Today I thought I would do an update on the area I call the kitchen garden. I call it that because it’s close to the house and with easy access to the kitchen, unlike the main garden area that is at the back of our property and downhill. Walking up and down the hill several times a day is good exercise, but it’s nice to have a few things closer to the house. In that area we have one bed that is about 4 ft by 30 ft, and also the beds around the greenhouse that have about 100 sq.ft of growing space.
lasagna bed
The free standing bed has mostly onions and potatoes planted this year, but I found room to plant two cages of tomatoes (Sungold and Supersweet 100) down at the far end. This bed is not protected in any way so I have to grow things that the local deer, rabbits and groundhogs won’t eat. Last year the deer did eat some of the potato foliage, so I will have to cover them with netting soon. Right now I have sprayed some deer repellent around the edge of the bed and that has kept them away, but I don’t trust them to stay away forever. I call this bed the lasagna bed, because I made the bed originally using a no-till no-dig layering method. Since then it has been dug and tilled, but the name stuck.
potatoes in lasagna bed
I’ve already hilled some soil up around the potatoes, which are planted in a double row down the length of the bed. I’ll hill them at least one more time, then mulch with the straw. I like to hill them twice because it seems to help keep the weeds down. Of course the straw will help with that too. This year I planted Yukon Gold, German Butterball, Purple Majesty and French Fingerling. All have done well for me in the past. I really like the yellow fleshed potatoes, though the blue ones are nice to add to the mix.
onions in lasagna bed
I planted the onions in four rows down the length of the bed, with the plants 4 inches apart and each row about a foot apart. The varieties there are Candy, Superstar, Red of Tropea and Red Candy Apple. I also have some Red Marble cipollini onions planted in another bed, along with a mix of leftover plants set close together to be harvested as scallions. I got all these plants from Dixondale Farms, and though I lost a few after planting they generally seem to be doing quite well.
cold frame bed with spinach
I call the beds around the greenhouse the cold frame beds, because most of them are protected year round by cold frames. In the winter they provide protection from the cold, and the rest of the year they keep the critters out. For my notes they are numbered and abbreviated CF#1, CF#2, etc. I don’t have a set rotation pattern but I do rotate things so I’m not growing the same veggie in the same bed year after year. Bed #1 currently has a mix of some overwintered Viroflay spinach and spring planted Giant Winter. That’s Viroflay on the left in the above photo. It has so far resisted bolting longer than the other overwintered plants, and I will keep that in mind for future plantings. The leaves are nice and big too.
cold frame bed with lettuce and leaf amaranth
Bed #2 has lettuce and Miriah Leaf amaranth planted. The amaranth was planted where overwintered spinach was previously growing, so it is still fairly small. The lettuce plants are sizing up and some are almost ready to harvest. The amaranth is growing fast though and we could harvest a few leaves for salads even now, just a week after setting out the plants. I planted Baby Oakleaf, Simpson Elite and Red Sails lettuce in there.
Baby Oakleaf lettuce
This is my first time growing Baby Oakleaf, which is a more compact version of the Green Oakleaf variety. I’ve already harvested plants I grew in a salad box in the greenhouse, and it is a tender, tasty green lettuce for salads. I’m letting these size up a bit more before I start cutting them, since I truly don’t know how big they will get.
cold frame bed with kale and Chinese cabbage
Bed #3 was where I had overwintered kale planted. All that kale has been pulled up now, and I replanted the bed with both White Russian and Scarlet kale, plus three plants each of Tokyo Bekana and Maruba Santoh. Tokyo Bekana is a non-heading Chinese cabbage that is easier to grow in spring than the heading types, and is similar to the Fun Jen variety. Maruba Santoh is another similar non-heading green that has larger, more rounded leaves than the Tokyo Bekana. I think both kinds are better eaten raw than they are cooked, and they have mild tasting crunchy leaves that are good in salads. The White Russian kale was planted earlier than the Scarlet, and it is big enough to cut at this point, though we’re still eating on the overwintered kale that I pulled.
