Kitchen Garden. 5.8.17

It's been sunny and warm for three days. This was a good time to cultivate the kitchen garden. The potatoes and onions that I planted earlier this year are doing well. I hilled up the potatoes. With rain and winter, it was difficult to cultivate the garlic, which I planted in the fall. I weeded a couple of weeks ago, and today it just needed light cultivation. I planted out some collard greens seedlings, surrounding each with a dusting of blood meal that I found in the garage. The idea is to repel rabbits, which are prevalent in my garden. Then some organic slug bait. Slugs love cabbage family plants. Last year's collards are blooming. I intend to save seeds from those.

Collard Greens in Bloom.  5.7.18

I have mustard green seedlings to plant. 

The tomatoes are growing nicely in containers in sunroom.  Ditto for peppers.  Yesterday the soil temperature was 80 F, so I planted sweet corn, Trinity hybrid which is reported to tolerate chill, and which did well in 2015 and 2016.

Daylilies Growing. 2.21.16

Last summer I planted a number of daylily plants.  In past years a few did not make it through the winter.  My guess is underground herbivores, such as voles, were the reason they didn't survive.

Some are ahead of others, but so far this year, most look great.  This one is "Winsome Lady" and is close to the edge of the bed, for a photo. 

Slugs can be an issue, so they get a dose of Sluggo when I see damage.  With frequent rains, Sluggo tends to dissolve and may not do much good then, so I wait for a little damage before using it.

Kitchen Garden / Winter Gardening / Raised Bed. Progress Report. 2.22.14

Covered Tunnel Version 3.  Step 1.

Covered Tunnel Version 3.  Step 2.

Topset Onions Germinated

Radishes and Turnips Germinated

I removed the row cover from the winter vegetable bed.  This bed was planted 1.28.14 so is just under one month after planting.

I originally used polyethylene cover.  That collected rain and collapsed.  I replaced that with permeable row cover.  That collected snow and collapsed.

Meanwhile, there were freezes into the 20s, and a blizzard.

When I removed the row cover, I saw the radish seeds and turnip seeds had germinated.  A few spinach seeds germinated.  Chinese mesclun germinated nicely.  I did not see any cabbage plants.  The topsets from Egyptian Walking Onions were about an inch tall.  Those were unusually small sets I had in the garage.

I didn't weed this time although it could use weeding.  One of the main challenges is vermin, including slugs, voles, rabbits, mice, and others.  So far these seedlings were not eaten.  Although maybe the cabbage seeds germinated and were eaten.

I watered with diluted fish emulsion as a vermin repellent.  Then I applied a dusting of hot pepper / dried blood for the same reason.  Then I added organic slug bait.

The mouse traps were not set off, but mouse traps in the garage had 3 of 4 traps with mice.  So I moved those to the garage.

I went back to a polyethylene row cover.  This time I used wire fencing as a support.  That will prevent pooling of water / collapse.  I should get a larger sheet so I can weigh down the sides with bricks.  Wind might otherwise catch it.  I changed to the polyethylene again because I think it will hold in more heat, and maybe it is more light permeable as well.  It will stay more dry, which is probably good although it might wind up needing some watering.