Corn and beans, 2010

Corn started out quite well once harvesting time came.  It was a small patch so i wasn't expecting a high yield or anything.  I don't eat corn (too starchy though i used to love it), so it was mainly grown for the rest of my family to have.
As a reminder to myself i planted:
Golden Bantam
Incredible
and
Stowell's Evergreen

I had planted them in blocks in the order listed, the Stowell's in the back.  The Golden Bantam and the Incredible did quite well. The Incredible seemed more insect resistant tnan the Golden Bantam. I did try throwing around some Seven Dust early on to keep the darned earwigs out of the husks and i used BT sporadically in attempt to quell the earworms.  This seemed to help a bit- still got some nasties but not too terrible in the end.
The only real disappointment was the Stowell's Evergreen.  I think it germinates slower, matures slower and that put it at a disadvantage. I got some very large  ears on the stalks- but out of these 10"+ ears, only maybe 20 kernels were filled out.  I understand this is a pollination issue.  I'm not sure if it was because the soil in the back 4' of garden was cooler than the 8' in front of it that the rest of the corn went into (it was all under row cover at the time of planting IIRR- i'll have to go back and look)... i don't know if it was the lack of water---  the silks on the whole plot of all three types dried out as if they were ripe and ready well before they were- which made harvesting tricky.
The stalks of them all are browned out now so i know whatever was left on them is past now.  I knocked the stalks down the other day so they might break down better over the winter and early spring.

I had planted some of the purple podded string beans between the corn stalks for kicks, but i think the dry weather with the lack of direct sun didn't do the beans any favors.  I'm guessing that beans may be best grown with corn when the corn is planted in thin rows, not blocks.  The beans mostly ended up with woody pods even when they were small enough that they should have been tender.  I got about a 1/4 pound of the purple beans before the next batch came in almost inedible.

The Provider bush beans, however, were stellar. They are definitely on the list for next summer.  I lost count of how much i picked, but it was every other day about a pound for more than 3 weeks.  They got ahead of me eventually,  i probably could have gotten a few more whole pounds out of the planting if i hadn't lost track.
I'll possibly double the space for them next year so i can keep freezing them, get some canned and still share them out.

Dehydrating celery

I don't have my Excalibur yet, haven't even submitted the order. But while i wait, i still have mo other dehydrators.

I'm using my Nesco to dehydrate the celery since it is the one that has the  solid inserts.  I can't find any inserts for the Durabrand.

Celery shrinks dramatically when dehydrated, so the solid fruit roll inserts are critical.

Before

After

On a nice dry day like yesterday it takes only about 6 hours to do a batch (the Nesco only fits one full bunch at a time).  I had two of the large bunches of celery. Not the neatly trimmed "celery hearts" that come only about 10" long. Hubby likes to buy me the giant rough and ready whole thing. It usually comes with the dirt still on it. and a lot of gangly green matter.  So its more of a pain to clean and stuff.  But i use my mandoline slicer to make the thinnest slices i can and then put them on the trays. The slicing goes pretty quick.
I try to keep them spread out a bit, but not too picky. They get shifted at least once during drying to make sure all surfaces are exposed to drying air.
They don't need to be blanched or pretreated in any way.

The two large bunches of celery end up dehydrating down to easily fit inside a standard sandwich size ziplock bag, though i have a 4oz jar i saved to store them in. The jar once held basil pesto.
I plan to use these celery bits in soups, stews, broths and such.  I read that they can be powdered in a blender and then mixed with sea salt for home made celery salt (if watching sodium or supplementing potassium, i'm sure potassium rich 'lite salt' could be used).

My refrigerator will freeze celery without fail and i'm tired of finding out that it has just before i go to use the celery.  So i hope i will have better luck with this storage method.

I think the Excalibur could do this in one batch, so i look forward to that. I need to get it soon so i can dry my peppermint and basil. I don't have good luck air drying herbs and these two dehydrators i have don't have temp control.

