A Love Like That! Historic ice storm, Pics from the Garden and Tips for Early Spring Planting

A Love Like That! 

 

Even after all this time

the sun never says to the earth,

"You owe me."

Look what happens 

with a love like that,

it lights up the whole sky.

 

-Hafiz (a Persian poet of the 1300's)

Hello friends of the Sharing Gardens - Well, after only a minor set-back from an historic double ice-storm here in the Pacific NW, we're back on track with significant plantings of early spring crops. Here's news of the storm, pictures from the garden and links to relevant posts for this time of year. Enjoy! And happy gardening!

In mid-January, southwest Washington and northwest Oregon were hit with two back to back ice-storms and several days that didn't get above freezing, with night-time lows in the teens. Heavy, steady, freezing rain just became 2" of sheet-ice in our area. Thousands of trees and branches came down, severing power lines all over the region. We were very fortunate in that we personally only lost power long enough to prompt us to try out our new hand-operated coffee grinder (slow but perfectly adequate). We heat exclusively with wood so our house stayed nice and toasty. Thousands of households lost power for days and in some cases for over a week! 

We heat exclusively with wood and insulated the whole 1875 farmhouse when we did renovations in 2014 so we stayed plenty warm. We often cook on it too.

The wildlife really suffered. We went through over three gallons of birdseed in four days (three times our usual amount) and had to use ski poles to venture out to where we feed them so we didn't slip and fall. Many types of birds that we don't usually see at our feeders showed up including varied thrushes, quail, red winged black birds and more. 

People in our area who didn't have crampons or ski-poles made make-shift traction devices by wrapping small-link chains around their boots and attaching them with twist-ties! One friend had to venture across the frozen nightmare several times a day to feed wild mallards and geese that overwinter at her pond. Another friend tried to help the deer by spreading out apples for them but the deer were having a heck of a time moving across the ice. There was no crust to break through and gain traction...just solid ice all the way to the ground.

Birds during the ice-storm. At one point I counted over 80 before they took flight and I lost count.

This view includes a big apple tree in the middle, flanked by hazelnut trees and a lilac on the right. None of our fruit or nut trees were damaged in the storms.

Thank goodness for our greenhouses! We already had carrots started in two raised beds - which did fine through the cold. We also had also just planted two-dozen potatoes, 6" underground and under a thick cover of dry leaves. These appear to be doing fine. Their greens are just beginning to emerge from the leaves.

A beautiful sunrise following the worst of the ice storms; ground is still very icy. The greenhouse on the left is called the Sunship and the one on the right is the Ark. Chris had to knock ice off both greenhouses to be sure they didn't collapse under the weight.

Chris had already started several varieties of seeds in tofu-containers. We brought them in the house during the worst of the freeze.

We often start our seeds in tofu-containers with holes drilled in the bottom. The soil in our raised beds is perfect for just scooping into the containers for starting seeds (though sometimes we sift it for really small seeds).

Seedlings (foreground/left) we brought inside during the worst of the storms and until things were consistently warm enough to return them to the greenhouse.

All the seeds that we started before the storm have now been transplanted into bigger pots. They're suffering a little bit from lack of sunlight and are a little spindly. Even though temps rose, it's been a very overcast and drizzly/rainy winter (typical for an El Nino season). Starting seeds in January was pushing things a bit for our area but even if this first batch doesn't do so well, the later batches we've started should do fine. Starting seeds early is always a gamble but it's worth it if you have enough seeds to spare. Starting Seedlings Directly in Greenhouse Raised Beds 

Here are many of the seedlings that have been "potted up". Cabbages and kale: six per tofu container...Lettuces do really well in egg cartons (bottom/right). The roots grow right through the cartons and each seedling can just be torn off the dozen and planted directly in the soil, egg-carton and all!

Prior to the ice storm, we still managed to host a few volunteer sessions inside the greenhouses. Here, Donn and Chris are hand-digging in bags of compost (harvested from our greenhouse paths - LINK). Chris rebuilt all the GH raised beds this winter with 2x6 lumber (much of which was salvaged). The black, plastic bags on the other beds keep moisture in the soil, keep the soil temperature warmer (for microbial action) and prevent damage from UV rays. These bags will be re-used over and over again.

