Cool Season Planting & Spring Clean-Up

Hi gardening friends!

I hope you are taking advantage of this warm weather to start planting your edible
garden. Today's overcast skies and warm temperatures actually make perfect planting weather. This weekend we got our edible garden started by planting some cool season crops. Although, I should say that my husband planted our garden this weekend, while I supervised. Unfortunately I sprained my neck, so wearing a neck brace and sitting in a garden chair with our dog in my lap I relaxed and supervised my husband do all the planting.

In October we planted crimson clover cover crop in all of our raised beds. This overwintering cover crop helps boost the nitrogen absorption in the soil, prevents erosion and blocks weeds. It's both a soil booster while growing and as a green manure once it's been hoed. This weekend we lightly hoed it down, not to disturb the root mass too much but enough to kill the plants. We added some balanced organic fertilizer-bat guano, alfalfa meal, rock phosphate, kelp meal and greensand. We covered it all up with a fresh batch of beautiful black steamy compost and watered it in well. Our raised beds looked beautiful and ready to go!

We planted from seeds and starts:
Sugar snap peas
Lacinato kale
Spinach
Orach
Leeks
Radishes
Walla walla onions

The garlic and shallots we planted last October are beautiful green spikes of leaves reaching for the sky. We were going to plant our potato tubers also, however, it took hours to plant what seemed like hundreds of leeks and onions. So we saved potato planting for next weekend. I was super tempted to seed start some things I do in April like carrots, sunflowers and scarlet runner beans due to the consistently warm weather. However, remembering our low night temperatures and frost last week I stopped myself. In the heat of spring planting fever it is sometimes really hard to exercise common sense and impulse control! I also reminded myself it's not even spring equinox yet.

The herb bed was cleaned up as well. Sweet little chives poking out of the cool soil announce the arrival of spring. I can't wait for their cheery lavender flowers that I use in spring salads and omelets. Rosemary and sage are coming back to life. No sign yet of my oregano, which may have died during the winter. I pruned up all the dead growth off the thyme. I planted new cilantro, parsley and chervil. I just love fresh snips of tiny fragrant chervil during the spring. If you haven't tried it in your herb garden it doesn't take up much space and is super delicious. The seeds need light to germinate, so when planting don't cover them up but do keep them well watered-moist, not drowning.

I grow several perennial herbs in pots and some of them were becoming quite overgrown and tangled in their own roots. I divided and transplanted lemon balm, peppermint, spearmint and apple mint. I just love these fresh mints for summer iced tea and dessert garnishes. The entire mint family is best grown in pots where it's rampant aggressively spreading runners can be contained. That being said when dividing the plants in half for transplant, either give them to friends for planting or dispose of them in your trash can. Sent to your compost bin you could unintentionally end up with a garden full of mint plants!

That's all for now gardening friends. I'll keep monitoring our weather and update you on planting timing. Enjoy the dry weather and happy gardening!

Warmly,
Jolie

Free Gardening Classes I'm Teaching Spring 2015

Hi gardening friends,
Please join me this spring for free gardening classes I am teaching at Portland Nursery. Please mark your calendars and register early as my classes always fill up fast. Follow this link for more information and to register.


Vegetable Gardening 101: Basics for Beginners
with Gardening Goddess, Jolie Donohue
9000 SE DIVISION • Sunday • March 22 • 1:00-2:30pm
If you are excited to grow your own food but have little to no experience, this is the class for you! Jolie will discuss the basics of site preparation, crop selection based on site elements, planting and care techniques. With her years of experience, Jolie will demystify growing your own food and share her tips and techniques for beginner success!


Vegetable Gardening 102: Crop Rotation & Companion Planting
with Gardening Goddess, Jolie Donohue
9000 SE DIVISION • Sunday • April 26 • 11:00 – 12:30pm
Take your vegetable garden to the next level. This is a great class for gardeners with a few years under their belt now wanting to dig deeper! Join Gardening Goddess, Jolie Donohue and learn the benefits of practicing crop rotation and companion planting for the healthiest, happiest plants possible. Drawing from a decade of gardening experience, Jolie will discuss tips and techniques for crop rotation, great crop combinations and methods for interplanting, and strategize about how to rotate crops in urban garden plots.

Container Gardening Design: Make & Take
June 7th
More information to follow soon!

Spring Fever!

Good morning gardening friends!

While the official first day of spring is not until March 21, spring has sprung early in Portland. My apologies to my gardening friends Crystal in Vermont and Mary in New Mexico who are still under many feet of snow. It has been a mild, warm and dry winter here in Oregon. The farmer's almanac points to an early and mild spring. I feel confident it's going to be a great gardening year, especially for tomatoes in Portland. So let the games begin!

