Tomato Tuesday - Time to get Independent

The weather stations all agree and the May 2-4 weekend is fast approaching. Looks like there is no frost on the horizon so I kicked my tomato babies out into the garden. As I was planting, I noticed something very interesting:


Arctic Queen shows off its flower buds.

What's that? Flowers? Oh yes my friends... and it's not even June. I'd just like to stop here and remind myself that this was an experiment in starting tomatoes inside/outside. This is an alteration of the wintersown technique I use when impatient or with some tender plants. Seeds, sometimes prespouted, are sown in wintersown containers and left outside during the day but brought in at night if frost threatens. I figured it would be an easy way to do tomatoes as I have taken down my seed starting shelves in preparation to move - no time soon as it turns out but I digress...


Tomatoes planted in an old pond area that has been filled in. My veggie garden has been converted to yawn to sell the house.

As it seems that we won't be finding our rural slice of the pie in a timely fashion, I also figured I would sow other tenders like beans, and summer squash. I'm hoping we'll be out of here by the time a butternut is nicely mature.

By the way, technically this could be risky as there *might* still be a late frost but I have frost clothes and cloches if such an event happened. The average last frost date here is actually in early May though it varies greatly. Most years, I put out my tenders mid-May.

Planting times in Ottawa.

Harvest Monday - Something Creepy

Don't worry, it's not crawly but if you have ever tried to eradicate it then you may shiver when I say its name: Creeping Bellflower - Campanula Rapunculoides - otherwise known variously as Cancer-of-the-Garden, Hellcat Bellflower and Harebell*.



How often does your urban harvest fill your wheelbarrow...


An embarassingly short number of years ago, someone told me to stop pulling the weed from beneath my hedge as it was a pretty wildflower. I didn't recognize the basal leaves so I let it be and it matured into a not unattractive tower of purplish-blue bells. Shortly afterwards, I discovered its true identity and tried in vain to pull it up, but this ingenious invasive has a clever trick. Its taproot and future source of its spawn is connected to its many tangling runners by brittle thin roots. If you weren't familiar with its anatomy, you would pull up one its clones and find some weak roots dangling from it., no hunk a taproot like in a dandelion giving you a clue to its power source beneath. You might think that you had got it all. Ha! Not only does it propogate vegetatively but also by seed and its flowers are pretty enough that some people will leave it in their garden... perhaps feeling that this naturalized European native belongs here as much as the dandelion. Like the latter, it is here to stay and also like the latter, you can delight in devouring it.



You can see the tenuous connection between the taproot and the roots to the above ground part.


Creepy Bellflower is edible from its sizeable leaves to its starchy taproot(s).** If you like the taste, you might even have the incentive to hunt them down into the depths of soil. Before I tried the taproot, I was imagining how excited I'd be if my potatoes went feral like this. After I sauteed them with a little butter and drizzled them with paprika, salt and honey, my verdict is: "Meh, not bad. Good texture, slightly bitter, inoffensive taste." The typical description is more positive such as "nutty, crunchy flavour. A delight in salads" or as in A Field Guide to Edible Plants: Eastern and Central North America, "The taste is slightly sweet, suggesting parsnips."


The next day, I cooked up some of the plentiful greens, cut with an equal portion of baby kale, in stock and mixed with toasted sunflower seed and pepper. All this was put between two toasted slices of bread. They were pretty good, not bitter at all. Again, the adjective inoffensive comes to mind as they had no strong flavour.


So do I recommend Creepy Bellflower? Well, I wouldn't plant it. For those that already have it then just remember that like the proverbial pot of rice/oil/whatever, empty it as much as you want, there'll always be more and for a food plant, that's a quality we can appreciate.


* Also known as European Bellflower, Rampion Bellflower
** I have seen a couple references to eating the flowers but not enough that I would try it without more double checking.

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Do I have Creeping Bellflower? Ministry of Agriculture of Ontario
Plants for a Future lists some edible Bellflowers
Oft mentioned on the web, true Rampion - Campanula rapunculus - is not the same plant as the above plant. Instead, it is a biennial with a radish tasting taproot (so I'm told, my seeds never germinated) that enticed Rapunzul's father to harvest either to help her mother in childbirth or for food. I've read both versions. (Some of you botanical latin geeks might find it interesting that 'loides' bit means 'is like').
For some fun, read Dave's Garden's page on the plant and hear some vitriol against it.

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In other news, I owe you some posts:

Tomato Tuesday - Frost tender veggies that you know and love
Alliums Part II, Wild Onions - I haven't forgotten!

Don't miss this update

If you can drop everything and haven't heard of this before, then go get chicken and meet with Cluck Ottawa to talk urban poultry.

More Don't Miss This

Fungi instead of Fertilizer - Hida Manns

I first met Hida Manns at the Eco Farm Day 2009 with her discussion on what I called the 'weedy garden' or the technique of planting through mulch and letting the weeds grow, and was looking forward to her discussion on Mycorrhizal Colonization at Eco Farm Day 2010. It was a standing room only talk that did not disappoint.

