News from the Edible Landscape Demonstration Garden

Grape Arbor Garden Entrance

Hip Hip Hooray!! We have won first prize for community vegetable garden in the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society's City Gardens Contest! The dedicated volunteers who have worked tirelessly from early spring through the hot days of summer are doing a victory dance and chanting "We're Number One!" Well, maybe we just have broad smiles on our faces. Gardeners tend to be more modest folks.

What we are definitely doing right now is planning for next season. The garlic that was ordered two months ago from a mail order catalog will be arriving soon and to be planted next month. Successful plantings for this year have been noted, as well as those that were a bit disappointing. While this season has been the "year of beans", thought is being given to what vegetables to hightlight in 2014. Tomatoes seem to top the list. Crop rotation to avoid disease infestation is always a major consideration and challenge in a relatively small garden. Finding a different spot each season for the nightshade family plants (tomatoes and eggplants) can be tricky.

The gardeners have also begun the necessary fall housecleaning. Some of the summer plants including many of the beans have finished producing and have been removed. Some fall crops have been planted and the battle with our four-legged friends has begun. The rabbits have feasted upon the peas and lettuces. The curly endive and arugula have been spared. Row covers over the broccoli, cabbage, collards and pak choi that were so effective in the spring, have done little to deter the hungry insects. Life is never perfect in the vegetable patch.

Brown Turkey Fig

The fig tree this year has been amazingly bountiful producing well over fifty pounds of lucious fruit. All of the gardeners, the Horticultural Center staff, friends and families have enjoyed the harvest. The home canners in the group have jars and jars of fig jam in their pantries.

We have had numerous visitors to the garden, beyond the critters. Many folks have left messages at the sign in box --- "Thank you, thank you, what a beautiful oasis you created" --- and a personal favorite: "As good as Longwood". Kind words inspire us all!

News from the Edible Landscape Demonstration Garden

Cardoon in bud

Not only does the calendar tell us summer has arrived, but so do the plants in the demonstration garden. The bush cucumbers are beginning to flower and tiny fruits have just appeared on the vines. The tomatoes are growing rapidly and producing flowers; small husked fruits are also visible on the tomatillos. The cardoon is now almost four feet tall with thistle-like flower buds. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this attractive edible, cardoons (Cynara cardunculus) are a Mediterranean native closely related to the more familiar artichoke. Cardoons are hardy here in the Philadelphia area, liking organically rich, well-drained soil and full sun. While often grown as an ornamental, this attractive food plant has been part of the American vegetable gardeners' lexicon from the early 19th century. The edible stalks are blanched 2 to 3 weeks before the end of the growing season by tying the outer branches together and wrapping the base of the plant -- about 18 inches high -- with newspaper or burlap. At first frost, the stalks are harvested by cutting them just below the crown of the plant. The outer leaves are removed, leaving the white stalks reminiscent of over sized celery which are boiled or steamed. I am told they taste somewhat like artichoke.


Master Gardeners Eldredge Ragsdale and
Mary Ellen Post

Over the weekend we said a temporary good-bye to the collards and Chinese mustard greens. They have been replaced by a second cropping of cucumbers that will be trellised upon a simple A-frame structure made from garden stakes. Plans for the fall plantings are already well underway. Garlic has been ordered and seeds selected for the autumn harvest. These include various salad greens, snow peas and other cool weather crops.

We encourage you all to stop by the garden sometime soon.

Previous blogs on Cardoons    

Cardoons

Cardoon Recipe 



Views of the Butterfly Garden

The Butterfly Garden in Fairmount Park has gone through a restructuring this spring by a group of dedicated and ambitious Master Gardeners dedicated to providing a garden specifically for butterflies. Many plants were removed or moved and others added. The team that worked on this project did an outstanding job and the garden is taking shape.

Some of the plants in the garden include: Butterfly Bush, Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’, Phlox, Clethra, Deutzia, Asclepias Tuberosa, and Solidago Sphacelata, and Honeysuckle.

There is still some work to be done but it looks terrific. If you are in the park stop by. It is near the gazebo on the Horticulture grounds.