Gardeners, think ahead - you can start more seeds indoors now to extend the harvest window.
Here at my farm, I always try to maximize the productivity of the gardens. This week my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, started seeds of Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and romanesco - all considered brassicas, or cole crops, a genus of plants in the mustard family whose members are informally referred to as cruciferous vegetables. The seeds will remain in the greenhouse until they’re mature enough to be moved outdoors to my vegetable garden, starting a whole new delicious crop of produce.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
Ryan takes out the seeds for those vegetables he wants to plant. Many of my seeds are from Johnny’s Selected Seeds in central Maine – a company I’ve been using for quite some time. Johnny’s Selected Seeds is a privately held, employee-owned organic seed producer that offers hundreds of varieties of organic vegetable, herb, flower, fruit and farm seeds that are known to be strong, dependable growers. Ryan looks at the various types, the growing needs, and hardiness of the plants and decides what will work best in the garden.
Ryan already prepared the containers for seeding. One can use smaller seed starting trays, but these pots will also work very nicely. Here, Using his finger, Ryan makes quarter-inch deep furrows in the middle of each pot. It’s best to use a pre-made seed starting mix that contains the proper amounts of vermiculite, perlite and peat moss. I use Miracle-Gro Seed Starting Potting Mix.
Ryan writes the vegetable and variety on wooden markers. This helps to keep track of the varieties as they grow.
Brassica seeds are very small, so be sure to take time dropping them into the soil-filled containers. It’s also a good idea to keep a record of when seeds are sown, when they germinate, and when they are transplanted. These observations will help organize a schedule for the following year.
Ryan carefully drops a few seeds into each pot.
These seeds will be selectively thinned in a few weeks. The process eliminates the weaker sprout and prevents overcrowding, so seedlings don’t have any competition for soil nutrients or room to mature.
Ryan covers the seeds and fills the holes back in with the soil mix.
Once all the pots of one type are filled, Ryan places a marker into the end pot, so it is clear what variety is growing in the row.
Ryan then transports the pots to an Urban Cultivator growing system, which has water, temperature and humidity all set up in a refrigerator like unit.
He covers the pots with plastic humidity domes until germination begins. These seedlings will remain in the greenhouse for another four to six weeks until they are ready to be separated and transplanted into the ground. We’ll be harvesting from the garden through the next season. Following one crop with another to maximize a garden’s yield is called succession planting.
Meanwhile, other brassicas are ready to pick. This is one of my cabbages. I grow Savoy, red, and green. Savoy cabbage leaves are ruffled and a bit yellowish in color. It has crinkled, emerald green leaves, and a mildly nutty and sweet flavor.
Red, or purple, cabbage is often used raw for salads and coleslaw.
Look how beautiful this crop of kale is. Kale or leaf cabbage is a group of vegetable cultivars within the plant species Brassica oleracea. They have purple or green leaves, in which the central leaves do not form a head.
I use bamboo stakes to support the vining tomato plants. The plants are growing so fast.
Jute twine is used to keep the vines up and the tomatoes off the ground.
I grow both hot and sweet peppers. If growing both, be careful when picking – keep the hot ones separated from the sweet, so there is no surprise in the kitchen.
Here are the colorful stalks of my rhubarb. The leaves are toxic because they contain high levels of oxalic acid, but the fleshy stalks of rhubarb can be cooked and used to make a variety of delicious pies, tarts, cakes, cobblers, crisps, and pavlovas.
And what a difference a few weeks make – my onions have really grown and will be ready to harvest soon. I plant a lot of white, yellow and red onions. Onions are harvested later in the summer when the underground bulbs are mature and flavorful.
Globe artichokes, Cynara scolymus, are popular in both Europe and the United States. Artichokes are actually the flower buds, which emerge from the center of the plants. I have so many!
Buds are generally harvested once they reach full size, just before the bracts begin to spread open. I like to harvest them when they are still small.
The garlic will also be harvested soon. We’ve had lots of rain recently, so we’re waiting for some hot dry weather. The real indicator is the plant itself – when the bottom leaves have turned brown, and the top leaves are still green.
Early July brings long days and steady warmth, helping everything to mature so well. I hope all your gardens are looking great this season!
It's looking like a strong year for fruits here at my farm - the trees and bushes are full!
