Category: Outdoors

Thin out some crops, grab some garlic

Heat descended on us recently like opening the door to a roaring wood stove. The old adage about colonial India was, “Only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.” I think that applies here, too. I, for one, have no desire to work in the garden when temperatures get to be in the 80s or more.

My strategy is to go to bed earlier, and get up at 6 a.m., or even earlier if I can. In general I’m not a morning person. I like coffee, the newspaper in my hands, and a leisurely breakfast. But with the heat, I feel a need to see what plants need some water, and what veggies should be picked early in the day.

The most vulnerable plants are those that have just been transplanted or installed. I recently moved some small Swiss chard plants from a somewhat shady place to a raised bed in full sun. Gravity works on water, not just Newton’s apple. Raised beds tend to drain of water and dry out faster than beds in the ground. The soil is warmer, too. So those Swiss chard seem to need water every day now.

I can reduce my need to water that raised bed by mulching it well. I’ve mulched the rest of my vegetable garden with four to six pages of newspaper, covered with straw or hay. That is primarily for keeping the weeds down, but it also reduces the need for watering. But the raised bed was built later, and I haven’t mulched it yet. Gotta get on it!

I also regularly water a bed of zinnias that were only planted by seed in June. Anytime you plant seeds, you should water daily until they germinate to avoid drying out the seeds at a critical time. And when the plants are small, they need regular watering, too.

We have thinned all our root crops by now, which is important. If you haven’t, you should. Carrots, beets, parsnips, radishes and rutabagas need room to grow — an inch, at least, from their nearest neighbors. You can eat the small vegetables you pull. The leaves of beets are a tasty treat when steamed lightly and served with butter.

I’m harvesting garlic now, too. Not the entire crop as yet. I just pull one or two for cooking as needed. I’ll pull them all in August when the leaves start to brown up. When I pull the main harvest I leave the tops on and hang them in the cellar upside down to cure. I’ve read that the bulbs will absorb additional nutrients from the leaves and stem while they cure.

Fresh garlic is nearly impossible to peel. I just use a sharp paring knife to make two slices into a bulb — one on each side of a clove. When it pops out, I can peel off the outer layers and insert the clove into a press, or smash it with the wide blade of a French kitchen knife and then chop it finely.

I’m often asked if cutting off scapes, those curly tops of garlic, helps to grow bigger, better bulbs of garlic. I’ve been experimenting with that for years, and don’t see a significant difference. So I cut off scapes to use in stir-fries, salads or stews, but don’t bother to remove them all.

I picked a few ‘Early Girl’ tomatoes in mid-July this year, which is early, even for them. Although I started almost all my tomatoes by seed in April, I did buy a few bigger plants to get those early tomatoes. Next up will be my ‘Blue Beauty’ tomatoes, which I did start by seed indoors. They are a gorgeous deep purple, with green at the bottom. When the green turns red and they soften up, they will be ready to pick.

For once I have planted lettuce regularly all summer, so I have had enough to eat and to share. And I have lots of small plants to transplant and separate. I recommend that you plant some lettuce seeds directly in the ground now for early fall eating, and in a month, do it again. Mark your calendar! After all, some spaces will be opening up in the garden as you harvest radishes, peas, beets and more. Look for heat-resistant or hot-weather lettuce varieties like Adriana, Monte Carlo or Red Cross — all available from Johnny’s Seeds. Cool-weather lettuce quickly bolts in August heat.

I am picking heads of broccoli now. But the best is yet to come. I once made a little garden in the lawn for an elderly friend, and planted two broccoli plants there. Unfortunately, my friend pulled out the broccoli once they had yielded their first big heads. Little did she know that broccoli will send out side shoots, smaller spears of broccoli, for the rest of the summer and fall! Just keep on picking. And if the side shoots start to open with yellow blossoms, pick and eat them anyway. They will still be tasty.

I seem to be having a great year for potatoes (I have not seen a single potato bug), and should have plenty to eat and share. I planted 100 chunks of potato, and each plant should give me one to two pounds of spuds. I will start harvesting a few after they have blossomed. I like to slip my hand under a plant and “steal” a potato or two for dinner before I start the harvest. If you grow potatoes, be sure to let your children or grandkids help you when you harvest them. All kids are excited by the buried treasure!

So beat the heat: Get up early and go out to your garden. There is always something to do.

