All that rots

My other construction project over the Christmas break was to build a compost bin. I chose the style from Easy Composters You Can Build by Nick Noyes. Rather than paraphrase, I'll shamelessly copy the first two paragraphs:

New Zealand Compost Box
The New Zealand Compost Box was designed by Sir Albert Howard, a far-sighted British horticulturist who develope composting systems during the WWII era. A very precise man, Howard's methods and composting process were quite specific, as were his instructinos for making the following bin.

This box requires two ten-foot lengths of 2" x 2" wood and twelve eight-foot lengths of 1" x 6" wood. Cut the 2x2s into six 39" pieces, and cut the 1x6 wood into twenty-four 48" pieces. Assemble the piece as illustrated, taking care to leave a hel-inch space between each of the side boards to allow for aeration. Use galvanized screws (preferably) or nails to jlin the pieces. Teh uprights should be pushed into the ground approximately 3" (loosen the soil if necessary). The front boards (which will likely need to be trimmed a bit for an exact fit) slice in and out to make filling and emptying the box easier.

I chose to add a stablizing crossbar along the front. It will go in the backyard, near the garden just as soon as I can get someone to help me haul it back there. With all that lumber, it's pretty heavy. This is a good thing as I'm counting on it lasting several years.

Winter soil adjustments

I put out three new beds last week, up by the main garden. One is 18 x 3 and the other two are both 8 x 4, although oriented East/West rather than North/South like the old bed. I've got the turf dug and turned over but still need to mix the new soil and add it in. Fortunately, the weather has been nice and I may get out there in the next week or so to finish up. This is the last of the new bed expansion for the year. All in all, I increased the gardening space from 32 square feet of raised beds in 2006 to 182 square feet for the coming years. That should provide enough space for a variety of crops, rotations, and soil pH.

Speaking of pH, I recently got back the results of my soil test. About three weeks ago, I got a soil test kit from my local county extension office. The kit was free but the testing was about $10 apiece. I tested two of the new beds and along the back fence where I hope to plant blueberries in the spring. The bed that will hold my asparagus came back at 7.0, which is too high. The bed by the deck was even higher, 7.5. I applied between half a pound and a pound of aluminum sulfate to each bed under the straw mulch and lightly raked it in. I also sprinkled a pound in the new bed for strawberries over the upside down turf. I'll add some more to the soil mix when I get it in that bed. I also need to determine the spots for my blueberry bushes so I can dig now and amend the soil with sulfur for spring planting. The fenceline came back at pH of 7.1.

Rudolph on break

After a busy night of work for Santa, Rudolph must have been given some time off.

As we sat down to a Christmas lunch, my wife looked out the window and noticed six deer running down the fenceline into the park. All were does or young "spike" bucks as far as I could tell. They disappeared quickly but it was a nice moment for our family, especially for our three year old who immediately made the Rudolph connection. Merry Christmas!

Pinochle on your snout

"The worms crawl in and the worms crawl out..."

My new batch of two pounds of Esenia fetida (red wiggler compost worms) arrived today and I added them to the new bin system, an early Christmas present. I'll let them get settled in for a few days and then start adding kitchen scraps for them to convert to castings for organic mulch.

After the Turkey

Thanksgiving is past and we spent it traveling across Tennessee to see most of the family on both sides. Whew!
My wife's dad is taking a break from his beekeeping hobby until retirement and was kind enough to send us home with a hive (empty, of course). I'm hoping to get it up and running in time to get a swarm in the spring.
In other news, the mail is starting to bring the winter supply of seed catalogs. I'm busy planning next year's garden.
Two new raised beds have been built and filled with soil and the plan is for two more when I get the time and money.

Making my bed but not 'cause I slept in it

Over the last couple weeks, I've built two more raised beds and today found the time to fill one with the mix of soil elements. One is located at the end of the garage. I'm planning for that to be the asparagus patch. Asparagus like slightly acid soil so I put in a bit more sphagnum peat moss than I otherwise would. That will also help the thirsty ferns as it soaks up lots of water. The second bed (as yet unfilled) is near the back deck and will be our "kitchen box" for quick runs. It's mostly salad items, although I'm also planning to use the back edge as a trellis for pole beans. I have a plan for two more beds but time and money are two things in short supply right now. Between lumber, hardware, and soil elements, each 4' x 8' bed costs about $100 to complete.

Worms: Not just for fishing anymore

I'm beginning a new garden experiment today in the great wide world of vermicomposting. Never heard of it? Neither had I until my friend Ellen at Beagle Ridge Herb Farm offered to set me up with a stock of composting worms for free. I refused at first but after doing a bit of reading, I enthusiastically accepted her kind offer. Worms work to break down kitchen waste and can be easily kept in a Rubbermaid-type bin with some moist newspaper strips. Feed them the table scraps every couple of days and their excrement (called castings) will form a magnificent organic fertilizer for the garden. I like the idea of recycling what we're eating from the garden anyway, not paying for fertilizer, and the worms give me something interesting and new to watch during the cold winter months when nothing much is growing outside.

