My Gardens | Farming Philly http://www.farmingphilly.com Urban Agriculture in the City of Brotherly Love Sat, 27 Feb 2021 03:01:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.1 68214609 Return to the Greenhouse a Year After Closure http://www.farmingphilly.com/2021/02/26/greenhouse-reopens-ending-year-long-closure/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2021/02/26/greenhouse-reopens-ending-year-long-closure/#respond Sat, 27 Feb 2021 02:46:32 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=1101 It was a very welcome sign of the beginning of a return to normalcy: the community propagation program at the greenhouse in the Horticultural Center in West Fairmount Park reopened this month for the first time since it was abruptly … Continue reading

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It was a very welcome sign of the beginning of a return to normalcy: the community propagation program at the greenhouse in the Horticultural Center in West Fairmount Park reopened this month for the first time since it was abruptly shut down at the onset of the pandemic and we had to hastily evacuate our seedlings last March.

I didn’t waste anytime getting restarted. Under the new system designed to space out visits, I booked an “indoor seeding” slot on opening day, Feb. 8, and started planting–spinace, lettuce, arugula, kale, chard, and, of course, microgreens.

Less than two weeks later, I have just harvested my first crop:  sprouting daikon radish, red acre cabbage, and garnet red amaranth microgreens.

If you want to feel your best and avoid possible harms with too much exercises, make sure you have normal work outs. viagra without prescription You will gain cialis sale unica-web.com bigger and harder erection within few weeks of using this herbal supplement. The success viagra for sale cheap of any marriage depends to a large extent on the physical relationship between the couples. A buy sildenafil india lot of people use it to have relief from pre-menstrual syndrome. As for my long-frozen, overwintering backyard garden, after being buried for about a month now, the snow has started to recede, and amazingly, there are signs of life underneath. I had pretty much written the overwinter garden off as a total loss. It has been locked in an dark icy cave for weeks, the thin row cover sagging nearly to the ground under the weight but miraculously holding off a succession of icy, eight-, six- and four–inch snowfalls.

Now the snow cap is receding and I can see that  mustard greens seem to be snapping back, some mizuna, maybe some lettuce, and more. In perhaps several weeks, on a warm early spring day I’ll pull the cover off and we’ll see.


Overwintering garden in early February

A thaw, and signs of life, on February 26

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All-Weather Winners? We’ll See. http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/11/23/overwinter-crops-heading-undercov/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/11/23/overwinter-crops-heading-undercov/#respond Mon, 23 Nov 2020 18:30:06 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=1060 There was no science involved in my selection of crop varieties that I hope to keep growing right through the winter, under a layer or two of thin row cover stretched over hoops, aiming for some midwinter trimmings and a … Continue reading

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There was no science involved in my selection of crop varieties that I hope to keep growing right through the winter, under a layer or two of thin row cover stretched over hoops, aiming for some midwinter trimmings and a bounteous early spring harvest. What I’ve got is what happened to come up and survive among the varied mixture of seeds that I planted in late August. Many succumbed along the way, including all of the spinaches, to my dismay. (I’ve had avalanches of overwintered spinach in winters past.) These are the survivors to date in my garden heading into this winter:

Flashy troutback lettuce, oakleaf lettuce, cilantro, parsley, Russian kale, lacinato kale, collards, red mustard, frilly mustard, arugula, and hakurei turnips.

They are hale and hearty so far after as many as half a dozen subfreezing nights, including a dip to 28 or 27 degrees F. Maybe they’re up for the rigors of making it through a Philadelphia winter with scanty protection from the elements. We’ll see.
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My Backyard Garden Battened Down for Winter http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/11/18/my-backyard-garden-is-ready-for-winter/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/11/18/my-backyard-garden-is-ready-for-winter/#respond Wed, 18 Nov 2020 05:32:22 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=1033 I was hoping I’d have a massive crop of spinach under the row covers in my backyard garden this winter. But not a single surviving seedling came of the hundreds of spinach seeds I planted in late August, hoping for … Continue reading

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I was hoping I’d have a massive crop of spinach under the row covers in my backyard garden this winter. But not a single surviving seedling came of the hundreds of spinach seeds I planted in late August, hoping for a fall harvest and maybe even a crop that would overwinter. What I’m left with under cover from my end-of-summer planting is some oakleaf and speckled lettuce, parsley, hakurei turnips, volunteer cilantro from my summer crop, mustard greens, kale and a couple of collards.