Oh, i wandered around the garden again yesterday- with the camera. More progress with the Job's Tears plants.  They are pretty cool looking the way the seed pod develops.  It looks like i should get enough seed to replant next summer and then from those i should get enough to make something pretty:

The ornamental "pumpkin on a stick" eggplant fruit are beginning to go orange

...and i'm eying the corn.

The silks have dried up, but when i pulled a few test ears, i got mixed results.  I have many small ears that have fully formed kernels, the rows aren't skipped like they get with inadequate pollination, but they are scrawny and widely spaced. I am told that the flavor is very nice despite that.  Another of the test ears was perfectly formed, but the kernels were immature even though the silk was indicating it was ready to pick.  I think lack of rain has a lot to do with this early and incorrect signal.

Where i planted the seeds rather thickly (trying out a theory that is supposed to help the stalks not fall over so readily-it worked but...) i don't think they got as much sun as they could have.  I didn't account for the sun's direction correctly- assuming that the corn would get tall too fast and shade out things too early-- so it went where i put it instead of a better spot.

But i'm going to orient my rows in the opposite direction next year and the corn will be in the final row.
My rows run roughly East to West, i'll have them going North/South.  With the corn at the back, there will be little shading.

I'm going to buy that 1 year subscription to GrowVeg soon so i can plan it out.

Woke up to no power this morning. Its weird when that happens, everything is so quiet.  It took a few minutes to decide that it was not something caused by our end.  Then i started planning my day according to having no power. Like reducing the times i open the fridge, which windows to keep open to let in cool air rather than hot.
Then the power came back on.  Its supposed to get into the 90's again today it is nice to know we would have air conditioning and the fridge won't be in trouble.   The local news has mentioned nothing about the power going out so whatever it was, it apparently wasn't critical enough to draw the attention of our very bored and overreactive  local news stations.

The majority of my corn plants did manage to reach the "knee high" goal for the Fourth of July.  Some didn't do very well at all though. I had some seeds leftover from 2008 "Incredible" was the name. It germinated well the first time i planted it, but not so well this time around.  Since it came up so thin, i went ahead and planted that packet of Purple Podded bush beans i bought the other day. The Stowell's Evergreen and Golden Bantam seem to be doing well enough.

Saw my first Monarch butterfly of the year yesterday. It looked like it was thinking about laying its eggs on one of my uncertainly identified perennials... it came tangled with another plant i bought, which died during winter.  The seller of the original plant told me that the stowaway was a white hyssop.  Since it now has pink buds i have decided that was a missidentification.  I think it might be some sort of milkweed, but i have not gotten a close enough look to be sure of which one.  I tore the tip of one leaf and there was a small bit of milky sap.  I'm leaning toward Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) I looked for Monarch eggs, but didn't see any.

It has been three days now since the last raid on my garden. My Swiss Chard is almost recovered enough to harvest some for myself.

Not much else to report i guess and i have some busywork to do around the house today...  Have to pick up some odds and ends at the hardware store too.

Lots to do....

Since i didn't feel like writing for a couple days, i have some stuff to catch up on.

I need to start taking some pictures too.  I took the cover off all the hoops to do some work under them the other day.  I left off the cover that was over the melon row since the plants have grown quite a bit.
It rained all weekend so the ground is now nicley moist. We even had some tornado warnings yestrerday.  The system that had what was reported to have a funnel cloud actually passed within 5 miles of where we live. So it was a bit surreal for a while watching radar loops and the news station.  We did get some pretty hefty winds and some huge rain drops.  I didn't look under the hoops yet, but the wind only pulled one hoop out of one socket but everything stayed put.

I have a few mail order items to expect in the next week or so. Henry Field's does not have an estimated arrival date with their UPS tracking feature.
My grapes, blueberries and lingonberries are on their way from Stark's, that should b here by Wednesday
Burpee has shipped my weed barrier, but not my grapes yet. But the weed barrier is expected to arrive tomorrow.