Fresh fruit is one of nature's most delicious products. This season, we've already picked many raspberries, strawberries, and currants, but all the others - the blueberries, peaches, apricots, plums, apples, and pears are developing so nicely. I have an orchard full of more than 200 different fruit trees. I also have fruits growing on espaliers and in tree groves - those I've established, and those that are original to the farm. It's always exciting to see how they grow and then eat them fresh after picking.
Here's what's growing now. Enjoy these photos.
Walking into my orchard these days, one cannot miss all the beautiful peaches on my trees. Every one is filled with developing fruit.
This orchard surrounds three sides of my pool. Many of the trees here were bare-root cuttings I nurtured in pots before planting. Now, they are much taller and so lush. When choosing to grow fruit stock, it is important to select those that are best for your area’s climate and soil.
Here are more peaches. Peaches get their pinkish hue from anthocyanins, a class of water‑soluble pigments. When the peaches ripen, the chlorophyll, which gives them the green color, breaks down showing the anthocyanins. The amount and type of anthocyanins present determine how deep and vivid the pink or red blush will be.
Look how beautiful this fruit is. Some of the peach varieties include ‘Garnet Beauty’, ‘Lars Anderson’, ‘Polly’, ‘Red Haven’, and ‘Reliance’.
They won’t be ready for some weeks, but they’re all thriving. Peaches love an area where they can soak up the sunshine throughout the whole day. Everyone at the farm waits eagerly for peach harvest time.
I also planted many types of Asian pear, Pyrus pyrifolia, which is native to East Asia. These trees include Hosui, Niitaka, Shinko, and Shinseiko. Asian pears have a high water content and a crisp, grainy texture, which is very different from the European varieties.
Some of the other pears in the orchard are ‘Bosc,’ ‘Bartlett’, ‘Columbia’, ‘D’Amalis’, ‘Ginnybrook’, ‘McLaughlin’, ‘Nova’, ‘Patten’, ‘Seckel’, ‘Stacyville’, and ‘Washington State’.
And don’t forget the apples – I have an entire section of the orchard dedicated to delicious, sweet apples. When selecting a place to plant an apple tree, choose a north- or east-facing slope. These orchard apple trees include: ‘Baldwin’, ‘Black Oxford’, ‘Cortland’, ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’, ‘Esopus Spitzenburg’, ‘Fuji’, ‘Golden Russet’, ‘Grimes Golden’, ‘Honeycrisp’, ‘Liberty’, ‘Redfield’, ‘Roxbury Russet’ ‘Windham Russet’, and more.
But my apples are not just in the orchard. I grow hundreds of apple trees – some that were here when I acquired the property and others I planted soon after moving here.
Many ask what I do with all the apples. It’s become a family tradition to have my granddaughter, Jude, come up with friends for a weekend in autumn to manually press as many apples as possible, making quarts and quarts of cider. It’s so delicious.
This is a plum. My plum varieties include ‘Green Gage’, ‘Mount Royal’, ‘NY9’, and ‘Stanley’. I also grow various plum hybrids, such as ‘Black Ice’, ‘Grenville’, ‘Kaga’, ‘Pipestone’, ‘Toka’, and ‘Waneta’.
I also grow sour cherries in the orchard and elsewhere, and I’ve seen lots of them growing beautifully; however, the squirrels like them too, and often get them first.
Across the carriage road on one side is my very productive blueberry patch. I always have many, many blueberries. These will be ready to pick very soon.
Plump, juicy, and sweet, with vibrant colors from red to the deepest purple-black. I love to use blueberries for jams, jellies, and pies, but they’re also wonderful with cereal, in pancakes and cobblers, and of course, in handfuls on their own. I grow ‘Bluegold’, ‘Chandler’, ‘Darrow’, ‘Jersey’, ‘Patriot,’ and others.
Quince is a fall fruit that grows like apples and pears, but with an unusually irregular shape and often gray fuzz. These fruits turn a golden yellow when ready to pick in fall.
Just along the carriage road surrounding my back hayfield, I have a stand of Kousa dogwood trees that produce an abundance of fruit. The soft, custard-like pulp inside the fruit is edible and loved by some of my outdoor grounds crew.
There are more apples filling the trees in another part of the farm. This tree was here when I acquired the property.
