The Garden Chronicles - Week 11
It seemed pointless to post a week 9 blog just 3 days after week 8.5, and I was too busy last weekend to post a week 10 (these things take quite a while to make), so I'm just going to call this one week 11. It's a couple of days early, but hey, that's close enough (and close enough is the widely accepted standard with horseshoes, hand grenades, and garden blogs, I believe).
It's been a mostly dry and hot couple of weeks, and it finally feels like summer.
The corn is up, though I've lost several plants. I lose some every year, of course, but this year is a little worse than normal. Some of the seed in two separate rows got washed out by a storm just a couple of nights after it was planted (2 inches of rain in about 45 minutes); a few just didn't come up (which is normal); and I can't prove it, but I think birds have been pecking away at a few more (there one day, gone the next... go figure). There's still plenty of it growing, though. I always want at least 150 ears at harvest time every year, but if I only get 100 or so I guess it'll be fine. Less shucking, anyway.
The greenhouse is done selling their garden veggies for the year, so I missed out on getting new peppers to replace the ones that almost drowned the last week of May. They're still in the ground, and are pretty small, but they're finally starting to put on some new green leaves up top, so they may produce after all. If not, I went ahead and stuck my 8 backup peppers in the ground at either end of the 4 trellises.
I also put my backup tomatoes in the ground, just for the heck of it. I drove some stakes for them right down the middle of the onions and potatoes, which look to me to be as good as goners anyway.
I had to replant the second batches of beets and carrots, and I had to replant the beans for a third time. I don't think I've ever had to try this hard to get green beans going. They're usually one of the easiest things to grow, and tend explode vigorously out of the ground right on the first try, especially when the ground is warm. I switched to different seed this time, and the ground is definitely warm now, so hopefully they'll be coming up strongly in the next couple of days or so. The first two tries were with seed I got from the greenhouse, which may have been bad. This new seed came from a farm store.
I got the urge to learn how to post homemade videos this week, so there's a few short ones at the end. Mostly an experiment.
Oh, and the spring peas got picked last week.
- Last Thursday -
Plump pods, ready for picking.
I picked about 3 gallons off those 2 small trellises. Growing them was effortless, and now I wish I'd planted the whole back garden fence with them as well. I hope the fall crop that I'm going to plant later on grows as well as the spring one did.
Full, clean pods. Great variety - Miragreen. These had 9 peas per pod (one fell out just as I was taking the picture), but several had up to 11 in them.
They shelled out to about a gallon's worth.
- Yesterday -
The gate is missing because I took it down for painting. It's finally dry enough.
Starting to fill up.
Corn with gaps here and there. Still going to have a good amount, though.
The backup tomatoes in with the onions. They're Rutgers, from seed.
More lettuce transplants went in this past week.
The first carrots, and the replanted second batch behind. Those boards are an experiment. I'm trying to see if shading from the summer sun helps prevent drying out and overheating for better germination compared to the row next to it. I'll take them off as soon as they come up.
Turnips and beets, with empty bean row bottom left (Grrr).
Kohlrabi.
The replanted bean row, with extra potting soil worked in for good measure.
The other tomatoes. They're Big Beef's from the greenhouse.
What the... Surprise, surprise. I doubt it'll be ready by the 4th (which is my yearly goal), but still, it looks like the universe is starting to play nice. *knock on wood*
These are the peppers that almost drowned in May. They have a few new green leaves coming out on top, so who knows? Maybe they'll produce after all. They'll be late, but hey, so is everything else. Eggplants behind.
Watermelon seeds coming up in the corner behind the blackberries.
Speaking of blackberries. Not quite there yet, but coming along.
Cucumber plant. Looking good.
Baby cucumber.
Second cucumber planting coming up.
Pepper backups at the end of the trellises. This is where I tried to grow to some chard, but it didn't come up in the late May soak, and I decided I'd rather do this than replant it.
A few remaining pea pods that weren't ready when I picked before. They got picked later this day, though. Got another meal's worth out of them.
Backup cantaloupe seedlings coming up next to failed May transplants.
The rest of the pepper backups, on the other side of the trellises.
