Spring Garden

Finally, FINALLY I have time to write about the garden! I've been so busy trying to get things in the ground, weeded, prepped, covered, mulched, etc etc. So, here is the update:

One of the new things we're trying this year is corn. Corn! I've never grown corn. I picked a variety from Seed Savers Exchanged called Blue Jade. It is a sweet corn that only gets 2-3 feet high, so it is ideal for containers. And I know corn is best grown in clumps (not rows, per say, unless you clump the rows) so I planted it in the half whiskey barrel we have by the porch. We'll see how it goes.
The radishes are giving such a great burst of color here in this patch. Also planted here are peas, beets, parsnips, and carrots. The carrots didn't sprout. Not. A. One. I don't know why. I think I planted 6 different varieties, and nothing. I'll put in a late batch in a different bed in July, probably, and hope for the best. Everything else did ok in this bed. I'm at a loss.
The two head lettuces I grew this year: Tennisball (right) and Dazzle romaine (left). Aren't they gorgeous? Notice the baby in front. I started a few more from seed, then transplanted them today so when I cut the heads of the older plants, the babies will be established and I'll have another batch coming along.
Another pic of the lettuce. I haven't tried the Dazzle yet, but I'm really happy with Tennisball, which I got from Montecello when we were there a year or so ago.
A flat of things waiting to be planted, including but not limited to tomatoes, lettuce, squash, and okra. Some have been planted since I took this picture.

Also, I have seeded beans and cucumbers, and put in some of the pepper plants. The garlic scapes are starting to show, the red shallots are starting to flower (but not the gray shallots yet), peas are on the vines, potatoes are flowering, blueberries and blackberries are in their infancy, parsnips are flowering (I'm collecting seed this year), and some of the tomatoes are flowering, too!

Spring Planting

I have this habit of taking pictures of every new veggie sprout and every planting of every veggie....every year. Matt has been making fun of me for this. This year I found myself standing in front of the newly sprouted asparagus bed with my camera in my hand and I had the following conversation with myself in my head:

Repeat after me: you don't need to take pictures of the first asparagus every year.

I don't need to take pictures of the first asparagus every year.

People by now know what they look like. Every year.

People by now know what they look like. Every year.

These aren't the droids you're looking for.

These aren't the droids we're looking for.

Move along.

Move along....Move along!!!

So. Now that I have that out of the way, I can tell you that this weekend I planted kohlrabi (for the first time, too), broccoli plants, and leeks. I also rehabbed two tomato beds that I didn't get to last fall, and I tried to fix the pea beds. Too wet, a lot of them became slug food/homes and some others rotted. I have enough seed to reseed if necessary. Oh, and the asparagus is coming up.

Tomorrow I plan on planting some flowers and such in the new flower bed. I hope to get the potatoes in this week as well as the carrots/radishes.

Matt finished up the rafters in the garage on Sunday, I will have pictures of that soon.

And...it is supposed to be 90* tomorrow. Ick.

Having a Heat Wave

So, now we're back to 75*. Supposedly going to be 85* on Saturday.

I go from too cold to plant spring veggies to too warm in one week. I'm going to plant them anyway, probably this weekend.

In other news (pictures forthcoming), asparagus is starting to come up, cabbages and broccoli that overwintered seem to be doing well, and peas are planted.

A Few Updates

I dug the last of the parsnips and carrots today. I'm going to can the parsnips but for the carrots I think I'm going to slice and dice them and dry them. Anyone have experience with this?

I planted the peas on Sunday, 5 varieties:

• Sugar Snap, of course
• Little Marvel, which did so well for me last year
• Eclipse
• Lincoln
• Green Arrow

I have no experience with the last three, they were given to me by my friend Barbara in Virginia. IIRC, Green Arrow was her favorite. I'm looking forward to seeing how they do.

The Artichoke seedlings are coming along, too. Actually, I had (at last count) 26 come up. 6 of those have gone to live with Angie:

Our friend Vino came by a couple weekends ago to help nail up plywood. I think we've scared him off, he hasn't been back. We've nicknamed him 'Thor' for his, ah, ability to handle a hammer.

I *finally* got Matt to Fitzgerald Pottery in Dillsburg. He seemed just as in love with their stuff as I did, and we came home with 2 new mugs and a small bowl. He was very partial to the light green, while I liked the brick and dark greens and blues better.
Not much work got done on the garage this weekend even though the weather was gorgeous. Matt came down with a stomach bug on Sunday and he was out of commission pretty much all day.

End of July Review and Notes To Self

I had meant to post this at the beginning of August, but I forgot and then I didn’t have time and then…well, you know. So here is my Spring/mid Summer roundup:

Peas: I pulled these SPRING pea vines on 8/2. Really happy with the Little Marvel pea. I have no idea if it is because of weather or the variety, but it was still producing when I pulled the vines! Shocking. Note to self: plant this variety next year, too.