Fall plantings

Today we put in some fall plantings. In the big bed, I scattered some oats seed that will be used as a cover crop/green fertilizer. I called Tom Peterson at Appalachian Sustainable Development to see what type cover crop they recommended for this area. Not only did he tell me about oats but he also set me up with some from his personal stash on his organic farm here in Abingdon. He also told me about Merci Farm, an organic gardening and farming supplier in nearby Lebanon, VA. Very nice of him.

In addition, we also did a planting of garlic. It's a white, soft-necked variety that I got from Ellen Reynolds at Beagle Ridge Herb Farm in Wythe County. That's where I've been going for classes as a part of the Virginia Master Naturalist Program. The garlic bulbs should be ready for harvesting sometime in early July.

The spinach and lettuce that went in the cold frame have begun to sprout. It's so fun to see green growth as everything else is dying off. The leaves, however, are gorgeous this year.

Lady Bugs not just a bad Rodney Dangerfield movie

Abingdon has been invaded by lady bugs/beetles (take your pick). These are good for aphid control, I'm told but apparently, this batch has confused my house for a giant aphid as they are swarming all over the outside. We have to be quick to open and close doors or they get inside. Others in town are noticing the bumper crop we're having as well and it has been a topic of much conversation. So far, there's no organic or natural way that I've come across to diminish their numbers. I figure they're doing their job in the food chain so a little more diligence about doors is a small price to pay.

Something to crow about

We had another strong frost again last night but that's not the most significant thing that happened (or maybe it is). I was outside mowing this afternoon when I spotted a dead bird, a large black crow, just across my property line in the town park next door. I'm pretty sure he wasn't there yesterday or I would have noticed. Nor was he scavenged or decomposed that I could tell (from a healthy distance). Last night's cold must have put him in the deep freeze.

Since we've all heard about how West Nile virus often shows up in birds, I decided to notify someone. First, I called the Town of Abingdon but got directed to a department that was only interested (to put it mildly) in removing the carcass from the park, as if I were reporting a litter problem. I decided to push further and called the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VGDIF), the state wildlife agency. They directed me to the extension of their staff veterinarian but his voicemail said he's out of the office for two weeks and not checking messages. Finally, I got some results from the Washington County Health Department where I reached Scott Honnaker who was very helpful. He called their Richmond office to confirm that they are still testing for West Nile, even though it's late enough that the mosquito population that carries this disease is mostly dead or dormant. With last night's freeze, there was a good chance that the tissues were still preserved enough for testing. Unfortunately, on a Friday afternoon, they had no one to come collect it until Monday. My wife (and me too, I must admit) wasn't too keen on keeping a potential biohazard bird in our freezer over the weekend so we struck a deal. I carefully bagged and delivered the crow to the Southwest Virginia Department of Health Lab (just down the street by the hospital) where they will freeze it over the weekend and send it to Richmond on Monday for testing.

UPDATE: I never heard a word, despite calling a couple of times to inquire about the results. I guess that means everything is ok.

No E. coli in my spinach!

National news lately has focused on the e. coli spinach outbreak in California's Salinas Valley. I love a good spinach salad and decided long ago that I would try to produce a fall/winter crop this year. Using the new cold frame that I built last weekend, I planted some Rembrandt Spinach from Cook's Garden today, along with some lettuce. We'll see how it does with the onset of cold this week.

First Frost

We awoke this morning to the first frost and it was a doosey. The ground was well-covered and the thermometer read 24 degrees F when we awoke. Luckily, we had brought in the remaining pepper plants that were in pots on the deck as well as the mums. Looks like Fall is now here.

Gearing up for the winter

I cleaned out the main raised bed last Saturday (9/30), leaving only one pepper plant that is yet to turn. I don't know if it will since the nights have now turned much cooler. I also constructed a crude cold frame, using some scrap lumber, lexan plywood (1/4") and an old case window that I bought from a local antique dealer for $5. The lexan, some foam sealer, and the hinges to attach it brought the grand total somewhere around $30. A coat of paint on the outside to protect the wood was the final step. I'm planning to use it for a planting of fall/winter spinach and lettuce as soon as the seeds arrive from Cook's Garden in the mail. The rest of the bed will be planted with a cover crop, probably some type of rye grass, to fix some nitrogen in the soil for next spring. I'm also planning to put in some garlic bulbs this month to grow over the winter and harvest in the spring.

