21 December 2007

Sulfur for blueberries

I put down about half a 50 lb bag of sulfur along the length of the back fence yesterday. I'm trying to get the soil pH more acidic, with the intention of transplanting some blueberry bushes there in the spring. I tried this last year on a shorter section and later in the winter. The result was that I didn't get it down in time and if I had actually transplanted them in the spring, I would have burned up their roots with all the fresh sulfur. I wanted to get it down in the fall this year but with no rain until just a couple of weeks ago, the ground wouldn't have absorbed it anyway. I hope it's not too late and that I spread it thin enough to do some good but thick enough to change the pH to the range that blueberries like.

30 October 2007

Frosty the Halloween Man

We awoke this morning to the first killing frost of the season. 28 degrees F at 8:00 and a thick layer of frost on the ground. I neglected to get the garlic out yesterday. I hope I'm not too late.

28 October 2007

Gar-Link

I love garlic. So much so that my wife has named me "Gar-Link" when I eat a lot of it. My favorite is in a hummus recipe that I make about once a month and share with my next door neighbor who is also can't get it strong enough. I make two versions, the one for me and to share and another for my family.

Anyway, today begins the garlic planting season. I ordered two kinds, both hardneck varieties, to plant this year. I wanted to have something from the garden that you can't get at the grocery so I went to Gourmet Garlic Gardens and picked out a variety from the Porcelain and Rocambole families. Bob, the owner and self-proclaimed "Garlicmeister", called before shipping to say that the Porcelain "Metechi" that I had chosen didn't do well enough to ship this year and he suggested substituting another similar one called "Georgia Fire". They're all new to me so I agreed. The Rocambole that I got is "Spanish Roja". I was really pleased with the size of the cloves and it looks like Bob did me right. We'll see next summer.

Today, I followed the instructions to separate the cloves and soak overnight in water with baking soda. I don't have any liquid seaweed but that would also be good, says the directions from Bob. Planting is tomorrow, about a week later than I planted last year but with all the warm weather and drought, I'd say I'm ok for waiting, maybe even better. I don't want it to blow all the energy above ground before the chill hits and have little left over to survive the winter.

30 September 2007

Cover crops planted

In the potato bed- Alfalfa. In the melon/pumpkin bed- a mix of hairy vetch and clover. In the bean/tomato/pepper bed- field peas. The tomato/pepper bed will be planted in garlic for the winter. The salad bed by the deck and the one at the end of the garage are yet to be decided on.

21 September 2007

Down time

I'm in the process of taking down the garden and getting ready for fall planting and cover crops. The last of the peppers came out of the garden last weekend and have been used for canning salsa.

02 August 2007

Harvest dates


First tomato this year was a Cherokee Purple on July 15.  We might have had a few earlier but the deer have been a real nuisance.  However, you can see by this picture that the tomatoes are coming along nicely now.  This photo is of a Brandywine variety.

The green beans continue to produce, despite being ravaged by Japanese beetles.  They really seemed to love the leaves.

The giant sunflowers opened this week and are beautiful at the end of the deck.  I'll have to get a photo.  At present, they're about eight feet tall with flowers about a foot across.

The first melon was ready today.  It's an Earlisweet variety.  Sometime since last night when I last checked, the stem started to pull away from the fruit.  It tastes good but not as sweet as some I've had from other gardens.  I'm hoping the Athena variety will be really tasty.  They should begin ripening for picking soon, I hope. 

11 July 2007

Let the harvest begin


Today was a the beginning of what I hope will be a good harvest from the garden. I picked harvested the rest of the garlic and have it hung for drying. The "Garden Sunshine" plants have been heavy with multiple peppers so I finally got around to picking them. I also ate one in a quesadilla for lunch and it was delicious. The fingerling potato plants have really started to lay over and brown up. At first, I thought I'd over-watered them but a friend told me that's just what they do when they're ending their growth cycle so I dug a good supply for roasting, along with some carrots, which have been ready for a few weeks. The green beans continue to produce in large amounts so I picked the trellis clean. My biggest excitement, however, was that I will soon have the first tomato of the year, as one of the Cherokee Purple variety has started to ripen. Despite getting the tomatoes in earlier this year, they've taken longer to ripen. I'm not sure if that's due to the drought or to the different variety. Last year the Stupice tomatoes were ready on July 4.

