Minature veggies

[Starlight]

How pretty! Looks to nice to eat. Never seen anything like it. I need to move out of the South. Seems like we are very different type veggie deprived.

[Deborah]

Jeannine Anne, thank you for typing up the rhubarb recipe. That looks good!

[Jeannine Anne]

Update.. seeds finally starting to arrive but later than I expected. Today I have sown Early Half Tall Brussel Sprouts, they are a dwarf variety the plants are half the size of others so closer planting is doable I also got Igloo cauliflower which can be planted on 6 inch spacing.

My Minicole green cabbage is coming on nicely and my red Primero is looking good too..thank you.

Winnie the Pooh seeds are sown.
Mascotte dwarf beans are up 3 inches, height for those is stated as 10'20 inches. These are in a tub in the greenhouse which will be put outside when the weather is warm enough. I also have early carrots in a greenhouse tub too and my lettuces and new kales from there I am already eating.

Broad beans. peas , carrots, beet, parsnip and the Hahurei turnips are all up. Oh and I sowed a few Gilfeather turnip which are up too. Dwarf Kale is doing well . All of these are in my raised beds but not in the best light so my fingers are crossed.

I was bit irritated a couple of weeks ago although it seems very ungrateful, my daughter came home with some veggie plants for me, of course I had to put them in a raised bed which has cut down my options a bit as they are Brussels, caulis and cabbages but I shall pull them when very small to make room for todays sowings when they are ready.

Leeks are up in a pot but running late. Walla Walla onion plants are slowy getting bigger and my fall planted garlic is really coming on now.. I shall plant beans after it is out.

Regular tomatoes are in the greenhouse nowas are cucumbers. Micro ones are in their pots and will get cloned for winter harvest.

I broke my rule of veggies only this year and sowed some Hero of Lockinge melons for the greenhouse. The seeds were very old and I wanted some to keep. I only had 6 and of course you might guess 5 have grown..

I am still waiting for seeds of other mini things to arrive so will be back.

Pole beans are sown in pots Gigantes no sign yet but the seeds are very old.

Is anyone else growing a mini garden?


So all things considered so far I am enjoying the challenge

XX Jeannine

[Deborah]

You have a VERY green thumb! And this is still my favorite thread!

[Jeannine Anne]

Oh eck, I am not sure I can live up to that,, but I am taking lots of notes fro future years

[Deborah]

It'll be fun to see pictures of your meals made from your harvests.

[Jeannine Anne]

I meant to add a list of veggies that will take shade last week as someone asked..sorry here it is/

Brassicas, can do well in partial shade
Lettuce and spinach like it.Kale shows no difference in full sun or partial
Most leafy greens are Ok pak choi does well in it

Root veggies are also ok in partial shade.Some of the above take longer to mature though.

So veggies grown for leafy greens are OK, veggies grown for their roots are ok, but veggies grown for their fruit, tomatoes, peppers,cucunmbers ,melon etc will not thrive well

Peas and beans can be more difficult but grow the darfs rather than polse, crops will be later though/

[Jeannine Anne]

Everything still coming on nicely, I have just got a couple of compressed bales of potting soil to extend my area, so I am doing the family bean in a very long , large rubbermaid container, two types of zuchinni, trailing are going in pots up a frame. Gigantes made it and are in the ground now. Putting out transplants of red cabbage today. My perennial cauliflower, my one and only precious plant is going out today too and my perennial Daubenton Kale plants are going out tomorrow, they are not mini though so they have to go in huge containers.

Right now I am battling mares tail. My 2 foot raised beds are along the border with the next house and the area just the other side of the fence is covered in it. I guess when my raised beds went is with all the lovely soft soil the weed thought it had won the lottery. I am going to have to newspaper mulch around my brassicas as they are fighting it and need a bit of help, any regular mulch just seems to feed it. So I figure if I lay thick sheets of paper over the ground around the brassica stalks it will stop it coming though. It will come through at the edges but at least it will cut it down a bit.

[Deborah]

It all sounds really good. Just please wear that shirt again while you're working!

[BigVanVader]

Originally Posted by Jeannine Anne

I meant to add a list of veggies that will take shade last week as someone asked..sorry here it is/

Brassicas, can do well in partial shade
Lettuce and spinach like it.Kale shows no difference in full sun or partial
Most leafy greens are Ok pak choi does well in it

Root veggies are also ok in partial shade.Some of the above take longer to mature though.