Winding down for the summer

From the lack of posting lately, it's been safe to assume that not much has been going on in my backyard garden. That's partially true as the heat of August and our trip to the beach combined to pretty much kill off what was left of the garden, at least in the box. The peppers in pots on the deck are still producing, especially the Godfather variety. I'm just waiting on them to turn red before picking. The summertime lettuce experiment wasn't too successful. It grew just fine but the heat got to it and turned bitter, despite the claims of Cook's Garden. I've written before about my failure to properly sucker the tomato plants but it became even more pronounced as the summer wore on as each plant produced prodigous amounts of tiny fruits. They were tasty but just not much too them in size. I took down the pole beans this weekend. My lack of commitment to watering at the far end of the site contributed to their early demise, though we ate a considerable amount of beans from them this year. The teepee design for my son to play under never took effect. I just didn't plant enough of them to fill the netting. The hop vines did great and even produced a few flowers. These take a couple of years to get established root systems so I'm looking forward to seeing next year's growth. The star of the late-summer/early fall garden has got to be the pumpkins. Again, water was an issue so they never achieved their potential for size but we have three beautiful orange orbs that will make great jack-o-lanterns for Halloween, just the reason I planted them. All in all, I had a great first season as a vegetable gardener and I'll plan to expand next year and be a bit smarter about what and how I plant. The next step will be tilling under the soil and planting a cover crop to fix some nitrogen in the soil over the winter. Oh, and I want to plant some garlic, a fall bulb, to be ready for harvest next year.

Japanese beetles

I came outside on Saturday to find Japanese beetles attacking my basil and pepper plants on the deck. It didn't seem like they had found the plants in the garden box yet and I didn't want to give them the opportunity. A quick trip to Southern States and $20 later, I had a bag-a-bug trap just for these pests. It's built on the principle of pheremone attraction. The scent attracts the bugs to the trap where they fall down into an hourglass shaped bag that keeps them from getting out.

Let the harvest begin!

Aside from today being Independence Day for the U.S., it's also the traditional day that tomatos begin to turn ripe. I've had a couple dozen greenies just hanging out on the vine for what seems like forever but with no sign of turning red. That is, until yesterday when I came out to find two that had begun to ripen. I knew that they'd be ready on the 4th and indeed, they were. I entrusted the picking to my wife and son and they actually came back with three instead of just the two I had seen yesterday. They're small but they make me proud of my garden just the same. Happy fourth of July!

Organic Farm Tour

Yesterday afternoon I attended the farm tour at Abingdon Organics, led by Anthony Flacovento. Abingdon Organics is a family farm that sells produce at the local farmer's market and to Appalachian Sustainable Development for their food distribution programs, including Second Harvest Food Bank. The group of about 40 -50 people, including home gardeners, farmers, and wannabes, was led around the farm to see and discuss various crops and organic methods of disease and pest control as well as best practices. As a rookie gardener, I learned something almost every time anyone spoke, including the embarassing fact that my cantaloupe (really mush melons) vines are not just slow to get going, they're dead. The same thing happened on the farm when we had the long wet and cold spell in May, however they knew enough to replant while I've been waiting for them to grow after a very meager sprouting. I guess I'll be buying my melons from the farm when theirs are ready in three weeks or so. I also learned about removing the "suckers" from my tomato vines to increase the yield. However, my tomatos are so big now, it's probably too late. I should have started earlier as they were beginning to develop. Suckers come out at a 45 degree angle between the leaf stem and the main stem and can be easily snapped off or cut with garden shears. I'll know next year. They also had great success with gardening in enclosed "high tunnels", structures of steel and plastic that covered about ten rows for about 50 yards long. The added protection enables three season planting and quicker development but requires irrigation since no rain can get in. They're also about $3000 apiece and took four men four days to set up. I guess I'm lucky that my garden is only 4'x8' and I don't have to worry about covering it.

The setting sun

I came inside to vent rather than charging over to my neighbor. It seems that the sunflowers I had planted next to the chain link fence were cut off at ground level by an errant weedeater whose trimmer line found its way through to my side. Only a couple of the sprouts survived the attack. I can't really be mad at my neighbor since they have a lawn service and don't do the cutting themselves. However, I did tell them that I was going to plant there and even asked if it was ok to train them up the fence. They might have told their lawn people to be more careful.

Yes Virginia, there is a stupice tomato

I'm a proud papa to see that the tomato plants I nurtured from seed have produced their first green fruits of the season. I can't wait to see how long it takes for the first one to mature. I think they're at least a week ahead of anyone else's that I know about locally. The Wall-O-Water really worked to get them out early and beat the cold weather.