The first butternut squash plant to come up.
Another view of the corn.
This is my separate zucchini side plot. Those white balls on the posts are for safety. I don't want to bend over and put an eye out on one of those low, hard-to-see things. They're just table tennis balls with holes drilled in one side to fit the post. They're also on the pepper posts in the main garden, but I forgot to mention them above.
The first zucchini is looking pretty good now. It dropped the baby zucchini it had on it, just like I expected, but it's growing well now and should set many more in the weeks to come.
The second zucchini greened up, started growing, and saved itself from getting pulled.
The third was direct-seeded, and is just now coming up.
The planter is looking a little bare at the moment. Just one batch of lettuce and a couple of backup eggplants. There'll be some more new lettuce pots in there shortly, though. I grow lettuce constantly, all summer long.
Purple clematis growing up some twine hanging from the side of the front porch.
Ivy geranium in a hanging pot.
Lilies.
Lily.
Oxeye sunflowers.
Mulberry trees are starting to set fruit. I don't know what's causing the dark spots on the leaves, bugs or disease.
Yucca in full bloom.
The rabbits are happy this year. I keep seeing them bunny hopping each other and flopping over on their sides. I had to look the flopping over thing up. Apparently, they do that when they're really content. I wish I could get a picture of it.
See you next week.
I compressed those videos to about 10% of their original file size. Do they stream well enough?
If you only check one of them out, make sure it's the one with the wrens.
The video with the wrens worked perfectly - a steady stream with no stopping. The first two would take hours for me to watch - hardly moved at all. I have trouble with most videos anyway.
The first two seemed to load slower for me, too, but I thought it was just something on my end. I don't understand it. They're all a minute long and roughly the same size.
I don't think I can compress them very much more without making them look like complete crap.
What did you think of those wren chicks? Bigger than I expected, and I thought the first one was going to fall right out of the birdhouse while I was filming it.
I thought the wren video was terrific - it was a real show. I don't understand why if you did everything the same for all 3 videos, there is a mystery as to why two wouldn't work well and the third was perfect. The only person I know who really understands videos and has been able to convert ones I either couldn't open or had trouble with to a format that worked well is Sixpick. I think Raven Wing posted a "Help" article on posting videos.
What a great looking garden you have.. I too am an avid gardener. and a bird fan , but yours has mine beat by a mile. Thanks for posting these. !!
Thanks Nona. Glad you like it.
All of them worked fine for me.
Good to hear. Thanks.
How did the tree handle the storm?
Funny, we had about 6 to 8 in of rain and it started to look better. Now we have been dry ever since and I have to keep watering it. It is hanging in there though.
It did bend some but have it staked.
Awesome videos and I love all the photos. You have a little piece of paradise there.
Thanks. Did the videos stream ok for you? I'm trying to get a grasp of file sizes and bitrates for future compressions.
Yes.
bitrates for future compressions.
Lol, I have no clue what that would mean..
Haha. Sorry. Glad to hear they worked fine. I had some buffering going on with a couple of them, but I have satellite internet and it can be kind of wonky sometimes. It can be great for a while and then not so great, so I'm a little curious about how well they stream for other people.
Great photos DS. I had a very large garden several years ago and loved being able to work with Mother Nature and enjoy the fruits of both our labor.
My corn didn't do too well for some reason. I tried everything I could, even consulting with several farmers and nurserymen. But, the corn would simply not grow well. So after a few years of trying I gave it up and planted more eggplants and bell peppers. My garden was 50 long by 40 ft wide at the back of my property. I put in a timed watering system, which was adjusted for the sections that needed more or less water.
I also had a hydroponic garden. I grew my herbs and spices there, as well as other veggies that required a more careful environment.
I do really miss my garden. It was so enjoyable, relaxing and I could share some of our harvests with my friends and family. But, I live in an apt now and there is no room for me to have a garden. I tried growing a few things in pots and a small wooden stand for my fresh herbs, but, people were coming and taking my stuff as it got ripe during the night, so I stopped.
But, your garden articles reminds me of my garden, and I really enjoy seeing your crops grow along the way via your great photos.
