Startup 2012

I love having all of my garden stuff over here at a separate blog. Classify stuff? Yes, that's me.

Anyway, we got a little later start on the garden than last year, and after seeing the late frosts that we've gotten, I'd say it's a good thing. We thought we had lost some tomatoes and eggplants to a frost a couple of weeks ago. But when we went to plant more tomatoes yesterday, we discovered that though the plants had lost a few leaves, apparently the roots were okay, because they were putting out new growth. We only lost one plant, so New Daddy went back to Home Depot to return four tomato plants.

Here are the current totals in the garden:
Tomatoes
4 Better Boy
4 Mountain Pride
2 Roma
2 Cherokee Purple (heirloom)
1 Mortgage Lifter (heirloom)
1 yellow cherry

Peppers
2 yellow
2 red

Eggplant
2 Ichiban- thin, Asian variety


Because we have chickens and a dog who like to get into things, we have fenced the whole garden off with wire fencing and chicken wire. And it's the perfect structure for our Rattlesnake beans and pickling cucumbers to grow on. So those will be all around the edge of the garden- and hopefully very accessible. We'll be planting those seeds on Thursday and Friday, the next two good planting days this week.

Before we put down cardboard and straw for the same weed/moisture control as last year, New Daddy made a trip to Back to the Garden to buy beautiful, black, organic compost. The trailer-load cost $100, which, given the quality of the compost, was a good price. In March, I heard a talk on composting and learned that the reason our eggshells and plant matter weren't compost was because our tumbler didn't have enough water in it. I've started adding more water, so maybe we'll have better success. There have been lots more flies in the compost lately, so that should start some good worm-action. This year, our composter did not provide enough compost to sufficiently amend our 18 x 40-foot plot of mostly red clay. Maybe I can get things more active this year, and we'll have several usable batches by next year. For this year, Back to the Garden was a huge help.

Before another tilling, we also added lime to the soil where the tomatoes were going to be planted. I think New Daddy tilled the garden a total of three times this year! Good thing he got a self-propelled tiller a couple of years ago. It went pretty quickly.

I'll try to get a camera outside and edit this post with a picture. I really like how the fencing and straw make the garden look neat. We can actually mow around it and keep the edges confined this year!

To-plant list for Thursday and Friday:
rattlesnake pole beans
okra
squashes- with diatomaceous earth in the planting hole to prevent boring worms?

A little finality

We've been having some frosty nights from the storm system that dumped an October snow on the Northeast. Before the frosts came, we picked half a bushel of tomatoes. At least, I know that it filled our half-bushel peach basket. The tomatoes ripened quickly in the warm kitchen, and tonight, I made a huge batch of marinara sauce in the 8-quart stockpot. Delicious- even better than home-canned marinara, is the fresh sauce made from freshly-ripe tomatoes.

Looking back at the varieties of tomatoes that we planted, I have to say that I would love to see more heirloom "Mountain Pride" in our garden next year. We got beautiful fruit from that vine, when most of the "Better Boys" gave us split skins and rotten spots. Granted, we should have supplemented the soil with more lime, but the "Mountain Pride" didn't seem to mind the deficiency at all. This discovery alone justifies this blog- to look back on what we did, to figure out what works for next time!

We realized that all of the cherry tomato plants were "too much of a good thing." We were overrun with them all summer. Even after our fall gathering-spree, the vines are still full of fruit. Two vines, maximum, will provide all of the fruit this family can reasonably consume.

I'm still pondering the squash borer conundrum. We lost our squash and zucchini plants early in the season, which left a hole between our tomato rows. This gave Rosie ample opportunity to do what Great Pyrenees do well: dig holes. Since then, the chickens have spent a good bit of time in the garden, scratching up cardboard and eating pests. Did they get the borers? At least we know better than to plant the squash in that spot next year.

And watermelons. We won't be wasting our time on those for the third year in a row. We are not watermelon-growing people. Watermelon-eating, yes. But not -growing. End of that discussion.

Garden + puppy

We had some significant rain last night, and the morning has been drizzly and cool. I took the gorgeous weather as a sign that I should pick beans that were desperately needing harvesting.


The thing that made this all so fun, though, besides the mystic cloudiness, was that I had our new pup bounding along with me, chewing on cardboard, pepper stems (she even picked a bell pepper for me!), and the discarded beans that I should have picked weeks ago. Having my canine companion along made this morning's garden work that much more enjoyable.