Rocquette lettuce has lifted off

I pulled out the arugula (rocquette lettuce) today as it was sending up shoots for seed and likely would be too bitter to eat anymore. It's probably lasted longer than it should anyway, since it's been an unusually cool and wet spring. As you can see, however, from the photos above, the romaine varieties (top) are still looking great. The spinach, however, got a bit too much sun and is beginning to burn up a bit. I still have some more planted in the shady bed that hasn't browned yet but I'm sure it's day is coming. I bought some more seed for summer lettuce from Cook's Garden. They claim it's more heat resistant but I doubt it's as tasty. I'll be putting in the two new varieties this weekend, Pretty Baby Greens Mix (#525) and The Cook's Natural Lettuce Blend (organic, #E358). The new seed was $11.15 which brings the running total to $539.60.

Peppers

I planted the peppers this evening. As you might guess from the previous posting, I had more than I planned on and more than I had room for in the raised bed. My wife had the idea to pull out some large pots that she had stored away and so three pepper plants are now in those out on the deck. The rest went into the garden. I left room for one or two more since my friend Rob has said he wants me to try his Jimmy Nardello (sp?) variety. I'm going to give him a Godfather and one of the Pimento Moron Dulce sweet peppers in return. Since one of the tomato plants is done with the Wall-O-Water, I moved it and two others that I had to cover peppers. That leave a couple exposed still but there's nothing I can do about it. They'll just have to grow slower. I do feel a bit stupid. When pruning the lower leaves of one of the plants, my scissors slipped and I cut off the plant itself. Woops. At Karen's suggestion, I planted it anyway, just to see if it can recover.

More photos

Peonies at back deck gate with fair skinned son in full protective gear.


Rhododendron behind garage.

Pictures for posterity

The second bed.


The first bed. Tomatos in front, salad at rear.


Bean teepee.


Cascade hops just emerging (beside top rail).


Brewer's Gold hops emerging toward training twine.

What's going on in my mailbox?

Ok. No sooner than I made the last post about the peppers than UPS pulls up with a box from Cook's Garden containing...you guessed it...peppers. I can't find the order on their website so I must have done so under a different account. That's all I can figure. Even weirder, I can't even find the variety listed for sale on their website. Very strange but not so strange that I won't plant and enjoy them. They are an Italian grilling pepper called The Godfather. Here's the description from the Burpee site:

Sweet Pepper The Godfather
A classic Italian grilling pepper.
It's gorgeous in the garden and delicious on the plate. Plants are loaded with huge, meaty peppers. The best yield and the biggest fruit (7") you'll get from a frying pepper. Traditionally used green, they're even sweeter when red, about two weeks later. Try some fresh in salads too. Burpee exclusive. Days to maturity, 64, is from time plants are set in garden. For transplants add 8-10 weeks. Space plants 18-24" apart. Grow in full sun.

Peter Piper (thought he) purchased a peck of planting peppers

I thought I had ordered my peppers from Cook's Garden along with all my other seeds. I "remember" reading that they would be shipped as plants rather than as seeds when the frost free date for our area had been reached. So, I've been watching the mail each day, hoping they would arrive. Except that when I went back and checked the receipt, I never actually ordered them, I just thought I had. Ughhh...

With that realization, my son and I packed up and went to Lowe's to see what was left. I was pleasantly surprised to see that several varieties remained and we had plenty of healthy looking plants to choose from. I picked out several different varieties. Reds: The Big Early, Red Hot Chili, and Pimento Morron Dulce (2), a sweet variety. For greens I got Giant Marconi and Fajita Bell. I also picked up a couple of planters to match the others so I can expand the herb section with Parsley and Peppermint. My wife also wants some Thyme but Lowe's didn't have any. Our local farmer's market should have it soon.

All these purchases, plus a new watering can and a medium bag of potting soil added another $58 to the garden budget. The new tally is now $517.50.

Vine seeds, beans, and sunflowers planted

Now that the frost free date has passed, I planted some new seeds directly into the soil.
Big Moon pumpkins, Earlisweet Melons (cantaloupe), and Sweet Diane Watermelons all found their new homes in the raised hills I had developed a few weeks ago. To the garden box, I added another row of Minicor carrots and a striped tomato variety that my wife was given by a coworker who loves to garden. Along the back fence, I planted Full Sun Hybrid sunflowers. I also staked out a bean teepee with bamboo and wrapped it with climbing mesh tied to the poles. Leaving a space for access, our son will enjoy being able to climb inside his bean teepee when the climbing variety of green beans has covered it over.

As for the previously planted stuff, it's really coming right along. We've been eating salad from the lettuce and spinach for about four weeks now. The arugula is a particularly prolific grower. I like the taste but I love the spinach. Next year I'll plant more of that and less arugula. The first planting of carrots has now been thinned as the sprouts begin to develop. Those seeds are just too small to properly space when planting. The hop vines have sprouted, both varieties, although the Brewer's Gold variety by the swingset seems much more robust than the Cascade which has been slower to emerge, although it's in a bed that gets more shade during the day. That bed also holds the second planting of spinach, romaine lettuce, and carrots and they also are wanting for a little more sun. Hmmm...