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Where was this guy (see below) all summer long when I could have used regular visits by wily carnivores to keep the squirrels out of my tomatoes and up in the trees. I hadn’t seen a fox in my backyard for awhile but I knew they are lots of them here in Mt. Airy near the Wissahickon Creek watershed.

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Mid-November Harvest http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/11/17/late-fall-harvest/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/11/17/late-fall-harvest/#respond Wed, 18 Nov 2020 04:58:33 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=1025 It’s November 15 and we’ve had just one light frost so far, so there’s plenty of greenery in my The just difference is in price because buying cialis in spain is sold at affordable price because generic manufacturers don’t invest … Continue reading

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It’s November 15 and we’ve had just one light frost so far, so there’s plenty of greenery in my The just difference is in price because buying cialis in spain is sold at affordable price because generic manufacturers don’t invest in research work that is done by branded manufacturers. Touching and intimacy heighten our cialis no prescription canada enjoyment of life. This in turn pushes the level of testosterone to improve the purchase generic levitra male libido. But remember https://www.unica-web.com/watch/2010/maurice-maggi-floralanarchist-1.html generic sildenafil from india that you need to be sexually thrilled to acquire rock hard erection. garden. Today I harvested (clockwise from lower left) collard greens, mustard greens, kale, New Zealand spinach, arugula, oregano, cilantro, an eggplant, aji amarillo peppers, and green tomatoes.

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Caribbean Peppers End Season with a Flourish http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/11/16/caribbean-peppers-end-season-with-a-flourish/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/11/16/caribbean-peppers-end-season-with-a-flourish/#respond Mon, 16 Nov 2020 22:49:10 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=1014 The stars of my fall garden have been a couple of pepper plants that I ended up with by default. They were City Harvest leftovers that no one else wanted and that, perhaps, no one had heard of before. I … Continue reading

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The stars of my fall garden have been a couple of pepper plants that I ended up with by default. They were City Harvest leftovers that no one else wanted and that, perhaps, no one had heard of before. I hadn’t heard of them either, but I know about them now. They are aji amarillo (top) and aji dulce peppers (below).

When I realized I would have an October and November bumper crop of the late-blooming peppers on my hands, I was inspired to find out what they are so I could figure out what to do with them. Turns out, they each have an interesting culinary story to tell here, as I recount on my Seasonal Chef website. In short, aji amarillo peppers, fiery hot but not deadly, are a keystone ingredient in the cuisine of Peru, while aji dulces, which have the taste and aroma but none of the heat of their blistering hot lookalike cousins, habaneros, are integral to the cuisine of parts of the Caribbean region that favor milder fare including Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba.

Here’s what I did with my harvest:
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AJI AMARILLO RECIPES

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Damned Squirrels Left Me One Tomato All Summer! http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/09/16/squirrels-left-me-one-tomato-all-summer/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/09/16/squirrels-left-me-one-tomato-all-summer/#comments Wed, 16 Sep 2020 20:00:48 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=998 I think I’ve spawned a new species of squirrel in my backyard over the past five years: a species that can thrive on nothing but green tomatoes supplemented by an occasional snack of garbage. I’ve grown tomatoes in my backyard … Continue reading

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Netting couldn’t keep the suckers out

I think I’ve spawned a new species of squirrel in my backyard over the past five years: a species that can thrive on nothing but green tomatoes supplemented by an occasional snack of garbage.

I’ve grown tomatoes in my backyard in Philadelphia for about eight years now and in the early years, I harvested tomatoes by the hundreds. This year I planted 10 or 12 tomatoes–early girls, big boys, lemon boys, a Cherokee purple, etc.—and all that the squirrels left me was one lousy tomato no bigger than twice the size of a buffalo nickel.

I tried many ways to stave them off: fencing, netting, row cover wrapping tomato clusters like mummies, even a rat trap (which finished the summer 1 out of about 100 snaps). A feral cat that roamed the neighborhood and regularly passed through my backyard on her hunting rounds, kept the squirrels up in the trees when she was on patrol. But when she was away, the squirrels played, freely taking my tomatoes, when they had grown to medium-size and were far from ripe, just a few tomatoes a day, so that you hardly notice, until you realize none are ever getting ripe.

