Mountainside Herbal Nursery

Sorrel

2010-05-06T14:42:00.000-07:00

Sorrel is not very well known, but it is a tasty addition to the garden. We sell two forms of sorrel. There are additional types, as well. Garden sorrel has bright, fleshy, green leaves. Garden sorrel tastes similar to a blend of lemons, green apples, and lettuce. It can be eaten either raw in salads or cooked in stir-fry or soups. The other type that we offer is the Red Veined Sorrel. It has smaller leaves that are the same bright green, but the veins are bright red. It is not as flavorful as the Garden Sorrel, but does made a beautiful addition to fresh salads. Its red color can bleed so I don’t recommend it for cooking. Sorrel contains vitiamin C, but also oxalate so it needs to be eaten with caution especially by those with kidney issues. Also it should not be feed to rabbits they cannot handle the oxalate. Sorrel is one of the first things to come back up in spring. Mine didn’t even die back during this winter. Sorrel should be cut back if that happens. I think sorrel grows in a place that receives some watering and it not in the hot afternoon sun. Mid-Spring sorrel begins send out bloom spikes. I recommend removing them. The one of the reasons that I recommend removing the flower heads is the plant then focus it efforts on seed product and limits leaf production. Secondly, they produce a lot of seed which the small birds love, but the seeds will germinate all over. As a child our plant wasn’t close to the house so the roaming deer always found it about bloom time and mowed it down. We never had to remove the blooms. They did that for us. My current plant however does not seem so attractive the deer that roam my yard. (It is right outside the back door.) Here is what my plant looks like as it begins blooming.

It becomes filled with these red stems. To remove the flower heads, I follow the red stems to the base of the plant, grasp them firmly at the base. I then pull and twist the stem to hopefully remove the whole stem.

This is a look at the pile of bloom spikes that I pulled out of my sorrel.

And then what was left afterwards.

Mint Gardening

2010-04-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

One of the first herbs I truly loved as a kid was mint. My sister and I used to crush it and added it to our water bottles that we took with us while exploring the creek down behind our house. I even occasionally took some in my water bottle to soccer, but didn’t tell the other kids because I was afraid I would be made fun of. I have totally out grown my fear of being made fun of and have embraced my mint passion. I love to eat mint in mint sauces for dipping homemade Naan , in my fake pho, and fruit salads. I love to drink mint in hot tea, chocolate mint coffee, home brewed sweet tea, and those summer mojitos. I LOVE MINT! With loving mint comes the responsibility of growing mint. I chose the word responsibility for a reason. Mint can be a weed as such it should be planted with caution. You may LOVE mint, but the person that lives next door or the person who buys your house will most likely curse you and your mint forever. I have a personal collection of 17 different kinds of mint. Each one a little different from the next. You can either plant mint in a confined area such as a parking strip or cement surrounded area. Or mint can be planted in containers. (I have even seen it in old bath tubs.) In a container, I recommend that in late February or early March that the container be tipped out. The root mass cut in half. One half of the root mass needs to be placed in the trash and the other half placed back into the pot. Then refill the remaining half of the pot with fresh planting soil. You will have a much happier mint plant. I have my plants in confined in the ground.

My mint garden is about 12’ X 12’. My husband sunk 12” drainage pipe into the ground about 18”. He left a rim above the ground about 2”. Here is a picture of a piece of the pipe.

We used the drainage pipe because it is extremely heavy duty. I have seen it done in buckets and the mint burst the sides. We sunk them 18” because I have mints’ roots do not go deeper than that. We left a rim that was 2” above the ground so we could see the side runners from the mint plants.

We have had these in the ground for nearly 10 years. The only time that I have had escapees is when I have not removed the flower heads (the bees love the flowers) before the seed was mature. But the escapees were easily removed once we noticed them. Once you get your mint growing you need to do something with it. Here is a link to my Minted Sweet Tea recipe: Sweet Minted Iced Tea . I have been working on this for a while. I am not a Southerner so I don’t like super sweet tea, but this is plenty sweet for me.

Now go grow!

Wigglers

2010-04-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

Just thinking a little about worms. They are a wiggly important part of our gardens. We have earth worms in our raised veggie beds. They seemed to have done very well during the winter leaving all of their great worm castings with no work on my part. Here is a picture of two of the monsters that came out while I was working up one of the beds. They must have been 8-10" long.

We also have another type of worm friend that is part of our veggie garden world. We have a worm composting box. In the box we have a colony of red wigglers. Red wigglers (Eisenia Foetida ) are great for composting. We used a design that is offered on the Metro website.

