News from the Edible Landscape Demonstration Garden

 Lois Fischer

The first tomato is ripe in the Master Gardeners' vegetable garden in Fairmount Park --- summer has truly arrived! Since early April, our crew of hard working volunteer gardeners has been busy turning the soil, adding compost and planting seeds and vegetable starts. Our energy and dedication has paid off. The garden looks splendid!

The cool weather crops -- lettuces, pak choi, collard greens and kale -- that were planted in the spring have almost had their run. Red onions, Swiss chard 'Bright Lights' and the fall planted garlic bordered the spring beds. While we are still harvesting these crops, they will soon be replaced by summer plantings of carrots 'Little Fingers', beans and perhaps more chard 'Fordhook Giant'.

While a bit delayed due to the long, cool spring, the summer crops of tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and beans  are now growing rapidly. Cucumbers have been trellised to save space and beets and bush beans have been tucked in where space has allowed.






The two herb beds are lush with growth. The lavenders survived the harsh winter and are blooming beautifully. Sadly, the frigid winter was not as kind to the large rosemary. Its brown carcess joined other debris in the compost pile. The fig also suffered from the winter cold. All of the above ground branching died back. But, the root system survived and is pushing out new growth and tiny figs are appearing. Our challenge will be to carefully prune it over the next few seasons to produce a shapely tree rather than a bushy fig shrub.




The apple tree in the seating area has been rmoved. Poorly sited when planted, the tree had become toatally shaded by large trees lining the driveway abutting the garden. The Philadelphia Orchard Project folks reccomended that it be taken down. The Fairmount Park staff kindly took care of both the fig and the apple for us.

We have entered the Pennsylvania Horticultrual Society's garden contest again this year and are hoping to add to our ribbon collection. Judging will be sometime within the next six weeks. We encourage you all to stop by the garden sometime this summer. Sign in at the kiosk and spend a bit of time enjoying the views!

Demonstration Pollinator Garden in Fairmount Park

Howard Goldstein

A view in early May of the garden and orchard

Planting and watering the new additions and transplants

The Penn State Master Gardener Pollinator Garden is located in West Fairmount Park near the Japanese House on the grounds of the Horticulture Center.  Previous blog on the garden This year the garden is tended by 7 Master Gardeners and 3 recent graduates from the Master Gardener program. The garden has undergone a major renovation in the last year and has been joined with an adjacent orchard planted in the fall that will benefit from the pollinators. The selection of plants include native plants that support local bees, wasps and butterflies and a few non native plants. Non native plants will be replaced in the future and this garden will be mainly a native plant pollinator garden.

Previous blog on Orchard Project 
Orchard project blog 

In May, the Eastern Swallowtails and the Black Swallowtails love our two large lilacs.  Starting in mid May the bumblebees feed on Nepetas and Amsonias.  In June they moved to feed on the Salvias. They will progress to summer flowering perennials.  We have seen a few honeybees which is encouraging given their plight from disease.  

     

Host plants such as dill, parsley, fennel and lovage for caterpillars have been included in the planting. They can be found in the center of the garden.

As more of the perennials bloom the garden should become a wonderful place to see the butterflies and bees at work. More photos and updates to follow. If you are in the area of the Horticulture Center, come and visit.

     

Bee on Salvia x sylvestris

Bronze fennel & Asclepias tuberosa

Coreopsis verticilata & Asclepias t.

Itea virginica

Lamium 

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 



Early Spring Crops: Common and Uncommon

Submitted by Megan Bucknum and Michele Sokoloff

Along side the large greenhouse at the Horticulture Center in Fairmount Park sits our Demonstration Garden called The Edible Garden. Master Gardeners have been sprucing the area up since February 2012. The winter labor has included: digging out old, rotted sign posts, clearing leaves and debris, serious weeding, mulching and edging. We created a compost area with wood pallets and we put together a  6’ X 4’ Green Wall structure sewn by a MG’s mother with fleece and mesh. Other weekly tasks have included uprighting the brick and stone that surround each planting bed. 

We have also given attention to the area on either side of the steps leading down to the Demo Garden. This is a 3-tiered area that has overgrown plantings and beds. The 3-tiers extend many yards on either side.  It has been cleared, weeded, pruned and planted with new Pachysandra and Hostas making it a cleaner, nicer entrance to the Edible Garden. With 9 separate growing bed areas, we began planting cold crops by seed in March.  

The spring bounty began with the tall, green showinf of asparagus shoots. Other early spring crops growing are rhubarb, a variety of lettuce greens, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts and peas. Overwintered herbs such as oregano, thyme, rosemary, lavendar, mint and sage are in abundance

There are two  less frequently consumed crops that make us scratch our heads wondering how to use them. They are cardoon and sorrel.

Cardoon can be referred to as an artichoke thistle and is native to the western and central Mediterranean region.  It’s in the same species as the globe artichoke (what we more frequently eat).  It appears that this whole plant can be consumed!  The bud of the flower can be prepared similarly as the artichoke.  The large leaf stalks, which can resemble celery stalks, can be braised or steamed and carry with them the same artichoke flavor with which we are accustomed. For a quick recipe on how to eat cardoons when they are young and tender.Bagna-Cauda


Sorrel is a perennial herb that can be cultivated as a garden herb or leaf vegetable.  At maturity, sorrel will grow about 60 cm high and has roots that run deeply into the ground supporting the oblong leaves that are slightly arrow-shaped at the base, with very long petioles.  There are many uses for this plant and they have an “interesting” flavor that has been linked to similarities of kiwi fruit or sour wild strawberries.  Most of the Edible Garden team are not too keen to this vegetable, as it does have a sharp taste.  Further research reveals that this taste is from the presence of oxalic acid -- naturally found in spinach, rhubarb, chard and beet greens -- which in large quantities is not safe for consumption, but small quantities is harmless.  This vegetable is commonly made into sauces to serve with fish.  See below for Alice Waters’ Sorrel Sauce recipe.

Sorrel Sauce

from “Chez Panisse Vegetables Cookbook,” Alice Waters

Use about 24 large sorrel leaves

                                                2 shallots
                                               ½ cup heavy cream
                                               Salt and pepper
                                              Lemon juice

Wash the sorrel in plenty of cold water.  Remove the stems and drain well.  Cut the sorrel into  rough pieces.  Peel and dice the shallots and put in a nonreactive pot with the cream.  Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 5 minutes.  Add the sorrel and cook for another 3 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Sorrel sauce can be pureed.  Serve it with fish, chicken or potatoes.

We’ll keep you posted on this blog as to what is going on and provide some additional research for you to ponder.