Suzanne, removing greens from carrots harvested from outside beds in January.

Chris planted a long bed of carrots and beets in an outside bed in Sept. It was a bit of a gamble, starting them so late but they did beautifully. We harvested 54 pounds of delicious, sweet carrots! So tender and yummy and full of minerals. We collect plastic containers with fitting lids from our community and re-purpose them for storing our harvests. (Here the carrots are in containers for salad greens).

The beets weren't quite as productive but we still got 17 pounds. They too were very sweet and tender.

With February upon us, garden tasks will shift to pruning, turning compost piles, repairs and maintenance on buildings and equipment, along with transplanting seedlings and other tasks. If you're local and thinking you'd like to join us for the coming season, here's info about our share-giver (volunteer) program: (LINK: Volunteering and Garden Location ).

Here are timely LINKS for your own early-spring planting:

Valentines Day - Time for Pea Planting! 

Sprouting potatoes? What to do.  

Can I Speed Up Potato Sprouting?  

Do I Need to Buy Seed Potatoes or Can I Just Grow Potatoes from the Grocery Store?  

Onions - Growing From Seed - deep pots  

Onions - Growing from Seed - Using heat mats and shallow pots  

And remember...If you plant it, they will come!

What we grew/Lessons Learned: Year in Review

The 2023 season was our best year yet in anticipating the needs of our garden helpers and the food charities we serve. In recent years, the food pantry that shares our parking lot (SBFP - LINK) has had the "high quality problem" (haha) of an amazing surplus of fruits and vegetables being donated from local gardeners in the peak of the harvest season (typically mid-August through early October). There have been weeks when it was hard to find room on the tables for our donations!

At the beginning of the 2023 season, we reviewed the patterns of previous years' donations and shifted our planting strategies accordingly. This post offers highlights of our learnings.

Our crops fall into two main groupings: the crops we grow abundantly enough to share with charities; and the crops we grow primarily for ourselves and the Gardens' supporters.

In 2023 we grew enough of the following summer crops to share with garden supporters and charities: lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers, peppers, beets, garlic, kale, chard, collard greens and celery.  

All of these are the kinds of produce that are not typically donated in large quantities to the pantries by other gardeners. They are easy to grow, requiring minimal maintenance once they are established. They are also easy to harvest in large quantities (unlike, for example green beans, which are very labor-intensive to harvest).  (Salad-left is all from the gardens!)

In addition to these crops, there are some summer crops that we are only able to grow enough for our inner circle of participants/supporters. These include (but are not limited to): carrots, broccoli, potatoes and figs.

The Sharing Gardens also grows winter storage crops that can be distributed to our supporters and  food charities* through the fall and early winter (when other local gardeners have stopped donating). These crops we donate to charities include: cabbage*, beets*, celery*, winter squash*.

We typically grow enough of the following winter storage crops, just for our inner circle: lettuce, carrots, potatoes, dried beans, and dried corn and sorghum (for cereal and baking).

Though overall, we were very pleased with the quantities we grew of all our crops, here are a few specific notes we'll keep in mind for 2024.

A cornucopia of Sharing Gardens veggies!

Carrots and beets: Chris did a fantastic job of growing carrots and beets in succession (staggering the plantings so we almost always had some to harvest). We had enough surplus beets to share with the charities but since our sharegivers all love homegrown carrots, it's hard to grow enough to share beyond our inner circle of helpers/supporters. We'll continue to grow as many as we can but it's unlikely we'll ever have a significant surplus. (carrots (left) Imperator variety: To grow this long, they need very deep and loose soil. We grow them in our GH raised beds)

Our beets did phenomenally well this year! This variety is called "Detroit" and typically they have rather small 'greens' (not so in our case). Also, common wisdom says that you must direct sow beets where you want them to grow as they're not supposed to transplant well. We have disproven this 'common wisdom' for two summers in a row. The above beets were sown very closely together in raised, greenhouse beds and, when the greens were about 2" - 3" tall, we very carefully dug them up (being careful not to damage their tap roots). We replanted them 5-6" apart, covered them with a floating row cover (Remay) and kept them moist while they overcame transplant shock and, as you can see, they did very well! (395 pounds over the course of the whole season!)

