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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.