Garden flowers

A big patch of volunteer borage among
some of my tomatoes.

 Usually at this time of year I'm all about the garden. Frankly, the garden is what makes summer worthwhile. I hate being hot and sweaty all the time. I'm not one for the beach (though I lived at it as a kid) and the older I get, the less time I want to spend out in the blazing sun. I hate sunscreen and did I mention I'm not a fan of the heat? I'd much rather take cold and snowy or chilly and rainy any day of the week over days in the 90s.

A handful of marionberries.

My garden is pretty typical for this time of year. The peas are unhappy with the heat and I'll likely pull them soon. I dug up two rows of my potatoes (over 50 lbs) and replanted them. I have two more rows to go but that's a lot of work in the hot sun and I don't really have the space in storage right now for another 50+ lbs of them quite yet. However, we have been delightedly eating meals of peas, lettuce, eggs, and potatoes a lot recently. Baked potatoes topped with chili. Curry with garden peas and beans. A big salad with boiled eggs. Quiche. I might hate the heat, but it's a delicious time of year too.

Flowers

One of the things I focused on a bit more this year is flowers. For one thing, we got bees again and I wanted to ensure they'd have lots to feed on all summer. Not that it's too concerning around here--my neighborhood is old and most houses have well established gardens. Not many sterile lawns with boxwood borders here. But flowers are beautiful, and for our own enjoyment I love adding them in. We have nasturtiums, borage, zinnias, and California poppies all over the garden, much of it self-sown from previous years or brought in on the wind. As usual I planted a row of giant sunflowers, which will go to feed my chickens later. I also planted some buckwheat, which puts out many small white flowers, and as usual I let some carrots and onions from last year go to flower to attract beneficial insects. My garden hums all day long, the orange poppy blossoms nodding as the big bumblebees visit them.

Nasturtiums and a volunteer
foxglove peeking out.

In other areas we have calendula, sweet peas, daisies, cosmos, chamomile, and so much more. One of my favorites this year is a flower called jasmine-scented nicotiana. Beautiful white flowers that open in the evenings and let out a delightful jasmine smell, they're moth pollinated. I find that so fun. The poppies close up in the evening just about the time the nicotiana is starting to open, and I love the transition too.

I let my daughters pick out some seeds every year. My older daughter demanded red bell peppers and rainbow carrots, so I gave her an entire raised bed for herself. The first of the pepper flowers are coming out now so in about a month we should have snacks for her. I tucked some of the nicotiana into that bed for visual interest, and I've noticed a volunteer poppy in there recently as well.

My younger daughter wanted cherry tomatoes, lettuce, and cucumbers. So far the cucumbers have failed, and I'm not sure if it's because the dog was stomping in the containers we had them planted in, or if rats have been eating them. We'll see if this third planting works, now that I've moved them to a new location. But the flowers my younger kid wanted are "coral-lime" zinnias. Smaller than the red zinnias I put in my own garden, they have lovely yellow-green center petals and pink outer ones. I would not have chosen it myself but it's lovely, very different from any of the other flowers we have.

Coral-lime zinnia

I love adding to our flowers every year, seeing all the new things and how they change the look of the garden. I take note of what the pollinators, particularly the native pollinators, love the most and try to add more of those the following year. It seems to be working, since my garden is alive and active every day all summer. And with the addition of night flowering plants, perhaps all night too.

Chickens are the best thing I did for my backyard ecosystem

This is probably going to be controversial, because I know there are plenty of problems with backyard chickens. But honestly, having them has been amazing for my yard and garden. They just do so much work. For one thing, I was close to having an over-abundance of compost this year, which has never been an issue before. Usually I'm scrounging up whatever compost I can and it's never, ever enough. But last year when we put in the chicken run we evened out the area with wood chips, which would also help soak up the excess nitrogen in their poo and keep the smell down. It did so, admirably. We had 6-12 inches of wood chips over the entire area. Over the winter, all of it was broken down by the birds. When I checked in the spring, there was only the thinnest layer of sticks and other larger things left from the chips. Everything else had broken down into this gorgeous compost. My spouse made a sifter for me out of hardware cloth, some old boards, and a few metal handles he found, which took about an hour all together. Then I went through the run shoveling material, putting it through the sifter, dumping out the large pieces that were left. I was able to put a rather thick layer of compost over the entire garden, as well as most of my raised beds, and finally used it to help fill the grow bags and pots we have around. I could have grabbed more, except time and energy said no.

