Fenton Friday: It's Blackberry Time

Much better news from the garden plot this week after last week's bus crash incident.

I cleaned up the pollinator garden area - raking out many pieces of metal, concrete, and other odd debris. A few pieces of Milkweed and Calendula are actually showing new life and sending out new leaves! I planted several Lemon Basil plants, a few Thai Peppers, and assorted other herbs along with some Calendula seedlings I still had on hand as well as a row of Marigold seeds. Then I re-set the "Pollinator & Herb Garden" sign.

In our own community garden plot, I harvested Lettuce for a couple of salads and cut scapes off the Garlic. I plan to make some fresh pesto with the latter in a few days. 

The Dahlia plants that overwintered there are growing quite large and I need to make time next week to get the cutting garden section seeded and planted.

I took the new interns over to show them around. Next week, we'll plant the Tomatoes, Peppers, and Eggplant. 

The big news though is that the first Blackberry ripened his week and I picked another handful today. I think I'll get a few quarts of them by early next week. That is, if my mesh netting and fake snake (https://amzn.to/3X66Loi -- Amazon affiliate link) do their jobs of keeping birds and squirrels away.

What are you growing in your edible garden this week?

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 13th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

Fenton Friday: Blackberry Sauce

This week was a very strange one. We had several code orange/red/'purple days in a row due to wildfire smoke from Canada, and that meant hardly any time outside at all - much less at the plot. We also had pretty much zero rain -- again. This is the driest spring I can recall and it is getting really tiresome already having to go over and water just to keep things alive, when I'd rather spend that time more productively planting things that are much delayed and clearing out weeds.

We did manage to plant two mounds of Zucchini seeds ('Dark Star' and 'Incredible Escalator', a climbing variety) and several kinds of Peppers ('Fish', 'Cherry Pick', 'Prism', 'Lunchbox', and 'Where's the Heat,' a sweet habenero). These are the same pepper seedling plants that the baby bunny chewed down to the nub. Thankfully, they already started putting on new growth a few days later and should be fine now. 

I picked a quart of blackberries on one day and then another 4+ cups on another day. The second picking of berries I made into Blackberry refrigerator jam -- well, it was more sauce-like than jam, but it should still be delicious on poundcake, ice cream, etc.

I pulled out one Garlic to test it and it is definitely of harvestable size, so I'll pull the rest in the next few days and hang it for curing. That will free up space to sow our cutting garden flowers.

I also picked some more Pea pods this week, but the pea plants are looking very tired so I think that is the last of them. The Spinach has also now bolted so I'll be pulling that out soon too.

The Lettuces and Arugula are still under a shade cloth, so should hang on for a few more harvests.

I picked lots of edible "rat tail" seed pods from the bolted Daikon Radish. They are delicious tossed on a salad. What I didn't anticipate is that the kittens (turrning one-year-old now) also love the radish seed pods. They grab several of them as soon as I bring them in the kitchen and play with them for hours. I'm sure several are under my oven right now.

How is your garden plot growing this week?

 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 12th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See  past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

Fenton Friday: Blackberry Ripening

We finally got some good rain over the Memorial Day weekend.

I picked some more ripe Strawberries and Pea pods this week. I also made a few salads with the Spinach, Arugula, and Lettuce.

The Garlic will likely need pulling soon as the tops are browning off.

I still have not put a cover cloth on the Potato plants (to keep out the Colorado Potato Beetle coming soon), but I'll try to attend to that this week!

The berries on the Blackberry plants are ripening and I snacked on a few as I weeded the plot a bit. I'll go over with a container tomorrow to see if I can gather enough to make Blackberry Crumble or another dessert for my birthday on Sunday.

The bolted Daikon Radish is forming nice "rat tail" seed pods. I sampled a few and they are quite tasty, so I need to get back over and harvest some more before they get too tough to eat.

The new interns started this week and next week we'll be planting Cosmos, Zinnias, Zucchini, and Peppers. Speaking of which, some of the pepper seedlings in the tray on my driveway got mowed down last night! I think it was the 'Cherry Pick' ones. I suspect the baby bunny that has been hanging around. Little jerk! Hopefully, the seedlings will recover, but at least we have a few other varieties we can plant if those don't bounce back.

How is your garden plot growing this week?

 

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 12th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above (at the top, left on this blog).

GardenDC Podcast Episode 139: Bountiful Berries

In this episode of GardenDC: The Podcast about Mid-Atlantic Gardening, we talk with Kristen Pullen the Woody Ornamental Portfolio Manager at Star® Roses and Plants all about growing bountiful berries in small spaces. The plant profile is on Phlox stolonifera and we share what's going on in the garden as well as some upcoming local gardening events in the What's New segment. We close out with Christy Wilhelmi, founder of Gardenerd, who shares the Last Word on Composting.

