Got my first few spears of asparagus last week. They were so good! Asparagus is a great garden plant. They are perennials so you only have to plant them once. They will usually last 15-25 years! This is a good time to plant asparagus, it's actually a bit on the late side, but you might get some good deals at garden centers and nurseries on their leftover crowns. You plant your crowns and don't harvest at all the first year. The plants are getting energy from the spears and you want them to spread and produce a lot. The second year harvest sparingly, let those plants grow. The third year you can start harvesting in earnest, and they should produce well for you, for years. You'll see most places sell "all male" or "mostly male" plants. The reason is that the male plant produces the spears. But if you get a female plant in there, leave it in, they produce the seed. If you're lucky they will produce more asparagus plants. They also look cool in the garden in summer, ferny and airy looking, they look nice in flower arrangements too.

Vegetable gardens need flowers and herbs as well. Both attract pollinators and beneficial insects into your garden. I'll talk more about those in a few days. I have lots of flowers in my gardens, one of my favorites is oriental lilies. They are beautiful and smell wonderful. I'm a big fan of fragrant flowers. Unfortunately, we have the red lily leaf beetle here now. It's an invasive species originally from Europe and Asia. It's favorite food are true lilies, these include all orientals, trumpet lilies and ornipets, which are crosses between orientals and trumpets. They will also attack asiatic lilies but not with the same vigor. They will not attack day lilies as they are not true lilies. The adult beetles over winter in the soil, emerge in spring and start breeding. While the adults feed on the lilies, it's the larve that do the most damage. They are voracious and can destroy the whole lily plant. In the above photo you can see the adult beetle on the left, and 2 photos of their eggs, always found on the under sides of the leaves. Sometimes the eggs appear red or orange but they can look darker, more towards a brown color. Always check the undersides of leaves for signs of eggs, not just on lilies. Most insects will lay their eggs on the under sides of leaves. If you see any, just use your finger to squish them, trust me, you want them dead! If you see the adults on your plants, pick them off and kill them. They have hard shells so don't just drop them on the ground and step on them, that might not do it. I squash them on the side of my raised beds. Neem oil might help kill them, but you have to be careful with Neem. If there are any bees around, don't use it! Neem oil is harmful to bees. The best insect control is usually picking them off your plants and killing them. With the exception of aphids, too many usually and those can be controlled with insecticidal soap.

I transplanted the last flat of seedlings I started today. Even though the weather here is less than spring like, everything i planted in the garden is coming up and looking good. While i'm waiting, there is something green that's ready to be harvested now; dandelion greens! Dandelion greens are very nutritious. They are a good source of fiber, vitamins A, C, E, and K. They also contain a good source of thiamin, vitamin B6, calcium, iron, potassium and magnesium, and... they're free! Dandelions are somewhat sharp tasting, I saute them with garlic and olive oil, and they're delicious. If you like arugula you might like dandelion greens raw in salads. You want to harvest dandelion greens before the plant flowers. You can also use the roots of dandelion as a diuretic. You can use the root either as an infusion, or make a tincture. However you should be very careful. While the dandelion greens are rich in potassium, the roots are not, and diuretics deplete the body of potassium. Only use the dandelion root after you consult a doctor. When you harvest dandelion greens, try to make sure you're not harvesting from a lawn or area where pesticides have been used. If you are unsure about it, don't harvest from that area.

I've mentioned before that it's a late spring here. But finally! The asparagus is coming up. These were volunteers from an asparagus bed in another area of the garden. Most places will sell you crowns of almost all male plants. Male plants are the ones that put up spears. The female plants however produce the seed and i got some that took in my bed. This is the time to plant asparagus. You buy crowns, and plant them now. Asparagus is a perennial plant, that can last up to 25 years. The first year you plant them, they probably won't produce spears, and if they do, you shouldn't harvest them. The next year, don't take many, the spears will help the plants get stronger and produce more. By the third year you can harvest most of the spears. It's worth the wait, and a great thing about asparagus plants is once their established you never have to plant them again. No seed starting, no seed planting.. you can fertilize your asparagus bed with a balanced fertilizer in early spring before the spears appear. Then again in June after they're done. Also keep the bed weeded so that the asparagus isn't competing with the weeds for nutrition from the soil. That should keep them happy and productive.

