June 2, Full Status

Things are looking good out there. Definitely my best year yet - mostly because my effort was more sustained. So... here goes:

This is the first year for this blue iris to bloom. It is a descendant of my grandmothers. Her white ones have been blooming for several years (although this year I think a frost took them out).

 Here's the asparagus patch. We stopped cutting about 2 weeks ago. We were gentle with the patch this year since it was only it's third year.

 The cold frame continues to produce. Lettuce is still providing a steady harvest (along with romaine from the larger vegetable garden), the cilantro has already been put to good use, green onions (replanted from the grocery store) are being used as cut-and-come-again, swiss chard leaves are coming off regularly. I pulled half the arugula (and replanted with a second crop of cilantro, and we ate all the spinach when my parents were in town because it was starting to bolt. The zucchini is a tester. I have had BAD issues with squash vine borer in the past. My intention was to cover the cold frame with floating row cover cloth to prevent the moths from flying in with their eggs, but that hasn't happened yet, and the to-do list is pretty long with row-cover acquisition pretty far down the priority list. Maybe they won't find this plant.

Add caption

 And now for the vegetable garden. I should have cleaned up before I went taking pictures. You can still see the scar in the lawn where we ran the hose underground out to the sink. Hopefully it will heal by summers end.

To the left from the sink, the glorious sage shrub followed by tomatoes. Two beefsteak varieties (Beefmaster and 4th of July), one cherry, 2 Amish Paste, 3 San Marzano (roma style), and 1 heirloom from Doug's Gram Henry - we don't really know anything more about it except it is a descendant of one she grew. All the tomatoes were planted with a little Epsom salt (I have read completely contradictory reports on whether this is a good idea or not). The first three were put in holes with some Garden Tone all purpose soil conditioner. Those were planted weeks ago with Wall-o-waters to protect them from nighttime cool temperatures. They clearly have a jump on the ones I put in today, but will the fruit come sooner? Stay tuned. The last 6 were put in holes with epsom salts and Jobe's Organics Vegetable and Tomato. Atomic Red and Purple Haze carrots are planted between the tomatoes. I just installed the soaker hose today. I'm going to be putting a lot of money into soaker hose over the next couple weeks and I do hope it saves me an equivalent amount of watering time. Yes, I know I haven't tied up all the bamboo yet. Good grief, I really should tidy up before taking pictures.

 To the right of the sink, we made a last-minute plot plan revision and put in a long row of sweet potatoes instead of the cosmos and other flowers intended to attract beneficial insects. Watch - a plagues of locusts or some-such will attack the garden this year. I did put a patch of cosmos on either end of the sweet potatoes. When it comes to cutting anything off the planting list I am disabled.

Unfortunately, I can't remember exactly which varieties of sweet potatoes I planted. Most of it was Jewel, all came from Brush Valley Greenhouse. Behind the sweet potatoes next to the bamboo poles I planted scarlet runner beans. Something ate almost all of them. I have replanted with yard long beans and multi-colored pole beans. Hopefully there will be a wall of SOME kind of beans by summers end.

 Moving around the corner toward the shed, this is the state of the perennial bed. Everything is bolting. One new addition here is the White Straussburg edible pod radish grown from seed my friend Jim Eisenstein grows for the Seed Savers Exchange. Looking forward to this experiment! Dill is doing fabulously.

Behind the perrennial bed I just planted the edamame alongside the Sugar snaps which will climb the strings I just hung. Boy - I really do pack the stuff in, don't I? This bed was full of kale and dill (self-seeded) 2 days ago when I got ready for the edamame. The dill has been washed and is drying. The kale went into the quinoa kale patties I just posted the recipe for.

 Beets are backing up to the small fenced area. They don't get as much light in this location as previous years, so they are growing a little slower, but coming along. Germination wasn't perfect, but the holes have been reseeded and should be filled in by the next update.

Inside the fence, everything is doing well. A new patch of lettuce is looking forward to stepping up when our current lettuce gives up. I planted one hot pepper in the middle of that patch. It'll take over when this lettuce is done. (I like to keep the hot ones out of Ames' reach - that would be a cruel lesson since he's so used to running around the yard just picking stuff and eating it.) The garlic is thriving, but no sign of scapes.