Garlic: I already posted about the garlic harvest. However, as some of you know I’m keeping tabs on $$ when it comes to this garden with the hopes of seeing how much $$ I put in vs. how much I will get out. Here is a tidbit: if I had purchased the 156 heads of garlic at the grocery store through the year, it would have cost me $117.

Leeks: I am happy….but. I overestimated my leek needs and while they were staggering in for a while, they started staggering in really quickly and then I couldn’t keep up. I pulled all the rest today and only 7 were salvageable (they got hit by the onion maggot, and if I had pulled them at the beginning of August they probably would have been fine). Note to self: try to find two varieties next year, an early and a late, and try to find 2-3 people to share them with so I don’t have soooo many leeks all at the same time.

Potatoes: Note to self: if you think you have enough straw/hay on top of the potatoes to keep the sun off them, you don’t. Put another few inches on. About 1/4 of my fingerling potatoes had green spots on them. The red potatoes did well, even though the plants looked like hell. I got 3:1 out for both of these.

Golds did VERY well, I think I got 6:1 out of these. Note to self: plant more golds next year.

Carrots/Lettuce/Radishes: I really think I’m going to grow the Baby Ball/Thumbelina varieties almost exclusively from now on. They’re small, quick, easy to pull, easy to know when to pull, and cute….and I’m guessing easy to can. This year I don’t have too many carrots coming up in the first batch but I was overrun with lettuce and radishes. I usually mix the seeds together, then sew them. Note to self: keep the seeds separate and sew them separately in the same row to make sure I get enough carrot seed sewn.

I did pull and dig some yellow carrots, they looked nice, very carrot-like for our dense soil.

Pole Beans: really happy with both that I put in this year, but the Molly Frazier is going like gangbusters. I emailed the company (Baker Creek) to ask if ‘short vines’ meant 12 feet, and they said no. I emailed them pictures of the beans (not sure if they qualify as ‘cutshort’). It may be the wrong bean, it may be the wrong description.

Bush Beans: I like the Burpee Provider variety again, but something is nibbling on them a lot. Same with the Roma that Barbara gave me. Not slugs, though, these are small fuzzy green worms. The critters don’t get the pole beans as much.

Tomatoes: Happy with: Sun Gold (of course), Ceylon (very nice), and the other varieties I’ve grown before (Brandywine, Cherokee Purple, Mortgage Lifter, Aunt Ruby’s). DO NOT LIKE the Purple Russian paste (sweet, splits easily, the bottom starts to turn to mush before the top is ripe!). Still waiting on most others.

Squash: Really like the Reve Scaloppini, but I have yet to see a zucchini. The yellow crookneck and the Zephyr are doing so-so. Not a good year for summer squash?

Winter squash is doing really well and the vines are rooting along the way, hallelujah. Several vines are 20’ long already, and I have at least 8-10 winter squash on them that I’ve noticed. I have lost a couple to vine borers, and we do have a couple small infestations of squash bugs.

Okra: Nice. Note to self: need more than 4 plants.

Peppers: Really bad year for peppers, and everyone is saying this. Of the 13 plants I have more than half have yet to even show a bloom, much less an actual pepper. Many are dropping leaves every time you look at them funny. But a few plants are doing really well. Go figure.

Cukes: So far, so so. I really like the Boothby’s Blonde.

Melons: I have 3 of the Prescott melons and 5 of the Haogen melons. I watch them and drool a little. I can’t wait.

Onions: did surprisingly well. I think I planted 90 something and I got out 76. Some of them were tiny, but still. And I got some that I had originally started from seed in January, which really shocked me. They weren’t hit by the onion maggot, either, I got them out early enough.

Can You Feel It?

Yesterday, we had one helluva thunderstorm roll through here. It poured, then stopped, then the lightening came. The lightening was impressive, we had several *flash* CRACK back to back, really really close. The ones that make you physically cringe. Then it poured again. I love a good thunderstorm, we haven’t had as many around here the past few years as we normally do.

We usually get thunderstorms in May and June. This year, not a thunderstorm was to be had in those months. Well, not like usual, anyway.

It is hot as hell and humid outside, much like it normally is this time of year. We’ve been spoiled this year by the cool summer. It has been divine! I’m not at all complaining, believe me….

The interesting think is that through all the heat and humidity….can’t you just feel autumn? Sort of sneaking up on us all, unawares? I planted several fall crops today: peas, the last of the beets (well, I accidently dumped the packet out while I was doing that, too, so I may have a 2”x2” plot of beets this year), turnips, spinach. And the pumpkins are turning orange. And the winter squash are starting to have their stems harden.

