Horseradish harvest March 22, 2016 after cleaning off the mud.

After a long winter, spring has finally arrived. Horseradish is early this year since Easter is early. The ground is still wetter than I would like for the harvest, but I manages to get a good bunch of roots out. They were nice sized this year since I didn’t harvest any last year. We got a yield of about 40 jars of prepared horseradish which is a good yield.

Studio moving and construction took way more time than expected, so I broke down and hired a landscaper to clean up the yard. Miguel and his team did an absolutely amazing job of cleaning up the yard. They removed the brush files and branches on the north side of the yard freeing up that area for more garden space.

I don’t know about the amount of sunlight available, but it will probably work for greens. Might be a good place for a coldframe.

So in the spring, I need to get the pear tree down and probably the maple at the west end of the garden and trim the Hawthorne. Then, clean out the blackberry patch and remove the landscape fabric and get the planting beds ready.

The garden was pretty much a loss this year because of my move. In desperation,  I put down some landscape fabric in early July and planted tomatoes, peppers and zucchini through holes in the fabric without weeding or tilling. Bad idea! The yield for the season was 3 tomatoes from 20 plants, maybe 4 misshapen peppers and 2 small zucchini. Planting that late doesn’t work, because the plants get stunted and never take off.

The greens I put in early did OK and the herb garden was good.

Next year will be better.

Here is the first planting of the year with a variety of salad greens.

Usually my gardening season begins with the harvesting of horseradish and the preparation of many jars or the pungent root. This year is different, as I am in the process of moving my studio from the location in downtown Barrington that  I occupied for at least the last 36 years, and there was no time for horseradish. Natalie went out and bought some roots and prepared them was we usually do, but to my taste it wasn’t quite the same.

But this is a temporary setback and when the move is complete by mid May, my hope is that since I will be working out of the house, there will be much more time to tend to the gardening on a regular basis.

But in any case the planting has begun, and this weekend I made my first trip to Goebbert’s and got kale plants, collards and mustard greens in the ground. From seed, I planted spinach, lettuce and arugula. Rain followed.

The thyme plants wintered over well and are very vigorous.

The herb garden on the south side of the lot is doing well. Some of the herbs wintered over and are much more prolific than in the planter boxes by the deck. I’ll adjust the later plantings of herbs accordingly. The thyme wintered over exceptionally well, better yield than ever, and the oregano looks great as well. The tarragon is leafing out well and I may need to move it as the plant really spread out last year and was encroaching on the thyme.

The oregano is growing fast and did well over the cold winter.

The sage plants got hit by the cold, but there are buds popping out on the lower portions of the stem. I think the sage would benefit from mulching in the fall. The lovage plant is springing up and will probably be a lot larger this year.

I have parsley plants to get in the ground yet and I will plant them in the planter boxes by the deck as they seem to do well there.

The horseradish plants occupy too much garden space, so I am going to reduce that patch considerably. I’ll put some more effort into cultivating fewer larger roots, which should be a lot easier on the harvesting end. Hopefully with fertilizer and cultivation I can make that happen.

I’m still behind with the cleanup, but even with the move, I think I can stay somewhat on schedule. The hawthorne tree is shading the garden too much so I’ll probably have to remove it. I also need to get a professional to remove the pear tree.

But, as usual, it is wonderful to be out in the sun with the smells and sounds of spring and to again get my hands in the good earth.

This is the last of the pepper harvest.

You know it is the end of summer when the last of the veggies goes in the freezer. It was a better year for peppers this year than last, the plants were healthy and vigorous, but I think the rainy weather cut the yields a bit. The hot peppers flopped because the soil stayed too wet. I need to find another place for those next year.

All that’s left now is Kale, Swiss Chard and Collards. There will be some great soups this fall! Lots of herbs left, also. I’ll need to dry some of those and maybe make some Tarragon and Rosemary Vinegar.

This has been the worst summer for ever for mosquitoes. We had about 1 week near the beginning of August where we could sit outside, but then more rain and more bugs. Because of the impossibility of working in the garden with swarms of bugs, even in bright sunlight, I was unable to plant any second crops, and actually never planted some of the later first crops like other varieties of zucchini and later basil plantings.

Peppers yielded well, but the hot peppers by the back fence were  a total fail, as the ground was too wet all summer. The heirlooms and most of the other tomatoes got the black wilt and didn’t produce well. The large amounts produced many split tomatoes which then rotted. The Romas yielded well in spite of it all. The few cucumber I planted did well, but later plantings never got planted. The zucchini planted from seed never came up.

Red and Green Salsas

The Tomatillo plants grew very well and were without any problems. They didn’t have any dying branches because of too much rain and no bug issues. The plants bear heavily and spread out, so a conventional tomato cage isn’t enough for support. I’ll need to find another method of support next year.

This will be a permanent addition to the garden. Salsa Verde is great and easy to make. Plus, the plants seem to be problem free and don’t require a lot of attention. Recipes for both types of Salsa will soon be posted at <karneyfamilyrecipes.com>.

The Tomatillos are doing well and I am looking forward to a large crop.

The mosquitoes are still swarming and it is been difficult to do anything in the garden other than basic weeding. I have plants that have been sitting in trays for almost a month but it’s too buggy to do any planting. The rain has been gone for almost a week and I am seeing dry soil for the first time all summer, so I am hoping the bugs will be somewhat gone in a few days,

I picked the first couple zucchini this week, and the cherry and grape tomatoes have been yielding well. Some of the tomatoes have been in the ground since early May, but nothing is ripening yet. Early Girl is supposed to produce in 50 days, but as usual, it will be August tomatoes. When the Romas ripen, it will be a great crop.

Peppers are starting to produce, I picked some full size Gypsy peppers this week and all the pepper plants look good except the hot peppers by the back fence — they got too much water from all the rain and look a bit stunted.

The Tomatillos are doing well and it looks like a good crop. Supposedly they are ready to pick when the fruit has filled up the husk.

Deer and rabbits have rimmed the Lacinato Kale an the Collards, but they will probably come back. Herbs are looking good except the Basil.

I am hoping to get some fall plants started this week if the mosquitoes decline.

We’ve been having rain every couple of days, and the mosquitoes are unbelievable. It is impossible to go into the garden without a heavy slathering of DEET.  I did manage to get the peppers and tomatoes weeded today, but any other work was impossible between the heat and bugs.

I picked the first two grape tomatoes and we had a salad for lunch of arugula, radishes, Lolla Rosa lettuce, kale, mustard greens, and green onions; supplemented with purchased avocado, red pepper, shrimp and croutons.

I pulled up the radishes — extremely poor yield and the spinach which had bolted. The bottom branches on the early girl tomatoes are starting to die. Too much rain, and not enough sun.

The Lovage survived the winter and has vigorous new growth.

The cold winter killed all of last year’s blackberry canes. Since blackberries set fruit only on the year old canes, we won’t have any berries this summer. Fortunately, vigorous new canes are springing up, so the roots weren’t damaged.

The Lovage that took almost all summer to finally spring up from seed wasn’t damaged by the cold. It appears to be doing very well. Now, I just need to figure out what to use it in.