Ebinla's Blog

2006-09-29T08:44:00.000-05:00

Celery Root – Who knew? (well, you probably did, but I didn’t)

I love the show ‘Lidia’s Kitchen’ and have it set to record on DVR. Last week it recorded an episode that included a Celery Root dish. Now, I may be behind the times, but I had no idea that one could eat the root of a celery plant. Since I can grow celery in my sun-challenged vegetable garden, you can imagine how excited I am about this new development!

However, it turns out that Lidia is mistaken (shocking, I know…). The stalks of the celery root are not celery. The good news is, celeriac prefers the same growing conditions as celery.

According to an article in the The San Francisco Chronicle the natural habitat of celery root, also known as celeriac, is the cool and damp marshes of Europe. It requires consistent moisture, lots of nourishment and…….here’s the best part…..only four hours of sunlight. This sounds like a vegetable after my own heart.

Here’s a link to Johnny Seeds celeriac offerings which is now on my list of things to purchase for the 2007 growing season.

Here are some intriguing recipes I’ve found for celery root:

FENNEL AND CELERY ROOT CASSEROLE
BAKED CELERY ROOT WITH PARMESAN

BEET AND CELERY ROOT SOUP

Thanks,

Ebinla

2006-09-19T08:35:00.000-05:00

Hoping an Indian Summer Will Allow Me to Harvest a Fall Crop

Garden Status: September 19, 2006

We’re having sort of an Indian Summer around here. We’ve had nothing but sunshine and warm temps in the mid-70’s (which is warm for Maine!). My garden is absolutely thriving!

Barrel 1 – I uprooted the parsley to give the leeks and fennel more space and sunshine. There isn’t much progress and at this point I don’t think the plants will produce veggies before the frost kills them off : (

Barrel 2 – The peas are going so crazy I had to stick some last minute, desperation supports into their barrel. There must be about a dozen or so peas that are ready for the picking.

Barrel 3 – The cabbage and radicchio are really taking off. I couldn’t resist picking one of my carrots just to see how they are progressing. The root is plumping up nicely, and there’s about an inch worth of orange color that has developed. According to my ‘days to maturity’ calculation, they should be ready for harvesting. Hopefully with all the nice weather, I’ll be eating carrots within the next week. I just hope they mature and are ready for harvest before I pick them all out of sheer curiosity!

Barrel 4 – I think I have an infestation in my broccoli. There a little ‘bites’ and bumps all over the underside of some of the leaves. My theory is that something (probably those little green worms) has laid eggs in the leaves. I think I even saw a few little worm hatchlings. I had five broccoli plants, which is probably a little over board for a household of two….so, I just uprooted the seedling that was severely infested and kicked it to the curb before all the little green bumps had a chance to hatch. Then, I sprayed the rest of the plants with my handy dandy dish soap.

Barrel 5 – Holy Zucchini Batman! I have had a squash explosion. At the beginning of last week, I had thought I would only get about 2 zucchinis out of my three plants. This week there must be half a dozen female zucchini buds, and the plants have doubled in size!

Barrel 6 – Barrel six and barrel 3 are planted in the same configuration, but with different varieties. This barrel has pretty much the same progress.

Thanks!
Ebinla

2006-08-07T09:58:00.000-05:00

Garden Status: August 7, 2006

The Brocolli, the Mokum carrots and all radicchio and cabbage are getting first true leaves.

The Fennel has sprouted, but, one set of seeds did not germinate. I’ll have to replant.

[Edited 9/20- I never replanted the fennel because I'm lazy.]

2006-07-29T09:57:00.000-05:00

How My Garden is Growing

Garden Status: July 29, 2006

Radicchio and Cabbage have germinated

1 or 2 Carrots have come up

No sign of fennel

Leeks are coming up

Peas are about 2 inches tall.

Thanks,
Ebinla

2006-07-24T07:43:00.000-05:00

Garden Status: July 24

Barrel 1 – I left the parsley as is, it seems to be doing well. I ripped out the basil – which hadn’t even grown to one inch, and planted seeds for three fennel in the center. I then tucked King Richard leek seeds into the outer spaces between the parsley. I know it is too late in the season for the leeks to grow to full size, but I’m hoping that I can get some succulent baby leeks for my efforts.

Barrel 2 – The peas are coming up nicely!

Barrel 3 – I ripped out the remaining tomatoes and planted seeds for one head of cabbage – Super Red 80. In a circle around the cabbage, I planted four radicchio - Chioga Red Preco, and then quarter circles of mini-carrots - Mokum. So, the barrel planting looks like this:

Barrel 4 – Barrel 4 is planted with 5 broccoli seedlings that have germinated and been subjected to a preliminary thinning. I’m starting to think that 5 broccoli plants might be too much. I may get it down to just one broccoli and plant something else around the edge.

Barrel 5 – Barrel five has three zucchini plants that have grown a little bit and are in flower. I will leave them as is. I think they will produce some vegetables.

Barrel 6 – I planted barrel 6 with the same configuration and vegetables as Barrel 3, but with different varieties. So, I have a little trial garden going on! For Cabbage, I planted Arrowhead , for radicchio - Tauro, and for carrots - Parmex.

2006-07-20T09:01:00.000-05:00

Future Affairs:"The Grand Scheme"

...wherein ebinla transforms her pathetic 'container garden' into a luxurious vegetable oasis consisting primarily of raised beds.....

Drumroll please......

