Cut & come-again brocolli
We harvested our first brocolli on June 26, 66 days after planting the seedlings. We didn’t cut too low on the stem, and left a few little sprouts below the cut. Two weeks later, on July 10, we had a second harvest almost as big as the first. Two harvests is about all you can get, and the brocolli was getting ready to bolt after the recent hot weather, so we pulled them and started a seedling nursery for the late-season crops.
A giant bouquet of pulled brocolli leaves, headed for the compost bin.
The new nursery.
Today’s Take – July 10
Summer Veggie School classes begin
The professor and young Veggie Schoolers discuss how veggies differ in the parts we eat,
be it roots, fruits, buds, stalks, bulbs, tubers or leaves.
Thursday morning the Veggie School conducted 3 classes, each customized a bit to different age groups, as part of the Parks and Recreation Department’s science and nature summer curriculum.
The K thru 2nd kids played Name and Find. One by one, they identified the different veggies displayed on the white banners, voted on which were their favorites, then scoured the garden to find the actual plants themselves. (Amazingly, due to the watchful care of the counselors, no plants were damaged during this exercise.)
We then talked a bit about how veggies progress through a life cycle, starting with seeds; then on to roots, stocks, and leaves; then buds, flowers and fruits; then, finally, seeds. We talked about how gardeners harvest different veggies at different stages in these life cycles, because we eat different parts of different veggies, and these different parts taste best at different stages in different plants’ life cycles. (Lots of differences to learn there!)
The 3rd and 4th grade group zipped through the Name and Find exercise. That gave us time, after talking about life cycles and the parts of plants we eat, to get into garden bugs. According to the professor, we shouldn’t think of bugs as either all good or all bad. They’re sort of like brothers and sisters: sometimes they’re good, and we like them; but sometimes they’re bad, and they bug us. The best thing to do with bugs, he said, is to try to keep in check the most troublesome things they try to get away with (as best we can), but otherwise, to try to learn how to live with them. Bugs, by the way, are birds’ most important source of protein. No more bugs, then probably no more birds.
The 5th and 6th graders skipped the Name and Find exercise altogether. We talked about life cycles, parts of the plant, bugs, a few histories of the students’ favorite veggies, and — for many, the highlight of the class — the magic of photosynthesis. We walked through the mechanics, using painted wood models of the processes’ input and output molecules, then discussed the critical reciprocity between plants and animals, the carbon dioxide and oxygen exchange that literally sustains most life here on earth.
Students in every group took with them a card with the Veggie School’s web address, so they could continue further study (if they wanted) when they returned to their homes.
Black Gold!
To gardeners, wealth is in the ground. And rich soil is made richer by adding lushly black compost. The last Saturday in June, we harvested our first batch of compost, much earlier than I expected. 
The top was wet and slimy — the result of adding clippings of grass from the fence edge. The sliminess results from suffocation, and therefore simply remedied by turning. A suffocating compost pile will give off an ammonia-smell from the anerobic bacteria. But in our case, there was little smell, because below the layer of grass was nicely composted soil. I was a bit worried about the straw added the previous week, as I feel it decomposes slowly, but it may have provided some aeration to the lower mass.
We sifted the compost as we extracted it, using a rectangular frame with a wire mesh about 1/4-inch fine. The plastic tray we used to sift into cracked, so next time we’ll bring a wheelbarrow to sift into. Sifting allows earlier use of ready compost, as different materials decompose at different rates, and were put into the compost pile at different times. The apple cores and banana peels of April were completely decomposed, but the straw of the previous week was quite present. I had been keeping the compost moist by covering it, since hydration speeds decomposition. Compost should be kept about as wet as a damp-to-wet sponge, to give room for air, which soaking wet does not. The downside is that wet compost is harder to sift, but we managed.
We extracted several buckets of the "black gold" which was then used to "top-dress" a number of vegetables. The compost thus put around the plants served two purposes: first, nutrients from the compost will leach into the soil to feed the plants. Second, the compost also serves as a mulch, keeping sunlight from reaching new weeds. We also put some compost into the holes destined for transplanted tomatoes. This is a better location than the soil-top, as the plants have yet another reason to send roots downwards (which makes them more robust during dry spells).
At the bottom of the compost we found many earthworms, a great sign of good decomposing, as well as many scurrying black bettles.
The first Saturday in July I turned the compost again. First, the de-harvested snap pea plants were put into the empty bin, nearly filling it. But the heavier compost-in-progress turned atop that easily flattened the pea plants. With the forecast for hot weather upcoming, it looks like the compost will need to be turned at least weekly (especially with the continual addition of grass clippings).
Both compost bins seem to work well, it’s hard to tell if either is working better, though I might give the black plastic bin an edge (because it may retain heat and water better).
Carrots of many colors
