Planting Leeks

Leek transplants and their wet life-line

So last year I experimented with planting my first leeks, rather unsuccessfully I might add (planted too deep, in too heavy clay, and way too late (june) in the year). Despite disappointing leeks that were still no larger than a over-size scallion in October, I'm trying again. That's where it gets interesting, I couldn't stop at just a few pots of young leek sprouts when I saw them at Home Depot last Sunday and I ended up buying 6 pots ($3 something each), enough to transplant two 25' rows with around 160 leeks. This year I planted them in a deep trench filled with very rich and well-amended topsoil (lots of composted manure and peat moss).

Trimming the roots back

After removing the peat pot and soil they come in, I cut the tangled mass of roots back to less than an inch, and separated each of the 20+ transplants. After wetting in the soil, I planted each leek by poking a 3" deep hole with a stick and then carefully inserting the plant. A staggered planting grid kept each transplant about 6" from it's neighbor. Books and websites say that trimming the roots and leaves back is the traditional European method, but optional. I found that both are necessary. The leeks with trimmed roots (before trimming they're 5-7" long) are much easier to insert into the planting holes, and the uncut long leaves get blown around in our spring winds much more after planting--inviting stress--than the transplants with leaves trimmed to 3-4" above the ground.

BDCKitchen greens at the Co-op

The tangy, nutty, crunchy, and sweet shades of green

Despite eating nearly a salad a day and sharing produce with my co-workers/family 'CSA,' the harvest of baby greens from the cold frame has been fast and furious. Yet, not fast enough. The mesclun (traditional tangy spring mix) and black-seeded simpson (lighter green loose-leafed lettuce) I began the harvest with has already grown back, ready for a second harvest. The romaine and bibb lettuce germinated thickly and I have a thick stand of baby romaine hearts that are sweet and crunchy, for now. Fearing it would all start to bolt or bitter (especially the heat in-tolerant Bibb) I finally approached the manager of Gallup's La Montanita Co-op, Alicia, about selling my lettuce in their store. Struggling with once-weekly shipments of quickly withering greens from Albuquerque, she was more than willing to start carrying my surplus in the store. Hopefully, with a local in-town source of baby greens they can keep some of the freshest salad ingredients on their shelves. I'll post about the rest of my early spring plantings soon, but green onions, baby spinach, and snow peas are soon to come.

2 of 3 sisters: Navajo corn and Hopi pintos

Navajo copper popcorn and Hopi pinto beans

On the 10th I planted my corn. This year it's Navajo copper popcorn instead of Hopi white flint corn (I just don't make my own tortillas as much as I had planned, and Marcy's air popper is effortless) and it's planted a week later than last year. I soaked and planted the little kernels with Hopi pinto beans I've saved from the past couple years harvest. I left the third sister at of the mix (squash), but I'll take the roll of that third sister: week killer. The other sisters provide shade/structure (corn) and nitrogen (beans), in addition to the wonderful edible seeds. The corn seeds I just got from Native Seeds/SEARCH and the beans the same, two (seed) generations ago.

Planting stick and seeds, ready for planting

After tilling up the garden bed, I quickly plant the seeds through the dry crumbly surface layers and into the deeper layers still moist from the winter snowpack. Navajo and Hopi varieties of corn are known for their ability to emerge from up to a foot of planting depth, though most literature I've read about these Hopi varieties details that they are usually planted in sandy soils. I've found the un-wetted soil fluffed up by a rototiller, despite having considerable clay content, must be similar to the untilled sandy fields of a traditional Hopi farmer. Seeds have little trouble emerging from deep within my canyons soils. I plant 2 corn kernels and one bean seed together into these deep moist layers of the soil with a traditional Navajo corn planting stick. With one hand and two strokes I create a depression, drop the seeds, and pack them into place. Crumbly soil falls into the hole, perfectly covering the seeds as I retract the staff. My planting stick was graciously given to me, along with a host of other garden tools, by the previous owner of my house, Ms. Begay. It's handle is worn to the shape of a strong hand, and it's point smoothed by earth-- both ends crafted perfectly by use long before I ever lay a hand on it.

