July garden pics and tips

One hill of each summer squash (not 3) this year. Four varieties are framing the okra in the center which is on a 10" spacing between plants and about 2' from the squash plants.

We are so dry it was time to get out the soaker hoses.  I have cabbages and other cruciferous veggies in a raised mound. Peppers, eggplant, and a few tomatoes are sharing space with radicchio, fennel, and kale in my 3 wooden beds.  Mulch surrounds most of the beds, wood chips while rotted straw is around plant rows.  The soil isn't what I would want, but it will build with time.  

I have a 6x6 patch of onions (Alisa Craig and Copra on kitty corners) alternated with Ambition Shallots and Lancelot leeks.  I have watered them regularly to keep them well hydrated but not wet.

Pole beans and  bush beans are sharing the same space.  I pulled out the netting with twine in the centers to give me more room as my tepee was closing in on my for picking.  I got my first handful of baby beans on Sunday.

My fencing is hardware cloth around the base with a nylon mesh to bring the total height around 8'.  The rest of the garden is at the mercy of what surrounds us.  I hope for the best every day that I see the woodchucks running around the nursery.

The Swiss chard has gone gang busters on me this year.  I planted so few, but boy did they grow!  I don't think the carrots that are interplanted stand a chance.

The garlic ended up in the enclosure because I didn't have anything else ready last fall.  It is almost ready to pull and dry.  My lettuce crop bolted, so the dino kale has been liberated.  The adjacent carrots are loving the space and will really appreciate the garlic leaving their south exposure open.  I tucked a row of fennel plants next to my pea trellis.  I am letting the peas dry down again this year as the seed saving worked out so good last year.  Peas are self-pollinating so they came true from seed.

I am done hilling the potatoes for the season.  There is about 18" of dirt, compost, and rotting straw around the plants. Winter squash was put in at the head of the potato area.  Yukon Gold and Molly purples are my varieties this year.  I miss my Norland reds.

I went with 18 tomatoes this year.  I have a single stake method with twine corkscrew twisting around plants and stems to hold them up.  I put the tags at the top of the poles this year as I couldn't find them in the foliage last year.  Soaker hoses wind through tomatoes and potatoes on mostly separate lines.  I am trying a French variety of rhubarb Glaskins, from seed in the corner of the garden.

Work hard, play hard, garden in between

I feel as if I have been away for a long time.  There is so much going on as we use every hour of our summer as a precious commodity.  Work has kept me busy for more hours than usual.  Play has taken me away from the computer.

Play has been the best part.  My husband and I made a trip out to the western half of Wisconsin and enjoyed some time along the rivers.  Part of our vacation is the quest for dairy products, namely cheese and ice cream.  We had to look pretty hard for this in a zone that was not dotted with dairies on the Wisconsin cheese map.  (Yep, we really have one!)  Nelson Creamery did not disappoint us.  I enjoyed an ice cream on a 90+ degree day and filled up half of our cooler with cheese.  The place had such a charm about it, I had to share a picture from the building even if it isn't related to the usual stuff I write about.  I do love old buildings.  They are talking about replacing the basketball arena in Milwaukee because it is (gasp!) over 20 years old and so outdated.  Give me a break!  

We also took a long weekend away to spend some time on Lake Winnebago with my husband's side of the family.  They have a nice size boat, so they met us on the lake where we were able to camp.  The weather looked like this on Friday with wind and waves and stayed that way the entire weekend.  We never did leave the dock, but still had a nice time anyway.  I wasn't looking for it, but I found a very new and very cool goat dairy in Pipe, WI.  They sell the best cheeses from other dairies, Kelly's Creamery ice cream (butter pecan was soooo good!), and Wisconsin wines, beers and other beverages.  I would like to go back and enjoy some more of everything.

Back home the garden is starting to kick in gear.  The beans are coming in in almost all my plantings now.  It is so fun having 4 foot rows of each variety.  I am enjoying the filet type beans the most.  So slender and tender in all three varieties I have going.  I will have to look them up later to refresh my memory on what I put in.  Cukes are doing well in the tomato patch but struggling elsewhere.  I would like to put in more pickling vines next year, possibly behind my flower bed with a soaker hose running by them.  I have had my first tomatoes from the 4th of July bush.  They are small but satisfying.  The Sun golds are starting to turn yellow.