Ithacus and Sunny, eating
a dropped apple.

I've also been using the spent hay from their coop in the garden. I did an experiment over the winter with my garlic. One row of garlic got a thick layer of chicken hay, the other one did not. I genuinely wasn't sure what the outcome would be, since the hay would insulate from the harshest winter temps but would also insulate in the spring to prevent the soil from warming up as quickly. Too, I didn't bother to compost it. I let it sit out in the rain for a week or so, but it still smelled pretty...fresh...when I put it on the garden.* Perhaps the huge shot of nitrogen would backfire and burn the poor garlic?

It did not. BY FAR, the better garlic came from the row covered in hay. Many of the heads are as much as twice the size of those that came out of the uncovered row. Now, if I really wanted to be scientific about this I would run another trial in which I do regular hay vs. spent chicken hay, to see if the nitrogen had an effect. I don't care that much. It's enough that the chicken manure didn't harm the garlic.

Some of the garlic, hanging under the
porch to cure.

The last way the chickens have helped is simply by being their needy, greedy selves. They get some actual chicken food, grain, and I return their shells to them (baked and broken up). They have a large area to roam, lots of insects to scratch for and dine on. Kitchen scraps like stale bread and carrot peelings. But we also try to give them a fair amount of fresh greens when we can. They LOVE greens. Most of this comes in the form of weeds. When we walk the dog, frequently we have a tote bag that we'll fill with weeds we know to be edible to the birds. At this time of year they're also getting fallen fruit, plums and other large fruits that have fallen onto the sidewalk and which we know humans won't be eating. They've got a bounty of apples from our neighbor's tree, many of which fall right into the run so we have to do precisely zero work for it. But also, the chickens get very excited when I go into the garden. I have never cared much for weeding, but now it's kinda fun because it's not weeding that I'm doing, I'm just collecting salad for my chickens. That simple shift in mindset has turned it from a chore into something I enjoy. I love seeing the birds go crazy when I dump a big load of weeds into their run, scratching and making happy chicken noises. I know that the weeds and their nutrients will be returned to the garden next spring from the compost the chickens will make, and the cyclical nature of that tickles me.

Carrot flowers. The seed won't
be viable but they're worthwhile
for their beauty and insect
attracting qualities.

Because of all of this, my garden has been looking refreshed and super happy. The plants are large and the yields I'm getting are making me deliriously happy. Since I haven't changed anything else about my gardening this year, I must conclude that the chickens have been highly beneficial. Plus, they're fun creatures, and we enjoy having them around. The glut of eggs is almost becoming a side benefit to all the rest, the compost and the waste disposal services that they do.

Fall and winter garden time

It seems crazy now, in the middle of summer, to be planning the fall and winter garden, but it is time. Many plants that will survive the winter require a long time, and that also means plenty of time to get established before the temperature drops. This past spring I enjoyed a new crop, purple sprouting broccoli, that was so excellent I'm planting even more of it for next spring. But the time to start it is, in fact, now. Same for winter cabbages, beets, carrots, and overwintering leeks. 

A red zinnia (looks redder IRL)
with shelling peas I'm saving for
seed behind. I'll plant more peas
in the fall for a second crop.

However, many things can wait until August or even September, like greens and peas. They grow to maturity in 30-60 days and will appreciate having, at the very least, cooler nights. Greens are easy to cover for winter harvesting, so I'm planning at least two rows of them. Last year I only had one row and it wasn't enough. My garden is on the north side of my house, so in addition to all the other issues with growing fall and winter crops I have to be very careful about where I plant them, otherwise they'll be in full shade on the rare sunny days. About half my growing space becomes off-limits then. Since these are the areas I also tend to grow my longer-season heat loving crops, like tomatoes and peppers, it's a delicate balance between getting the most I can out of those while also getting my fall and winter garden established before it gets too cold. Thankfully, many greens can be grown as an understory to larger plants that I know will come out before the greens need all the space. And, of course, I can start them in my greenhouse for planting out later as well. But all of this does require planning, and that means I need to be keeping an eye on everything right now for opportunities to fill in gaps and when to do successions. It's work. Fun work, but work.