Spring is bursting out every where in my garden. Blooming daffodils, crocus, cyclamen, hyacinth, primroses, checkered lily, grape hyacinth, ranunculus, anemones, hellebores, forsythia and daphne are prolific in color and fragrance! My hydrangeas, spirea and maples are leafing out. Perennials, ornamental grasses & ground covers are peaking out of the ground-oriental lilies, bearded iris, corydalis, brunnera, astilbe, japanese forest grass, sedums, creeping jenny, columbine, lady's mantle, lungwort, bleeding heart and even peonies! Herbs are coming back to life-chives, mint, lemon balm, lovage and scented geraniums. It is an exciting walk through the garden every day to see what is new. Several of my borderline hardy herbs like pineapple sage not only made it through the winter, they are still leafed out and were flowering through December.

Sun, rather than showers, are raining down upon Portland and day temperatures are peaking in the 60s. This is the most mild winter and early spring I've ever experienced during 15 years in Portland! This week we've had a couple of nights in the low 30s that brought frost. Traditionally our average last frost in Portland is April 15th and I've remembered years we had frost in May. Our average first frost is October 15th. The last couple of years our last frost has been in March and our first frost hasn't been until November or December so I think it's time to have our average frost dates updated. I'm itching to get our vegetable garden started, like I know many of you are! Though it is on the early side of "spring" I feel safe with starting cool season crops outside now. Please just monitor night temperatures for a hard frost and be prepared to cover your crops overnight with a frost blanket.

Cool season crops to start now:

Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Kale
Kohlrabi
Leeks
Mustard greens
Peas-sugar snap, snow & shelling
Radishes
Salad greens-arugula, cress, endive, escarole, mache, mesclun mix & radicchio
Scallions
Spinach
Swiss Chard
Turnips

I think carrot seeds need warmer soil to germinate, and this also goes for beets to some extent. So I'd definitely wait on carrot seeds until April.

If you want to plant lettuce just continue to monitor temperatures because overnight temperatures in the 30s and a light frost could take out the tender plants.

Herbs-cilantro, parsley, chives, sage, rosemary, thyme, mints. I think most herbs would succeed with early planting if our warm temperatures hold steady throughout March. I'd just hold off on until May on your heat lovers like basil.

Perennial veggies-
Artichokes
Asparagus
Rhubarb

I'd also go for it with your potato tubers! It's a little earlier than usual, but I feel confident it's warm enough and dry enough. If you didn't plant your garlic, onion & shallot sets in the fall you could do that now. And it's a great time to begin your onion bunches-this is the way we grow our favorite sweet onions "walla wallas" every spring for summer summer harvest.

Don't forget about your fruit. Late winter and early spring are the very best time to plant your fruit trees, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, grapes and kiwi.

I just can't wait to get started in our raised beds this weekend. If you are new to gardening please join me on March 22nd for Veggie Gardening 101

Happy early spring my friends! Enjoy all that beautiful Portland sunshine.
Warmly,
Jolie

Garden Dreams

Happy new year gardening friends!

It was a super busy end to 2014. We opened a new New Seasons Market in the middle of the holiday season. It's been an exciting, fun, and all-consuming adventure. Please stop by and visit my beautiful floral department!

A funny drawing by Joseph Tychonievich of green sparrow gardens is floating around the internet. He says "the short dark winter days cause me to suffer from S.A.D. Seed Acquisition Disorder. My gardening friends and I can all relate to this! During November and December I am busy with the holiday season and happy to have a rest from my garden. At the beginning of every year the new seed catalogs arrive in my mailbox. I spend hours pouring over each catalog, wrapped in a blanket drinking pots of my favorite tea. I devour, absorb, every detail of the new and old favorite varieties of vegetables, herbs and flowers. I find myself in pajamas and bogs boots clipboard in hand patrolling my mostly dormant garden. I ponder what worked and didn't work last year. I make list after list of garden plans for the new year. I mark up my seed catalogs and make online wish lists. I dream and fantasize about peonies, dahlias, sunflowers and lilies. Each night I fall asleep seeing all the vibrant colors of the annual poppies I am currently obsessed. I eat, drink, breath all the potential my garden holds in the new year. It is an exciting, fun time of year that has endless promise.

When buying seeds I encourage you to purchase non-GMO seeds from a reputable vendor committed to heirlooms and organics and that has signed the safe seed pledge. You can find a seed vendors that have signed the safe seed pledge by following this link. Some of my favorite seed sources are Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Territorial Seed Company , Seed Savers Exchange, Botanical Interests, Renee's Garden, The Thyme Garden Herb Company. And the very best place for dahlia tubers is Old House Dahlias.

If you are wondering where to start with your garden planning I suggest checking out some excellent free resources. Portland Nursery has detailed information for pacific northwest gardens such as a veggie planting calendar, companion planting, succession planting, crop rotation, and individual crop culture guidelines. Check out their free gardening classes.