Most all the squash and pumpkins have set at least one fruit each.  I am still waiting on the Kiwano melon to even flower.  I have nipped the tips and am thinking it will need some fertilizer with less N and more PK to help it along.  

The peach has several fruits on it and some of them are starting to turn yellow from the hard green state they have been in.  I have heard peaches need aggressive pruning so I will have to do some research on that one.  The Honey gold apple set one fruit which is more than I expected for a new tree.  I wonder if I will enjoy it or if the squirrels we be there first.

My third crop of lettuce is coming along nicely considering the heat wave we went through right after planting.  I have pulled a few radishes from my last sowing.  I think the shade cloth and the soaker hose made the difference with this mid summer sowing.  I continue to mound the soil around the stems to help them bulb rather than stretch.  Kohlrabi is growing but not expanding at the waist yet.  The beds with soaker hoses are fairing much better than those without.  I think I will look for end of season deals on some as there are some that are starting to show their age with some cracking.  I would not garden without them.  My daughter did a fantastic job keeping things moist through our absence wherever she was able to let them run on their own.  Quick connects on each one also helped to make the job easier.

Well, it is time to sit back and seriously enjoy the mojito in my hand.  A mojito mint was definitely a good buy! Check out last year's post on making a mojito yourself.

Soaker hose brigade and other thoughts

My plants are growing well.  The tomatoes are three times the size than they were in this photo taken shortly after planting just a month ago.  Even though you can't see them under the brown paper "mulch", I have a series of loops of soaker hose running back and forth around each side of my tomato rows.  I added an extra row this year because I couldn't restrain myself and planted too many varieties for the area I have.  The back rows are in the traditional cages but the front row is a series of stakes that I have started weaving with sisal twine around each stake and plant.  It worked so well on the Roma tomatoes last year that I am trying it again and also doing the Celebrity tomatoes as well.  I used the longest hose I had to accommodate the extra row of plants.  

One variety of cucumbers are also in the back row of this area and are climbing nicely with small fruits forming on the vines.  I also planted another variety in my window box tower and a pickling variety is in my back garden trellising its way up a old section of chain link fence.  I have several things going in the vertical direction including melons, pumpkins, and squash.  The jury is still out on how successful these will all be.

I planted another crop of lettuce, a heat tolerant variety pack.  I started the seeds indoors and transplanted them out before moving them to the garden under some shade cloth yesterday.  There is just one small row of lettuce left after cutting all the older plants for salad.  The ground has had no rest as I have moved from one crop to the next.

My coworkers have been enjoying the shelling peas.  My family has had a couple stir fry nights with the sugar pods.  They took a long time to mature with the cooler temperatures, but are starting to show signs of yellowing with the recent heat.  The vines are between my rows of peppers, so I am sure the ancho peppers will be happy to get the sunlight the peas have been using.

With the exception of my onion beds, I have wound soaker hoses through the whole garden.  The beans and vines are on a loop with the apple tree and kiwi vines.  I even had enough to go through one of my flower beds which gets the most sun and is also raised, hence, it will need the most water.  I found a local source of landscape pins at the hardware store and bought a box of 100-6 inch pins.  The are good for positioning hoses and holding down landscape fabric or shade cloth.  At $14 a box, they were a bargain in my book, as I never have enough and am taking them from different areas as the hoses hold their shape.

I use quick connects in the garden.  They are a huge time saver when switching up what line is hooked up next.  Most have a shut off on the connecting end so you don't have to shut off the main source to move the water hose to the next soaker hose.  One word of advice:  Buy a bunch of compatible pieces right away.  Brands switch up the male and female ends and then you are stuck with mismatched  sets.  Not sure what I am talking about?  Just ask at the hardware store or garden center and they will point you in the right direction.  Some people take some getting used to them, but you can even put a quick-connect on your watering wands and switch off watering tools easily.