(Here is the link: Http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=554/level=3 )
Mine was a gift from my husband for my birthday, but you can even use salvage materials so there doesn’t need to be a big investment. And the worms a gift from a friend in college. My box has been in use for over 10 years. It is placed behind our workshop so the fruit flies don’t bother anyone. There it is also shaded to protect the worms from the summer sun. I used to collect my fruit and veggie waste out of my kitchen in a 1 gallon mustard container, but it was clear plastic and my family got tired of seeing the mass sitting on our countertop. So this Christmas I received a ceramic bucket, which I must admit is a vast improvement. If you take out your kitchen waste daily than a bucket under the sink can be used or you could use an old cookie jar with a lid if you wanted to wait a couple of days. My worms eat all of our household fruit and veggie waste. They also get coffee grounds, tea (loose and bags), the crusts off my children bread and even the occasional paper towel. They also get a scoop or two of leaves in the fall. I have learned not to include squash seeds or prune pits. The first germinated when we used the compost in our lettuce bed and the latter just encouraged mice. We try to turn the mass occasionally, but it is not done on a regular schedule. Our worms are very happy and reproduce well. I have given some them to friends several times to start their own colonies or for their gardening classes. Red wigglers are available via seed companies like the Oregon based Territorial Seeds, but I would recommend asking friends and neighbors first. They may have a Red Wiggler colony of their own or may know someone that can share.

Cutting Celery and Par-Cel

2010-04-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

There are two items still growing in our veggie beds that are left over from last year. These two plants are Cutting Celery and Par-Cel. I have never grown either before and I am shocked to see that they both survived our winter and my parsley did not.

The Cutting Celery is a type of celery that looks much like the tops of the celery stocks that we are familiar with, but it tastes a little more bitter than celery. It has a dark green, lustrous foliage. I personally would recommend it to be used in soups, stews or making of stocks. Somewhere the longer cooking and blending of flavors would mellow out the Cutting Celery bitterness. The bitterness does not seem to bother our pet rabbit who seems to enjoy it and munches on it daily.

Par-Cel looks like a curly parsley, but it tastes like a celery stock. It is very often mistaken for curly parsley while we are at markets. Par-Cel has a milder flavor that the Cutting Celery therefore I would recommend using it for soups and stocks, but also in salads. I like it in tuna and chicken salads for sandwiches or in potato salads.

We will carrying both of these plants again this year. If you are planting a veggie garden this year I would recommend giving one or both of these a try. They do not require much space or special care. I will definitely be including them again in our garden.

First plants of the season

2010-03-28T17:57:00.000-07:00

Spring has now sprung and we are all looking forward to a supply of fresh veggies again. February was unusually warm so I took advantage of the weather and started our garden a little earlier this year. I have planted 3 things. Peas: both pod and snow. We all love them and we are glad to see them I have planted them along our old fencing in hopes that will climb that.

Radishes: Cherry Bell. We had a great time eating all of the radishes last year. This year I have started earlier and we are planning on multiple crops. These were planted in February and my youngest assistant and I planned another row this weekend. Radishes can be planted repeatedly every 10 days to 2 weeks from March until September in our area. However, I usually don’t have great luck with them mid July- mid August. My spot is a little hot for them.

Carrots: Nutri-Red. I planned these on the same day as the radishes in February and we just started to see the first few coming through about a March 20th. These can also be planted repeatedly through June and then again in September, but then you may want to try an over wintering variety.

In our area any of these thing can start being planted now. Or as soon as you can work your ground. Any questions let me know: mtherbal@aol.com

First Day of Spring 2010

2010-03-20T08:39:00.000-07:00

If you are looking for a great way to get started for the 2010 gardening season, our 2010 Plant List is up on our website.

http://mountainsideherbalnursery.com/plantlist2010.html

Also if you are looking for an idea for when things should be planted in our area, I would also like to suggest taking a look at the Oregon State Extension Service website.

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/grow/grow/planting.html

Test Gardens Part 3

2009-08-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

It is now mid August and our raised beds are growing and providing some great examples of some of the veggie plants that we had for sale earlier this year. We have had lots of beans, but mostly just bush beans so far. We have harvested several tomatoes of various colors and sizes so far. We have also harvested several cucumbers mostly White Stallions and Persienne Cornichon. Here is a look at a few of the vegetables that we have harvested.

This is one of our kohlrabi. They did suffer a little slug damage, but that quickly scabbed over. They have been very nice and mild.

We picked about 3 lbs of beans in one day and about same amount a week later.

Test Gardens Part 2

2009-06-24T21:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, it has been a little while since an update to our blog. Well, the first 5 beds are done in our new raised beds.

Bed 1: Which I talked about last time and our seed and transplanted crops in that bed. That bed has had a few changes since last time. I have added a soaker hose. (For those not familiar with soaker hoses: They are recycled tires made into a porous hose from which the water can seep.) It is not ideal placement in the bed, but it was the best I could do since I was putting it into such a well established bed. There have also been a few plant changes in Bed 1. Due to the early warm weather our radishes were getting close to blooming so I removed them. I replaced them with some left over Zefa Fino fennel starts that were left over in the greenhouse. I also added a few corn salad plugs. I have never grown corn salad before, but I thought I would give it a try.

