This Week in the Garden April 26

In the next few weeks I look forward to change in the garden. The spring crops are thriving.
Georgia and I went down on Saturday to check it out and pick whatever I could find for a salad to go with the spinach lasagne I was making for dinner. Lasagne because I love it, it makes two or three dinners and truth be told I needed another flat to start more basil and the big container that fresh baby spinach comes in is the perfect size and shape. Lasagne reminds me of dinner at Lake Nuangola when someones friends were about and we were cooking for a crowd. I took pictures on Thursday evening so I had an idea what is coming up. It is usually a day or two between visits. As summer progresses I might go by almost every evening on the way home from work but right now I visit maybe 3 times a week. This week the arugula is getting large enough to cut handfuls. If you cut it carefully it comes back again. I planted this in February and seeded more a few weeks ago.I love that sharp taste. In our garden, when the regular arugula has bolted there is plenty of rustic arugula coming up all over the place. One year it was all the fashion in the seed catalogs and everyone planted some. No one has had to actually plant any since.

There is some nice radicchio to pick leaves. In the summer it is dark green with reddish patches. I planted a lot in February, the larger plants are ones that weathered over from the fall. Borage is coming up all over the plot. It has a funny fuzzy texture and a great cucumber taste. I slice it thinly in salads. There is a little lettuce here an there that overwintered. the Chris plot didn't have much. I picked some violet leaves and flowers tender dandelion and chick weed. In the herb garden there was some sorrel. Our gardeners are enjoying it. I'm on the lookout for more seeds to expand the patch, we don't need all of the mint surrounding it. Its sort of a stinky smelling spearmint. There is also peppermint that can stay. Not the great spearmint in the basil herb garden annex.
In the Elliot plot the turnips that were buried under are also coming up along with wildy spaced radishes. This is what happens when you turn a plot that has been recently planted!

We use coffee bean bags for ground cover between the plots. it's like a patchwork quilt; with each new delivery new images appear. The Rainforest alliance bag is new this week.

Yesterday, I planted out some of the tomatoes from the light box in the basement. I chose Rutger's Rambo and Brandywine this year. It was so hot today, I need to check up on them. Our yard in the back is kind of chaotic, with the winter compost circle still up and everything hither thither. sunflower seeds from the bird feeder thick on the ground. Pots turned over from the winter winds and tree branches from Kara's old cherry tree around. I want to develop it this year so we can sit out there. I do tend to fill it up with plants. All the house plants go out and then there are lots of peppers in pots a tub or two of herbs. It needs a plan.

A Note About the Communial Herb Garden

After dinner at my friend Carolyn's house, about 15 years ago, we decided to take an early evening walk to the community garden she had recently joined. You could see it from her back window through the trees. It must have been late July, the garden was lush, a tangle of tomatoes, beans, squash and flowers all organized in rectangular plots. I was amazed that she could find hers it was such a wild place. She picked a bag of herbs, some sage, basil rosemary and parsley and sent me home with some. I tucked it in my refrigerator and used it through the week on chicken, tofu, in salads. It was a revelation. How could somethings that I never really thought about make such a difference. I decided then to learn about herbs. We joined the garden the next year. After a while I became the go to person for the herb garden. I hope that my excitement about sage, thyme, marjoram ect rubs off. At the last work day several gardeners were waxing fantastic about sorrel. I thought now we need more.

The herb garden is arranged at the edge of the garden space in several triangles. I discovered, when I tried to double dig parts a few years ago that these raised beds are mostly on top of an old driveway.

Before the workday last week it was hard to tell which were the herbs and which were the weeds. There are tags but horsemint and wildly reseeded nigella masked many plants. I like the nigella but selectively weed it out maintaining a clump and little plants here and there for syncopation. French tarragon that I planted in the front triange last summer is coming up. The marjoram and lemon thyme next to it are doing nicely, they only required the removal of some dead wood to expose the fresh growth. The two patches of oregano are doing fine, sometimes it overwhelm its neighbors. The thyme was a little sparce. I spread it by burying parts of the plant anchored with stone it roots and new plants develop. In a few weeks it should be looking up. People always want to cut back the sage. They don't get it. It's such a wonderful herb. it is so good fresh in salad dressing, roasted with potatoes and garlic, with chicken and one of our gardners recommends it in a bath for relaxation.

We pulled up some of the mint that is threatens the sorrel and dislodges the Belgium block walkway spanning one of the triangles. In the herb garden the peppermint is the best.

The back triangle is mostly medicinals. Valerian, Clary Sage, Comfrey, Echinacae, Bergamot I'm working on establishing some lovage as well. Lovage has a flowery parsley celery taste. Great with carrots. We used to have some on the other side by the bench. It got crowded or weeded out a few years ago.

I've got flats of parsley, lovage, Thai basil, dill and genovese basil in the works to plant out mid May. It find that if I do it earlier it doesn't thrive. I wasted basil seeds last year planting them directly not enough germinated. Or, perhaps, the ants ate them. Some of our herbs are not hardy in Philadelphia Zone 7b. I dig out the lemongrass, rosemary and rau ram aka Vietnamese coriander and keep it going in a sunny window. I also had Greek myrtle that did great indoors. I'll put it out in a few weeks. If the lemongrass doesn't survive. I'll just buy a few pieces from the Thai grocery, stick them in the soil and in a few weeks they root and there you have it. They are 4 feet tall by August.

