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A Fall Garden in Los Altos — a guest post

[The great luxury in my cooking life is the big, gorgeous garden just a few steps outside my kitchen door.  I love it not only because it supplies so many wonderful ingredients but also because it's lovely to look  at -- 12 months a year.  I take no credit for this  -- I do not sow; I only reap.  Nor do I transplant, fertilize, weed, worry about fungus nor battle snails, squirrels and gophers.  The physicist I married 47 years ago turned out to be one helluva gardener. Today he's my much-appreciated guest poster.]

Many gardeners, even in California, consider the vegetable garden a spring and summer project and don’t bother with the few things that grow in the fall and winter. But it’s my favorite time for gardening.  With plants set out around Labor Day and a seeding of winter hardy greens, you can have goodies fresh from your outdoor “refrigerator” all winter long.  Cooler weather means almost no weeds nor bugs, and when planted at the right time, sets from September will keep and thrive into March without bolting.  If we have our usual December frost, the “summer” fruiting vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant) will be lost—be sure to pick the last fruit before, not after the frost—but many lettuces, herbs, endives and brassicas are quite hardy.

This year, on September 18^th,  I ripped out the early pole beans, tomatoes, kale, chard, onions, endive, lettuces etc. which occupied about half of the garden area. Those beds, enclosed in old railroad ties, were lightly tilled and organically amended.  The next day, I seeded pole beans, frissee, French breakfast radishes, French turnips, and a variety of mustards..  The rest of the space was plugged with little plants from the greenhouse, which are shown in the photos which follow, taken just one month later.

I will admit that a nice Indian summer, with temperatures into the 80’s,was helpful this year—although not unusual.

This is Tat Soi, a crunchy salad or stir- fry which is quite hardy, in front of romanseco (yellow head) broccoli.

Onion sets of Sweet White Spanish and Stockton Red, two varieties that produce softball- sized heads next April-July. Behind them is a bed of exotic Italian Radicchio—Castelfranco, Grumulo and Varigated Chioggia types.  They are shaded now by some San Marzano tomato cages, but these will be out next month.

The lettuce bed has about 20 types, plugged so closely that no weeds can grow between. This also improves frost hardiness, but the bed is so valuable to us that I toss a sheet of Reemay cloth weighted with broomsticks over it if frost is predicted.  In the foreground is multicolor chard with a nice rhubarb plant in the corner, and in the background, a couple of rows of Rocket, red mizuna (Johnny’s Ruby Streaks), and Osaka Purple mustard.  These are frost hardy.

The middle bed has mixed broccoli (purple sprouting, De Cicco, Marathon, Calabrese etc.) selected so they mature at different times.  Underneath, you can see a planting of Mache seed which has sprouted and likes the partial shade. It will be quite large by Feb-March and by then the broccoli is 24”  tall and out of the way. To the right is a Chinese cabbage called “Lettucy” which, as the name implies, can be used either way.  It has grown from small plugs to about 12” already. Behind Lettucy is more broccoli, this time under-planted with real watercress, which crawls across the ground in a blanket as long as it is watered daily.  The seed, which is like dust, is tricky to start in little flats, but once underway, is easy to grow.

The center seedbed is framed by red chard in front, and the pole beans behind, which were seeded in August and grow on grape stakes.  A couple of rows of French Breakfast radishes are ready now, and will be out of the way as the chard grows over the winter.

Behind are two rows of Frissee planted quite thickly so they self blanch as they grow.

Next, a couple of rows of Milan Red Top turnips, which need careful thinning as they grow.  Of course the thinnings are delicious.

In the Dahlia bed, I sneak a few Florence Fennel and Bok Choi which can take over when the Dahlias are cut back next month.  Not sure they are better than store bought, but they are handy

A longer view of the area planted in September, with some peppers inter-planted with broccoli in the foreground and a bed of nasturtiums below which will be lovely until a frost.  As you can see, it’s not far to the kitchen door for dinner fixings.

Of course, not all of the garden was ripped out in September, and the other half is lovely too. The Dahlia bed is still producing daily cut flowers, and the bulbs will over-winter. No work here except a bit of staking.

This year I grew all my pepper plants from seed, (worth another essay on technique).  Some plants were four feet tall, and many grew enormous peppers.  Most of the varieties were Italian Marconi (Bull horn), or spicy types, although we also had good luck with some green fryers.  About 20 plants altogether. We love them roasted on bruchetta or tossed into pasta, and the smaller ones are good dried for the winter.

