Vacation garden explosion

Gardeners know what happens when you aren't there watching your garden on a day-to-day basis.  You do everything you can possibly catch up on before vacation in hopes that you will return to a garden plot that just needs a little tweaking when you return.  Gardeners are a delusional bunch of happy souls.
I left my plot in reasonable shape as I had a trusted caretaker to watch over the water duty while I was gone.  My garden was treated to several days of 80 degree plus weather in my absence.  When you add water to plants and add heat, they grow exponentially.  Weeds do the same.  

I soaked and planted the rest of my bean seeds before I left to make up for the miserable showing on the first sowing.  Mid-July is not a usual time for sowing, but you have to improvise when the situation dictates.  I weeded the areas around the new rows to allow as much water and light to encourage my new seeds.  I did not have enough time to do the whole area.  This is the one spot in my garden that had not been covered over with weed barrier and it shows.  I should be down on my hands and knees right now, but the weeds will wait while I enjoy my Saturday morning coffee.  I need to have a day where I don't dive into work the moment I open my door.  I had a sister that asked me once what do I do so my garden is so clear of weeds.  I told her that I weed them.  She thought I was guarding some trade secret, a chemical miracle, that would make her life easier.  I was finally able to convince her that all the large pots stationed in corners of my yard were indeed for quick weed disposal when I pull during my garden walks and not a Frisbee golf course for the athletically challenged.  This year is the first time I ever purchased a product called Preen.  It does cut down on the germination of new weed seeds.  It does not stop rooted or rhizome weeds from making their way back to the surface though.  You also cannot use it on gardens where you are trying to germinate seeds as it will effect those the same as weeds.

 The good thing about garden explosions is the vegetables and fruits that start to produce in tremendous force in your absence.  During the young growth period, most of use wander through the rows eagerly anticipating the first fruits of the season.  When you take a vacation during this initial period, you miss the first fruits as the trickle in.  After unpacking the trailer, I took my garden walk without a bucket or basket.  Pretty soon I was balancing too many cucumbers and squash and had to head back up for a vessel to hold it all.  The heat has continued through the week after vacation.  I take a bucket with me every time now.

My biggest surprise of the garden explosion was the recovery and growth of my cruciferous crops.  The cabbage had suffered greatly from spending too much time in the cell packs and not enough time in the garden.  They were stunted and leggy along with all the other cole crops I started in the greenhouse.  I almost didn't put them in thinking they were too far gone for any recovery.  I was proven wrong.  This was one of those garden hope moments that came through with big results.  I just need to keep a careful eye on them for cabbage moths and others that would love to do great harm to these babies.  The kohlrabi is even putting on some girth after the move to the soil.  
I better finish up my coffee and get a start on the weeds.  I am glad for the quiet morning moments when I get to sit and enjoy the garden.  The birds have encouraged me to get up and get something done.  Here are a few more photos from the garden explosion.

Zucchini 8 Ball

Zucchini and pumpkins co-mingling

Fairy Tale Eggplant

Basil and peppers

Lancelot leeks

Dinosaur kale, salsify and parsnips

Starting over, my new garden

 The gardening venture begins anew in a different place.  My daughter and her husband will enjoy the fruits of my labor in the raised beds I left behind at the house we have owned for over 20 years.  I now get to garden in a much larger plot, but one that has been neglected.  One previous gardener used Roundup on a paint roller to "weed" the garden.  The second gardener, I have learned from second hand reports, put in plants and and did very little follow up.  I can believe the reports as I spent all of last summer just trying to clean up dead weed stalks only to find all the precious little babies they were sprouting underneath.  I resorted to the first gardeners technique and used herbicide to control the weeds, but did not plant.  It was tilled a couple times as the compaction was horrific and I expanded the bound with the herbicide to bring it up to the size it was when I I kept a small corner plot her over 20 years ago in the after work hours.
I have decided to not till again this spring to keep the covered weed seeds under the soil and deal with the ones that have and will sprout at the surface.  They are numerous!  I brought in some composted manure last fall which covered the smallest of areas.  This is where I will put my beds of seeds like spinach and such.  The other vine crops will get a mound of compost at their planting site with weed cloth or mulch around their growing area to try and suppress the potential weed army rallying forces underground.