BTW, YOU can become a listener supporter for as little as $0.99 per month! 

See how at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/support.

Show Notes:

01:23 Meet Kristen Pullen, the Woody Ornamental Portfolio Manager at Star Roses and Plants 01:53 Was Kristen born with a green thumb and chlorophyll in her veins? 03:28 Going outside during college labs changed Kristen’s career path. 05:26 Longwood Gardens’ plantings are tested before being installed for public display. 08:11 Kristen’s preferences for her Pennsylvania home garden. 09:20 What are Bushel and Berry plants? 11:16 If you grew berries for a living, you’d bring your work home too. 13:15 ‘Perpetua’ blueberries – gives you two crops of fruit. 14:16 ‘Peach Sorbet’ has peachy-red new growth in the spring. 14:30 ‘Pink Icing’ has nearly neon pink new growth. 15:21 Hanging basket varieties have the deepest red foliage in the fall. 18:00 The berries are always marketed with taste profiles. 19:52 Blueberry plants in containers need at least one acid treatment per season. 21:24 The dreaded four letter words: deer and bird. 22:59 “The birds are smart.” 24:21 Deer are not brave. 25:48 Go vertical! 27:10 June-bearing and ever-bearing strawberries. 28:56 Picking and snacking berries – not enough to make your grandma’s secret jam recipe. 32:20 What do I do with container-grown berries when we have wet winters? 34:15 All about fertilizing your berry plants. 36:20 These raspberry plants are trained to be child- and pet-friendly. 40:44 Blackberry flavors – ‘Baby Cakes’ 41:19 Raspberry ‘Shortcake’ is sweeter than store berries. 42:00 The future of Bushel and Berry is expanding outside of berries! 44:38 Rose-breeding projects: larger hips or compact plants? 46:53 Phlox stolonifera: this week’s Plant Profile. 49:01 Garden updates: magnolias and daffodils are in bloom! 50:14 February 2023 edition of Washington Gardener Magazine is out! 50:57 Upcoming events: Native Plant Open House Sale; Creating a Wildlife Habitat Under in Our Powerline Corridors; Winter Landscape Design Lecture: American Roots. 52:40 “The Urban Garden” by Kathy Jentz and Teri Speight 53:40 “Groundcover Revolution” by Kathy Jentz. 55:00 The Last Word on Composting by Gardenerd’s Christy Wilhelmi.

If you liked this episode, you may also enjoy listening to:

~ GardenDC Podcast Episode 22: Fruit Trees, Crape Myrtle, and Low-Maintenance Lawn Alternatives
https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2020/08/gardendc-podcast-episode-22-fruit-trees.html

~ GardenDC Podcast Episode 82: Persimmons and Other Unusual Fall Fruits

https://washingtongardener.blogspot.com/2021/11/gardendc-podcast-episode-82-persimmons.html

This episode is archived at: 

https://anchor.fm/gardendc/episodes/Bountiful-Berries-e1vfog6

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We welcome your questions and comments! You can leave a voice mail message for us at: https://anchor.fm/gardendc/message Note that we may use these messages on a future episode.

And be sure to leave us a 5-star review on your favorite podcast platform plus share us on social media with #GardenDC, so other gardeners can find us too!

Episode Credits:

Host and Producer: Kathy Jentz

Editing and Show Notes: Jessica Harden

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Learn more about the Bushel and Berry collection

Fenton Friday: Closing out the Season

This will be the last update from our plot at the community garden for this year. This week we had some warm weather and I went over a few times to pull out the remaining warm-season plants that got zapped by a freeze last week. That included okra, marigolds, tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, and Holy Basil. I also cut back all the asparagus foliage, moved some of the strawberry runners, and trimmed up some of the overwintering herbs. The recently planted garlic has not sent up any foliage yet, but I expect it to do so soon.

Left in for now are broccoli, lettuce, arugula, peas, and radishes. I expect to dig some of the radishes in a week or two, but the rest should stay in and I will check on them occasionally to see if I can harvest a few salads over the early winter.

I also finally got a chance to plant the two 'Navaho' Thornless Blackberry plants at the back of my plot. The poor things have been sitting in pots in part shade on my driveway all year. I think they should be much happier now!

About Fenton Friday: Every Friday during the growing season, I'll be giving you an update on my community garden plot at the Fenton Street Community Garden just across the street from my house in zone 7 Mid-Atlantic MD/DC border. I'm plot #16. It is a 10 ft x 20 ft space and this is our 8th year in the garden. (It opened in May 2011.) See past posts about our edible garden by putting "Fenton" into the Search box above.