Now We Are Cooking… with Summer Vegetables!

Summertime is full of sunshine, blue skies, and the EXTREME temperatures that veggies love! The Professional Gardener (PG) student veggie plot is thriving on Red Lion Row (known fondly by the students as “The Row”) and we have been harvesting produce three times a week. It’s wonderful that the produce can be delivered to Longwood’s Terrace Restaurant within the hour of being picked from the field. You can’t get any fresher than that!

Snap Peas

During the early season, when things were a bit cooler than today, we harvested an abundance of snap peas and numerous kohlrabi heads. We began harvesting snap peas on June 5 and finished harvesting them in late June. Although it was a short season, we reaped a total of over 30 lbs, which everyone was pleased with.

Once the snap peas were spent they were replaced with cucumbers and summer squash, both started from seed in the ground. Since it has been so hot outside we have had to water these precious seedlings at least twice or sometimes three times a day to keep them moist and happy.

PG Vegetable Plot on Red Lion Row

Along with the heat comes watering the plot, a common everyday task for the Junior PG’s. We find it best to water early in the morning or late in the evening once the sun has gone down to support better water retention. Something to keep in mind when watering your own garden: Watering in the evening is not always ideal because the leaves remain wet and that prolonged dampness can encourage disease.

Currently we have been harvesting Swiss chard, carrots, summer squash and cucumbers—all of which are warm season crops that we will be able to harvest through September. Within the next few weeks, we will start harvesting eggplant, tomatoes and peppers. Last week, while I was watering the plot, I noticed that some of the Sun Gold Cherry Tomatoes were starting to turn yellow. We are already harvesting a substantial amount of them, which is very exciting.

Swiss Chard

Summer Squash: Golden Zebra (left)/Ronde de Nice (right)

Jason Belkov, Head Chef of the Terrace Restaurant at Longwood Gardens, shared one of his recipes that uses our summer squash. This is something you can taste while visiting Longwood, or we hope that you will make it at home with produce picked from your own garden!

Summer Squash Lasagna

Ingredients

(about 2 medium) yellow squash, sliced 1/4 inch thick (in lieu of pasta)
1/2 cup onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 cup grated carrot
1/2 cup cooked sautéed sliced button mushrooms
20 spinach leaves
2 small tomatoes, cut up
1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
1 garlic clove, minced

4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 teaspoon fresh oregano
1/2 teaspoon fresh basil
1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/4 cup water
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 cup ricotta cheese
1/2 cup mozzarella cheese, shredded

1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Directions

1. Grill squash until tender and set aside. Pan fry onions & garlic with the olive oil and add carrots, mushrooms and bell pepper until veggies are tender. Add the spinach, tomatoes, tomato paste, oregano, basil, thyme, water & pepper.  Bring this all to a boil.
2.  Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered for 10 minutes or until reduced to 2 cups.
3.  In small bowl add ricotta cheese & half of shredded cheese.
4.  In (1 1/2-qt.) baking-roasting pan arrange half of the tomato mixture. Top with half of the summer squash, half the Parmesan and all the ricotta cheese mixture. Top with remaining tomato mixture and then the squash slices.
5.  Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes.
6.  Sprinkle with remaining cheeses. Bake 10 minutes longer.

Let stand 10 minutes before serving.
* Serving Size: makes 4 servings

A total of 220 lb. of produce has already been harvested from the plot, and we are only 7 weeks into the growing season! With how things are progressing, we expect to have a great season and look forward to learning more about vegetables by raising them, and sharing all of that knowledge with you!

Since the profits from the veggie plot benefit our class trip, I wanted to let you know that the Professional Gardener Class of 2012 will be traveling to China in October 2012, and we are very excited!

PG's in the Veggie Plot

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Longwood Gardens’ Bright Future

 

Today marked an important milestone at Longwood Gardens. In an official flipping of a giant light switch with trustees, staff, volunteers and local dignitaries, Longwood Gardens began producing enough clean, solar electricity to provide power to the equivalent of 138 Pennsylvania homes and to reduce Longwood’s carbon dioxide emissions by 1,367 tons. We achieved this through the installation of a 1.5 megawatt solar array on more than 10 acres of Longwood property.

Watch a Youtube video of the grand opening.

A view of Longwood's new 1.5 MW solar field

The solar field is the newest project in our wide-ranging environmental stewardship program at Longwood. We call our program “Soil to Sky,” meaning that rather than viewing our stewardship role with a microscope, we view it with a very wide lens to ensure that we are caring for our “global garden” that is much larger than the 1,077 acres in which we physically reside.

We have been stewards of our environment through our water management practices, recycling, composting, demand-side energy reduction, and even growing produce in our very own gardens for our Terrace Restaurant. But in 2009, we increased our efforts further when we established a bold stewardship goal to reduce Longwood’s dependence upon nonrenewable energy sources and install 3 MW of solar power by 2018. Once achieved, an estimated 70% of Longwood’s annual electrical needs will be provided from solar energy, and during peak hours on sunny days Longwood can be completely removed from the utility grid!  The commissioning of our solar field today achieved 50% of our solar power goal. Find out more about our solar field on our website.

