What's in the Garden

Hey kids, boy the weather has been nice here. So warm and sunny that put some of my tropicals outside for the day soak up the rays. I need to give you guys an update of my citrus trees, because my dwarf clementine has bloomed and is setting fruit!

So instead of studying for exams (like I should have been doing), I ventured outside to plant what really needed to be planted. 

Here's the run down of what I got down...

• Adirondack Blue Seed Potatoes
• White onions
• Red onions
• Peas
• Radishes
• Beets
• Lilies 

I wish I had gotten more done, but hey, that is at least something! Till next time, garden Hard!

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What to do with rogue onions?

A few of my onions have been blooming too early.

For some reason a number of our short-day onions have bloomed early this year. Once they bloom, it's time to pull them (unless you're collecting seed) because the energy stored in the bulb will be used up for the flowering.

In a normal onion crop the bulb is produced one year and then goes dormant when we harvest and dry it for storage. If it's not harvested, it will bloom the next season. The early blooming onions are not dormant and don't store well, so we needed to use them quickly. There is quite a bit of volume. While the bulb is relatively small, there are all those delicious leaves to use, too.

Stir the onions, barley, garlic, garlic chives and celery in olive oil
until the onions start to caramelize.

When our garden hands us too many rogue onions, I make rogue onion soup!

Here is the recipe for this delicious soup. You can serve it hot or cold--we had it cold.

Ingredients:
6 blooming onions, thinly sliced
1 store-bought onion, chopped
3 meadow garlic plants, chopped
1 shoot of garlic chives, chopped
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped 
1/3 cup dried barley
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup fresh parsley, chopped
6 cups of water
2/3 cup of dried potato
1/2 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
Freshly ground black pepper to taste
Fresh dill and a flower of wild garlic for garnish.

Directions:
Stir the onions, barley, meadow garlic, garlic chives, and celery in olive oil until the onions start to caramelize. Stir in the parsley until it wilts then add the water and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat. At this point you could run it through the food processor for a smooth soup, but I did not go through that step. While it's still hot, stir in the potatoes, yogurt, and cheese. Serve hot or cold. Garnish with chopped dill and the tops of the wild garlic. Serves 6.

When your garden provides too many rogue onions, make rogue onion soup.

How does this beautiful patch of moss survive in this dry sandhill ecosystem?

Mother Nature's Mysteries

No matter how much we study ecosystems and think we know the answers for which plants will grow where and under which circumstances, there are many instances when there is no obvious answer.

For instance, there is a 965-acre conservation area adjacent to our neighborhood that’s owned by the St. Johns Water Management District and maintained by the county. Most of it is a dry, sandy upland dominated by longleaf pines (Pinus palustris) and oaks (Quercus spp.). It’s been managed with fire over the years to maintain the open pine ecosystem. So how does this lovely patch of moss, clubmoss, and lichen survive here? Read my latest post over on Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens blog: Mother Nature's Mysteries.

In a rain garden at the edge of the front pond, rain lilies (Zephyranthes atamasca) and a lizard's tail (Saururus cernuus), which will bloom later in the season.

A rain lily sprouting from a damp spot in our freedom lawn.

Around the yard

I love our native rain lilies. They just seems so earnest. People ask me how can we stand having a lawn where anything that's green is mowed. If I showed them a photo of this cute volunteer rain lily in a damp spot in the yard, they'd understand. I'll dig it out and move it to one of my rain gardens where it won't be mowed.

I've been busy with spring clean up and have started some new projects. Stay tuned to find out what I've been working on. 

Spiderwort (Tradescantia ohiensis) after a rain.

At last year's gardenfest in St. Augustine.

Meet me in St. Augustine!

I'll be a vendor at the EPIC Spring Celebration Gardenfest on April 12th & 13th at St. Johns County Agricultural Center St. Augustine, FL 32092 (SW of the intersection of I-95 & Rt 16.). Hours are Saturday 9am to 5pm and Sunday 10am to 4pm. So come and talk to me about your gardens.

I will be giving away meadow garlic (Allium canadense) plants to anyone who buys a book and selling them to others-- $1 each as long as they last. It's an excellent perennial native crop. See Harvest-directed cooking to see a photo of the garlic.

