A Garden Revisited

Garden with a view

I revisited Merete and Ejners garden. First visit was in spring, this second visit was after the first frost. The garden is situated in a village, with a view over field and wood.

Sage (Salvia officinalis)

The huge sage with the wrinkled stems made me think of
the oldest oak in Denmark. Age is an important dimension in our garden plants. Never saw a more beautiful sage.

Kirsten and Merete deeply engaged in garden talk

People fond of gardening always talk a lot, when we meet in a garden. It still surprises me, how different we people can grow our gardens. Even with same plants in same climate. We ate us through the different fruit trees; cooking apples, table apples, pears, prunes, filberts and grapes.

Old grape wine growing in the apple trees

A very old grape wine has conquered the tops of some of the apple trees. In old days there was a greenhouse around it, but since it perished, the grape wine has continued to grow with no protection. Could it be the old variety Frankenthaler?

Leaf chicory

There still is a lot of vegetables in the garden. The leaf chicory was served for lunch – mmm…. We also had leek and a mayonnaise spiced with ‘Susan Delafield’ garlic.
Thanks for a nice day.

 

Artichoke Seed

Good artichoke seeds left, right the quality I had in former years

This year I harvest artichoke seeds of a superior quality, compared to my normal harvest. The seeds are hard with a smooth surface, and of a darker shade than usual. Normally the germination of my artichoke seeds are very low, but still allowing to grow a few plants. From this years seeds I expect a much higher germination rate, as seeds are obviously better ripened. I also harvested more seeds than usual, a little more than 150 seeds of the best quality. The mother plant is the old danish Serridslevgaard, very rare and difficult to obtain, but every seed growing will be its own new variety. I expect a broad variation in the seedlings. Most of them will probably be inferior to their mother, but with some luck a few better plants might appear. The mother plant is in the elite when it comes to hardiness, many of the seedlings are likely to inherit this trace – but not all.

The inferior seeds to the right in the picture are of a lighter color. A nail on the surface of the seed shell let you feel the difference. Inferior seeds are not slippery like a ripe filbert nut, but gives resistance to moving the nail along the shell.

How come the artichoke seeds developed so well this year? I believe it’s due to the warm unusually dry late summer we had on Amager, my island.

 

Tom Wagner Workshop

Some of Tom Wagners varities of potato
Copyright Anja Egeriis anja.egeriis@gmail.com

Tom Wagner from USA gave a workshop at the organic farm Hegnstrup outside Copenhagen in Denmark.

Tom shared his lifelong fascination in potatoes and tomatoes (tater & mater). For 56 years he has been crossing and selecting on potatoes and tomatoes, and he still has many ideas to improve varieties. Tom is best known for his tomato Green Zebra.

Tom Wagner explains what to watch out for in a tomato flower for breeding
Copyright Anja Egeriis anja.egeriis@gmail.com

It is a pleasure to dive deep in to details with such an experienced breeder as Tom. He showed us how the first flower in a cluster often have a deformed style. The shape makes it more sensitive to later insect pollination, at a point we would think we had control of the pollination. He also recommended looking at the little scar in the flower end of the ripe tomato. Is it a tiny spot, the style was well shaped, a larger irregular brown scar suggest the style was deformed, with an increased risk of unintended crossing.

Tom gently tear off the anthers of the tomato flower
Copyright Anja Egeriis anja.egeriis@gmail.com

Tom gently tear off the anthers of a tomato flower. Then he knock it over his thumb nail to release any pollen, to learn if there is any ripe pollen. There was none, meaning this flower can be crossed. He already had noticed the green shine in the yellow anthers, suggesting they were not releasing pollen yet.

Tom pollinate a tomato flower
Copyright Anja Egeriis anja.egeriis@gmail.com

Then he pick a well developed flower of an other tomato variety, knock it gently over a brown clay tray and we can all see the pollen collected on the tray. With the tip of a brush he transfer the pollen from the tray to the stigma. Then he removes the petals, so insects will not be attracted, and add a tag to remember what he did to the flower (later tomato). Last he pick the older flowers, not letting them take any energy from his pollinated flower.