A timeless stance

Nothing I know would plant these seeds better than this timeless piece of cottonwood.

UPDATE: The first sprouts emerged around May 7th.

Peach Blossoms

Loring Peach Blossom

I have 3 peach trees, and yet 5 varieties of peaches. The numerical discrepancy is because one of the trees has three different varieties grafted to a single root stock. The most vigorous of the bunch, the Loring peach, has already begun blooming. Check back to this post to see blossom dates of the other varieties and I'll post again if I actually get any peaches this year.

The arroyo orchard and gabion dam

Inspired by the Navajo's cultivation of peaches in Canyon de Chelley, I planted the three trees as bare-root stock several winters ago. I'm still looking forward to the first peaches, though this years bloom is a sure improvement over last year's single flower. Fearing the choking clay soils that seem to plague the 15 year old fruit trees in my backyard, I built a small gabion dam across the small but steep arroyo that flows through my backyard. After filling the dam with a sandy mix of soils, I armored the front with rocks. In 3 years, I've only seen surface water flowing down the canyon a handful of times, but the trees seem to love their sustainable home-- I water them only once a year in early June. Groundwater flow through the alluvial fan deposited by the arroyo takes care of the rest of the year.

Asparagus Season

The first shoot of 2010

The heck with the groundhog or tax-day, the real harbinger of spring has arrived! Asparagus shoots came up overnight in all three of my beds planted with the herbaceous perennial. I was surprised at how synchronized their emergence was since they're planted in quite different soils, microclimates, and their ages differ by 15 years.

Zuni waffle garden of asparagus and a few other perennial herbs

I planted a couple dozen 2nd year rootstock 3 winters ago (best Christmas present ever!), and so I'm looking forward to my first full harvest season, as you can only harvest in limited quantities the second year, and none the first. The other 2 beds are much smaller, but filled with persistent asparagus planted by previous owners, yet with regular feeding, they're still productive. Last fall, after clearing off the dried stalks of last year's full grown asparagus 'ferns', I fertilized the Zuni-inspired waffle garden with well composted chicken manure and leaf mold. Blowing sand from the adjacent 'beach' provides the perfect mix of rich and sandy soil amendment. I'll harvest the shoots before they're 7" tall and turning woody, for the next 5 weeks.

The Cabbage Patch Kids

The first harvest on it's way to the kitchen, and the harvesters!

UPDATE: In all we harvested 200+ lbs of cabbage, 50 lbs. of potatoes, and 100 yellow onions from the Chee Dodge garden this year. Not bad for a garden I left largely unattended that summer. The harvested vegetables played a role in over 10 school lunches for 410 students, with the highlight being a cabbage stew that used all the potatoes and onions, and helped secure a $40,000 grant for health initiatives at our school, some which will go to expanding and funding the garden well beyond the confines of my limited pocketbook. Some of the cleaned cabbage heads weighed well over 10 lbs. We also made the front page of the local newspaper, and prompted several PTA's at other schools to ask their principals why they didn't have a garden.

Don't tell the janitor!

The original post follows:

Ms. Witt's little gardeners getting the mulch just right

After spending nearly two weeks administering a grueling standardized test to 9 year olds, when it was done last Friday I spent the day with my second graders and the third grade as they planted the first 2010 crops in our school garden. I've grown squash, corn, and tomatoes randomly with classes in the past, but this year, with the addition of new and energetic staff at the school, the Chee Dodge Nanise Garden may finally reach towards it's potential. We have a fenced acre of land, easy access to well water, and a covered carport that will transform soon into the Outdoor Classroom. A PNM grant in 2005 paid for fencing the 1 acre garden, though the main fence isn't yet rabbit-proof.

They even made their own beds

The second graders had prepared their onions by soaking them overnight in water. They felt familiar and a little let down when the onions they were promised didn't quite live up to the similar and familiar Amaryllis bulb I revealed early this winter and now grows tall in classroom science lab. With some technical difficulty (scissors) they prepared their 4 x3 array to guide their planting of the red, yellow, and white onions.