So veggies grown for leafy greens are OK, veggies grown for their roots are ok, but veggies grown for their fruit, tomatoes, peppers,cucunmbers ,melon etc will not thrive well

Peas and beans can be more difficult but grow the darfs rather than polse, crops will be later though/

So Kale wont bolt in the heat? I have a bunch in 3 inch pots and was going to plant them on the shaded part of the garden, maybe 3-4 hours sun tops. Which would you recommend? It has been around 85-90 degrees here most days for awhile now and I assumed it would bolt and get more bitter in full sun. I am new to cole/brassica growing. Our spring is so short sometimes so I never really bothered, but now I really want my own salad ingredients. I plan on using my GH as a coldframe this winter and try to perfect growing carrots and lettuce.

[Jeannine Anne]

I have grown kale in full sun and partial shade and have never had it bolt but I live in a different climate to you .

If you want your kale for salad greens,.pick a variety like Red Ursa or Red Russian. I have regular Kale in the garden but for my salads which I grow year round I grow in tubs in the greenhouse.

I have tubs that were from fridges , they were the salad crispers, the full width of a fridge, I knew an apartment manager who was having all the fridges replaces and I got the bins from 8 of them. They sit nicely on a long table in my greenhouse. I sow the seeds fairly heavily on the surface of damp soil then shake a wee bit over it. As the plants grow I harvest the leaves, right now they are about 8 inches tall and are big enough to use in stir-fry or boiled as a green veggie. I will start another tub in a couple of weeks. I can transplant a few into the garden too. I do the same thing with a mixed lettuce, in fact if any of my lettuce seeds get a bit old they get tossed in the salad mix. I grow green onions and radishes in another and short growing carrots in another. Right now I also have one full of a dwarf variety of bean which are just coming into flower. The bins are about 10 inches deep and do very well for my purpose. The kale never gets bitter as it is cut when young, but I can't say what it would be like in extreme temperatures. We do however get into the mid eighties and the kale was ok. It tends to seem to die off at the end of the season but then starts to regrow in the spring, then the new leaves can be used for several weeks.

If you don't have that variety of kale, drop me a PM and I will send you a batch as I save my own seeds. I looks like Red Ursa but I have grown it for so long now it has probably adapted somewhat , anyway it is sweet and will grow in shade or sun.

[Tracydr]

Originally Posted by Jeannine Anne

Andrey, thank you for that information.That potato sound great, it is a pity we can't trade tubers as well as seeds LOL. I miss one from the UK which I can't get here, it is called Charlotte. I am growing Russian Banana,Sieglinde,French Fingerling and a Russet.

Tracydr, my perennial cauliflower is called Nine Star Perennial, it is a commercial variety but was very hard to find the last time I go the seeds sent from the UK. I sowed what was left this year but have only got 2 seedlings up. The Daubenton Kale seeds came fro the Heritage Seed Library in the UK, (they don't ship overseas)again I had very few seeds but I have managed to get about 7 to pop. I should tell you a bit about Daubenton. It is a French veggie which rarely flowers so seeds are almost impossible to get. It is usually propagated by cuttings and folks in the UK share the plants. I am frankly not expecting the plants I have grown from seed to be true but we will see. It comes green and a variegated one, There are a few perennial cabbage/kales. I also have one called Eeuwig Moes, which does grow from a seed, that seed was sent to me from a friend Holland. There is another one called Delaway which I also got from the Heriatage Seed Library , Irish Seed Savers have it by the way,but it is questionable that this one is perennial. They now ship overseas.

Before I moved to where I am now I had a community garden and I had a very large raised bed devoted to Perennial veggies, all of the above plus, perennial leeks, various types of onions and a few other. things. My aim is to try to reestablish it in one bed here. Very fascinating.

XX Jeannine

Thanks Jeanine!

[Tracydr]

I will have to try your kale method,although my greenhouse is probably too hot.

[Jeannine Anne]

But maybe not in the winter

[salix]

Jeannine - I have a very tender sweet kale named Lark's Tongue, and I have a feeling it came from you originally. Still have a few seeds if you would like to try it again. I sowed 9 seeds this year, and 8 germinated, albeit more slowly than the other 2 varieties sown at the same time.