Frost Free Day Arrives

Today's the day we in zone 6b have been waiting for; the average last frost date, which means it's now safe to plant outside without fear of a killing frost. I opened up the Wall-o-Water solar covers yesterday by filling the tubes the rest of the way. The tomato plants inside had reached the top. Most people in 6b will just now be putting their tomatos out. Mine are already over two feet tall, thanks to W.O.W. More planting will be happening in the next few days or this weekend, depending on the rain so stay tuned.

Planting the plantation

Today was the big day. Tomato plants are now in the ground, shielded from the remaining frost by the Wall-O-Water. I buried each of them up to the last stem, cutting off all leaves and branches below to encourage good root growth. I also put some composted cow manure in each hole before the plants went in to provide a good source of nutrients when the roots get going. The ground was VERY soft as we've had over two inches of rain over the last three days

In addition to the tomatos, I also planted two varieties of hop vines. Hops are planted as rhizomes, which are technically stems not roots that have been harvested from a cultivated variety. I obtained mine from Northern Brewer online. The Cascade variety went into the newer bed by the playhouse. When the vines develop, I'll train them up the old rope ladder to climb. The other variety is Brewer's Gold and was a much bigger, thicker, and heartier looking rhizome. I don't know if that's the variety or just the particular cutting that I received. These went, one each, at the base of the A-frame footprint. I'll have to post a string to train them up the legs of the A-frame when the time comes. If they really take off, I'll then tie another string at the top of the A-frame to the top of the playhouse where they can mingle with the Cascades. The flyer that came with them said not to expect too much in the first year since they will be mostly establishing their root system. However, in subsequent years the vines can grow to as much as 25-35' long in 120 days. Flowering is in late July or early August.

Fencing solution

After blogging the problem this morning, I decided to figure out a solution. I went to Home Depot with the intention of buying some chicken wire but when I got there, I found a product called "Deer Netting". It's a 100' roll of 7' plastic netting meant to enclose the garden from the four legged pests. Unfortunately, HD didn't have the requisite posts to hold it up so I had to go to Lowe's as well. I bought ten (two at each corner and one in the middle of each long side) but six would have been enough since it's very light netting. The posts were 4' tall with a blade on the end in the ground for stability. They're painted green and the netting is almost invisible from a distance so it doesn't make the garden look like some sort of maximum security prison. The poles cost about $2 apiece so for a total of $35, I have what I hope will be a very effective protection against the nocturnal munchers.

Where do deer go when it rains?

A storm front has been dumping rain on our area for the past three days. I keep wanting to get outside but things just won't dry out enough to spend much time without getting wet. I don't mind so much but since my outside time is often accompanied by a toddler and infant, it's not really much of a possibility to drag them out in the rain. And so we sit inside...

However, the local deer are definitely not taking a break. As the lettuce and carrots in my garden begin to grow, their presence is becoming more of a nuisance. Hoofprints in the raised bed are the giveaway and I know I've got to do something about it. A fence is in the planning but I'm still not sure how to construct it so that its easy for me to access the 4 x 8 raised bed without totally taking it down and putting it back up each time. C'mon, blog readers. I need a suggestion here.

Basil on the move

I transplanted the basil seedlings into a third terra cotta pot today but left them under the lights to grow. This way I'll have two terra cotta pots of basil and one of rosemary.

The other two are doing nicely in the kitchen window, which is now getting quite crowded with pots awaiting the hardening off process in the coming week before planting outside.

Salad Section II

As previously posted, my romaine varieties of lettuce weren't doing so well so I re-seeded the forellenschluss variety. While I was at it, I decided to go ahead and develop my second bed as a salad section as well. This way I can keep the greens growing in their own bed when they are done in the big one and use that space for summer plantings of other vegetables. Thus, I sowed all the same varieties in the smaller bed, save for the arugula. There's enough of that already.

If it "just happens" why does it cost so much?

I purchased another two bags of topsoil and three of composted humus and manure today at Kmart. The total came to $8.32 which brings the running tally up to $424.50.

Up From the Ground It Arose (OR Easter Weekend)

No blogging (or gardening) this weekend as it was a holiday and we were traveling. What a difference three days can make. When I left, the spinach and arugula were just beginning to peep through the ground but when I got out to take a look today, I was greeted by a lot of growth, especially from the rocquette, which required some careful thinning. I'm less enthused by the performance of the two types of romaine lettuce which seems to be struggling by comparison. I wonder if the deer or birds got to it or if it had some trouble germinating. I'm planning to re-seed and hope for better results.

