Before yesterday's blizzard (who knew), I decided to take advantage of a sunny day and plant my tomatoes. Silly me - all the early warm weather has had many of us gardeners chomping at the bit and foolishly putting out cold-sensitive plants.
I should've known better, but I put my faith in my row covers and planted away. In the afternoon gale force winds came whipping into town and brought tiny hail, some sleet, and big ol' snowflakes with them. It was quite a sight. The storm lasted less than half an hour, but it was followed by a really heavy frost overnight.
I haven't checked the total damages in the garden yet. My excuse: had to leave the house by 7:30 for an early dental appointment in Glens Falls. I'll check out the damage when I get home.
If things survived (and I think they probably did - I had doubled up the row covers), I should have lots of good tomatoes this summer. I didn't plant as many as last year, but I do have some really neat varieties, like Orange Flesh Purple Smudge (had to plant it just for the name), Orange Banana Paste, Paul Robeson (one of my favorites - a dark almost brown tomato with a smokey flavor), Garden Peach (Mmmm - sounds good), and Cour di Blue. All in all I have something like 20 varieties planted. The diversity makes for some really great sauce.
Killed my first Colorado Potato Beetle a couple days ago. Grrrr. I'm putting off planting the potatoes in hopes of disrupting the beetle cycle. According to the Maine Potato Lady, I should plant two weeks after the last frost. So, right now that means mid-June. Hm...almost seems too late to plant by then! We'll see how that goes.
And to top it all off, I discovered yesterday that I don't have enough garden beds! I have only three beds left, and I still have to plant the potatoes, beans, oats, sunflowers and fava beans (not to mention the herbs, buckwheat, and companion flowers). I suspect the oats and fava beans will not go in this year. I put down the black plastic (before the storm) yesterday to kill off another patch of lawn, but it won't be ready to go in time to plant this year...unless I just want to take the shovel to it now and start digging. Ugh. The things we do for fresh food! :)
Monday, June 1, 2009
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The Pease Are In
Pease - that's an old-fashioned spelling for peas. As in "Pease porridge hot, Pease porridge cold..."
Anywho, it was a mild enough afternoon and evening yesterday that after work I decided to plant the peas. This time I mixed up a batch of innoculant in which I soaked the peas before planting them. This stuff is a mix of beneficial bacteria that you can add to your legume seeds (peas, beans, peanuts) to give them an extra boost. I bought some last year but never used it so this year I thought I'd give it a try. It turned out to be a black sludge-like slurry once I mixed it with water. Some of the sludge clung to the peas, so we'll see if it makes any difference.
And this year I put in all my pea seeds - going back to seeds from two or three years ago! I wanted no leftovers after this year. As with many of my seeds, my peas are mostly heirloom varieties, although some are not: Alderman Pole Peas, British Wonder, Blue Podded Shelling Peas, Green Arrow, Mayfair, Miragreen, Laxton's Progress #9. I had set aside three beds for peas this year, but I ended up using four. If all of them grow, I will be well-endowed with peas this summer.
Peas do well when co-planted with onions/chives. You can also plant your greens with your peas - they are both cool-weather crops. Dill, sweet annie, cosmos, nasturtiums, and calendulas are all good companion plants for peas - they bring in the pollinators. The latter, however, need to be planted after the last threat of frost, but they are fast-growers and soon catch up.
It's good to finally get some seeds in the ground - something to keep the garlic company!
Anywho, it was a mild enough afternoon and evening yesterday that after work I decided to plant the peas. This time I mixed up a batch of innoculant in which I soaked the peas before planting them. This stuff is a mix of beneficial bacteria that you can add to your legume seeds (peas, beans, peanuts) to give them an extra boost. I bought some last year but never used it so this year I thought I'd give it a try. It turned out to be a black sludge-like slurry once I mixed it with water. Some of the sludge clung to the peas, so we'll see if it makes any difference.