My Big Hip roses came in on Friday and they look good. The ebay auction was for 5 plants but it looks like i got 7. Yay!

I did get the corn planted on Friday as planned. Three types.
Incredible,
Stowell's Evergreen
and
Golden Bantam

I planted them in the last half of my Tomato row and it rained shortly after they were planted, so i should see them come up fairly soon.

I need to try and get my stakes in the ground soon, for the grapes.  I don't know if i should dig up the Suffolk Red.  I need to take down the little trellis i made for it to put up my new stuff....  its not going to survive a winter up here.  I think even if i go to heroic lengths to shelter it, it won't ever recover enough to fruit. I might try to keep it in a pot if i can't find a home for it.

I tried to Round up the grass and stuff under the electric fence, but it rained less than 3 hours after i sprayed it.  So i might have to do it all over again today.
I think i'll put the cardboard down too.  I think i will lay that out, plug in the posts and then put the weed barrier right over the cardboard and then plant the grapes.  I hope the cardboard will attract the worms as it breaks down. The area that i plan to put the grapes in looks pretty barren right now so it needs some compost too.  I don't know if i can get the Mantis into it, but i'd like to.

I spent some time trying to decide what trelising method i want to use on the grapes. I'd kind of like to be systematic about it. Make a real plan instead of just plant them and watch them take over everything. My first thought was to do what turns out to be similar to what is called  Four Arm Kniffen.  It looked like the simplest plan, but i guess it is better for some grape types and not so much for others.  I'm having a hard time finding the info on which method is best for which of the grapes i have.  Its been a bit confusing trying to research this.
I have gotten a lot of use out of the charts at Double A Vineyard's site.  The chart recommends Top Wire Cordon for 3 of the four grapes that i am getting. The last wants a Modified Munson. After much research, i know what those are and in finding that i also read that those styles may not be the greatest for cold areas like mine.  These training methods carry the cordons on the topmost wires- and in the winter they are very exposed to cold.  I do not have any desire to lay down these plants each fall, which is why i chose Zone 3-4 hardy vines. Except for Reliance. Hopefully the extra padding of a lower zone will make up for lack of extensive winter protection.  The most i would intend to do is wrap them in burlap or sandwich them with straw bales.

ANyway, the most asthetically pleasing trellis method i have seen is the Low or Mid Wire Cordon. The main part of the vines take on a candelabra shape.  I have read that it is an acceptable method for cold regions since the snow cover will help protect the cordons and in the summer the heat radiating back from the ground is helpful for ripening.

Good thing is that it will take a few years to establish this shape and as long as i don't lose the vines to a harsh winter, i have plenty of time to decide before i am committed to one method.

You Tube has actually been quite helpful in picking up the vocabulary of the world of grapes and also lets me get  an idea of what to look for as the plants grow.

I think we have decided to let the big apple tree go. It looks pretty sad this year. The leaves are small, it has no apples, and its such a mess. I was advised that i could just lop it off at the point where it bends over and it might re-branch itself.  I'd like to try that, but it dosen't solve the issue of the trees being within 4' of eachother.  If the big tree wasn't so thin this year, the little tree wouldn't be getting half the light it is getting now.  If we get the big tree healthy, the little tree will decline.  The little tree is in decent shape so far, so it would be a real shame to let a declining tree ruin a good one.
I think there is a chance if we cut the big one down to a tall stub, i could send it to my parents.  They have an apple tree there that is about to go, this might make a fair replacement once it recovers.  At the very least,  this tree can be stripped of bark and chipped up for smoking meats. It won't go to waste.
I don't know for certain, but with all the wild apples around here, i might not need a second apple as a polinator. I'm not 100% sure-  but i did learn a bit from a Chuck Ingals video i came across that if you don't have a polinator tree, the next best thing is to find another apple tree that is in bloom, pick a few stems and bring them home to your own tree.  It was kind of funny because in the example picture he used (it was a filmed power-point lecture) he had used a vase to hold the bunch of blossoms and had to carefully balance the vase in the branches of the tree. He had laughed at himself because he was asked at a previous lecture why he didn't use a bag of water and just tie it to a branch....  it was amusing.  I'm not exactly sure where someone might get fresh apple blossoms from a distant place, but i could get them from my parents' and maybe a nearby orchard won't object if i ask to carefully pick a few small twigs.  Anyway, it is an option at least until i could get another apple  to blooming size if i discover next year that the wild apples weren't enough.