I was committed to pulling the strawberry patch and replanting with something I thought would be more productive, but now I'm kind of glad I never got around to that. There are LOTS of berries in the making here. We stopped by our local farm today to check, and they said their's were about 2 weeks out. Ours might be a little more, but we shall see. (Yeah, the photo should be rotated but Blogger doesn't offer that option. Really?!?)

The bed behind the bench is doing pretty well. I still need to reseed some of the parsnips, but the leeks, daikon radish, kale, and collards are doing just fine. Okra seeds are in behind the greens, just a small patch.

Next to that we have a bed with a patch of the beneficial insect attracting mix (from Fedco), 4 rows of carrots (Atomic Red, Purple Haze, Nantes, and Danvers). In front of that will be a patch of beans, not sure which yet, with parsley at all four corners of the bean patch.

A long row behind all these smaller patches has the onions. They aren't getting quite enough water, but I guess they are doing OK.

Potatoes are in laundry baskets this year. Easy to harvest, but will they produce well?

And finally, the favas. Aphids still seem to be under control, and celery and celeriac in front of them have survived the transplant.

Status report (May 9th)

Finally the rains came! A week and a half of no rain and then 2 inches over two days. It's a great time to pull deep weeds even if its not a good time to turn the soil. Unfortunately, it's also a great time for weed seed germination. (See asparagus photo below.)

Herbs: chives led the way, oregano, marjoram, thyme, and tarragon are all ready for picking. Sage and rosemary are greening up. My parsley roots rot and have bugs every spring, so despite the classification of 'biennial', I need to plant that new. Basil is started but its a long time out. 

Perennials: sorrel is overproducing, asparagus is giving us a small handful each day, enough for salad adornments, horseradish is bolting, and rhubarb is too. The rhubarb leaves have short stalks - I'm told to top dress with cow manure. Dill has come up in carpets under both. I was hoping for that!

Roots: Beets are up with their first true leaves, but the germination wasn't uniform, I wasn't the best about watering them. Planted on April 13, they are now nearly one month in the ground. There are about 30 there, a satisfying amount for a first planting, but I better put the replanting on the to-do list. 

Stuttgarter yellow onion sets are in and a couple inches high, having been planted on April 23rd, 2 1/2 weeks ago. There are about 120 of those. 

Parsnips are in, but not up, same for first and second planting of carrots - red, purple, and orange! (Parsnips were planted April 13th (one month ago), 1st planting of carrots went in April 25th, 2nd went in May 6th.) Daikon radish is in (April 25th) and up, barely, and my leek starts are in (April 24th) and growing gangbusters! There are about 30 of them.

Garlic is always the stunning crop of spring. About 100 heads.

Peas and beans: sugar snaps are doing better than shell peas, but both are growing. Sugar snaps have even begun climbing. Both were planted on April 8th.

Fava beans are so beautiful! It's my first time growing them. They need an early start (mine were presoaked and went in the ground April 10th), and they seem to be making the most of it. Nearly 100% germination on those.

A Fedco mix of plants that attract beneficial insects has been planted in two spots, totaling about 16 square feet, and it'll go in yet another spot when the soil drains enough to work it. Beans, brussels, okra, and more greens all have spots reserved for them.

Last, but definitely not least, the cold frame gives us salad greens every night, lettuce, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard, and soon cilantro! The arugula is already starting to bolt however...

And that's where we stand on May 9th.

  

60 degrees. January 29th

I think I'm solidly back in the land of Homesteading, and this blog should see more activity as a result.

Last week temps bottomed out in the single digits, and I actually got my act together to cover my enormous rosemary. I think it might have been enough protection to save it. Snow seemed much wetter on top of the sheet, on top of the tarp, and the rusty garden stakes I used to hold it all down tight to the ground held everything just as I wanted it.

The cold temperatures finally did in the parsley, which was still harvest-able as a fresh herb up to that point.

But today, a glorious 60 degrees! I uncovered that rosemary (but kept my system close at hand for the next cold snap). I took advantage of the soft air to prune the raspberries and level the asparagus fronds - both tasks had somehow never risen to the top of the fall to-do list. I also cut back the standing mints. Actually, I did the mint first, and enjoyed the menthol mittens while pruning the raspberries.