And I came in with a very full, 2-gallon bowl of beans.

Pictures of the garden on my Picasa

The 100-Tomato Kitchen

The countertop is telling me that it's time to make marinara sauce... not to mention the windowsill...

Bringing it in

After last night's much-needed rains, my lazy-gardener self finally went out and picked kale. And while I was out there, I found our first zucchini! The tomatoes have tons of whiteflies, and I'm putting out a trap soon. I hope it works.

Another recent garden event is that New Daddy has installed drip-irrigation on a timer for the hanging strawberries, herbs, and elderberry bushes. All of these plants are much happier, now! We put the spinach container under the strawberries, since the strawberries tend to drip a good bit when they get watered. There... no waste!

A sink-full, plus!

The lone zucchini. There will be more!

We bought all of our plants last weekend. Thankfully, we didn't have enough time to put them in the ground just before a huge storm and a frost warning. Instead, they spent the night snuggled up against our house, away from the hail and the frost. Today, we're going to get them in the ground. Here's what's going in today.

2 elderberry bushes
8 Better Boy tomatoes
2 heirloom tomatoes ("Mountain Pride" and "Yellow Pear")
3 cherry tomatoes
4 bell peppers
spinach
leeks
rattlesnake pole beans: three 18-foot rows. (we like green beans)
kale
straight neck squash
spaghetti squash
French breakfast radishes
watermelon "Congo"
cucumber
beets "bull's blood"
okra- not Clemson Spineless. Instead, a lighter-colored variety that doesn't get tough as it gets larger. I have no idea what the name is.
burgundy okra, because it makes pink water when you pickle it!
herbs- cilantro, rosemary, basil, borage

New Daddy also wanted to grow strawberries in a topsy-turvy container, so one of those is hanging from the kids swing set. Berries are already coming out on it!

Time to rev 'er up

Can you believe that I still have one tomato from our garden still ripening on my kitchen counter? We had a bumper crop of green tomatoes before our late freeze last year, and I'm just now finishing them up. We still have a decent supply of okra and kale in the chest freezer, and I still have two jars of homemade marinara sauce in the pantry.

There's nothing more wonderful than an early Spring in the South. Two weeks ago, New Daddy tilled our 18' x 40' plot. The following week, we started implementing our new weed control plan, based on Debi Pearl's garden instructions in this video. We made two trips to Walmart to get cardboard boxes and another trip to the feed store for hay to hold the boxes down. We had a pretty wild thunderstorm this week, and the boxes stayed put. Yessss!

I think this year's weed control system will be far more effective than the nasty weed "fabric" that we laid down in gapped rows last year. The weeds took over the gaps, and I lost the battle.

In other news, Precious has asked for her own garden plot. Also, I'm looking forward to growing an heirloom variety of okra that doesn't toughen as it grows. Not Clemson spineless, I tell you!

Thus the cycle restarts...

Look what we're bringing in!

We got home from vacation last week. Yesterday, Precious and I picked twenty ripe tomatoes, that didn't include the ten green ones that I had bagged with apples to ripen before we left. And that's not to mention all of the yellow squash, spaghetti squash, acorn squash and green beans we've been getting. My CSA is my garden this year, and it's wonderful.

Time to can some spaghetti sauce!

The mystery squash demystified

I mentioned a huge, volunteer squash right in the middle of the garden. I went to check on it and noticed a 10-inch long squash growing on the ground. Thinking it was already too large to enjoy, I picked it.

I took it inside and sliced it open. It looked a little like it had long strands, but I wasn't sure. I baked it for an hour. After an hour, it wasn't quite tender, so I put it in for another thirty minutes. Finally, we were able to eat it. As I scooped the flesh out, I realized that my suspicion was correct. We have a volunteer spaghetti squash! And even though it was a little immature, it was still delicious tossed with butter, salt and pepper.

I'll let the other one that's started on the plant fully mature before we pick it. We absolutely love to make spaghetti with spaghetti squash, so this discovery is pretty exciting!

Harvesting already!

I am so pleased with our garden this year! I just harvested our second "mess" of radishes. Now I know why we planted so much; we love them! I braise them in butter, using Mark Bittman's recipe on p. 601 of HTCE.

