Planting Cucumber and Swiss Chard Seeds. 5.1.2121

 Today I planted old cucumber seeds.  I forgot to plant the cucumber seeds I saved, last fall, so will go back and do that.  The potential problem with those is, I don't know if they were hybrids, so I don't know what they will be like.  I planted these seeds in 4 inch flower pots. 

I also planted some Swiss chard seeds, directly into the garden soil. Swiss chard is my favorite green, although sometimes they are other colors.

I planted a short row from each packet.  Those from 2014 are pretty old.  We'll see if they grow.

Saving Seeds. 9.18.2020

 From late summer, about mid August, until now, I've been collecting seed heads and seed pods etc. to save for next year.  Part of that will be for wildflower meadow, and part for vegetables or other flowers.

I saved flower and chive seeds buy cutting the seed pods or tops off, and putting them into brown paper bags, upside down, so the fried seeds would fall into the bag.   Others, such as cucumbers, I let the pulp ferment in water for 2 days, then let them dry on newspaper, the same as is done for tomato seeds.

These were the "bush" pickle cucumber seeds.  I was hospitalized when they were at their peak, so no pickles this year.  I let some of the fruits fully ripen to a tan/yellow color, with a husk that seemed a bit papery.  Then I cut three open, scooped out the seeds, let them ferment, and dried for a week on newspaper.   I thought they would stick together, but they did not.  This is enough to start a pickle farm.  Now they are in a paper envelope for the winter.

These were Oregon Sugar snow peas.  The holes indicate that a weevil has tunneled into them and hollowed them out.  So these are not viable.  I wasn't as crazy about Oregon Sugar as I was about Taiwan Sugar anyway.  Oregon Spring grew too tall, produced too late, and the snow-peas were not as good as Taiwan Sugar.  A similar thing happened to Taiwan Sugar but not as many.  I put them into a jar in the freezer, which is meant to kill the weevil.  If I can find them again.

Shirley Poppy seeds.  For these, I just cut off the pods when the stems turned brown.  After they are fully dried out, shake out the seeds like a pepper shaker.

Four O'clock seeds.  I saved, separately, red, yellow, and pink flowered types.  They come up volunteer anyway, but I thought I might add them to the fig tree area.

Marigold seeds.  These are messy.  I didn't realize that it's easy to pinch the pod, pull off the dry petals, then tear open the pod to release the seeds.  So these are seeds mixed with petals.  They have a nice herbal - floral scent.  I think the petals are OK.  There are enough seeds here to start a marigold ranch.  They will go into the wildflower meadow.  This is a yellow French variety that the honeybees liked.

When the seeds are dry, I transfer them into paper envelopes.  I'm not getting outtoo stores because of the coronavirus and stupid, stubborn people out there who want to be modern typhoid Marys, so these are home made using a paper tablet and painters tape.  They are just as good and basically free.  I use paper because it dries out, while plastic retains moisture that can cause mold..

Garden Update. 11 Aug 2020.

 Lots of food and collecting seeds.  Shirley poppy seed heads are becoming light brown, so I cut them off and place them, pod down, into glass jars.  The dry seeds fall into the jar for collection.  It works out almost the same for garlic chives.

Harvest:  beans, potatoes, cucumbers, a few peppers, blackberries, a few figs, Asian pears.

Here is a cucumber salad I made, all but onions from the victory garden.

Here are some Roma beans.   I love these.  They are great, stir fried or air fried with a little seasoned salt, garlic, oil.

Here are some Chinese beans, from many (20?) years of home-saved seeds.  Tasty and "meaty", similar in a way to Romas but a more distinctive flavor.

Lots of big cucumbers.  Next year, try one or two plants instead of three.  These might be hybrid so 

I'm not sure if I want to save seeds.

Triple Crown Blackberries.  Of the ones I've grown, more productive, better flavor, juicier than almost any other.  This year I will cull out the inferior Arapaho, Babycakes, and maybe Prime Ark Freedom.

I big Brunswick fig.  This tree's production is miserly, but requires almost no maintenance and I have room, so I leave it there.  The figs are huge and sweet, when they ripen.

Still lots of summer squash.

Kitchen Garden Update. 5.11.2020

 Here are some photos of my current kitchen garden (potager).  About half is newly worked soil, formerly sod, which I treated during the winter with a cover of black plastic to kill the grass, then added dolomite lime, some compost, and eggshells.  That is not the tomato / eggplant / peppers / squashes / bean area.

