Best and Worst of 2009 Gardening

Once again I have neglected my blog. Sweetie and I make natural soap (think I mentioned this once before), and we got a spot at a local farm market. Between making soap, selling soap, and working our regular day jobs, the gardens (and my blog) didn't get as much attention as they should have. At this time of year, when the deep freeze really has descended for the duration of winter, I think of two things: good things to eat, and fun things to grow. I have begun a 1400 calorie diet, because my BFF and I have agreed: we want to look hot, like when we were younger. So this year, when my thoughts turn to food, I will be looking not only at good to eat, but more notably good for my body and peace of mind.

The topic of my come-back blog (lol) revolves around what went well, what didn't, and what's worth doing again. We'll start with the bad news first...

Things that flopped

1. Timing, as in, my timing. I got my plants started on time this year indoors. But I didn't get the garden bed ready in time. My next door neighbor said he would till for me, then we noticed just how badly the back side of the garage was really peeling. So, we power-washed and painted it. By the time that was done and my neighbor had tilled other gardens, a part on his tractor broke and he was waiting quite a while for it to come in. But we finally got it done, and by that time my plants had been hardened off on the front porch, but I lost most of them when I forgot to water.

2. I had never experienced an episode of tomato late blight before. Because I didn't pay attention to my own plants and keep them watered, and because I wasn't ready to plant until the first week of July, I felt I should get larger, hardier plants from the store. Between peppers and tomatoes, I spent about $75 on big, robust-looking plants from Lowe's home improvement store, who got their plants from Bonnie Nursery. I read something about the late blight and Bonnie Nursery, but they had assurances that the plants in the stores by the time I purchased were free of disease. And besides, mine looked great! And they got even bigger! I planted some of my own seedlings when I transplanted the Bonny plants and mine really looked puny. A month later, I couldn't tell which I had bought and which I had grown. But all of the plants were then showing signs of of some sort of leaf spotting disease, not really that noticeable (this is in hindsight). It wasn't until they started to set fruit, which took forever in the cool weather we were having, and the fruit rotted before it ripened. All of it. And I pulled all of the plants and took them to the burn pile. No other way to state it: That sucked. I don't believe I will plant tomatoes next year at all, since the blight can live on in the soil.

3. The boring yellow tomatoes that came up as volunteers in the bed where I planted cilantro really pissed me off. Their texture is watery, their flavor is flat, and they don't get much bigger than a golf ball. But not even the blight could kill them or even slow them down. Nobody likes them, so I couldn't get rid of them, and they were hard to pull out once they got more than a few inches tall. I was especially careful when I cleaned that bed out this year, which is separate and isolated from my other tomato bed.

4. I mulched the squash heavily with old hay, and it was puny. I got two patty pan squash out of the garden.

5. Not enough time and not enough mulch to make up for it. Mulching cuts down on weeds and watering, and therefore on work and time spent.

The things that were successful

1. Asparagus. I'm very happy with the investment I made in putting in an asparagus bed. We both like it a lot, and it did quite well this year.

2. Kohlrabi grew very nicely even in it's crowded bed. We ate some fresh and have cooked itwith boiled dinner and chopped in soup. But it's not as spectacular as I thought it would be to eat, so I don't know if I will do much with it again.

3. Spinach was delicious, but short-lived.

4. Peppers were also good, but I think they needed more mulch, more water, and more nutrients to really thrive and produce. We had a miserably cool summer this year, and that may have had a lot to do with their late production. I will grow giant Marconi and Fajita Bell peppers again, they have great flavor! I may put all peppers in where I had tomatoes last year, but I need to read about this first.

5. I tried something new this year. I ordered and planted garlic sets, and having eaten some locally grown garlic from one of the other vendors at the farm market, I'm really looking forward to ours.

For Spring, how am I going to do things differently?

1. I'm going to use only my own plants this year, and start them around the beginning of April.

2. I'm going to get the garden in by the end of May. I mulched the beds heavily with leaves and grass and hedge clippings, so they should be easy to plant in.

3. Some of the beds are getting peat moss, manure, and perhaps some sand mixed in. Our soil is kind of sticky here.

4. Some sort of herbiverous animal poop never hurt a garden, and mine could certainly benefit.

For now, there's about 97 days left until the vernal equinox, so I have time to plan and plot...

If you live in the upper half of the United States, try to stay warm. See you again soon.

Free plants, the best kind!