The corn isn't coming up as vigorously as I'm used to. I think I should have planted the seeds deeper. Squashes are thriving. I'm cutting kale tomorrow. I had to check my blog's planting list to make sure that actually was what we'd planted in that spot that was doing so well.

The main thing that I need to do is to hoe weeds and cover the rest of the soil with weed fabric. I also need to get supports around the tomatoes very soon.

Get "er" done planting

Well, after last night's planting, we were "invigorated." After tonight's planting, which mostly took place in the dark, I was "pooped." I lay on the couch for about twenty minutes, maybe dozed, while New Daddy read to the kids and got them to bed. Finally, I got some water. Then, I slowly stood up. And then, I was able to finish my kitchen work. And now, I am able to blog, heheh.

Since it was dark, we used clip-on LEDs attached to our baseball caps. And, by the light of those, we planted-- scratch head... okay, here it is:

9 Marglobe tomato plants (heirloom)

8 Better Boy tomatoes (hybrid, of course)

2 cherry tomato plants (hybrid)

9 watermelon plants

And that was it! It only took about thirty minutes, but most of my time was spent with the trowel in my poorly-exercised right hand. And some of tonight's dirt wasn't nearly as well-tilled as last night's dirt. New Daddy wanted to wait until tomorrow, but I knew if we let the flats sit, the likelihood of the plants never getting planted was pretty large. Plus that, tomorrow is not a good planting day, according to the moon. So, we pressed through and got it done.

I also meant to mention that we have a few compost-volunteers that look like winter squash of some sort. They popped up at the back of the garden, in between the sweet potatoes and the newly-planted watermelons. It will be fun to see what those turn into!

Since Precious and Bubby were outside with us, they got to put a few watermelon plants into the ground. Precious also helped out with her flashlight. They really enjoyed having a part in the planting.

And this not-so-garden-ish gal is off to bed.

Planting II

I was out of squash seeds when we last planted, so we couldn't completely carry out the "three sisters" method of corn-beans-squash. But, New Daddy went out and bought two containers of straight-necked squash, and tonight, we put them in between the rows of corn. I'm finding a lot of rotten corn kernels, and I'm wondering if we didn't plant them deeply enough.

New Daddy also bought a container of sweet potatoes and a couple of grape plants. We put in the sweet potatoes at the back of the garden, near the tomato plants that New Daddy is going to buy tomorrow. It will be the last good planting day for a while, and we're going to use it. New Daddy will till later for the grapes. We're going to put them in between the blueberry bushes at the back of our property and the garden plot, which is pretty close to the back.

It was amazing, yet again, at how much more quickly the planting went with me digging holes in a well-tilled garden, and with New Daddy putting the plants in behind me. I really, really enjoy working in the garden with him. We both came in feeling invigorated by the cool air, passing storms, and the beautiful sunset. Yay for yardwork! I think I can do this, as long as I can work alongside New Daddy.

Oh, wow

One night this week, our next door neighbor, a Great Procurer and Disperser of goods, loaned New Daddy an older model Ford tractor that someone loaned him. New Daddy used this tractor to furrow our planting area. Thus, our planting area is twice-- well, almost three times as big as last year's.

Then, this morning he bought a used tiller that he found on Craigslist. A self-propelled, rear-tine tiller that doesn't realign his back. After a visit with family, he then came home and proceeded to till the area. Just as the sun was starting to dip below the trees, I ordered pizza to be delivered, and we started planting.

We finished four hours later, with the help of our halogen work lamp and the ladder that held it. (That would have been 11:15 PM.)

New Daddy now has a much greater appreciation for the meager gardens that I have attempted in previous years. Plus that, we enjoyed doing something together outside. It was almost like a date, a garden date. There, doesn't that sound nice?

Here's what we stuck in the ground. After looking at the kale and carrot seeds, miniscule thingies that they are, I don't see how an aetheist could stand a chance. Only the Almighty God could make those dots grow into food-giving plants.