In the end, nothing stopped squirrels from getting every last one of my backyard tomatoes this summer.
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Next summer, I will either construct a fully enclosed, heavy-gauge chicken-wire cage for my plants, or I’ll give up trying to grow tomatoes in my backyard garden altogether.

Unless anybody can comment here about another way…

feral cat kept squirrels in trees . . .until she left

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Spent Grains Pass the Radish Test http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/06/02/spent-grains-pass-the-radish-test/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/06/02/spent-grains-pass-the-radish-test/#respond Tue, 02 Jun 2020 22:33:12 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=979 Six weeks ago, I churned large quantities of spent grains, a byproduct of beer-making, into the soil in a couple of plots in our community garden in Roxborough. Only then did I post a question about the advisability of doing … Continue reading

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A lone spent grain (lower right) is one of the few visible remnants remaining from shovel fulls mixed into the soil three weeks ago

Six weeks ago, I churned large quantities of spent grains, a byproduct of beer-making, into the soil in a couple of plots in our community garden in Roxborough. Only then did I post a question about the advisability of doing so on the Philadelphia Urban Farm Network forum. In short order, I got six thoughtful responses. The respondents were unanimous: I had probably made a mistake. Compost the stuff first, or use it as mulch, most of the respondents advised.

It’s not that I wasn’t forewarned. As I wrote at the time, I had read up on the downsides of using spent grains but proceeded anyway, hoping the ones I was using, from the nearby Twisted Gingers brewpub, were well enough along in the fermentation process that they would quickly break down in the soil in the several weeks I intended to wait before planting. I still thought that might be the case but the responses to my query were alarming enough that I scurried back to the garden a couple of days later, shovel in hand, to churn the grain-fed plots a few more times. That was a good move. The clumps of spent grains had already begun to solidify into sedimentary rock-like layers. One of the PUFN responses, from a gardener named Scott, had warned about that. “Unless completely mixed into the soil spent grains will stay clumped for months,” he said.

On that second pass with the shovel, I broke up the clumps. Within three weeks only traces of the spent grains remained (see photo above). But would the amended soil be seed- and plant-friendly? That was the big question. The answer was no sure thing. As Scott warned, “Have you checked the pH?  Spent grain put directly in soil without composting will lower the pH as it decomposes.” And if the pH falls out the optimal range, “a host of ills may follow,” as an article in Fine Gardening explains. I had also previously read that too many spent grains in the soil could inhibit seedling growth. For a quick test, you can plant some radish seeds in the soil and see how they fare.
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So I planted a few radishes. Three weeks later, they are thriving. So are the squash, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes I had planted in another section of the garden that I had heavily spiked with spent grains.

Have I proved the skeptics wrong, or did I just get lucky? Who knows. But for anyone who doesn’t want to take the risk I was willing to assume, all authorities  agree that spent grains make a great addition to a compost pile, giving the finished product a welcome boost of nitrogen.

“It is not hard to compost,” wrote Karl, in another of the responses to my query on the PUFN forum. “All you need is enough brown material for the spent grains that you have; I’ve had lots of success with clean woodchips and leaves. As long as you layer the greens and browns well, you don’t need to do a lot of turning. You will want to cap the pile with leaves to hold in the moisture and the smells. If you do use woodchips, they will take a good bit of time to break down completely. you can speed up the process by sifting out the woodchips. The sifted woodchips can be added to the next batch of spent grains.”

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Uh Oh! Lantern Fly Nymphs http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/05/30/uh-oh-lantern-fly-nymphs/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/05/30/uh-oh-lantern-fly-nymphs/#comments Sat, 30 May 2020 21:40:19 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=973 As May winds down, they’re infesting some of the trees A lot of noticeable ones are skin issues such as acne, psoriasis, eczema, dry skin and even alcohol consumption and smoking. levitra 10 mg appalachianmagazine.com A men power all lies … Continue reading

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As May winds down, they’re infesting some of the trees A lot of noticeable ones are skin issues such as acne, psoriasis, eczema, dry skin and even alcohol consumption and smoking. levitra 10 mg appalachianmagazine.com A men power all lies in its sexual health and treat underlying cause. sales online viagra Impotence is something which is related to the particular communication and problem solving viagra on line skills. The emails to ignore are the vast majorities which are selling cialis 40 mg, cialis, penis enlargement drugs and other similar products and services. and weedy vines surrounding our community garden in Roxborough, but haven’t made a move on anyone’s crops, yet.