Featured photo: Raised beds need more water than plant in the ground. Photo by Henry Homeyer.

Wild parsnips burn and buttercups run rampant

This is the time of year when wild parsnips are in full bloom. They stand anywhere from 2 to 6 feet tall and are topped with clusters of tiny flowers facing upward and arranged in a flat cluster called an umbel. The blossoms are similar to those on Queen Anne’s lace, but yellow.

Avoid wild parsnips because you can get terrible burns from the sap of this plant. When the sap on you is hit by bright sunshine, most people develop painful blisters. This is unfortunate, as this common plant is spread by seed, often creating large patches in fields and along roadsides. If you get sap on you, wash it off with soap and water immediately, cover the area, and stay out of direct sunshine for 48 hours.

How can you get rid of wild parsnips? Wild parsnips are biennials, meaning they die after blooming in their second year. I’ve read that mowing a patch of them right after they bloom (but before they produce seeds) will get rid of them, but only if you do this for three to five years. Presumably the repeated mowing is needed to kill plants that come back from seeds that did not germinate in Year 1.

Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) is in the same family as parsnips but is bigger, harder to get rid of and even more toxic. I saw it for sale some 20 years ago and was intrigued by its size (6 to 12 feet tall) and blossoms that are up to 3 feet across. I bought it and planted it, having been told that it was not a perennial, though it is.

Even though I didn’t know its sap could cause burns, I quickly decided that giant hogweed was not a plant I wanted. It popped up 50 feet away from where I planted it, and could grow in full sun or full shade, wet soil or dry. I decided it had potential to take over.

At first I just cut off the flower heads before they produced seeds, but in Year 2 or 3 I decided to pull it by the roots. I was lucky that I was able to get out the roots, which can go down 2 feet or more. And even more fortunately, either I did not get sap on me or I am not allergic to it. It is not widely distributed in New England, though it is a real pest in parts of California and elsewhere.

I was less fortunate when it came to getting rid of the Japanese butterbur (Petasites japonicus) I purchased long ago. I was told that yes, it could run, but it was easy to contain with a lawnmower or a stream. Not so. This plant can send roots 20 feet or more, then send up new plants. It is an aggressive plant that will smother almost any other. It likes moisture, and does well in shade as well as sun.

Depending on the variety, this plant can produce clumps of huge leaves that stand up to five feet tall. It has small flowers that erupt from the soil before the leaves. The roots go down deep and break easily, making it tough to remove. In its native Japan it is considered an edible, but I have no interest in eating it.

I have lost control of our Japanese butterbur. It crossed the stream and has gone under the lawn to other beds, and generally become a pest. Even though it is interesting to look at, enough is enough! I wish I had never bought it!

Another pest I have will surprise you, perhaps: buttercups (Ranunculus repens). Like some of the others mentioned above, at first I welcomed this bright harbinger of spring that displays cheerful yellow blossoms. But it has become a problem because it spreads not only by root but by seed, and once established it is difficult to weed out. And it will choke out other plants. It is glorious in bloom, but very tenacious. If you have moist, rich soil in part shade, watch out. I’d advise removing it early before it starts crowding out other plants. This one is native to Europe, but there are native species that are not a problem, I am told.

Years ago a friend gave me some iris that had the roots of goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria) tangled in with the iris roots. It quickly took over the iris bed, choking out everything else. A native of Asia and parts of Europe, it can form a dense mat that outcompetes everything else. The roots are brittle, and thus hard to remove. Even a scrap of root can start a new plant.

I dug out all the goutweed, took away the soil down to 12 inches and replaced the soil after putting down a heavy weed mat. Still, five years later it crawled out from under the mat. If you have it, accept you will probably always have it, though with persistence and a good weeding tool, it is possible to control. But I wouldn’t buy a house that has it!

A variegated form of goutweed called “Snow on the Mountains” has green and white leaves and was sold as a groundcover in the past. But sometimes it reverts back to the more aggressive all-green form and tries to take over the world. So avoid both forms.

Let’s face it: Plants take advantage of us if they can. We like good-looking, interesting plants, so they put on a good show. But among the good ones, there are those aggressive thugs that deserve no mercy. All you can do is be attentive and act quickly when a new plant starts to take over your gardens.

Featured photo: Goutweed will outcompete any other plants and is difficult to eradicate