Kitchen Garden. 7.26.15

Germinating Buckwheat.  5 days.  7.26.15

Trinity Sweet Corn.  Planted Seeds 5.12.15.  Photo 7.26.15

From / In the kitchen garden -

Today I dug up the garlic from the garlic raised bed.  Not pictured, needs to be cleaned up.  Not as productive and big as last year.  I was not up to taking good care of them through the winter, planted later, didn't weed as well.  Still there will be some.

Ning dug up his potatoes.  He estimates 50 pounds of red potatoes.

Buckwheat has germinated in the first bed.  I include buckwheat in kitchen garden, because it might be usable either as grain for us, or for the chickens.  We had a brief rainy spell which helped.  This week, 90s to 100 expected for several days.

Over the past week, I cleaned up 3 raised beds that were all weeds, plus the garlic raised bed.  I topped off the soil where it had sunk, with yard soil.  The sinking does not appear to be compaction.  The soil mix was about 30% or more compost, which is probably biodegraded now to the humic particles that maintain tilth.  It was easiest to pull the weeds by hand.  I managed to salvage some handfuls of shallots, that will get their own location. 

Early Sunglow Sweetcorn.  5.26.15

Trinity Sweet Corn.  7.26.15

Trinity Sweet Corn.  7.26.15

Summer Squashes.  7.26.15

I over-planted three of the raised vegetable beds with buckwheat seeds, watered thoroughly.  If it grows in the heat, that will give the four benefits of (1) organic matter for soil building (2) beaucoup flowers for nectar and pollen for bees, and (3) potential source of grain.   And (4) eliminate weeds by overgrowing them.   Never grew buckwheat before, interested in what happens. 

Had the first of the Trinity Sweet Corn today.  Might have benefit from another few days to fill in and expand the kernels but it was excellent flavor.  I estimated it would be ready in September.   This was a month sooner.  Early Sunglow sweet corn looks stunted in comparison- about 2 to 3 foot tall.  We will see what happens.  The second batch of Trinity, planted about one month later, is tasseling now too.

Lots of squashes.  No wonder they were an important crop for Native American communities.   Very productive and low maintenance.

Walking Around. 7.26.15

Front Border.  7.16.15

Agapanthus.  7.26.15

Joe Pye Weed at about 4 months.  7.26.15

 Random updates.

Front borders are getting close to where I want them.   There are plenty of Spring blooming bulbs, foliage now dead and waiting for another turn of the year.  They are the first wave.

For the second wave, there are lots of Daylilies and annuals.  I know better what annuals will do well.  The nasturtiums that have a big early display, then die, I will not save seeds from those.  I will save seeds from the ones that bloom for another month or more.  The marigolds, heritage French type, have been excellent and continue to bloom like crazy.

Daylilies take the heat and just continue to bloom.  The new daylily plants continue to grow, slowly.  Now that there are plenty of seed pods, I am dead-heading some of the just-bloomed flowers to keep them looking neater.

When I took the overwintered, dried-out Agapanthus out of the garage this Spring, it didn't look like much.  So I planted nasturtiums in the container around the Agapanthus.  They had their burst of bloom, then burnt out.  Now the Agapanthus is blooming generously. 

Geraniums need dead heading.  The 90s to 100 temp, and blazing sun, burns out the petals.  The leaves look good.

The borage died out, but now a second wave of volunteers is blooming, and a 3rd wave of seedlings has germinated.

The Joe Pye Weed is settled in and growing robust leaves.  At the top - there may be some early flower buds.  That would be nice.

Four O'clocks, Nasturtiums, Geraniums.  7.26.15

Tigridia.  7.26.15

Tigridia continues to bloom.  Even though each flower lasts one day, each stem has a succession of bloom.  Planting them in a cluster, in container, works well.

Four O'clocks are blooming nicely too.  The plants that survived the winter are larger and more robust than the new seedlings, but they all look good.  The more I grow Four O'clocks, the more I like them.  They don't mind a little shade, but they grow better in full sun.  They do make a lot of volunteers, but those are easy to pull out if not wanted.

Sedums grew robust new mounds, with lots of flower buds.  They will be the 3rd wave of flowers in the front borders.  Bees really love sedum flowers, so that is an additional benefit.

Of all of the main flowers, borage is about the only one that really feeds the bees.  I have bunches of oregano plants throughout.  The bumblebees and honeybees also forage heavily on oregano flowers, in full bloom now.

Chickens. 7.25.15

Earlier this summer, Ning gave away 2 of the post-menopausal hens for pets.  Then another died of unknown causes.

Three weeks ago, I bought 3 Rhode Island Red pullets.  They are growing nicely.

Then some mysterious person or persons, added 2 Leghorn roosters to the chicken yard.  Which resulted in battles and discontent and bloody feathers.  I found someone to take the roosters off my hands, and we are at peace.

The rooster and hen won't let me near the pullets.  They are very protective.  I think we will start getting eggs again in a month.

Stone Fruit Seeds. 7.25.6.15

El Dorado Genetic Dwarf Peach Seeds.   7.25.15

Peacotum Seeds.  7.25.15

 After letting the dried pits sit for a couple of weeks, I decided to remove the seeds from the pits. 

A Vice-grip works almost perfectly every time.  One precaution:  This needs to be done with the seed, vice-grip, and hand, in a plastic food bag.  The seed snaps open so suddenly, the seed and pit parts can fly across the room if not contained.

I was surprised at how puny and dried out looking the El Dorado seeds were.  Maybe they are not viable.  I placed them on a wet paper towel, folded, placed into a jam jar, and they are now in the refrigerator.

Not shown, two regular size peach seeds were a bit bigger, but still didn't look great.

Maybe this is an issue for early ripening peaches.  Or maybe I should not have let them sit for a few weeks.  Or maybe this is how they should look.

The peacotum seeds, same duration, are a little bigger but not much.

The apricot seeds, one week less, look much more robust.  That's either because they are better seeds, or more air-tight pit, or the shorter time.

Apricot Seeds.  7.25.15

I have the peacotum seeds soaking in some water overnight.  Maybe they will plump up.  If so, the same might be helpful with the El Dorado seeds.

Veggies 7.23.15

Veggies.  7.23.15

Getting more and more veggies.  Tomatoes, a few every day.  Ditto for summer squash, sometimes zucchinis, sometimes the yellow summer squash.  I have not tasted the pale yellow crookneck squash yet.  They have an interesting oily feel to the skin.   The green beans are the first of the Romas.  We had an earlier crop of yellow wax beans.

As usual with zucchinis, we have too many.  We can shred some to feed the chickens.  I have given some away.