friends and co-workers. The raised bed concept has proven to be very manageable with regards to weeding, watering and harvesting.

Last year, I more than doubled my raised bed square footage by adding eight more beds, each measuring eight feet by four feet. The older beds are about one foot deep - perfect for many of the perennial food crops I am growing such as blueberries, artichokes, rhubarb, asparagus, blackberries, and raspberries. The new beds are a bit shallower at eight inches deep, which is still deeper than the six-inch depth recommended by the book "New Square Foot Gardening."

My original raised beds, which
are now home to my perennial fruits
and veggies -- blueberries, rhubarb,
artichokes, blackberries, raspberries
and asparagus.

It is usually recommended to use wood such as cedar or redwood because they are more resistant to rot than standard construction-grade wood, but I decided to go the less expensive route and use construction-grade wood, and, so far, they are holding up quite nicely. I also chose not to use any anti-rot wood treatments because I don't like to use chemicals if I can help it. I may have to replace some of the boards every few years.

When building the raised beds, I left the corner pieces on the outside edges six feet long, while cutting them to eight-inch lengths for the inside edges. With the longer posts to the outside, I was able to easily attach some black plastic fencing material to keep the chickens out of the area. These can just as easily be cut to the eight-inch lengths if you don’t have a need for attaching fencing to the beds.

If you have a problem with tunneling pests such as gophers or moles, attaching some hardware cloth or chicken wire to the bottom can help prevent the pests from damaging your plants from underneath. Ground squirrels can be a tougher problem in that nothing short of a complete cage can protect your plants. I am fortunate to not have issues with any of these creatures. I have never had any issues with moles and gophers, and the neighborhood feral cats took care of the ground squirrels.

A couple years ago I created a soil mix for growing veggies that worked very well, but mixing the quantity I needed (144 cubic feet) was very time consuming. This time around I went with purchasing premixed soil since I needed around 180 cubic feet to fill the new beds. I was going to order it in bulk, but ended up buying it in bags that were on sale, which ended up saving me a lot of time by not having to shovel a giant pile of soil off my driveway and transporting it to the back yard via wheel barrow. My access to the back yard is too narrow for a big dump truck, but can handle a forklift just fine.

My newest raised beds showing
the longer posts to hold up some
chicken-proof fencing, and the straw
pathways between beds.

I placed each of the boxes so that there was plenty of room to walk between them and allow a little extra space for vining plants such as watermelon and butternut squash. To help keep weeds down along the pathways, I placed a thick layer of straw, which also helps to keep the pathways from becoming a muddy mess. Wood shavings, mulch, or other products also work well, but I already had some straw bales, so I saved a little cash (especially important with my current state of unemployment).

I started planting these beds this past weekend with cool-season crops (more on that in an upcoming post).

Artichokes - Beautiful Flowers, Tasty Vegetables

The beautiful Artichoke flower
is attractive to honey bees.

Artichokes ... are they vegetables or landscape plants? Actually, they can be both. Many people are surprised to find out that the prickly, yet tasty vegetable can also make an outstanding drought-tolerant addition to the landscape.

The plant itself has a coarse, "ferny" look to it, and grows in a somewhat fountain-like form to about four feet high and six to eight feet wide, with silvery green leaves. The plant sends up a stalk with a large flower bud on the top. Eventually, flower buds start appearing as side shoots as well. These are the vegetables we eat, if picked while they are still closed and firm.

A beautiful surprise is in store if you allow the flowers to fully develop and open. The thistle-like flowers are a spectacular purple-blue color about six inches across. According to Sunset's Western Garden Book, if cut just before they fully open, they make great cut flowers for floral arrangements. And, as it turns out, the local honeybees love the flowers, too.

The Artichoke plant I planted last year
growing back after winter dormancy.

A few years ago I planted a couple of artichoke plants in my vegetable garden. Since I love both the vegetable and the flower, I picked the first few artichokes to eat and left the rest to produce flowers. Since I failed to fence in the original plants, which allowed my chickens to devour both of them, I planted a new one last spring and two more yesterday.

One of the new Artichoke plants
that I installed yesterday.