Bed 2: In bed 2 I have planted legumes. I took the left over Snow Pod pea starts from the greenhouse and planted those. It was really a little late in the season for me to plant peas, but I hate throwing plants out. I also plant my oldest daughter’s rescued mystery bean starts. We don’t know if they are pole or bush beans so I gave them all a little string to climb. In between those two I planted bush beans. I am normally a pole bean person, but I thought I would try something new. The varieties planted in bed 2 are: Oregon II Po d Peas, Blue Lake Pole Beans and Oregon 54 Bush Beans.

Bed 3: In bed 3 I have planted tomatoes. I chose most very small to medium sized fruiting varieties for this bed. When planting these I removed the bottom sets of leaves, added 1 cup of bone meal to each hole and planted each about 1-2 deeper than they were in the pot. I always cage all of my tomatoes so I placed a cage around each. I didn’t not remove the fruit when planting these, which not something I would recommend doing. Not removing the fruit will more than likely give me smaller plants. I also planted my plants fairly close together. This is our first year with these beds so I am not sure how big the plants will get. Next year we may plant our tomatoes differently. The varieties planted in bed 3 are: Red Currant, Yellow Pear, Sungold, Sweet 100, Cabernet, Christmas Grape, Jelly Bean, Roma, and Celebrity.

Bed 4: In bed 4 I also planted tomatoes. We eat a lot of tomatoes in our household. For this bed I chose medium to extra large fruiting varieties. I followed the same procedure as in bed 3. The varieties in bed 4 are: Mortgage Lifter, Brandywine OTV, Kellogg’s Breakfast, Lemon Boy, Cherokee Purple, Polish Linguisa, Black Prince, Aunt Ruby’s Green, Legend, Vera Pepper Tomato, and Pineapple.

Bed 5: In bed five I planted peppers, basil and parsley. I put ½ cup bone meal in each hole and planted each level with the soil as they were in the pots. The varieties plant in this bed are: Peppers- Carmen, Mini Apple, Serrano Del Sol, Early Sunsation, Satsuma, New Ace, Volcano, Fooled You, Shishito, Mexibell Basil- Napoletano, Sweet Mammoth, Lettuce Leaf, Mrs. Burn Lemon, Marseilles, Ararat, Red Rubin, Cinnamon, Superbo, Siam Queen, Serrata Other- Lisette Parsley, Par-Cel, Safir Cutting Celery

Test Gardens Part1

2009-06-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

I thought I would take a little time to talk about the creation of our new raised beds which are going to be part of our test gardens for this year.

This is the space we started with. Our garden is heavy clay that has been amended, but we spent a lot of time battling the mole and gophers. So we decided to abandon the idea of garden in the ground.

So we ordered 10 yards of blended soil mix and some of our own clay soil graciously provide by our many moles.

We built our 8 by 4 ft by 18 inches beds by using untreated 2 by 6 pine boards. Then we lined the bottom with chicken wire, in hope of keeping the moles and gophers out. Then we lined the with weed barrier to keep the weeds from growing up from the bottom. Then we filled it with our purchased soil mix and our clay soil.

So we filled our first finished bed we veggies choosen by our girls. From seed we planted radishes, brussel sprouts, and carrots. Then we added kohlrabi, cauliflower and onions that were starts from our greenhouses. Here is a look at the the radishes. We harvested the first few last night.

Here is a look at the kohlrabi. The starts were planted last week and have already started to bulb up. In the up coming weeks I hope to talk more about what is going on in the test gardens. We are very excited to have fresh stuff from that garden again. Go grow what you eat!

Edible Landscape, Creating Visual Interest

2009-05-22T08:34:00.000-07:00

One of the great things about the concept of edible landscape is the great variations in visual interest that you can create in your yard ( or on your your porch, deck or patio for that matter). I think that is why I originally started planting edible landscape. I moved into our family farmhouse about thirty years ago and it came with a large, pretty yard that would take most of my time to maintain. It was loaded with Rhodadendrons, azaleas, begonias and a very large annual bed the length of the driveway that had been planted to exactly the same annuals every year since I could remember.

I knew several things right away about that yard. 1. I didn't have the time to take care of it or the money to hire people to do it. 2. It looked a lot like every yard in the area. Everyone planted the rhodies and azeleas and it reminded me of a lot of new subdivisions today. All of the front yards look the same because the same subcontractor designed all of them. 3. Rhodies and azaleas bloom once a year, we get our first hot weather the same week, then they are exceedingly ugly when the blooms fizzle. 4. I never have liked begonias. I used to be the poor fool who got to take care of them when I was growing up and they just don't appeal to me that much. 5. I was bored with that annual bed and I didn't like the colors in it anyway. Pink and yellow (or that much of it anyway) just didn't inspire me to work in my yard.

The begonias, being on the top of the hated list went first. That is what I'd like to write about today. I have some kind of ingrained need for visual diversity. I didn't really want plants that were all the same and in straight rows like the begonias had been. I decided to try to put in an herb garden in that spot. I really knew nothing about herb growing or cooking with them, but it sounded so much more fun than those life sucking begonias. I started slowly, but over the years I have learned that growing something both visually interesting and useful in your landscape can be a lot of fun. It has also led to some great eating.

