Favorite Annuals You Can Plant For Seed

 Summer annuals are an easy way to add pops of color to your beds and to attract pollinators into your garden. You can devote an entire bed to flowers or interplant them among veggies and herbs.  They are easy to grow from seed or easily found as transplants.  May is the month to plant both seeds and transplants after risk or frost is over.  Here are some of my favorites:

Zinnias

These are absolutely one of my favorite annuals!  Zinnias come in a wide range of colors and sizes.  I love the giant zinnias.  They make beautiful cut flowers and will give you blooms summer thru fall if you  headeadhead them.

Cosmos

Cosmos is a delicate feathery multi stemmed beauty.  Easy to grow from seed.  Cosmos makes a nice backdrop in a flower bed. These wispy beauties come in a range of colors and petal

Calendula

Calendula is also known as Pot Marigold.  It is grown as a medicinal herb, companion planting or for its pop of bright orange, gold, and yellow blooms. There are varieties that are shades of pinks. You can save seeds and replant the following year. 

Bachelor Button

Bachelor Buttons come in gorgeous blues and purples.  They are gorgeous interplanted with cosmos and poppies.  Bachelor Button can tolerate afternoon shade.  After the first bloom cut back to just above next set of leaves.  After second bloom remove and replace with another flower. You can leave a few plants to save seeds.

Sunflower

There are endless options with sunflowers. They make a huge impact in a garden coming in many sizes.  Consider an entire bed of different varieties.  There are multi stemmed varieties and those that produce a single flower bred to be used as cut flowers.  Kids love growing Giant Sunflowers and saving seeds.  You can leave the seedbeds in the garden and enjoy the birds that visit to collect the seeds.  They will reseed if left in a bed.

Nasturtiums

These little gems have a trailing habit and are beautiful interplanted among cucumbers or summer squash.  All part of nasturtiums are edible.  Flowers are frequently added to salads or frozen in ice cubes to add to summer drinks.  

Morning Glory

Morning Glories are a flowering vine.  They have brilliant almost florescent colors that open in the morning and close up in the evening. These are aggressive climbers and can become invasive.  Their blooms are exquisite.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Gardening naturally leads to cooking and preserving. I love finding delicious ways to prepare my produce. This one of my favorite salads with spinach, green onions and strawberries from my garden.

Strawberry Spinach Salad

Dressing:

1/2 cup of a healthy oil like olive, grapeseed, or avocado

1/4 cup chopped onion

2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp cider or red wine vinegar

2 Tbsp plus 2 tsp sugar

1 1/2 tsp ground mustard

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 1/2 tsp poppy seeds

6-8 cups torn spinach leaves you can remove the stems
3 green onions sliced
2 pints fresh strawberries
Silvered almonds or chopped pecans you can candy them if desired.
Raw sunflower seeds

I mix the dressing in a small slicer or you can shake it up in a canning jar. Pour the dressing over when you are ready to eat. Enjoy!!

Mix dressing this way or shake in a canning jar.

Even better with fresh strawberries from your garden.  Real strawberries are red all the way through.

Growing Spinach

Spinach has specific growing requirements and if you procrastinate you will miss out on this delicious  and nutritious green.

Spinach needs a good 6 weeks of cool weather.  It can be planted when soil temperatures are 55-65 degrees or as soon as your ground can be worked  It will not germinate well in soils that are above 70 degrees.  It is not a summer crops  It can be sown again in fall and protected under row covers for late fall harvests.

The spinach plant is daylength sensitive.  This means it waits until there are a certain number of daylight hours and that is the signal to bolt or set seed. When daylight hours reach 12-15, your spinach knows it's time to produce seeds. It is at this point that you can determine the sex of you plants if that is important to you.  If you save seed that will be a factor. You need both male and female plants.

 Keep in mind that spinach is wind pollinated and the pollen is very fine and travels far.  You can only save seed from one variety and must have both male and female plants.  