That's a shame. I love growing corn.
Fancy. I just spray by hand with a hose if I have the time, or I use a sprinkler.
I used to be completely obsessed with the technical aspects of hydroponics and aeroponics. I'd often find myself daydreaming about how to build various kinds of systems. I even invented a vertical, tubular aeroponic root chamber for myself. It ran on compressed air, and used the venturi effect inside of a special nozzle I could make by drilling holes at just the right angles through little plastic blocks to pull nutrient solution up into the chamber and then blow it onto the roots as a super-oxygenated mist. Each chamber was meant for a single plant, and could be hung in rows of any length on a linear support structure in greenhouses, with trellises or lines above for the plants. Spaced accordingly, they could grow any of the commercial hothouse vegetables, like zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, or cucumbers. Even cantaloupes and vining squashes like butternuts, if someone really wanted to (research stations in Antarctica come to mind).
Now that I think about it, I maybe could have patented and manufactured that thing. I mean, have you seen what hydroponic and aeroponic systems sell for?
Haven't played around with that stuff in years, though.
Some people really suck.
Thanks so much, RW. I'm really glad to hear that.
True. It was rather fancy for a garden. However, I owned and operated my own light mfg. business at the time producing custom wire products for the supermarket and floral nursery industries. I was required to travel a good deal working with many corporations both state side and abroad. I had 17 Patents on my carious products at the time, and I was also a single Mother of 2. I also had a custom injection mold made to produce plastic hand held shopping baskets, the first company to produce them in the US. Others who were selling plastic baskets were importing them from Taiwan and Sweden at the time. So by producing my own baskets I could control the color consistency and cost, as I didn't have to pay import fees and shipping charges. I could see my baskets for almost half of what the other companies who were importing them were charging. I could also offer custom colors for customers who wanted to color coordinate the baskets to their company, and give them custom logo imprinting. These were things that those who imported their baskets could not provide at the time.
So having travel a good deal it was necessary for me to have a watering system that would take care of the garden when I had to be away from home. So the watering system I had took care of that for me and kept my garden well watered. It also controlled my water cost as well, as there was no over watering or waste.
That's fantastic, RW. The business and the watering system.
You may already know this little trick, but, I had gone to a local nursery to buy some spray for the worms on my tomatoes. I hate using sprays, but, there are times that the circumstances leave no other choice.
The nurseryman was a Japanese man who had been in the growing business since he was a small child working for his Grandfather's farm. He listened to my lament and then shook his head no. He told me that I should plant garlic in between the tomato plants to keep the worms away. The worms hate garlic, and they won't come around where the garlic is growing.
I was a bit skeptical at first, but, decided to try it. I like garlic and use it in my cooking, so there would be no loss if it didn't work on the tomato worms. I was very pleasantly surprised when I never found another tomato worm on any of my tomato plants. My young Son like to help me work in the garden, but, he was scared by the ugly tomato worms and would not go near that area. He was so happy when he didn't have to see any more of those ugly worms, and could help me with the plants.
I don't know if that would work for you, but, it kept me from having to use a spray on the tomato plants and I was very happy about that.
I appreciate the advice, but I don't really have a problem controlling the hornworms that eat tomato leaves. I do alright with just my Mark 1 Eyeballs.
When it comes to tomatoes, my problem is stink bug damage on the fruit itself. I've been bouncing an idea around in my head about making little bags out of row cover fabric or something to tie around the tomatoes, the same way some people do to protect fruit on trees, but I haven't gotten around to trying it yet.
That sounds like a good idea as well. One year I had trouble with bugs messing with my ripening tomatoes. They would burrow inside the fruit and eat the inside, causing the tomatoes to rot. When I asked the agent at the Ag Dept about it, he told me to spray around the plants with apple vinegar and water mixture. After I did that I didn't have any more problems with those nasty bugs.
Hmm. I might have to try that vinegar and water thing. I think I'll spray it right on the fruit, though. Stink bugs fly, so spraying the ground around the plants probably wouldn't make much of a difference, but if the tomatoes themselves have a little vinegar on them, it just might. I wouldn't have to worry about it like I would with poisonous chemicals, either.