One of the keys to winter gardening, and this might sound obvious but is too often overlooked, is to get winter varieties of the plants you want. Having bolt-resistant spinach doesn't matter if the spinach isn't going to be getting the hot temperatures that make it bolt in the first place. But Winter Density lettuce lasted far longer into winter, completely uncovered, than the lettuce I grow in spring and summer. I've never had luck growing tatsoi in spring or summer but I got huge heads of it last fall. In fact many "spring" plants don't like the PNW specialty combo of a long, chilly, wet spring followed by sudden high heat and no rainfall for months. Go figure. They do better for me in autumn instead, which is why I'm planning a second sowing of peas in late August/early September. We got a fantastic crop of peas this spring but I'm greedy and having them into autumn will be delightful. We love to snack on snow peas, and shelling peas get added to many dishes in our house.

I wish Smell-O-Vision was a real
thing so that you could enjoy the
nicotiana!

For the last two years I've planted my garlic in the far back rows of my garden, where I put my tomatoes in. (No, I don't generally rotate my crops unless there's a real need for it, like disease. I don't find it to be an issue on such a small scale and in such a diverse polyculture.) This succession has been working marvelously. Garlic gets planted in autumn, around the first frost. By that time the tomatoes have been taken out and the space is available. I plant the garlic as one of my autumn chores when I'm clearing up and cleaning out the garden anyway, leaving spaces for tomatoes to be planted in the spring. The tomatoes get planted in late May to early June, by which time the garlic is quite large. But that's just fine, as the garlic also seems to have a sheltering effect on the tomatoes. I planted the poor tomatoes out a little early this year and was worried that they wouldn't enjoy the cold June, but the garlic protected them from the winds and they grew better than I expected. By July the garlic was sending out scapes, which I pulled off and we ate in various meals, and soon after they were ready to be pulled. This made space for the now quite large tomato plants, which have completely taken over. I suspect that, in addition to sheltering the tomatoes early in the season, the garlic also deters pests that might otherwise nibble the tenderer plants. This has been such a great way to make the best use of that garden space, and I'm looking out for other crops that will have similar beneficial traits for succession sowing.

Sweet peas by the greenhouse. I
accidentally dropped the seed early
in the spring and I guess it was
happy there.

One of my goals for a long time now has been to have food in the garden all year round. No, I'm not trying to be 100% self sufficient. But having some things in the garden in the midst of winter is as delightful as the large summer harvests. I admit, I'm still not great at this. Partly it's a problem of planning. I'm still learning when I need to do everything, and having it all is difficult. The plants or seeds, the time, and the empty garden space is tricky to match up. However, last year I had a lot of fresh food--cabbages and a variety of greens, until we left to visit family for Christmas. While we were gone the temperature dropped and since I hadn't covered anything, most of my leafy greens died. The kale lived, but the lack of light meant that it wasn't growing at all. My broccoli made it through until we had a deep freeze in January, with temps in the low double or even single digits. Since we were also dealing with furnace issues and no heat in the house that week, I had bigger problems than covering my plants and the broccoli that was so near ready ended up dying. (It was an adventuresome week.)

We had only the occasional kale leaf (something only I and my brother will voluntarily eat) until the purple sprouting broccoli started up in April. Still, I consider that a huge success. We had salads well into winter, and I feel like I learned a lot. I know what to do even better this year and I have the tools to do it. Perhaps I'll meet my goal, with harvestable food year-round, but if I don't then it's no big deal. I'll learn more and move on. It's good to have something to strive for.

Baby figs on a baby fig tree.

*I wasn't concerned about disease from uncomposted chicken manure in this instance. First, I know my chickens are healthy. Second, we wouldn't be eating the garlic for at least six months to come, plenty of time for any harmful bacteria to either be washed away by the rains or mitigated via other natural means. Too, garlic gets cured for a couple of weeks out of the soil before we put it in storage, so again that would reduce or eliminate any harmful organisms. Last, we remove the papery outside of garlic and discard it. I would be shocked if harmful bacteria and viruses managed to make it through all of that.