Puttering. 5.8.14

Hollywood Plum Cuttings

Sungold Tomato Plants 5.8.14

 Puttering around the yard.

The Hollywood Plum cuttings continue to have small leaves.  None of them has dried off.  The Shiro Plum cuttings' leaves all crispified and died.  I weeded around the living cuttings.  It is raining today.  If they stay alive, that's a bunch of little plum trees.  Hollywood is a very tasty, very richly colored plum.

Planted the 2 Sungold tomato plants today.  They doubled in size in a couple of weeks.  I hope the seedlings progress well too.

The Cincinnati Market radishes are interesting.  They are shaped like carrots, but the flavor is all radish, juicy and peppery.

Cincinnati Market Radish.  5.8.14

 The front yard trees all look pretty good.  I planted these Summer 2012.   This is the first bloom for the Mountain ash.   The Laburnum bloomed last year, but it was cut short by frost.  I don't know if the Greenspire Linden will  bloom.

The Laburnum was leaning with the wind, so it got a stake to straighten it.  That will need to stay in place for a year or two.

All of the trees have had some dilute doses of organic nitrogen in late winter and spring, for a boost.

Front Yard Trees.  5.8.14

Container Plants. Flowers and Kitchen Garden. 4.29.14

Dianthus in container

Overwintered geraniums.

 Today was warm, into the 80s.  Nights are still in the 40s.  Prediction for tomorrow is 90.  Wow.

Of the container plants, I cleaned up the dianthus that overwintered outside in a sheltered location.  I sheared it to a compact shape.  There was an agapanthus that did not survive the big freeze.

Of the geraniums that I overwintered in the garage, all appear to have survived.  They have been sitting on the deck a couple weeks.  I cleaned them up, just using scissors to remove dead parts.  I did not attempt to make them into compact looking garden department plants.  I'm going for the "these are old geraniums like grandma had" look.

I planted some of the Mirabilis seedlings into another container.  They are a little floppy.  Sunday I planted several at Battleground, and there was a hailstorm that tore holes in some leaves.  Still, they look ok today - 2 days later.

Overwintered geraniums.  After cleanup.

Mirabilis starts in container.

 I've been shuttling peppers and Mirabilis inside/outside.  Now they are outside to stay.  Now I am moving them into more full sun.

Tomato and okra seedlings are still under lights.  Except the 2 Sungold plants I bought.  They are in containers and in the sun.

The two largest, oldest okra plants are now in a larger container, along with a seedling.  There are early pods on the two oldest plants.  Okra here is a total experiment, there is almost nothing saying they can be grown this way and a fair amount of info saying they cannot be grown this way.  All I want is a few pods now and then for soups or fry.  If I'm getting the starts of pods now, then maybe this summer there will be a lot more.  The two larger plants are Burgundy and Baby Bubba Hybrid.  The smaller one is "Dwarf Green Long Pod".  It may be a stretch to have 3 plants in one container.

Starts of tomatoes, Mirabilis, peppers.  First day in full sun.

At Battleground, I uncovered the peppers that were in the poly tunnel.  I replaced the polyethylene sheeting with deer mesh.  They look good, nice and green and ready to grow.

More plant starts in the sun.

Okra plants moved into larger container.

Thinking about a Sun Room. 1.11.14

Front Of House

Front Of House

This is the West-facing side of the house.  To the right is South, to the left is North.  The squarish window with 4 panes opens from the dining room.  I think that would be a good place for a sun room.  Replace that window with a patio door or french door.  The sunroom could be about 100 to 150 square feet.  Big enough for plants all around, for starting tomatoes and peppers, okra, figs....  flowers...  and overwintering cacti and orchids.    Maybe even overwinter a large chili pepper plant.  There might be room for the Meyer Lemon - currently bearing - and kumquat.  Wow - I just filled up the sunroom, and it's not even designed yet.

I was thinking greenhouse, but sunroom might contribute to solar heating in winter.  Or might not be efficient, but would be more protected than a greenhouse, and I could sit in the sunroom and ponder, putter, and stew.

There's a home remodeling show in portland in 2 weeks.  It would take my mind off the impending scan....

More seeds for Kitchen garden and bee garden.

Another order, seedsavers.org. 