Gotta make sure I remember to try that.
Your garden looks good and I like the garden chronicles. I am so far behind and my garden looks messy and disorganized, I am almost done planting, We had more rain and it is muddy. .
I might have a little mud in my future as well. Sunday into Monday. I'm kind of looking forward to it. I could actually use some rain now.
I shouldn't have said anything about expecting rain. I seem to have jinxed myself. I doesn't look like I'm going to get any now.
I'm going to have to start getting my lettuce started inside first, even if it's more work. I've always just waited until later in the season, and planted outside, but it's really hard to control how those teeny tiny seeds fall, especially if there's any wind. I end up with lettuce stacked on top of each other in spots, and spots that are bare.
The way I do that with lettuce, radishes, carrots, etc. all small seeds is I make a 6" wide shallow furrow with the hoe and sprinkle the width with the seed and cover lightly with soil, when they come up if too close together just thin them but leave the row 6" wide.
I do it your way. I think this year, the seeds may have been washed on top of each other more than usual.
I gave up direct seeding lettuce a long time ago. What a pain, IMO. My main problems were super shallow seed getting washed out in spring rains, and then bad germination later in the summer heat.
I've been doing it this way for quite a while now. I don't even pick a few leaves at a time and leave the plants to grow more. I just harvest them whole, as if I were buying whole lettuces from the supermarket, and put out replacements after. It's what feels easiest to me. It gives me a lot more control and assurance of success, and with hardly any thinning (just the extra one or two in each seed pot to insure germination) it saves an awful lot of seed.
My garden consists of raised beds, so seeds don't get washed out. They just get displaced a bit.
I picked the first of my lettuce this evening. My spinach didn't do very well, and that's the first time it's failed me. Cukes seem to be stalled out, but are still green, so I guess I'll watch and wait.
I have a feeling it's been a hard (or at least weird) spring for gardens all over.
Have finally finished planting the garden. After a very wet start, now we have the problem of it being too dry.
Since we have no well, even if we had a well, the water would kill the garden in time, so I haul my potable water
and I haul from a near by lake for the garden.
All the seed planted are coming up, the transplants are coming along with watering. Tomatoes were hard to find, only one
Greenhouse in the area had romas and cherries only, so romas it is.
I can kind of relate. I wouldn't say it's too dry yet (especially with rain in this weekend's forecast), but it's definitely been dry lately.
I'm fortunate to be sitting on top of a spectacular aquifer with flowing springs and a high refreshment rate, so there's not much old water with lots of stuff dissolved in it. There's some iron in it, but it's not too bad.
Romas are nice, but that's a shame if you were wanting some big slicers.
I actually stopped bothering with small paste tomatoes because I sometimes get lots of bug damage, and after I'd cut it all off I'd never have much tomato left with things like Romas or San Marzanos.
Speaking of bug damage, there are still bridges out in this area, so had to detour yesterday and noted that the oak trees along the road looked as though they were still putting on their leaves, although everything else is fully out, then realized the gypsy moths were stripping the oaks of their leaves, we hadn't had that happen for years, I've noticed in our apple trees we're starting to see more of them, hate using insecticides though.
So instead of insecticides we use tape around the tree trunks, smooth packaging tape they can't get a grip on, and put it around the trunk sticky side in that way they can't climb over it and if there is a gap in the bark their hairs get stuck to it and they immediately back out. The worms are clumsy or just not that bright and are constantly falling out of the trees and have to climb back up. My problem is the number of trees I would have to do this to.
Do those things start out as little green worms that eat leaves and sometimes hang down from the branches on silk lines? I get a bunch of those in mid to late summer and always worry about them hurting the trees. I've been wondering what they are.
Nevermind. I looked up gypsy moth and apparently they haven't arrived in my area yet. I didn't even realize they were coming until I saw this gif in the article:
That gif stops in 2007, so they're probably a bit closer to me than shown. The forests around here are mostly oak, too. Those things could be a problem when they get here.
Do the oaks where you live survive, or do the moths actually kill them?