Nathan Hayward, President of Longwood's Board of Trustees, flips the switch on Longwood's new solar field. Hayward is joined by PA's Secretary of the DEP Michael Krancer, State Senator Dominic Pileggi, President of groSolar Jeffrey Wolfe, and other dignitaries.

Our approach to solar electricity at Longwood is different: it’s not just a power plant, it’s a garden.  We are in the business of beauty at Longwood, and we want to create a new landscape aesthetic for solar installations around the world.  Normally, solar fields are flat and placed upon unsightly paving materials such as gravel or asphalt.  Rather than fight the beautiful rolling topography of southeastern Pennsylvania, we are committed to working with the land and experimenting with low-maintenance native plant mixes that can be established underneath the solar panels.  If the landscape experiment we are embarking upon is successful, Longwood’s solar panels will appear as though they are set within a beautiful, flowing, natural southeastern Pennsylvania meadow.  Our ultimate goal is to not only take Longwood off the grid,  but also establish a new landscape standard for future solar fields around the world. We are looking forward to sharing the results of our landscape experiment with others looking to install or update a solar field.

Our solar "flower" demonstration in Longwood's Idea Garden--where guests can learn more about Longwood's solar program, and how solar energy is produced.

Longwood Gardens would have never been able to achieve this accomplishment without the help of our friends and community partners:  Governor Tom Corbett, Senator Dominic Pileggi, Representative Chris Ross, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Pennsylvania Utility Commission Chair Rob Powelson, Kennett Township Board of Supervisors, University of Delaware Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, Think Energy, groSolar and EcogySolar.

We want nothing less than for Longwood Gardens to be one of the great gardens of the world.  We would never be so audacious as to say that we are the greatest, but we strive for excellence in all that we do, including caring for our environment and tending our “global garden.”

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Plan to Plant

The veggie plot now with potato plants coming up in the forefront

Spring is finally here! Gardening and the joyful prospect of fresh vegetables are on the mind again in force. This year my experience with vegetable production is expanding as I organize Longwood’s  Vegetable Venture for the Terrace Restaurant. The Veggie Venture, as explained in a blog post last year, is a way to provide fresh, (extremely) locally grown vegetables to Longwood’s Terrace Restaurant while raising funds for the Professional Gardener student’s trip abroad. Not to mention the fact that it’s an amazing learning opportunity to gain practical knowledge in vegetable production! While we are seeking to build on last year’s experience, our goal remains the same: to produce high quality, low input produce for our guests at the Terrace

Restaurant.

A small seedling of Freckles one of our lettuce varieties

Last year was a success, and we were able to produce over 1,000 pounds of fresh veggies for the Terrace Restaurant. As I began planning for this year,  I was able to take into account what we learned from last year, including feedback from the Terrace Restaurant chef and manager. Although there are definitely some differences between planning for a home veggie garden and a vegetable garden for sale to a restaurant, I have found that many of the key considerations remain the same.

The major changes this year were a smaller space and a fewer number of crops. One of the parts of vegetable production I enjoy the most is planning and charting out my crops to produce a large harvest in a small space. Although it may seem counter intuitive, a smaller, well-managed plot can actually produce more than a large garden that becomes overgrown. Also, by reducing the diversity of crops, we hope to provide larger quantities of each.

Rodale's Garden Answers and our already well-worn planting plan.

Starting with a list of crops I knew did well in the past, I divided them into spring, summer and/or fall veggies and made sure to have a good number in each category for a continuous harvest throughout the whole season. (With some crops such as carrots, I like to relay crop them and plant multiple times throughout the season so we can have a constant harvest.) Then I calculated how much space we would need for each crop, and made a rough drawing of the space. (I like use graph paper to easily represent square feet.) Some of this knowledge simply comes from experience, but I have also found Mel Bartholomew’s Square Foot Gardening, and Rodale’s Garden Answers: Vegetables, Fruits and Herbs very helpful.  Our crop list includes; snap peas, carrots, potatoes, Swiss chard, lettuce, kohlrabi, onions, cucumbers, eggplant, peppers, summer squash, sweet potatoes, tomatillos, tomatoes, and winter squash. These crops were selected for their high productivity, range of harvest dates, and (in most cases) fewer pest issues.

Transplants growing in our student greenhouse

Now it was time to order seeds! Although there are many good vegetable seed suppliers, I have used Pinetree Garden Seeds for several years now, and have been pleased with their variety and well organized catalog.

Using the resources such as the books mentioned above, I calculated the sow date for each of the crops. Some we started in our student greenhouse, and others get directly

Pinetree seed catalog and seed packets

sown into the garden. Estimated harvest dates (very important for us so we can give the chef a head’s-up when crops will be harvested) were calculated using the sow to harvest days listed for each variety

in the catalog. This information, as well as crop spacing, transplant date, and total number of plants was all organized into one master spreadsheet.