204 'precisely' placed onion sets

The third graders planted 60+ Bonnie '50 pound' cabbage starts that are sent to all third graders in this school district. They arrived at the school unannounced and a couple weeks too early for planting (it dropped below 12 degrees on two nights since). I kept them at my house until the weather was right, and the testing over, before we planted them. We prepared the 25' beds (one for each of the 4 classes) by tilling the soil and forming a wind barrier on one side of the row. Then I tilled the bed again and the students excavated a long trench that we filled with a little manure and several bags of bagged top soil. The students planted their starts and then the drip hose was laid alongside the stems and covered with the sandy topsoil. We mulched it all with hay (soon to be covered with compost and finally topped with straw).

First blossom of the year: Apricot

Beautiful bees and blossoms

The apricot tree must somehow know that the weather forecast for the coming week shows night-time lows only in the lower thirties. Perfect for cool weather crops like brassicas (cabbage, etc) onions and peas, but too early for fruit to survive the inevitable spring freezes that are still to come this spring (into early June on average). Anyway, regardless if it bears fruit or not, it's an amazing show of white petals to watch, usually dancing with heavily laden bees. The latter so occupied and friendly that you can almost pet them. I have 3 varieties of apples, 5 varieties of peaches, and this apricot tree. I'll post the dates when each blossoms.

Botanical Interests seeds at Holiday Nursery

Botanical Interests Seeds

The awesome gang at Holiday Nursery have out-done themselves again! They've begun stocking relatively 'local' seeds from Botanical Interests seed company in Broomfield, Colorado. In addition to huge selection of vegetable, herb, and flower seeds in stock-- many varieties are organic, too-- custom orders (of sufficient size) can arrive in just 3 days. The seed packets have beautiful artwork on the cover, but the really neat thing is the packets are also printed on the inside with a host of detailed planting/growing/harvesting/preserving information for that specific variety. I've already had great germination results from variety of radishes, lettuce, spinach, and peas. They also have the rare yellow and striped varieties of beets!

The inside of the seed packet

The nursery has also received their spring shipments of seed potatoes (Yukon gold, red lasota, russets, and Pontiac reds); $1/pound and Cory recommends planting potatoes on May 1st. Red, yellow, and white onion sets are also available at $2.25/pound; plant those now. Please stop by and support our local nursery!

Peas, hydrated over-night and mixed with nitrogen-fixing innoculant

Hops

2010's Chinook Hops (3" tall)

On April 2nd the first of the Chinook hops emerged from their cold, soggy wine barrel home. Planted two years ago, the Chinook (think IPA brews) variety shares half of the barrel with a rhizome of the Centennial (think Pilsner) variety, and both have proved to be one of the most eager and vigorous perennials I've ever planted. I'll supplement the warming thermal mass of rocks ringing the barrel with a blanket on nights that drop below 25; I've also used christmas lights in years past to protect the early emerging shoots. When the chance of frigid cold nights passes, I'll cut all but 2 or 3 of the strongest vines (then about 1-2' long), and encourage them to start climbing the 10' string trellis. Throughout June and July I've seen the vines grow more than 2 inches a day! In more northern climates with longer summer day lengths, hops grow to more than 20' tall. In August they start to set flowers at the top of the vine, and I've usually harvested in early September.

The hop barrel's new growth

Originally, I bought five varieties of hops from Victor's Grape Arbor in Albuquerque (Victor orders hop rhizomes of various varieties for sale each April; $4 each) with the intention of experimenting with which variety would excel in our growing climate. Poorly planned transplants killed off 3 of the varieties the first year, and the Chinook variety has always been the strongest of the remaining two. However, I can't really attribute it's good health to being better adapted to this region, as the Chinook rhizome was also the biggest (and already sprouting) one I bought that year. It's first season it grew over 8' tall and produced a harvest of flowers that filled a gallon zip-lock bag.

2009's slightly disappointing vines

As the price of hops increases every year (there was a world-wide shortage in 2008), I've intended to plant a permanent row of hops (the constantly growing rhizomes much prefer to be in the ground, than trapped in a barrel), but another season seems to have come without me committing another portion of the garden to this vining perennial.

After the initial fermentation, hops stick to the top of the carboy

NM Game and Fish

McGaffey Lake Dam: Did this gentleman catch any fish?

