Seeds of the day

Two more flats done, mostly herbs:

Zinger Hibiscus
Holy Basil
Cilantro
Santolina Tomentosa (in plastic baggie chilling in the fridge)
Henna herb (also chilling out in a baggie in the fridge)
Bouquet Dill
Rosemary
Sweet Marjoram
Curled Chervil
Winter Savory
Greek Oregano
Green Shiso
Red Shiso
Lettuce Leaf Basil
French Thyme
Flat Leaf Parsley
Garden Sage
Strawberry Spinach
Lunaria ("Money Plant, "Honesty"- obviously not a culinary herb)
Job's Tears (the seeds are apparently edible but i want more for beading)
and
Skirret (which is a sort of perennial carrot/parsnip-like creature with tubers that are edible)



So this is today's effort

I've been making plant markers out of the plastic covers of used spiral-bound notebooks that were destined for the trash. They take labeling with a silver Sharpie (seems more reliable a pigment than black or any other color of Sharpie) perfectly and are stiff enough to stay in the dirt but soft enough to bend if i use a clear plastic cover on the flat. The plastic will still end up in the garbage some day but it has been a useful way to prolong it.

This group somehow ended up getting leggy. I think the room might be too warm at times.

I don't think i ever posted a picture of that shelf i made last year out of PVC. I had meant to, so this is what it looks like.

If i don't do it this year, i'll do it next-  add one more level and possibly use 3 fixtures per level.
Speaking of level,  this coming paycheck i will buy something that will fix the uneven hardware cloth situation.  Tilted flats don't distribute water evenly.

Started Seeds Log

Started the following Saturday, April 2:

Toothache Plant (Spilanthus Acmella) -more on that later
Nepitella herb
Ancho hot pepper
Lemongrass
A few more Ghost Peppers so i can have some plants to share
Shooting Star eggplant
Black Beauty eggplant
Martin's Carrot hot pepper
Doorknob sweet pepper
Catnip


Today will be Tomato Day

I just need to make my final choices on what types to plant and which to pass this year.

As usual, i have a fair selection to pick from:

Matt's Wild cherry
Black Krim
Martino's Roma
Riesenstraube
Burpee's Supersauce
3 seeds left of Pruden's Purple
Cherokee Purple
Opalka
Chocolate Miracle
Pineapple Bicolor
Ivory Pear


I'm also planning to try planting watermelon in soil bags this year. I'll get some 2 cubic foot bags of garden soil and set them just outside the actual plowed garden and slip a few seeds in each and see how it goes.  If it does not work i will just give up on melons...permanently.


This morning it seemed like it would be a good day to burn Stanley's cut-offs and maybe give him a dose of Fungonil but the wind picked up again.


I have some odds and ends seeds i need to not forget:

Job's Tears
Honesty
Mexican Hat flower
Leonotis
Ground Cherries
Skirret
pumpkin on a stick

I did remember to buy soaker hose (2 packages of 100' each) and 100'x20' 6 mil black plastic sheeting.  Depending on the configuration options (which i won't be sure of until i can pull it all from the packaging, lay it out, take stock and measure the garden) i may just grab one more 100' soaker hose. I did read that for optimum efficiency the hose lengths should be less than 50'.  My garden is roughly 35'x35' maximum, so this shouldn't be a problem.

  I have been reading up on covering the whole garden.

  I was a little worried that lack of air to the soil might be an issue but a few articles from Ag Exchange sources say that it isn't a problem and the plastic actually collects the CO2 from decomposing matter in the ground. This is beneficial because when you make holes to put the garden plants in, the CO2 is concentrated and released right to and among the leaves of the garden plant. The plants are in a sort of CO2 chimney - like a person taking in supplemental oxygen- it is a boost.  I decided that if i am going to lay down all that plastic,  i'm also going to install the hoops & Reemay again. My biggest malfunction with the hoops was access.  The wind that i am constantly griping about makes opening and closing the hoops very tricky when it is just me trying to control the floaty Reemay.  With the plastic on,  weeding chores should be very minimal. With the hoops and Reemay on,  bug infestations may be severely reduced as well.  The Reemay might also hold in more of that lovely co2 and the plastic will keep it all very warm....  it might be too warm and will definitely need monitoring.  If there's too much generated heat,  i think i could apply wetted newspaper in strategic areas and watch out for slugs, snails and earwigs. I think this stands a chance to be a good strategy overall.