Soon all this “dead of winter planning” will be fully realized as this warm spring weather continues transform our bare soil into a lush vegetable garden!

Check back here throughout the summer for updates on our Veggie Venture’s progress!

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The Newest Member of the Royal Family

Encephalartos woodii growing in the East Conservatory

In January 2010, we posted a blog about our “King of the Conservatory,” Encephalartos woodii. The Encephalartos is the most prized plant in Longwood’s Conservatory since it is extinct in its native environment of South Africa. With very few of these plants left elsewhere around the world, Longwood Gardens is lucky to have a beautiful specimen growing in our East Conservatory.

Because the Encephalartos woodii is so rare, we were very anxious to propagate it and continue the Royal line. In July of 2009, Senior Gardener Joyce Rondinella and I propagated one of the “pups” from the Encephalartos. You can watch a video, below, of the propagation process:

We hoped the “pup” would produce roots and become strong enough to stand on its own and be crowned as our new “Prince.”

Pup growing on mother plant

I am proud to report that our Encephalartos pup has successfully survived its beginning years (the toughest), and has recently produced a healthy new flush of growth! We are thrilled—the success rate for getting the Encephalartos pups to survive on their own is low. Congratulations to Joyce, who has taken extremely good care of this young plant in her tropical growing house!

Joyce with the rooted Encephalartos (April 2011)

Come visit us in the Conservatory to see how our “King of the Conservatory” is growing, and ask how our new Prince is enjoying its newly found independence.

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Making the Season Bright

Longwood's Outdoor Christmas Light Display

Christmas at Longwood Gardens: What  a wonderful time of year! Unlike most of our visitors that may begin decorating for the holidays after Thanksgiving, we start a little earlier. In order to complete this Herculean task (in 2009 it took about 2,500 hours to install, maintain and remove lights on more than 100 individual trees or cones) the arborist crew begins light installation the day after Labor Day and finishes the second week in November, just in time to help out with Christmas Changeover the weekend prior to Thanksgiving.

The outdoor display consists of two basic design elements: wraps and cones. Wrapping lights around branches and the trunk draws the eye to the structural elements of the tree. The Scarlet Oak at the Longwood Fire Company and the White Oaks along Oak Allee are prime examples of this technique. Cones are created by stringing lines from a high central point to stakes on the ground arranged in a circle around the center point. Lights spiral from top to bottom around these lines giving the impression of a coniferous tree such as a pine, spruce or fir. Cones may be attached to trees, like those at the restaurant steps, or to poles, like those on Paulownia Allee.

A tree wrapped in LED lights

In order to reduce disturbance to our guests the arborist crew begins work on the wrapped trees on the perimeter. These are followed by working on wrapped trees in the gardens. Cones usually draw more attention than wrapped trees and are left until later in the season. Similar to the wrapped trees, we start on the perimeter before working inside the gardens.

Since my first season at Longwood, the Christmas display has changed tremendously. Each year, the display is evaluated and alterations are made to improve for the following year. In 2005, the Outdoor Christmas Light Committee made the decision to experiment with LEDs (Light Emitting Diode) in certain areas of the display. As most people are aware, these lights draw a fraction of the power of incandescent lights (LEDs are 10 times more efficient) and are much more robust than glass incandescent lights. We can reuse the same strand of lights for five years where the incandescent strands rarely lasted more than one season.

The ruggedness of the LEDs also decreases the amount of maintenance we have to perform during the month of December. In 2004, the arborist crew spent upwards of 400 hours fixing lights while in 2009 we spent 73 hours performing light maintenance. What a time saver!

A Christmas Light Cone

Light removal is the next step in our Christmas display. Most of the displays are removed from the trees each year. The reason for this is twofold. Lights that are left on year-round detract from the natural beauty of our trees. Also, trees with lights on them may grow around the lights. In some cases, tree growth may break the strands but the lights may also choke smaller twigs and branches, killing them. That being said, to save time during installation we do leave some strands on certain displays for two years. These strands are strung loosely enough to allow for growth from one year to the next and are loosened further during installation the following year.

Aborists Installing Longwood's Christmas Light Display

As we finish up light removal, we have a dedicated group of volunteers who take the removed strands and pack them up for the next year. Before the volunteer team came to our aid, the arborists had to prepare all the lights during inclement weather. The volunteers have saved us hundreds of hours by taking this task off our hands!

To prepare the lights, electrical tape and outlet caps are removed from the strands before they are neatly wrapped into individual bundles and stored in bins for the following year. The volunteer team meets on Tuesdays in the winter, spring and summer to assure that the arborists have all the lights we need for the following year. Kudos to our volunteers!

The Christmas Display is the year’s biggest draw at Longwood. You can find everything from strolling carolers to larger-than-life trees decorated for the season both inside and out with breathtaking horticultural displays in the Conservatory. Whatever it is you are looking for, Longwood Gardens has what you need to fill you with Christmas spirit. I welcome you to bring family and friends to share a memorable holiday experience with us!

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