cold frame bed with Cima di Rapa and kohlrabi planted
Bed #4 has kohlrabi and Cima di Rapa (aka rapini, broccoli raab) planted. This is my first time growing cima di rapa in several years, and timing this crop is always challenging for me. Our spring weather heats up fast, and this cool season veggie suffers in the heat. I’ve already harvested the Quarantina variety of the cima di rapa. The non-flowering Maceretese is ready for cutting and we plan on getting our first taste of it tomorrow.
kolibri kohlrabi
I’ve got the green Winner kohlrabi and the purple Kolibri planted, and they are sizing up nicely. I usually let these two varieties get about 3″ across before harvesting, though I know they are perhaps more tender when a bit smaller. I am guessing they will be ready in another week or two. I have two more beds planted in carrots, radishes, onions and green garlic. I’ll be back later to talk about those. Until then, Happy Growing!
Your onions are so much larger than mine are right now. And I really have to try an amaranth next year. Summer greens are hard to come by.
The amaranth is so easy to grow, though like Michelle says they do like heat. Slugs seem to be fond of them though.
I really want some cold frames but I think that’s a project for another year. Your veggies all look amazing! I’ve planted Russian blue potatoes again simply because I had my own leftover for seed potatoes. I love the colour they add to some dishes, but not sure I’ll go out of my way to grow them again. I have about a dozen fingerlings in this year and would happily grow nothing but those.
I love the fingerlings too, but we have limited space for potatoes and I need the higher yield of full sized spuds. Though I have to sat some of the fingerlings make almost as much as the big ones!
Your kitchen garden is looking wonderful & lush! Like Susie, I would love to have some cold frames – it’s really hard to pace myself when it comes to garden wants as I really want everything right now!
Having a garden that is close to the house is so convenient. My long term plan is to expand the garden that is off to the side of our house & only grow single harvest veg – those veg that stay in the ground for a long time and then get harvested more or less all at once, like garlic & potatoes – on the hilltop.
A couple of my cold frames are showing signs of rotting, so I will need to make more next year. I don’t use treated lumber, but they still last for about 5-6 years using untreated wood. I truly don’t know what I would do without them. I’ve been making them for years and years, ever since I first started gardening.
I think the deer in your area are far more picky eaters or perhaps less hungry than the deer here, they would have grazed that potato patch to the ground here. Amaranth already! I can’t get it to grow until about August, it really resents the cool foggy nights. That purple Kolibri is so pretty, I would almost grow it just for the color, almost…
I do spray deer repellent around the edges of the lasagna bed, but not on the plants since it is not listed for edible crops. But I also think there are other things for the deer to eat right about now – like hostas!
Hello,
Do you heat your greenhouse in the winter? All your information is truly wonderful! I look forward to all your posts!
I do not really heat the greenhouse. I do have a small electric space heater I use on the coldest nights (usually in January) but it only raises the temps inside about 10 degrees over the outside temp.
Looks great, Dave. Your stuff is much farther along than ours. It is nice to have some garden close to the house; ours is behind the barn, which blocks the view. But I have an herb garden, and the new “survival” plot much closer to the house, so I can watch it grow while sipping a beverage!
Dave, What do you do for slugs, if I am trying to have an organic garden? They really like my strawberries ripening right now. I released an insect called an “earwhig” last year and the slug numbers have been cut by 90%, on this years crop. I have also placed in the strawberry patch four pieces of copper water line pipes, but I don’t have enough to cover the whole garden (a 12 foot circle of “Sweet Charlies”). I have the usual chicken wire and bird netting to keep the critters out. I have out several bowl traps containing beer, and I am not opposed to using something called “sluggo”, but I have never tried it.
What do you use?
Don, I have used Sluggo and Sluggo Plus for several years now with good results. The Sluggo Plus has the iron phosphate plus spinosad to help control slugs, snails and sowbugs. We have a bad slug problem here, and Sluggo works wonders for us!
My amaranth are not doing well, going to reseed this week. So jealous of your asparagus. Your garden is way ahead of mine.
Oops, I goofed, the platter of asparagus is in today’s post.