Outside my stable in front of the peafowl and goose pens, I have this espalier of pear trees. Espalier refers to an ancient technique, resulting in trees that grow flat, either against a wall, or along a wire-strung framework. Many kinds of trees respond beautifully to the espalier treatment, but fruit trees, like apple and pear, were some of the earliest examples. And, because necessary sunlight reaches every piece of fruit that these trees bear, espalier pruning remains standard procedure at commercial orchards in France. I planted six ‘Shinseiki’ and four ‘Nijisseiki’ pear trees.
In my berry patch behind the main greenhouse, I have lots of raspberry bushes. We start picking the black and red raspberries in late June and continue picking until they’re gone. Summer-bearing raspberry bushes produce one crop each season that lasts about one month.
These must be picked and handled very carefully as they are very delicate. They should also be checked for insects – they love them.
Not far are the currants, in translucent white, dark purple, and bright ruby red.
And just look at some of my European blackberries. I’ll enjoy so many this season. No plants give sweeter returns than fruiting trees and shrubs. Aside from all the vegetables I grow, I’m so pleased with the many fruits here at my farm.
I have always loved succulents. With their fleshy leaves and extraordinary forms, succulents are easy to maintain and make excellent container plants - I have quite a few of these popular specimens in my collection.
During a heavy rainstorm that lasted all of yesterday, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, planted a selection of succulents in two of my faux bois planter boxes. These will be displayed outside my Winter House where they will flourish under the bright summer light.
Enjoy these photos.
Not long ago, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, brought these plants back from Maine. Succulents are plants that have thickened, fleshy leaves, stems, or roots designed to retain water, enabling them to thrive in environments with limited rainfall or high temperatures.
The plan was to pot them up in two of these faux boix planters.
They’re very charming – each with a squirrel positioned on one end.
Each container has two drainage holes. A flat stone is placed over each hole to help with drainage and to prevent any soil from falling out.
Here are the two holes covered at the bottom of the planter. Clay shards left over from broken pots can also be used – so be sure not to throw the pieces away.
Ryan fills the planters with the appropriate medium. Because succulents don’t like wet roots, it is important to use a soil mixture that will drain well.
I use Miracle-Gro Indoor Potting Mix for Cactus & Succulent. This soil mix features a fast-draining formula, specifically blended to promote successful growth for cacti, potted palms, citrus, and other succulents.
Ryan adds the food – a very important part of gardening. Each planter gets a sprinkling of Osmocote – small time released plant food particles known as prills that are filled with nutrients.
These prills coat a core of nutrients including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The resin-coating is made from linseed oil and as the plant’s root system takes-up nutrition from the soil, it also takes up the needed nutrients from the Osmocote.
… and then he mixes it thoroughly in the soil with his Hori-Hori gardening knife.
Ryan lightly packs in the soil and makes sure there is enough. The container should be filled to just under its lip, so soil does not fall out when watered.
If you like growing plants, but don’t really have a lot of time to care for them, I encourage you to consider growing succulents. With their fleshy leaves and interesting shapes, succulents are easy to maintain and make excellent container specimens.
Succulent comes from the Latin word “sucus,” which means juice or sap. It’s also a nod to the nourishing leaves.
Ryan carefully plants each succulent in the box taking into consideration each one’s size – he uses taller specimens in the back and shorter ones in front.
These plants can be planted closely together, so don’t worry if some of them touch each other.
Ryan also selects the plants creatively, so there is a varied use of color and texture in each container. Here he is using a widger to remove small plants.
The widger is made for Johnny’s Selected Seeds. It’s a very handy multipurpose tool. It has a convex stainless steel blade that delicately separates tiny plants and helps to lift up the root balls.
Shades of green are a given for succulents, but one can also find succulents that are blue, purple, pink, orange, and even red!
Ryan makes sure all empty spaces are filled. It’s nearly complete – all these plants will do so well in this planter box.
Ryan does the same for the second planter. Succulents grow in so many different and interesting formations. I often bring succulents into my home when I entertain – guests love seeing and learning about the different varieties. In this trough, many are sedums. There are many, different varieties and species of sedum, also called “stonecrop.” Depending on their growth habit, sedums can be categorized as both low-growing and upright.
After Ryan is done, the filled planters get a good watering.
These troughs are now ready for display outside my Winter House.
Succulents thrive in bright light and should do excellently there.
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