Growing up

There are some people that look at the garden I have now and say that it is easy to garden when you have this much space.  Actually, it is harder to garden when you have this much space!  There are more weeds, more ground to cover, and more time to do it all.  It does have its advantages, but limited space should not be a reason to not garden at all.  I have kept some type of garden in most all places that I have lived in my adult life.  Many times the space was limited.  Vertical gardening is the way I made the most out of limited space.  There are many crops that prefer growing up rather than out.  You also don't have to spend a bunch of money on fancy planters when an old garden gate or some fallen branches can supply a support for those upward bound crops.  Pruning a tomato plant to grow up more than out will also provide you with plenty of fruit without all the space.  Even crops that don't grow up naturally can be put into a planter which stacks your garden for low growing crops like lettuce and strawberries.

I have used the netting from our Christmas tree wrapping to train vines up which has gotten additional use out of something most people would discard rather than put in storage for the next six months.  If you are in a community that doesn't allow vegetable gardens, vertical use of space is a great way to sneak those edible crops into the landscape.  That alone is a whole topic yet to be discussed.  Some of the best crops to go vertical with are:

• pole beans
• peas
• tomatoes
• hardy kiwi
• cucumbers
• small melons
• squash
• pumpkins, especially smaller pie varieties
• Malibar spinach
• any crop you can put in a small pot or planter such as lettuce, strawberries, baby carrots, etc.

Your imagination and creative use of height will be your only limitation to how high you can go.

Putting up walls to keep out the weeds

It is the first day of summer, and I am just getting some major crops in the ground.  I have had little time and energy which has coincided with dry soil.  This weekend became do or die time for me.  I worked this week on tomatoes and peppers during a couple evening hours.  Friday was dedicated to getting my daughter started on her own garden.  Saturday dawned early for me and I got out there.
Rain was a threat all day, so I determined I would work as quickly as I could for as long as it would allow.  In the end, time ran out and still no rain when we had to leave for a party invitation.  I was feeling pretty good about getting so much done even with so much still to do.  I made the garden space the size I did so I could do crops like pumpkins and squash this year  
My biggest obstacle is the prior occupants lack of interest in this garden space.  The fence was harboring all kinds of weeds and the interior was a solid mass 3' and taller with all kinds of weeds indicative of poor soil.  The seed bank in this garden is enormous.  I got busy early and got a fence up.  Potatoes, onions and peas are all flourishing.  I was eating the first ripe peas while burning weeds around the fence perimeter that the tiller can not reach.  Delicious!  My husband ran the tiller around the second half of the fenced portion for me yesterday so the beans could finally get in the ground.  I covered about half of the square footage with pieces of old weed barrier.  I cut holes, added compost and then planted each hole with a pepper or tomato.  Today I came on to a new solution.  The Weed Dragon.  I purposely singed the edge of the plastic based barrier yesterday to keep it from fraying.  I like the way it looked.  

This is my old method of creating planting holes in the weed fabric.  Effective but time consuming and requires a lot of time on the knees.
















This is the new method of a quick touch of the Weed Dragon to create fray-free planting holes.  I shoveled the compost on to the top of the hole, lifted at the edge and scooped all the compost under the fabric.  The hole is easy enough to access the soil underneath to work it with a trowel and add the plant.  I am hoping that the fabric will minimize the amount of weeding that I have to do.  In a garden this size with the weed seed waiting to sprout, it would be a full-time job just keeping my vegetable patch.  Time will tell if this method will be effective or not.

The last big job was setting up for my pole beans.  I purchased netting for trellising six feet high and 12 feet long.  With two of these, I am able to provide enough netting for all my pole beans.  The support structure for the netting is two old ladders held in place with T-posts on each side of both ladder legs.  This will be great for reaching the late season tall vines.  I am putting in the filet beans as well as Romano pole beans which are left over from last year.  I also have the Lazy Housewife which  can be eaten fresh or ripened for dry beans.  Expanded metal pieces which I used at home to keep my seeds in the ground and out of the chipmunks' cheeks are being used here as well.  The population of chippies is pretty high. and they can get in just about anywhere.  After germination and true leaves appear, I can remove the metal and work around the base of the plants as needed.  Floating row cover will have to be sufficient for the rows of bush beans since I ran out of metal pieces before I ran out of seed.

The spinach was starting to bolt earlier this week, so the remainder was cut.  This made a nice spot open for carrot seeds.  The soil that I mounded with the cow manure last fall is quite sandy.  I added some compost before seeding and covered the plot with a piece of wood to keep the soil moist.  This method has been the most reliable way that I have found for carrot seed germination.  I will have to check under the board every day and remove it at the first sign of green.