Types of Spinach

There are two types of spinach leaves:  smooth and savoyed or wrinkled.  Some people prefer the smooth, but I like both and plant some of both.  The seed  type can be used to determine the leaf type.  The smooth seed produces wrinkled leaves while the prickly seed produces smooth leaves.  

Planting Guides

Spinach should be seeded directly in the garden it does not like to be transplanted. It can usually be seeded 3-4 weeks before the last frost date which for me is May 14th.  If I count back 4 weeks, that means around mid April 1st can begin planting.  If weather permits and the soil has warmed up, I plant even early and use a low tunnel or floating row covers.

 Give the plants ample space.  No more than 4 per square foot.  It is a good idea to successive plant every couple weeks in early spring but stop planting if you do not have 6 weeks of cool weather remaining.  It does not like temperature above 75 nor does spinach do well in fluctuating temperatures.

Plant in a soil with plenty of organic matter worked in and a dry organic fertilizer.  I use a mixture of bone meal and blood meal.  Fertilizing is not usually necessary after that as long as you prepared your soil.  Mulch around the seedlings and water regularly.  Spinach is very cold hardy and can survive in temperature as low as 15-20 degrees. 

Harvesting

I usually harvest the outer leaves so I can have a continuous harvest but the entire plant can be harvested.  The younger the leaves, the more tender and better flavored they are. Harvest in the morning.  Slightly rinse the leaves and store in a plastic container or plastic bag.  Do not clean thoroughly until you are ready to use the spinach.  

Spinach is store with lettuce and sorrel  in a large plastic air tight container.

I enjoy spinach raw in spinach salads or mixed with other greens. It's also very good in place of lettuce on sandwiches.  It is very nutritious with vitamins A, B6, C, folate, calcium, and iron. 

Spinach Strawberry Salad

Pests and Disease of Spinach

Spinach can get leaf miners and Mosaic virus which is called spinach blight.

Leaf Miners

Brown  and tan blotches on the leaves are a sign of leaf miners.  The adult is a fly that pupates in the soil and lays white eggs on the under side of the leaf.  The larvae called maggots (yuck) enter the leaf and create leaf mines.  They are hard to kill with pesticides because they are inside the leaf.  I pull off infected leaves so that the larvae don't mature and feed to livestock or chickens.  To help control leaf miners, cultivate or turn over the soil where you plant spinach, chard, and beets to kill the pupae.  Row covers can also keep the adult from laying eggs on the leaves.

Spinach Blight

Plants infected with spinach blight just need to be pulled up.  There is no cure for viruses and they can be spread by insects feeding on various plants. 

Varieties of Spinach

Seasisde (H): My favorite variety!  Smooth, spade shaped leaves perfect for baby spinach.  Resistant to heat, early bolting and downy mildew.

Bloomsdale Longstanding (OP):  This is the standard for spinach.  It's my favorite.  It has deeply savoyed (wrinkled leaves) and is deep green and wonderfully flavored for salads.  The leaves are upright off the ground.  

America (OP)  A savoyed type that is supposed to be slow to bolt. A Bloomsdale longstanding type.  A new variety I am trying this year.

Space (F1):  A smooth leafed spinach with spoon shaped leaves. 

Tyee (F1):  This is slightly savoyed leaf.

Giant Noble (H):  Heirloom of 1926.  Very large leafed, tender

Melody (F1):  Also very large leaves with upright growth

Butterflay:  Another good variety but low to the ground and more susceptible to problems because of that.



There are lots of other varieties to try but my garden will always have Seaside and Bloomsdale Long Standing.

Summer Spinach

After all the talk about cool weather, both New Zealand Spinach and Malabar Spinach that can be grown in the summer.  The reason is that neither are a true spinach.

Malabar Spinach is a perennial vine in warm climates.  It prefers hot humid weather.  The leaves are used like spinach in salads.

