Spring Garden Visits

Before the end of the school year, I appreciated some small gardens at local schools and neighbors. I hope you enjoy looking at them as much as I did.

The first garden is located in the middle of the school grounds. The halls of the school go around it on 3 sides. As staff and students walk around the halls, they can see the garden in the middle. For me, walking by the garden is quite a rejuvenating experience.

Flowering Fava Beans

Onion Flower

Borage

Borage and Nasturtium

Orange Nasturtiums

Sprouting Cauliflower with Aphids

More sprouting Cauliflower

Interesting shape of the Cauliflower as it blossoms

One last look

A bed of onions.

Peas

Black eyed Susan?

Favas with seed pods.

A close look at the fava beans

This bean is sideways - or is it a sideways picture?

Fava beans are prolific!

Another look at the prolific fava beans

One last last fava picture

These strawberry plants are doing quite well.

A closer look at some mouth-watering strawberries

I'm resisting the urge to pick these

One last look at the strawberry plants

The second garden is located on the west side of a school, near the younger grades. There are plenty of interesting things to see here as well.

An assortment of winter vegetables

Flowering Kale

Swiss Chard anyone?

The sign says it all.

Potato Plants

Flowering Carrots

Another bed of assorted veggies.

Some sweet pea flowers

Some radishes

Some kind of celery plant sprouting up from the roots.

Another celery plant sprouting up from the walkway

Celery again.

Celery and assorted veggies.

Swiss Chard and other veggies.

Cale and flowering parsley or fennel

Chard

Now the strawberry patch is being infested by the celery.

Some strawberries are growing.

Ripening strawberries

One last look at this garden

Not all gardens are kept up. Here is one that could really use a little more attention.

A neighbor of mine always has a very well planned-out garden. Here are some pictures from his front yard.

Zucchini of some sort.

The color is just exceptional.

The zucchini continues to grow.

My neighbor's tomato plants.

Some wildflowers in a lawn in the front of a school.

Things are not always as they seem. In the next garden I was really impressed with the beautiful color of the lettuce pictured here. However, once I tasted one of the leaves, I regretted my decision. This variety is apparently very sensitive to the heat and becomes very bitter.

A mix of spinach, lettuce and carrots

As you walk around your neighborhood, I hope that you will be able to encounter some beautiful gardens like these. Even if we are not enthusiastic about getting our hands dirty in the soil, vegetable gardening is good for all of us in so many ways.

 

One last look at the purple kale from the second school garden

Carosello Barese

After clearing out some Carosello in the fertile garden last summer, I decided to grow a cucumber-melon variety called Carosello Barese.

The Carosello Barese

Carosello Barese Sprouting - July 16th

Carosello Barese, July 30th

Full disclosure - what I was trying to grow was a variety that a friend had grown the year before that had dark flecking on a light skin. The idea was that I was going to grow out the same seed and find the same kind of Carosello. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out that way.

Carosello Barese, August 1st

My Carosello Barese vines grew incredibly quickly. The female flowers began growing out around 3 weeks after germination.

Carosello Barese, August 7th

First Female Flower Setting, August 10th

More fruit set, August 14th

Carosello Barese, August 23rd

There was a small amount of overlap between the male flowers of another Carosello and these, so I made sure to harvest the first fruit of this variety to ensure pure seed.

How many female Carosello Barese fruit can you count?

Though I didn’t take any pictures of the fruit cut open, it was quite delicious. The Carosello Barese has a thin crisp slightly crunchy skin on the outside that gives way to a cool juicy flesh on the inside.

Along with my first harvest came the cooler nights. As the soil was watered daily, it was nearly always moist. Older plants + declining sunlight + excessive moisture + cool nights is the perfect combination for powdery mildew. I removed as much of the vines with the powdery mildew but, as many gardeners know, once it is established, it can be very difficult to control.

Composting Vines with Powdery Mildew

When confronted with this kind of situation, I assess my best options. Powdery Mildew is not something that travels through seed (as long as the outside of the fruit is cleaned properly). The next step was to ensure healthy seed could be retrieved was to remove all the smaller and unhealthy fruit. This will enable the vines to distribute the majority of their strength into the remaining fruit. 

Carosello Barese, September 3rd

Powdery Mildew, September 15th

In the end, all the good fruit was gathered while the less desirable fruit and vines were composted. I usually would not compost diseased vines, but this compost is made primarily of grass clippings, which heat up so much that it kills the disease.

Composting the remainder of the affected vines

Fruit for Seed

Carosello Barese pear and oval fruit

Leaving on the counter for seed

Another trick to maturing carosello fruit for seed, is to leave it in a cool dark place. By doing this, it allows the fruit to feed the seed as much as possible before it begins to decay. Once the fruit turns white and feels soft to the touch it is wise to harvest the seed. Checking the fruit every day is best practice, for if the seed saver waits too long, it can lead to very messy results.

Mature fruit

The innards of a mature fruit

Carosello Barese Sementi (Seeds)

So there you have it – the Carosello Barese from Cucumber Shop!

Redleaf Lettuce in Wine Barrel

Over time, I have often noticed small weeds trying to grow from the sides of my wine barrel planter. Sometime over the winter I decided that, if weeds can do grow there - then veggies can too.

 
I planted some Outredgeous red lettuce seed in the side of the barrel by poking some small seeds in the side, then adding a bit of very fine compost.

 

When I say "red lettuce seed" I don't mean the seed is red. It's the lettuce that turns red: you'll see! 

The lettuce grew pretty slow at first, so I added a little more soil to them.

Once the little plants were established, they did really well. They kept growing until the heat set in.

 

I was a bit worried that the heat would turn them bitter, so I harvested all of the outside leaves when the lettuce finally began to wilt. Fortunately, they were very sweet. No bitterness at all. That is a lot more than I can say for the greenleaf lettuce grown in the main garden. The green looseleaf lettuce turned bitter. Perhaps it had to do with how little I watered it?

Finally, for those of you inclined to watch my lettuce grow, here is a little GIF.

 I hope you have a bountiful harvest wherever you choose to garden this spring.