May 23: Hot then cold temps, but so much growing!!

The past 2 weeks have included a number of 80 or even 90 degree days, but also some really chilly weather, including a low predicted tonight of 40 degrees.  I have all the warm weather plants in, so covered the basil tonight and a few of the tomatoes and peppers.   Here's what the basil looks like tonight, covered with cardboard boxes!

When I worked on the herb garden last week, I found a lot of self-seeded calendula from last fall, and moved them all to one area at the front of the herb garden.  I love these yellow and organge pot marigolds that are supposed to keep bugs from other plants, and also are edible garnishes, but I didn't want them growing in among all the other herbs.:

this is a view of the garden from the northeast, showing how big and beautiful the strawberry plants are---they have lots of flowers, and just this week, I see lots of small green strawberries!   The photo also shows the foot tall garlic and the huge stand of tarragon! 

The three westmost blueberry bushes (that Breda planted)  have lots of flowers--I'm already overdue for removing some of them so that the plant can get better established before bearing so heavily.   The grapes have tiny berry clusters too!  And the apple trees had lots of blossoms, withered now, but too early to tell if we'll have apples.

The herb garden is looking really nice, with a lot of big perennial herbs plus the new ones I just planted, mostly from Ted's greenhouse, some from my own little seed flats in our own greenhouse.

Also got the tomatoes planted this week, and used tomato cages since we can't get any more willow.

Plus planted the pepper seedlings, radish seeds, nasturtium seedlings,one hill of zuchini seeds, and melon seeds (but until they get their second leaves, I can't tell which they are as the cantaloupe and watermelon seeds were the ones that dumped over in the greenhouse!  Also plants pots of mints by the stump.

And finally the slow slow potatoes are coming up.  Each day I count a few more.  I believe now there are 28 potato plants.  The onions look great, as does the lettuce.  Put in more pea seeds as they seemed to have a poor germination rate.  Red beets are up, and swiss chard is looking great.  Raspberry bushes are growing by leaps and bounds...need to be tied up!  The entire garden needs to be labeled.  I have all the neat pottery placques we made, but need to get them strung up and mounted.   And need to get wire and hoses to tie the apple trees to the stakes.  All in all, the garden looks pretty good, except for the 2 top west plots (the weedy old strawberry bed--to become the corn and cucumber bed, and the grassy asparagus plot.

May 10: Everything's growing, grapevines pruned, herbs from Ted's

It's been super hot and super cold in the past 10 days, mostly dry, but a little rain, and pretty breezy.  I've had to water several times to give the new seedlings a chance.   The onions have all sprouted up about 3 inches and are looking great.  They're in the foreground in this photo.  The taller ones in the back are the garlic!

I finally pruned back the grapevines and tied them to the fence.  The leaves are coming out fast this week.





I ordered a nylon trellis from Burpee but will need to spend a little more time with it to get it to look nice and straight on my will stick trellis.  One tragedy of the week is that ComEd sent a tree cutting service which cut down all the willow along the creek under the high lines---now we've lost our source of reindeer legs, marshmallow sticks, and garden teepees.  I suspect it will grow back---maybe 5 years?

Garrett helped me lay down a big sheet of black plastic which I bought.  I'm hoping to get woodchips dumped on it.  Last year, the grass and bindweed (ugh!) grew up through the woodchips which didn't get used right away.  I think the plastic will be good as a base for the chip pile.  Hopefully, Des Athy's Egle Scout project will result in new compost bins along the fence later this year.

Chris Hopkins, Aleida Netzel, and I spent the morning at Ted's greenhouse, picking out tomatoes and herbs for the camp scholarship fund plant sale.   Aleida and I have done this for years and years!  When we got back, it was so cold, so we (Aleida, Carol Alesia, and I)  worked in the dining room to get the plants divided into bags for those who ordered them.  Carol sang to the plants!

Eighty seven degree day April 30, 2013!

Had to water with the hose again today because of the high heat and high winds.  Was afraid my little seedlings would shrivel up!   But while the new little seedlings may be struggling, the perennial crops are loving this opportunity to grow.  The asparagus stalks grew 4-6 inches since yesterday!  Unfortunately so did the weedy grass in the asparagus bed!