There's just no comparison between store-bought and home-grown carrots! Our soil is highly mineralized from compost and wood-ash which makes for sweet, crisp (but not 'woody') carrots. Our share-givers and other supporters eat the carrots we grow as fast as we can grow them!

Cabbage: We had two really good green cabbage crops this year. Though cabbages averaged about 8-10 pounds (left), we had one beauty that grew to 13.5 pounds (below)! (That's the biggest one Chris has ever grown!). This fertility all came without using store-bought fertilizer or animal-based amendments (blood/bone meal etc). LINK: Making Your Own "Veganic" Potting Soil in Your Greenhouse Paths - Using Worms   We're sure, had we grown more cabbage and had a good way to store it that food charities would have been happy to distribute more of it for as long as we could have provided it. (Total pounds: green cabbage: 210 pounds, Red cabbage: 108)

Here's the queen cabbage from this year's harvests. She weighed 13.5 pounds!

I know...hard to believe, right?

This cabbage, cut up, served six families at the food pantry! (Thanks Darlene, for these wonderful pics!)

Potatoes: We had several bumper crops of potatoes.  Our big breakthrough with the potatoes was to grow some of them in the raised beds of our greenhouses. We've had problems in the past with our seed potatoes (saved from our fall harvests) breaking dormancy in January or February, when it's too early to safely plant them outside. Last winter, we had some extra space in the Sunship GH and so we planted them there. The potatoes did beautifully and we had many abundant and delicious harvests through the summer and fall (including the potatoes grown outside the greenhouses, we harvested over 400 pounds!).

I think this is the largest potato we've ever grown. I forget how much it weighed (and can't find my notes) but, wow, it was a biggie!

Other staple, storage crops we grew this year included dried blue and yellow corn (Hooker's Blue and Golden Bantam) and Kassaby sorghum.  We dry and grind these grains and use them for cereal and baking. We are now growing enough to share significant amounts with our share-givers too.  (LINKS: Grow Your Own 'Blue Corn', Grow your own Sorghum for grain and flour, ).

We grew a lot more winter-storage crops this year. Here we have Hooker's Blue and Golden Bantam corn. Both can be eaten fresh (as sweet corn), or dried and ground (we use it mainly in hot cereal). To dry, we peel the husks back and lay the cobs in the sun in our greenhouse. As the husks dry, they pulls moisture from the kernels. (Grow Your Own 'Blue Corn' )

Beans: We harvested over 50 pounds of Scarlet and Giant Greek White 'runner' beans which grow on teepees and trellises, and about 20 pounds of kidney beans which are a bush bean. We are now growing enough dried beans for all of Chris' and my personal use (we're vegetarians so that's a lot of beans!) and, for the past two years we have also grown enough dried beans to share a modest amount with our inner circle as well. Grow Your Own Protein - Scarlet Runner Beans

It's comforting to know that, with the low-tech methods we've developed, and by dedicating more of our fields to growing them, we could probably provide a significant amount of these grain and bean staples for the Garden's main participants.

Scarlet runner beans in their shells after harvest. 

Scarlet runner and Giant Greek white runner beans ready for storage. They always remind me of jewels!. Grow Your Own Protein - Scarlet Runner Beans

In 2023 we tried a new variety of winter squash (Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato Squash) that has been very popular at pantries and among our garden helpers. It has a very creamy consistency and is mildly sweet.

This is a new variety of winter squash we grew this year: Thelma Sanders Sweet Potato squash. We only grew this variety as it's in the same family as other squash we love and we wanted to be sure the seed we saved is pure. (It is in the Pepo family which also includes Delicata, zucchini, crook neck and more...). We've saved enough seed to last us for many years and to share with other growers.

In this coming year, the only significant changes to growing the winter storage crops will be to increase the amount and variety of winter squash. 