I also did some re-stringing of the tomatoes, which are getting very heavy now. I was convinced by a local farmer to try this method of stringing instead of staking but the result has been a big messy look and a constant struggle to keep them from falling over. Next year, I'm going back to the stakes.

Lastly, the melons and giant pumpkin have really started producing in the last week or so. I'll have four melons ready to pick this week and the main pumpkin on the vine has quadrupled in size in the last three days.

Buzzin' busy



My wife the beekeeper said it's past time to check on the bees again so last night she donned the gear and we lit up the smoker for a trip to the hive. We've been keeping them well fed and hydrated with a sugar water solution. They go through a full Mason sized jar about every two days, quicker if it's dry which it has been lately. She opened up the hive and was pleased to see that not only are the bees pulling out the cones but several have already been filled with honey and capped off. This will be their winter food source so this is a good sign of the health of the hive. We don't want things to get too crowded and risk the collapse of the hive so we're going to order a "super" to put on top of the hive body. This will give more room for them to expand and put away more honey, except that when we're ready to harvest, we'll take from the super and leave their original stores alone.

01 July 2007

Oh, Deer Me!

We've seen what I assume is this same deer in our backyard several times for about a week now. Our yard seems to be a convenient cut through from the timberline across the street and down our fence to the park and on to more coverage. I wouldn't mind at all being the deer highway, except that this Bambi stops to "munch on our garden" as my three year old puts it. She's particularly fond of the tops of tomato, pepper, and strawberry plants. The fencing keeps her out of most of the garden but some is still exposed through the gateway and along the edge. I went to Southern States on Saturday to get some kind of anti-deer product (I hear bear urine is good but a little tough to come by) but they were closed. I'll try again next week.

26 June 2007

A Date That Will Live In Infamy

I saw the first Japanese Beetle of the year today.  The invasion has begun.

Garlic on the (land)scape

I went out this morning to check the garden and noticed that the garlic has put up scapes.  I had looked for this about a month ago but then was told by a farmer at the Abingdon Farmer's Market that soft-necked varieties don't have scapes, only the hard-necked kind.  Either I planted something different or got some incorrect information.  I've written Ellen at Beagle Ridge Herb Farm where I obtained the garlic for planting to see if she can help clear up the mystery. 

25 June 2007

A snapshot in time






















Here are some photos to log how each item in the garden was doing on today's date so I can compare progress in future years.

16 June 2007

Choppin' broccoli

My broccoli plants had huge leaves but weren't producing any of the good stuff. I was willing to wait it out but then the bugs attacked and started eating holes in the leaves. I didn't want to risk an infestation on my other plants for the sake of something that might not produce anyway so I pulled the broccoli (bugs and all) and sent it to the compost heap.

Then I noticed a small black mite-like bug on my potato plants that was also causing some tiny leaf holes. Following the suggestion of some Master Gardener friends, I sprayed the leaves with a soap/oil/water concoction in an effort to kill the bugs. I guess we'll see how it goes.

Oh, the big news is that it's finally rained a little in the past week or so, the first significant rainfall in about six weeks. The paper says that from January to May was the worst drought in our region in 118 years. I've been watering the garden so most everything is still looking ok but the giant pumpkin has definitely suffered under the drought and heat. It's still healthy but nothing like what it might have been under the best conditions.

19 May 2007

Gimme Some Sugar


Come on now
Gimme some sugar
Gimme some sugar
Little honey bee
-Tom Petty, "Honey bee"
We are now the proud caretakers of a backyard hive of honeybees, thanks to my father-in-law and the good folks at Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. Hopefully, this will provide us with a source of honey and the bees will help pollinate the garden and the other flowers in the yard. We (and by that I mean my wife) successfully hived a swarm of bees that arrived today in the mail. She grew up keeping bees with her dad as her 4H project so she knew what to do after a little refresher reading. Her dad gave us one of their old hives and with a little TLC and some new replacement parts it was refurbished and ready to go. The swarm arrived today in this box, complete with a separate container to house the queen. The bees are collected around it so it's hard to see in this photo. The plan is to let them get acquainted with their new hive and then check on them in a week. Luckily, that will be Memorial Day weekend and my father-in-law will be visiting so he can get to see inside the hive and tell us how they are doing.