On my quest to learn more about the herbs I discovered many other great ways to use edible landscape for fun and food. One of the first things I found that gave the yard great visual interest was artichokes. Here was a very unusual looking plant that also yielded an intersting edible flower. I have never really gotten into eating them, but the rest of my family did so I pretty much grow them all the time. They do grow and produce pretty well here if you give them enough water. I have never been much to cover them in the fall (we tend to be real busy with hazelnut harvest then and I just forget) so I have to replant them every 3 or 4 years, but that has given me the opportunity to move them to a different place each time to add interest to a different part of the yard. Wait until my family sees where I'm going to put them this year!

I do recommend trying unusual plants like artichokes. They can be a great addition to your edible landscape.

Grow What you Eat!

Tomatoes

2009-05-15T07:31:00.000-07:00

Tomatoes are one of the most rewarding parts of your edible landscape. Fresh tomatoes of any variety taste better than something picked green, shipped for miles then gassed to turn red. Most gardeners have their favorites, small, hybrid or heirloom that they swear by. We offer 36 different kinds of plants so you should be able to find something you'll love to grow.

Tomatoes are either hybrids or open pollinated. Many open pollinated varieties are older and are considered to be heirlooms. Hybrids have had various traits bred into them, from earliness to resistance, to various diseases. Heirlooms are often a little more challenging to grow, but the reward is a full flavored, often colorful, interestingly shaped tomato. We recommend trying some of each to see what you like and what will grow best for you.

We haven't had too much problem with pests on tomatoes except slugs, deer and our Springer Spaniel with a serious tomato addiction. Keeping ripening tomatoes off the ground with good tomato cages or supports discourages slugs. For us, it takes a good fence for the other two pests.

Natural plant resistance and a good sanitation program (removing all dead vines and a 3 year crop rotation) will prevent most fungal diseases. One problem that we have encountered with some varieties is nutritional blossom end rot. If you have our typically acidic Oregon soil, you will need to use bone meal or some other supplement to adjust your soil pH and increase the available calcium. Consult your local garden store for pH test kits and calcium options. I usually use 1/2 c or so of bone meal in the planting hole.

When you take your plants home you should acclimate them in a sheltered area outside for a week or so. Bring them in at night or cover them to project them from frost. After the danger of frost has passed, space each plant 18-30 inches apart depending on the variety. I usually remove the bottom 2-4 leaves and place the plant to cover up to within an inch or two of the next set of leaves. I know that it hard to do, but if your plants have blossoms or tomatoes on them you should remove them. Water them to prevent stress, but try not to get the foliage wet. A drip irrigation system is great because it's an efficient use of the water because you are only watering the plant itself. Also it is a great way to prevent disease because the foliage will not get wet. You can use mushroom compost before planting or a mild fertilizer. A fish fertilizer is a good option for this.

Indeterminate tomatoes definitely need support, but I support all my tomatoes, regardless of their type, with cages to keep their tomatoes off the ground. Keeping the tomatoes off the ground will decrease the likelihood that slugs will eat the fruit. I have my little beer filled "Slug Bars" out where our dog, who is also a lush, can't get to them. Companion planting tomatoes with basil is good, but remember the tomatoes will grow tall so plant the basil on the south side.
Now just remember to keep your tomatoes watered and the deer out of them and you are well on your way to a great crop of fresh tomatoes!

Grow what you eat!!

This is going to be short...

2009-05-08T08:00:00.001-07:00

This is going to be short today because I've got to go get plants ready to take to the markets at Hillsboro and Sherwood this weekend. Last weekend was pretty lousy weather, but we still had lots of people getting a start on their gardens ( and doing a little repair of winter damage too).

Hardy perennials like Chives, lavender, rosemary, winter savory, thyme, etc can be planted now. They need to get established a little before you really start to use them so the time to plant is now. Also some hardier annuals like parsley ( actually a biennial) can be [planted,. We had lots of people who have made plans to protect other plants like tomatoes from frost and they eagerly got started last week. We will have quite a few tomatoes this week. For a complete list visit our website. The link is to the right of this article. Get there early or call 503 709 6947 to order plants for the best selection.

Remember you will need to harden off your plants for a week or so before planting. I would also check the weather report for frost before I put them in the ground next week.

It is still too early for peppers, cucumbers, squash, and especially basil and eggplant. They need warmer minimum night temps or higher soil temps than we have now.

I better go get some plants ready. Hope to see you at Hillsboro on Sat or Tigard on Sunday. Peter will also be at Sherwood on Sat and Orenco on Sunday. Happy Mothers Day.

Grow What You Eat!!

These Can Be Planted Before Frost Free

2009-04-24T07:51:00.000-07:00

I have spent a lot of time reminding everyone not to plant too early. Up here on the mountain we were close to freezing this morning (there was frost on my lawn). I'm sure there was frost at least in protected areas in the valley. A quick review, it's too early for tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and especially basil.