Typically, we're able to store winter squash at least through till February. So far this year we've had enough to supply our supporters and one of the three food charities we serve (Of the 594 pounds we harvested, we have about 30 pounds still in storage). Next year, we'd love to grow enough winter squash to provide for the needs of our second food pantry and the soup kitchen we serve - at least through till February too. 

We are careful to isolate squash varieties that can cross so we can save pure seed. (Above: Sweet Meat squash and seeds being rinsed; to be dried and saved).

We also had a phenomenal year for fruit. Everyone did in our area. Our apple, pear, plum and fig trees, and grape vines all produced record amounts of fruit. Food pantries were inundated! Our trees were no exception and we had plenty of apples to share with our volunteers as well as enough for our use through the winter and to make apple/quince/pear sauce (49 quarts!). We also canned over 135 quarts of fruit and veggie juice and 36 quarts of stewed tomatoes.

These are some of the canned foods we prepared this past fall: veggie juice and canned, whole tomatoes.

Speaking of tomatoes...In previous years, we've grown way too many (over 200, one year - but averaging about 100 plants)! Since this is such a popular plant for home gardeners to grow, the food charities are typically inundated with donations starting in late summer. So this year we restrained ourselves to just 44 plants. This probably should have been enough except we had a condition called blossom end rot affect about a third of them, radically reducing their productivity and we barely had enough tomatoes to make our delicious canned veggie juice. In the coming year, we're going to try growing some outside our greenhouses (like we used to), try to be more consistent in watering the ones inside, and try pruning a little less radically and see if we can increase production again.

We also will grow fewer sweet peppers (and one or two more jalapenos). We grew 16 red and yellow sweet pepper plants this year and, though we were able to distribute all we grew, the final harvest (to beat the frost) was 90 pounds! That's a lot of peppers! In 2024, we'll grow more jalapenos since the one plant we had didn't seem to fill people's desire for spicy, hot peppers! The five poblano peppers we grew seemed to be just about right. (right: Pimento red  and Gatherer's Gold yellow sweet peppers)

It has been an excellent year overall!

We hope 2023 was  blessed for you and all the circles you touch (including the non-human ones!). May this coming year be one for all of us to embrace life-giving habits and generosity!  Llyn and Chris

Season's Turning...High Summer, to Winter Crops

This is a quickie-post with a few seasonally relevant links particularly for people who have their own gardens (Starting Fall and Winter Crops, and Saving Tomato Seeds). But, even if you’re not a gardener I've included a link to a post about Interdependence Day. Enjoy!

Our biggest greenhouse, the Sunship (30'x50') on July 3, 2023

Read an inspiring essay about celebrating Inter-dependence day. What if we celebrated Interdependence Day instead?

The Sharing Gardens are growing exponentially these days. We dug our first potatoes last week (an experiment at growing them in the raised beds of our greenhouse, which seems to have worked beautifully!); our corn and sorghum plants are knee-high; the cucumber, winter squash and bean plants are all flowering and all our amaranth and ornamental flowers are in the ground and growing strong.

Golden Amaranth (foreground) is a grain crop which we'll harvest, dry, winnow and grind to add to our hot-cereal mix. Scarlet Runner beans are climbing the tipi, behind. The sunflower (top, right) volunteered from seeds dropped last year! (LINK: Why growing sunflowers is great for bees... July 2, 2023

We had a whole bunch of sprouting potatoes in late winter, and it was still too cold and wet to plant them outside so we experimented with growing potatoes in our greenhouses. (LINK: Sprouting potatoes? What to do. ) The potatoes are the plants in the middle of the frame, with purple blossoms. Started in early March - as I recall...they were probably about12-14 weeks old in this picture. May 29, 2023

 

This pic, taken in mid-June, shows how the potato plants have begun to flatten with their own weight. The potatoes were rapidly growing below. June 14, 2023.

 

This pic was taken one month after the first and shows the potato plants beginning to die back which means that the potatoes are almost ready for harvest. We ended up with about 30 pounds from this row. June 28, 2023

Maddie, digging potatoes, July 3.

