Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, November 11

Hi, everybody! How are you doing on this Veterans Day? Anything in your garden? Outdoors your neighborhood? The lovely photo above is from Tom Servo:

Hello Katy! attached are a couple of shots of a favorite planting of mine which always blooms very late in the year, the Confederate Rose. Used to be muchmore common, hence the name, and it is primarily is grown from cuttings, not seed.

Scientific name Hibiscus mutabilis, because the flowers change color
continually over time; you can see that in this photo. (they start off light, and
get darker over time) Look forward to your weekend post as always!

Unusual to have a flower that starts blooming so late, and also one with such an intriguing color change.

Thanks!

Edible Gardening/Putting Things By

Winter Zucchini:

Just picked our first ones and found the big sleeper at the back! Nan in AZ

Even in cool weather, there's always one that gets away. They look great!

And more:

Beans, beets, tomatoes coming along . . .

Winter Garden!!!! I see something growing with the beans in that second photo. And you might be able to get some baby beet thinnings soon.

Last Sunday was the second time CBD had uncharacteristically featured the same vegetable, "Broccolini" in his Food Thread. He mentioned its high cost both times.

I thought it might be time to review the possibilities of growing it in the garden. Park Seed has two varieties that come up when you type in "Broccolini":

Aspabroc is the original Broccolini , developed more than 20 years ago and often imitated since. It is a cross of two types of broccoli: Italian Sprouting and Chinese Kale or Gai Lan, a leafy, thick-stemmed type with fabulous flavor. Aspabroc takes its name from the asparagus look and texture of its slender, succulent stems, but this is 100% broccoli, with a peppery-sweet bite you will savor.

This gourmet variety is delicious from top to bottom, with really exceptional flavor and texture. But what you may appreciate just as much, as a gardener, is its yields. Once you harvest the central crown (which you can do at about 50 days; it will be small but scrumptious), about 5 or 6 side-shoots will appear. A little more than a week later, these can be harvested as well, so that new ones grow. The process repeats for more than a month. That's an amazing harvest from every plant, and the later side-shoots are just as delectable as the first ones.

Unlike traditional broccoli, Aspabroc has tender stems all the way to the ground, with small, delicious leaves. Occasionally a rogue yellow flower will set, especially if you are growing this Broccolini in late spring in a warm climate. Go ahead and eat the flower, too--you'll be surprised at how good it is. And the stems are slender and smooth, so you need never peel or chop them.

The key to harvesting Aspabroc is to cut that central crown as soon as it's formed.

Artwork Hybrid: This award-winning variety begins as an ordinary crown broccoli--the big "headed" type we all grew up eating--but once you cut or pinch off the central crown, long side-shoots begin to arise, packed with succulent flavor. Cut them at anywhere from 6 to 8 inches long and new ones will spring up to replace them. Before you know it, you've harvested up to 20 gourmet "sweet stem" broccoli shoots, and Artwork is the last broccoli in the garden still producing.

The secret to getting the most out of Artwork is to get rid of that central crown quickly. Cut it for eating when it's just an inch or so in diameter, or pinch it away even sooner if you don't need to harvest it. As soon as you do, the side-shoots begin to take off. Expect the first ones to be ready for harvest about 10 days after you've removed the central crown. Cut them promptly, and get ready to watch their replacements appear.

Many broccoli are better suited to crowning than to side shoot production because they tend to bolt (begin flowering) in hot weather--and hot weather is exactly what most of us have all summer long in the garden. Artwork, on the other hand, is very bolt-resistant, keeping its tight beads even when the temperature climbs. This gives you many more weeks of production . . . and means that new side-shoots can arise even in late summer, when other sweet stem broccoli varieties are done.

Artwork reaches about 8 inches wide and can top out at close to 2 feet, depending on how tall you let it grow. It has a tender texture right to the base of the stem, and richly flavored beads that top the stems like icing on the cake. Expect 10 to 20 side-shoots from every plant, plus the central crown. That's a lot of gourmet deliciousness from a single plant.

