The Coastal Gardener - March, 2004
Spring stirrings in the vegetable garden
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I am always thinking of facts and details to add to each Roundup column, some obvious, but important observations; others details that are not so obvious. One is about onions.
I just got my onions in the ground a few weeks back. Every year I purchase onion sets, which are year old seedlings sent bareroot. Once planted, the sets plump up into large round bulbs that are ready to harvest in August. I could grow onions from seed, but I would have to wait until winter for harvest leaving the bulbs more likley to be attacted by pests. I purchase short day length onion varieties from Dixondale Farms. They offer short and medium day length onions, such as Southern Belle and Stockton Red. Onions need a certain amount of day light hours to form large bulbs. When buying, select onions that will perform in the short day length summers (10 to 12 hours of daylight) of Big Sur and southwards. Higher latitudes, such as Vancouver or New York or London, have longer days (14 to 16 hours) in summer where gardeners grow varieties often seen in stores. It's one of those little things that you never hear about but is so important to growing good onions.
As March progresses, tomatoes will start to appear at every garden center and nursery. I don't care for tomatoes myself (which is still a huge mystery to my friends. I spend so many summer dinner parties being lectured across a salad plate on the virtues of a vine ripe fruit ), but I spend much time examining seed catalogs to choose the best varieties for my garden. Looking back through my garden journals, I note that I have grown the golden cherry tomato Sungold for with much success. Sungold is very small, about the size of a nickel, golden to brightest chartreuse, sweet and delicious (I rely on my dinner guests as taste testers), perfect for snacks and in salads. I harvested Sungold starting in late May and plucked the last fruit in November. The long harvest has a lot to do with it being an Indeterminate tomato, that is, a tomato that has no definite fruiting period. Indeterminate plants will fruit over a long period, perfect for our long summer, but have a rampant rangy habit that is hard to control. A single healthy indeterminate plant can be 10 ft across in September. Determinate tomatoes fruit during a brief window of time and are better for people with short summers or who are interested in canning. Determinate plants grow as smaller neat bushes and often need no staking.
My journal notes also made much of a new variety for me, the grape-shaped Isis Candy. Perfectly gold, born in clusters of 4 or 6 and much lauded when served with a saucer of garlic aoili. Both tomatoes are available from Upstarts Organic at Valley Hills in Carmel Valley or through mail order from Territorial Seeds.
Besides tomatos thoughts, I record the high and low temperatures for each day along with the activities of the garden in the journal. I also remark on the wind and humidity in summer, especially low humidity which effects my watering practices. From the pages of my journal I know that I planted X-15 Marigolds on March 28th and they did just fine, but that windy weather later scorched the last daffodils and prompted a note to move them to a more protected spot next fall. Now I pot the daffodils up in 2 gallon cans to decorate my new dining patio when they bloom. The journal reminds me when I last spread manure or sprayed for rust, I look back through the pages to gauge the success of planting schemes past. Botanical lapses in judgment take on more importance in the journal as learning tools less as a simple waste of time and money. A journal makes you more aware of your garden as you reflect upon your activities and helps you anticipate the challenges and excitements to come.
More next month,
Enjoy! Dave Egbert