I am not done yet.  I still have sweet corn to be planted.  Mine will not be knee high by the 4th of July.  I plan on tilling the area a third time as the weeds have started coming up thick in this area.  The corn will be in blocks to encourage the best germination possible.  I will under-plant the corn with pumpkins in hopes of deterring the raccoon that makes its way to the bird feeders every night to pick up what has fallen down.  I haven't dismissed the thought of using electric fence to surround the entire garden both high and low to try and fight hungry wildlife.  I want to make sure that the price is right before making the commitment to power up.  Okra plants went in over the weekend.  I have never grown this before and think I may have planted enough for a crowd.

I hope to enjoy a good variety of plants and have plenty to share.  I am lucky to have the space to try so many new plants.

Passing the torch, but running together

My oldest daughter and her husband occupy our house while we live at my job site.  If you look back at my posts through the years, you know this property is full of gardens.  It is no small undertaking to learn gardening in this environment.  My daughter has decided that she is up to the task.  
Between my job and hers, we are late getting at the gardens at both properties this year.  I got a good start at both places, but fell behind when my own work schedule picked up.  Michelle puts in a good amount of hours at her day job with a publishing company in addition to free lance work with a second.  Add a new puppy into the mix and the schedule gets pretty tight.  The only time we have set aside together has been to frequent some of the outdoor beer gardens in our local parks.  
This Friday we made a date to get busy.  The beer was picked up at the local liquor store famous for its price and selection.  I was pleasantly surprised when I arrived at the tremendous number of volunteer annuals that are filling the beds.  Our job was made easier as a result.  My plans had to be altered a bit as a result, but we ended up with a combination garden of flowers and vegetables as a result.
Michelle got familiar with the most prevalent weeds and got to work at clearing those spots out.  It took just a few more plants to make the garden complete.  The rain garden has filled in so well this year.  There are very few spots to put those shade loving plants that I have grown accustomed to adding every year.  The loss of the street tree has also changed the light level dramatically.  One of my Hostas at the edge was already showing sun scald.  There was also a complete mass of turf grass that despite my best past efforts, had completely engulfed one of my sedge clumps.  I dug out and removed all of that (ha! you never get it all) and my girls followed behind with her splash of color.  The result was very pleasing.  I also ended up with more Hostas for my very shady patch of earth in a smaller variety than what has already been installed at the new digs.
I knew that we would not finish this project together so we took the time to walk with a cold beer around the rest of the yard to discuss her next steps.  We looked over the seed packets purchased earlier this spring and talked about where they needed to go in the raised beds.  We talked about the current crops of potatoes, onions, and leeks that I did get in early in the season and their upcoming maintenance.  She had the usual question of how do you know when things are ready to harvest.  I told her a few times that she needs gardening to be a hobby, a time to relax.  Do things in small batches as a way to unwind and decompress at the end of the day.  Never look at it as another thing you have to do as this will take all the joy out of gardening. This is definitely a new stage of life for both of us.  Growing older is not a terrible tragedy as most folks view it.  Without the aging process, my daughters and I would not move past those tumultuous teenage years into a new phase of life where we share a beer and discuss the bigger things in life.  I am happy to have both my girls in that place where they are independent women who are making their own way in life.
Dark started to settle in as hunger gnawed at both of us.  Woman can not live on beer alone. My daughter headed in to make a very late supper, while I used the waning light to hand cultivate the vegetable beds to jump start her next planting day.  I looked up at the silver of moon followed by Venus in an indigo backdrop and savored my favorite part of the day.  The seasons turn and life takes its course.  Life is good.

June is berry month, and July, and August, and September

 A handful of strawberries a day is a pretty good deal in my book.  You can see that they are not huge, more the size of marbles.  Alpine strawberries are an ever-bearing strawberry.  They flower early and start producing the first berries about the end of May in our area.  They keep on producing until frost.  They love a top dress of compost every year, and occasionally need to be repotted.  I have successfully started more plants by letting them get over ripened.  I save those berries in a bag in the freezer and their little seeds fall right out of the fruit.  I put them on some growing media like seed starting mix, lightly covered, and keep them moist.  Bottom heat is not necessary, but light is.  They are tiny seedlings that can be transplanted a couple months after they emerge.  They do not run, so you can not propagate with that method of rooting the runners.  Keep the plants moist, but not wet.  I grow mine in window boxes in a stacked style planter.  A tiered planter might be more ideal.  Put the boxes in the ground over winter and pull them out again in spring to their summer home.  Berries must be fully ripe, no white on them, for the best flavor.  You will not be disappointed to have these lovely babies as part of your annual gardening traditions.

