The Garden Chronicles - Week 8 1/2
This is several days late because week 8 turned out to be the wettest yet. I think the ground stayed completely saturated for at least 4 days straight. It killed the tomatoes and the eggplants, and finally got to the peas (not so indestructible after all). One trellis of peas is definitely stunted and yellowing, but the other fared much better, somehow.
Unfortunately, the onions and potatoes have about had it. The lettuce and the first batches of turnips, beets, and kohlrabi all seem stunted, and the beans and chard never even came up (pretty sure they germinated and then drowned). I think about half of the peppers will need to be replaced.
What a spring.
Some good news, though: This year's freaky month of May has finally ended, and the way-too-frequent rain seems to have ended right along with it. Also, the greenhouse still had plenty of plants, so I picked up some new tomatoes and eggplants, and I finally managed to plant the corn.
-- Sunday --
Corn planting prep. Before tilling.
First tiller pass, a maple seedling, various other weeds, and mud cracks.
After tilling it was getting late, so I raked it smooth and called it a day.
-- Monday --
Here's how I plant corn. First, I scratch measurement marks in the soil.
Then I drive a guide line in at the first mark, and start making furrows.
After each furrow, the line gets moved to the next mark.
Done and ready for seeds. The furrow at the bottom right is for replanting beans.
I rig up a simple corn planting tool like this every year. It's a piece of PVC pipe with a 6" vice grip clamped to one end, and a paint stir stick taped to the vice grip. I drop a seed through the pipe and measure off of it with the stick to determine the placement of the next one. Almost perfect seed spacing, and no bending over.
Polly approves.
-- Wednesday --
I got out early in the morning to take the rest of the pics.
This is a frame I made a few years back for bird netting to protect the blackberries while they're ripening. All the connections are marked for quick and easy assembly every year. The netting isn't on it yet, but will be soon.
New eggplants and the peppers, about half of which are looking sickly after the long soak.
A cucumber plant that's actually growing. Go figure.
Empty chard row. I'll have to replant.
I've lost several onions, and the remaining ones are all yellowing at the tips. The potato sample is down to 4 sickly plants.
The lettuces look healthy enough, but haven't grown much at all. Those are spotty carrots above them.
Turnips and beets. I'm thinking both should be twice this size by now. Second batches coming up behind them.
Kohlrabi. I've never grown these before, but I suspect they should be bigger as well.
Replacement tomatoes.
Rain killed the first eggplants, and now flea beetles are attacking the new ones.
The rain finally damaged the peas. Mostly on that one trellis, though.
The other trellis still looks pretty good. Both are setting pods now.
The chief inspector arrives.
She's like, "It'll have to do."
It's nice and warm now, so I'll be direct seeding zucchini from here on out. The transplants are having a heck of a time this year. That second one might get pulled if it doesn't green up and start growing.
Yup, that's a baby zucchini. It'll probably rot and drop off, though. That always seems to happen to the first ones, for me at least. I don't know if I've ever seen leaves curl like that. Must be because of all the stress this one's gone through.
The planter. Same stuff as before, just a little bigger now.
Another batch of lettuce, and the backup peppers.
Rose.
Lilies.
Lilies.
Lilies.
Not a lily.
Bumblebee on honeysuckle.
Honeybee on honeysuckle.
Wild daisies.
Still blooming. It's been weeks. I should dig a few up and put them in the yard somewhere, maybe around the little pond. I think they're perennials.
Here comes Peter Cottontail.
This made me laugh. Apparently, a woodpecker decided this old bird house needed a bigger front door, so he (she?) carried out some home improvement. I'll have to keep an eye on it now, to see what's nesting in it.
See you next time.
I love your lilies. I've nicknamed them "deer crack". The deer managed to take out most of the first buds of our lilies in the front of the house. The ones in the back alongside the deck are doing well.
The smelly deer spray didn't work....
There are lots of deer tracks in the yard, but they haven't bothered the lilies yet.
I don't think smelly deer spray ever works. I don't have much faith in any of that deer repellent stuff.
here are some photos of our flowers:
I like those yellow lilies. I might have to get some.
I will try and remember to take photos of our Lilly Trees when they start blooming. To appreciate the trees thos, you need to be able to smell them. We sit on our deck at night and enjoy the rich scent coming off of them
Lilly trees? I had no idea there was such a thing.
They're not really trees...they just grow taller every year. Our oldest ones are currently approx 7 feet tall. I will try and shoot a photo of them when they bloom
Not the peas !
Glad you are drying up.
We now have to watch out for the tropical storm down in Mexico. Supposed to hit by Monday.
I know. They were the one bright spot of an otherwise 'bleh' spring garden.
I saw a possibility of Cristobal storm remnants in my forecast for next week.
Hey, I forgot to ask about your new tree. Did the leaves perk up?
It is hanging in there but still doesn't look great. still has green leaves but a bunch of the leaves are half dead half alive. I see one new sprout of a leaf so I am hoping it will settle in.