On a positive note, however, there are lots of wonderful vegetables and herbs that can tolerate frost in varying degrees. That's what I want to talk about today. I'm sure I won't remember to mention them all, but hopefully it will give you an idea. If you have a question about specific plants you can email us at mtherbal@aol.com.

Hardy herbs like lavender, rosemary, sage, chives and parsley are frost tolerant. REALLY cold weather like we had this winter will damage rosemary (you should see my poor old rosemary plant, it used to be large), but the temps we have this time of the year won't bother most varieties, especially Hill Hardy or Arp. These newer varieties are specifically bred to take more cold. If you get new plants from us next week at the Hillsboro or Sherwood market be sure to ask if the plant you are getting has been in the greenhouse or outside. Plants coming from the greenhouse should be hardened off by putting them outside for a week or so before planting. They will do so much better.

Mint can be damaged by frost, but they will come out of it and with the way mint grows you usually don't notice any damage for long. Because mint can be invasive we usually recommend planting it in pots anyway so you can bring them in if it frosts hard.

A lot of vegetables can tolerate some frost too. Peas, cabbage, Kale, broccoli, onions, lettuce, cauliflower and kohlrabi just ignore the frost and in fact grow better in cool weather. We will have some of those the first couple weeks of May and again in the fall. We also do some summer lettuce that is more heat tolerant, which I recommend planting from mid June until fall. I have probably forgotten to mention some plants, so check our calendar at our website www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com.

I am really looking forward to market next Sat, May 2. We will be at Hillsboro and Sherwood. I should say Krista and I (and Molly) will be at Hillsboro and Peter and Annika will be at Sherwood. Hope we have good weather!!

Grow What You Eat!!

Garden Prep this Week in Hillsboro, Sherwood, and Tigard, OR

2009-04-17T09:23:00.000-07:00

I don't know about where you are at, but we are supposed to have some very nice weather this weekend. The weather people are talking about temps in the high 70's. April, May and June tend to be very changeable here in the Willamette Valley so we could be back to freezing next weekend who knows.

The season here this year is VERY late. Our cherries are not even in full bloom yet. They are usually in full bloom at least by my birthday which was last week even in a fairly late year so you can see how late we are this year. The warm weather this weekend should be perfect for the cherries.

It should also be a perfect time to get your garden prepared and some cool crop things planted. It's perfect for those root crops that you need to seed directly like carrots, beets and radishes. Carrots and beets take a while ( 3 weeks) to germinate so you can plant radishes as markers( plant them about 2" away) for them in your garden. Radishes come up in a few days and are ready to eat before carrots or beets are very big at all. That is also a very efficient use of garden space.

You can also plant lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower and onions, but I recommend plants for those. If you don't get some started yourself we will have them at the Hillsboro and Sherwood Farmers' Markets starting on May 2 and also at Orenco and Tigard on Sundays starting the following weekend. The OHSU market starts in mid May, but they are having a special Earth Day market on April 24th. Krista will be there.

Be sure to save some room for warmer weather plants too. Tomatoes can go in after ALL danger of frost is past. In Hillsboro that is usually about the 10th or 12th of May, but you can keep an eye on the weather as we get close. A warning: Hillsboro had a hard frost on the 18th of May last year. I think Sherwood and Tigard have a little earlier frost free dates than Hillsboro usually, but again I would keep a close eye on the weather.

Some plants really need to be planted when the weather warms up and NOT before. Those include peppers, cucumbers, squash, eggplant and BASIL. We will have lots of those plants at the market when we get closer to the proper time to plant them.
Putting those types of plants in too early usually stunts them and they just can't seem to get going.

I am really looking forward to garden season this year. I have my raised beds all ready to go, and they are properly protected from the deer and my dog. We also have added a large garden space for corn, squash and cucumbers this year. We will be ready to enjoy all of those crops fresh from our garden this year. They taste so much better than what you buy at the store. Also, a few tomato plants can produce a $100 worth of tomatoes. Think what that will do for your food budget.

I am going to go get to work transplanting tomatoes now.

GROW WHAT YOU EAT!!

This Week at the Nursery

2009-04-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

I love spring and I am getting so anxious for vegetable gardening season to really start! I have already planted radishes, carrots, beets, onions and peas. With the warm weather we had last weekend I have to keep reminding myself that it is too early to plant frost sensitive plants like tomatoes or plants that need warm soil or night time temperatures to grow like corn, cucumbers and peppers.

Earlier this season I blogged about planting dates and microclimates and if you missed it you should go back and check it out. I know I will keep an eye on the calendar and plant accordingly. My husband regularly visits a local large home improvement store and he noticed several weeks ago that they had tomato plants out already. Several days later he returned (I did say regularly) and all of the plants were dead. Frost will do that to tomatoes.

We have been so busy the last couple of weeks transplanting peppers, tomatoes and annual herbs. We will bring them to the Farmers' Markets at the appropriate time to plant them because we really do want our customers' gardens to be successful. Some of the hardest plants to wait for are basils. They need minumum nightime temps of 50 to 55 degrees and we don't usually get that until around the first of June.