  

Delayed planting...now what?I am going to

I am beginning to think that it will always rain on the weekend.  At least the weekends that I plan to get my garden seeds in.  It is the middle of June and my tomato and pepper starts are still waiting on the patio.  The box of seeds which holds my beans, greens, and corn are still full of hopeful plans.  The tiny plugs of soil holding my vining crops are past the point of bursting.  The rain continues to fall.
News also came through the phone line this week that the roofers want to start replacing the aging roof on the farm house.  It will be nice to not have pans under drips, but it also means that the flowers which have been outgrowing their trays have to wait another couple weeks before taking root.  What is a gardener to do??
I am going to have to enlist a technique that most garden centers are doing now as well.  Pot up and hold it longer.  I have done this in the past on a small scale, but this looks like a monumental moment that will take several hours...and it is raining.  I have decided that the second trailer of compost will be my ally in this task.  I will put the plants in pots with compost instead of soiless mix or other media.  This will help me kill two birds with one stone.  The roots will have more room to grow and have some nutrition to give them that boost that they need.  I will not have to do a major soil amendment in the areas that they will be going eventually.  They will bring their media with them so I can reduce the amount I would have used otherwise.  I may also have to cut back the tops.  This will mean the loss of the existing flowers in some cases, but it will mean more branching and more buds in the future.  the secondary buds are often smaller, but the masses of color make up for that hands down.  Many times you would be dead heading plants around this point in the season, so this is not a drastic measure to take.  After potting up, I will find a semi-shady spot out of the path of the contractors.  Past experience has taught me that no matter how far you go, they will manage to need that space to work as well.  Some plants are already in the ground.  In this case, I will have to put up boards or shields to keep errant shingles from taking them out.  My herb garden that I put in last weekend is a prime target.  I am not going to remove the plants and it is pretty close to the house.  This area will benefit from a piece of plywood propped over the top during work hours.  
So...if the rain continues today, the rain canopy is going to come in handy.  I will set this up over my trailers of compost and start potting.  During the breaks in precipitation, I will do my best to get the tomatoes and peppers in the ground.  I may have to wait a few more days before the ground is prepped for the seeds inside my garden fortress.  I just hope frost doesn't beat me to the harvest this year.

Getting it together at the new digs a little bit at a time

I have grown (and purchased) a boat load of plants to fill all the gaps at our new residence.  Last year during the growing season, we still lived in our primary residence that we own.  This year we live in what is the manager's house where I work.  The short story is that so much old plant material had to be removed to make facility updates possible that we are starting from scratch in all respects.

I missed my herb garden this spring when it was not out my back door to snip fresh chives or thyme.  I have no mint for those refreshing summer drinks.  I spent a chunk of change at one garden center that carries a nice variety of modesty priced herbs.  I had no prepared ground to put them in.  I knew that I was going to have to make a few raised beds over old shrub stumps.  I used my collection of cinder block which I used for plant shelving in past years to do just that.  I even put my soil/compost blend in the centers of the block for the annual herbs like basil.  I also have the aggressive growers like mint confined in these holes.  The thyme will have the opportunity to trail down the side.  I alternated annual and perennial herbs in case they successfully winter and start to overflow their cells.  I back dropped the garden with some old trellises for some tomatoes (grape and yellow Sungold cherry type) and cucumbers.  It also is a bit of a privacy screen from the work areas and shade for the hostas on the opposite side of the wall it parallels.  I will also get the strawberry planters in their tower again as that is still the most convenient and best option I have used so far for the Alpine variety I grow.  This also provides a bit of screening which makes the patio feel a bit more intimate in such a spacious environment.

 I have pulled out some old planters from the weeds and placed them around the greenhouses and residence again.  They will provide a nice working height for food crops and our stock plants that we propagate.  It took an operator and equipment to get them out, but I love these old planters that still have plates on them designating the business that sponsored them decades ago.  They ended up at the nursery and were used for a short time before being mothballed.  They really were in the weeds before being pulled out into the spotlight again.  I had to dig out a fair amount of weedy soil so that we can put in some clean composted soil in the tops  One pot is home to my small stature blueberry bushes.  It is easier to transform the soil to be acidic and boggy when it is confined to a limited area.

The compost also came in handy for hilling the potatoes.  Straw adds and extra layer of soil retention in which the potatoes can grow.  It took quite a bit of soil, but the compost farm is just 10 minutes away so another trip was made for the other areas.
In addition to all the new area I have for gardening at the new digs, we still own our home in the city.  It is only 15 minutes away, so checking in is not a huge deal.  However, my daughter and her husband are novice gardeners.  They need the instruction of what is a weed and what isn't.  They have never put trowel to dirt on their own.  I will have to guide them through the season so they can have the most success in their very large gardening environment.  I have not been there for over a month, so there is lots of work to do.
So here it is, three days since I started writing this.  I am finally finishing this in the early hours of my day since I had to let my delivery drivers in for a 6 AM flower drop.  My days start early and end well after my hourly employees go home.  There is a lot of ground to cover in a day, and the work never ends.  Other than the regular frustrations of running a farm, I could not be happier with where I am.