In our zones of the High Desert, many people grow the perennial artichoke (Cynara scolymus) as an annual. But with a little care and mulching, they can come back year after year.

Now is the time to be planting artichokes, which can be purchased as dormant roots or as containerized plants in the winter and early spring. I noticed they were readily available as containerized plants at our local garden centers a couple of days ago.

Choose a location that gets full sun, and then plant them so the buds or shoots are just above the soil level. Space the plants about four to six feet apart, although I crowded mine together at about two feet apart – I may regret it later!

If you are growing them as a vegetable, water them deeply about once or twice a week. If grown for ornamental or landscape use, they will tolerate much less water and go through a period of summer dormancy.

To encourage a second crop, cut the flower stalk to about an inch from the soil – in no time, the plant will be producing more artichokes.

If aphids show up as the flower buds begin to appear, wash them off with strong blasts of water. If gophers are a problem, plant the artichokes in a raised bed with hardware cloth on the bottom, or plant in large containers.

When it starts to get cold, and the leaves begin to turn yellow, cut the leaves to about one foot high, tie them together over the crown, and mulch heavily to protect from frost.

So whether you like to eat artichokes or not, they can be a great plant to enjoy in any sunny part of the landscape or vegetable garden.

Attracting Pollinators for Better Fruit and Vegetable Production

A Swallowtail Butterfly
visiting a butterfly bush

Do you want to get a bigger harvest of fruit, or "fruit-bearing" vegetables such as squash or cucumbers? One way to do this is to make sure there are plenty of pollinators around to transfer the pollen from flower to flower. There are many different pollinators, which include bees, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, bats, beetles and others.

A Hummingbird hovering
at a trumpet vine flower cluster

There are a huge number of plants that can attract more pollinators to your garden, helping to ensure that your food-producing plants get the pollination they need. According to the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, "Three-fourths of the world's flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world's food crops depend on animal pollinators to reproduce. More than 3,500 species of native bees help increase crop yields. Some scientists estimate that one out of every three bites of food we eat exists because of animal pollinators like bees, butterflies and moths, birds and bats, and beetles and other insects." They also claim, "The honey bee is single handedly responsible for billions of dollars' worth of American crops each year.

A Honey Bee on a peach blossom

Pollinators like bees visit flowers in search for food (nectar or pollen). During the visit, a pollinator may brush against a flower's reproductive parts, depositing pollen from a different flower. The plant uses the pollen to produce a fruit or seed."

Pollinators in general are in decline due to many challenges such as habitat loss, parasites, and environmental contaminants. Home gardeners can help pollinators rebound from these challenges by providing food and habitat in their backyards - or windowsills, or balconies. By providing food for the pollinators, they in turn pollinate our food crops, which create food for us - a win-win situation for all involved.

A Painted Lady Butterfly
perched on an almond blossom

The USDA-CRCS offers seven ways to make your garden a haven for native pollinators (some plants suggested do not apply to the High Desert climate so I have replaced some of their suggestions with desert-friendly alternatives):

·          Use pollinator-friendly plants in your landscape. Shrubs and trees such as germander, rosemary, blueberry (in containers), peach, and almond provide pollen or nectar, or both, early in spring when food is scarce.

·         Choose a mixture of plants for spring, summer, and fall. Different flower colors, shapes, and scents will attract a wide variety of pollinators. If you have limited space, you can plant flowers in containers on a patio, balcony, and even window boxes. A few examples for the High Desert include mimosa, Monarda, Agastache, trumpet vine, honeysuckle, Salvia, desert willow, rosemary, cactus, coneflowers, lavender, Palo Verde, evening primrose, coral bells, Verbena, daisies, germander, red yucca, butterfly weed, buckwheat, California fuchsia, and many more.

·         Reduce or eliminate pesticide use in your landscape, or incorporate plants that attract beneficial insects for pest control. If you use pesticides, use them sparingly and responsibly.

·         Accept some plant damage on plants meant to provide habitat for butterfly and moth larvae.

·         Provide clean water for pollinators with a shallow dish, bowl, or birdbath with half-submerged stones for perches.

·         Leave dead tree trunks, also called "snags," in your landscape for wood-nesting bees and beetles.