Last year I established an herb garden annex for basil in a small plot that was mostly really good spearmint. I planted Thai Basil on both ends Genovese Basil in the middle and let the mint florish around the edges. It worked quite well.

When I tried to grow some southeast asian herbs last summer I realized that direct sun isn't the favored climat of all herbs. This bamboo structure (bamboo from the dog park across the way) was my way of providing shade; the Vietnamese coriander grew lush underneath it.

This week in the garden or foraging for wild greens

The garden is florishing. A few days of rain some sunshine and there it is. In the back plot the Egyptian walking onions are taking over the two ends. They walk. Actually what happens is that they grow these bulb heads which become heavy and the stalk falls over a foot or so from the plant the bulblets grow roots and a new clump of plants grows. Easy to grow and virtually indestructable. I use them like scallions. They are one of the plants I can pick year-round. The lettuces, arugula radicchio and red russian kale are about 3" I thinned the kale and, with the addition of chickweed and dandeion greens, marjoram, sorrel, mint and sage I had a lovely garden salad for dinner last night. The violets are blooming. I use both the leaves and flowers in salads.
In the front plot I planted some fenugreek seeds that I soaked overnight so I'll have a fresh source of methi for cooking. Just regular organic seeds that I buy at Kimberton. The turnips are up as are the radishes and arugula. Bruce gave me more garlic and I planted it in the large blue pot next to my plot that womeone left in the driveway a few years ago. I like the blueness of it.

Why New Mexico

New Mexico
I went to New Mexico in search of food. I went to UNM in the 70s and have had a yearning, a nagging need to return. When the American Oriental Society announced that Albuquerque would be their meeting place this year we started planning. I started researching place to get great enchiladas with green and red chile. The best Posole. Stuffed sopapillas with carne adovada.
I poured through blogs and guide books. My favorite blog was Gil's thrilling (And Filling Blog) http://nmgastronome.com/blog/everything you need to make informed decisions about eating in Albuquerque with pictures. I confirmed my selections with discussions on the Chowhound site. In 5 days I couldn't possibly hit all the restaurants that I chose. We barely landed and dropped our bags at Hotel Albuquerque when we headed out N 4th street to Mary and Titos for an early dinner of the most amazing stuffed sopapillos you could imagine. The best places to get great food, I learned, were these little breakfast and lunch places. One day we went to Duran Central Pharmacy; I had enchiladas with rich, complex red and green chile. You expect that drug store smell when you come in the front door but instead you're hit with red chile. I'd eat there every day if I lived in Albuquerque. When I went to UNM I frequented University Drugs the ladies in the restaurant in the back made great burritos with green chile. Gone now. We ate at The Shed in Santa Fe it was just as good as it was 35 years ago and looked kind of the same, maybe a little more eclectic. I was like a homing pigeon heading across the plaza toward the turquoise covered sidewalk.
Of course I had to see UNM again. All those memories, and I need a Sweatshirt to fufill a weird recurring dream. Hodgkin Hall, where I had my first studio, is now all historic and restored. The campus had more trees than I remembered. I may have helped planted some during my summer workstudy job with the UNM landscape crew. Maxwell Museum had a memorable Chaco exhibit. I've been trying to make Chaco inspired mugs in my pottery class. Hand built, pinched then revised with coils. It's coming along - not like these though. These were my studio windows.
The Best Posole I had was at the Pueblo Indian Cultural Center served with a huge fry bread. My next challenge is to recreate some of these meals while they are fresh in my memory. I have a library of New Mexican cookbooks, my favorite being Huntly Dent's Foods of Santa Fe. I'm going to look through the pueblo Indian cookbooks for a great posole. I've been looking on the web for mail order sources. I'd like to find organic blue corn posole. So far I can't find any organic at all. I may end up going to the Santa Fe Cooking School and getting it nonorganic. I usually get my Chile from the Chile Shop in Santa fe and keep it in the freezer. We drove to Acoma with our friend Fred. Fred grew up in Santa Fe and while he now lives in Iowa he'd return in a heart beat and I can well understand why. The land is onw of the the most glorious in the world. He kept saying as we past mesas it doesn't get any better than this. I'm not a religious person but there is something that feels essential and sacred there.

After the fall

The plot ravaged on the right.

The perils of community gardening.

OK, I've calmed down. this morning after walking Georgia and gulping some coffee I headed to the garden. I was armed with seeds, yogurt lids for plant labels a stake for a plot label, scissors.

I had nice patches of arugula, lettuce and chard in this plot someone ripped it all out.
Last week I cleared the middle of this plot and planted turnips, mustard greens, chard and radishes. I covered it with agrocloth anchored by bricks stones and a window sash weight - urban garden you know.

Yesterday, Georgia and I walked down to pick lettuce and it was all gone. Who knows who did it no one fessed up so far.

I'm past it
I replanted, labeled everything. I anchored the cloth that I found bunched up under a chunk of sidewalk concrete. Then I used my curlycew tomato stakes as decorative element at intervals all over the plot.




Fortunately, I have the other plot.

This I planted on that one warm February day and covered with agrocloth. There is a lot of red russian kale, various lettuces, radicchio and of course, arugula. I could live on arugula and parmesan cheese!
Close up of plot 22 called Chris.

Dinner was garlic sauteed dandelion and chickweed quesadillas with green chile tomatillo salsa. Did I mention that I just returned from New Mexico?