I have discovered that I have pretty much gotten carried away with varieties. Of course that's how I earned the "Crazy Seed Buyer" title. We have variety lists on our website www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com. Hopefully you can find something there that will suit your needs. If you have questions you can email us at mtherbal@aol.com and we will try to help you. I love hearing from first time gardeners.

Only 3 weeks to the first Hillsboro and Sherwood markets so get your gardens ready for hardier plants like artichokes,cabbage, brocoli, onions, and lettuce. Don't forget herbs. Plants like thymes, parsley, chives, sages, and lavenders don't mind a little frost either so they can go in early. I love Spring!!

Grow What You Eat!

Small Space Gardening

2009-03-27T08:07:00.000-07:00

I have not always been interested in small space gardening. I mean, why would I need to be? I live on a farm after all. Well, the local deer population forced me to try it when they either ate or stomped my garden, particularly my tomato plants year after year.

I really wasn't very good at it at first and I have decided to share my experiences so others don't have to make my mistakes. I have done things that have worked and things that have been disasters. I started slowly, but now I really love it. My raised bed garden is really becoming my little gardening retreat.

The first thing I tried was small raised beds placed near or within my large garden space. Doing raised beds can be expensive and I tried to do my first ones on the cheap. It was one of those disasters. My first ones were too short. If you don't mind bending way down to weed, etc that could be ok, but it didn't work for me. The big problem though was how I tried to protect them from the deer and other critters that wander the area. I thought I could just put frames over the individual beds and use deer or bird netting over them. The frames were about 3 to 4 feet high that held up the netting. The first problem was that it was hard to move the netting out of the way to work in the garden which could have been fixed by changing the design, but there was no point since the deer just walked over the nets and completely stomped my garden anyway. So much for that idea!

After that I decided to explore my yard to find places to plant vegetables, fruits, and herbs that the deer would be less likely to destroy. I had a large of yard area with lots of high maintenance flowering plants like roses and rhododendrons. I converted a small area into a structured herb garden and left some space for vegetables. After that I was really hooked on edible landscape. It was so much fun to go out and harvest fresh vegetables and herbs for dinner. And the deer were a little more nervous about getting that close to my house so they would only top my plants and I would still get plenty of tomatoes to eat.

We took out most of the roses and planted a long row of blueberries, nine large plants that came out of field we were removing. Those nine plants provide us with so many blueberries that we often have a few to sell at the market late in the season after the commercial growers are finished! They are the varieties "Duke" and "Darrow". We will have those varieties available for sale at the markets this year in 2 gal pots.

About 3 or 4 years ago I convinced my husband that we needed to try the raised beds again so I could have test gardens for the many vegetable starts that we grow. This time we made them about 2 feet tall, put poultry wire under them to keep the gophers and moles out, got a load of topsoil so we didn't have to fill them with our heavy clay soil, and put a fence around them. That fence was the biggest issue. We used large garden stakes that first year ( those 1 in. plastic poles with a little metal inside) and used bird netting for the fence.

My dog loves tomatoes and can actually be as hard on them as the deer. The first year she crawled under the netting to get at them. That left a space under the fence that the deer just couldn't resist. It looked like a buck put his head under the netting to browse on the tomato plants then got his antlers tangled in the netting and tore it while bending the poles. We did get some tomatoes, but several plants were pretty much destroyed.

Last year we switched to regular metal fence posts, but my dog continued to crawl under the netting even though I put metal stakes in to hold it down. She really loves tomatoes! I fooled her this year. We invested in poultry wire and I feel like we now have a dog, deer, gopher, bunny, cat proof garden area. That is if my grandchildren remember to close the door!

We have already planted radishes and carrot seed and onion plants. Peas came up as volunteers before all that cold weather and they survived almost 3 feet of snow. They're starting to grow and Molly and I are starting to look forward to fresh peas.
Annika and I planted parsley plants yesterday too so at least one of the beds is coming together.

I will update on the progress in those beds, but now it's time for you to get to work and prepare for the upcoming season. We will have lots of plants at the Hillsboro, Orenco, Sherwood, Tigard and OHSU markets for you to put in your own garden. It is also time to plant early season root crops like radishes, carrots, and beets. Those need to be direct seeded.

I hope this will be helpful to you in creating your own garden spot. If you have questions you can email us at mtherbal@aol.com and we will try to help. We can also take orders for plants or let you know about availability of specific varieties. Please see our plant lists on our website mountainsideherbalnursery.com .

Have fun and GROW WHAT YOU EAT!

Grow What You Eat!

2009-03-20T08:50:00.000-07:00

Krista said that I should write this week about why growing your own food is a good idea so I will. There are so many reasons that I can't possibly name them all, but here are a few of my favorites:

1. THIS IS THE BIG ONE!! The food you grow is fresher and tastes better. You simply will not believe how good a homegrown tomato tastes!

2. It is satisfying and fun to grow something you eat. It is very liberating to know you grew this for yourself and your family. Kids especially love to eat something they helped to grow and going out in the garden to "graze" encourages them to eat healthy snacks (and gets them out of the house).

