Rotating to a Warm Season Green

[Nyboy]

Really I thought both guinea pigs and rabbits rodents. always learning here.

 

[ninnymary]

Bee, that stuff growing under your tunnel looks so beautiful and healthy. Do the Japanese beetles and other bugs stay out of there? If so, wouldn't you want to make more tunnels so they leave your stuff alone?

Mary

 

[Beekissed]

Bee, that stuff growing under your tunnel looks so beautiful and healthy. Do the Japanese beetles and other bugs stay out of there? If so, wouldn't you want to make more tunnels so they leave your stuff alone?

Mary

Yep..the only thing that really bothered that stuff were some slugs. I'm currently building (4 ) 8 ft frames for low tunnels to plant in August for winter harvest. The JBs seem to concentrate on the beans, apple trees, potatoes and cukes...none of which I can feasibly grow in the size tunnels I have, though I guess someone could grow cukes under there along the ground.

I'll be planting four different kinds of romaine in the tunnels, as well as pak choi, sugar snap peas that I'll direct the length of the tunnel, broccoli, and maybe a few other things. Outside the tunnels I will plant some kale between two of the tunnels and provide windblocks on either end. I've read that kale is so much more flavorful after it's been frosted and during cold winter weather.

I'd also like to build a carrot box for the garden and place it at the end of one of the tunnels to give it a windblock. I can't grow carrots in this soil, as the tops grow 2 ft. tall and are lush and lovely, but the bottoms are twisted little plugs that push up out of the soil and get sun scald. Figured I'd give them some deep and loose soil to grow in, cover that box with an Agribon tunnel and place bags of leaves around the base so it won't freeze up.

That should about take care of winter crops...first time I've done this so it's all trial and error. We'll see how it goes.

 

[digitS']

I have bok choy seed sown .

The garden centers had no chard seed of the thin stem varieties I like. Nor do I seem to have any left over from the spring sowing. I'm not entirely happy with some of that chard. Umaina turns out to have quite a heavy stem. Verde da Taglio is better but the seed germinated poorly this year. My luck that every seed of the one I don't much care about comes up ...

A few good days to transplant the White Leaf Amaranth has eluded me! Officially, there was a "trace" of rain here in July. The sky will be smoke-filled and the thermometer may read over a hundred, later this week. It nearly reached that mark, today!

The little plants still look good, confirming my supposition that they would be a good warm-weather choice. They are too crowded! I don't want to mislead myself into thinking that they are spindly like the ones I grew in 2016 just because they are crowded. They look like they would be a good salad ingredients; maybe we can thin them that way.

I will sow some choy sum seed soon

Steve

 

[digitS']

the white amaranth in the early morning light

That's one of my 2 volunteer Perilla plants in the background. I never have an idea what to do with them but they have very pretty foliage .

Now, you might think that I would have sampled the pretty amaranth while I was out there. You know how Americans are - nothing green for breakfast, ever! If they were actually white in more than just name ...

There are a few nice lettuce plants just a step or two away, green onions, I can slice a few cherry tomatoes in half ... maybe a salad for lunch. Just gotta thin those things ....

Steve

 

[digitS']

Not bad ...

I can imagine eating a leaf of something related to beets raw.

Tender. DW made a nice salad with lots of cucumber with the lettuce and amaranth. We both commented on the tenderness almost simultaneously, expecting it not to be, I suspect.

Steve