Sometimes I Don't Plant

I have an area that has been in a state of transformation since we moved into our house two years ago. It sits in a corner of our house as well as at the end of our drive/patio. There is a lot of run-off both from rain and snow melt which means it can be a basement issue. The former-former owners put down a strip of concrete next to the wall to help divert water away from the very old, stone foundation. 

A large hydrangea occupied the space, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Hostas occupied the space underneath with pretty bland varieties and imagination. I tore it all out and started from scratch with plants, but the drainage made that challenging and plowing snow off the end of the drive meant there was always going to be some damage. 

My youngest child was clearing out all the stone cover in her yard from the previous owners. She wanted plants, not red granite. We took home stone over the course of several months 10 buckets at a time until we brought it all home and had a pile on the concrete waiting for the next step. 

 

I scrapped and shoveled and sifted all the soil in this area and used it to fill sunken stump holes in our yard. The buried river rock was sifted, rinsed, and reused in a separate area that already had a river of river rock going through it. The junk went into old wood chuck holes that dot our rural property. Nothing went to waste. I kept harvesting soil until I hit clay. Once I hit clay, the drainage project began. I cut a channel down the center at an angle to pull water away from the corner of the house. Once we have a gutter and downspouts on the back of the house, this will complete the roof diversion of water. The channel met up with the well established low point drainage coming off the concrete. I followed old lines which I outlined with simple edging block which was also a gift from my daughter's house. 

 

 

 

I was gifted a large roll of weed barrier which I usually shun for most landscape projects. I used cheap landscape pins since holding this in place until I got the stone down was my main objective. I have no interest in planting this area, and the stone will never break down like wood mulch into an organic bed. This is the PERFECT application for weed barrier, (second only to putting it in my vegetable garden with my tomato plants to prevent soil splash, reduce weeds, and keep my feet clean). I used pins to hold it to the contours formed by my drainage areas cut into the clay bed right up to the edging. the only area not covered is the concrete strip you see at the bottom of the photo.

 

 

I painstakingly went through the stone rinsing off the soil that had stuck to some of the stone before laying it in my bed. My goal is to have this as sterile as possible, so removing dirt and possible weed seeds was important to me. There was quite a bit just from moving it out of the original beds at its former home. Now I have an area that hopefully won't grow anything and will be an appropriate area to pile lots of snow with some salt from driveway deicer. It does provide a very good area to hold plants during vacation or to serve as a mini nursery area.

 

 

 

 

Too much gardening, no time to journal it

I started this blog as a way to journal my gardening efforts.  I have used it that way to look back on some of the things I have done in years past, a way to repeat successes and avoid past mistakes.  Putting things down in words has also helped me work through problems by putting my thoughts into some sort of sequence.  Kind of like talking to myself.

The blog has also been useful to answer questions for family and friends looking for gardening answers.  It gave me quick reference to provide step by step with pictures for someone doing something for the first time.

This year I had the biggest garden I have had since I was young.  In addition to the huge vegetable garden, I had all sort of new garden beds to plant and maintain.  Then there is my job which requires my attention to the various flower beds and 160 acres of nursery and woodland patches.  By the time my day is over, I just haven't had time to track some of the things that happened this year.  I learned so much having so much to do.  I want to jot down some of those highlights so I can remember what I did this year.

I got is my early crops only because I did some bed prep last fall.  Once the busy season hit in the greenhouse, I had very little time for my own garden prep and planning.  I have to do that again this fall so I am ready for a quick entrance into the garden with the peas and onions next spring.

Weed barrier was my greatest friend.  I never would have maintained my sanity this year if it wasn't for all that ground cloth suppressing weed growth.  I had to weed around my plants, but I didn't have to worry about all those other areas that would have required so much attention.  The second advantage was having mud free walking.  My vining plants were able to run over all that black cloth with no rot on the fruits from soil contact.  It also made for quick clean up this fall.

Late blight took the tomatoes, but the weed barrier kept the garden from being taken over by weeds

The start of late blight on the tomatoes.  It takes over in days and the crop is lost

I lost my tomato crop but was able to ripen some of it indoors in trays.  Lay tomatoes in a single layer and check them daily for any signs of blight developing on the fruit.

I found out what late blight is and how devastating it is to a tomato crop.  What I thought was going to be an overwhelming tomato crop with multiple trips to the food pantry, ended up being just enough for my canning needs.  I had very few extras to give away.  It was disheartening to throw out all those tomatoes (and extremely heavy).  I saved those with a blush and some green that didn't have the tell-tale blight and ripened them in the basement.  I checked them at least every couple days and pulled out any that showed signs of disease.  In the end, the dozen or so flats of tomatoes I saved ended up being just enough.  The potatoes had been dug weeks earlier, and the peppers remained unaffected.  I also saved all my cherry tomatoes and froze them whole, unblanched, in Ziploc bags.  These are the only "whole" tomatoes I have.  They have been just the thing to add to dishes in place of canned whole tomatoes.

I grew corn for the first time since I was a kid.  I purchased three kinds with different maturity dates of 65, 75, and 85 days.  They were planted at the same time as the varieties would stagger the harvest for me.  I learned what cut worms are and how they move through the crop.  Fortunately, I had an organic garden product on hand which was listed for cut worms.  I had to go out and spray at nightfall when they come out.  It was successful and the corn crop suffered a limited amount of damage.  I used a radio in a water proof container to keep the raccoon and deer at bay by playing talk radio at night.  I also didn't leave the corn on the stalks any longer than necessary.  The stalks grew taller the longer the season so I have fall decorations for different locales by size.