The greens and snowpeas are in what was tomatoes last year.  There is mesclun from old seed packets, swiss chard and radishes, collard greens and turnips.  There were all 3 to 8 year old seeds.  The snowpeas were 6 to 8 year old seeds.

I now have a seven foot chain link fence, to keep rabbits and deer out.  I don't know if that will work.

 I set out the fresh eating tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants yesterday.  Also bush cucumbers in a raised bed, for pickles.

This strawberry pot is doing better than I expected.  Last month, I transplanted these strawberries from a raised bed, where they appeared to be dying off.  At least not thriving.  I wanted the space for cucumbers this year.  In the strawberry pots, they need better attention to watering. but I have them in fresh potting soil with some added osmocote.  They perked up almost immediately and started blooming..

 This bed is fresh-eating tomatoes, slicers and cherry tomatoes.  Down the center I planted radish seeds, which should not take up much room and will be done before the tomato plants reach much size.  Along one edge, I also planted a row of Roma II bush beans.

 This view shows the sauce tomatoes.  I gave all of the tomates some osmocote when I planted them, about 1 1/2 tablespoon per hole.

 These squashes may not have enough room.  Space is at a premium.  I may be able to direct the vines of the long vining types, into spare locations as other crops such as potatoes are done in midsummer.

Same comment as for squashes above.  This batch is in ground that was sod last year.

The soil temp is 74F at 10 am.  I've had readings as high as 80F and in early am, as low as 65F.  I think this is high enough for the squashes, tomatoes, peppers, to be planted.  Not sure about sweetcorn and bean seeds, but doing a trail of them now.  May 15th is my usual target date for that.  I also wonder about the eggplants, which need warm conditions.

These are the first three rows of sweetcorn.  They are outside the fenced area.  I have the seed rows covered with screening to keep birds from eating the seeds.

These are the bush cucumbers I planted the seeds a few weeks ago inside.  Now they are in the former strawberry bed, along with some dolomite lime and compost treatment.  I also have a row of dill seeds planted, now germinated, in there, and some cilantro from seeds saved several years ago.

 These are the grafted fruit trees, and oak seedlings.  The fruit trees appear to be taking nicely.  These are on the north side of the raised bed, to shade the pots a little.  I stratified the oak seedlings by planting acorns into these containers last fall.  There are white oak, from a magnificent tree in my neighborhood, and some other white oak from a location in Salmon Creek, and some red oak.  I'm not sure where I will plant them when they are bigger.

Some Early Fruits and Vegetables. 7.14.19

Here are some zucchinis and supper squashes that I harvested today.  They are doing the usual highly vigorous zucchini thing.  Also some salad cucumbers, and a couple of banana peppers.

Today I also harvested my first fig, a Carni fig, and harvested a few more Methley plums.  Those are the first plums of the year.  There are a few Illinois Everbearing mulberries waiting to pick.

Sweetcorn Seedlings.  5.15.19

Seedlings are germinating nicely, planted last week. Zinnias, sweetcorn in the garden and cucumbers, some squashes, in the sunroom.

We had a hot spell, now chilly and rainy.  We'll see how that affects things.

Pickle Seedlings.  5.15.19

Zinnia Seedlings.  5.15.19

Kitchen Garden. Seed starts. 5.6.14

Today I planted seeds for:

Golden Zucchini.  From Seed Savers Exchange.  New seeds.

Squash Patisson panache, verte et blanc.  From Seed Saver's Exchange.  New seeds.

Sweet Corn, "White Sensation Hybrid"  70 day.  Lilly Miller.  Seeds from 2008.

Squash Waltham Butternut.  From Seed Saver's Exchange.  New seeds.

Beans Roma II.   Ed Hume Seeds.  From 2012.

Cucumber "Bush".  From Seed Saver's Exchange.  New Seeds.

Squash "Scallop Bush Mix.".  Ed Hume Seeds.  From 2009 I think.

Zucchini "Dark Green".  From Victory Seeds.  New seeds.

Some of those old seeds might not grow.  If so, it's best to try, and if they don't grow, throw them away.

Today's harvest

 

 

 

Today's Harvest

I was happy with today's harvest.  A zucchini, a cucumber, a nice batch of tomatoes, pole beans, and the first two okra, ever.  Tomorrow:  Barley / tomato soup with home-grown okra, home grown garlic, and home grown onions.

Kitchen Garden

Chinese cucumber

 Selected shots of the kitchen garden.

Chinese cucumber is blooming.  Shouldn't be long before we get some cucumbers.