After the kids were put to bed tonight, I finished transplanting the final five tomato plants from their cells into larger terra cotta pots. I'm still not sure who will want them but I don't see any reason to stop their growth at this point since I have the space and they're already doing great, even if they are a bit leggy from being under the light too much.

The cells are going to be used again in the coming week to get the melons and pumpkins started. They won't go in the ground until after last frost but according to the book, it's ok to sow them now and give a head start rather than wait to go directly in the ground.

The basil seedlings are pushing up nicely under the light while the plants I bought are flourishing in their larger terra cotta in the window. I can almost taste the fresh pesto.

In other yard news, the flowering redbud tree bloomed while we were away this weekend. It was dark when we got home so my first look at it was from the kitchen window this morning. I was stumbling to the coffee pot when its brilliant color caught my eye down the hill. I got inspired to go mow just so everything was perfect afterward. The oranmental cherry is still in full bloom with light pink flowers that blew all over the green of the freshly cut lawn. Beautiful. We even had a short but intense shower of .5 inches so I didn't have to water the garden afterward. All in all, it was a great day to be outside in my backyard.

Herb immigration

With all the news lately about immigration reform, I thought I'd move some Italian and Greek herbs around. Today, I transplanted the basil and oregano that I had purchased a couple of weeks ago as seedlings from Lowe's nursery. I've had them under the grow lamp in their own little pots but they were getting too big and I needed the lamp space for some more seeds anyway so across the border to a larger terra cotta planter they went. I mixed in about two cups of sand with each terra cotta to improve the drainage of the potting soil since herbs like a well-drained footing. The oregano will now reside in the window until it's safe to put them on the deck in the full sun for the summer where they'll be happy. I still had enough space to keep the basil terr cotta under the grow lamp but that may change soon. That last frost date can't get here soon enough.

I then re-used the plastic pots and grow lamp space to sow some more basil seeds in seed starting soil and put them under the lamp. We'll eat a lot of basil so I'm planning a third terra cotta planter from these seeds. I'll probably sow some directly in the garden as well just to see how it does. I've got a pack of oregano seeds but at this point, no more space to sow them so they'll just have to wait a while.

Salad section

I had the camera outside today so I thought I'd take a shot of how the lettuce and spinach is just beginning to peek out of the ground. This is nine days after planting.

Carrot planting and making my bed

I planted the first row of baby carrots today. These are the minicor variety from Cook's Garden which has this to say about them in their catalog:

This is our top choice for the small, tender, baby carrots. My grandmother always kept a bowl of baby carrots in ice water on her kitchen table for us kids to munch when we came in from the garden for lunch, and it was always empty by the time we left. The quick growing roots gain their color and flavor early, and their uniform 3 to 4 inch length also makes them great for canning. Very small core makes them super tender and juicy.

My planting was about 1/4" to 1/2" deep (these are very small seeds). The 20 Minute Gardener recommends planting them with some ashes from the fireplace to sweeten them up but I just scattered a bit of pelleted lime across the top and figured it would do the same thing to raise the pH.



I also did a good bit of digging to ready another smaller raised bed that is a part of my son's playground set. This is where I'll put one of the hop varieties (the rhizomes arrived today in the mail and are stored safely in the fridge with some moisture in a ziplock bag) to climb what was a rope ladder before the wooden rungs got rotted and broke off. I used the same mixture of soil elements as in the other bed. I still had lots of sphagnum peat from the first bed (I bought two bales because it was cheaper and I knew I'd use it eventually), some sharp builder's sand, and a bit of composted cow manure. I had to make a quick trip to Kmart (why Southern States closes at 3PM on Saturday in springtime is beyond me) for some more topsoil to mix in. A few minutes with the eggbeater tiller and it's ready to plant the hops after the last frost is passed (May 10-14 says my local ag extension agent).



I wasn't done yet. I dug out four holes in the mulched area of the playground and filled them back with the soil mix. One of these will be for the other hop variety which will climb the swingset. The others will be where I'll plant pumpkin, watermelon, and cantaloupe. Their vines will have plenty of room to spread out and run around the playground without being much in the way or getting on the lawn where I won't be able to mow.

After all this digging and mixing, my back hurts. Advil to the rescue.

Miscellaneous accounting

I realized that there have been some expenses I've not recorded. On 3/25 I spent $25.45 at Southern States for odds and ends like a measuring cup, seed starter soil, powdered Miracle Gro fertilizer (two kinds, one of which is a tomato specialty formula), a trellis netting that I'm planning to use for training hop vines, and some pole bean seeds for James' bean teepee.