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Marvellous and Ominous Blasts From the Past http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/05/09/marvellous-and-ominous-blasts-from-the-past/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/05/09/marvellous-and-ominous-blasts-from-the-past/#respond Sat, 09 May 2020 14:04:04 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=946 They don’t call it Merveille des Quatre Saisons for nothing. The lettuce variety, a pre-1885 French heirloom, according to the seed catalogs, can handle just about anything the weather gods throw at it. This gorgeous head of “marvel of four … Continue reading

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They don’t call it Merveille des Quatre Saisons for nothing. The lettuce variety, a pre-1885 French heirloom, according to the seed catalogs, can handle just about anything the weather gods throw at it. This gorgeous head of “marvel of four seasons” lettuce, see above, is one of half a dozen that sprouted from lettuce stumps that I had left for dead in my garden last fall. I didn’t notice them until early this spring when they started sprouting and then formed characteristic rosettes of loosely folded ruby-tinged green leaves.

Meanwhile, my new spring crops–including some Merveille des Quatre Saisons, several spinach varieties, and other greens–which I started in the greenhouse and moved into garden in mid-March, are thriving outside, especially those that I kept under a row cover on hoops. They’ve dodge all of the hazards the cruel world could throw at it so far, including some light freezes and tree-toppling wind storms.
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A groundhog, to be sure, could make short work of them all, and one recently showed up, happily grazing through my cilantro crop. I don’t think it’s the same one that slowly but surely ate its way through my garden last year. That groundhog (which I caught and released, though perhaps not far enough away–less than a mile from here) didn’t like cilantro. This groundhog clearly favored it over eight or ten other nearby choices. It’s going to be one of his last meals in my garden, if I can help it. I’m borrowing a trap and setting it ASAP.

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Sprouting Daikon Are Tabletop Garden Winners http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/04/08/sprouting-daikon-are-tabletop-garden-winners/ http://www.farmingphilly.com/2020/04/08/sprouting-daikon-are-tabletop-garden-winners/#respond Wed, 08 Apr 2020 05:55:12 +0000 http://www.farmingphilly.com/?p=867 In my first few weeks in coronavirus self-quarantine, I’ve discovered a crop that will become a regular ingredient in my home cooking from now on: sprouting daikon radish microgreens. I started growing sprouting daikon, as well as three other microgreen … Continue reading

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Dining room tabletop-grown crop of 12-day-old sprouting daikon radishes

In my first few weeks in coronavirus self-quarantine, I’ve discovered a crop that will become a regular ingredient in my home cooking from now on: sprouting daikon radish microgreens.

I started growing sprouting daikon, as well as three other microgreen varieties and one microgreen mix, in February in the idyllic confines of the Fairmount Park Horticultural Center greenhouse, where I landed a spot this year after a couple of years on a waiting list. All of them flourished in the greenhouse—which we have sadly been barred from reentering since mid-March due to the coronavirus. So I brought them all home, where they, with the jumpstart they got in the greenhouse, continued to thrive on my dining room tabletop, though it gets just several hours of direct sunlight a day.

I’ve had a small pot each of red acre cabbage and ruby red chard, densely planted for microgreen use, which held up well in the pots for weeks without getting rangy and woody. I had a flat of garnet red amaranth microgreens, which are visually striking but too wispy to be of much more than cosmetic use. The quick growing daikon—which I ordered from Moutain Valley Seed Company–have done best in this new environment. They are harvestable less than two weeks after planting, and hold for another week or two before they sprout a new set of leaves and start to get tough. I’ve even grown a crop entirely inside my living quarters in two weeks time.
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But it’s not their stellar growing properties that have been a revelation during my self-quarantine. It is their culinary versatility that makes them such a stand-out. They are great in salads—no surprise there—and also sandwiches and wraps, and spring rolls and sushi. You can toss a bunch in ramens and other soups, as well as in stir fries. They also brighten up pesto, are excellent in chimichurri, and best of all in my experiments so far, sprouting daikon radishes are superb in a green pumpkin seed mole.

I’ve posted three of my favorite sprouting daikon radish recipes over at my SeasonalChef.com website. Check them out here: sprouting daikon radish chimichurri, pesto, and mole sauce.

spring rolls with sprouting daikon radish and garnet red amaranth microgreens

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