New Zealand spinach needs warm soil to germinate and does not tolerate frost .  The leaves can be substituted in cooked dishes for spinach.  It is very high in oxalic acid which causes a flavor many people do not like.

Rhubarb Growing Tips & Recipes

 

Rhubarb is a lush large leafed perennial.  It adds a tropical touch to our high desert gardens.  With stalks ranging from deep crimson to green with a touch of red, it is truly a beautiful plant.  While leaves are toxic, the stalks are the prize used in pies, jams, lemonade, sauces, and breads.

Harvesting

Early spring is the time of year to harvest stalks unless it is a first year planting.  To harvest reach in to the base of the stalk and twist.  A perfect harvest comes away with part of the crown. Do not cut the stalks.   You can harvest up to 1/2 the stalks of established plants for 8-12 weeks. Stop harvesting after that to allow the plant to nourish the roots. Don't harvest from a 1st year planting.

 Lift and divide the plant every 5 years or when the stalks become thin.   Do this in early spring.  Lift the roots, divide into sections each with a visible bud, and put the old section in the compost pile.

When you twist off a stalk and smell the end it's amazing! A combination of sweet and tart!  I love it.  I've never tried this but heard that back in great grandmother's day they dipped the raw stalks in powdered jello and ate them like that. 

Stewed rhubarb with yogurt is also a delicious treat.

Another chore to help maintain a healthy continuous crop is to cut or pull out bud stalks which will develop into flowers. These stalks are hollow and will have a few leaves on them. Add them to your compost pile.

Flower buds developing on rhubarb.  Remove these.

Flowers of rhubarb. Remove before they get to this point. This is an ongoing chore.

Once you harvest rhubarb cut off the leaves to put in the compost pile. Don't feed to your chickens or livestock.  Rhubarb stores for a couple weeks in the refrigerator.  Rhubarb can be cut into 1/2" to 1" pieces, individually quick frozen on trays, and then put in freezer bags for use later in the season.  You can also freeze dry it.

Planting Rhubarb

Rhubarb is planted from rhizomes planted 2' deep.  Before planting dig a larger hole and amend it with compost and a handful of dry organic fertilizer.

Rhubarb tolerates afternoon shade and I recommend partial shade for our area.

Care of Rhubarb

In early spring, give a feeding of fish emulsion.  Clean up the area, add a dry organic fertilizer, and mulch with 2" of mulch.  Even moisture is important

Rhubarb Recipes

Click on the link below for the recipes.  Watch for new recipes this week. This is one of my favorite crops and should have a spot in every garden.

Strawberry Rhubarb Jam

Rhubarb Cake

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler (my favorite)

Rhubarb Crisp

Strawberry Rhubarb Lemonade 

 

Preparing your Soil in Raised Beds

Moon and Stars heirloom watermelon.

Preparing your garden beds

Put your money and time into building your soil.  That is the best garden investment you can make.  It will result in greater yields and fewer problems with pests and disease. Organic gardening is based on plant and soil biology. That’s why it works.

A Living Soil

Soil texture deals with the size of particles:  silts, clays, or sand.  Loam is a balance of these particle with 40% sand, 40% silts, and 20% clay which allows for good drainage and air and pore space for roots. 

The other very important element of soil is organic matter.  Soil texture does not determine fertility. That's good news because unless you have predominantly clay soil you can build fertility and a healthy soil biology and structure with the addition of organic matter.

For the most you can use your native soil and amend it with organic matter.  I would NOT, however, use a soil that is predominantly clay.

If your existing soil is clay, do not use.  You will have nothing but problems.  Bulk compost and soil can be purchased or perhaps a neighbor has native soil you can use. Bulk compost can be too high in salts. Ask to see a soil test on the bulk compost you are purchasing.

Caroline raspberries best to grow raspberries in a raised bed.