Illinois Everbearing Mulberry.  This will be the last of them..  I will savor them.  They are so good.

Cherry tomatoes are bearing a few handfulls now.

Cantaloupe is in bloom.  Whether we get some remains to be seen.

Mulberry Illinois Everbearing

Cherry Tomatoes Sungold and SuperSweet 100

Cantaloupe "Minnesota" miniature

Okra Clemson Spineless

 There are a couple of okra flowers.  If we get just one okra, it will be fun.  The plants that did best were the ones I grew in containers then planted into the raised bed.  The direct seeded plants remain puny.

Not pictured, the swiss chard is big and productive.

The pole beans are just beginning to bloom.

Planting Seeds.

Spring Seed Planting

These are the seeds I planted in the past week.

Alyssum and Bonanza Mix Marigolds in the tomato bed.  They sprouted during the rains of the last week.  Also planted alyssum seeds in the border of the new iris raised bed.

Clemson Spineless Okra - Also in the tomato bed.  Clemson Spineless was introduced by Clemson University in 1939, 50-64 days.  That's in an ideal hot climate - possibly 2 or 3 months here if it bears at all.  After one week of rain, I also saw sprouts.  I read that they require soaking and heat.  So I started some today after soaking with 2 changes of water, for several hours.  I also read Okra doesn't respond well to transplanting.  The seeds I planted today I planted in newspaper-lined containers to reduce transplant shock.

Swiss Chard - in empty squares of the iris bed I set up last weekend.  It will be mid to late summer before I add the irises in those spaces.  I don't want to leave it with bare soil.  Space is at a premium.

Petite Yellow Watermelon ( 65-80 days) and Blacktail Mountain Watermelon (65-75 days) - Haven't tried watermelons here.  Starting in containers, today.  Then into raised bed.  Cleared some space in the raised bed, from winter vegetables.  Some of those didn't do well, others have been harvested - radishes, greens.

Minnesota Midget Canteloupe (60-75 days).  Haven't tried these either.  These are a small melon, 4 inches, and the vines are 3 feet long.  May plant them in containers, not sure yet.  Also starting in containers, today.

Japanese Soyu Burpless Cucumber (65 days).  Starting in containers today.  Will find a place for them.

Asparagus Pea (60-75 days).  Starting in containers.  Will need to fine a place for them too.

Parisian Carrot (55 days) and Red Cored Chantenay Carrot.  (70 Days).  Also in the new iris bed, for the same reason.

Also some cleome seeds for Ning's meadow.

Also the last of the sweet potatoes.  One week ago, I discovered what looked like near dead sweet potato starts in the mailbox.  They were there for the weekend.  I cleaned them up and planted the best looking ones in a half barrel.  These sweet potatoes were described as an early variety, good for the North.  The remaining set I placed in a glass of water, with daily water changes.  They also look better, grew new roots, so I planted them today.

Kitchen Garden Log. Time to Start Some Veggies

Today,

1. I pulled several buckets of weeds from the rose bed / peach bed / raspberry patch. A lot of the weeds were young raspberry plants. They are spreading like crazy. Chickens got benefit of all of the weeds. I need to do some research - I don't know what some of the weeds are called.

2. I spread fresh straw for the chickens. Their eggs have been too muddy, I have to wash them. Today's eggs were clean. Since they are eating so much greens, I threw in some shell calcium to keep the eggshells strong.

3. I planted seeds, Cucumber (Early Pride Hybrid and Palaace King Hybrid Asian Cucumber) and Zucchini (Sweet Zuke Hybrid) and summer squash (Butterstick). I blogged on these earlier when I bought the seeds. I planted the seeds in compost-based potting soil.

4. Transplanted a couple more eggplants into the barrels. Im not sure how these will do, they are not thriving. Probably started too early.

Seed Catalog Order

Not exactly the same as planned, but it's exciting to look ahead. I ordered from Burpee this year. I liked their user reviews of varieties, accessible right on the variety description. It looks honest - varieties that are labeled as user favorites, and featured prominently, are not necessarily the ones that won the reviews. For example, most thought that Tomato variety "Red Lightening" was tough-skinned and not flavorful. Much less expensive, and much older variety, "Supersweet 100" had a much higher rating for flavor, but complaints about splitting - exactly my experience. "Brandy Boy" was panned by many who grew it - so I changed my mind and went to old reliable "Better Boy", which has that old growing-up-in-the-midwest flavor, is reliable, disease resistant, and bears many big juicy tomatoes. I also added Black Truffle hybrid due to rave reviews, but kept Northen Exposure and 4th of July despite so-so reviews, as an experiment due to early bearing properties and reported tolerance to cold.