After a few days of rain, its nice to see the sun out.  We are getting some stiff breezes but the air is warm.
I'm also going to try and get the Grapefruit tree outside. I usually get its summer vacation started a few days earlier than this and the rainy days would have been perfect, but i kept putting it off.  The plant is upstairs in a window and though its not really heavy, the pot and stand is awkward and Grapefruit trees have thorns!

Oh, did i mention that on Friday i also got all my little marigold seedlings planted out in the garden, most of the basil, all the rosemary, the sage, nasturtiums, and all those little odd herb and veggie seedlings from the re-sown onion flat (the ones that had blown over in the greenhouse). I put out the chives too and most of the Welsh onions.  They are perennials like chives, but thicker, white-flowered and more like garlic in flavor. I'm giving some to my parents as well.
I'm also giving my mom most of the perennial seedlings i sowed. I hadn't decided for sure what i was going to do with the front and side flowerbeds at the time i planted the seeds, but by the time we dig out the flowerbeds this fall, it will be too late for the seedlings to get a good grip before winter.  So i hope to plant some at my mom's within the next handful of weeks.  They are gaillardia and ornamental rudbeckia and a couple of the rose root plants.  I might keep the pleurisy root since its more of a wildflower and though i love the half-wild look in most plants, my mom prefers the more refined looking things, so it might not be as welcome in her garden. The rudbeckia would be pushing it if she didn't like the wild ones as much as she does.

I really want to just start ripping the messy flower beds out right now, but i need a more reliable babysitter and stronger pain medicine for that.

My niece, who is now expecting her first baby, helped me dig it out the first time.  I sure wish she was here to play in he dirt with me right now. lol

I have to coordinate prepping the fenceline for the blueberries.  I don't think my soil is quite acidic enough. It seems to be close to neutral, so i want to try and take a few large Rubbermaid type totes to my parents' and load up on fallen pine needles. I could till them in before planting or i could mulch the plants with it.  It shouldn't take much i imagine. I'll have to watch for ticks though!

I still haven't harvested castings from the worm bin yet.
...and i think it might be too late to plant annual seeds and expect much.
I can't say i don't have enough things to do!


****

i just checked my email and i got a note from Stark's.  I won't be getting my Lingonberry this year, they ran out. *sniffle*

They are going to refund me the difference.  I hope i don't get another email telling me they are out of something else i ordered. I can accept the lingonberry, but i can't accept the grapes or blueberries not being available. I may be downright angry if anything else is out of stock, especially after they already told me everything was sent.  I'm bracing myself for more frustration. Grapes take 4 years to bear, i don't need any setbacks.

Of course, the refund of about $10 will allow me to buy a book on grapes through Amazon for Kindle for PC.
 I may order lingonberries again next year if i have enough room, i tend to fill up spaces quickly.  Nature abhors a vacuum, and i have a lot of goji seedlings....and 2 beach plums...

Well, i'll be....

I just got my email notification from Henry Field's. My Fig plant has been shipped.  Yay.  On a Friday.

Its funny cause i just checked into my account on Wednesday (i think) to see what was up. Last i knew it was supposed to be shipped around a week ago. I'll have to check to be sure,  but anyway, last time i checked the ship date was for the middle of this month and i was too irritated to even bother saying anything about it.  But this morning i get a ship notification.  I have not gotten a tracking number yet, but a number appears on my HF's website account... but its the number for my already-delivered citrus assortment.