We didn't water our gardens much when I was a kid.  We had a well, which provided plenty of water, but Dad did not like to hear the pump running so much.  Nature took care of most of the garden's needs.  We didn't vegetable garden much during most of my child hood memory with the exception of the year we took over planting and harvesting Hanson's garden plot.  We went from zero square feet of vegetable garden to thousands.  We had so much room that we were even allowed to plant corn, the garden hog that never grew in our own small back yard.  Since that was the summer Dad was diagnosed with cancer, the work fell to us at home while they were back and forth to hospitals. 

We had other gardens, but that is the most memorable of them all.  I learned how potatoes grow and how much dirt has to be moved to hill them.  Mom also shared her childhood memories of their own gardens.  Picking potato bugs by hand and putting them in cans of kerosene was a story I will never forget.  The whole family participated in the ritual to save their winter storage crop.  Funny that this memory came up as I got a message from a friend that their crop is affected right now.  I just hadn't finished this post to publish before hand.  A google search brings up lots of opinions and since I do not grow potatoes myself (space issues), I will share some links.  University of Kentucky had the different classes of insecticides as well as the biology of the beetle (know your enemy) and this guy was just down to earth on how to kill potato bugs.

So get out the hose and help your plants beat the heat.  Next year, invest in the soaker hoses and forget the sprinkler unless you like to run through it.

Vacations and the garden

We just got back from a camping vacation and it is amazing how the garden took off while we were gone. My neighbor took over watering duties and had the fortune of well timed rains in her favor.  After so many weeks of dry weather, she had to only water once even with the heat Milwaukee had this last week.  She should have bought a lottery ticket with luck on her side.

If you have to ask someone to water for you while you leave town, remember a few simple rules to make life easier for that person.  First, move your pots together whenever possible so they can be watered as a group.  They will need it more often so make it a quick job for your friend filling in for you.

Second, leave your hoses off the reels so they are easily moved back and forth for your water person.  If you leave it on the reel, they will feel the need to put it back, leave it out and they will do the same.  So what if you have yellow lines over your grass when you come back, It will recover.

Third, set up sprinklers in the important spots so it just requires a quick hook up and go.  If you have soaker hoses, make sure that using those are an easy task for the person taking over.  They don't know what goes where so make it easier for them.

Fourth tip: Get a quick hose coupler system so it is a quick turn of the spigot rather than connecting and reconnecting hoses.  I have one set to the front yard, one to the back, and the tomatoes are on a soaker right at this point.

Fifth and sixth, keep all the tools visible and keep the pots close to the water source.  It shouldn't be a game of hide and seek for water heads, hoses, or plants.  If you have things that need more water, keep them close to the water source so a quick hit can be done easily.

Seventh tip:  Stake the plants before you go.  Plants put on a lot of growth in a week.  Make sure they will be staked and trellised in anticipation of the growth that will take place while you are gone.  This will keep the plants up out of the way for watering as well as secure them if a wind storm should hit while you are away.  Your plants and your neighbor will thank you.
Finally, remember your friend with an appropriate gift when you return.  They did bring your garden through the week for you.

The "D" Word

It is hot, not a little warm, HOT!  We are on day 10 of days over 90 for this summer.  The last two have been over 100. This is Wisconsin, not Oklahoma or Texas.  We also have not had a measurable rain in recent memory, either.  We are talking drought conditions.  There are some dos and don'ts when it comes to prolonged periods of dry weather.
First don't, don't panic, yet.

If your lawn is looking more like this than golf course green it is not dead, it is dormant.  If you have reached this stage already, don't start watering now.  Your grass will stay in a dormant stage for quite awhile with amazing ability to rebound.  If you are going to start watering, you need to know the rule of long, slow watering.  Sprinkling it with a little water every day is not good.  It encourages shallow rooting and regrowth.  It may start turning green again, but if you go on vacation and stop watering, you could have put your turf grass into more stress than if you had let it stay dormant.  Turf needs at least one inch of rain a week to maintain a green appearance.  Deeper roots mean a stronger turf.  This is true for all plants.  If you are going to water your gardens a long, slow sprinkle or soak every other day or so is better than a quick hit every day.