We gather closely to see every detail
Copyright Anja Egeriis anja.egeriis@gmail.com

Tom Wagner thinks in combining good genes. For both potato and tomato this include resistance to late blight. He also want hairy plants, as insect find the plant fur unattractive. In this way both insect damage and insect transfer of disease by their bites are reduced.

He has developed potato varieties that can stay in ground all winter for eating or replanting in April, without any sprouting. They do need a mulch in case of severe frost.

He has also develop a potato I think of as a CO2-reduced potato. It is tasty, yellow fleshed and only take a 5 minute boil before eating. A 75% reduction of CO2 in the boiling process.

For the tiny garden he developed a series of potatoes with huge flamboyant flowers, the photos made me think of Dahlias, with more usefull tubers.

As Tom has no land of his own, he is totally dependent of others cooperating with him. Tom sends out a lot of not yet stabilised hybrids to others, for them to select on according to his guidance for some generations. He find that they usually stabilise in the 5th. or 6th. generation.

One of Toms interesting techniques is the preselection. He has gained the capacity to read the phenotype already at the seedling stage, allowing him to sort out most of the unattractive seedlings before transplant. This saves a lot of space in the gardens. In the shape of the young leaves he read the shape of the tubers to come later, round or elongated. When he wish a potato resistant to late frosts, he look for seedlings that will be first in afternoon to gather their leaves on top of the growing tip, thus protecting it from frost. These techniques show how deep he understand these crops.

At transplant of potato seedlings, it is very important to bury 1 or 2 of the normal leaves in the ground, otherwise you won’t get a proper tuber production.

Tom believe we ordinary people should take responsibility to maintain and improve the heritage form our ancestors. He believe we should do the F1 hybrids bottom up (by ourselves), and share them generously, keeping hybrids fertile in future generations and maintain the inherited gene pool. We can afford the longterm investment, whereas the few remaining multinational seed companies breed for the next ten years only, and for shareholders that’s a very long perspective compared to the normal 5 year perspective.

To ease our work on potatoes, he also breed to improve fruit setting in potatoes. Most modern potatoes set no fruits at all. To grow new and better varieties we need the seeds!

Ps. At Bifurcated Carrots you can read the plan for Tom Wagners tour in Europe

 

Elderberry Vodka

Elderberries, chili and Stolichnaya vodka

In the hedge grow a small wild elderberry. Only few berries this autumn, inspired me to do an elderberry vodka. I cleaned the berries, dumped them in a less than half full bottle of russian Stolichnaya vodka. Then I thought it might become rather insipid without a lot of sugar. But wouldn’t the health benefit be lost with a lot of sugar added? I imagine a little chili heat might balace the elderberries and vodka. In the garden I picked two spanish chilies, but in the end only added one. I want elderberry to taste, not to be overpowered by the chili. The chili is Guindilla, Anselmo in Spain send me seeds for it last winter – thanks a lot Anselmo!
The elder is not a named variety, just one of these small trees that willingly grows as a hedge weed in my neighborhood.

 

Breeding new pepper varieties

Typical sweet peppers from 12 plants of 2. generation from a cross

This year I have grown 13 plants of my unintended pepper cross. One plant quickly got diseased after transplant, lots of brown spot on the leaves, that soon dropped to the ground. I discarded this plant late, to ensure a heavy disease pressure on the other plants, to reveal any others with the same tendency. No other plants was infected, except for a few minor spots of no importance.

Plant #2 also has problems showing now late in the season. All the small unripe fruits are rotting away. No other plants are affected. I will not continue this breeding line !

I transplanted in a row, according to the development of the plants at transplant. First plant was also first to get ripe red peppers. But for the rest there seems to be no connection between development at transplant and days to harvest. Plants # 5 and 6 didn’t even make a single ripe pepper. Plant # 11 as a contrast have given a rich harvest, and still have a lot of green peppers to harvest before first frost within the next two weeks.