 It's a late spring. But every year, it's an early spring, or late spring, or late spring frost.. etc. What matters when you're planting your cold loving crops is soil temperature, not air temperature. These are my peas, I planted them back on March 22nd! It's april 18th and they're growing nicely, though i do wish they were taller. A soil thermometer comes in really handy when you're planting your spring crops. You take your soil temp and know you can plant peas, spinach, lettuce, etc.. and you've got a head start.

This is my March planted spinach, still tiny, but i got it in so early I'll be able to harvest that much sooner, and that is always a good thing!

These are the last seedlings I started for this years garden. I started these on April 1st. With the exception of the paper cups that are holding lettuce leaf basil that i started earlier with the grafting tomatoes. These are tomatoes, same varieties that i grafted. I wanted non-grafted tomato plants to compare with the grafted ones. These are sun sugar cherry tomatoes, san marzano paste tomatoes, prudens purple, brandywine and caspian pink. I also started two 6 packs of brussels sprouts. The grafted tomatoes stop growing when you graft them, until they heal. So i started those earlier. Tomatoes are fast growers, and you don't usually plant them here until late may. So, i find starting them at the beginning of april gives me nice strong seedlings that aren't too leggy. I could have started the brussels sprouts in the ground, as seed, as i did with the kale, collards, broccoli, but they do take a long time to mature, so i thought i'd give them a head start.

Here are some of my earliest started seedlings. Rosa Bianca eggplants, sweet basil and cayenne hot peppers. They're all looking good, healthy and large! Last year i used the small 6 packs to start them, and then transplanted them into the same (though sterilized) 6 packs. This year, i transplanted them into 8 oz paper cups. It gives the roots more room to grow. It's only April 10th and these guys are already kissing the grow lights! Considering the frost date here in New Haven CT is May 15th, i may have started these a bit early. Oh well! Things in the garden look good. Though we're having a late spring, my peas, spinach, lettuce, bok choy, kale and chard are up! Teeny, but up!

 There are 3 different types of grafting techniques you can use. The first is called cleft grafting. As you can see from the picture, you cut a V shaped cleft in the rootstock, and a point in the scion (the top bit, your heirloom or open pollinated variety), and then put them together using either grafting tape and/or grafting clips. This is not an easy grafting method. Remember the stems of both the root stock and the scion are just a few millimeters thick. It's very easy to mess up and not get a good graft with this method if you're not experienced at it. This method also requires a healing chamber, which while it's not rocket science is more work.

 The picture above shows side grafting. Side grafting has a higher success rate, but takes a little extra effort on the front end. You cut an upwards slice, 3/4 of the way through the rootstock stem, and a downwards slice 3/4 of the way through the scion (top part) stem. You then join the 2 together, using grafting tape or clips (they have to be fairly large clips, 2mm +) You are planting both seedlings together for a few days. You then wait for the graft to heal (about 5 days) and start cutting off the rootstock top, and the scion root, slowly, over 3 days. The benefits to this method is a higher degree of success, and no healing chamber required (though it's recommended) The down side is you have to mark which is the rootstock top, and the scion root, so you know which to cut. The worst result would be a rootstock top on a scion root. The exact opposite of what you're trying to achieve. I used this method this year. I tied thread around the rootstock top, and scion root that i wanted to cut off, so i could recognize the difference between the two. It's important, if you want to use this method to mark the 2 different parts. Once you seal the graft, the plants are wound around each other and it will be almost impossible to tell the top from the root unless you mark them well.

