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Currently harvesting carrots that over-wintered, beets and the new spinach we planted as the other started to play out and bolt. The English peas are doing well - yum! We've had the first of the brocolli but should have lots to come with enough to freeze the extra.
We have several flats of seedlings to put out today - direct seeding is more hit and miss, and after a visit to Crystal Organic Farm up the road from here, we've decided to do more transplants and less direct seeding. Squash and butterbeans go out today, bush beans and some nasturtiums tomorrow I think. Went just a little crazy with tomatoes - can't even count them but I know there are 5 rows in the kitchen garden and 4 more in the plot behind the house. Plus a few more to move out from the greenhouse. And, yes, I just ordered one last package of Juliets....... somebody stop me! Spending a lot of time these days cutting grass, but not because it needs so much cutting Lying fallow only speaks to what you see on the surface!
The rest of the year is so busy in a garden that you really need a little down time to stop and think about what's next. What worked, what was a total waste of time and energy (and why) and what do we want to eat next year? Winners: We have lots of squash still in freezer - mostly yellow but also zuchinni. It was about an hour of work every day or so to pick off bugs, but it paid off with a great harvest. But thinking of trying row covers to keep off bugs this year, as bug picking is a lot of hard work in the heat. As we get our garden healthier we hope that pests/predators will become more balanced, but you gotta start where you are. Jams/Jellies/Sauces We put up Blackberry jam (yum) no-sugar blackberry syrup (yum), made fresh freezer strawberry jam from local strawberries (yum) and sister Nancy scored big with Apple Butter from our apples (double yum). We still have fig preserves left from 09 so sent the extra figs that Anjie didn't eat to the Decatur Farmers Market, where they were a hit and we made a little money. Tomatoes. OMG! Mostly thanks to Andy bringing his baby heirloom extras to us, we had great success particularly with Juliets and pinks and sun gold varieties. I longed for more slicers, so that's what we'll focus on in 2010. We made roasted tomato/garlic/onion/herb goodness for the freezer out of the Juliets and throw that on something at least once a week. The sweet little gold tomatoes made excellent salsa, especially with a bit of fresh peaches thrown in. I'll be making double that next year. Everything else got chopped into good spaghetti sauce for the freezer, which becomes great with a bit of Pine Street Italian Sausage. Potatoes. Who knew that the difference between store bought and home grown is just as big in potatoes as tomatoes? Now we do! Will plant double - both sweet potatoes and everything else... OK but lots more to learn: We put up lots of green beans, but ran out by the new year. Ditto turnips. Fortunately there are turnips overwintering and we should have fresh to pick before long. Asparagus was great but weeds are a big battle. We wrestled the patch to the ground (til spring, anyway) and Woody doubled the patch setting out more crowns this fall. A superb longterm investment. Losers: We ran out of time to take proper care of the pear harvest - we enjoyed a few and gave away plenty, but we weren't good stewards on these. These are too good to miss so will do better in 2011. Beets - we ate a few but the fall crop disappeared. We need lots more beets in our lives. Cukes. I may be the only person in the world who failed at cukes. But I didn't have the courage to thin, and they choked themselves, and I'll be stronger next year. Scuppernongs - were pruned so severely to start them on to their new arbor that we only got a few, but just look out for this years! Corn - total zero. But we can only get better, right? We'll be starting transplants in the next couple of weeks - can't wait! If you want us to grow some for you, too, let us know. ---------- Linda Garden Plan
Kitchen Garden Early - Mid March 1) Replumb Drain that is leaking greywater into the left side of the kitchen garden field. 2) Run / enable water line to Pop's original place by the garden. 3) Send off soil samples to AG Labs International 4) Do a deep subsoil till (10-12" deep) of entire plot. This is for initial weed management and control - to expose root systems & kill grass. Let lie dormant for 1 month thereafter. 5) Order plastic greenhouse and soil-block maker 6) Make Transplants using soil block methodology 7) Order soil treatment per AG Labs recommendation Early April 1) Spread soil broadcast treatment 2) Do we want to mix in organic material such as leaves or hay? 3) Till twice with shallow tiller This is to break up the large clods and work in the soil treatment Probably, till against the grain and then till again with the grain of the field. 4) Lay out garden design w/string and lay paths w/cardboard (?) Plant white clover in pathes (?) Initially will not mound up soil. This will happen as we add organic material, mulch, etc. over the years. By 5th year these will become more pronounced and raised beds. Mid April 1) Lay out transplant trays to harden 2) Plant the transplants 3) Plant direct-seed items Ongoing Cultivate for weed control once per week for 6 weeks. ___________________________________________ Back Garden Early - Mid March 1) Run / enable water line to Smokehouse. 2) Do a deep subsoil till (10-12" deep) of entire plot. This is for initial weed management and control - to expose root systems & kill grass. Let lie dormant for 1 month thereafter. 3) Order soil treatment per AG Labs recommendation Early April 1) Spread soil broadcast treatment 2) Do we want to mix in organic material such as leaves or hay? 3) Till twice with shallow tiller. This is to break up the large clods and work in the soil treatment Probably, till against the grain and then till again with the grain of the field. 4) Make corn mounds and paths Mid April 1) Direct-seed "Three Sisters" method. 3-4 corn seeds in middle of a mound, climbing green beans in several places around a mound. 'Squash' (could be gourds, pumpkins, winter squash, zucchini, etc., as well as yellow crookneck squash) goes in spaces between mounds. Ongoing Cultivate for weed control once per week for 6 weeks.  Wayne came by with his tractor, son, and crew and did a deep-subsoil dig on the kitchen garden plot and also the plot out back. This is for startup weed management. We'll let this sit for a few weeks and then till more finely.  This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.
 The beets are doing wonderfully well.  So are the turnip greens.  I HOPE these are the turnip greens I planted directly by seed.  Linda planted some pea seedlings, and these are taking off.  Sweet potato!  OK, so these are going to be a bit late. Started putting in carrots by direct seed.
The broccoli planted weeks ago just sort of disappeared without really growing very much - either critters ate them, or the roots suffered nitrogen burn from the manure.
So, I cut up some sweet potato sections from a store-bought sweet potato that had made some big long sprouts. These I planted shallowly in the bed where the broccoli had been. A long shot, but we'll see how they do. Then, this whole bed will be root crops (other crop in the bed is beets), which is better for crop rotation. Also, direct-planted turnips in the holes where turnup greens had not come up. (Date approx) - Broccoli evaporated - no evidence of seedlings.
(Date approx) - planted one more 17-foot bed with remaining seedlings: romaine lettuce, buttercrunch lettuce, swiss chard. Used direct-seed turnip greens for remainder of the bed. |
WoodyFormer specialist in book learning, Woody is now all about experiental learning! Archives
May 2011
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