There are also other catalogs that carry seeds for these plants.

Around here, they grow a commercial broccoli which produces a number of medium-sized, sweet crowns great for bunching. Though the stems are best peeled, the flavor is sweet, sort of like Broccolini.

Nature

Via Bird Dog at Maggie's Farm, Cornell's profile on the Wood Thrush. The page includes lots of information on habits and identification, photos and videos, with great recordings of the bird's songs.

The reclusive Wood Thrush hops through leaf litter on the forest floor, probing for insects, bobbing upright between spurts of digging and leaf-turning. The male's clear, flute-like song echoes through the forest in spring and early summer, and both sexes make distinctive, machine-gun-like alarm notes.

They can sometimes be seen when migrating:

The Wood Thrush breeds in deciduous and mixed forests in the eastern U.S. where there are large trees, moderate understory, shade, and abundant leaf litter for foraging. They winter in lowland tropical forests in Central America.

American bluebirds are also in the thrush family. Near the bottom of the page, see links to pages for the Eastern Bluebird, Western Bluebird and Mountain Bluebird.

Male Mountain Bluebirds lend a bit of cerulean sparkle to open habitats across much of western North America. You may spot these cavity-nesters flitting between perches in mountain meadows, in burned or cut-over areas, or where prairie meets forest--especially in places where people have provided nest boxes. Unlike many thrushes, Mountain Bluebirds hunt insects from perches or while on the wing, at times resembling a tiny American Kestrel with their long wings, hovering flight, and quick dives.

In the right places it can be a snap to find Mountain Bluebirds, as they are not shy of humans and live in fairly open country. They sit in the open on perches such as treetops, fence posts, and power lines. In summer in rural areas and ranches, particularly at higher elevations, you can often find them simply by driving rural roads and eyeballing such potential perches. In forested areas, look for them in large openings, particularly if there are aspen in the vicinity (aspen is a key cavity-providing tree in western montane forests). In winter, search for areas with berry-laden junipers and watch for flocks of birds feeding on those berries. Mountain Bluebirds often mix with Western Bluebirds, American Robins, and Cedar Waxwings when taking advantage of such fruity abundance.

Historically, the Mountain Bluebird depended for nest sites on forest tree cavities excavated by woodpeckers. Today, many Mountain Bluebirds breed in artificial nest boxes, which tend to be situated in more open areas and have smaller openings to keep out marauders and bad weather. Most of what we know about Mountain Bluebirds comes from studies of these human-made nesting sites.

A female Mountain Bluebird pays more attention to good nest sites than to attractive males. She chooses her mate solely on the basis of the location and quality of the nesting cavity he offers her--disregarding his attributes as a singer, a flier, or a looker.

Directions for making nesting boxes are found at the link above.

Here's an interesting video on dramatic bluebirds of the Himalayas. Scientists are still scratching their heads about possible impacts of global warming on the birds, according to the end of the video. Heh.

Adventure and Science

The Cantalloc Aqueducts, built by the Nazca people in the Peruvian desert 1,500 years ago, are still in use today. The uniquely shaped holes allow wind to blow into a series of underground canals, forcing water from underground aquifers into areas where it is most needed.The Cantalloc Aqueducts, built by the Nazca people in the Peruvian desert 1,500 years ago, are still in use today. The uniquely shaped holes allow wind to blow into a series of underground canals, forcing water from underground aquifers into areas where it is most needed.

Gardens of The Horde

Anything going on in your garden?

Hope everyone has a Veterans Day and a nice weekend.

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Week in Review

What has changed since last week's thread? Gardening, Puttering and Adventure Thread, Nov. 4

Any thoughts or questions?

I closed the comments on this post so you wouldn't get banned for commenting on a week-old post, but don't try it anyway.

posted by K.T. at 01:29 PM

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