I guess I still don't know what the little worms I already have in my oaks are.
The worms are black with a series of red and blue dots down their back with black hairs. Why they are called gypsy moths is because of the way the worms migrate. Just after they hatch about a 1/4" long, they send out a silk line and float with the wind, which accounts for their slow progression west and south since the prevailing winds are from the west and south. So the egg masses end up west and south because of us transporting them. Note, only the male moths can fly the females can't.
The oak trees will send out a second push of leaves, but might not survive a several year assault.
Thanks for the info. That prevailing wind thing makes a lot of sense. It's taken over a hundred years to get as far as they have.
I wish invasive species were useful more often than destructive. Too bad these things don't eat squash bugs instead of vegetation. I just killed my first one yesterday and had to scrape some eggs off a zucchini leaf.
Something that kills slug-eating strawberries would be nice.
And some bug is attacking my spinach. It wasn't doing well, anyway, but the bugs can't be helping. I try to avoid insecticides, but sometimes, I don't know what else to do.
To stop slug-eating strawberries, just pull them out by the roots, simple, no? As for strawberry-eating slugs
maybe ashes around the perimeter, I've never tried it but seems like it could work.
Ha! Slip of the keyboard. Strawberry-eating slugs.
I was gonna say those were some very crafty slugs.
Try lime before insecticides, sometimes that is enough, if not you got to hit them with seven
Slugs, take a pie tray and put into soil with edge level and put some beer in it, slugs crawl in get drunk and die. Also slugs do not like fertilizer or salt
did you figure out how to cross Venus fly traps with strawberries? I want some of those plants
I hear you. I try to avoid it, too. Every now and then I have to break down and use some, though. I've already had to spray some liquid Sevin on the eggplants to save them from flea beetles. I try to never use it on anything I'm actually going to eat, though. By that I mean the fruits themselves. I always try to keep it on the greenery that I don't eat, just to protect the plants when I feel like I absolutely have to. That wouldn't really work with spinach, though.
I've done that on occasion. Slug bait seems to work more predictably.
I guess at least they die happy.
Yup. I named them Audrey 2. They have the strangest ideas...
No. I'm letting the spinach go. It's a lost cause.
Something is volunteering in one of my raised beds. Possibly spaghetti squash or sugarbaby watermelon from gardens past, I believe. I'll see if it does anything.
But Sandy, instead of spaghetti squash, why not real spaghetti????
It could be a whole new industry.
I could plant garlic bread along with it. A full meal, right there in my backyard!
Is it hard to grow tiramisu?
Yea for the peas. Had me worried there for a little while. Haha
Looks good. When I lived in MD we were surrounded by corn fields. The Silver Queen was my favorite. Use to buy it directly from the farmers.
The chipmunk is cute. We don't have those around here.
I like Silver Queen, but this variety is my favorite for freezing. Weird name, 'Gotta Have It'.
Yeah, the chipmunks are cute as all get out. I've been thinking about putting this old trail camera I have up in the woods to see if i can get a good shot of a deer or a bobcat. That might be fun.
Good news. I finally have beans sprouting all down the row, so I guess the problem was the other seed. I hope I have enough of this good seed left for another planting of fall beans later on. I'm not planting much at a time this year, but still, it might be tight.
It figures that I still have plenty of the crap seed left. I guess I'll toss it.
This was my treat after walking the dog this evening - eating wild raspberries with the scent of honeysuckle all around.
I love the smell of honeysuckle in the outside air. There's a bunch of it growing wild in the treeline up by the road, and sometimes I can smell it all over the front yard when I'm mowing. It's fantastic.
When I first moved into this house, there was no honeysuckle around. Maybe it was all removed when the builders cleared the lots. But now, it's everywhere. I know it's considered to be an invasive, nuisance species, but I'll take all the honeysuckle anybody else doesn't want. It's the smell of summer to me.
It looks like the wren chicks have left the nest. The bird house in the last video was quiet and abandoned all day today (Sunday).
I was kind of hoping I'd get lucky and witness their first flight. Maybe even get it on camera. No such luck, though.