She kindly agreed to an interview.

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Potatoes growing in Hida Manns' home garden.


How did you come to study alternative agricultural practices?

My studies on alternative agriculture were stimulated from a desire to explain many experiences. When we built our own home in the country, I put in a garden and bought my first goats. Following years of reading on natural health for my family, I applied the same principles to my garden and goats. Instead of buying fertilizer, I read all the literature on gardening, including Ruth Stout’s method. The goats supplied ready composted hay that evolved into a garden system, that admittedly, was not productive in the first few years. I also read widely, including the work by de Bairacli Levi on raising animals without pharmaceuticals. From her principles, and my knowledge of food chemistry, I evolved my own intestinal parasite remedy for the goats.


Your talk at Eco Farm Day 2010 was about mycorrhizal fungal colonization. For those that may not know, what are they?

Mycorrhizal fungi are a symbiotic association of a fungus with the roots of a plant. It is believed that plants were able to evolve to live on land with the assistance of the fungus. The fungi produce a mycelium, which is like an enlarged root system, but at a smaller diameter scale (< color="#006600">According to the literature, how may mycorrhizal fungal colonization affect plant growth and soil (texture, moisture retention and so on)?

Due to the high variation in plant and soil response to mycorrhizal colonization, it is difficult to give specific benefits that apply to all. In general, mycorrhizal colonization re-allocate the carbon from photosynthesis to increase below ground carbon. Roots tend to be shorter and thicker, and plant growth likewise. It depends on how dependent the plant is on the mycorrhiza given all environmental conditions. The major finding from my research is that mycorrhizas are instrumental in preventing loss of soil structure, and therefore are very important in maintaining sustainability of the soil to hold water and nutrients. Many studies have found that photosynthesis increases with mycorrhizal plants, and the amount of soluble carbon in the soil is also increased. This may be the simple answer to increased nutrient uptake, plant growth, and soil aggregate changes.


Perennial 'weeds' growing between mulched beds in Manns' garden.


The title of your talk was provocatively named Farming with fungi instead of fertilizer. According to your research, how does fertilizer affect mycorrhizal colonization?

The title of the talk was meant to imply that the benefits of mycorrhizal colonization can result in net productivity similar to fertilizer addition. You have brought up an interesting point, where there is conflicting evidence on the interaction between fertilizer and fungi. Briefly, a small amount of NPK fertilizer will increase hyphae growth in nutrient limited conditions. However, it is commonly found that high NPK inhibits mycorrhizal colonization. In a small trial growing flax in small pots in the growth chamber, using soil from organic rotations following wheat, I found the addition of standard amounts of P and N did not increase colonization; mycorrhizal colonization was 10-20% lower.


I know that some people talk about adding mycorrhizal fungi when planting. What are your thoughts on garden inoculation?

My experience with mycorrhizal colonization suggests that creating supportive conditions maintains an adequate colonization. Specific practices would be mulching, keeping a winter cover crop, leaving roots in the soil over winter, or as I do, leave the alleys in perennial grasses (permanent host). The presence of a constant host (eg: a highly mycorrhizal plant like clover) is most important to maintain quick colonization. The times when inoculation would be advantageous would be when soil has been stockpiled and lost it’s microbial activity, or when soil has been sterilized, or after conditions that would have reduced mycorrhizal spores such as a non-host plant of broccoli or oil-seed radish.


I suspect that you don’t use chemical fertilization. Can you describe your garden for us?

I have attached a few pictures, and hope they are worth a thousand words. Instead of tilling, I use mulch beds to grow most vegetables, with the exception of seeds, peas and beans where I lift the sod manually for the length of the row, and sow the seeds on the top of ridges, with the trenches filled with compost. The alleys between these rows of crops are left in perennial grasses/weeds (not the annual ones). I trim the grasses regularly to feed the goats and chickens. Otherwise, the only work is popping the plants into the mulch, and harvesting. Potatoes work especially well. The mulch/weed combination acts as moisture retention, nutrient recycling, insect predator habitat, and disease protection.


Healthy looking tomato plants getting ready to ripen in Manns' garden.


Further Information from Hida Manns

Ruth Stout: Now to have a green thumb without an aching back: A new method of mulch gardening.

Juliette de Bairacli Levy: The complete herbal handbook for farm and stable.

Mycorrhizal Symbiosis, by Smith and Read, 2008

DOK trials: A long-term agricultural trial in Switzerland comparing bio-dynamic, Bio-organic and Konventional methods

Mader, P., Edenhofer, S., Boller, T., Wiemken, A., Niggli, U., 2000 Arbuscular mycorrhizae in a long-term field trial comparing low-input (organic, biological) and high-input (conventional) farming systems in a crop rotation Biology Fertility Soils 31:150–156.

