Here in Cambridge, we haven’t seen a drop of rain in over a week, and none is on the horizon for many more days. Given the wet June we had, it may seem like a relief. But with temperatures soaring into the 90s and even scraping the triple digits, my garden is looking a bit withered.
Obviously, watering your garden is key, but how you water is just as important. Here are five tips to help protect your garden from the dry spell.
1. Water the garden after 5pm. This will give the soil (and plant roots) a chance to absorb the water before the sun hits it and starts to evaporate. Do not water your garden during the middle of the day. Water droplets on the leaves will cause reflection from the sun and burn the plants.
2. Water the soil, not the plant. You may even want to consider buying a soaker hose. These are black mesh hoses that snake around the garden to make watering easier.
3. Water for longer than you think necessary. There have been many times when I’ve watered my garden, and then gone back 10 minutes later to discover the wet earth is not even a centimeter deep. With the soil as dry as it is, you’ll need to water longer to penetrate the layers of earth and get to the plant roots.
4. Weed. The weeds want water just as much as the plants. But you don’t want your weeds competing for this precious commodity. Getting rid of them helps ensure that your prized plants won’t have to fight as hard for the water they need.
5. Container plants do not hold water as well as plants directly in the earth. Consider moving these pots to the shade during peak-sun hours.
Every other day, it seems, another seed catalogue arrives in the mail. And to my surprise, I really enjoy just reading them. With the large mounds of snow still gracing my yard, it’s nice to fantasize about what I will plant this spring.
My typical routine is to buy seed packs at the hardware store, garden center or supermarket. The variety of vegetables is good, but if you want a specific breed of vegetable, such as a Kirby cucumber instead of the generic hybrid, then you should consider ordering through a catalogue. In addition to having great variety,the Seeds of Change catalogue also has great information about “agronomics.” When planning your spring and summer garden, you will want to consider:
Growing Conditions:
How warm does the soil need to be before planting? Some seeds can be planted as soon as the ground thaws; others need a soil temperature of at least 65 degrees for germination.
What is the recommended pH level? You can have your soil tested. Carrots, for example, prefer a slightly lower pH level than tomatoes. Knowing the pH level of your soil can help you determine where to plant different crops.
Planting:
Can you directly plant the seeds in the ground or transplanted from seedlings started indoors? When seeds are started indoors, they often need to be “hardened off.” The seedlings slowly acclimatize to the outdoors. Bring the seedlings outdoors for the daylight hours, indoor at night for a few days. Then leave them outside for a few days before planting them in the ground. This staged process allows the plant to develop its hardiness for the winds, rain and drought.
How far apart should the seeds be planted? This will depend on the root structure of the plant as well as its size.
Harvest/Storage
How do you know when the vegetables are ready to pick? And when they are ready, how should you best store them.
What will you be planting this spring?
I'm still deciding, but on my list are:
Radishes
Lettuces
Turnips
Beets
Tomatoes – Pineapple and Cherokee Purple because they were my favorite last year.
Cucumbers – Kirby because they are the best for pickles
We haven’t had rain in New England in about 2 weeks, and there is none in the forecast for the next one. Temperatures are predicted to hit 90F every day this week. Technically, though, this is not a drought. Perhaps, the water tables are still high from the flooding we had in March.
Drought or no drought, my garden is parched as can be. On the bright side, it makes weeding much easier. The soil is so dry that the weeds, roots and all, pluck out easily.
If I were to employ proper watering technique, I would need to water only every 3 days. That means saturating the soil 6 – 8 inches deep. While the moisture from the top layer is susceptible to evaporation, this gives a buffer and the roots can still pull the moisture up. When I water, I only manage to get about 1 inch deep. I think it’s just a matter of patience, or lack thereof. I water for about 15 minutes and then I get bored… I really need a sprinkler system to spray for at least one hour.
The other factor to consider when watering is the timing: water either early in the morning or late in the afternoon. The foliage needs a chance to dry before the sun hits them. Otherwise the leaves will burn. Also, this gives the water a chance to seep deep into the soil before evaporating from the heat of the sun.
Despite my less than stellar watering habits, I was still able to harvest several beets. And they were as sweet as can be.
Pistachio and Horseradish Crusted Salmon with Beet Lyonnaise
This recipe is adapted from Daniele Baliani. We worked together under Lydia Shire, and again when I had my business Interactive Cuisine. Today, you can find him heading up the kitchen at Il Casale.
Beet Lyonnaise
1medium onion, julienned 4 medium sized beets, peeled and sliced 2 oz. double smoked bacon
Salmon
2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil
4 salmon filets 2 tbs. prepared horseradish 1/2 cup crushed pistachios Salt and pepper to taste
1. For the beets: place the bacon in a heavy bottom skillet over medium heat. Add the smoked bacon., and cook until it begins to release its fat. Add the julienned onions and cook until soft and translucent. Add the sliced beets. Continue cooking over medium high heat until the beets are tender (Note: as the beets cook they will release a bit of water. If the heat is too low, the beets will release too much water and boil and you will end up with beet soup! If the heat is too high, they will stick to the pan and burn! Be careful and watch this step closely) Season to taste with salt and pepper.