April 1st marks the start of New Mexico's fishing and hunting seasons. Anglers need a new fishing license for the 2010-11 season starting today and hunting application are due in Santa Fe in less than a week!

A McGaffey Rainbow

Ice fishing on McGaffey Lake is definitely over, though this year it never really started--2' thick ice capped a 5' deep lake that seemed strangely devoid of fish. We were 'skunked' numerous times this winter fishing the shallow water, but I know fish were alive at the start of the winter because I caught what we call 'the last fish' through the ice in December. None followed. The dam has a 5 gallon/min leak spilling into the wet meadow below.(

Bill and I on McGaffey Lake in early '09

Regardless, NM offers abundant fishing opportunities ranging from stocked trout and musky in the lakes, picky bruisers on the San Juan, and wild wilderness trout in the Gila, Jemez, and numerous other mountain chains throughout the state; there not easy, but they are there, and very tasty. Around here, you'll need a Navajo Nation license to fish the lakes of the Chuska Mountains called Whiskey, Wheatfields, and Tsaile, all favorites of my student's families. I tend to fish elsewhere;) Buy your license locally at Wal*, California Supermarket on Hwy. 66 and Ford Canyon, or my favorite, get both NM and Navajo licenses at T&R Market's gas station on Hwy. 491 just north of town. Worms too, if that's your thing.

Mesquite-smoked Zuni Mountain Elk

Big game season starts with getting your permit application in by April 7th. Get it in, there are no over-the-counter deer or elk licenses in NM! You can now apply online, but that doesn't seem to improve the odds. Bill smoked the roast pictured above, and John Masci harvested the young cow elk at Rice Park this year on a private land-owners permit. The NMG&F website says 150,000 people apply for 50,000 permits; I've drawn a blank four years in a row. Sadly, according to a recent print article (sorry, no link) out-of-state applications have a much better chance of a successful draw than in-state applicants (they pay more, and 20% of the harvest is set aside for them). Turkey are pretty much the only 'big' game with an over-the-counter license and the spring season starts April 15.

Least Favorite Tool: the !@#$% tiller

The rented BCS 722 Harvester

So the curse of the blog has struck again! Last Friday, as I prepared for a busy weekend of preparing the raised beds for spring/summer plantings (they have to be tilled before the soil dries brick-hard) the tiller broke down again. This time is wasn't the motor, but the bearings of the fly wheel which engages the tines. C & L Saws was closed most of the weekend, and I'm still not sure if the parts are replaceable on such a cheap machine. The same day, I also noticed potentially terminal cracking around the hitch on my rusted 30 year-old trailer. Hauling manure and mixing it into the soil was looking like a nearly impossible proposition. My checkbook came to the rescue. Saturday morning I went down to Big Mike's and made arrangement to rent their BCS tiller for the weekend ($106 to rent; $3000+ to buy). Picking it up by 1 p.m., I had that awesome machine all weekend!

5 yards of fluffy horse manure

That just left the problem of manure. I'd exhausted my collection of previously collected and home-grown manure and needed quite a bit to blend into the largely un-amended native soil of my large backyard gardens. Checkbook again to the rescue. Holiday Nursery has a nice stockpile of well composted (with some green nuggets) horse manure for $20/cubic yard. I bought 5 yards worth (a dump truck holds 7 yards), and the guys at the nursery promptly delivered it to the driveway. With the standard in-town delivery fee of $30 and tax, I paid $140 for a healthy load of crap.

The tilled field before shaping into raised beds

The counter-spinning rear tine tiller was amazingly efficient, working in about a 1/6 of the time of my regular rototiller, I was able to save most of my energy for the task of hauling 48 full wheelbarrow loads of manure to various parts of the garden. Even with my best upper-body fitness of year from dozens of miles of cross-country skiing this winter, I was exhausted and in bed shortly after dark on both days. In the end, I had prepared the soil for 9, 25'x4' raised beds and felt the substantial hit to the checkbook was well worth it.