One week of 10 degree nights finally froze the ground. I'd say about 5 inches down. But the melt today and yesterday has pools of water all over the yard, not running off, and not able to drain through the frozen turf.

We ordered a cord of split oak over the weekend ($170). Unfortunately, the stuff isn't very dry. Today isn't helping. Despite the sizzles, the stuff can really crank out some heat and we are definitely looking forward to burning the wood instead of the oil as much as possible.

And that's January for you.

Random Updates

Whoa. Chard on horse manure.

OK, on the left is a parsnip, on the right are some chioggia beets. So what the heck is in between? Hint - It was in the beet rows.

Yep. I grew cauliflower. Think I let it go too long, it's a little too cabbagy - but it's the first cauliflower I've ever grown and I'm very pleased. There are 3 more heads out there.

This is what the tomato bed looks like. This is one heck of a solar energy collector.

Dad-gum-it! Ground Hogs! Or, if you are my two-year-old "Hot Dogs!" (He knows what a hot dog is but since it's the closest thing to ground hog that he can actually say I guess he decided it was close enough.)

Oooo.. Edie, don't get too close! That guy is MAD!

Mmmm... I didn't do a good job with potatoes this year. But these are the harvest from the ones I didn't find last year. They grew happily in the garlic patch.

Jimsonweed. Poisonous. Note to self.

The July 8th Garden

The perennial end. From left, lemongrass, sorrel, horseradish, dill in front of rhubarb.

Raspberries were a little weak in the June crop. Hoping for better in August.

Here you can see garlic almost ready for pulling (it's pulled now, sugar snaps climbing strings outside the fence and beans just starting inside the fence.

The garden helper is watering beets and onions.

Foreground, brussel sprouts, then a row of leeks, then enormous cauliflower plants (no heads), two huge nappa cabbages and parsnips behind the bench (that you can barely see).

Chard was planted too close together, but is otherwise doing well. Small, but healthy, okra is smashed in the corner and the first of 5 tomatillo plants is looking good.

Kale comes up everywhere with enormous leaves that shade out tomato plants. Lettuce has bolted, but isn't pulled yet (ask the manager - I don't know why.)

Just another view of beets and onions. The onions have all fallen over and haven't been weeded very well. It's going to hurt that crop.

May State of Affairs

The front of the garden. I stacked some rocks around the base of the sink. It was always our intention to rock face it but I don't know when we will get around to it.

New perennial bed. (Sorrel, horseradish, rhubarb, dill.)

Rhubarb was transplanted from elsewhere and I had NO idea how deep the roots were going to be.  So they broke off and the rhubarb definitely suffered the transplant. But this spot will be much better for it than where it was and I expect it to bounce back fine by next year.

Sorrel, and horseradish, with a border of basil.

Green house lettuce, center, two rows of the second attempt at carrots, under burlap for more even moisture. Next to the burlap will be tomatoes, and along the fence is peas. There's not exactly a lot of space for the 'maters, but the carrots and peas should come out by the time the tomatoes need the space.

Snow peas

Kale mix. It's actually about doubled in size since this photo was taken last week.

Strawberries! Last year there weren't this many and the birds got them all. So maybe a net this year?

Out of sight, below, is a parsnip patch, then you can see the Daikon radish doing well, then a Nappa Cabbage too small to see the starts, and then Cauliflower, but the bunnies munched most of them after this picture was taken. Ames and I seeded cilantro around there too, and then you can barely make out two rows of leeks.

On the outside of the strings are two bands of beets, Chioggia (a concentric red/white beet) and Detroit Red short top. Those were planted in two phases, with a month in between. Down the center of the strings are yellow and red onions, over a hundred altogether. The path is filled with grass right now, and beyond it is the awesome garlic bed. I forget how many are in there but they are growing really well.

Asparagus, started last year, is doing fairly well.

Here's the herb garden. These have been moving around the yard. We haven't settled on our best spot for them yet, but this will be fine for this year.

Our new trailer! Hauled a HUGE load of horse manure for the garden over a month ago.

A view from the east end of the garden. Potatoes will be planted here if I ever get around to it. Beans will go in along the inside of the fence.

From the west end, the new beds along the outside front of the fence will  have scarlet runner beans on this west end, and sugar snap peas along the east side. In front of those climbers I'll seed a special beneficials wildflower mix from fedco.