Some of the cool weather plants are beginning to fade so it seems like a good time for some evaluations.
Freckles Lettuce from purchased transplants: 5 of 5 stars
Several weeks ago I purchased two four packs of freckles lettuce at the Valparaiso farmer’s market. It was a bit late for putting lettuce in and the plants were a bit past there prime but at $1 a four pack they only needed to produce about two salads to pay for themselves. The plants thrived and were a lovely addition to the container garden on my deck. They provided several solid weeks of salad greens; I clipped only the largest leaves each time I gathered a meal. After a few days of temperatures in the 90s and now settling into the 80s, the plants were rapidly fading. Yesterday I pulled four of the eight for a salad and today I pulled the last four. Overall assessment: These were a big success. Next year I want to start some seedlings of my own and direct seed more. Eight plants wasn’t quite enough except at the absolute peak. I think 12-16 would be better. I should plant this earlier than I did this year as we had an unusually cool spring this year. I planted them in wire baskets with coconut fiber liners and that seemed to work quite well.
Winterbor Kale from purchased transplants: 5 of 5 stars
I was a stranger to kale when I bought these transplants. I am a stranger no more. Over the last several weeks I have added young leaves to salads and scrambled eggs. My next plan is to add them to quesadillas and to dry some leaves to add to soups this winter. I also want to freeze some for later use; the Baklava Queen shows how to do that. The plants are reasonably attractive and so far are standing up to the warmer temperatures. They are showing no signs of insect damage or wilting even on the few 90 degree days we have had so far. I’ll be growing lots more kale and experimenting with varieties. Need to work out possible companion plants for kale to maximize space.
Here you can see the lettuce and kale as well as some parsley as they looked back on May 26.
Mixed Spinach direct seeded with seeds from Pinetree Garden Seeds (3 of 5 stars)
The spinach probably deserves a higher rating but I didn’t get around to thinning it enough which lowered the overall yield and has probably contributed to their rapid fade now that temperatures have warmed up. I didn’t care for all the varieties equally. A couple of types have started bolting. I’ll switch to trying single varieties for each planting and planting less densely in the future. The spinach could have been planted a bit earlier than I did this year. It is probably worth it to start the seeds inside and transplant them out rather than direct seed once I have room to do so. While not a complete success the spinach has been a welcome addition to salads and egg dishes.
Bok Choy from purchased transplants: 2.5 of 5 stars
Like the lettuce, I put these tranplants in much later than I should have. They were lovely when they were small and the temperatures were relatively cool I added a few leaves to various salads and scrambled eggs. Suddeny they were attacked by insects and the warm weather changed the character of the leaves in unappealing ways. I haven’t written them off yet but I am not impressed. I gave up and pulled these plants today. The leaves are too chewed up to mess with but I’ll try cooking the stems for dinner. I’ll try some version of Bak Choy again in the fall. It actually seems like it would be better in soups which taste better in cooler weather anyway. If falls goes well I’ll try it again in the spring.
Onions sets — a mixture of red, white, and yellow onions sets (I didn’t note the variety)
I have planted these sets at three different times. I don’t intend to grow mature onions but have been harvesting these for green onions in salads and cooked dishes. I am very pleased with white sets. The yellow ones have done okay and the red have been disappointing. I have these in a couple of different containers. One is a deep container mixed with carrots. I am not sure what I was thinking when I did that but pulling the green onions has been one way to thin the carrots. This is fairly large and deep container which is proving unnecessary for the onions. The other container is a triangle container that is meant to attach to the corner of deck railings. It is about 8 inches deep. It was worked wonderfully. You can see the container in the photo below.
I’ll be growing lots more green onions. In fact, I plan to keep planting a few sets at a time throughtout the growing season to see how far I can stretch the harvest of them out. One thing I will do different in the future, is plant fewer each time I plant and plant more often. This will allow me to grow more overall and keep the onion plants looking more tidy which is important given that my deck also serves as living space in the summer. I need to buy lots more sets than I purchased this spring. My next experiment for green onions will be pulling some of the more scraggly looking plants and drying them. I also want to think about what would make a good companion plant for green onions in containers as they aren’t the most attractive thing on my deck.
The spinach, lettuce, and bok choy will be replaced with Malabar and New Zealand spinach, more beans, and some flowers to feed the spirit if not the body. One other failure so far, not a single patty pan squash seed sprouted.