Preparing a New Raised Bed


If you are starting a new garden bed, rototil the soil and remove rocks and weeds. Build your bed frame and place over the soil.  I do not recommend putting screens on your raised beds. If you have gophers, screens make it impossible to trap the gophers and water will be  funneled down their tunnels.


Fill with a  sandy loam soil and 2"-3" of compost.  Broadcast evenly a dry organic fertilizer.  Using a shovel and incorporate everything into the soil. Water to get the soil to settle.  Remember do not walk on your beds.  

Jubilee sweet corn great for eating fresh, freezing, and canning.

Preparing an Existing Garden Bed

To prepare an existing bed, add 2 inches of compost and a dry organic fertilizer.  You do not need to work this into the soil if you have an established bed.  If you are new to organic gardening, then you will have to work the compost into the soil. Use a shovel to do this. 

Muskmelon or cantaloupe

Compost:  Poster Child of Organic Gardening

Buying compost can be confusing.  I do not use compost with time released chemical fertilizers or a lot of amendments.  

Compost is decomposed animal and plant material. Aged manures can also be used as compost.   

My favorite compost is Nutri-mulch (turkey manure and bedding) or any forest mulch without time release fertilizers.    Any compost will do.  Avoid those with time released chemical fertilizers.  That will only ensure you continually kill beneficial microbes in your soil.

In organic gardening, you feed the microbes and the microbes provide the nutrients for the plants.  Plants expend a lot of energy attracting specific bacteria and fungi to their root zones.  They enter into a beneficial relationship, each providing the other with what it needs.  The presence of beneficial microbes prevents the buildup of pathogenic microbes.  Using chemical fertilizers, destroys this relationship, kills microbes, and does not build your soil structure.

Adding compost provides organic matter for microbes , retains moisture, hold nutrients in the soil, builds soil structure, and makes plants healthy and happy.  So invest in compost!  It gets the job done.

My favorite compost and mulch.

Dry Organic Fertilizer:

You can purchase a balanced organic fertilizer which means it has Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), and Potassium (K). With organic fertilizers you do not need a different one for each plant variety. Just look for one that is for vegetables.  All organic fertilizers have some trace minerals because they are organic compounds.  For example blood meal will have iron, bone meal will have calcium etc.

I sometimes mix my own dry fertilizers.  You can use any meal or blood meal for nitrogen and bone meal for phosphorus.  I put greensand for potassium and trace mineral.  Azomite is another good product for minerals.  Azomite is a rock dust that is mined exclusively in Utah.  It is the result of a volcanic eruption into a seabed and contains the highest amount of minerals of the rock dusts. It will improve water retention in your soil also.

You can also purchase a complete dry organic fertilizer.  Espoma is a good brand it’s found in garden stores and on Amazon.

I put the dry organic fertilizer mix in a 5 gallon bucket and use it on the garden, berries, landscape and fruit trees. Everything also gets a layer or homemade or store bought compost.  I also add dry organic fertilizer to planting holes along with extra compost of heavy feeders. Remember organic fertilizers feed microbes not plants. The microbes then provide nutrients for the plants.

Birdhouse gourds a very aggressive vine fun to grow for kids.

Liquid Organic Fertilizers

Liquid fertilizers are also important especially in early spring when microbe activity is slow.  Liquid fertilizers are mixed with water in a water can and applied to soil around the plant or they can be put in a hand sprayer and used as a foliar spray on the leaves.   

Fish emulsion and liquid kelp are great options.  I feed seedlings when they have 4-6 leaves, again when buds form and flowers set,  and anytime a plant is stressed. 

Azomite can also be mixed with water.  Mix 2.5 tablespoons of azomite per gallon of water for lawns, gardens, trees and shrubs. Greensand is not water soluble and must be mixed incorporated into the soil.

Complete organic fertilizer.

Look what you can grow organically, healthy beautiful grand kids!

This picture is of my grandson "helping" his dad prepare a raspberry bed.  Having a chemical free yard means they can safely help, eat, and play in your yard and garden.