I snipped my first collection of salad things from the roof. These were all planted on the 12th of September, 16 days ago (with the exception of the spotted trout lettuce, a volunteer from spring, which set seed). Despite the presence of the pea shoots - snap peas, Cascadia, Pisum sativum, the fall crop is heavy on the Brassicas: in the bowl I have three mustards, hybrids of Brassica juncea: Spicy Green mustard - slightly furry - and Red Giant mustard (not very giant, now!), below:
...and Ruby Streak, wispy and smooth:
...all more or less redolent of wasabi; then Brassica oleracea - in this case Italian lacinato kale, Nero Toscana, which I used very sparingly, as I'd like it to get big - it is very vigorous:
Bordeaux spinach - Spinacia oleracea:
The earliest to emerge were the peas, three days after sowing (which are now about 5" high), then the mustards, then the kales. Not pictured or harvested are the broccoli rabe, which is still very small and shy, the parsnips, obviously, though they are all up, now, the wild arugula, which is surprisingly slow, the thin green threads of the bunching onions, and the dwarf kale.
The seeds were all from Botanical Interests, and no, this is not a paid advertisement...
And guess what this is:
Sea rocket, Cakile edentula, origin Fire Island. Well, unless something else snuck in there. But there are two up and two that look the same. I planted nine seeds.
I am curious to see how cooler weather affects all the roof crops (grand name for a tiny endeavour), though I imagine thatI will sow more mustard before cold weather arrives. We are having an uncommon September.
Great photos Marie, I wish I could get mine to come out as clear and distinct as yours do. Do you use a tripod? I have a Canon SD600 digital elph. I love it because it fits in my pocket. It takes pretty good photos but nothing with the clarity of yours.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite kind of salad mix :-)
ReplyDeletehalfpintv - Thank you! I should use a tripod but no. I use either a pocketable SD95, (and miss my old SD880)- the first picture is the SD95. Or a bigger Rebel (the others are the Rebel, with telephoto - which explains the depth of field).
ReplyDeleteI think the Elf is a good camera. Try and be as steady as possible (I know, duh)- I always let my breath out and stop breathing when I click! And before pressing the shutter all the way down wait for the green square to show in the frame, meaning that what you want to focus on is in focus and crisp - then click(I think yours has this feature?)...
It also helps sometimes to underexpose a little in bright conditions, which I believe you can adjust, too...Do you use the macro feature for close ups? If not, do.
Val, mine, too - worth waiting through summer for it.
beautiful, Marie...
ReplyDeleteYum, I love growing greens. What type of container do you have these in?
ReplyDeleteThanks halfpinvt for asking about the photos - I had the same idea! And thanks for the reply Marie. I always carry a camera because, well, you never know, do you? :)
ReplyDeleteMimi - thank you :-)
ReplyDeletemeems - a mixture - all plastic, I'm afraid, for the roof. The mustards are in troughs about 24" x 6" x 8"...The other post range from 12" - 24" in diameter and 12" to 24" in depth...
jelli - exactly. You never know.