June in the Trial Garden - by Lindsay Del Carlo, Trial Garden Manager

The weather is starting to turn hot here in our Central California Trial Garden. This year' s cool spring weather and late rains were very helpful in germinating our direct sown seedlings, and now the heat is helping them grow vigorously. We often grow out different lots of our seeds to make sure they meet our standards, and one of my favorites this season is our big Crafters Gourds. They are fun and easy to grow with attractive vines and fragrant flowers, but they need plenty of space to sprawl or climb. We plant 3 seeds in groups, each group spaced 1 foot apart. At sowing time, it's helpful to put a woven plastic strawberry basket over each group to protect from birds and other creatures that may find young seedlings tempting treats, removing when plants get big enough to push the basket tops. Then thin each seedling group to leave only 1 strong seedling.  This is a very important step, because it allows the remaining plants plenty of room to grow and mature.

In an earlier newsletter, we talked about an interesting variety called Tronchuda "Beira" kale. Tronchuda is almost exclusively cultivated in Portugal and is also called Portugese Kale or sea-kale cabbage. It is a loose- headed plant with side spreading leaves and thick, white, fleshy ribs. These easy to grow and highly nutritious plants are mature now and it is sweet and delicious. We have been eating it steamed with olive oil and lemon juice, adding it to stir-fry, and using it in vegetable soup.  We will trial this variety again at the end of summer, growing it for fall harvest and then send it to our trial gardens in other climate zones to see how it does for them.

This year, we are growing out and documenting our Kitchen Garden Design for Long Summer /Mild Winter areas. We started all of the cool spring season varieties from seed in early spring and are now feasting on the vegetables as they mature. This garden is more than sufficient for a family of 4-6 and the spring season varieties include: Broccoli, Kale, Snow Peas, Arugula, Spinach, Chard, Scallions, Beets, Carrots, Radish, Lettuce and Mesclun Mixes.

As we finish harvesting these and garden space becomes available, we will replant with the next rotation of warm season summer harvest varieties. Renee and Lindsay developed these "Planting through the Seasons" garden designs to help gardeners know what to plant through the seasons to have a continual supply of home- grown veggies. We are taking lots of photos of these beds and will be preparing a slideshow documenting it for the website.

The other Kitchen Garden Design, for Short Summer/Cold Winter areas is being grown in our Vermont Trial Garden and we will post about it soon.