·         Support land conservation in your community by helping to create and maintain community gardens and green spaces to ensure that pollinators have appropriate habitat.

My Tuscan Blue Rosemary bushes
are buzzing with honey bees.

To learn more, visit the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service office at www.nrcs.usda.gov for information about selecting plants for particular pollinators in your area.

Conserve Water Using the Seven Principles of Xeriscape

Angelita Daisy is a great little
water-conserving plant that I purchased
from HighCountryGardens.com

Autumn Sage offers lovely flowers
that attract hummingbirds
summer through fall.

Tuscan Blue Rosemary is
a great drought-tolerant perennial/shrub
that is also edible.

Is your water bill too high? Are you concerned about conserving our precious water and other natural resources? Don't want to mow a lawn? Installing, or transitioning your existing landscape to a Xeriscape-style (not Zeroscape) landscape may provide you with an attractive, lower maintenance, and water-efficient yard.

What is xeriscape? In short, it is a way to design and maintain an attractive landscape that is more in tune with the arid desert environment, and helps to conserve natural resources. According to the "Xeriscape Handbook" by Gayle Weinstein, the entire xeriscape concept is made up of seven principles that take you through the entire process.

The first principle is developing a landscape plan that acknowledges water conservation and natural ecological processes, while meeting needs of the specific site, weather, soil and environmental conditions. The design can be formal, informal or anything in between. This also includes properly grouping plants with similar soil, exposure and water requirements.

The second principle is to reduce turf and high-water use areas. Some suggestions include converting some of these areas into decks, porous paving, mulching, or low-water use plantings. If a lawn is absolutely necessary, limit the area to as little as possible, and use warm-season grasses such as Bermuda, Zoysia, or buffalo grasses instead of cool-season grasses like Kentucky blue grass, fescue or perennial rye.

If you are looking to remove lawn from your landscape, check with the Mojave Water Agency (http://www.mojavewater.org) or your local water company to see if they are currently offering a "Cash for Grass" program. There are specific rules that need to be followed, so it is best to check with them before you get started.

Principle three is to improve the soil with aeration or by adding organic amendments such as compost so that the soil has good water holding capability, yet provides proper drainage.

The fourth principle is to select appropriate plants. It is best to select plants that are from environments similar to those they will be planted in. Desert natives or desert adaptive plantings work well in this situation. They tend to prefer the soil types, climate conditions and elevations that the area provides, making the use of fertilizers and more not as necessary. The plants do not have to be all cactus and succulents. There are numerous other choices available – check out your local garden center or favorite catalog to what is offered (one my favorite online sources is www.highcountrygardens.com).

For another great source that offers help with choosing suitable water-conserving plants, check the Alliance for Water Awareness and Conservation (AWAC). It is a collaborative group of over 20 agencies promoting water conservation within the service area of the Mojave Water Agency. Check the desert landscaping page at http://www.mojavewater.org/desert-landscaping.html

The fifth principle is to use mulch to reduce evaporative water loss and protect against erosion. Mulches can be a number of materials from bark chips to rocks to recycled rubber products. Select mulch that complements the design and style of your landscape. Mulches are available at garden centers, nurseries, rock and sand businesses, and sometimes from local recycling agencies. You can also make your own much by chipping and shredding tree and shrub materials after they have been pruned from the plants

Principle six is efficient irrigation and sound watering practices. Keep plants that need a lot of water to a minimum and closest to the house. Eliminate plants that need irrigation in places that aren't seen or used. Avoid odd shaped planting beds that are difficult to irrigate. Eliminate irrigation overflow onto pavement or sidewalks. Use drip or bubbler emitters in non-turf areas. Only water when the plants actually need it, then, focus on deep-watering the root zone only.

The final principle is setting up a maintenance program that preserves the design while conserving natural resources.

Obviously, I was just touching on the basics of Xeriscaping. For much more complete information, there are many xeriscape books available. A trio of such books that I especially enjoy are "Xeriscape Plant Guide," "Xeriscape Handbook," and "Xeriscape Color Guide," which all work together to give a comprehensive approach to xeriscape designing, maintenance and plant selections for an effective and resource efficient landscape. AWAC and the Mojave Water Agency can also be very helpful.