Here's a 20 pound harvest from a different row in the same greenhouse. This experiment was definitely a success. Every year, last season's potatoes begin sprouting before outside conditions permit us to plant. At the same time, we have plenty of space in our greenhouses. I'm guessing we'll do this again. (pic: June 29, 2023)

Saving Tomato Seeds: We picked our first ripe tomatoes on June 30. The variety was Stupice (left), an heirloom/open-pollinated tomato, known for its early ripening, delicious flavor, and long season (they are also usually the last variety we’re still harvesting in the fall!). We’ve saved seed from the first fruits that ripened, to encourage this trait in our seed collection. To read about how you can save seeds from your tomato plants, CLICK HERE. (Note: you can only save seeds from heirloom, or open-pollinated varieties. Seeds saved from hybrid, or F1 types while not breed “true” and next year’s plants will/may revert back to the characteristics of one of the parent-plants they were bred from). 

Stupice tomatoes grow in such abundance that we pack them in egg cartons for safe transport home with our volunteers. Here, Llyn getting help from Adri and Jazmyn a few years ago.

Striped German tomato: To learn how to save seeds from tomatoes, CLICK HERE.

Starting Fall and Winter crops: Though it may seem counter-intuitive, now is the time to start your fall and winter crops from seed (late June/early July- Zone 7B, Pacific NW - USA). They need 8-10 weeks to gain some size before day-length begins to seriously shorten around the fall equinox (I know…it’s sad to think that we’re already headed back to winter’s short days after having passed the summer solstice!).  

Now is the time to start any brassicas (cabbage, kale, collards etc.) and other ‘greens’ such as chard. If you have room in your garden, there’s still time to plant a second crop of cucumbers or summer squash; these will carry you through till first-frost and you'll have plenty of these summer delights when your neighbor’s patches have ceased to produce. 

We’re starting a second batch of basil too as our first batch is already trying to go to seed. We’re taking a chance in starting more lettuce too. It may be too hot for it but we’ll plant it in places where it’s partially shaded and hope for the best. Also, because we’ve been harvesting lots of beets and carrots, we have lots more room (and time enough) to start succession crops of both these excellent winter-storage crops.

Time to start fall and wintering-over crops! Here are cabbage plants getting moved to larger pots. For a full post on planting fall and winter crops, CLICK HERE.

...and finally, a few strategies to help your cool-loving crops through the hottest part of summer:

See those new, little lettuce plants to the left of the tomatoes and behind the flowering nasturtiums in the front?...

...Those same lettuce plants are covered with a polyester 'row cover' in this picture. You can find these row-covers from nursery-stores (or, if you have a free-cycle program in your neighborhood, see if you can find some without having to buy it new!). It lets some light through but provides a micro-climate that's less harsh for tender seedlings, and you can even water through it. We'll remove it once the plants are more established. This picture also shows the red, shade-cloth (above) that we have in our Ark greenhouse to provide diffused light and a slightly cooler space. In the path to the left of the lettuce are heavily applied grass-clippings which keep moisture in, stabilize the ground temperature, are comfortable to crawl on and will turn into next year's compost and potting mix. (LINK: How we grow...Veganic Community-based gardening)

 

Here's another use for row-cover (opaque, polyester cloth): after potting up seedlings into seed-trays, we put them in the shade, with the cloth so they won't be too shocked while their roots get established. (Lettuce seedlings: right, milkweed plants: left).

If you're local and want to learn more about planting fall and over-wintering crops, here's a free workshop: 

SAT, JULY 29 (10 am – 1 pm) PUBLIC SEED LIBRARY POP-UP VEGETABLE GARDEN PLANT CLINIC: Bring your vegetable gardening questions and get advice from a Benton County Master Gardener! Now’s the time to plant cool season crops for fall and over wintering: Come learn how to extend your vegetable garden harvest through the winter, look for seeds of interest on the free seed rack, and find vegetable garden educational materials and links you can access anytime.
At Corvallis-Benton County Public Library, 645 NW Monroe St., in the historic Belluschi Wing (home of the Public Seed Library)
Contact: CorvallisPublicSeedLibrary@gmail.com
Sponsors: Corvallis Sustainability Coalition Food Action Team, OSU Extension Service/Benton County Master Gardeners, and Corvallis-Benton County Public Library

Inter-dependence...another name for sharing...