Occassionally, a wild hare goes hopping through the garden of my mind, and I just have to chase it. It's days like those that I go shopping on Craigslist.org while drinking my first cup of coffee, before my brain is fully engaged or I have figured out my hafta-do's for the day. I usually look at the free stuff first and of course the farm and garden stuff, in particular the free garden stuff, like mulch hay and free plants. If it's something within reasonable driving distance, I'll drop an email or call if there's a number. I also read the daily freecycle digest, to which I also contribute when we have something to move along down the line.
I have been slowly building my flower beds since I moved in with Sweetie. My clump of irises came from my old house, as did my three clumps of golden raspberries, which have now filled their space to overflowing and need to be moved to a larger area. Since then we've added two more iris circles (pink and sort of black, with coordinating flamingo yard ornaments 8-D ). Two years ago I purchased 200 daffodil bulbs and made a swath of daffodils in the corner of the yard. Then I found someone thinning their daffodil beds on freecycle last year and added more to the swath.
Last weekend, I found free purple irises on Craigslist not far from the house, as many as I wanted. I didnt' want to be greedy, as other people were also answering the ad, so I only took what I could carry in one trip with my recycle bin, which was all that was going to fit in my Geo anyway. It was also all that I could think of a place to put for the moment anyway. Some were budded and ready to bloom, but the clump was so tightly tangled that all the plants picked up as one without falling apart. I had my work cut out for me here, but what a great find! So nice of people to share rather than chuck them in the trash.

I put the plants in the shade with a little water poured over the roots to moisten the dirt ball clinging to them until I could get to them. Finally, I had time tonight and had figured out how I wanted to lay out the bed around the daffodil swath. I pictured a narrow bed that curved around the daffs, kind of ending in a point, with a space for a mulched walkway in between so I could take care of both beds. Mama dog supervised while I dug the sod up and moved it to a more useful spot in the yard. The dirt underneath was very nice and crumbly and dark. That was the easy part.
Getting all those plants separated into individual rhizomes and fans took about 2 and a half hours of teasing and wiggling and dusting the dirt away from the roots. The one large clump and one smaller clump disassembled into enough individual fans to neatly fill the curved bed I made, all of the fans facing the same way. There's room for them to multiply as irises do, but I don't think I'll have to thin the bed for a few years. It's supposed to rain for the next few days, which will work out just right for getting the plants started off well.
I have some tiger lillies all along the back of the garage, and while they look nice there, they don't really get seen much, and I'd love to move some of them to the other side of the daffodils. If the village doesn't do something with the drainage ditch they stripped the sod off of and recontoured, some tiger lilies just might start growing in it...they don't call them ditch lilies for nothing. Something has to keep the dirt from washing into the new storm sewer system and clogging it all up...

Gardening in the Dark

Oy.
I haven't been here in forever. I have no really good excuse, but I will tell you what I have been doing.
I've been making soap, working late (yay, working, money is good!), spending time with friends, labeling soap, trying to design a banner for my soap booth for farm market and making slow progress (wanting to spend only a little money here) and of course riding my motorcycle. Like I said, I have no good excuse for not writing. Mea culpa.
We have eaten asparagus twice now from our little patch and it was exquisite, so tender and fresh tasting. We only get just a little at a time, but it's worth waiting for. The purple seems to be the fastest growing, and is very sweet.
I have planted a tiny spinach patch and a tinier kohlrabi patch in the spot next to the house. We decided to also till a long patch behind the end of the garage for tomatoes, peppers, beans and spinach. The squash, melons, and pumpkins will go behind the long side of the garage, which won't get tilled, but is now mulched heavily.
Speaking of mulch, have you ever heard of freecycle? It's a yahoo group that is local to your county if there is a willing moderator in your area. People offer things they have that they can't use to keep them out of the landfill, and other people take them off their hands. No money changes hands, courtesy and respect are the rules, and everybody wins.
I mention freecycle because I landed a great pile of haybales perfect for mulching the longside garage garden. They were wet and heavy, and had previously been the winter home of an unspecified domesticated animal. They are now laid out section by section in a carpet over the sprouted weeds where soon the pumpkins and squash will be. I've done this before, and it works wonderfully, but usually I've had to pay for the hay or straw, even moldy stuff set aside as useless by the stable. Free is good. I get my freecycle listing every morning, and like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're going to find in there. Last week I gave away a bunch of fishing rods that I've stored since the ex-boyfriend moved out that he left behind. They were still useful, needed cleaning and reel grease, and the gentleman that took them was going to teach a friend to fish.
Anyhoo, we decided to till a larger patch in a prime sunny area for tomatoes and peppers mainly. We asked the next door neighbor and they said they would be happy to till for us, since they have a tractor. They are waiting on a part for it. I have three maple saplings that have decided to grow there and are about 8 feet tall, just sticks mind you, but tall sticks. If I don't move them now, they will be a problem for the foundation of the garage. One is a bronze maple, and would cost easily $50 if we wanted to purchase it at a nursery, but I have nowhere else to put it. I will have to ask around or offer it on freecycle.
We purchased wire tomato cages in preparation for planting the tomatoes. I like to stick the cages on the plants right away, so that I can guide the plants right up through the cone of wire. It never fails if I wait to put the cages on, the plants have a growth spurt and then I can't get the cages on at all. They used to have the small end of the cone at the bottom, with the wires to stick in the ground at the small end, but these have the wires to stick in the ground at the large end. I think that would be more stable as the plant gets heavy with fruit anyway.
My seedlings have behaved beautifully, no legginess yet. I will probably start taking them outside on the front porch during the day to come in at night for a week here, then leave them outside under a window pane at night for another week before transplanting. I might make cone covers for the new style of tomato cages as well. I have heavy clear vinyl that will work really well for that. The target date for transplanting is May 24th or 30th, depending on the weather. Things have been warming up nicely here in Zone 5. I would have planted the squash and melons tonight, but it was getting too dark to see what I was doing, so I just spread the soggy hay out and turned the compost pile. It's supposed to rain on and off all week, so maybe I'll get some time Sunday after the farm market. We're supposed to have nice weather Sunday.