The rest of the seeds were ordered off the internet and came from The Cook's Garden. With shipping, that totaled $55.35 and includes the Wall-O-Water and some peppers that will be shipped later not as seeds but as plants. Other than that, I've spent $9.95 on a box of 75 landscape fabric pins (I already had the fabric which I'm planning to use for weed control), $6.77 on five more bags of topsoil for the new smaller bed (more on this later), $23.01 on four hop rhizomes from Northern Brewer, and about $5 for a bag of mulch (can't find the receipt even though it was only about eight hours ago). That brings my project total to $416.18.

Gullywasher

Like most of the rest of the southeast, we experienced some major storms yesterday and last night. At least five people were killed near Nashville in the town of Gallatin due to tornados. The line of thunderstorms arrived here in southwest Virginia about 10:00PM. The lightening and thunder was impressive but thankfully no tornados were reported that I'm aware of. It rained all night and I'm sure there will be some problems with flooding. We live near the crest of a hill so flooding isn't much of an issue for our yard or garden. However, the raised bed is on a slight incline and I was fearful that the intense rain would erode channels in the soil and wash out some of the lettuce seed. I also had two Wall-o-Water solar plant insulators out warming the soil for tomato plants to go in when the seedlings get big enough. A week ago, a much less intense storm blew over a third so I figured these were probably down as well.

When I got up this morning I went out to the garden to check it all out. Surprisingly, they were still standing and no erosion had washed out like I had feared. The rain gauge was full to 1.8 inches so it was quite a downpour overnight. The lettuce and spinach sprouts even look like they've grown since yesterday so I'm very pleased. I had hoped to get some carrots out this weekend but it may be too wet to plant and the weather is calling for even more rain. Carrots may have to wait until the sun comes out a bit.

Tomato maintenance

Yesterday (4/6), James and I thinned the tomato seedlings to one per cell pack. We had planted 3-4 seeds in each one and I was pleased to see that almost every seed had sprouted. Nevertheless, each cell can only support one seedling without being crowded out when the root structure expands so we carefully selected the heartiest looking one from each cell and clipped off the rest with scissors. Afterward, we repotted two of them into larger pots. These were the first two that we had planted two or three days before the rest. All these went back under the grow lights inside until it warms up a bit more.

I mixed up some more liquid fertilizer today (18-18-21) and applied it to the seedlings as well as the basil and oregano I've got under the lights, awaiting repotting.

One of the three Wall-o-Water solar tents that I've had on the planting spots for the tomatos blew over in the wind the other night so I just took it down. I'm only planning on planting two tomato plants anyway. The others, I'll try to pot and give away to good homes.

Oh my Deer!

I'm less than a week into planting the garden and we're already getting our first pests. I went out yesterday morning to check the rain gauge and noticed some distinct deer hoofprints. There's nothing for them to eat yet but I don't want them getting in the habit of browsing my garden like their personal produce section. Looks like I'll be constructing some type of barrier, most likely a chicken-wire mesh. I'd like to find some design that I can easily remove for tending the plants once they've grown higher. I don't want to be bending over all the time. Fortunately, the garden isn't big enough to worry about them jumping a high fence. There would barely be space enough for them to land, much less stand and graze. 4 x 8' just isn't that big. If anyone has such a design, please let me know.

The rain came again last night. About .4" fell after I watered yesterday afternoon so the peat moss in the mix should be really soaking up the moisture by now. That's good, because I've started to worry that I mixed in too much sand with the mix.

Precipitation

Last night we had a light rain, just after I planted the lettuce and spinach, just before dark. The rain gauge this morning showed .3 of an inch. Today is sunny with high clouds and temps over 70. I'm thinking this was just ideal timing for these seeds to go in the ground. Maybe I was right to wait this long after all.

First seeds in the ground

Today was the day it all began. Say what you will about year round gardening, seedings under lights, soil preparation, composting, mulching, etc; it really feels like the garden is open when there are seeds planted outside. That's what happened today as I put out the first of the crops in the new raised bed. The selections will form the "salad section" of the garden and consist of arugula (rocquette), lettuce (florenscheiss romaine), rosalita (another romaine), and spinach. Today's temps hit over 70 again so I figured it was now or never for the lettuce. If the bed had been ready earlier, I would have planted earlier, maybe around the middle of March instead of the last day of the month. Oh well.

I also did a soil test with a home kit that I bought at Southern States. The pH was around 6.5-7 as far as I could tell from the color chart on my admittedly inexpensive test kit. The slight acidity was no doubt due to the sphagnum peat mix that I used in the soil mix (I still haven't blogged the soil recipe yet but I'll get to it eventually). The dolomitic lime that I added last week hasn't had time to dissolve and leech in yet but that should bring the measurement more alkaline in time as it does.

For what it's worth, I also cut the lawn for the first time today. The mowing looks great and it was actually fun to be out on the John Deere tractor again zipping around the yard. Before getting going however, I did all the annual maintenance called for in the manual as well as that recommended at 25 hours of run rime. The tractor was new at this time last year and the display read 24.5 hours when I started today. I'll be curious to look back this time next year and see if that holds true again.