If your plants look like this they may be dry or they may just be shutting down during the high temperatures of the day.  Plants in hot, dry sun can get all wilted.  Take a walk through the garden at night and those same plants may perk up without the stress of excessive heat and light.  If you can, water in the morning.  This allows the plant foliage to dry off to reduce disease infection.  It also keeps the area around the plants dry during the night hours which may reduce damage by slugs and earwigs.  If you are not a morning person and work full-time, this may not be an option for you.

Do use soaker hoses.  I reduce the amount of common foliage diseases on my tomato plants by watering at the roots only.  I mulch around plants as much as possible which will help hold moisture in around the roots rather than evaporating into the dry air.

Some things don't like heat.  The garden peas are on their last hurrah before dying off.  You can see the yellowing of the plants and slow death of the vines.  They don't come back from this, but they do make good compost.  After the peas are finished, add them to the compost bin for more nitrogen in the mix.  I also am adding moisture to the compost bin.  If it gets too dry, my worms will go deep into the cool, moist soil and stop working on the stuff I have added to the bin.  Don't make your pile too wet.  Worms don't like that either.  You may also start anaerobic decomposition which makes the pile smell bad. If this happens, turn it over occasionally to help dry it out.
I'm feeling a little dry myself, so it is time to see what cold drink awaits for me this evening.  Cheers!

Summer weather has been good for growth

Bed #1 on 6-16

Bed # 1 on 6-19

Bed # 2 on 6-16

Bed #2 on 6-19

Bed # 3 on 6-16

Bed #3 on 6-19

Bed #4 on 6-16

Bed #4 on 6-19

If you have been following the weather in the Midwest you are probably aware that we have been hot and dry.  I have photos from the vegetable gardens taken 3 days apart.  I have been watering to supplement the lack of rain.  Look what 3 days of heat can do for growth!
The peas that went in before Easter are in full production and even starting to lose their vigor with the heat.  I expect that I will be composting the vines within the week.  I have bush bean on their west edge and peppers and kale on the east edge, so this will provide the growing space those crops need.  This is the one vegetable plot I ran soaker hose through so I can irrigate without overhead sprinkling as needed.

Clockwise from left: shelling peas, Oriental peas, lettuce, garlic, and green onions at bottom.

 I pulled my garlic this last week also.  You can see it laying on the right side of this photo.  The tops had browned out which indicates they are done growing.  I had no idea what kind of garlic I put in as I picked up the bulbs at the farmer's market last summer and used what I had on hand.  It is the first time I had soft neck garlic in the bed so I was able to braid it for drying.  Hard neck garlic has too stiff of stems for this.  I started with three plants and just kept adding to the bunch to braid them into this bunch.

There have been several things ready for harvest.  We had fresh green onions on the vegetable tray for our parties.  The peas have provided my coworkers with healthier eats from my desk than a candy dish.  They appreciate the effort, so it is fun to share with them.  All the plants are in the ground now.  I held off on the tomatoes until after the graduation party was done so they would not risk damage from guests accidentally stepping into the bed.  I ran a soaker hose through this area as well and mulched with a bargain bin brown paper mulch that I found at the hardware store.  I'll let you know how well that works when the season is done.

Soaker hose around tomato 

brown paper and cocoa beans for mulch

I was so pleased with the tomato harvest last year that I put them back by the driveway again this year.  The sun and heat are fantastic in this area as well as the water supply so close for long, slow soaking.  Tomatoes do not grow well under black walnuts which has limited their growth in the backyard.  My neighbor has a beautiful tree and I would never  begrudge her the shade so I can have happy tomatoes.  The peppers do not seem to be affected even though they are in the same family.  I am happy to work around this and enjoy her shade on our backyard visits.  Good neighbors are worth working around small inconveniences that jugulans can present.  
It is good to sit down and get some journal entries done again.  It has been helpful to me to look back at some of the entries from last year to know what work and when I was planting things.  Maybe now that we are done with all our parties and planning, gardening will become part of the pleasures of life again.