Fluffing and buffing the garden...

I finally got out to the garden today to rake back the mulch and see how things were underneath. I found happy earthworms, and soft, workable soil. We're still get temps down in the 30's at night here, so I'm not planting much yet, but I did get the spinach seeds stuck in the ground. The patch of dead leaves there between the rock and the house is where I planted the spinach, in about a 3' x 4' plot. I'll put wax bush beans in the long skinny part next to the side walk, and kohlrabi in front of the rock. The pile of leaves will get tucked back over seeds once I plant. I'm hoping the spinach will have a chance to get established before squirrels or bunnies find it. 

That same small area supported three tomato plants that got pr

etty big last year, and a bunch of melon plants that stretched over the sidewalk. This walk isn't used much, but I had to keep pulling them back so the nice man who mows our lawn wouldn't have to fuss with them. We got six delicious melons, and enough tomatoes to make a large pot of sauce, plus the ones we ate. 

This is the asparagus bed I put in last year. We let it get established, didn't pick any of course, and mulched with kitchen waste and leaves. I fluffed the mulch today, an

d peeked to see if any asparagi (if asparagus means the whole lot of them, then

 asparagi would be individuals, right?) were

 poking up through the dirt.

 I did the happy dance when I found two little white nubs about an inch up! Now I'll have to watch them, so we don't miss out on the short crop this year. Next year we can pick the full 6 weeks... sorry the photo was a little out of focus. I was shooting on telephoto setting, the wind was picking up and I was trying to balance while squatting next to the bed. Not the prime conditions for close up photos...

Incidentally, I know it's asparagus season, because it was on sale at the store, so I got some. The bottoms were a bit woody, but I steamed it upright with a foil tent around it till jus the tips were tender. I melted butter on the serving plate, gently rolled the spears over in it to coat, then squeezed a little key lime juice over it. The lime juice gave it a sweet tart flavor and a beautiful top note in the first taste of it in my mouth. Loved it! Now I'm really impatient for our own...

I'm really going to have get Sweetie to help me measure the other spot for the "End Garden" meaning the one at the end of the garage, just past the asparagus bed.  We have the property stake to go by,  and I don't think the next door neighbor will fuss if I'm over just a bit, but I was brought up to respect property lines and not intrude, even if its only a foot of lawn space. We'll be talking to him before we break ground anyway. I'm concerned more about how much space I'll actually have so that I don't try to plan too many plants into it. 

We have a large space of lawn on the other side of the house, but it's shaded by two 60 foot maple trees. Eventually they will come down because they are beginning to deteriorate and their trunks don't appear to be very healthy anymore. We've had to take another one down already, and found it hollowed out by ants, which we weren't thrilled about. This side of the house where I'm planting gets sun most of the day with no shade, so I have to make the best use of what I have. I've thought about putting containers all down the drive way, because the garage has it's own drive way and we don't have to use this one. Sweetie began to object when I suggested this, siting water consumption, outward appearance, etc. I decided not to push it...

Tomato and Pepper seedlings

I've got the peppers and tomatos started reasonably well, but they are sitting near the end of the grow lights, and the plants are reaching for the light. I'm thinking about putting both light fixtures up on this shelf, or trying them on the lower shelf. They are right on schedule though, about a week and half since planting.