And the really noisy insects are out at night. What are those things? You almost can’t hear someone standing right next to you! I call August the Noisy Night Month, seriously.

And you know it didn’t feel like autumn when I had sweat dripping from the end of my nose earlier today, but something clicked after I got to work and it said in a small, barely audible whisper…

….autumn’s coming…..

End of June Update and Status

Spring Crops: Peas are starting to peter out, I think we may get 3.5lb of shelled peas out when it's all over. Looseleaf lettuce is just starting to bolt. I'm really happy with the Amish Deertongue, I'll add that to my permanent grow list. Munich Bier radishes are still plugging along.

I'm eating lunch out of the garden almost exclusively now:
Summer crops: I've started harvesting some of the really early garlic, Chinese Pink and Inchelium Red. They both look good, some signs of too much water but that can't be helped. They are hanging in the basement drying.

The red potatoes I planted (that I picked up at the grocery store cheap because they were sprouting) seem very unhappy. I'm not sure why, the leaves have what look like rusty spots on them. When I pulled away the hay, though, there are some plants with gorgeous red potatoes, so maybe it won't hurt the harvest. The Yukon Gold potatoes, however, have beautiful plants:
Most of the tomatoes have fruit, including the ones in the hanging pots. I'll do a post on those soon, I know a few of you are following them. The okra is fruiting, too. Cucumbers are just starting to climb, and the pumpkins and beans are blooming.

The sweet potatoes. *sigh* I planted 13. Of those, 4 sprouted. Of those 4, the deer ate...4. 2 came back, I have since mulched them more and put some deer fencing over them, hopefully it will be enough.

Blueberries are starting very slowly to ripen. Wild raspberries are starting to come in, and the blackberries won't be far behind. Here is a picture of the wintergreen I planted:


And an update on my Adventures with Rooting Hormone: of the 8 baby blueberries I tried to start, it seems this one has made it. I haven't dug it up yet to check for roots, but I can only assume that something is happening because the other 7 were crunchy and this one isn't:

Upsized Tomatoes and Peas

Sunday morning was too cold to do much outside, so while I waited for the temps to rise I worked on some things inside.

Some of the tomato seedlings had gotten really leggy in their peat pellets, so I decided to transplant them to some larger pots (below). Many people don't realize that you can plant tomatoes way way above where the actual roots are. All those little hairs on the stalk turn into roots. So, since mine were getting leggy I transplanted them deeper into the new soil by about 1.5 inches. More roots, happier plants.

The seedlings that weren't so leggy I put in the south facing window (first picture). I'll probably repot them sometime in the future.

I also soaked the seeds for my peas. I'm growing two types of peas this year: sugar snap and 'bush' pea called Little Marvel. I've never grown a bush pea before, I'm looking forward to seeing how they do.

I always grow sugar snap peas, I like to eat them raw and they are one of the first things to mature in the spring garden. Such a nice treat! I saved some seeds this year, we'll see how they do.

I also purchased innoculant this year, which I have never used. It sounds like a disease-resistant thing, but it's not. It is a naturally occuring soil bacterium that helps peas and beans. I soaked the peas first for a few hours (they recommend overnight). I drained off the water and then sprinkled just a pinch of the fine, black innoculant into each bowl, then stirred it around with a toothpick. We'll see how they go.

Stay tuned for beets and leeks!

Weekly Veggie Patch Update 6/23/08

I have off all week, so I'm hoping to catch up with some of the things that are going on. We had a LOT of work done around the property on Saturday and I'll be posting pictures, you won't want to miss it.

Active week, we put up the tomato cage structures. They were heavy wire and a little big so we trimmed them. I do have little cherry tomatoes and another on the Mortgage Lifter plant. No peppers yet, but they’re getting ready to flower.

Matt started working on the fencing around the blueberry bush (what will eventually be the blueberry patch). All we needed to do is put a net over the bush to keep the birds out. He makes a split-rail fence. *sigh* Over-engineer much? Ya think?

I also got the layering cups on the blueberry bush, so hopefully in 2-3 months we’ll have 3 little blueberries to plant in our newly fenced plot.

I picked a lot of snap peas this week, maybe 5lb. They will have to be picked about every other day, but they’re not. A lot of what I picked was past prime and we’ll need to shell them, but no big deal as we’ll then have shelled petit pois to freeze as well as pods. Some of the vines must be approaching 7 feet tall! I’m not sure if I should attribute that to all the rain or the very rich lasagna garden I created.

I also harvested the kale and broccoli. The broccoli plants did something strange. I have 4 plants: two produced nice broccoli and the other two buttoned. I don’t know why that happened. I pulled the two that buttoned and put in another cucumber trellis.