Year of the Eggplant?

I forgot how many eggplant seeds i bought.First off, i bought "Meatball" online from Burpee earlier then at work i got "Shooting Stars" and "Black Beauty" i think i also ordered some "Black Beauty" from a coworker at my other job through a fundraiser at her kids' school - the fundraiser was with Fedco Seeds.  I also ordered more of what i refer to as "pumpkin on a stick" eggplant seeds from Amishland Heirloom seeds. So far, i have only had time to get "Meatball" started (besides the okra and peppers) but i plan to use some time off to start much of the rest tomorrow.

After behaving a little last year on seed buying i went a little crazy again this time.
I still need rosemary seeds though.

I think i have decided that i'm just going to cover my whole garden in 6 mil plastic sheeting and install soaker hose under it.  I had been leaving space between rows clear for water to get under it but weeding around the plastic and the bricks to tack it down wasn't much easier than hand weeding anyway because i couldn't use tools. I've also got a serious nutgrass issue that is getting worse. You can't weed that stuff away.  The leaves break from the stem and any particle of that plant can regrow vigorously.

Half of the dying box elder tree down back fell over, finally.   This should allow more morning sun to get to the garden. If it were my tree, i'd just cut it down.  Its been on its way out for a few years.

I bought some ginkgo seedlings from a seller on Ebay,  I got 10 and 7 of them look pretty good.  Not sure where i'll plant them since i really don't have room.  Maybe i'll have to learn some Bonsai techniques and somehow keep them dwarfed.

Seed starting has begun.

I started two varieties of okra, Clemson Spineless and another type with the words "early" and or "green" in the name. I already forgot. I also got most of the peppers started.

6 King of the North sweet
6 Ghost pepper - last of those seeds
3 Ancient Sweet- my last 3 seeds
6 A sweet pepper called Door Knob
6 a hot one called Martin's Carrot
6 Purple Marconi -sweet- also my last seeds
And with the peppers i put in
6 Meatball eggplants

I've got more seeds i need to buy,  i'm out of a bunch.  I have all the tomato varieties i want but there's beets and carrots i don't have.

I sorted all my seed packets but i need to take the time to peek inside the packets to see what numbers i have.

There are a few orders i have made that aren't in as well as things like potatoes that won't arrive until just about time for planting.

I managed to remember and finally  find a good deal on ramps this year and another great deal on white strawberries (aka Pineberries).  I'm also going to try onions from plants not seeds or 'starts" this year.

I shopped around at Territorial Seeds and am going to try an order there.  I have put in my cart:

Butter bush squash
Wautoma cucumbers
Excelsior cucumbers
Lutz Greenleaf beet
and
Purple 68 carrot

I would also love to try growing some Pusa Asita Black carrot that i found advertised on Baker Creek's rareseeds site. I found them while trying to find a seed source for vegetable marrow type squashes (which are either or not interchangeably called Courgettes). I keep forgetting to try and find some. From what i understand, they are similar but distinctively different from what we call (on this side of the pond) summer squash and zucchini. I found something called Boston Marrow but it is miles away from what i wanted. Going to have to mosey on over to Mal's Allotment and see if i have better luck searching them up by the cultivar names he's growing because when i look things up under "courgettes" i see things that look suspiciously similar to the things i already know.  Like the argument my mother and daughter had years ago about whether yellow summer squash is "yellow zucchini" or "summer squash"...  Both zucchini and yellow squash are "summer squash" but the yellow type is rarely called zucchini....  at least around here. lol

I'm probably going to do another round of peppers once the ones i planted today germinate. I only have one heat mat.  Its too early to start much else.

Its almost that time of year again

And based on this winter,  i have no idea what to expect.

It was an odd winter.  From the hail storm last summer to now.