If I don't see you this weekend, I hope you are enjoying spring wherever you are.

Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt

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Seeds this Spring - Radishes

Okay Kids, lets talk about some radishes, some like them plain, some like them with a lil salt, I like mine right out of the garden with a little bit of dirt still on them.

Here are a couple of raishes that I am planting. I didn't realize that you could plant these so early. I always have a problem with flea beetles eating the fleaves. Maybe if I planted them early on I wouldn't have this big of a problem. 

Here are the two radishes that I will be growing. French Breakfast and Champion.

In my zone, Zone 5, you can plant in the ground between Feb 28 - Mar 22.


Update 4/6/14
   I planted my radishes, and of course the squirrels came around and dug into the freshly turned dirt. Hopefully the didn't completely ruin where I placed my radish seeds...WHY SQUIRRELS...WHY!?!?!?!?

Update 4/15/14
   They are up, and it snowed urgh

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Greening begins

Coming down the Blue Ridge Escarpment this evening, the trees looked different. Leaves are emerging. Greening has begun.

It still looked like winter, when I drove "up the hill" to the mountains on Thursday, but not anymore.  The soft greens, pinkish-greens, and pale greens of new foliage were evident across the landscape today.

I wished that I'd had an opportunity to stop and take a photo -- I had my camera, but coming down the escarpment is steep, and there's not really a pull-off opportunity.

But spring green is welcome, for sure, after an unusually long winter.

Interesting to search my previous blog posts for "spring green" (lots of similar musings, along with some outliers).

This was the most pertinent to what I saw today.

From a couple of years ago:

Dogwoods, sassafras and expanded leaves (farther along than today)

An addedum:  I just visited Pearson's Falls today again with my garden group.  Magic.  It's a totally great botanical wonderland of rich cove forest woodland wildflowers.  Visit if you're anywhere nearby!

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Seeds this Spring - Beets

Okay, so its spring and we are all getting ready for what we will be doing in the garden. This means that we are all getting our seeds. I know that I am. I ended up buying my seeds and then noticed later that one seed company in particular had a great value to the seeds. So lets take a look shall we. Lets look at the beets that I bought.

For zone 5, you want to start seeding your beets outside April 12- May 5.

Here is what I bought

I got these 3 because I wanted a unique blend of beets. I bought Chioggia, Bulls Blood, and Golden. What I noticed was the gram size of the seed packets according to the brand. 

Livingston Seed Co. seems to be the brand to get. They have 4 times as much seed as Lake Valley Seed brand, 4 grams as compared to 1 gram. Plus here is the kicker, Libingston Seed Co. costs less, $0.70 less! Wowzer! Look and compare 

Tell me what you think. I know for sure, that Livingston Seed Co. is the way to go. Not to mention, they they were heirlooms.

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Carolina jessamine

Carolina jessamine is the state flower of South Carolina and it's in flower now.

Carpenter bees are the main visitors to its flowers that I normally see, though I have seen a couple of hummingbirds brave the alkaloid-tasting nectar, too.

view from my study window, 2009 (it could have been taken this afternoon)

I've had two sightings of hummingbird visits to the Carolina jessamine over the years outside my study window, apparently, as these posts (on a Carolina jessamine search within my blog) document.

What fun to have those records!

This will be post 1401, since I started blogging in the summer of 2007 -- I can hardly imagine that, really.

A fellow naturalist (Bill Hilton) over in York, SC, and a hummingbird expert, posted this interesting piece back in 2008. about Carolina Jessamine.  There are definitely some potent alkaloids involved!

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Seed this Spring- Peas

Okay Kids, lets talk about peas. Everyone loves peas, unless you are a 7 yr old. So I am behind in my planting, I am going to contribute it to the extremely cold weather. But hopefully you have started your peas. I am going to sow mine this week.

Here is what I have. I bought 3 packs so that I can have plenty of seeds. 

In my Zone, Zone 5, you should be planting peas around March 15 - April 5.

I always believe in soaking my seeds before planting them. It increases the germination rate and speed!

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