Well, hopefully all goes well and they are sending me a nice plant.
So far the Meyer Lemon and the Key Lime are looking good, the Venous Orange is struggling... The leaves that were curling when it arrived have fallen off and the wind actually blew it out of its pot the other day, so i plunked it back in and put a small bamboo stick against it to prop it up. It seems to be no worse for the wear due to that. It seems to be simply hanging on.

My Big Hip Roses should be delivered today, i got them from one of Oikos Tree Crops' eBay auctions. Five plants for $20, shipping included.   The tracking page states that the package is out for delivery.

My Stark's order is scheduled to be shipped this coming Monday.  That has my grapes, blueberries and lingonberries.
Burpee has not sent me a ship estimate yet. They have my Edelweiss grapes and that weed barrier fabric.

I finished the "Food Drying" book. It was quite useful to read, many recipes for using your dried items and of course, the instructions on how to dry them.
I was particularly interested in the dry soup mixes. Soup is so convenient when you have a bunch of things on hand that need to be used, but not a lot of time to babysit a frying pan or an oven.  You can put anything in a soup.  I have.  Radishes and lettuce work surprisingly well in soup.

I'm also wondering if i slice eggplant into long strips and use them in a casserole (without rehydrating them) if they would make a great noodle substitute in a lasagna.  I have tried doing a low starch lasagna  using savoy cabbage or fresh zucchini slices in place of the noodles, but it ends up being watery and the cabbage and zucchini have no cling or body.  I hope dried eggplant will absorb juices and stay just a tad firm through the cooking process.  Hopefully my Slim Jim plants will do me a favor and produce a lot so i can experiment.

I am going to plant corn today. I have to.  I have to do some real weeding too and direct sow some herbs.
And lay out some cardboard.

Hoping for rain.

We aren't getting  a lot of rain so far this year, so i really hope to get a good bit today. I'm not a big fan of having to use the hose so often, if we had well water it would be different. My dad is looking into getting me a couple 55 gallon drums we can use to catch roof runoff from the shed to use in the garden.
But it looks like the rain that is heading towards us is going to be hit-or-miss (and drying up before it gets here) and maybe amount to about a half inch.  But the sun not being strong today and little to no breeze, means less drying out.  Nothing in the garden seems to be suffering from the dryness and the part of the yard we haven't done anything with yet just looks dusty.
I'm making cultured butter today, since its a hands-off project i can be doing other things until its time to *churn* the cream.

I still have not started the annual flowers i wanted to have. I think there is just about enough time if i get that done in the next 3 days or so.

I am waiting on some "Big Hip Roses" from Oikos Tree Crops this week. I ordered them off their eBay store. 5 of them for $20 shipping included.  I hope to plant them on the outside of our fence that runs along the road.  Its all barren and dusty there and it needs something to keep the kids from leaning on the fences and snooping through the cracks.  Hopefully i can use the petals for rosewater and other interesting things like rose petal beads and such.  The plants should be able to handle being covered in snow from the plow.

I need to get some sort of heavy duty landscape fabric so i can smother out the weeds and grass from the inside of the fence where i plan to put the berry plants. I think i should get that going now.  Especially after it rains, if its wet under the fabric, it will steam the weeds faster and the worms will love the cooked plants. I think.

I have things to do today, but if the rain holds off or even if it doesn't i will try to plant  sweet corn later on today.

We have hit the 80's

Boy, it was warm today! Very humid as well,  but the stiff breeze made it quite pleasant....

At 4:30pm it is in the low 80's and there were thunderstorms to the north of us, racing across the state, but they stayed well away from us and the ones that were in line to get us just faded out well before they got here.  Its a little bit disappointing because i love a good thunderstorm.

I didn't take any pictures today, but the apple trees are just on the verge of blooming.  There are apple trees in the area that are in bloom, but not mine quite yet.