16 May 2007

Parade of Peppers

UPS just delivered another round of peppers for transplant that I had ordered from Burpee. These are The Godfather variety, one that I had last year and really liked. It's an Italian frying pepper, more sweet than hot. I liked them in quesadillas and the occasional salad. Like the last batch, I took them straight to the garden and transplanted them. It's about to rain so they should be welcomed to their new beds with more moisture than they've had in the shipping box for the last few days.

08 May 2007

P4: Pruning plastic, planting potatoes

We're approaching the last frost date and I took a bit of a look at the weather map and decided to chance it. Up came the rest of the plastic that had been warming the beds for the potatoes, pumpkin, and melons.
I put out the french fingerling potatoes from Seed Savers that arrived a few days ago. They've been resting under the grow light to get them to sprout at the eyes before going in the ground. I could have done this about two weeks ago but they only shipped on May 1. I'll save some for my own seed stock next year and try to give them a head start by going in April.
The giant pumpkin has been in the ground for about five days but under the cold frame where it appears to be thriving. In fact the automatic opener arm has slipped a couple of times and its gotten a bit wilted when the top didn't open as it should. A little air, some water, and that Dill's Atlantic Giant bounces right back to looking good. If I were going for a world record, that stress would be a no-no but 1500 lbs is probably out of my range anyway.
I put in two varieties of melons, Earlisweet Hybrid and a couple of Athenas. Managing all the vine growth is going to be a challenge this year but I'll figure out something.
Oh, I almost forgot, I was outside today harvesting the worm compost and applying as a side dressing when UPS pulled up with an order of Ancho/Poblano peppers for transplanting that I had forgotten I had ordered. They never even got inside the house as I took them straight to the garden and put them out.

27 April 2007

Bitter lettuce in April

I fixed a salad last night with the florellenschluss lettuce that's been going gangbusters in the cold frame. I've had the automatic arm to keep it from overheating during the day but with the weather warming up, it's still getting too warm in there and the lettuce started tasting bitter, particularly near the base. So today, I pulled off the cold frame to keep the temps down and hopefully extend the green season. The good news is that the cold frame is now covering two tomato and two pepper plants out in the garden with enough room still in between for me to use for hardening off seedlings.

Wildflower I.D. 101


While cutting the lawn today, I noticed a huge explosion of small yellow wildflowers in my neighbor's yard that have just begun to come up in my backyard. I picked a sample and keyed it out using Newcomb's Wildflower Guide. I'm still an amateur when it comes to botanical identifications but the key led me to believe that the plant in question is either downy or fern-leafed false foxglove, members of the genus Gerardia in the Figwort family. Can anyone confirm if this is correct from the picture?

Update: A friend with the Beagle Ridge Master Naturalist Chapter confirmed that indeed I am a complete amateur with flower I.D. According to her (and Newcomb's agrees), it's a common buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus).

25 April 2007

Heirloom tomatos, melons, pumpkins, and pole beans

I got a gift yesterday from my wife's coworker who passed along a couple of tomato seedlings (Pruden's Purple and Powers Heirloom) . She took home my extra asparagus crowns that wouldn't fit in our garden. Good trade. They're resting inside right now but will be going to the garden soon.

I'm getting a late start on seedlings for melons and pumpkins but I just got enough room under the grow light to get them going. The melons are two varieties: Earlisweet hybrid and Athena. I planted the Earlisweet last year but a very wet May and the cucumber beetles did them in and I didn't replant. The Athena is a new variety to me but a local organic grower of note, Anthony Flacovento recommended them in his newspaper column and I thought I'd give them a try.

The pumpkin is a Dill's Atlantic Giant. This is the the variety that all world record holders have been grown from for the past ten years or more. A new record was set last year, just over 1500 lbs. I'm planning to tend it well but nothing like the love they get from the world class growers. I just want a giant pumpkin for my kids at Halloween. I'm betting I can get to 200 lbs. or better. We'll see.

Finally, I set out some pole beans, Blue Lake F1 variety. I soaked them briefly in innoculant slurry and direct seeded them to the garden after cutting a hole in the black plastic around the already-installed climbing trellis.

