This summer. In some ways there are no words to fully describe all of the things that were different, troubling, and in one case a surprise, a good one.
Two of my wild apple trees grown from seed (germinated December 2018) appear to have succumbed to the intense and prolonged heat. Other plants as well. I will write up some of that in another post.The picture is of my celery bed (aka greens bed - more on that below) taken September 10th. I little crinkly around the edges on some of them.
However, by harvesting from the center area, I can get these lovely additions to salad etc., while the outer stalks and leaves of the plants shelter the interior growing area.
AND, that is the key to why my celery has been growing lushly since mid-winter (sown and re-seed volunteers last fall).
Here is the greens, herbs and celery bed in March. I outlined (forgive my awful drawing skills) the celery in some ,so you can easily see them among the various lettuces and herbs. I treat this bed as a cut and come again, harvesting what I need as I need it. Sometimes I just go out with my scissors and cut 2 inches or so off the top straight across the bed. Sometimes I just go out and cut what stalks and leaves of celery I need.
By June most of the lettuce type greens had blasted or died back. The celery then took over the bed (top picture).
I have long written about density of planting/sowing for the warm/hot weather. The density shields the soil surface from direct sun, minimizes evaporation, keeping the root area cooler. The density also creates a shield to the "sides" of the interior plants.
Because the celery began to take over the greens bed in earnest in late spring/early summer, I let it. The reward was an amazing bed of celery that was about 4 feet wide and 2.5 feed deep.
I have been growing celery for a number of years, letting it self-sow and adding some seeds here and there. Up until this year I usually only had harvestable celery until about late May.
I intentionally sow celery and other greens Sept/Oct. Usually the self-sown plants are showing up about this time (late September).
Now it was time to do some clearing out so I can sow the new greens bed.
I removed all of the celery plants except for a row towards the front of the bed. I composted or cut and dropped in another bed nearby. I do dry some of my celery, but this is too much.
I placed the pruners so you could see the size of the plants and the roots. I do need to do some experimenting with using celery root in recipes.
This was September 12. I leveled the bed readying for the seeds.
Normally I scatter the seeds, but this sowing time I decided I wanted a more colorful array of the greens so I decided
to sow in rows. As the season(s) go forward I may add more in between. This picture was taken September 15.
On September 23rd the bed looked like this. You can see parts of the row of celery in the front there (bottom of the picture).
So, some helpful information. I actually have a couple of areas where the celery flourishes. This one is north of a couple of trees, which keeps the plants early growing time more in the shade with some morning sun and a bit of filtered western sun.
Once the sun moves to summer south, there is more direct sun. As this bed is the largest, the density was the most helpful. Go back up and look at the opening picture. You can see the crispy leaves are on the outside for the most part and that is point about density. Think of it as the plant being its own "nurse" plant protecting the inter growth from the heat intensity.
By keeping the plants generally pruned back, not letting the flowers and seed heads form, they continue to push out new growth.
I hope you give celery a place in your garden, so you too, can enjoy an almost constant access to this flavorful addition to many, many dishes.
Have a best day.
Be patient, be kind to yourself and each other, and share,
-- Catherine, The Herb Lady
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