There's already so much to see growing in my giant vegetable garden here at my farm.
Having a really good vegetable garden where I can grow lots of fresh, delicious and nutritious produce is extremely important to me. I share the vegetables with my daughter, my grandchildren, as well as other relatives and friends. Every spring, I prepare the soil for planting - till the earth, add natural fertilizers, and top dress raised, well-aerated beds. Then the planting begins. I already have peas, spinach, fava beans, radishes and herbs growing. Yesterday, my head gardener, Ryan McCallister, planted beets and turnips. And, I've harvested the season's first stalks of asparagus.
Enjoy these photos.
It’s so refreshing to see the gardens in spring. My vegetable garden is looking spectacular with composted beds all ready for planting, blooming tulips, and vegetables in different stages of growth.
Earlier this month, my outdoor grounds crew top dressed all the fed beds with a nutrient-rich compost mix I make right here at my farm.
A three inch layer of compost is spread over each bed carefully and evenly. When spreading compost, be sure it is not too thick – putting too much could block sunlight from growing crops, trap moisture, and suffocate microbes crucial for compost breakdown.
This is my asparagus bed now. When I created this vegetable garden, I made sure one of the biggest beds was earmarked for asparagus. I’ve already harvested the season’s first spears. On the left is an earthenware cloche specifically for growing white asparagus. The plants are the same, but the spears of white asparagus are blanched, or kept from light while growing.
Asparagus, Asparagus officinalis, are the edible shoots, commonly called spears, that rise early in the season from underground stems called crowns. It’s a perennial, so once it gets established, the tender spears return year after year.
Nearby, another perennial – the fragrant herb, mint.
And this is my rhubarb. Rhubarb is a perennial vegetable, generally eaten like a fruit. It’s very easy to grow and thrives in colder climates. These rhubarb plants were moved from my flower garden and are doing well in their new home here. They should continue to grow nicely for many more years.
Not long ago, Ryan planted the season’s first radishes. One can see them already shooting through the soil.
And look at my fava bed. We planted this crop last month. Fava beans, also known as broad beans, come in pods. They have a slightly sweet, earthy flavor and are full of vitamins, minerals, fiber, and protein. I always grow fava beans in the garden.
The plants are large and leafy with hollow stems. Fava beans’ pods, beans, shoots, leaves, and flowers are all edible.
In the center of the garden, a long bed is set up for climbers, such as my peas.
These plants are several inches tall already. Snap peas are a cross between snow peas and shelling peas – the whole pod is eaten and has a crunchy texture and very sweet flavor.
On the other side of the bed are the shelling peas. Shelling peas are also sometimes called garden peas, sweet peas or English peas. The pods are firm and rounded, and the round peas inside need to be removed, or shelled, before eating. The peas are sweet and may be eaten raw or cooked.
The spinach is also looking good, lush and green. I grow spinach all year long – outside during the warm season, and inside my vegetable greenhouse in winter. It is used every day for my green juice.
And blooming on one side of my garden are a handful of beds filled with gorgeous tulips. Tulips, which come in a variety of shapes and sizes, are perennial plants that open up each spring. They’re grown for their graceful leaves and bright, cheery blooms.
Ryan keeps a very detailed calendar of when he plants what in the garden. Yesterday, he planted beets and turnips.
Two of my favorite sources for seeds are Johnny’s Selected Seeds and the Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company. Here, Ryan writes out small markers, so we can keep track of what varieties are growing and which ones we want to grow again.
Ryan uses Johnny’s Bed Preparation Rake to make appropriately sized furrows.
Ryan drops the seeds in the furrows. This is called direct sowing, or planting seeds in the garden, rather than starting seeds indoors earlier and transplanting them outside. Some crops do better planted directly into the ground. These plants won’t experience the stress of transplanting and will not need time to adjust to their new growing conditions.
Here are the beet seeds encased in protective shells. Once they germinate, Ryan will check the young sprouts and pull any that seem to be too weak or not growing properly. I grow both red and gold beets.
Large markers are used to label the bed.
Ryan plants the parsnips next. Here he is creating the variety marker.
White Spear parsnips are are strong growers and packed with essential nutrients. They are a good source of vitamins C, E, and K, as well as folate and fiber.
Ryan carefully plants the bed with rows about 10 inches apart to give them ample room to grow.
