Home gardening

I've seen a huge resurgence in vegetable gardening over the last 5 to 6 years.

When I first started offering classes about growing vegetables (at the botanical garden where I work), there was a tepid response at best.

But then master gardeners and others became interested in attractive edible landscapes, kitchen gardening, and lasagna gardening.

Then the 'Great Recession' hit and lots more folks were interested in 'growing their own' vegetables.

There have been numerous recent books about vegetable gardening rolled out (most of which are great) -- just get started, is my thought.

My friend and colleague, Bob Polomski, (author of Month by Month Gardening in the Carolinas) forwarded a link to this great graphic that documents our resurging interest in vegetable gardening, from the National Gardening Association.

I'm totally amazed (and excited) to see that a quarter of Americans, more or less, are growing vegetables.  How cool is that!  There's nothing more local than harvesting your own vegetables of whatever sort.

 

I'm not surprised that tomatoes are number one, in  terms of what folks are growing.  I'm always bemused by cucumbers (as they're among the few vegetables that I don't have much affinity with).  Sweet peppers (yeah!), carrots (difficult for us in the SE, unless we have very deep raised beds, summer squash, nice if we avoid squash vine borers (and I do hope the local woodchucks stay in grassy areas far from us)

Preparing vegetable beds for spring

I've amended all of the soil in my satellite garden beds now.  Garlic is planted in a couple of them, but the rest are devoted to getting ready for spring.  The asparagus is flourishing, hooray, (not shown in this image), so I'm hopeful those beds are fine, especially after the mulching of compost that they received.

I half-heartedly transplanted kale and mustard greens in one of the beds (the one on the far left) last weekend, but the resident woodchuck (not yet in semi-hibernation) crept up and made short work of them.  Hhrmph. 

If it's not the herbivorous squirrels (who knew), the major herbivores (big-time) are woodchucks. 

OK, I AM a wildlife gardener, but this is getting tiresome. 

I came across a 'gardening tip' today that vanilla extract (the real thing) sprinkled on lettuce leaves was a woodchuck magnet (that's according to Sharon Lovejoy, in Trowel and Error) -- it may be worth trying in my Havahart trap!

An excellent vegetable garden

We've been admiring a fabulous vegetable garden carved out in 'vacant' space under a bridge in our neighborhood in the mountains.

Montford is a designated historic neighborhood and one that's undergone up and down changes, with the fortunes of Asheville. It's a vibrant neighborhood, now, with an active community association and a recently refreshed website, probably thanks to a new tech-savvy volunteer.

We were delighted to discover an article about the hidden vegetable garden and accompanying chicken coop in the online posting this evening.

It's the vegetable garden under the bridge.

I wish I had some good photos to post; my gardening companion took some on our small camera, but hasn't shared them, as yet.  And my 'big' camera is too heavy to drag along on my morning walks so I haven't taken any myself.

But it's an inspirational place -- empty sunny land that's been converted to a productive vegetable garden.  How cool is that!

Exuberant vegetables

It's totally amazing how productive the tomatoes and other vegetables are in beds filled with fresh compost.  I'm continually reminded however, that, if I added more nutrients and watered more, I'd have a REALLY productive garden.

But I can barely keep up with roasting and freezing the tomatoes that I have (the ones that we can't eat fresh); in fact, I have marinara sauce simmering right now to freeze for winter.  They're not the 'tastiest' tomatoes, necessarily, some being harvested early to avoid squirrel herbivory, but I hate to waste them.

Here's an image of the front raised beds.  You can't see any ripening tomatoes, but they're there, in any case, and the leeks are getting quite large enough to harvest.

A rainbow of vegetables

recently harvested tomatoes (with sunflowers)

The tomatoes are producing in abundance now -  the Cherokee Purples, Sweet Million, Sungold, Costoluto Genovese, Grandma Mary's Paste tomatoes,  Summer Feast selections, and Big Beef.

I'm also harvesting yard-long beans, Emerite filet beans, zucchini,  ruby chard, 'pizza' and 'red cherry' peppers as they ripen,  and Ichiban eggplant.

Periodically, I harvest some baby leeks, too, and probably will harvest most of them at 1/2 inch in diameter; that's not the granddaddy size of supermarket leeks, but they'll be deliciously flavorful, and more importantly, will make space for fall crops of beets, lettuce, spinach, and greens.

I'm thinking I'm going to greatly enrich my vegetable beds at home in the Piedmont, adding much more nutrient-rich composted manure than I have in the past.  I thought I'd been adding plenty, but obviously it decomposes more rapidly in our summer heat than I thought.

I love the gray foliage of the leeks in the vegetable beds;  they make a nice contrast to the darker green  of the peppers and tomatoes.

Swiss chard

The Swiss chard is doing great -- I harvested another large bunch this evening along with a good-sized handful of arugula.

The front raised beds are looking good, too; I've packed them with vegetables and herbs, so will need to be attentive to extra nutrient additions, in spite of their excellent soil (aka compost).

The various beans are growing well, and I'm going to plant some Asian winged beans (soaking now) on another trellis (hmm, I need to find room for it) tomorrow.

Amazingly, a flat of spinach seedlings is looking quite nice. I'll have to find a shady place to put it, since some hot weather is on the way.

Close to a full moon

The view up through the trees was stunning.

It's close to the full moon -- it'll be full tomorrow night, on May 27th. I follow the moon cycles because of full moon hikes; I didn't used to follow them, but it's fun to track the changes and notice what's happening.

My (very much younger) fellow gardeners at the Pearson Community Garden seem to adhere to the planting by the moon cycle; hmm, as someone who's been 'trained' as a scientist, I just nod politely, and keep weeding and mulching.

The Pearson Community Garden is a lovely spot, at the end of Pearson Rd., in the far reaches of Montford, and is land that has been owned by non-profits (most recently by Bountiful Cities Project) for awhile (apparently through a donation of land), although I'm not sure about the details.

I've had fun the last two Wednesdays (the community work days) digging and weeding. I enjoy the physical activity associated with vegetable gardening, and away from my main vegetable garden beds, it's satisfying to dig in!