And this year I put in all my pea seeds - going back to seeds from two or three years ago! I wanted no leftovers after this year. As with many of my seeds, my peas are mostly heirloom varieties, although some are not: Alderman Pole Peas, British Wonder, Blue Podded Shelling Peas, Green Arrow, Mayfair, Miragreen, Laxton's Progress #9. I had set aside three beds for peas this year, but I ended up using four. If all of them grow, I will be well-endowed with peas this summer.
Peas do well when co-planted with onions/chives. You can also plant your greens with your peas - they are both cool-weather crops. Dill, sweet annie, cosmos, nasturtiums, and calendulas are all good companion plants for peas - they bring in the pollinators. The latter, however, need to be planted after the last threat of frost, but they are fast-growers and soon catch up.
It's good to finally get some seeds in the ground - something to keep the garlic company!
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
And So It Begins...
On Sunday we were told it would rain - 50% chance. Of course, that also meant 50% chance it wouldn't. It didn't. Which, for the outdoor chore department, was a good thing. I had planned to spend a rainy day inside doing dishes, laundry, cleaning (all of which really does need to be done), but I opted to do outside stuff until the rain came. Translation: I spent the day in the yard!
The piles of hardpan dirt (I refuse to call that stuff soil) were shovelled into the wheelbarrow and mixed with peat moss, pearlite and vermiculite, and then shovelled onto the top of one of the veg gardens - I'm trying to build up the soil in this spot ala "lasagna gardening" (no tilling, just piles and piles of stuff on top of the ground). I have some serious weeding to do there (I'm not convinced this is the best way to build a garden; it's great in theory, and probably works like a charm if you have good, and copious, sources of compost, topsoil and manure to layer, which I don't).
I then set about digging weeds from the regular veg beds. Six beds are now weeded and nicely raked into raised plots, ready for planting. It sort of looks like I have six new graves in my yard, albeit very long and narrow graves! Ten beds remain to be done.
I was sorely tempted to plant peas. I spoke with a neighbor in the morning as Toby and I passed by on our walk. He, too, was contemplating putting in his peas, if he could get his tiller going and his garden dug up. I heard the tiller running most of the morning, so I suspect he did just that. In the end, however, I passed on the peas. I know "they" say you can plant them as soon as the ground can be worked, but, sheesh, it IS still April! It may have been in the 80s Sunday and Monday, but snow is not out of the question yet. Maybe I'll rethink peas next weekend.
Meanwhile, the garlic have all come up beautifully and are standing tall at 6-8"! I'm very excited about this - I may have garlic to sell come fall! AND, I found some onions and leeks from last year's seeds still growing! Hm - maybe starting them from seed isn't too bad after all, although to have maybe a dozen survive out of 150 isn't really a good survival rate. I think I'll stick to ordering sets for now.
I did make a mistake on Sunday: I put the tomatoes out in the sun. I thought a little sun would be good for them. Unfortunately, I overdid it - their tender leaves were scalded. I thought I got them into shade quickly enough, but apparently I didn't. So now I'm nursing them along in the house, back under their grow lights. Their second leaves are growing, so I'm hoping most will survive, especially since I had planned to sell some this spring!
Patience - it's a hard lesson to learn, and even now I find that I want to rush along, even though I really do know better! Sometimes you can cut corners, but more often than not, you cannot. Ths can be a hard lesson to learn.
The piles of hardpan dirt (I refuse to call that stuff soil) were shovelled into the wheelbarrow and mixed with peat moss, pearlite and vermiculite, and then shovelled onto the top of one of the veg gardens - I'm trying to build up the soil in this spot ala "lasagna gardening" (no tilling, just piles and piles of stuff on top of the ground). I have some serious weeding to do there (I'm not convinced this is the best way to build a garden; it's great in theory, and probably works like a charm if you have good, and copious, sources of compost, topsoil and manure to layer, which I don't).
I then set about digging weeds from the regular veg beds. Six beds are now weeded and nicely raked into raised plots, ready for planting. It sort of looks like I have six new graves in my yard, albeit very long and narrow graves! Ten beds remain to be done.