I don't know how clearly this picture is conveying my vision. As you can (hopefully) see, this garden design calls for two more half-barrels than I currently have for a total of eight. At the base of each wine barrel there will be a small square border (perhaps made out of 2x4s). This will create little corners at the foot of each barrel where I will tuck decorative and/or useful plants.

For poking around the bases of the wine barrels – zinnia, marigolds, chamomile, lobelia, foxglove, nasturtiums, chives

These barrels form a square around a raised bed that is set in a diamond shape. This be will be quite tall, around three feet. It will be planted with asparagus. On the other side of the half-barrel square will be rectangular raised beds - about two feet tall.

As you can see from the picture, the front-most raised bed is split in two with what looks in the drawing to be a puce rainbow joining them. This is actually going to be a pergola. Imagine that, my very own pergola!

I actually have a pergola in mind. It is on display at the local antique/vintage/junk store. It is pretty ratty and frail looking - and I think it just what I'm looking for.

DH is staging a protest. He, on principle, tends to object to ratty, junky looking 'used' things. He would prefer a brand new, cedar, pressure treated pergola. I think that such a high falutin' object would make the rest of my garden look sad and very unpressure treated. Whereas, a ratty, junky pergola would make the rest of the garden look pratically regal in comparison!

It's like having ugly bridesmaids.

2006-07-19T08:47:00.000-05:00

Garden Status: July 19, 2006

A short post - I have ripped out all my sun loving vegetables (tomatoes, eggplant and melon) and I've planted Peas in Barrel 2 and Broccoli in Barrel 4.

Ebinla

2006-07-15T08:55:00.000-05:00

Current Affairs

Here is my current garden configuration. Please bear in mind that this vegetable garden is strictly temporary and pretty sad and pathetic. It should be pittied, not scorned.

Each of these circles is a half wine barrel ( I will provide real life pictures one day...). I have uniquely identified each barrel. No really, I have. If I ever post the real life pictures you will see that the barrels have a number painted on them. This is partly because "The Grand Scheme" requires that I move them around, and for crop rotation purposes I'd like to keep track of what has been grown and where. But partly it is because I am really, truely, that anal retentive.

2006-07-12T08:52:00.000-05:00

Rules of Thumb for Growing Vegetables in Part-Sun

There are a few guidelines for selecting vegetables if you do not have a sunny spot. Generally, anything less that six hours is considered part-sun.

Don't select plants from the nightshade family. This includes: tomatoes, pepper and eggplant.

Generally, a vegetable grown for its fruit will not work in anything but full sun. There seem to be a few exceptions to this rule that we will consider later.

Vegetables that are grown for their leaves, stalks or roots will usually grow in some shade. They do better in full-sun, but will still produce with less than six hours. This includes: broccoli , cabbage, brussels sprouts (veg in the brassica family), kale, spinach, fennel, carrots, beets , radishes and a whole bunch more.

These leaf, stalk and root vegetables also donÂt need to ripen like a fruit. So, while you must wait for a tomato or pepper to ripen before you eat it, a carrot or onion or cabbage can be eaten and is delicious while it is still a ÂbabyÂ.

There are some ÂfruitingÂ vegetables that will grow in part-sun. These include beans, peas and squashes.

The additional advantage for me in growing leaf, stalk and root veggies is that they tend to like the colder spring and fall weather. I will skip growing the traditional summer veggies (tomatoes, melons, eggplant, corn) and concentrate on one early crop, and a second planting for a fall harvest.

About My Garden

2006-07-10T09:21:00.000-05:00

I live in coastal, Downeast Maine. We have a short growing season: last frost is in the middle of May and first frost is the beginning of October. This gives us about 100 reliably frost free days.

I’ve recently moved to a new home. When we bought the house in the middle of winter, I was excited to own one whole luxurious acre on which to garden. I picked the spot in the yard that I thought would receive the most light, but, not knowing exactly how much sun my veggie garden would receive, I decided to plant everything in half-wine barrels. If it didn’t work out, I could ‘move’ my garden to a more suitable spot.

In the spring, as the leaves grew on the trees, it became pretty obvious that my vegetables would not be receiving full sunlight. There isn’t a single spot on my luxurious (and heavily wooded) acre that receives more than four hours of sun.

At first I was desolate. In two months in the ground, my tomatoes did literally no growing. Within the same two months, my eggplant transplants still didn’t have real leaves, and the melon seedlings had only one set of true leaves. Every time I saw tomatoes or corn stretching towards the sky in some neighboring kitchen garden, I would feel a deep sense of shame and envy. Home grown vegetables were mocking me at every turn.

One day, I realized life had given me gardening lemons, and I needed to make lemonade. During a stroll through the yard, I optimistically realized that the parsley was doing quite well. Knowing that parsley likes some shade, this made sense. But even curious-er, the zucchini had grown, and while not actually prospering, had a substantial number of flowers.

I started to research which types of vegetables might grow in the shade.

Considering I do not have full-sun, I am quite lucky in that my little garden gets exactly four hours of sun a day, from 10:00 – 2:00. So, although it doesn’t receive full-sun, it does get the best sun of the day.

So, here is the chronicle of my adventures of gardening in the shade, or part-shade. It’s a radical idea, but I think it just might work.

Enjoy!
Ebinla

Ebinla's Blog

FENNEL AND CELERY ROOT CASSEROLEBAKED CELERY ROOT WITH PARMESAN

BEET AND CELERY ROOT SOUP

About My Garden

FENNEL AND CELERY ROOT CASSEROLE
BAKED CELERY ROOT WITH PARMESAN