Here are a couple of Red Marconi on a plant that must have yielded ten peppers.  These seeds are being saved.  A couple of other golden varieties were also winners.

These main crop tomatoes (on six foot spirals) are still producing, but will be gone by November.

Most of the tomatoes are grown in six-foot cages like the ones here. Our favorite this year was an Italian scalloped miniature called ‘Costoluto Fiorentino’, but we also love the Black Krim, a large plum called Egg Yolk, Chianti Rose, Big Beef and a golden called Earl of Edgecoulme.

In November, I’ll tear out the cages and plant Favas and potatoes, which come up in the spring.

For a late tomato crop, I put in our favorite Italian type, San Marzano, in small cages in July.  These are just beginning to ripen and are still setting fruit.

A close-up of  the San Marzanos.  They are the size of  miniature bananas.  I like to leave them all on the bush and then pick them in late November and freeze them whole in plastic bags.  Then we’ll just pop them out whenever we need tomato sauce this winter. Unfortunately, the squirrels sometime have other uses.

I also plant a few Japanese eggplants in June for a late crop. These are just starting, while the April-planted crop has about finished

The pole bean crops have been tremendous this year and these poles will bear till frost.  I plant an early and a late crop (in August) from Blue Lake seed that I’ve been selecting and saving for many years. This is the late crop, producing about a quart a week. I’ve been directed to cut the number of poles next year.

Cabbages are tricky.  These are a French variety called Sangria which is part red and part  green. The heads are still a bit small, but with a little more warm weather they will hold all winter. A related benefit, which is easily seen, is that they are a snail haven. This doesn’t hurt the heads, and I scoop them off the outer leaves rather than searching for snails in less obvious hiding places.

The most spectacular plant in the garden is a six- foot tall lemon verbena tree.  In our area, this is a deciduous perennial and has grown to an enormous size in about five years in spite of being cut back each winter.  We love the fragrant branches in the house all summer, and the flavor is dramatic in fish or a marvelous granita that C. likes to make.  Even brushing a branch while picking herbs is a fragrant surprise.

Under the verbena tree is the herb garden, which used to be in full sun.  Now it’s shaded in the summer, which keeps the other perennials from getting woody. There are winter herbs, especially dill, chervil, chives and flat parsley, which were all plugged in September.  The French tarragon is getting weary, but the savory, thymes,  Greek oregano and Salad Burnet are all fine and will come back next year.  I grow both fine leaf and large leaf basil and growing it in the shade of the verbena tree has been a big advantage as it hasn’t bolted to seed and is still accompanying the tomatoes and pasta, even though I only set three plants (in April).

Another herb we enjoy a lot is Salvia (sage), which needs full sun. This three-foot wide plant is from seed from Uruguay, brought to us by our beloved seed and cheese collector, Pedro Burchio.  In front (by the French pumpkins) is an Italian purple artichoke that is coming back after being cut back in May. We’ll have lots of artichokes in April.

There is a very old green artichoke plant between the rhubarb and kale in this picture.

Most experts advise to rip out artichokes every couple of years, but this old gal (0ver 20 years old) just keeps wandering around the bed and sending up a half dozen shoots this time of year.  I just cut back all but the strongest two or three shoots and the artichokes in the spring are more than we can eat.  Those that get too far ahead have nice blue flower heads beloved by the bees.

Volunteers are always welcome. These Japanese Anemones suddenly appeared in the rose garden at the edge of the raised bed.  We are not sure how they got there.  Maybe squirrels are not all bad.

By now, you may be wondering from whence came these many veggies and herbs.  In 1984, my son Scott and I built a 8×12 real glass kit greenhouse in a Victorian style to match the main house.  It is still going strong and is as productive as ever. I have replaced the gas heater a couple of times, but the electric vent and the fan are original. It cost $1200.

Only about half of the greenhouse area is needed for veggies.  The rest is devoted to orchids, begonias, ferns and amaryllis. The fall seeds were planted in mid-July, and shade plus ventilation is essential, plus, of course, a daily misting.  All of that is automatic, so unless there is a power failure, there isn’t much work beyond keeping snails away. Right now there is not much going on—spring seeds go in the week after Christmas.

In the background is a potting shed my son and I built when we erected the greenhouse.  You’ll need one of these even if you don’t have a greenhouse.

C. grows about about 25 varieties of roses in a bed next to the vegetable garden. Most are David Austins, like this lovely ‘Ambridge Rose’  We had a great last fling of blooms  this year due to the warm September

Fixings for tonight’s dinner.

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 at 10:58 pmand is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.