Bean, Dragon's Tongue PKT
Bean, Pencil Pod Golden Wax PKT
Pepper, Hot Portugal PKT
Pepper, Maule's Red Hot PKT
Squash, Golden Zucchini OG
Tomato, Cherokee Purple OG
Tomato, Italian Heirloom PKT
Tomato, Mexico Midget OG PKT
Flower, Four O'Clocks PKT
Flower, Bee's Friend PKT
Flower, Starfire Signet PKT
Sunflower, Titan OG

Image from vintageprintable.com

All of these are in the "Master Plan".  The garden beds are planned and all but one are built and filled; that last one is built but needs a chicken-wire bottom for moles and to be filled.

The 4 O'clocks are reported as deer and rabbit resistant, and may be a bee forage flower.  Phaseala ("Bee's Friend") is considered a great forage source.  The signet marigolds will be used in companion planting for vegetables.

I have a lot of seeds from last year.  I may try some of those too. 

This helps keep me going until late winter when I can start planting.  Especially cold days like today.

Harvest Early September

Harvest Last Weekend

Charlotte Peach with Yellow Jacket

Pepper barrel

Hawaiian Pineapple Tomato

Fresh Peaches

Today's Catch

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.

Kitchen Garden.

Zucchini

Blueberries

Now picking a couple of zucchinis a week.  We've eaten 4 nice zucchinis.  At the moment, all of the flowers are male.  The yellow ones are more tender.

Blueberries are in full season.

Mulberries are near the end.

Shiro plums are in full season.

We are getting a few figs a week.

Starting to get more Sungold tomatoes.

It's nice.

Kitchen Garden.

Broccoli

Broccoli in container

 A few minor notes on kitchen garden.

The broccoli is ready.  I didn't know when to harvest.  One of the heads started to open its flowers.  So I waited too long.  Harvested the rest.  Left a few side shoots in case they decide to produce.

German chamomile is blooming like crazy.  The honeybees are not so enthusiastic about this plant.  They are much more interested in Ceanothis.  Blackberries within 10 feet of the beehive are starting to bloom, and honeybees are starting to show interest in the blackberry blossoms.

Okra seedlings are on their cotyledons.  Not bad.  I was surprised they sprouted so soon in  the rainy cool week.

Tomato plants are growing nicely.  No pic uploaded.

Also not pictured, we ate barley soup, with added fresh rosemary, parsley, and oregano, all from the heritage iris / herb bed.  Then today I had eggs with chives, and sliced chives onto left over barley soup.  All very good, great flavor.

We had the first fresh strawberries.  Most were not so good.  Woody.  I don't know why.  I don't think it's the variety.  I've had good strawberries from these plants before.  Maybe it was the deer/rabbit defoliation.  They have mostly recovered from that. A couple of fresh strawberries were perfect.

We had a few more snow peas.  The few plants don't bear enough to cook.  Ate them raw.  Next year try starting them in containers.  To get more plants.

German Chamomile

Okra seedlings

Tomato Bed

Tomato Bed

Tomatoes, planted and ready for some sunshine.  The 3  smaller ones were plants I grew from seeds.  Late start for those.  Also some basil plants.  Last week in this tomato cage, I also planted 2 rows of okra, and edges of sweet alyssum seeds and marigold seeds, which have germinated.

Grafted Tomato. Broccoli. Chilis.

Grafted Tomato Hawaiian Pineapple.  Broccoli.

Chilis

This grafted tomato is growing fast.  There are flower buds which were present when it was bought.  I don't know yet if it will lead to good tomatoes, but the growth is impressive.

This is the first time I've grown broccoli.  Starting to develop broccoli head in the center.



Chili peppers.  Also growing nicely.  These are at the place in Vancouver.  The ones at Battleground are bug or slug eaten and smaller.

Both the Tomato and Chilis are mulched with dried cherry blossoms I swept off the deck.  Kind of an exotic mulch.

Kitchen Garden

Here is the kitchen garden now.  Yesterday I added a raised bed.  As usual bottom is lined with chicken wire to prevent mole damage.   I planted tomatoes.  This time the deer/rabbit fence is vertical.

 There is space in this format for 2 more raised beds.  Then it will be three by three.  It does not have to be that formal.

I planted the tomatoes deep, as is the recommendation.