It started as a secret love affair between german ‘Roter Augsburger’ and croatian ‘Zlatni Medal’, who in summer 2007 stood close, rubbing their flowers in the summer wind. Next year it showed up in the row of ‘Roter Augsburg’, where a single plant look in between the parents. It can be seen in a post from last year.

As ‘Roter Augsburger’ and ‘Zlatni Medal’ are very early varieties, suitable for open ground in Denmark, I understood this could become a happy ending love affair, if given some attention in the next years, until one or more varieties has become true breeding.

Several plants with chocolate colored fruits was a surprise, as granny is red and grandpa is orange red (not easily distinguished in my photos). They look like ‘Sweet Chocolate’ in color, I might grow that for comparison.

 

Danish Seed Savers Annual Meeting 2009

Christina Løjtnant share her knowledge on relict plants in the village Gl. Lejre

Frøsamlernes (Danish Seed Savers) annual meeting started with a visit to an ecological market garden Gartneri Toftegård south of Copenhagen. Lene Tvedegaard explained with great knowledge about their huge number of chili, pepper, tomato and herb varieties. She told us, how often it happens that the chili and peppers cross pollinate in their large greenhouses. We probably should pay more attention to the fact, that some insects might acquire a taste for the nectar in our chili/pepper flowers, thus crossing them. In a row of large greenhouses like here, the insects are of course much more likely start visiting the flower, than in a garden with just a few plants.
We tasted a lot of tomatoes and chilies, though we had a tight schedule, and we like always had hundreds of questions to ask We know how to extract a lot of knowledge in no time from the wise people we visit!

Lene Tvedegaard shows a small physalis with pineapple taste, her favorite. Interesting, as people where I stood was very divided in their opinion. Some were enthusiastic about it, others like myself, prefer other types with different taste. This is also a reason for growing a great number of varieties within the different crops.

Chili and tomato tasting in one of the greenhouses

Allotments in Ishøj

From Toftegård we drove to the allotments in Ishøj. It was exciting to see how much can be grown, when 100 sq.m. is exploited intensive. Ishøj is know for its large immigrant community. The allotments is a cultural melting pot, where people with very diverse cultural heritage meet each others gardening culture. Some are faithful to their origin, others are more curious, letting themselves getting inspired to grow new crops and grow in new ways. The joy of gardening prevail, almost every gardener there seems to share it. Almost, because here like every where some people with good intentions are not able to keep the garden from growing in to weed and wild trees. But in this allotment they are willingly helping if allowed. An old man kept his garden very well, but has fallen ill this summer. Those who can keep his garden for the time being. He probably helped others in need at times.
Anna, who grow one of the gardens, showed us around. She has a great knowledge of the individual gardens and the culture they represents, and could point out where inspiration had crossed garden fences and cultural borders. The quiet cultural exchange.

Typical danish potato garden. Ground is now bare after the potato harvest. Note the strawberries, root beet, leek, celeriac and fruit bushes

Garden with, as far as I remember, afghan roots. Note the large bed with coriander, this amount is not yet consumed by any old danish families. Also beds with tiny leek-like plants – could it be tareh? Anna have tried to ask, but have not been able to communicate with the family, as she and they have no language in common. Tareh is a small leek, grown like chives, cut several times above ground.

In some of the gardens, the useful is less important than the romantic

Sunday we had a relict plant excursion with Christina Løjtnant (Top photo). She know her plants, and willingly went in to our discussions on how old history a plant should have before we can call them relicts, and when is it really a relict from former cultivation, not the same species escaped a garden in recent times. She explained, that it is not the individual plant that proves to be a relict, but the pattern in which you find formerly cultivated plants around ancient churches, villages, monasteries and other places with traces of intense human activities. She pointed to the fields and meadows – out there relict plants are very rare, only found as single plants, not in populations like in this old village.
Common Butterbur (Petasites hybridus), formerly a classical relict plant, has for some unknown reason transformed from a relict plant surviving around old castles to an invasive species, no more restricted to specific areas where it was originally introduced.

