As you know, late last year our dear dog Jake got bored one day and ate/destroyed the garden. He left behind only a lone bok choy and the arugula and spinach. After his rampage we let the garden go to seed. We thought it too late in the season to start over and decided to move on to other projects until the spring when we’d plant the new garden.
Turns out that despite our neglect the survivors have done okay for themselves. The choy is long past harvesting time but we’ve been taking in and using the arugula and spinach for salads, or fresh vegetable sides. I’m really kind of impressed how well they’ve done considering we haven’t watered them since December and this winter has been really mild with minimal rain. I almost feel bad about tearing them out in a week to put in the new garden. Oh well, circle of life and all that.
The Lone Choy Man. I wanted to try and see what it tasted like after so long. But, the missus' vetoed that idea.I did not know arugula could get this big. It still tastes fine, too.Obligatory Artsy Fartsy Shot of Bok Choy flowers
I haven’t talked much about the fall/winter garden much this year and that is because it hasn’t been doing very well, for several reasons. One, there hasn’t been much rain or cloud cover so it’s been dry and very, very cold; the plants don’t like that. Two, having cleared out the problem slugs the garden has been hit by some sort of caterpillar, or so the wife tells me. One that I can’t seem to find no matter when I go out there to check on things. Three, Jake got into it. The picture up top is what is left of all our just beginning to grow cauliflowers… Needless to say Jake has been in the doghouse.
That giant bare spot is where kale and chard was supposed to grow but none of the seedlings made it...
The kale and chard that we transplanted in when they were about an inch tall never made it. I don’t know if it was the cold or the pests that did them in… All I know is that they’re gone now. The broccoli just seems to be waiting around for something to happen. It has been attacked by the caterpillars too but seem to be doing okay despite that but I don’t see any hint at flowering going on. At least the bok choy and arugula are still there and seem to be doing fine. We’ve harvested and eaten two heads of bok choy which leaves us with four more and the arugula is getting to the point where we can start picking it for garnishes and small dishes. I’m hopeful that we’ll soon have enough of the green for some salads. But, with the ones this growing has gone so far I’m not holding out hope… This has been the most disappointing planting since we started over a year ago.
UPDATE: Since writing this post on Sunday (12/11/11) Jake has also eaten the cabbages at the far end of the garden and begun working on the Bok Choy. I don’t know why he is eating the Bok Choy seeing as whenever we’ve tried hand feeding it to him he spits it out… Needless to say he is even further into the Dog house now.
The fall/winter garden never gets as big and bushy as the spring/summer one...
It’s been a couple of weeks since we planted the seedlings and seeds so, I figure it’s time to update everyone on how the garden is doing! The short answer is goodish, the longer one is below. Last week we transplanted the chard into the plot and last Saturday we transferred the kale. The slugs (my nemeses) absolutely loved the chard seedling and consumed half of them before I realized what was going on and laid out more sluggo, as well as going out at dusk and dawn to pick them off plants. I take a great deal of pleasure in chucking them as hard and as far as I can into the dry fields behind the house…
Arugula bursting out of the ground
The arugula is starting to come in and one of the nice things about arugula is no pests seem interested in eating it, it’s the easiest plant by far to cultivate. As you can see from the picture above the spinach, bok choy, and cauliflower are also doing fine. The slugs have been nibbling on all of them, mostly the cauliflower, but not enough to harm the plants. We’ve been having a mild fall so far and I’m not sure whether that is helping the garden or hurting it. If I’m going to continue gardening I really do need to read up more on these plants.
Kale seedlings right beforethey were transplanted
I know the question that is on everyone’s mind is “when can you start eating that stuff?” And, the answer is, “it depends.” The bok choy is ready to be eaten now, but as it stands we won’t get much from it if we harvest now. Give the the bok choy a couple weeks and we can start stripping off the outer leaves of all six plants and use them while leaving the plants in the ground to continue growing. The arugula should be edible with in a week, that stuff grows like weeds. The kale and chard are going to take a bit longer, but when the get to the right size we’ll be harvesting them in the same way we do the bok choy. The cauliflower? I don’t really know. Last year, they stalled out in growth and we ended up throwing the plants into compost. Hopefully, they’ll do better this year.
This picture in no way reflects the hard work it took to plant all that
We tore the Spring garden out three weeks ago and put in the winter garden last week. That week in between where the plot had nothing in it? That was a bad idea… Why? Well, because the soil dried out and before we could sow any seeds or transplant seedlings we had to water, and water and water. But, I’m getting ahead of myself. We went to Ace hardware to pick up seedlings in the morning only to find that much of their vegetable stock had already been sold. The only seedlings they had that we wanted were bok choy and cabbage so we picked those up and two bags of steer manure.
This is the good shitThis picture is more exciting than it looks
After we spread the manure we turned the hose on and sat there for fifteen minutes or so, it might have been longer. The soil had really dried out and in order to turn it over and incorporate the manure we needed a lot of water.
I work too, it's just that D doesn't take pictures of me...
After the ground was thoroughly saturated we planted the seedlings and sowed the chard, kale, arugula and spinach:
One of the joys of gardening: getting your hands dirty
After everything was planted, we sprinkled sluggo pellets down and we were done.
Just the other day the arugula and spinach broke through the surface. We’re still keeping our fingers crossed with the chard.