A new leaf sprout is definitely a good sign.
I found the pic. This is when I first planted it.
This is now. Not great, but notice the new leaf kind of in the middle.
I am trying to keep hope. Haha
All you can do is wait, I guess. If it was going to die I'd expect the leaves to be all brown and dropping off. It looks like it's trying to hang in there, but it might not grow very much this summer. It's probably putting most of it's energy into roots right now, especially since some of the original ones dried out. The real test will be next year, when it comes time to send out new leaves. If it acts like a normal tree in the spring, then you'll know you're good.
Yeah, poor thing is not having a good first summer.
At first I worried about it drying out and now will worry about it drowning.
We are now forecast for 5 - 8" of rain.
Not to mention winds.
Good luck with that storm. I think what's left of it is supposed to pass over me on Tuesday.
Do you have a post or something you can drive in next to your tree? If you're expecting tropical storm force winds, then you might want to tie it up to something for support.
Didn't think about that. I am going to find something and stake it up.
A few short stakes would work well, spaced around it so that it won't matter which way the wind blows.
Your garden is looking good, much better than mine.
Today, the ground was dry enough to plant some tomatoes but the sudden 90+ heat slowed me. Last week I got to play with my new toy, a Kubota compact tractor and tilled until it rained, very hard, Wish I had bought it years ago.
I took the cover off the hoop house and tomatoes I planted last of April are out in the open.
Tomorrow, I will try to battle the heat and plant some more, but it is calling for storms in afternoon,
I have a bad feeling that my lettuce and spinach will go almost straight to seed. They were looking good, but heat makes them go to seed and turn bitter quickly.
Something got through my fence and ate some strawberries that weren't quite ripe. I suspect a groundhog. The dog was inside out of the heat today, excused from guard dog duties.
Cukes are just sprouting.
Romaines like Parris Island Cos can handle the summer heat really well, if you're interested. I also grow a variety of red leaf lettuce called Red Mist that isn't bothered by it. They both grow like champs all summer long.
The head lettuce I grow won't form heads in the heat, though. I mostly just grow it for fun, to see if I can get a head or two before it bolts in the summer, and again before it frosts in the fall.
I'll get some Romaine seeds, and plant them when my current crop goes bolt. Would Lowe's have seeds for Red Mist, or should I look online?
You can get Parris Island Cos just about anywhere, even Walmart, but I always order my Red Mist from Gurneys. I just checked their site and they're sold out at the moment, but they may offer it again later in the summer for fall gardens. I'm not sure about that, though.
Besides taking the heat, another thing I like about Red Mist is that the leaves are super easy to wash. There's no frilly ends like with some other leaf lettuces. I hate cleaning those.
Definitely make a note for next year if you can't find any this summer.
Thanks, Dig.
Tilling while sitting down sounds awesome.
I've checked out a few compact tractors. They do look handy.
Thunderstorm has stopped work, was very hot so progress was slow. Tilled lower part again and got 3 trellis set up, they are old swing sets covered with reinforcing wire. try again when it dries out
Good old leaning trellises. What do you grow on them? I know they're great for cucumbers, which hang down out of the leaves because of the angle for easy picking.
Quite the downpour last night, and I shut down all of my electronics because the lightning was so close. I'm not usually nervous about a thunderstorm, but I've had a couple of modems fried by lightning, and didn't want it to happen again.
The night after posting this I got 2 more inches of rain, and another half inch this morning, but everything is drying out quickly afterwards now. Things aren't staying wet for as long as they were before. Must be the heat and wind that's here now.
I'm worried that some of the corn might have gotten washed out, though. There are some shallow gullies through it, but I couldn't really tell if they were deep enough to get to the seed or not. I guess I'll find out next week.
We had that problem of lightning burning out our electronics, until we checked on the building ground and found the cable was corroded, with a new cable and we installed a four rod grid we never had lightning do damage again.
Really great update. Looks like a lot of things are doing well. I'm not wild about eggplant so no big sympathy there, lol.
I like the photo with the baby zucchini, the ground looks almost purple.
With your flowers you could supply a florist, or two.
I can't eat very much eggplant, myself. I'm only trying to have two plants, but I still want them to grow, now that I've put some effort into them.
Something about the camera causes that. The way it filters different levels of light or something. There might be a setting to prevent it, but like I've said before, I'm no pro when it comes to cameras and photography.
That was a great show - does a wonderful job for a vicarious farmer.
Thanks, Buzz.
I can't believe how long it takes to make a post with so many photos. I wish there was a way to upload more than one at a time.
There isn't - it's one at a time. What I do for my photo essays is post the commentary leaving spaces for the photos and then post the photos last, one at a time.
Wish we could get some of that rain here in Denver.
Only 4.47 official inches of precip so far this year, but that's out at DIA....25 miles NE of downtown.
Been drier closer to the mountains.
Hopefully, the Summer Monsoon will start soon.
I'd send it your way if I could. We're way over average for the year. Not record amounts, but bad enough.