I was sorely tempted to plant peas. I spoke with a neighbor in the morning as Toby and I passed by on our walk. He, too, was contemplating putting in his peas, if he could get his tiller going and his garden dug up. I heard the tiller running most of the morning, so I suspect he did just that. In the end, however, I passed on the peas. I know "they" say you can plant them as soon as the ground can be worked, but, sheesh, it IS still April! It may have been in the 80s Sunday and Monday, but snow is not out of the question yet. Maybe I'll rethink peas next weekend.
Meanwhile, the garlic have all come up beautifully and are standing tall at 6-8"! I'm very excited about this - I may have garlic to sell come fall! AND, I found some onions and leeks from last year's seeds still growing! Hm - maybe starting them from seed isn't too bad after all, although to have maybe a dozen survive out of 150 isn't really a good survival rate. I think I'll stick to ordering sets for now.
I did make a mistake on Sunday: I put the tomatoes out in the sun. I thought a little sun would be good for them. Unfortunately, I overdid it - their tender leaves were scalded. I thought I got them into shade quickly enough, but apparently I didn't. So now I'm nursing them along in the house, back under their grow lights. Their second leaves are growing, so I'm hoping most will survive, especially since I had planned to sell some this spring!
Patience - it's a hard lesson to learn, and even now I find that I want to rush along, even though I really do know better! Sometimes you can cut corners, but more often than not, you cannot. Ths can be a hard lesson to learn.
Monday, April 20, 2009
The Garlic is Up
Yes, the garlic is up - even the ones I planted waaaay too deep! If all produce and produce well, I should have garlic to sell this fall! Woo-hoo!
We had another lovely day yesterday. I put the little tomato plants outside to get a little sun, and I'm afraid I overdid it a bit. Their little leaves were looking rather pale when I brought them in: sun scald. :( Hopefully they will recover soon. [I also got a little sun scald - my arms are pink above the glove line!]
Spent the whole day outside: hanging laundry, making trellises for the hops from old sunflower stalks, making trellises for the grapes from bamboo poles, making mulch for the new trees and shrubs (by chopping up the dead ornamental grasses and other gleanings from the flower gardens), turning the compost pile (and combining two bins...I may actually have enough for each garden bed to get at least a small dressing this spring), rolling up dripper hose lines and starting The Weeding in the veg beds before planting.
It was a full day. I even heard a bluebird - the first since that poor blighter was around last month.
We had another lovely day yesterday. I put the little tomato plants outside to get a little sun, and I'm afraid I overdid it a bit. Their little leaves were looking rather pale when I brought them in: sun scald. :( Hopefully they will recover soon. [I also got a little sun scald - my arms are pink above the glove line!]
Spent the whole day outside: hanging laundry, making trellises for the hops from old sunflower stalks, making trellises for the grapes from bamboo poles, making mulch for the new trees and shrubs (by chopping up the dead ornamental grasses and other gleanings from the flower gardens), turning the compost pile (and combining two bins...I may actually have enough for each garden bed to get at least a small dressing this spring), rolling up dripper hose lines and starting The Weeding in the veg beds before planting.
It was a full day. I even heard a bluebird - the first since that poor blighter was around last month.
Monday, March 23, 2009
It's Seed Time
I started some tomato seeds last week! And then I ran out of seed-starter mix. I've been in four "garden shops" so far today and all I can find are small tiny wee bags of mix. Grrr. Not very helpful when one starts as many plants from seed as I do. So...I must find a recipe to make my own mix!
In the meantime, here are some images from last year's garden (for some reason they work on this computer and none of the ones I tried last year).
This is the view down the back yard, where I have my six small "island" beds. To the right you can see part of the BIG BED that goes around the shed.
This is the veggie garden in late spring. Those are peas to the left, with broccoli under the row cover. Potatoes are just beyond that, and then the beds of tomatoes.
Here's another view looking the other way!Wednesday, February 25, 2009
A Blast from the Past
I picked up a roll of film (remember film?) Monday and discovered it had photos from last fall's harvest! Very colorful - a must for this blog. So, I took photos of the photos so I could have digital renditions to post here.
The gleanings from Fall Harvest 2008.
I took a stab at growing dried beans. It's not worth it - you don't get a lot of bang from your buck.
