Tag Archives: growing Asian vegetables

Maximizing Space

January 21, 2018 P&B 1 Comment

Growing Vertically

We devote only a small part of our backyard for vegetable gardening and I’m always looking for a way to add more plants and increase productivity in the existing space. Though we have put a deer fence up around our backyard, we still have to put a low fence around the vegetable garden. If we don’t, there would be nothing left. Deer cannot get in our back yard but rabbits, woodchucks, squirrels and chipmunks are still able to sneak in and enjoy what we grow. So we are limited to growing vegetables within this little fenced in area, therefore I try to make every inch work to its maximum productivity.

Looking back at the last season, I note what worked and integrate it into the coming season along with whatever adaptation increases efficiency. The method described below can be used for any plants that grow vertically, not just vegetables.

Aside from incorporating different plants in any one plot, I also grow vertically. While most gardeners grow beans on a cone shaped ‘teepee’ I believe, I put up a trellis for beans that’s over the path, high enough to walk under, and grow beans on each side. Last season, I put one up by the vegetable garden entrance. It worked well and when the beans were fully grown and had developed pods, it looked beautiful and provided easy access for picking the beans too. The trellis can be moved to any part of the garden easily when needed or I can grow different vegetables on it.

The bean trellis early last July. You can see the netted frame structure behind it.

Toward the end of July, beans have grown to cover the trellis with plenty of pods. It’s easy to walk under when picking beans.

I’m not sure what type of beans these are but their ancestry is Italian. My neighbor brought the seeds back years ago and we have been growing them ever since. They are delicious as young pods as well as dried beans later.

Once the weather was warm enough to remove the plastic from the cold frame, I put up a net in its place, see the first photo, to filter and soften the sunlight. It reduces the light by about 50%. Leafy vegetables like lettuce, Mitzuna, and Pac Choi prefer a little shade. In the middle of summer, when the temperature is high and the sunlight is strong, these leafy vegetable will bolt easily and the lettuce will turn bitter. With shade over them, they can take their time to grow, their leaves are crisp and sweet and the soil will dry more slowly. I grow Bitter melon on the side of the frame structure and let them entwine themselves up the frame. I gradually roll back the filtering net as the melon plant grows allowing it to take over shading the vegetables below.

Bittermelon growing up the frame (see first photo) and completely covering the top of the structure, providing shade for the leafy vegetables below.

The melon fruit hangs down making them easy to pick

Early in the season when the structure still cover with a filtering net. Vegetable that do well in semi-shade here are-Left front to back- Wasabi Arugula, Chinese broccoli, two types of lettuce. Right front to back- Mizuna, three types of Mustard greens

Later on when the melon plants cover the structure, I put in more lettuce like ‘Spotted Trout’ and ‘Truchas’

One down side of having the vegetables grow up the frame is that I have to cut them all down when the temperature threatens to drop close to freezing. I need to put the plastic back on and turn it back into a cold frame again. Most gardeners leave the plastic on but open the ends of the structure to let the air flow through in summer. I could have done the same but I would lose growing space on the top of the structure. I would also have to put a smaller frame over one of the 3’X18′ plots and cover it with a sunlight filtering net to grow these vegetable in the heat of summer. I prefer to kill two birds with one stone: shade the vegetables and have extra growing space.

Vegetables & Herbs

New Vegetables This Year

July 9, 2014 P&B 2 Comments

Edible Chrysanthemum

I’ve been thinking of growing Edible Chrysanthemum for years but have never gotten around to it until this year. Either it was too early or too late in the growing season to sow the seeds, or I ran out of space. This spring was too cold to grow a lot of leafy vegetables so I decided to sow chrysanthemum since it loves cool weather. One package was a couple of years old (the oval leaf) but has sprouted anyway albeit a bit slowly. The freshly purchased this year (serrated-leaf) sprouted up really fast though.

Edible Chrysanthemum (Chrysanthemum coronarium) aka Tang Ho (Chinese), Shungiku (Japanese), Tang Oh (Thai), Kelsang (Tibetan) is an edible green that can be eaten raw or cooked. It tastes similar to spinach but has a stronger flavor. The most common uses are in soup, stir-fry and in salad. I don’t really know how many varieties there are in total but I grow two different kinds; the smooth oval leaf and the serrated-leaf. The taste is not much different between them.

It can be direct sown in the ground once the frost has passed. I sow them in rows like spinach and thin them when they get around 1.5 inches tall and use them in salads. The whole plant can be pulled out or just cut above the leaf node and it will grow back between the leaves. When the temperature gets too hot, I cover them with a net to filter out some of the sunlight to prolong their life span. As much as they don’t like hot weather, covering them with a net really helps. I also let some of them flower for the bees and to provide seeds for next year.

I no longer have to go to Chinatown to get an expensive, wilted bunch when I have a craving for them. But I will have to pull them out once their flowers have matured and sow another set for a fall harvest.

Edible chrysanthemum are as easy to grow as other greens and their flowers are pretty too.

Rows of serrated-leaf Edible Chrysanthemum

Flower up close, looks like a miniature sunflower

Vegetables & Herbs

Benefits Of A Cold Frame

May 1, 2014 P&B 2 Comments

Early Bounty

We set up a cold frame for the first time last autumn but it didn’t do much for us this winter because we installed it so late in the season. However, it provided us with a place to start our vegetables early. The seeds were sown in March when some days were still hovering around 20ºF here. We were able to pick our first salad of the season in April when temperatures outside were in the mid 30ºF to low 50ºF.

The weather is still unpredictable. Temperatures have been swinging between 70ºF daytime and a low around 40ºF at night. It’s still too cold for many vegetables to germinate outside, but I have sown scallion, Mustard ‘Dragon Tongue’ and Oakleaf lettuce in the plot outside the cold frame and it seems to be taking them a little bit longer to sprout. But I can wait as I still have a lot of vegetables to pick from in the cold frame.

Aside from being able to grow leafy vegetables in the cold frame on an early schedule, I’m also able to use it for strengthening the seedlings. Plenty of sunlight can get through the plastic but not direct sun and it stays warm enough in there to avoid stunting the growth of the seedlings. I have to be careful to open it up during the day when the temperature reaches above 50ºF. It becomes a sauna in there if I don’t open it. Too hot or too cold is never good for growing anything.

This one worked so well that I’m tempted to get a larger one that will cover the entire vegetable plot. Maybe I could go through winter without ever buying salad from a store.

Plenty of Pac Choi and Red-leaf lettuce in there with flowering Broccoli Raab in the background

French Breakfast and Cherry Belle Radish with Kale and self-sown Dills and Calendula

Petals and Wings