21 April 2007

The Big Day

This was the big day outside that we've been waiting for. The weather was pretty and temps were not too hot. Just right for getting outside. I put in the strawberry plants that have been growing under my indoor light and then covered them with a floating row cover (Agribon 19). I used wire hoops that I made myself from heavy gauge wire from Home Depot. This was much less expensive than buying the pre-cut wire from the row cover catalog. I also constructed a trellis for the pole beans to grow on, using three prefab climbers that I attached in a triangle using plastic computer cable zips. Finally, the bee hive that was gifted from my father-in-law and repainted this winter went outside, resting on a brick base to keep it off the moisture. It's still without frames and in need of some additional parts before hiving a swarm. We may not even get a swarm this year since there is a national problem with Colony Collapse Disorder. Before finishing, I also put out two broccoli plants.

Mower update

I changed oil and filter in the John Deere to begin the new mowing season. The LT 160 mower has just under 50 hours of service on the display. Last year was 24.5 hours at the beginning of the season so year #2 was almost identical in terms of engine hours.

20 April 2007

Garden Faire more than just fair

I just got back from a quick spin through the 10th Annual Mid-Atlantic Garden Faire, held here in Abingdon. It's put on by the Master Gardeners of VA Cooperative Extension at the Southwest Virginia Higher Ed Center.

I had my one year old in a stroller so my browsing was pretty much limited to the larger main aisles rather than getting in the booths to inspect plants and accessories. Overall, it gives a great impression of being well-organized and with a wide selection of vendors both local and regional. I bought the weekend pass ($10) so I can go back again tomorrow and Sunday.

17 April 2007

Postmortem

Well, the late snow and cold temps killed off some of the early salad plantings I had made outside the cold frame. The swiss chard seems to have made it through and maybe some sugar snap peas but the carrots, arugula, and spring onions are going to need a re-planting. Hopefully, I can get to it this weekend and whatever else nature has to send before the last frost date won't kill them off again.

Plastic protection prevents premature passing

I put out the first of the tomatoes and a pepper plant this morning. It's still too cold to do so conventionally but I hope I've given them enough protection with plastic mulch and Wall-o-Water coverings. I hope.

15 April 2007

Spring beats a hasty retreat

I'm watching at the window right now as snow is pouring down. It's 37 degrees outside so it's not really sticking to the ground but if it continues after dark, things could get interesting. The National Weather Service has issued two alerts for our area; snow and high wind. Additionally, there's a flood alert not far away. Things could be worse, I suppose. The northwest is getting blanketed by a late season storm that is dumping snow in large amounts.

I guess it's a good thing I got the asparagus crowns planted on Friday. Or maybe not, if they don't survive.

12 April 2007

Worm harvest


Since beginning the vermicomposting system, I've only been adding but today I collected castings for the first time. One bin of the Worm Wrangler.com system yielded about two gallons of castings after about 4-5 months of letting the red wigglers do their thing on our kitchen waste. The other bins are stacked and I'm filling about one a month, which means another two gallons of garden gold will be coming my way just as the planting season is really getting underway. I'm going to use this batch to fertilize the asparagus crowns that are going in the ground in the next few days.

Dogwood winter


Despite the warm weather in early March, Old Man Winter wasn't (isn't?) done with us yet. Last week saw four nights of sub-freezing temps that have wrecked havoc on gardens and farmers in the region. This is known colloquially as "Dogwood Winter," even though at our elevation, the dogwoods aren't yet blooming.

Luckily, I didn't have much out yet and was able to pull containers of herbs inside temporarily. I had placed one container of tomato and pepper seedlings in the cold frame to begin the hardening off process and forgot about them. Despite the thermal cover, the cold bit them hard and they died. Luckily, I have more inside under the lamp. Probably my biggest worry are the hop vines that had begun to sprout and climb. They were about a foot off the ground and look pretty bad right now. I'm hoping the rhizome will send up some new shoots. The chard and sugar snap peas in the salad bed had sprouted. They're cold hearty so I don't think any long-term damage was done to them. My biggest disappointment was that the flowering cherry tree at the north end of the property had just begun to break its buds when the chill hit. We won't be seeing it's spectacular beauty this year.

03 April 2007

Christo and Jeanne-Claude would be proud


Yesterday was spent putting down plastic sheeting to warm the soil for planting. I used SRM red plastic for where the tomatoes and strawberries will go and black for the rest. Afterward, I filled the green Wall-o-Water solar collectors. The net effect was quite colorful and reminded me (on a small scale) of "Surrounded Islands" by Christo and Jeanne-Claude.