Photo Thumbnails from Burpee.com (note - they aren't paying me anything at all to post, or giving me any special deal or product - this is just my garden log. But I hope it's OK to include them in this discussion. Full sized photos can be seen at the Burpee website)

55103A Bush Bean Roma II 53 days - 1 Pkt. (2 oz.) 1 $2.95




83139 Burpee Booster for Beans and Peas - 1-3oz. Pkg (40' row) 1 $8.25

53512A Snap Pea Super Sugar Snap V.P. 64 days - 1 Pkt. (200 seeds) 1 $3.95

52936A Tomato Fourth of July Hybrid 49 days - 1 Pkt. (40 seeds) 1 $3.95




56663A Tomato Northern Exposure Hybrid 67 days - 1 Pkt. (30 Seeds) 1 $3.95

56812A Tomato Cherokee Purple (Heirloom) 85 days - 1 Pkt. (50 seeds) 1 $3.95

52027A Tomato Super Sweet 100 Hybrid (Cherry) 70 days - 1 Pkt. (30 seeds) 1 $2.95

67265A Tomato Black Truffle Hybrid 75 days - 1 packet (30 seeds) 1 $3.95




50724A Tomato Better Boy Hybrid 72 days - 1 Pkt. (30 seeds) 1 $3.95

62120A Tomato Black Pearl Hybrid 65 days - Packet (30 seeds) 1 $5.25

65005A Bush Bean Eureka 55 days - Packet (2 oz.) 1 $3.95




54460A Eggplant Millionaire Hybrid 55 days - 1 Pkt. (30 seeds) 1 $2.95




65025A Eggplant Fairy Tale 50 days - Packet (30 seeds) 1 $5.25

54148A Hot Pepper Big Red Hybrid 70 days - 1 Pkt. (30 seeds) 1 $3.95

63770A Pepper Red Popper 55 days - Packet (40 seeds) 1 $4.75

56020A Costa Rican Sweet Pepper 70 days - Packet (40 seeds) 1 $4.75




57109A Zucchini Sweet Zuke Hybrid 48 days - 1 Pkt. (25 seeds) 1 $3.95




53231A Zucchini Butterstick Hybrid 50 days - 1 Pkt. (25 seeds) 1 $2.95




62810A Cucumber Palace King Hybrid (Oriental) 62 days - 1 Pkt. (30 seeds) 1 $4.95




62802A Cucumber Early Pride Hybrid (Slicing) 55 days - 1 Pkt. (30 seeds) 1 $2.95

91056 Seedling Heat Mats - 1 Mat - 10in.X20-3/4in. 1 $36.75

This seems like a lot of expense, but I take the following into account:
1. It's a hobby.
2. Given the evaluations, and my past experience, I'm confident that most of these are high-potential varieties in my yard. I chose for early yield, reported disease resistance, and either my personal experience of reliability or multiple reviews. With storebought, it's more difficult to do this.
3. For tomatoes, varieties that turn out well - and a few are already proven performers - this is a 3 or 4-year supply of seeds. Some are admittedly experiments - 4th of July due to reported very early yield, Northern Exposure for reported good bearing in cool short summers. I usually experiment with a couple of new types - I love the black varieties, so will try Black Truffle. Cherokee Purple has always done well for me, as have Better Boy, Supersweet 100, and Lemon Boy. I'll see if my old Lemon Boy seeds sprout, if not see if some are locally available, since Burpee doesn't carry them. They should do fine, they are only 1 year old seeds.
4. For the beans, this will be enough for about 20 meals for two. Plus, when the plants quit bearing, they are fed to the chickens and become eggs. Both the Romas and the yellow beans are excellent, better than anything from the store.
5. For the zucchinis and cucumbers, two plants of each variety will be enough for many meals and snacks, plus some to give away, plus some for the chickens.
6. The pepper seeds may also last 4 years or more. I'm not sure about what to expect, but experience tells me they last longer than that.
7. The eggplants are listed as early bearing varieties. In fact, among the earliest. That's needed here, because they start late and bear late.

The seed mat is part of my master plan for peppers, especially, but also tomatoes and some of the others. Warmer start means faster start, and maybe even more seeds will sprout. It should last a long time. One year I used a heating pad - it seemed to help, but not recommended, they are not made for that.