2. For the salmon: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Season the salmon on both sides with salt and pepper. In a medium skillet, add 2 tbs. of olive oil. Brown salmon on both sides and transfer filets to a cookie sheet. Rub each filet with the prepared horseradish. Sprinkle pistachios on top of the filets. And bake for 7 – 10 minutes until a crust has formed.
You can serve the salmon with a watercress salad, I opted for a bed of wilted kale from the garden.
If it’s true that you learn from your mistakes, I should be bordering on genius. As I begin my 8th season as an urban gardener, I recall all the things I’ve learned along the way. I’ve shared some key tips for the beginning home gardener on Katie’s site goodLife {eats}. She has a new weekly feature, titled “Grow. Cook. Eat.” I love the name, and since we clearly have so much in common, she invited me to write a guest post. Check it out here.
In general, I share thoughts on how to get started with your own garden. One of the specific questions she asked me to address was, “What are the best plants to grow?” This one I evaded, as it’s nearly impossible to give specific ideas. Grow what you like to eat!
Here are some of the bigger lessons I’ve learned over the years….
Don’t crowd the plants
I’ve made this mistake in various incarnations.
The first way is that I over-plant lettuces seeds. The seeds are so small that it’s hard to only plant two seeds per inch. This year was no different, and again, I will be out in the garden this weekend with my scissors thinning the lettuces.
The other is planting seedlings. The tomato label says, for example, plant seedlings 36” inches apart, and I’ll space them 24” inches, sometimes less. I’m trying to cram as many plants into the garden as possible. Then, I wonder why my tomatoes don’t grow very big. Over the years, I’ve gotten better about properly spacing vegetable plants. And what I’ve lost from having less plants, I’ve gained in larger vegetables and better yields.
I have micro-climates in my yard
I usually buy a six-pack of basil seedlings, and fit them into the garden wherever I can. Not all patches of soil are created equal, and the basil thrived in some corners and not others. I don’t know why the basil grows better in some patches than others, but I’ve made notes as to where it grows best.
Be Patient
On March 5th (this year), I planted lettuces, beets, kale and kohlrabi. I was heading out of town for two weeks and expected that when I came home, I would see tiny sprouts shooting up all over the garden. Instead, I found paw prints right along the rows I had planted. I assumed that a critter (or two) had come in and eaten every seed.
The next day, I bought some new seeds and replanted everything. And I decided to plant a few new things too – I had seen radishes at the garden center, and thought I should try those. I reconfigured what I planted where… decided the kohlrabi would be better where the kale was, and the kale would work better next to the garlic. The beets and radishes would go where the kohlrabi had originally been planted.
And the day after that…. A carpet of green sprouts spread across the garden. In fact, the seeds I had planted two and a half weeks prior had, in fact, sprouted!
Which leads me to my final point:
Label what you plant
I used to have a memory like an elephant. I’d plants seeds all around my yard and remember what I planted where. As my memory started to fade, I justified my lazy ways by telling myself “The plants will present themselves. When they grow big enough, I’ll be able to identify them, so it won’t really matter.”
And now with the current mess of plants in my garden, I don’t know what I have growing where. I know I need to thin the sprouts so they have enough room to grow… but am I thinning beets which need 6 inches, or kohlrabi that needs 12, or radishes that need 4???
It’s always an adventure, and I’m sure I’ll have plenty of vegetables to eat starting next month. I’m just not sure what it will be.
Less is more. Especially when it comes to planting lettuces and leafy greens. Every year, I make the same mistake, though, when planting the arugula, mizuna and tatsoi. I plant hundreds of seeds when I should be planting dozens. The tiny seeds fool me into thinking I need more, and sprinkle as many as 50 seeds per inch. To give you a little perspective, I used a 1/2 teaspoon measure for the arugula seeds in this photo:
When they begin to sprout into a bushy shag of leaves, I start trimming.
The roots crave room to grow, and when they’re crowded, the plants’ growth is stunted. Last year, I ruthlessly thinned the lettuces to one sprout per 1 or 2 inches. And I was reward with large, prolific plants. For some reason this year, I still planted the seeds too densely. So this morning I headed out to the garden to start snipping away.
This is not a particularly pleasant task. With sharp scissors, I cut the stem below all the leafy sprouts. I carefully leave the strongest sprout. With stems growing within millimeters of each other, I must be careful to not accidentally cut too much, nor to disturb the roots of the remaining plants. The plants I thinned last week are already rewarding me for the breathing room. I should have my first garden salad within a week. If you’re good, like Susy at Chiot’s Run, you will save all the sprouts for a small salad.