23 March 2007

Herbal remedy for the winter blahs

With temps of 75, spring is officially here, although the danger of the last killing frost won't be passed for over a month from now. Nevertheless, I've begun to get a few early season plants out. Yesterday, some spring onions went in, alongside the carrots and swiss chard, just outside the cold frame. I also seeded some dill in a small planter and some lavender inside in pots for later transplanting. The other seeds in flats are doing well; especially the sage. When I thinned it, the smell from the roots was wonderfully fresh.

Bed prep continues. I pulled the straw mulch off a couple of raised beds and will cover with plastic this weekend to begin warming the soil for tomato, pepper, melon, and strawberry plants.

21 March 2007

Peas but no pods (yet)

The first outside seeds without the cold frame to protect them went in today. Sugar snap peas are in the ground and ready to climb up the trellis that I built along the porch. I also put in a couple of rows of carrots (Danver's Half Long variety) from Seed Savers as well as a row of Swiss Chard.

The spinach and lettuce in the cold frame are going gangbusters. It's time for another planting of spinach so we can start having salad from the first planting in the cold frame. I also pulled the mint out of the frame and re-potted it in a larger container to spread in for the summer. We like to make mint tea and it requires a lot of leaves.

03 March 2007

Strawberry seeds started

I got started yesterday on planting seeds under the gro-light for this year's garden. The first ones to go in are strawberries. I'll also be ordering some strawberry plants but I wanted to try growing them from seed also. The variety are alpine, a bit smaller but with shorter runners than regular strawberries, which is good in my raised bed. It's still a bit early to start these indoors but I'm planning on covering their bed with red plastic to warm the soil and using a floating row cover to give them some extra growing time, hoping to get a crop the first year after all.

I'm also planning on starting some tomato seeds today.

20 February 2007

Seeds arrive II

Not long after finishing the last post, the doorbell rang and UPS delivered the rest of my seed order, this time from Burpee. I used them for herbs and flowers. I haven't finished all my ordering for this year's garden but this completes the vast majority of it. Here's what I got: Lavender, Genovese basil, parsley, sage (organic), cilantro/coriander (organic), dill (bouquet, also organic), two types of sunflowers (sunforest mix and American Giants hybrid), marigold (nema-gone). Burpee also threw in a gift of some mixed flowers that they labeled as a butterfly mix. I also ordered three Wall-o-Water packages. I'll use some and plan to give a few to a gardening friend at my wife's work. Total with shipping: $74.80. I've still got to order asparagus crowns, swiss chard, spinach, arugula, beans and peas (with innoculant). I think I've still got some carrot and lettuce seed from last year. I need to check on melons as well.

Seeds arrive

My trip to the mailbox today was rewarded as two shipments of seeds have arrived. The first was from Johnny's Selected Seeds. This was just a small order of three items: onions, strawberries, and pumpkin seeds. The onions are evergreen hardy white bunching variety. The strawberries are Alexandria, which is an alpine variety (short runners, small but tasty fruit), and the pumpkin is Dill's Atlantic Giant, the variety grown by world record holders and developed in Nova Scotia. Total with shipping: $12.70. The second envelope was from Seed Savers Exchange in Iowa. It held seeds for Brandywine (Sudduth's) tomatoes, Cherokee Purple tomatoes, Calabrese Broccoli, and Garden Sunshine peppers (sweet). All varieties from Seed Savers are heirlooms and have been collected and cultivated for many years. Total with shipping: $15.00.Link

11 January 2007

Freeze Frame

My new cold frame from Peaceful Valley arrived on Monday. It was just in time for our first snow of more than just a dusting of the year. We got about two inches. I was concerned that the frame might collapse since it was a very wet and heavy snow so I went out and swept it off and suffered no ill effects. I'll say more when I get something planted in it.

05 January 2007

Birds of a feather...

The local paper had a front page article this morning about the birds in our area. Specifically, large flocks of starlings are roosting in the trees here in east Abingdon. They roost together at night to keep warm and can create quite a powerful mess to clean up after if they dive bomb your car. We have a row of pine trees in our backyard that borders the town park and they love to roost there. I've come out on the back deck in the evening and startled them out of the tree. They flock through the air together with a massive rush of wind and feathers, like a school of fish aloft. It's actually quite beautiful. My neighbors aren't so thrilled with the cleanup that's necessary but we haven't had any problems at our house.