Even the the wheat seedlings that were barely visbile yesterday were 2-3 inches tall and thicker today.

 I'm excited about the idea of grinding the wheat into flour to make bread this summer!

And the lettuce I planted last week sprouted---very tiny sprouts, but they're on their way!

Most impressive is the growth in the fruit garden!   This photo shows the strawberries and raspberries:

Even the first little nubbin of growth on the grape vines:

And three of the blueberries are leafing out. 

And the dwarf apple trees have leaves....but i suspect we'll have to wait a least another year for apples.  Actually, they are so little, I can't imagine how their branches could support an apple!

April 29, 2013 Carrots, chard, broccoli, and beets

   A beautiful day to work in the garden. The sorrel, chives, lavender, lovage, and oregano are growing beautifully.  I put in some additional oregano I'd started from seed, and also some young parsley seedlings.  
    Dug bed just south of the herb garden, and dug and spread old manure on it.
    Then planted the baby chard and broccoli seedlings from the greenhouse, plus broccoli seed and beet seeds.

    Daryl and Dan came up and moved the carrot box to it's new location, and also moved the coldframe off the spinach, since 80 degree F temperatures are expected tomorrow.   I didn't want to fry it! 
The carrot box is an old 4 sided wooden box about 4 feet on each side which I found behind the shop a few years ago and it's been a great way to grow carrots in looser ground.  I moved soil into the carrot box, plus a wheelbarrow of sand, and one of manure.  Then planted carrots: 
Heirloom Touchon from Burpee on the north half of the box, Heirloom Danvers Half Long on the south.  I used all the seeds in each package, which was 2000 in each!  Didn't seem like that many.  I think I'll have a lot of thinning to do!   I covered the seed with a sprinkling of compost from my pile at home.   Then I watered well.....hopefully, carrots will have a earlier start this year than I've ever given them before!

    Attached the hoses and watered the whole garden, plus weeded the grapes, blueberry, and apple beds, and took down the big stalks by the south fence, last years Jerusalem artichokes and Sweet Annie.
    When I was done, I picked a little sorrel, spinach, and 2 stalks of asparagus (1 for Kay and 1 for me.)
Added some fern fiddleheads from my yard when I got home and had a lovely salad! 
   The garden is in good shape now.  I don't think I'll get to do much work on it for the next week.  Except perhaps to lay the black plastic where I hope the woodchips will be dumped.   I won't plant the warm weather crops like tomatoes and peppers until mid May, but I do want to finish trimming up the strawberries, and need to weed the asparagus patch and the old strawberry patch where I hope to plant corn and cucumbers later this spring.

April 2013

April 2013
April 2: Seeds sprouted in flats!
(even planted the peas in the flats since I haven't been able to get in the garden to plant the early crops.)

Finally got into garden to work on April 8

Worked on the bed next to the asparagus.  Pulled up old black plastic and huge stones.  Lots of weeding.  Dug up bed.  Added old manure.

Planted wheat. On half closest to barn.

Very rainy April, some warm days, but cold nights, and some cold days too.  The chilliest spring in 17 years.  At least 4 inches of rain early April

Put up greenhouse, finally.  Moved first 2 trays of plants into greenhouse.  2^nd week of April.

(although moved them inside AC for 3 days during storm and cold 3^rd week)

Another 4 inches of rain third week.  Rain and freezing nights cracked the rain gauge!

Spinach still growing in cold frame!  Some leaves died in the frost, but the roots were able to send up new leaves!   Pick a few each time I'm in garden...

Made two “rulers.”  One is 4 ft. and one 2 ft.   Marked them off in inches so that I can try to have a neater looking garden this year. 

Marked off the beds and paths in the veggie garden by writing on the railroad ties with a marker, including the names of the plants to be planted there.   It will probably wash off soon, but at least I can read it now.

April 21: Moved all seedling trays back into greenhouse, including 3^rd tray which finally began to sprout.

Pulled old broccoli stalks and herb stalks (lemon verbena, pineapple sage, borage, lemon balm).

Cut back lavender  a little and thyme a lot.

Weeded entire vegetable and herb garden except asparagus and old strawberries.  (Ouch!)