Then Ryan carefully back fills all the furrows in the beds until all the seeds are covered with soil.
These newly planted beds don’t look like much now, but one will see sprouts poking through the soil very soon. A new crop is planted every day until the beds are full. It’s going to be a great season.
To create a successful perennial garden, it's important to select the right plants for the area, use nutrient-rich soil, and monitor the growth - feeding, grooming, and adjusting care as specimens develop.
Some of the most beautiful growth this time of year is behind my Tenant House and around my gym building. In these areas I've planted Epimediums, trout lilies, mayapples, ferns, Syneilesis, Polygonatum, Cotinus, Stewartia trees, and other interesting plantings.
Enjoy these photos.
Behind my Tenant House I designed lovely perennial gardens that come alive this time every year. The burgundy tree is a Japanese maple. With more than a thousand varieties and cultivars, the iconic Japanese maple is among the most versatile small trees for use in the landscape.
I always look for the most interesting plants to add to my gardens. This is Syneilesis – a tough, drought-tolerant, easy-to-grow woodland garden perennial that prefers moist, well-drained, slightly acid soils. If in the proper environment, syneilesis will slowly spread to form an attractive colony. Commonly called shredded umbrella, it has leaves that are narrow, dissected, and cascade downward like an umbrella.
All around, I also have lots of ostrich ferns growing. Matteuccia struthiopteris is native to North America. Once established, these grow to a height of three to six feet. Ostrich fern grows in vase-shaped clumps called crowns. The showy, arching, sterile fronds are plume-like and reminiscent of the tail feathers of – you guessed it – ostriches.
Astilboides is an interesting plant with huge, bright green leaves that are round and flat and measure up to 24-inches across. The effect is dramatic, and beautiful among other hardy perennials.
The hellebores continue to show beautifully at the farm. Hellebores are members of the Eurasian genus Helleborus – about 20 species of evergreen perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. They blossom during late winter and early spring for up to three months. Hellebores come in a variety of colors and have rose-like blossoms.
Uvularia grandiflora, the large-flowered bellwort or merrybells, is a species of flowering plant in the family Colchicaceae. Blooming mid to late spring, the flowers are twisted both in bud and in flower giving it a slightly droopy appearance.
Lungwort plants, Pulmonaria, are most often grown for their interesting leaves, which are green with random white spots. The leaves also have a rough, hairy fuzz covering them. The flowers, commonly known as lungwort, are bell- or funnel-shaped with five petals. They typically start out pinkish and mature to violet blue.
And we still have daffodils bordering the garden beds with bright colors! My daffodil blossoms come in many combinations of yellow, orange, and white.
Podophyllum peltatum is commonly known as mayapple, American mandrake, wild mandrake, and ground lemon. Mayapples are woodland plants, typically growing in colonies from a single root. The leaves are deeply lobed and can grow up to one foot wide making them stand-out in the garden bed.
These are Snowflakes – not to be confused with Snowdrops. The Snowflake is much taller and has more than one flower per stem. Snowflake petals are even, each with a green spots on the end, whereas Snowdrops have helicopter-like propellers that are green only on the inner petals.
This is a trout lily. Its delicate blooms, which resemble turks cap lilies do best in dappled light.
Anemonella thalictroides is an easy-to-grow, deer-resistant, durable, but dainty looking plant. The genus name Anemonella roughly translates as ‘little anemone’ because its flowers are miniature copies of the windflower. These are a light pale pink.
Heuchera plants grow into mounds and are exceptionally heat tolerant. Heuchera is a genus of largely evergreen perennial plants in the family Saxifragaceae, all native to North America. Common names include alumroot and coral bells.
I planted several Stewartia trees in this space. Stewartia is a species of flowering plant in the family Theaceae, native to Japan and Korea. All varieties are slow-growing, all-season performers that show off fresh bright green leaves in spring, white flowers in summer, and colorful foliage in autumn. And do you know why I love Stewartia trees? Well, Stewart is my last name after all. However, there is no relation. “Stewartia” is named for Scottish nobleman and botanist, John Stuart, who had imported the plant to his personal London garden. He later served as British prime minister from 1762 to 1763.
Nearby, the Cotinus are leafing out too. Cotinus, the smoketree, or smoke bush, is a genus of two species of flowering plants in the family Anacardiaceae, closely related to the sumacs. Their smooth, rounded leaves come in exceptional shades of deep purple, clear pinkish-bronze, yellow, and green.
