Welcome to the VegeBlog 2009!

This blog updates what is happening in the Organic Vegetable Garden at Potomac Overlook Regional Park (in reverse chronological order). Be sure to check back often to see what we've got "growing on"! For more information on the Garden, visit the Demonstration Gardens page.

• Wednesday, August 5--Today was critter day in the garden: squash bugs and white flies on the plants and a baby snake that had found shelter in a pot in the garden shed. We picked lots of beans from both the bush beans and the pole beans and lots of three types of basil. The tomatoes--all varieties--are looking great (now if the squirrels will just leave them to ripen), but the pepper plants are languishing. Trying to figure out why. Okra and yellow squash beginning to come in, and melon and winter squash vines of all sorts are growing fast. We donated today's excess bounty to the Langston-Brown senior center in Arlington.
• Wednesday, July 16--Obviously a fair amount of time since the last posting, but work has continued and the garden looks beautiful. Still lettuce, but some (like the Lolla Rosa) is very bitter. A better lettuce to look at than to eat. Have also harvested the first of the beautiful Swiss chard and beets. Picked bush beans, and the pole beans (planted two weeks later) are climbing up their very impressive supports. Tomatoes, of all varieties, are doing well, if only the squirrels will leave the ripening fruit alone this year, but pepper plants are struggling. Still not hot enough? Just not their year? Each week, we take home some of the produce to try (like the heirloom Dragon Tongue bush beans, new to some of us) and also giving surplus produce (including some fairly exotic things) to the Langston-Brown Senior Center and the Arlington Food Assistance Center.
• Wednesday, June 3--Two days of work (Tues p.m. and Wed a.m.) and much accomplished, finally. Harvested lots of different lettuce, arugula, spinach, etc. Radishes were a bit of a disappointment. Pulled them because they had bolted. The long white kind (beloved in Germany) just sulked this year. (Too hot too soon? Soil not loose enough?) Planted tomatoes (German Pink, Sweetie, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple), peppers (California Wax, Passillo Bajio, Poblano, Canary Bell, Marconi, CA Wonder), three kinds of eggplant, and leeks. With all this rain, at least there's no need to water!
• Wednesday, May 13--Finally, a SUNNY day in the garden. About 15 of us dug, laid out paths, readied the tomato beds, and planted two types of bush beans: the well-known Blue Lake and the more unusual Pencil Pod Black Wax. And we saw the first rewards for our efforts: picked lettuce and spinach and pulled the first radishes. A good day. It was great to have so many members of the 2009 class there!
• Wednesday, May 6 - We were able to get back in the garden again, muddy though it was, after being rained out the last two Wednesdays. Most of the lettuce is up, but the Lolla Rossa just did not germinate. Pretty name and pretty lettuce, but not if it won't grow. Planted more plants with captivating names: Bright Lights and Golden Sunrise chard and Bull's Blood beets.
• Wednesday, April 15 - OK, a miserable day weather-wise in the garden! A couple of us worked on weeding and mulching the paths. (Hey, when you're already wet and dirty, a little more rain and dirt doesn't matter.) Not much action on the plant front. Radishes planted last week are through and a little of the lettuce pushing up. Sunshine would help.
• Wednesday, April 8 - Another cold day in the garden, but at least sunny this time. Planted more cool-weather crops: endive, lettuce of many kinds, radishes, and spinach. No sign yet of the lettuce that we had planted last week. Regarding parsnips: Soup seemed to be the way most of us used the winter parsnips, with success depending on the initial liking for parsnips!
• Wednesday, April 1st - It was not the kind of day to entice would-be gardeners outside (and that is no joke!). It was cold, damp, gray, and dreary, but we needed to start sowing the seeds for the cool-weather crops because in Northern Virginia we need to keep ahead of the hot weather, which will come surprisingly soon and will cause the lettuce to bolt and the radishes to be hot and tough. So several of us gathered in our hats, gloves, and coats to ready the first bed by doing a final raking. We then planted four types of lettuce with intriguing names. The peas planted last week and the asparagus are already pushing up and giving us encouragement. It is the time in the gardening cycle when it is hard to imagine the bounty to come-but which will certainly not come unless the first seeds are put in the cold soil!
• Wednesday, March 18th - Today is the first workday actually in the garden. The garden groupies, having met in February to discuss the plans and plants for this season, started work in the garden on a cool, sunny, and beautiful day. We did some pruning of perennials and some weeding, but the main bulk of the work was in shoring up the edges of the beds with timber. We also added wood chips to the paths. Then we dug up the turnips and parsnips that had overwintered - what a struggle to get those huge parsnips out of the ground! Now the moment of truth is at hand: how do they taste?