Dug and added manure to pea bed.

Sorrel and chives and tarragon growing, and garlic is up.

Lemon balm, Lovage, and bergamot emerging.  And asparagus starting.

 Photos of weedy asparagus bed and newly weeded herb bed, with garlic coming up nicely in the background.

April 22:  Added more manure to pea bed.  Put up 8 pea teepees, planted sprouted peas and pea seeds I had soaked overnight.

1^st teepee nearest barn: Oregon Sugar Snap pea sprouts

½ of 2^nd teepee: Sugar Snap pea sprouts, then sugar snap pea seeds on all the rest

Also planted lettuce and spinach sprouts plus lots of lettuce seeds on outside margins of pea bed.

By first teepee, north side: Bibb lettuce sprouts

Then mesclun sprouts by 2^nd teepee, then mesclun seeds, until Bibb seeds on last north trellis.

By first teepee, south side: Spinach sprouts, then Black seeded simpson, then green Oakleaf, then bibb seeds

Added manure to potato bed.  Planted potatoes from Burgess (weird looking: covered with white--mold or powder?) plus some sprouted potatoes from my kitchen from last year’s harvest.



Newly planted potato bed

20 Russet in 4 rows nearest barn.  Then 20 Red Pontiac.  Then 20 Yukon Gold, Then 10 of my old ones.

Picked salad for supper, consisting of spinach and lettuce from the coldframe plus 1 tiny red onion that made it through the winter, 1 jerusalem artichoke I dug (although had to cut away most it), and the first two little stalks of asparagus!  (And I found a carrot that wintered under but it didn’t taste good, so I threw it out.

Ordered from Burpee April 22:

Watermelon, Cantaloupe, Mung Bean sprouts, Celery, and stevia seeds

Plus garden trellis string fencing for peas and twine

New pair of nitrile gloves

April 25: Disaster in the greenhouse today.   The wind was strong enough that one of the rods slipped out of it's socket and a whole shelf fell, dumping the seedlings on the ground.  I had planted the peas and lettuce earlier in the week, and consolidated the other trays.  Luckily, the one that fell, was full of pots that either didn't spout or weren't doing very well.  I rescued what i could and we'll see if they grow!   I got twine and bound the greenhouse poles tightly together, so hopefully nothing else will happen if it's windy!

April 26:  The garden is beginning to look good!  Started weeding and pulling the old leaves from around the strawberries.

Raked the onion bed smooth and got it planted.

Two rows of onions that I found in the compost--sprouted bulbs about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter---no idea why or where they came from...certainly not our kitchen...I think a volunteer must have added them to the compost?  but they looked fine, so I planted them in 2 rows next to the garlic, with also a few sprouts that had come up in the garden, evidently some we missed harvesting last fall.   

Then made a 2 foot path with my new "ruler" and the last 4 feet of the garden planted in 5 rows of onion sets.  Starting from the south, I planted a row of white, then red, then yellow, then 2 mixed rows.  In the furthest NW corner, I planted some tiny bulbs I had harvested at the end of last summer.  4Her Emma helped me cover them up.  And then we weeded the raspberries, and cut back the old canes that had borne fruit last year.

March 2013

March 2013


March 3: Sprouts up!

So different from last March!  Cold and snowy month!  Big March 8 snowstorm covered garden!

March 22

Planted 3 trays of tomatoes, basil, watermelon, cantaloupe, peppers, peas, etc. all with 2011 seeds.  Also planted peanuts from 2012 seeds.  Hate to buy new ones until I see if the old are still viable.

March work in garden was minimal: 

Moved some of the tools to garden.

Burned asparagus rubble! (a new experiment)

Spinach still growing in cold frame!  Very slowly!

February 2013

FEb 8---First seeds and new pH tester arrived.  pH tester is for blueberries, since they are supposed to grow in acid soil.  I've been adding pine needles and even the lemon rind tea made after last year's Summerfest.  But need to start testing and perhaps find another way to make it more acidic.

Feb 26
Planted small tray of lettuce, basil, chard, broccoli, parsley, lavender

Plus 2 microgreen bowls of meslun lettuce and baby spinach

Spinach is still growing in cold frame!