 I'm not sure how i am going to get the measuring done for the garden, i know how...but not quite when.  I have to be somewhat precise with my rows and beds since i am using the hoop and row covers.  I have to have 4 foot beds, and 2 foot walking rows.  If the beds are wider the hoops won't fit, if it is narrower, they won't bend right  and if the walking paths are too narrow i won't be able to move between them. I also want everything to be as straight  as i can get them,  i don't want this to be an eyesore.  With the white covers on everything for the first couple months, the garden is going to be highly visible and explaining it to people who might ask will be much easier if the presentation is....well, presentable. 

But i think i will re-peg all corners and tie nylon string to them,  and use the big 100' tape reel to measure and mark 1' increments with a sharpie. I can use pieces of flagging tape to make the marks visible from the opposite end of the garden. The permanent marks will help in case the tape pieces slide.  Then i can pound in sticks and string a line for each bed across the garden.  I  can use the string to guide as i use the shovel  to move the soil from the paths to the raised beds.  They will probably be about 6" higher than the walking paths.  Since i am only doing 2 foot wide, i should be able to manage, its only going to  be 30' at a time.  If i can get the strings done tomorrow and then 2 rows a day, it would only take 2 days. Then i could get the hoops set up on Thursday and then get some of the hardy seedlings planted out and some of the cool crop seeds sown, put the row covers on by Friday.

I think it is interesting that the Grow Veg program says our last frost date up here is May 1.  Traditionally, we don't plant here until the last full moon in May...  Maybe that is playing it too safe?
I think i need to re-read some things...!  If i don't have to wait almost a whole 'nother month to plant things, i won't!

And i'm really trying to remember how often we got frosts after May 1st It is not proving to be easy. I remember many warm nights (though not as warm as last night). It might be that it referrs to tenders, but we always just did it all at once anyway. Maybe an online weather site has some sort of Almanac that took note of frosts and daily conditions.  maybe i will have to commit more to this Blog and take note of daily highs, lows and presence of frost.  I should get a soil thermometer too, that would be a useful piece of information as well. I despise having such a horrible memory!
But that is what this blog is supposed to help with.


The concept of multiple plantings is sort of new to me, i know it can be done and i think i remember my grandfather doing it when i was little, but it isn't something my parents took the time to do. So i have had to learn to expect to plant more than one thing in one spot in the garden.  But working more than full time since before i got a house, i never had the time to think about it as much as i would have liked to, gardening has only been a weekend dream until now. So this i guess, is the year to unlearn some things now that my garden should be big enough to be a working garden and not just a  hold out for 'someday' ... that day has finally arrived.  The GrowVeg program has a custom guide that shows  when to plant successive crops- if applicable. Its neat how it makes a chart  of all the things placed in the garden plan. It also sends email reminders for planting times,  and i think it  also lets you plan the garden monthly as well as having a crop rotation guide.

My main  issue with crop placement has been to make sure the tall stuff goes to the north side.  When we planted the Jerusalem Artichokes, we were in a hurry, didn't have much time to plan and they had to be out of the way.  The North side of the garden is closest to the house and if it was the only thing there, they would have gotten trampled.
Now as it is, i am going to have a shady spot next to them on the far side.  I know the 3 Sisters style of planting...  i have never tried it since my corn likes to fall over because of the wind alone. I can't imagine what squash vines would do to them... like watching the slow-motion vegetative version of a pack of wolves dragging down a megaloceros .  So...  maybe the JA's could handle the squashes?  I have read about people saving the JA stems to use as stakes for next year's crop propping. Not as strong as bamboo stakes, but good enough to be useful. Maybe sturdy enough during growth to become supports?
So i put the vining things over there to try it out
The  tomatoes and corn are going to be all the way to the Northern side, i am going to put the tomatoes at the front of that row and have the corn to the back i think...  the shed can perhaps shield the corn from the wind and hopefully the fence will add some more protection.

Ok, off to check the preceding years' weather...