Vegetable of the Week. MIZUNA.

Mizuna

Elegant, deep green and saw-toothed leaves have a mild yet tangy flavor. This tender green leaf lettuce makes an excellent mix for salads, stir fries and soups.

Serving Ideas

Mizuna is generally mixed with other lettuces to enhance the appearance, flavor, and nutritional value of salad. The leaves can be added to soups at the end of cooking; the heat of the broth will cook them sufficiently.

This information came from EVERGREENHERBS.

First week of CSA

Yesterday was our first veggie day of STARworks Garden CSA. 

There was a LOT to give out - lettuce, mizuna, collards, bak choi, some spinach,  arugula and cilantro. The first batch of radishes was already too big last week... carrots are still too small...

and lettuce is on it's last leg. 

I have learned something this year - we could have started our distribution about 2-3 weeks earlier with young lettuce, considering when I started the seeds. Growing vegetables is not rocket science, but it does take a few years of building up the experience. I have grown vegetables for my family for quite some years now, and I grew up on a farm... but growing food for other people is a little bit different. Planning the dates for starting seeds to transplanting to harvesting has to be a little more accurate. When I grow for myself I don't really care if I'm a few weeks early or late, and I can pick whenever I fancy, instead of set deadlines - so there is considerably less stress involved. 

Anyway, aside from being stressed about overgrown lettuce and my lack of planning experience

the garden looks great, stuff is growing, I'm planting peppers, tomatoes and basil in every space that becomes available from leafy greens... there is Swiss Chard ready to be picked at next week, yellow wax beans are starting to bloom, peas are forming a few pods...

All is good!

Wonky Doo # 2 and other stories

This Sunday Adam, the kids and I came to work - as the week days are not usually enough to get everything done... Adam graded the ground with Bobby (Bobcat). We think this site used to be a dump at some point - we're always unearthing  various pieces of metal, glass, bricks and whatnot. There also seems to be a layer of concrete poured on top , under a thin layer of gravel and dirt... when we grade the concrete breaks into chunks. I am using all those chunks to edge

flower beds...  

So anyway. Back to sunday. We built Wonky Doo # 2 right next to the original Wonky Doo. The grading work for our front yard walking trail will start next week, and we will use any topsoil from that project to dump it in the new bed, mix it with composted cow manure - and it will be ready to go!!! I have plenty of tomato, eggplant and pepper plants that are practically jumping out of their pots to get out of the greenhouse and into some open air.

This morning I built a lasagna bed on the north end of Wonky Doo # 2 to mach the one on the end of Wonky Doo # 1. I planted some Hollihocks, German Chamomile, Bee Balm in there.

I'm sort of experimenting with this lasagna method - using whatever we have available. I start with a layer of cardboard which is an abundant waste product in our building. I use it mainly to block the weeds. Today I laid a thick layer of spoiled hay on top of the cardboard and topped the lasagna off with about 4 -5 inches of composted cow manure. Eventually the hay will compost and add plenty of organic matter to the bed.
These pansies are in the flowerbed at the end of Wonky Doo #1. I gathered the seed from my grandmothers garden in Estonia few years ago and started the seeds in a flat last fall, not sure if anything would come up - as I am bad about freezing the seeds... about 8 plants made it through winter, and now they will be an abundant source of seed for next year! They are especially vigorous plants, in deep shade of purple - and fragrant.
So here is a little sampler of what you can expect in your next weeks share! I may flood you with lettuce...  I still have a lot of learning to do about planning ahead... 

Workshop pictures

Following are some pictures of the 4'th graders planting workshop that Hugh Martin from The Post sent me recently. I've no energy left today to write more... been outside all day building another bed around some beauty berry bushes. I planted some basil, borage and calendula in there, and scattered zinnia seeds. We need to grow more flowers in the garden:)

Where to start from...

oh boy. I have so much to do, it is hard to keep it all straight in my head! Yesterday we had a group of fourth graders in the garden planting flowers and herbs and scattering wildflower seed. I was so busy that I completely forgot to take pictures but we had two photographers in the garden, so hopefully they will share some pictures with us to put up here soon! 

Last week I Finally finished working on the rosemary bed. one of the rosemary plants died with the last frost we had, and few others were damaged, so I pulled out the dead one, replaced it with a lavender pant, pruned all the others and planted a Lantana at the end of the row. Then I used layers of cardboard that have been on the greenhouse floor to help soak up some of the water that collects there, to smother the weeds. 

Then I added a good amount of composted cow manure that we had delivered here recently by Barry Brown, and edged the bed with rocks. The rock part of it is still not finished...
I also cut the grass with a weed eater last week and planted the last of the lettuce plants. They really should have gone in the garden much faster than they did, I'm afraid some of them will bolt. I'll try to keep successive sowings of greens going until the end of may... we'll see how that goes this year. The plan is to build another raised bed in the garden on Sunday... I need more hoops for the row covers - as they REALLY help to control the micro climate under the covers - and keep the bugs out. The difference between the arugula grown out in the open compared to the the ones under row covers is like day and night... Also, the lettuce I planted under the row cover is about twice the size of that grown out in the open... That is one "artificial" application in the garden I recommend using!