Corn- 4 looooong rows Howling Mob and Country Gentleman
Beans- rattlesnake pole beans, sewn in the corn so that it can climb the stalks
(We were going to try the "Three Sisters" method of corn + beans + squash, but my squash seeds disappeared before we started planting. I finally found them when I came inside for the evening, and I'll start them when I put my tomato plants in, in about two more weeks.)
Borage- interspersed between rows
Radishes- not sure what we were thinking when we planted 2 loooooong rows of this.
Carrots- 126 Danvers (variety, not number of plants)
Kale- 2 rows Siberian
Spinach- Tyee

If some of these varieties look familiar, as in, what I planted last year, that would be correct. I had so many seeds in the freezer, I just opened the door and planted what I had. I did throw away two empty seed envelopes when we were finished.

And... for Easter, I'll be sporting my "dirt" manicure. An earthy look, yes?

The End

Well, let's see, compared to other years' gardens, this one was quite a success. The rains came, so the plot wasn't dependent on my random watering patterns. And we got some very nice tomatoes. Our [unfortunately] hybrid cherry tomato plant was especially a favorite with Precious and Bubby. But, for a couple of weeks there, we were pulling in enough tomatoes to have a nice batch of homemade spaghetti sauce each week.

The corn got tall, and we saw the starts of some ears. But, then, it got brown. This happened at a point that most of the farmers market corn had already passed. I'm thinking I got the seed in the ground too late. Any other thoughts? Um, maybe I should have weeded the bed? I'm sure the corn wasn't too happy about having to compete with 3-foot-tall centipede grass.

The four okra plants that survived went on to produce very woody okra. Truthfully, I had no idea they were even producing, until I spotted a huge pod coming out of the stalk. By that time, they were just a little too fibrous for teeth. So, I bought two huge batches of okra from the local farmers market, chopped it, and froze it. Checkmark for okra.

My herbs started out well enough. That was, until my lavender was mistaken for a weed and eaten by a weedeater. And the local rabbits devoured my mint, and then was eaten by the weedeater. It's actually coming back! Then, my basil was sacrificed for pesto, and never revived. So, I went out and bought some rosemary and more basil. They are now sitting happily on my deck, soaking in the fall rains. Precious loves to chew on fresh rosemary, and we love it on baked salmon. I'm still thinking of a nice, rocky spot for a hardy perennial.

And that was the summer garden for this year. I'm still contemplating kale for the winter... or not. We'll see.

Tassels!

Well, I've been eyeing everybody else's gardens as I drive around, and it looks like we might not be the last ones to start getting tassels on our corn, but we're definitely not the first. When I came back from our various vacations, though, I was pleased to see them!

Our little plot never was entirely weed-free, and I tried cardboard boxes for a while. Well, they have failed miserably, and a squash plant was the first victim. It did give us two nice squashes before it withered.

The other problem I've been coming across is the thicket that we didn't get to burn before the burn restriction started. It houses a family of rabbits. Rabbits like chives, basil, and mint. My chives died, and my mint has no leaves at all. The only solution to the rabbits so far is to shoot at them with a kids' bb gun whenever we see them. It scares them, but that's about it. I am starting to sympathize with Mr. McGregor a little...

Tomatoes

Man! Where have I been for almost the last month? Hmmm... not really in my garden. My small tomato plants had scarcely survived The Turnover Move from Bubby, and then the lack of rain and sudden heat over the weekend took care of most of the rest of them. I was playing violin for a wedding, and I didn't even think about those poor plants! I know, I'm a bad mommy.

Aunt Mo alerted me to the fact that the end of this week is good for planting. So, I ran to Lowe's yesterday and bought more tomato plants. Got them in the ground this morning-- and afternoon. In the beautiful, drizzly rain. I used to think my mother was a caricature of the crazy gardener who had to get those plants in the ground, in the rain, of all things! But now, I've realized that gardening is actually a lot more pleasant in the rain.

At 1:00, we came in hungry, tired, and well-exercised. The kids took it upon themselves to start a bath. After I got Bubby's shirt unbuttoned, things went a little more smoothly (haha!). My babies really are growing up. I prepared lunch while they splashed around. After I dried them off, they found their own clothes and got dressed by themselves. They're all taking sweet naps right now; I think the gardening and rain wore them out, too.

The count:
2 German Queen (heirloom)
6 Better Boy (hybrid, I know, but all the old-timers love this variety)
1 cherry tomato (100-something variety?)

Now, here's the rub. I planted these babies right in the middle of a fire ant bed. Amdro, methinks? Or will the ants figure it out? Ug.

(ideas, anyone?)