3. You know what was put on the food as it was grown. You can grow conventionally or organically, or anyway you like. You also know where the water came from that was used to grow it. My hot button for this is green onions. I grow them indoors in the winter because I simply will not feed my family green onions grown in Mexico. There have been too many cases of food poisoning from those things and they are so hard to wash. If the ones in the store are not clearly marked I make the produce people go look up where they came from before I buy them. Of course in the summer I can simply get them at the farmer's market if I run out of my own. We eat a lot of them.
I also substitute chives, garlic chives and welsh onions for green onions if I run low. Those are all easy to grow even in a pot on the deck.

4. You can actually lower your food bill, especially if you preserve what you grow.This year there is a water shortage in California. That means that a lot of summer vegetables are not going to get planted. Tomatoes and lettuce in particular could be in short supply and expensive.

5. You can eat varieties of produce that appeal to you and your family. We grow over 40 kinds of basil plants, over 30 kinds of tomato plants, over 20 kinds of pepper plants, and lots of different cucumbers, squash, corn, and of course herbs for you. You can see our variety lists on our website: www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com

6. This is the ultimate in being a locovore ( someone who eats only food grown within a certain radius of where they live). How can you get any closer than your own backyard?

There are probably at least a dozen other reasons to Grow What You Eat, but these some of my favorites.

It's time to really start to plan what you are going to grow this year. Next week I will talk about my experiences with small space raised bed gardening.

Grow What You Eat!

Berries at Mountainside Herbal Nursery

2009-03-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

I potted up blueberry and raspberry plants this week so I thought that might be a good subject to talk about this week.

Berry plants are pretty easy to grow and provide you with fresh, tasty berries that are so... expensive in the store. What a treat to be able to just go outside and pick what you want eat. In the case of blueberries you'll probably even have enough to freeze some as well.

Blueberries are super because they offer the extra bonus of being a beautiful landscape plant. Blueberry foliage turns a bright red in the fall that rivals any ornamental. When mature(10 years old plus) blueberries can also produce 15-20 lbs of fruit. Imagine what that would cost in the store (or even at the Farmer's Market)!!

Raspberries require a little more pruning and care than blueberries in theory, but I just set some plants in pots out a few years ago that I had dug up and was going to transplant then forgot about them. The next thing I knew the plants had transplanted themselves in of all places a mostly shady spot. I thought well that's not going to work, but last year I had some of the biggest Willamette raspberries I have ever seen. Imagine what I would have if they were in a good sunny spot like they are supposed to be.

We are going to have two varieties of blueberries this year. You always want to plant at least two different kinds so you get good cross pollination to get the heaviest crop. We will have my two personal favorites Duke and Darrow.

Duke is a late blooming, but early crop med to large sized berry. That is a big advantage if you tend to get late frosts. This variety has proved to to be very productive in my yard.

Darrow is a late VERY large berry. It is a lot of fun because of those large berries that really amaze people. It produces fewer berries because of that large size, but people who like to eat fresh berries or freeze them for their cereal in the winter really like these.

We will also have Willamette raspberry plants this year. This is a variety developed for this area and is an industry standard. It rarely gets crumble berry and is large, firm and sweet.

We will also have Tribute strawberries again. We like these because they can be container grown as well as in small space gardens. They are "ever bearing" or "day neutral" so they produce from the time the weather warms up in the spring until we get a hard freeze in the fall. They will sometimes quit producing flowers if we have a really hot period, but will start again as soon as it cools. I like this one because the berries are sweet and have a genuine Strawberry flavor. These make an especially fun "kid" project to learn about growing something to eat.

Now is the time to start to plan space for some of these great additions to your yard, patio or garden. Grow what you eat!!!

When should I plant?

2009-03-06T07:27:00.002-08:00

Krista and I attended the Yard, Garden and Patio Show last Friday. The show itself was interesting and one of the main themes was edible landscape. As I have said before I have done this for years because it just made sense to me.

We attended a seminar about small space gardening that was really quite good, but the speakers handed out a flyer that talked about when to plant and I kept thinking "I hope people in here realize that these suggestions are general and don't apply to every location in the area." They were saying that the frost free date was mid to late April. If you live in any of the outlying metro areas that is simply not true. It is sometimes difficult to determine exactly when your own particular frost free date is, but it is very important.

I hate to generalize because there are microclimates even within your own yard, but my experience has shown that in Hillsboro, for instance, frost free is generally about May 12th to the15th, but last year we had a hard frost at the Farmers' Market on the 18th( after having 80 degree weather the week before). I don't know how many people came to us and said that their tomato plants had died in Hillsboro, Sherwood and Tigard. If you do want to put your plants in that first week of May you need to think about protecting them with something like a Wall 'O Water or bell jar.

If you have gardened a while in your yard you have probably have a pretty good idea when frost free is, but if you are new to gardening or at a new location you might try asking a neighbor about their experience with frost free.