Still, they are lovely; I especially like the black and white
ones in the middle.
Runner Beans - I thought I'd try saving them to plant in 2009 -
we'll see if any sprout this spring!
Toby, exhausted from a day of harvesting.
And this is the reason for growing sunflowers!
By now the remaining heads are well picked over - not a seed left.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Garden in Winter & Worms
Not much is going on in the garden - at least not on the surface.
Soon it will be time to start seeds indoors. Since I'm not doing onions and leeks from seeds this year (disaster two years running), I can put it off a little bit longer. Tomatoes, eggplants, cauliflower, broccoli, squash, peppers, and assorted flowers and herbs will be this year's seedlings.
Although, if one is to follow the Biointensive technique, everything should be started as seedlings indoors. Of course, if one has a greenhouse this is feasible. If one has four grow lights and limited counter and table space, it isn't. Still, I can't quite fathom starting lettuce and wheat indoors, can you? To me, starting stuff inside is for plants that need a longer growing season, or plants that are not cold hardy. Beans, peas, greens, corn - they all do well as seeds in the ground.
And yes, you did read "wheat" up there. I am going to attempt growing some of my own grains this summer: wheat and oats. Of course, that will entail having to get a grain mill, if things work out, but I figure I can cross that bridge if and when I ever reach it.
I got my worms a couple weeks ago. Vermicomposting - the latest thing. Compost indoors with worms. Why? Because this is what my compost bin looks like this time of year:
The birds and squirrels might be enjoying it, but I don't compost to keep them fed! So, I bought a plastic bin (on sale at Home Depot for $4), drilled some holes in it, filled it partway with potting soil and newspaper, and placed an order for 1000 worms. They arrived in bone dry peat moss (so they wouldn't freeze in shipping) and I dumped them in the bin, along with food scraps. So far I haven't seen much action. Haven't seen many worms, either. I'm having my doubts that there were really 1000 worms in that bag! I've never seen more than one worm at a time, and the food scraps are not disappearing. And mold is growing. HM...vermicomposting isn't as easy as I thought it would be. It could be I'm overwatering (keep as wet as a squeezed out sponge, they say...maybe I don't squeeze my sponges dry enough). I will have to monitor it more carefully this week and see what happens.
Soon it will be time to start seeds indoors. Since I'm not doing onions and leeks from seeds this year (disaster two years running), I can put it off a little bit longer. Tomatoes, eggplants, cauliflower, broccoli, squash, peppers, and assorted flowers and herbs will be this year's seedlings.
Although, if one is to follow the Biointensive technique, everything should be started as seedlings indoors. Of course, if one has a greenhouse this is feasible. If one has four grow lights and limited counter and table space, it isn't. Still, I can't quite fathom starting lettuce and wheat indoors, can you? To me, starting stuff inside is for plants that need a longer growing season, or plants that are not cold hardy. Beans, peas, greens, corn - they all do well as seeds in the ground.
And yes, you did read "wheat" up there. I am going to attempt growing some of my own grains this summer: wheat and oats. Of course, that will entail having to get a grain mill, if things work out, but I figure I can cross that bridge if and when I ever reach it.
I got my worms a couple weeks ago. Vermicomposting - the latest thing. Compost indoors with worms. Why? Because this is what my compost bin looks like this time of year:
The birds and squirrels might be enjoying it, but I don't compost to keep them fed! So, I bought a plastic bin (on sale at Home Depot for $4), drilled some holes in it, filled it partway with potting soil and newspaper, and placed an order for 1000 worms. They arrived in bone dry peat moss (so they wouldn't freeze in shipping) and I dumped them in the bin, along with food scraps. So far I haven't seen much action. Haven't seen many worms, either. I'm having my doubts that there were really 1000 worms in that bag! I've never seen more than one worm at a time, and the food scraps are not disappearing. And mold is growing. HM...vermicomposting isn't as easy as I thought it would be. It could be I'm overwatering (keep as wet as a squeezed out sponge, they say...maybe I don't squeeze my sponges dry enough). I will have to monitor it more carefully this week and see what happens.
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