 Instead of a gate, the chicken wire on one side is looped over screws and held in place by clothes pins.  The fence posts are screwed to the sides of the bed using deck screws.

On the sides that do not open, the chicken wire is stabled to the frame.  To frustrate and annoy rabbits.

I don't think the deer will jump in.  I read they don't like confined spaces.

The lighter-green tomato was in the raised bed with radishes and snow peas.  I don't know why it's lighter green.  Maybe not enough nitrogen.  The other plants in that bed are quite green.

This soil is 50/50 compost topsoil mix from recycler.  That might green it up.

I have some seedling tomatoes at home that will also be added.  Maybe next week.

Kitchen Garden Plan

This is the plan for the kitchen garden for next year.  I used a high-tech method called "writing on an old mailing envelope using a pen".  Bio-powered system.

The three beds on the eastern side are planted as noted. When the alliums are done, in July, I can prep those beds for crop rotation, adding in compost and start fall-planted radishes, cabbages, turnips, mesclun. Another option is late-planted bush beans. I'll build the two late-winter beds next. That will give the coli/compost/supplement mix a chance to settle and "cure" before planting. Probably late feb. Those are fast growing. When they are done, the warm-requiring solanums (eggplant, chilis, tomatoes) and Okra can go in. The taller ones will go to the back. I can build the other beds through the winter and prep them in early Spring, March and April, before they need to be planted in May or June. By then I'll be tired of building raised beds and, especially, hauling soil to them. The soil hauling is heavy work.

One great thing about planning on paper is, I can continue changing it as I think of better choices.

The raised beds now. The soil pile and compost pile are in approx locations for two of the beds. I hope people don't think someone is buried there.

It's great to have company, even if they are sleeping.

Chilis and Tomatoes

The chili's are doing well considering the little I've done for them. Mainly just watering. One half-barrel is enough to supply 2 people with a few peppers a week, without feeling like we MUST eat them to avoid waste. Ditto for the tomatoes. These are Better Boy, Supersweet 100, and Sungold. I stand by the plant eating them off the vine, they are so good.

Kitchen Garden Progress Notes - Container Gardening

The yellow wax bush beans that I planted a 2 weeks ago. There appears to be some slug damage, so I added Worry Free organic slug bait.

Egyptian Walking Onions, multiplier onion, loves this method of growth. I planted these Oct. 29th. We did not eat many scallions this year, so these will go mainly toward eating onions and starts for a larger number for this fall. I don't know why we didn't eat more scallions, I love eating them.

German Garlic from Southern Exposure, also planted Oct 29th. They are also flourishing in the tubs. There should be some great garlic this summer.

Tomatoes I planted in a tub last week. The temp today is 49 - probably too cool, although last week it was in the 70s. The tubs warm up faster, so may be OK. This tub has seedlings from mesclun that should be ready to pull out in a couple of weeks. The sticks are mulberry prunings, an attempt to see if they grow by the "stick it in the ground" method that I use for figs, grapes, and forsythia. And roses.

Tomato covers

I ran out of covers so tried these. THe plants look healthy inside, after one week so far.

There are the usual "wall-o-water" units. They are about 10 degrees warmer than ambient temperature now.

Tomato progress report

The tomato seedlings are almost too large to maintain outside now. The temperatures are still in the 40s at night, so too soon to plant outside unprotected.

I've been setting them outside in the morning, and bringing inside at night. The day temperatures are into the 50s and 60s, for the most part.

They are a little more leggy than I like, but still OK. If too leggy I can just plant them deeper.

I wasn't going to set up the "wall-o-water" units but under the circumstances, I think they are the best approach. I took the soil temperature, it's 50 degrees, so technically warm enough to plant. I will leave these units in place for 2 days then plant tomato plants. There will be some extra plants to try elsewhere. The arrangement is not planned. My garden not only has an "organic" soil/pest management/compost/plant food philosophy, but apparently has an "organic" constantly evolving shape. Not planned that way, but it is what it is. Nonlinear, no straight edges or 90 degree corners.

I planted 3 tomato plants in this barrel, too. One has a plastic container cover. I'll look around and see if I can find more, otherwise I'll buy something at the grocery store today. I think it's still too cool to have them completely unexposed, at least at night. A cover would also result in warmer soil & roots.