The relict plant excursion ended at the old kongsgård in Gl. Lejre

More photos from the annual meeting

 

Eggplant Seeds Mature

Eggplant (Solanum melongena) in open ground, ready for seed harvest

Today I noticed, that the first set eggplant in open ground was dry and wrinkled. Half dehydrated, half rotten, and it has happened in a few days. Luckily this means the seeds are mature and ready for harvest. Honestly, the plant is small, as the fruit was also small, but extremely early to be ready for picking for the kitchen.

Same fruit 17 juli

Same fruit 10 juli

This F2 generation has a great variability. I would definitely like to grow larger aubergines in my garden. Fortunately there are many plants with larger fruits, although not as early. Before I have created a stabile variety I must expect selecting for the best over a decade. Many a lousy eggplant can be expected to show up in my garden under those years. But the process is exciting, making it all worthwhile.

This size eggplants is what I dream about. I succeeded with this plant, but can I harvest mature seeds from it? Can I then stabilize the type, harvesting large eggplant from open ground year after year?

 

Todays melon harvest

Melon harvest of the day

Now the melon harvest peak. After a cold start in june, it has been a warm summer for the melons. Now every day some will loosen at the slightest touch, ready to harvest. Some days onlythree, other days more, like seven, and then comes a day like today – I needed a box for the harvest.

Like last year I grow Farthest North Melon Mix. A lot of very early varieties crossed up by good people in USA. Most of the plants set ripe fruits in my garden. In older posts you can read how I grow my melons. A one hour drive south of my garden, Merete from Vild med have grow the same melon mix. (text in danish, but lots of photos)

Farthest North Melon Mix

It is obvious, that each plant is an individual when you study the melons. Some small, others tiny. Some very delicious, some boring and a few with an unpleasant taste. The idea is that every grower of this melon mix select an original variety suited to the microclimate of the garden. It can be done very quickly, saving seeds from the very best melon every year. I intend to do it slowly, as it gives me the possibility to select for more of the traits I find desirable. I probaly don’t even want to create a new variety, but a race with desired variation. I find it very charming, when there’s a differences between melons from different plants, I just want them all to taste gorgous and grow on a well behaved robust plant, even in a less than perfect summer in open ground in my north west european climate.

 

Watermelon in the greenhouse

Vatermelon (Citrullus lanatus)

This year we had a beautiful watermelon from the greenhouse. Not huge, but still weighing 2,7 kg. It ripened well, flesh matured a nice red color. Nice taste, sweet, but not too sweet.

It grew on a plant from the watermelon cross I made last year between ‘Sugar Baby’ and
‘White Seeded Besvirino Assyrian Watermelon’. It’s my own F1 hybrid. The seeds I harvest will be F2, and thus segregating out, each seed having a unique recombination of the genes. With some luck, some of the offspring might even do better in my greenhouse than any of their parents.
It’s no secret, that I’m inspired by Carol Deppe and Glenn Drowns (who developed the watermelon Blacktail Mountain)

The same watermelon on juli 21.th.

This year I noticed, that there was only set the watermelons I pollinated by hand.

 

Leek Moth in Garlic

Leek moth (Acrolepiopsis assectella) in garlic (Allium sativum)

This season the leek moth have again visited the garden. Last year it lived in the leek as supposed to, but this year it has developed a taste for garlic. I’m the first to understand. I’ve only found one affected garlic, but the largest specimen. It bored in to the flowerstalk, lived a live in luxury in there. I didn’t notice any serious signs until after harvest, when curing the garlic. It took on a tan color and an unpleasant odeour, not at all like garlic should smell. I had to check it out – guess the photo show my findings better than I can describe.

Next year the leek moth will be back. They only fly short distances. Can I keep the number down in my garden by being on the watch out for the first signs of leek moth, cut out the small garlic consuming beast – I might actually keep their numbers at a minimum. Nobody feeds them in the neighboring gardens by growing alliums.