I grew okra for the first time ever.  There were seeds in an office desk, so why not?  The flowers are beautiful (they are in the hibiscus family).  I found that I liked to harvest them young and tender.  I had enough to share with other okra lovers.  I dehydrated several batches for addition to gumbo this winter.  I will grow that again.

Okra

I grew cauliflower.  I forgot that I grew cauliflower.  I had these plants that I just couldn't remember what the heck they were.  I asked someone if it was collards and they thought so.  The white heads finally proved us both wrong.  Next time, I would tie the leaves up to keep the heads white.  I had some greening with exposure to sunlight.  My heads were also small, so I need to read up on that this winter.

After a full year in the manager's residence, I have learned the sun exposures.  I will be moving my herb garden next spring to the sunnier side of the house.  I like having it by the back door, but the magnolia tree has way too much shade.  I also lost the full sun with the waning season to the height of the house.  Herbs really need the full sun to reach their potential.

I also think I will plant a longer season cabbage.  The heads started splitting at the end of the season before I was ready to make sauerkraut.  I like the cool weather to set in to sweeten up the cabbage.  I was able to use the split heads, but there was a lot of trimming that had to be done.

I want to beef up the asparagus patch which had been neglected and mowed over too many times.  I have the weeds under control in the bed, but there are dead spots which need new roots.  I may try seed plants as an affordable way to do this as it isn't my patch forever.

The berry patch grew well for first year plants.  I put in two raspberries and one blackberry variety in the only space I had available when they need to find a home as bare root canes.  I will add stakes at the end of the row to provide support.  I also may move the whole thing to an open area for room to spread.  What garden doesn't need to have things moved?

Next year I will have my patty pan squash away from the edge of the garden.  This may keep whatever thief I had from eating 99% of my crop.  I will refine my choices of squash and grow more pumpkins.

Come the dead of winter, I will come back to this post and read what I have forgotten to do.

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.

PotAto, Potaato...however you say it, I'm growing them

I am happy to have the space to finally grow some of those crops there was never room for in my city lot.  I had to watch what I grew in my back yard as the black walnut was rough on most crops in the Solanacea family.  Peppers were my one exception for some reason.  Potatoes are in the same family and they take up plenty of room, especially if you really want to have more than just a meal or two.  I bought two bags of seed potatoes a couple weeks ago while out on a shopping run to Tractor Supply Co.  I chose Yukon Gold and Red Norlands.  I grew the reds before with success.  I kept them in a warm location with some light and got them to start sprouting as the package instructed.  That was the easy part.  
I had put a couple hills for my daughter at the old garden plot as they are looking a growing variety, not quantity.  She was given instructions to hill soil around the growing sprouts as they came up.  Potatoes grow sprouts from the eyes on their skins.  As the sprouts grow up, they flower and will grow potatoes at those points along the stem.  The grower must continue to put soil, mulch, straw or other type of growing media up the plant to keep the potatoes covered.  Failure to do so will cause them to turn green and that is what causes toxic buildup under the skin.  Don't eat the green part of a potato.
What I put in for her was small potatoes compared to what I was doing.  After counting up the tubers I had left, I was looking at 32 holes without cutting the potatoes apart.  I chose not  to cut the potatoes apart.  Remember how I said this garden has a seed bank that puts Fort Knox to shame?  I am not going to spend my summer hoeing the garden, so weed barrier will be my tool to combat excessive weed potential.  I pulled out my nearly full box of landscape fabric pin and utilized a piece of weed cloth that had cuts and slashes from a former job.  I found that the selected piece was EXACTLY the right length and width for my area after folding under the damaged areas.  I knew it was going to be a good day.  The forty year old me would have had the cloth down and potatoes in by lunch.  The fifty some year old me took most of the day.  I love to take a beer break, visit with my grown daughters, and make plans with my husband while in the middle of gardening season now.  My younger self would plow through and plant the entire yard in a weekend.  With age comes wisdom (and less endurance).
The fabric was laid over and area that was tilled last fall, but left as is this spring.  I used the weed dragon to burn some of the weeds and handed off to my younger daughter in Tom Sawyer fashion for a spell while on the phone with my older daughter.  Yes, with age comes wisdom.  I got a tape measure out to calculate the spacing between hills.  After setting the tape measure on the patio table, I carefully eyed the area and just put dots of paint where I thought I would make the cuts instead.  It worked much better than the OCD method I was going to enlist initally as well as much faster.
I cut an X in the fabric and tucked the triangles of fabric under the cloth to create a square planting area of one square foot, more or less.  I dug a plug of soil out, placed it on the side and then put a base of compost 1 to 2 inches deep in the place of the clay I removed.  I was encouraged to have found a few earthworms in the present soil as this has not been the case in past excavations.  My whole potato set went in the hole followed by more compost of another 3 to 4 inches.  The plug of soil will serve as back fill when the plants grow up and need to be hilled.  The process continued until all holes were created and filled with one potato set.

After several breaks for beer and conversation, all the holes were finally filled.  I had 32 sets of Yukon Gold and Red Norland Potatoes underground and ready to grow.  

I did one more task to make the job complete.  A trip around the grounds with the John Deere Gator and pitch fork cleaned up piles of winterizing straw and provided future cover for my future potato patch.  I was able to kill two birds with one stone for the mutual benefit of my garden beds.

Now for those cabbage plants hardened off on my porch...