Garden Fever nursery here in Portland has an awesome monthly gardening calendar They've got some great gardening events coming up.

Enjoy the season filled with garden planning and garden dreams!

In Health,
Miss Jolie

What's For Dinner? Why, Soup, Of Course!

Hi everyone,
With the opening of our new store this week I haven't had much time to cook and I have been going for a lot convenience food and take-out. It's finally my weekend and my husband is sick. I'm about to put on a big pot of chicken-rice-vegetable soup as a healing food for him.

You know how ecstatic I am about it being soup season again. And with this unseasonably super cold winter weather in Portland this week-soup sounds super delicious. Wondering what to have for dinner tonight? Here is some great inspiration from our friends at Bon Appetit 20 Cozy Warming Soups to Make This Fall. Enjoy!

3 Bean-Quinoa Chipotle Chili with Herb Gluten-Free Cornbread

I love cooking with beans. They are a staple in our whole foods diet and we eat them multiple times a week. Beans are inexpensive, very nutritious, and can be cooked in a myriad of ways. When I was doing some online research recently I came across a website for the Bean Institute. The Bean Institute is a clearinghouse of information on the nutritional components and health benefits of dry edible beans. What a hoot! On the Bean Institute website I found lots of great information on cooking with dried beans and a handy bean reference chart including cooking times.

One of our favorite ways to enjoy beans is in a hearty vegetarian chili. For this recipe I added quinoa. The quinoa contributes a nice crunchy texture to the chili plus even more delicious nutrition in this gluten-free whole grain. I like to simmer the chili on the stove for many hours. So I save this recipe for a day off work I'm home working on other projects. I make a big pot that will feed us several meals during the work week. Extra servings also freeze really well. It is well worth the time!

Be sure to serve with a delicious cornbread. I've experimented a lot with gluten-free cornbread scratch recipes and mixes. I have happily found the Pamela's brand cornbread mix to the best! If you aren't lucky enough to have access to Pamela's product line at your local grocery store, you can also purchase off her website. I love cornbread add-in's! For this week's recipe I used a handful of fresh herbs from the garden-chives and sage. Minced and added to the mixed cornbread batter. Delicious!

1 cup dried black beans
1 cup dried small white beans
1 cup dried small red beans
1 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
48 oz can diced tomatoes
2 vegan sea salt & herb broth cubes
1 tsp chipotle chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp brown sugar
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 tbsp tomato paste
Optional toppings: sour cream, shredded cheese


1. Rinse beans. Place in bowl, cover with water and soak overnight. Next day, drain & rinse.
2. Put beans in a large stock pot and cover with water. Cook covered on medium-high for 2 hours.
3. In another pan sauté the onion and bell pepper in a splash of olive oil for about 8 minutes, until onions begin to soften and look translucent. Add the dried chipotle chili powered, cumin, and oregano-cook another minute until spices become very fragrant.
4. Add onion-pepper-spice mix, tomatoes, broth cubes to the bean pot. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 2 hours. Stir frequently, and add more water as needed to prevent sticking.
5. Add quinoa, sugar and tomato paste. Stir well and cook another 15 minutes.
6. Check flavor and add additional chili powder, cumin, oregano and sea salt as needed. If consistency is watery, add more tomato paste.
7. Serve warm with optional toppings: shredded cheese or sour cream. Always serve with a side of warm cornbread!
8. This recipe makes a big pot of chili-about 8-10 servings. Great for lunch the entire work week!

Maple-Herb Glazed Roasted Autumn Vegetables

I love some delicious oven roasted veggies during the cooler part of the year. They are great in a salad, casserole, soup or just on their own. Today I served them on a bed of savory brown rice with irish cheddar & spinach.

For today's recipe I whipped up a sauce that the chopped veggies marinated in before roasting. The marinade compliments the flavors of the veggies without dominating. It is composed of sweet maple syrup, a touch of mustard and garden fresh herbs. To enhance the pretty colors I used golden beets and a brilliant purple yam. You can really substitute any root veggies and winter squash you want in this adaptable recipe. Enjoy!

Marinade:
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced
1/2 cup fresh italian parsley, minced
1 garlic clove, minced

Veggies:
1 purple yam, peeled
1 golden beet, peeled
1 acorn squash, peeled & seeds removed
6 carrots
2 yukon gold potatoes
1 yellow onion, skin removed

1. Whisk all marinade ingredients together and set aside.
2. Chop all veggies in large uniform pieces
3. Put veggies in a large casserole dish and cover with marinade. Mix well to coat. Let sit for 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Bake uncovered for 60-90 minutes. Check at 60 minutes. Cooking time will depend on size of veggie pieces.
5. Serve hot over savory brown with irish cheddar & spinach