There was no snow until after Christmas and before Christmas it was very warm.  We had a few medium snow storms which were followed soon after by rain which melted it away, then more warm spells. We did have a cold snap or two which wasn't very kind to the plants where the ground was bare.  I had been trying to plan for some winter pruning but with the unusual temperatures i was not convinced that the plants were dormant for certain and that another unexpected warm set of days would wake them up.  I did get the grape pruning started Friday and i totally pruned the Stanley Plum.  i think i got all of the black knot eruptions but had to cut it back so severely. The big pruners weren't enough and i had to use a small cross cut saw. Then i coated what was left with a fungicide product called Fung-onil.  The weather was just below freezing and the spray on product was thickened at that temperature (more like a splatter than spray) so i ended up applying much of it with a medium sized paint brush. I covered as much surface as i could and put extra care towards the fresh cuts.

Regardless of the weird winter,  i'm going to start seeds soon. I may actually get sweet and hot peppers going on time as well as eggplant. I'm also going to remember to plant okra.

I have made a number of small seed orders so far but it will be inventory time before i go any further.

As far as the rest of the outdoors, the edging is a complete mess.  I'm seriously considering replacing it entirely. Something like this:

The plastic edging simply isn't tall enough to sit deep enough and hold steady,  but hubby thinks it won't look nice. I might try it on a smaller bed and expand on it later if he gives up.

Been so busy and having a hard time remembering where i left off.  Time seems to fly and i realise how much has gone by since my last entry.

The cherries were just beginning to turn pink last time and things were looking ok,  the woodchuck had only just started to cause trouble....

these first pics are from early July:



This is how the cherries ended up.

There weren't a lot for the first year of course, but the color was great and the flavor was nice though more tart than i had hoped.  Maybe they get sweeter as the plant matures or they just need sugar when processed.

The color continued to deepen a few more days later.

I have gotten some eggplant,  the flowers are nice enough.

Luna moths are pretty too.

I have gotten some long turnips too, and there are more coming every few days still.  They are good with roasts and stews. They are called Hinona Kabu.  When they are ready,  they raise themselves out of the ground and the exposed shoulders become purple.

Seaberries continued to grow

The gojiberries have been satisfyingly plentiful.   I have no pictures,  but the blueberries have had their best year yet.

The nice neighbors finally cut down that tree that has been breathing down our roof's neck.  This being removed has allowed much more sun to the side bed where many of the berries and the cherry tree is.

This is the full garden shot on 7/13/15

This is the "mouse melon" plant on the same day.

It is very much a miniature plant in all ways. Tiny tendrils,  minute flowers.

 It has since grown quite a bit and produced a few samples which were nice to have. More pics will appear below.

Flavor burst peppers:

These have done well and are tasty,  heavy producers of sweet peppers.

Tomatoes....before i lost control of them once again.

Adirondak potato flower:

Lots of apples:

Yard long bean plants

Aphid infestation on the Stanley prune plum

Short video of a female ruby throated humming bird in our yard- if it loads and plays correctly. Its a lower resolution video anyway.

One of the eggplants after the woodchuck began going after those.

Woodchuck taste-test on the sunflowers

Woodchuck claw marks on the sheet plastic.

Normally they just come to eat,  this one liked to dig and wallow.  Not sure if it was reacting to the habanero pepper spray i made to spray on the plants in hopes of deterring its eating.  It didn't work in the long run.

And then on 7/28/15,  i came home from work to find this:

And what that did to my garden:

I won't be using this plastic again next year like i had hoped to. Will have to buy new.

I did get a cucumber after that,  this was at least unblemished by the falling ice missiles.

A few days later,  the production continued mostly unchecked

The biggest Flavorburst pepper so far. This was a couple days ago. Many of the fruit had been hit by the hail but this one was fine all around.

Here's a fruit that the "mouse melon" produced. We got a good handful more of them this morning. They go by a few common names other than "mouse melon",  like Mexican Sour Gherkin, "cucamelon" and others.  They have a tart cucumbery taste,  not bitter but citrusy. The inside is a little jelly-like with the seeds,  like horned melon,  the skin is a bit hard but not unpleasant,  its more of a thin rind really.  I will grow them again next year.