'Wild' (last years) green shallots saved from the tillers path

Transplanting Rhubarb

Blanched leaves eager for spring, sun, and some leg room

I'm not the biggest fan of sweet pies like rhubarb, but 2 years ago I couldn't help but pick up several packages of dormant (dry looking) rhubarb root-stock at the nursery. I had just finished re-reading a book about turn-of-the-century life in the mining camps above Telluride, CO (elev. 10,000+), Tomboy Bride by Harriet Fish Backus, and was intrigued that this leafy perennial (the leaves are poisonous!) was winter-hardy even in that extreme environment. Gallup's cold winters and spring nights should be no match for this tart vegetable! My mistake was trying to make these perennials portable. Contemplating a possible move in the future, I planted the roots in several large pots. They came vigorously to life that spring, but have always produced abundant but very skinny shoots and leaves. So, after two seasons of confinement, I decided this was the season to give them a permanent place in the garden. The small waffle garden in the backyard is where I've decided to plant most of my perennial herbs and vegetables, a perfect home for the rhubarb. The transplant went well with seemingly little damage to the burly roots, and the emerging leaves (blanched yellow from lack of light while the pots were stacked over the winter) are unfurling more each day.

The transplant stage is set

Favorite Garden Tools

My 3 favorite tools at work

As the number and size of my garden beds expand, and the labor pool--me and two dogs-- remains the same, I've really come to appreciate several of my trusty garden tools. All acquired locally, I don't think I could do without my wheelbarrow, pitchfork, and rototiller. The wheelbarrow has self-explanatory utility, a common 6 cubic-foot Tru-temper, was bought from Holiday Nursery at 1214 E. Aztec Ave. Spending a couple extra bucks to buy from a local dealer paid dividends when they gave me the contractor tip of installing a thick sheet of plywood below the pan to give it extra strength and longevity when hauling rocks. Keep in mind you'll have to buy 4 longer bolts to reach through the 3/4" plywood.

Partly composted leaf mold and straw

The pitchfork is the newest addition to my stable of hand-tools. It's turned out to be indispensable for handling compost and manures in the clumpy stages before in decomposes into soil-like particles best handled with a shovel. I picked mine up last fall at Big Mike's Sales, Rentals, and Service at 606 E. Hwy 66 in Gallup. It was made in-house out of square angle iron and has 3 tempered tines. You have to add your own handle padding, but the best part is it only cost $8!!!

The tiller without the removable wheels

I have a love/hate relationship with the rototiller. It's invaluable when breaking up clumps of soil and mixing in soil amendments, or chopping up compost and manure. However, the noisy, polluting, and temperamental 5 horsepower engine has had me pulling my hair out on more than one morning. Luckily, Gallup has a great small engine repair place, C & L Saws at the corner of Maloney and 2nd street. A basic tune-up runs $30 and an overhaul $110. Unfortunately, the cheap Briggs and Straton motor on my machine needs the latter just about every year. If you don't own one, you can save yourself the headaches and just rent a great self-propelled 8.5 HP rear-tine BCS tiller from Big Mikes for $107/day. Pick it up late on a Saturday and you can keep it until Monday morning for a single days rental fee.

Lettuce Cold-frame Update

Fr. to Bck: Mesculun mix, Black-seeded Simpson, and Green Onions

I just ate my first harvest of baby lettuce and green onions of the season. The cold-frame has worked well at keeping the freezing night-time lows (as low as 9 degrees) away from the plants. On nights below 20, I throw a fleece blanket over the box and turn on the light, on warmer nights, closing the lid suffices. Though, as the sun has crept further north in the sky each day, the abundant side windows of the frame, have turned the cold-frame into a hot-box some afternoons. Fearing bitter lettuce, I've added a shade-screen made from fine window mesh of another old screen door to the front. Reaching 4 feet tall, this screen mutes the sun just enough from 12-4 each afternoon, and keeps the soil surface temperature in a more temperate range. When the sun exposure makes the location of the cold-frame too warm for lettuce, I'll use the box for growing out seeds started in 6-packs for transplanting. I've also just seeded a large conventional bed of lettuce and spinach under the mid-day shade of a large elm tree.

Baby greens make any sandwich greener; condiments from the co-op

Home-grown farmer's brunch of eggs, onion, garlic and mushrooms with a salad on the side