All the hostas are also growing quickly. The lush green foliage varies in leaf shape, size and texture, and their easy care requirements make them ideal for many areas.
Epimedium, also known as barrenwort, bishop’s hat, fairy wings, horny goat weed, or yin yang huo, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Berberidaceae. The leaves are made up of leaflets, which can range in number from three to 50 and in size from as tiny to six inches long. They are generally heart-shaped, but can range from round to arrow-shaped.
Sprays of pink, white, yellow, orange, or lavender flowers appear this time of year.
Ipheion uniflorum, commonly called spring starflower, is native to Argentina and Uruguay and features grass-like foliage and solitary star-shaped flowers on six-inch tall stems. Flowers range in color from almost white to violet blue. Flowers have a mild spicy fragrance, and when bruised the foliage emits an oniony aroma.
Every year, more and more plants grow in these beds, cover the space, and create a lush, green carpet of beautiful foliage.
We're expecting good, warm spring weather the next few days - perfect for getting lots of tasks done in the gardens.
Last week, my gardeners potted up another large delivery of bare-root roses - this one from Edmunds' Roses, a Randolph, Wisconsin based company that offers a range of hybrid and heirloom rose varieties. Once they arrived, the bare-roots were soaked in water and then carefully potted up and placed into my "nursery" where they can be properly maintained until they are planted in their more permanent locations.
Here are some photos, enjoy.
All these rose varieties are selected specifically for my growing area. It’s crucial to soak them for several hours or even overnight, but not more than 12-hours before potting or planting.
My head gardener, Ryan McCallister, also added Miracle-Gro Quick Start – a starting solution that provides nutrients to help root growth.
Bare-root roses are dug up in late fall through early winter and shipped when dormant. This makes them easier to handle and transport. Healthy bare-root roses should have plump stems and roots with no evidence of mold or damage. The canes should be also thick with good branching.
Here at my farm, I make my own nutrient-rich compost in a back field. It is used for all my garden beds and these potted bare-root specimens.
And don’t forget to feed. A generous sprinkling of Miracle-Gro Shake ‘n Feed Plant Food is added to the composted soil and mixed in thoroughly.
Bare-root cuttings are difficult to identify when there are no leaves or flowers, so my team is careful to keep them separated by cultivar and always properly marked.
Depending on the nursery, they may come in bundles of 10, 15, 25, or more. To ensure there is no confusion, Phurba removes the twine and works with one bundle at a time.
Roses have two kinds of fibrous roots – thick roots to help stabilize the plant and keep it upright and thin feeder roots that absorb all the nutrients from the soil.
The root section of each bare-root rose should fit into the pot without being crowded at the bottom.
Phurba positions the root so that the bud union is below the soil when filled. Holding the plant with one hand, he then backfills just to under the pot’s lip.
Phurba continues to hold the rose securely until there is enough soil around the plant to keep it in position.
This pot is an appropriate size for this bare-root. It should be two to three times bigger than the root ball and always with drainage holes at the bottom.
Lastly, he gently tamps the soil down around the plant, so there is good contact with the roots.
The crew has devised an efficient production line process for potting massive amounts of bare-roots. Phurba pots them up as another loads them onto a wheelbarrow.
And do you know… while roses are sharp, they don’t actually have thorns, they have prickles – there’s a difference. Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.
Matthew loads each pot by variety into a wheelbarrow.
And then wheels the potted roses to their designated row in the “nursery.”
Bare-root roses are often between one and three years old. These will thrive in these pots and could even flower this year.
Initially, these roses will be watered daily to keep their roots and canes properly hydrated. Then they will be watered every couple of days to keep the root zones moist. Some of the varieties in this group include: ‘Florentina,’ ‘Joseph’s Coat,’ ‘Pearly Gates,’ ‘Golden Opportunity,’ ‘New Dawn,’ ‘Tangerine Skies,’ ‘Pretty in Pink,’ ‘Westerland,’ ‘Kiss Me Kate,’ ‘William Baffin,’ ‘Laguna,’ ‘America,’ and ‘Quick Silver.’
All these bare-root specimens will have ample time to develop good root systems. I am looking forward to planting them in the gardens when they are ready.
At the end of the day, they are all potted and placed in an area that gets good morning sun for optimal growth.
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