Planting broccoli and beans, and a triumphant return

Sunflowers, 10/9/12

It's finally gotten cold enough in the last week for me to feel okay planting broccoli and beans, which I did the day before yesterday.  When I went to write about it, I realized I never caught up after my trip home.  I was supposed to text my roommate to remind her to water the garden while I was away, and I realized, on my fourth day home, that I had failed to do so.  Big oops.  My flight got in at midnight on the 9th, and I had class all day the next day, so I didn't get a chance to visit A4 until around 4:30 that afternoon.  I was pleasantly surprised: not only did nothing die, but everything looked happier, healthier, and bigger than when I left.  Maybe I should ask Cheryl to water the garden more often!  The first thing I noticed (from across the farm, since they were visible on my walk over to my plot) were my sunflowers, now considerably taller and bushier, with many sets of true leaves.  The tallest sunflowers are now about 18" high.

Blue Jade corn, 10/22/12

The nearby corn and melons were also thriving, which they have continued to do since I got back--we've had lots of sun and a decent amount of heat, which they love.  The tallest of the corn plants, at right, is now about 12" high and has started sending off shoots to the side.  Some of the leaves are also slightly tinged purple.  One more melon had actually germinated while I was gone, a few weeks behind its friends, which then all had one or two pairs of true leaves.  They've kept up slow and steady, even languorous, growth, and are starting to sprawl down the south and west sides of their hill.  Even the fragile week-old tomato seedlings were doing well enough when I got back that I could separate them where they'd gotten clumped together.  Now they all have true leaves, and the biggest plant has 3 sets of true leaves.  So far the big problem with the tomatoes is that I marked my rows, but I didn't label them, so I can't for the life of me remember which is supposed to be the paste tomato and which is supposed to be the Gold Medal beefsteak.  Ultimately, I'll find out when they set fruit, and cross-pollination isn't a big deal since I'm not trying to save the seeds from these tomatoes, but it'd be nice to know.

Tomato 10/22/12, with true leaves

Fast forward two weeks, and we're now having daytime highs in the 70s and 80s, and overnight lows in the 40s and 50s.  This is what passes for fall in California.  (Thinking the 40s constituted virtually Arctic temperatures, my roommate turned on the heat last night; I, by contrast, woke up sweating, kicked all the covers off, and opened the window.  I had to explain the concept of more than one blanket, because while she can always put on more clothes and blankets, I can only take so many off.)  I'd been waiting on the cool weather crops, because when I first planted the lettuce and spinach the soil was too warm for them to even germinate.  So when the thermometer hit 42 one night, I decided it was probably time for what I think of as the fall set: kale, late string beans, broccoli, even peas.  My inclination with the peas would be to wait, but some people in nearby plots have successfully started theirs already, so that's the project for the weekend: put up some trellises and plant the peas.

Like I said earlier, I already planted the beans and the broccoli.  The beans are my favorite bush bean varietal, Royalty Purple Pod.  The flowers and pods of the beans are deep purple, while the inside of the bean is kiwi-green.  They are tender, flavorful, sweet without being sugary, and delicious raw or cooked.  Cooked, they turn from purple to green.  My mom has declared this her all-time favorite string bean.  The broccoli doesn't have the same storied history with me; it's a varietal called Romanesco that I'm trying for the first time this fall.  The picture on the seed packet shows whorled, apple-green florets.  I'm curious to see how the broccoli turns out, especially since I've found the best way to get to know a vegetable or varietal is to grow it myself.  I thought I knew what all potatoes, lettuce, and radishes tasted like until I grew them, so maybe broccoli is the same way.