Some plants, of course, don't mind a light frost. Hardy herbs like rosemary, lavender, winter savory and even parsley don't really mind at all. We have a new flat leaf parsley this year called Survivor that is supposed to be frost tolerant. Vegetables like peas, cabbage, rhubarb, onions and artichokes like to go in early too.

If you have questions about your when your favorite vegetables or herbs should be planted we will be posting calendars on our website: mountainsideherbalnursery.com
, but remember your area may be different. We will try to help as best we can with specific questions if you email us at mtherbal@aol.com.

For the best tasting food:

GROW WHAT YOU EAT!

When should I plant?

2009-03-06T07:27:00.001-08:00

2009-02-27T08:23:00.000-08:00

I have been a proponent of the concept of edible landscape for about 20 years. I have a bit of a practical streak and really just couldn't see doing all of that work in my yard and not getting something great to eat out of it. ( Besides the deer usually eat anything that is too far from my house so I had to start planting closer). At Mountainside Herbal Nursery we have put that experience to work for you and will offer an amazing variety of herb, vegetable, fruit and even edible flower plants for you this year. Whether you have a large garden that you want to feed your family from year round or room on a deck for some great fresh tomatoes and herbs we will have what you need.

I think I have finally completed the seed buying process for the year and did I really go crazy this year. We had so many requests last year year for additional types of vegetable starts that I decided to do a little research to find out which vegetables do well as transplants. Boy was I surprised! Many vegetables actually do better in this area as transplants due to our very cool spring soil temperatures. As we get closer to planting season I will discuss the many varieties we have added to help you get started on your edible landscape.

Check out our plant lists for 2009 at www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com . If you have any questions please email at mtherbal@aol.com or call 503 709 6947

Winter Market

2008-11-19T11:56:00.000-08:00

It has been a long time since any post was made. I will make a renewed effort. There are a few weeks left in the Hillsboro Winter Market. It is a small, but growing market. The hazelnuts and walnuts look really good this year. We are also hoping to have a few Meyer lemons before the end of the market season. Hope to see you there!

The new seed catalogs have started to arrive. So we are looking forward to getting input for people what kind of plants they will be looking for next spring. Link to our main website and let us know.

Ta-Da walls!

2008-04-04T10:57:00.000-07:00

Ta-da! And now there are walls.

Getting Closer

2008-03-11T11:25:00.000-07:00

The posts for the side walls of the new greenhouse are in the ground and the gravel for the first layer of floor, as well. It is getting closer everyday! YEAH!!

It feels like spring is coming!!

2008-02-21T16:21:00.000-08:00

It feels like spring will be here any day now. The last few days have been warm and sunny. (I know rain is coming. This is Oregon after all.) The farmers' market applications are being filled out. (An important part of spring in our world.) The first pepper seedling are up. They are so cute and bright green. You can't help, but smiling when you look at them. It is all so inspiring and I can't wait for spring to be here!!

Crazy Seed Buyer

2008-01-28T08:20:00.000-08:00

I am really living up to my title of "Crazy Seed Buyer" this year. We are in the process of buying and propagating some really interesting varietes. I have had some help from our customers. We really do listen to their suggestions and it has led us to some fun new things. As I finish up our plant lists for 2008 I'll be posting about some of those plants so check back here to find out about them. Maybe your garden needs something new this year.

The New Year has Begun

2008-01-03T08:07:00.000-08:00

Well, 2008 is just a few days old and the first new plants are starting in the greenhouse. It seems like spring has already begun. (even though it is months away) The lemon grass cuttings have just begun we should start the first roots soon. There are also rosemary, thyme and lavender cuttings just waiting to grow. In a few days, the seed orders will be finish and ready to be sent in. If you still have a plant that you would like to have don't forget to go to our website and let us know. www.mountainsideherbalnursery.com Happy new year!!!

Moving Dirt

2007-11-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

My husband has been working hard and moving dirt getting ready for our new greenhouse. Once the dirt has a chance to settle we will start to build. It is exciting!!

Starting to plan for 2008

2007-11-25T15:28:00.000-08:00

Welcome!!! Things in the plant end of the nursery are nice and slow right now. I have started with a few cuttings of mint and rosemary. In the next few weeks I will continue with rosemary and a few other things that I have in the greenhouse as mother plants. I like this time of year in the production. It is relaxed and it is a lot of planning for next season. That is just my cup of tea. Planning involves sitting with a cup of tea and starting to pour over the new seed catalogs as they arrive and day dream. It is great to see all of the new things that the seed breeders come up with and all they new things that they find all over the globe. This year we are trying something new for our seed buying. On my website I have posted a form and I hope to start to getting input from our customers as to what kind of herb and veggie plants that they want us to grow. I have started to get the first few responses and it is great!! I can't wait to see what kind of requests we get. If you are looking for an heirloom tomato, special pepper or weird basil go to my website and let me know. We are also planning for our new greenhouse (our 3rd) and going to a additional market on Sundays. I will post pictures of the new greenhouse as we make progress.