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Ottawa Gardener gives you more homework :

Routh Stout from Mother Earth News

Lasanga Gardening primer with techniques for different common veggies

Harvest Monday - Soil Seed Bank

"You reap what you sow," said a farmer


Yummy self sown salad plants.

"1 year in seed, 7 years in weed," said the gardener


Going clockwise from 12 o'clock, we have mustard, orach, magenta spreen, bietina (type of chard), coriander and kale. Just a selection of self starters in the garden.

"Like money in the bank," said the plant...

By letting my salad plants set seed and sow themselves, I'm filling the soil seed bank with plants that I want to withdraw. All these babies were taken from the area that I have recently reseeded for lawn to sell our house. It used to be a vegetable garden. The larder was so full of these desirables that I haven't yet removed a weed that wasn't edible.

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I'm excited to announce that I will be uploading an interview with Hida Manns about Mycorrhizal fungi this week. Stay tuned!

Tomato Tuesday*

These tomatoes were indoor / outdoor sown and are now sizing up so have been transplanted into recycled yoghurt pots.

Speaking of Tomato plants, if you ahven't started any than Yuko's Open Pollinated Seed is having her annual Heirloom Tomato & Perennial Plant Sale on the weekends of May 15 & 16 and May 22 & 23.

* A good alliteration has surely been used before and this is no exception. I also plan on adopting TT days to document the countdown to fresh tomatoes, and beyond!

Harvest Monday - Dandelion power

One mother of a dandelion... many dandelions hiding out in the lungwort.

Yeah, I knew that you knew that we all know that dandelions are edible but have you ever eaten one? Lately, the turf has contracted a rash of brash yellow and people are complaining or delighting depending on their perception of this most amazing weed.

I get that even if you have fond memories of blowing those dancing ballerinas in the air as a child that you may not want your green concrete to consist primarily of Taraxacum officinale. Perhaps you would like other species to share some space like ox-eye daisy, violets, plaintain, chickweed or even grass. With that in mind:

How to Use Dandelions
How to Abuse Dandelions

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And some other things I harvested: rhubarb, mint, garlic chives... my youngest was going to show off the rhubarb but she got distracted by a pill bug.

How to Use Dandelions

Dandelion greens are very good for you and they taste it too. To temper its bitter tendencies, eat the first flush of growth in the spring or blanche it like endive by turning a pot upside down on top of its crown for a week or so until tender, pale leaves pop up. Or do it like cauliflower and tie the leaves together to blanche the heart. This will lower the good greenness content but its better than finding it inedible. Some people add it to green juice or other leaf mixes in small quantities. Boiling it in a change of water will also lower the bitterness but also the nutrition value. As is generally the case with greens, they are better - ie, less tough and bitter - before the flowers arrive. Then you can pick the flowers to sprinkle in dishes or batter and fry as tempura. A local wild plant enthusaist, Martha Webber, apparently makes Dandelion Jam. Of course, it probably hasn't escaped you that there is such a thing as dandelion wine.


The pill bug. Notice her contented smile? She terrorizes them by overturning rocks and logs and then getting them to go visit pill bugs under other rocks and logs. Yes, I know the image doesn't match the text but I figured I'd try and merge two posts into one for effeciency (and confusion) sake.

The root can be dug and roasted until brittle to grind as a coffee substitute. You can also cook it as a vegetable like parsnip though I have never tried this. I'd love to hear experiences. You can store the roots with chicory and others in your cellar (or back of your fridge) to force in the winter. Bury the roots in moist sand with the crown sticking out. Either place on a window sill for bitter bite, or place in the dark to grow what looks like a curled cousin of Belgian endive.


How to Abuse Dandelions

Rather like using them, this requires a bit of harvesting though you may choose to put them in a plastic bag and let them bake dead before adding them to the compost to enrich your soil. You could probably also stew them in water to make an enriching tea for your plants rather like comfrey tea. In your enthusiasm, don't feel the need to be too thorough about their removal as they are an early food source for bees and other beneficials. That said, the likelihood of eradication is slim so pull away.


The dandelion blossoms were added to a veggie quiche along with these microgreens - thinnings of self sown 'Red Ursa' kale, 'Osaka' mustard, and 'Magenta Mountain' orach.

Here's how to lower the population of dandelion in your green concrete. Wait for a day where your soil is at its most diggable. Get a good dandelion digger and a shovel. Make sure you have a strong back. Dig out as much root as possible. Curse that it snapped. It will almost always do so unless it is very small. After you have aerated your lawn in this manner, top dress the area with compost or other good 'soil' and reseed with a mixture of grass and clover.

If you haven't gotten around to doing this, then snap off the flowers whenever you see them to prevent them from seeding. The healthier your grass, the less likely it will be overrun with weeds but I'm not promising anything.

Another alternative is to cover over the whole area and plant an edible garden. Maybe one with a few dandelions...

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Wild Man Steve Brill talks about how to cook up dandelions