The onions are all starting to bulb, some of them are getting pretty big. I’m guesstimating that I’ll be harvesting them the middle to end of July. I’m planning on leaving that bed empty for the rest of the summer, amending it with some compost and/or well-rotted manure stuff and then planting spinach in it for the fall. I’ll probably let the spinach winter over so I don’t have to plant any for the spring.

We also finished the 2nd asparagus bed and planted it. Everything came up in the first bed, so in a few years we’ll have some nice asparagus to harvest. Woo-hoo!

Weekly Veggie Patch Update 6/16/08

Not much went on this week, I’m back into Waiting Mode. I pulled my first sweet pea early this week, not quite ready to eat but I ate it anyway. I couldn’t help it. More ripened up later in the week. Matt’s dad loves sugar snap peas, so I gave my first real harvest of them to him for Father’s Day, maybe 2 cups worth.

Cukes and melons are getting their second set of leaves, finally. Tomatoes are starting to flower. Peppers are soooo sloooow to get going. Beets are still doing ok, though, they’re starting to get some roundness to the roots.

I pulled the rest of the radishes, they were starting to bolt. Not many carrots germinated this year, I don’t know why but I’ll guess it was the 12” of freakin’ rain we got. Maybe some of the seeds washed? I finished weeding that bed, took about an hour. Got a tiny bit of sunburn on my shoulders.

Broccoli is still doing its thing. It doesn’t appear to have buttoned. Only 2 of the 4 plants are producing actual broccoli. Some broccoli varieties will continue to put little broccolis out after you cut the main crop, but I don’t know if this variety will do it or not.

After I pull the broccoli, bok choy, and the last of the heading lettuce I’m going to replace them with more bush beans. Can’t have too many bush beans. I’ll probably put in another small trellis for cucumbers, too.

The heading lettuce seedlings I started are coming up. Once they’re big enough I’m going to try fit them in where I can in the veggie patch. These varieties are supposed to do ok in hot weather, but I can cover them if I need to.

The squash and pumpkins are doing well, I had to seed a couple more where they'd died. I put some more of the self-watering gizmos up there, too.

I trimmed the scapes off the garlic on Friday and took them to David to sell. Matt and I had been concerned because the few things we’d taken to him before he didn’t pay us for and didn’t mention that he would, so this was the last chance for him, and he did finally pay us. So, that’s a load off our minds.

Weekly Veggie Patch Update 6/9/08

This was a productive week! Finally!

Pulled more Pink Celebration radishes, took some to David who asked if I had more to sell. Uh, sure!!!! They really do look nice. Some of them split due to the additional 1 inch of rain we got on Tuesday, so I kept those for me (my radish needs are not great). I think this is the most rain I’ve ever seen in a spring. Matt ‘n’ I took 5 bunches of radishes to David ‘n’ Junko’s on Saturday morning. It was very odd, it was bright, clear and sunny at our house. 2 miles away we hit a fog bank that continued the whole way into Gettysburg.

The sand I put around the peppers and beans seems to be working, but if one little piece of hay is touching the plant those slugs will find it and use it as a bridge. It’s amazing. I’ll need to plant more beans to make up for some that were devoured. I went up to put out some beer slug traps and found slugs on the onions, for crying out loud. I wound up picking slugs I saw on any plant and throwing them into the beer, cheering as I watched them DIE DIE DIE.

The bok choy got big! I don't know when to pick it. Peas are starting to form….just in time for 98 degree weather which will probably kill them before any kind of harvest can really happen. I pulled all the spinach, stay tuned for another post on that this week. I planted more bush beans where the spinach had been. The broccoli plants each have little broccoli florets on them (they’ve broccled!!), but I can’t tell yet if they are normal or if they have buttoned. Again, not great timing with the heat.

Melons have sprouted, too, I’m keeping them covered with milk jug cloches until I absolutely have to take them off. The pumpkins have sprouted, as have the pole beans. Cucumbers are starting to come up again, we’ll see if something pulls them out. Again. I may have to put cloches over these, too.
In other news, I picked one of the heads of romaine I had growing….and found a 2-inch across mama wolf spider with egg sack in one of the leaves. EEEWWWW. I’m not a big spider fan. I’ve gotten better, there was a time where I would have not eaten the lettuce, I may have thrown the lettuce across the lawn when I saw her. But this time I just gingerly picked the leaf off and laid it on the ground, then did the heebie-jeebie dance. And we did eat it, and it was good.

We also got in another 100+ of potatoes, so we only have another bag and a half to go, thank god. Only a few potato beetles found, one toad, and some of the blues are blooming!

We’re talking about getting a greenhouse, 10x12. If so, I could use that next year for seed starting. Better yet, I could use it for spinach and lettuce and carrots, etc, which would free up extra space for other things in the fenced garden patch. Sweet.