I started this year off as I always do with peas.  The garden here tends to stay wet, so I have chosen to use the mounding method to create raised beds.  I loved my foot high, wood sided beds at home, but I am not going to invest in the materials or labor to do this here.  Starting with the area where the manure was spread last fall, I raked and mixed the soil a bit.  After getting it a bit loose, I pulled it up into a pile and then leveled off two rows for putting in my two different types of peas.  I like the sugar pods, but still enjoy the pleasure of shelling out peas as well.  They are starting off about six inches high, but will settle as the season goes on.  I will side dress these rows with carrots or other rooting crops to take over when the peas are done.  Right now the sprouting peas are covered with mesh to keep the squirrels and chipmunks from digging up and eating the peas as seeds.  I always soak my seeds first as the germination is so much better when I do.
I have to fence this garden much more heavily than I did in my urban plot.  The property is fenced off from the roaming deer herds for the nursery crops, but we still have four residential does that still call this home.  I put a hardware cloth and t-post fence around the perimeter of part of the garden that will keep the tastiest crops away from bunnies and wood chucks.  I am certain that I will have to do battle with something even still.

Next to each t-post is a ten foot conduit post pounded in about two feet.  I fashioned a hook for the top of each to hang a five foot wide mesh cloth that meets up to the three foot tall hardware cloth.  All together they form an eight foot tall enclosure which should keep the deer away from my peas, greens and bean crops.  The opening is an over-lap of the mesh with a gate of hardware cloth.  I have to duck to get through the mesh over-lap, but it is a small sacrifice.  Time will tell how effective this will be.  I did not dig the hardware cloth in very deep and this may be my weak spot if I don't monitor the perimeter enough.

Once my perimeter was secure (this was two separate weekends to accomplish) I felt I could continue with the actual gardening.  I used my Weed Dragon to scorch the weeds that were abundantly germinating already.  Next to the pea rows, I formed a square bed for my greens like spinach and lettuce as well as some root crops of parsnips and salsify.  Both root crops are over 100 days to maturity and are best harvested after frost for sweeter quality.  I have not added my kale yet, but need to make that a priority.  I have greenhouse starts of cabbage and bok choy to add as well.  I just hope the enclosure will fit them all!
I put the tender onion plants in as well.  I did two types of bulb onions, Ailsa Craig and Walla Walla.  I also have Lancelot leeks which I plan on mounding to blanch the stems as they grow.  These were also greenhouse starts back in February.  Onions and leeks are very long season crops when started from seed.  I have decided that the radicchio is going to be a fall crop this year to form the best heads closer to frost.  I also put in my radishes, French Breakfast and April Cross, for my early crop.  I have another called Rat-tailed which is grown for its seed heads that will go in later.  I put in short rows of these as one family can only eat so many ripening radishes at once. Straw that was used for winter protection around my potted fruit crops is down on my walking paths for mulch.  This will get turned in next fall to compost in ground for more soil tilth in future years.  I can't wait for the weather to warm if only to shorten the distance I have to run a hose to water.  I don't have a rain barrel area established here yet as I need to put up some gutter on the shed close to the garden.  I have an idea, I just need to execute.  I look forward to some rain water for spot watering the garden here.

I used what little compost I had left last fall to create a rhubarb bed with bounds.  There was a ceramic "planter" already in place in the yard.  After digging down over two feet, I decided it wasn't getting removed.  I vaguely remember this being put in by my former manager and it involved heavy equipment.  One of my rhubarb varieties didn't make it through summer in the pot that I was growing my roots in.  I think a watering lapse or late planting was to blame.  I was scrambling about with my garlic bulbs last fall looking for a place to put them in before winter.  The rhubarb plot was the only area that I did not plan on disturbing the following year.  It was also the only area that I am not battling weeds.  I will get through the weed ordeal... The garlic has sprouted with hopes of another crop to come this year.
I will continue to plan and plant.  It is almost like learning how to garden all over again.  There is so much work to get done, but I can see all of it in my mind.  I can't wait to share it all with you.