Oh, I almost forgot. James and I were at Lowe's this morning and I made a pass through the garden center. The herbs looked good so I picked up a couple of basil and oregano plants as well as some pots to transplant them to. I'll put them out on the deck when it gets warm enough. They're under the grow lights right now, keeping the tomato seedlings company. Basil and tomatos go so well together on the plate that they should learn to live together from an early age in my garden. I'm planning to also get some rosemary and grow the herbs in pots on the back deck where they'll get plenty of sun and be close to the kitchen for easy picking. I also love garlic but that's a bulb best planted in the fall so I'll get to that then when other plants are beginning to peter out.

Today's costs totaled $50.77 (the herb pots were most of that), bringing the project total to $290.65.

Let's grow, Sproutlets!

Ok, I have a toddler who watches a lot of Sesame Street on the Sprout cable channel, so that's the first thing that comes to mind. However, the sproutlets in question are in the seed cells under the grow light. Last night the ones planted in seed starting mixture poked through the soil. The lights have been on 24/7 since planting and it took just four days to germinate and be visible.

Yesterday, I put out three "Wall-o-Water" covers in the raised bed. These will be for the tomato plants. The directions note that the "Wall-o-Water" should be in place for a week in order to warm the soil. It should get some good sun today as the high is predicted to be 72.

First emergence from the soil

The first green shoots emerged today from one of the cells planted with James on 3/22. It took six days from planting (two under lights) until they were visible above the soil. I also finished filling the raised bed and mixing all the elements together with the tiller. I watered and left it alone to settle.

Let there be light! (and it was good)

Ok, ok, I actually broke down and built a grow lamp in the laundry room with materials I purchased from Home Depot. The space we have isn't large enough to accomodate a four foot "shop" lamp so I had to use a two foot fixture, wire up a plug, and put in "grow" bulbs that simulate the proper part of the light spectrum to stimulate growth. I'm no electrician so I was very surprised how quick and easy this actually turned out to be. I hung the whole thing from a chain on some hooks I had bought to organize the garage (and never got around to mounting).

Below the lights, I hung a plastic-coated shelf meant to organize closets and put the cell tray of seedlings on it. While I was shopping, my wife and son planted five more cells with stupice tomato seed in seed starting mix that I had purchased today from Southern States. Liquid fertilzer (Miracle Grow 18-18-21) was added to all seven cells to get them jump-started. The total cost of the shelving, chain, and light was $61.67, bringing the total project cost so far to $239.88.

Tomato seeds begun in cell packs

Today I planted two tomato (stupice variety) cells with 2-3 seeds in each cell tray. I don't have any grow lights so I kept them in the warmth of the kitchen window with the clear plastic top on to keep them warm. My two year old son James was my "helper" and very excited about the garden. We didn't have any seed starting mix so I just used potting soil for these two since he was so excited about planting them. We already had the cell packs from a previous gardening experiment a few years ago that my wife had done so there was no (new) cost associated with these.

Construction begins

The book describes a 4' x 8' raised bed made from 2'x 8's and filled with a precise mix of soil and nutrients that vegetables love. I followed the directions and easily constructed the bed in about an hour while my son watched and drew with sidewalk chalk on the driveway. The more time-consuming task was taking up the sod, tilling the ground to break up the hard earth and partially filling the bed with the soil elements. I used a small gas powered tiller to mix it all together. It worked like an egg beater and mixed it all up just right.

The purchase

Today I began the garden season by opening up not the earth but my wallet. The entire family made the trek to Home Depot (we needed two cars to carry all the stuff). We had planned to go out to eat afterward but it took so long that the kids needed to get to bed so we just came home, driving slowly as both cars were overloaded with heavy bags of soil elements.

I'm working off the plan for a raised bed garden described in The 20-Minute Vegetable Gardener: Gourmet Gardening for the Rest of Us by Tom Christopher and Marty Asher.

The total cost of all materials to build and fill the bed was $178.29. That got me the wood, hinges, screws, topsoil, sand, sphagnum peat moss, and composted cow manure. I also threw in some pelleted lime to offset the acidity of the peat moss and a small box of 6-12-6 fertilizer.

Garden prep 2006

I guess I should begin by telling you that my backyard is located in Southwest Virginia, in Washington County, in the town of Abingdon to be precise. According to the USDA, we are located in gardening zone 6b which is colored orange on this lovely graph.

This blog will detail my attempts to construct and manage a garden for the first time. It's basically my own record so I can know what I did in the garden on specific dates for coming years. If you garden nearby or in the same zone, I'd love to hear from you. Heck, if you even bother reading this, I'd be glad to hear from you so feel free to post a comment.