I've got one mixed packet of sweet bell peppers, one packet of sweet banana peppers, and one packet of Biker Billy Hybrid hot peppers. For tomatos I went with Sweet Millions and Roma, both of which I have had great luck with in the past.

I'm not expecting to transplant anything until close to Memorial Day weekend. Sweetie (that's the guy partner) and I discussed the options of removing sod and using it other places in the yard or just getting a serious tiller to bust the sod on the new plot for us. We're all about gardening with less physical labor, since he works a very physically demanding job all week and I have knee problems that get aggravated when I try to dig "just one more shovel" too much. I have done a good amount of double-digging, and I don't find it exhilarating. Anyhoo, the verdict is still out on the sod.

I'll be contacting some listers on craigslist for tilling services one way or the other. I would have preferred to have done all of this last fall, and tilled in some manure to rot, but time and money didn't work out that way.

I have a garden along side my house that produced a few cantaloupes and some tomatoes for us last year. That one was a whim, just poking a few seeds in for the melons, at first. Then my tomato plants that I planted in January when I was pining for spring and warm weather got stuck in the dirt too, and they made 'maters. I put our kitchen vegetable waste on the little plot, coffee grounds, egg shells, peelings, etc. I also watered with epsom salt solutions occasionally. I'll use this plot again, but I'll be planting things from different plant families there for rotation purposes. The planned layout includes sunflowers against the house, kohlrabi, spinach, some beans, and cilantro.

And now for something completely different!

For those of you just arriving here for the first time (uh, that would be everyone I guess) this blog is an offshoot of my first attempt at writing a blog. I realized I had too many topics going on in one blog, and decided to get more focused. So I made a new blog and will concentrate on gardening here, while my old blog, http://www.mysilverstreak.blogspot.com/ continues with a new storyline on my motorcyling experiences. Thanks for joining me here...

So much dirt, so little time...

I have a real job that would normally be 40 hours a week at this time of year sewing awnings commercially, but work is slow. Last week, I got almost 40, and when I have been laid off for a period of time, I forget some of my time management skills, or maybe just forget to use them. The week flew by, my house looks neglected (translation--wrecked!), and my to-do list is long.

Today, while there is light and wonderful sunshine, I'm going to begin cleaning out beds and laying out the area for the big new one at the end of the garage. There's a wonderful southern exposure all along that side of the house, unshaded.

I'm also going to check the asparagus bed and see what I might need to do to it. It's under a blanket of winter mulch right now. I densely planted asparagus roots last year, and by the end of the season, we had sturdy pencil-thick stems. My plan includes continuous mulching to keep down competing weeds, and blanket composting the bed, about which Ruth Stout has written in depth. I have used this method in the past, and support it wholeheartedly!

I tried the GrowVeg.com free trial to plan my garden spaces, and I love it. It's easy, illustrative, and gave me plant needs, planting dates, spacing distances, and the number of plants I could fit in the space I had in mind. I will be purchasing the subcription, because I can see myself using it to update my plots as I succession plant some things and to refer to next year. This is an awesome tool! It can be used to plan flower gardens too, but I wasn't doing that, so I didn't thoroughly investigate flower information in their data base. (I am not an affiliate of this product or website, and I'm not being paid in any way to say this.--BHD)

Outdoors, my irises and daffodils show serious determination about moving on to spring here in Zone 5. My daffodils took a hit last year as the village constructed new storm drains on our streets (we have a corner lot). A large dead tree bole, about 12 feet tall, left by electric company tree trimmers, had to be removed for the project. The guys running the dozers daily were careful about my daffodil bed after I explained what I was doing with that spot, but the guys doing the tree removal didn't the message. They laid the bole down on the bed, unknowing, since it was fall and the bulbs were dormant and nothing was visible topside. I came home from work and was aghast. I tactfully asked how long the tree bole would be left there, and they said until they were done digging out that section of pipe and could get the other machinery in to move it. They asked why and I told them, and they all looked at each other like their mom was about to tell them to pick a switch and bring it to her. They were very apologetic and most of the guys got very busy doing "stuff" while the foreman told me they would move the tree as soon as possible if I could show him where the flowers were...I was nice and told him not to worry about it, I was just being a mother hen about the daffs, but they were under the tree, but he couldn't have known that anything was planted there. Long story shortened, my daffodils poked their tips up right through the dirt this spring, thicker than last year. The tree bole had to weigh half a ton at least, but they appear to be unharmed.

My irises are indomitable as well. I grow them in several places, and follow usual care procedures, lifting and dividing the roots every two to three years when they get too thick. This is the year for that, once they are done flowering. So I will be expanding those beds too, in June.

Anyway, I'd better get to it, or it won't get done. I need some sunshine!