The most common form of grafting is called top grafting, or splice grafting. You cut a 45 degree angle in both stems and join them together. The benefits are, you don't have to worry about which is the rootstock and which is the scion (top part), the down side, not all grafts heal well, you need a healing chamber, and the success rate is lower than with side grafting.

Each grafting method has it's benefits and downsides. But if you take some extra time and a good amount of patience, you can graft your heirloom tomatoes to rootstocks that will give them higher productivity, higher disease resistance, and still get the best tasting tomatoes out there.

Organic Gardening: Not only time to plant seeds in the garden, but to...

Organic Gardening: Not only time to plant seeds in the garden, but to...: Not only time to plant seeds in the garden, but to take care of the garlic I planted last October. Garlic is a heavy feeder. I enriched th...

Organic Gardening: My first finished, side grafted tomato plant. When...

Organic Gardening: My first finished, side grafted tomato plant. When...: My first finished, side grafted tomato plant. When you side graft, you let the graft heal for about 5 days, then you slowly start cutting ...

My first finished, side grafted tomato plant. When you side graft, you let the graft heal for about 5 days, then you slowly start cutting back the rootstock top, and the scion (top part) root. You cut them back over 3 days. Today i cut the last parts off. The seedling looks good, we'll see if the graft holds. I grafted this tomato a few days earlier than I did most of them. While i was thinking of doing them all at the same time, I think it was a good thing I did this one first. It gave me a bit of practice, not only in the grafting, but in the cutting back. Now i feel a bit more confident in doing the rest of my grafted tomato plants, starting later this weekend. I'll post something soon on the 3 different types of grafting you can do for vegetable plants. Each has it's benefits and drawbacks. It's not easy, but it is interesting! And hopefully I'll be able to have higher producing heirloom tomatoes, which means I can plant less tomato plants and maximize my garden space.

Not only time to plant seeds in the garden, but to take care of the garlic I planted last October. Garlic is a heavy feeder. I enriched the soil before I planted the garlic, and now that it's spring and the garlic is growing, it's time to give it some fertilizer. You will always see 3 numbers on a bag or bottle of fertilizer. The three numbers stand for N (nitrogen) P (phosphorus) and K (potassium). Always in that order. Garlic likes a high nitrogen fertilizer. I like to use a fish fertilizer. It's liquid concentrate, so you use 2 tablespoons per gallon of water. Not all fish fertilizers are equal though. So always look on the bottle for a high first number. Tomatoes for example, like a high phosphorus low nitrogen fertilizer. So you'd look for a high middle number and a low first number on the bag, for tomatoes. I feed my garlic about once a month till June. In this bed I have 2 different types of garlic. Music garlic on the left, and german red garlic on the right. Both came through the winter very nicely, with every clove I planted coming up. I planted a total of over 300 cloves of garlic last October, in 3 different gardens.

I finished grafting all the tomatoes yesterday. You have to have patience (not one of my strong suits) and a gentle hand to do this. I couldn't have done it at all without a grafting knife. Grafting knives are very sharp, with a very thin blade. Remember you're slicing through a tomato seedling stem that's only a few millimeters thick. Without this special tool, it would have been impossible.  I'm doing side grafting, which entails cutting 3/4 of the way through both the rootstock stem and the scion (top part) stem and joining them together. Needless to say i said "ooops" a couple of times, which resulted in a rootstock being beheaded. I did get most of them grafted, and i'm hoping the graft holds and heals. After a few days, i'll start cutting back the rootstock top, and the scion root. I've marked both parts with yellow thread so I can tell which part comes off. The reason I'm doing side grafting instead of the typical top grafting (where the scion is attached to the rootstock) is there's a higher degree of success with this method, and I don't have to use a healing chamber, which both other methods require. I've also been planting out in the garden, seeds only at this time of year. Taking the mulch off my garlic and getting ready to feed it. I'll take my camera with me on wednesday and try to get some photos.