Well,  that is all the pictures i have for now.  I hope to have another catch-up post in the next day or so.

6-22-15 another post i forgot to finish

The grapes are being ridiculous, just showing off.

The cherries are beginning to blush a bit. I'm going to have to come up with something to use to cover them before the birds notice.

I just happened to notice this branch full of growing Sea berries.

That was as far as i got blogging that day!

War drums...

Oh, yeah.  The woodchuck is definitely back. Ate the rest of the soybeans and went for the daikon radishes. I'm not seeing damage on anything further.  I have today and tomorrow off and its beautiful out except for the wind.  Normally on nice days like this we spend pretty much the whole day outside.  This will discourage raids on the garden.  This evening when we go in i will reapply the hot pepper spray. Sunny skies expected tomorrow as well so there should be nothing to wash away the deterring flavor. Havahart trap is baited with green beans and a few broccoli florets.

It makes me wish i had a troupe of flying monkeys to unleash.

Woodchuck, part 33 1/3

Saw a woodchuck in the left side neighbor's backyard this morning before i headed off to work. It is a big one. I went and checked the garden. It ate all but 2 of my soybeans and nipped off 3 of my sunflowers.  I got out the habanero pepper spray i made last summer and gave everything a light spritz.
Arrived home after work this evening (after a few additional errands) and saw it (him? based on the large size) on the right side of the garden- where the soybeans 'were'...  it exited under the fence.

Another quick inspection. Seems nothing further was damaged. (Well i did see some munches taken off the Jerusalem Artichokes,  but it would take a cow to do any significant damage to that.)  He was in full line of sight of our Basset Hound, who likely barked incessantly at him,  hopefully making him uncomfortable enough to not relax and feed.  I set the Havahart humane trap with an ear of sweetcorn.  Its supposed to rain tomorrow.  Woodchucks don't stop eating for rain and i don't know if the pepper spray sticks well. I have work tomorrow. Time will tell.

Getting there

I got the leeks in yesterday.  I'm not sure it was the best place to put them,  right in front of the potatoes...
in the 18 inches behind the potatoes i planted some striped maize.  Japonica striped maize to be specific.  However i was being watched closely by a perky, gray Catbird and i'm not sure if she's going to undo my work.

Lack of room seems to be this year's gardening theme.

When i run the rows North to South instead of East to West i lose a few feet on each row so i have less room. But i do it to enforce a fairly consistent crop rotation thing.  This year, as usual, i overbooked my space. Turns out that the almost complete failure of the root crop row has freed up some space for some of that overbooking.  I put in a whole row of sunflowers there.  In between the sunflowers,  i tucked in the broccoli.  The sunflowers look good,  but the broccoli are pathetic. Barely 3 inches high and a malnourished color.  Most of my seedlings spent too much time languishing in the seed flats with either too much water or too little and fertilizing attempts were somewhat wasted when the trays overflowed with rainwater and roots suffered further when they didn't properly drain.

I got the rest of the squashes in and most of the herbs.  There's a couple flat-leaved parsley, a few lettuce-leafed basil and some pathetic looking Red Russian kale.

This is what i am doing to try and contain some of the overflow.

SOme herbs, some chinese cabbage, assorted salad greens seedlings, flowers and a few pots of herbs i just seeded. I realized with annoyance yesterday that i have no more cilantro seeds.

The tomatoes are looking great. They need pruning and i have to get them staked and twined.  That is planned for today.

Eggplants and peppers.... The peppers already have blooms and little fruit started.

Freshly planted ornamental sunflowers:

A couple broccoli plants tucked in among them.   I didn't want to put the broccoli on plastic. They are heat stressed enough and i don't think broccoli likes the extra heat from the plastic later in the season.

The beans are looking good.  Wish i had allowed room for another row of them.  I might be able to sneak some in on the other side of the cuke/melon row....  early enough so they won't get shaded out?

I have seeds for Yard Long beans.  I read a lot that vining beans are room savers,  but the trellising and staking seems to be beyond my ability to plan for,  so it never happens.  Instead of bush beans i just might sneak in a few yard-long seeds behind the melons....



a little while later....

Tomatoes,  Pruned, staked and weaved.