Watering from the faucet

When I went out to water this morning, I was pleasantly surprised to find that all of the plants that I had transplanted last week are still living, except for an okra that became detached from its roots when I planted it.  I had quickly covered it with dirt and hoped for the best.  Really, for someone who didn't grow up gardening, and who claims to have a black thumb, one casualty is an accomplishment.

But, the most exciting thing happening in the garden this morning is that I have corn sprouts!  I was so excited to discover nine howling mob shoots so far.  Woo hoo!  Does country gentleman take longer to sprout?

I transplanted the cabbage seedlings to a larger container, and added one marigold seedling to the container that the cabbages didn't quite fill out.  For good measure, yes?

Water from the sky

I was going to have to get up early this morning to water plants, but we had a brief shower around 5:30 this morning.  We're on a limited watering schedule: for thirty minutes from midnight until 10:00 AM on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday for odd-numbered homes, and on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday for even-numbered homes.  Maybe we'll keep on getting steady rains, so I don't have to refer back to this too often.

New Daddy tilled up my front plot again on Saturday, plus most of the strip of grass that was in between the two plots.  So, that means that I've got something to do on the next good planting day... which would be... (opens a new tab to look at "best days" for planting) the 14th for my beets and radishes.  And then the 24th for everything else.  Hmmm.  Looks like I'm going to need to transfer my rattlesnake beans into something.  They have overtaken their peat pellets and will probably die if I don't do something with them.  But, they are a vine crop, so I can plant them on the 19th, a little earlier than other things.

Are tomatoes a vine crop, too?  That means they can go in on the 19th.  I picked up my tomato supports from the old house today, so I'm ready when they are.

More stuff in the ground

You can check the farmer's almanac "Gardening by the Moon" for good planting days through the rss feed on the right side of the blog.

Today was another good planting day for above ground crops, so this morning I put in the Great Northern beans and the okra.  I sowed one row of beans next to the howling mob corn, and then two rows of okra next to the beans.  The Great Northern bush beans like a little shade, so hopefully, putting them between corn and okra will give them just that.

It was a gorgeous, gray day, perfect for working outside.  Maybe the gray will promise some rain to water in what I've planted so far.

My rattlesnake beans are more than ready to get in the ground, but I'm waiting on New Daddy to get some stakes and help me string up a trellis for them.  The trellis I bought is huge (5 foot by 30 foot netting), so we'll have to cut it down some.  Tomorrow is a good day for root crops, but my beets aren't ready to be transplanted yet.  Maybe I'll try the radishes?  New Daddy is also going to till my front plot for me, even though it's not exactly a barren day.

I'm realizing that I should have started my Marigold earlier, so I'd have plants to intersperse around the garden as I plant other crops.  Right now, my little seedlings are nowhere near being ready!  Maybe I'll read this next year and give them an earlier start.  Really, I should give everything an earlier start, but I'm always scared of a late frost.  I don't want to invest effort into something, and then have it fail.  So, I wait until it's almost too late, and risk not having anything mature at all.  Hmmm... doesn't make much sense, does it?

In the beginning

You know if I'm going to do something, I must fully enjoy it by writing about it.  Here goes...

New Daddy tilled up a couple of plots for me two weeks ago.  I went to put corn in today, and discovered that grass has already taken over some of the area.  He said he didn't mind retilling, and Uncle B can live without his tiller for another week or so.

Today, I planted four rows of Howling Mob sweet white corn, only three rows of Country Gentleman sweet white corn, thanks to the grass.  I gave up on extracting grass mounds out of the garden with a trowel after the first 10 or so.  The last row of Country Gentleman can wait until New Daddy has tilled a little more.

Currently, I have seedlings/small plants planted for the following:

• beets- bull's blood
• cabbage- late flat dutch
• eggplant
• okra- clemson spineless
• radishes
  
• squash- summer crookneck
• tomatoes- brandywine and better boy
• marigold- harlequin (for pest control- bugs think they stink)
• beans- rattlesnake pole, black eyed peas sprouted from organic ones at the store, great northern
• herbs: borage, chives, going to buy a few from the garden store
• and this shot in the dark: I planted three Pink Lady apple seeds that were already sprouting inside the fruit.  Will I get apples in several years?

The kids played outside while I worked, and Cutie fell asleep in her carrier, in the shade.