Garden almanac

Growing Season Ended

The growing season ended for the flowers and vegetables, what were you pleased to see that? was surprised to see? was disappointed to see?

I’ll go first. I was pleased to see my new asparagus plants grew like crazy! By fall I had 5 or more stems from each root, and most grew 3feet tall! My parsnips grew like crazy, as did onions … and all root crops except the radishes for the four years in a row. Need to plant them as soon as the ground thaws.

I was surprised to see how my okra grew to four feet. It’s a lesser-known crop, one that is cooked and eaten, not munched raw like carrots. It tasted good in soups or sautéed. I was surprised that my beets grew so perfectly, even the ones that I had not thinned enough.

I was disappointed to see, once again, that I had to fight various blights on my tomatoes. In the “old days” tomatoes kept on growing and producing fruit through September and into October. We covered them with blankets to keep the frost off them. But not anymore. Hail finished everything off right after Labor Day.

How about you?

Vegetables

All American Selection for Vegetables

The new All American Selection for 2020 for vegetables goes to 3 tomato varieties.

1. Celano is a patio type grape tomato with a strong bushy habit. It is best grown with some support, such as a tomato cage. This semi-determinate hybrid tomato is an early producer of sweet oblong fruits weighing about 0.6 oz. each. Plants grow to 40” in height and spread to 24” and have excellent late blight tolerance. In comparing it to other grape tomatoes on the market, one judge summed it up by saying “(Celano) is sweeter, the texture is better, the color is deeper, the plants are healthier, and the yield is phenomenal.

Celano Tomato


2. Early Resilience is a rounded Roma tomato with a deep red interior color, uniform maturity and good quality flesh for canning and cooking. Determinate, bushy plants can be staked but it is not necessary. The AAS Judges noted that this variety was very resistant to Blossom End rot, resulting in a high yield and less fruit loss. This could very well replace some of the other Roma varieties as a new standard in the arena.

Early Resilience Roma Tomato


3. Galahad is a brave new tomato variety that has a high level of Late Blight resistance because both parents are resistant. Galahad is a high-yielding, great tasting tomato that grows on a strong sturdy plant. Judges agreed that the sweet, meaty flavor is better than that of the comparison varieties and boasts of being crack resistant.

Galahad Tomato
Home Improvement

Choose the Right Wood Stove

How do you choose the right wood stove? Does your home has an existing fireplace or not? Obviously, if it does you should go with an insert and use the existing fireplace. If there isn’t one, go with a freestanding model. Freestanding wood stoves offer many advantages that an insert is not capable of producing. They operate much more efficiently, give off better radiant heat, and in the event of a power outage, you can cook on them or even humidify your home by heating a pot of water on top of the stove.

A key factor in choosing the right wood stove to fit you is determining how often the stove will be used. Typically, wood stoves are constructed of one of two materials, cast iron or welded steel. As far as performance goes, they are both pretty equal.

This, however, is where the question of how often the wood stove will be used comes into play. Welded steel wood stoves heat up a lot faster than cast iron stoves. So if you plan on using the wood stove to take the chill out of the house and put the fire out, welded steel is the way to go.

Cast iron wood stoves take a while to heat up but they radiate a lot more heat even after the fire is put out so they are the better choice to go with if you are looking for a wood stove to run all day throughout the cold winter months.

Another option to consider when purchasing a wood-burning stove is Catalytic or non-catalytic. Catalytic stoves contain a ceramic, honeycomb-like combustor that is plated with a metal such as platinum or palladium. The metals on the catalytic converter act as a catalyst to ignite these gases at lower temperatures. This catalytic feature has two advantages. First, it increases the stove’s efficiency 10 to 25 percent by burning hydrocarbons that would otherwise go up the chimney. Secondly, it burns the wood more completely, so there are fewer emissions.

Most importantly is to install the stove, damper, and piping correctly by asking your local contractor.