April 25, 2010

Again, it seems like I've been blogging every day.  Well, I haven't.  Mostly I've been spending every sunny day in the yard working on something or other, thinking I should blog about it.  Then I get the kids down and do some job search and stupid FB crap, then it's time for bed.  Oh, and I'm reading a gardening book for Patti's newsletter and going to review it for her.  Other than that, the job market appears to be picking up a bit by the number of calls I've gotten and interviews I've got lined up.  The potential for me finding a job has sent me into daddy overdrive, trying to eek out every moment with the boys that I can.  Still, the nice weather screams garden, so I obey.

I can't believe I haven't mentioned my strawberries.  I've wanted to plant strawberries along the edge of my rock wall blueberry bed for ages.  Each year at our preschool auction, one of the parents contributes 6 or so pots of 10+ strawberries that they weed out.  Every year I bid and lose.  This year, I worked it out so that if I did lose, I could snag some directly from her.  Alas, for $7 I got a pot.  The next day my Aunt and I got them in the ground since they were about to flower...

First we weeded the bed, at least where we were planting.  Despite the aging layer of beauty bark, weeds are prolific in that bed.  Then I dug little holes about a foot apart along the edge of the bed, leaving a 2 foot opening between the two blueberry plants for easy entrance to the bed.



Then I collected a bucket of my trusty 2-year-old compost and worked a handful into the soil at the bottom of the holes.  After that, it was time to separate out the pot-o-strawberries.  My aunt had the great idea to do it in my wheelbarrow to avoid bending so much.



I ended up with 11 plants that could easily be separated.  Some were more like 2 plants and some were barely plants at all.  Still, we got to work planting them.



You can see in the background that the blueberries are benefiting from the heavy mulch of pine needless from my neighbor.  That and the rock wall may be in desperate need of repair, but it still makes a nice bench to sit on to plant.

After filling in around the seedlings with native soil, I mounded with more compost.



You'll note that the compost still has a bunch of little dried grass clippings and twigs in it.  I don't use a shredded to chop up my compostables into fine bits (though I could).  It's also drier than I'd like, but having a cover over it for a year tends to dry things out.  I have since propped up the lid to let rain get to it.

Since I planted them, most of the plants have flowered and grown the little hard buds where strawberries form.  I was told by the donor that this should be a heavy producing year for the plants, so I didn't pinch back the flowers.  I had intended to train the runners to fill in the gaps.  However, a good friend of ours just offered up their own strawberry weedings.  I am excited to fill in the gaps with different varieities to have strawberries all season long.  I may go 2 rows deep with runners some day. Not sure.  My whole family loves strawberries.  Time will tell.

Well, this post is long enough.  I will do a few more and forward publish them since I have time.  Hope your spring weather is as gorgeous as mine and you have had time to enjoy your garden!

June 25, 2009

I guess this is a random garden tour-like post.  I've been accumulating pics of things that struck my fancy for a while and just haven't had opportunity to work them into posts.  After chatting with Judy on Facebook tonight, I commented on my freaky corn and I promised her I would show it in my blog post tonight. 

I've been trying to get it to grow fast by side dressing with fish emulsion every week or two.  That may have had something to do with these side shoots...



I went out today and those V side shoots are thicker and looking like more stalks.  It almost looks like the stalks that the ears grow on, but they should be mid-way up a 3 foot tall stalk, not coming out of the ground?  What do you think? Can I expect ears from each side shoot?  Very odd.  I'd wanted the nitrogen to help them grow tall, not freaky, hehe.

Ok, now I'm normally good at segwaying to the next topic and pic, but I'm not going to bother this post, sorry.  Instead I'll just jump from topic to topic to clear up my pics, hehe.

Here is a demonstration of what a few weeks can do for my peas.



I took that a week or two ago, and that same pea yesterday looked like this...



What do you think, snap peas ready now or should I wait?  I'm so nervous after waiting too long on my beans that I'm gunshy. hehe.

Now on to tomatoes.  I finally found another plant that is producing fruit. 



It's clearly a cherry, though not sure which one.  I'm kind of liking the mystery of it all.  Oh, and if you're wondering like I was, the grey thing at the bottom left is my wand, filling the SWC.  These plants are going through water very fast, much earlier than last year.  As a result, I may very well have home grown tomatoes by the 4th of July.  No, not these, but look at what I found when I last watered.



Yep, I've got two (Bloody Butcher?) ripening.  Pretty cool.

Next, I thought this shot was cool, so I snapped it.  It's a pic of my yukon gold potato patch.  Some of the plants are nearly 3 feet tall now, but some have dodged the crowd and are growing out into the path.



I remember last year I had a broccoli that did this, the stalk was leggy and in the shape of an S with the head growing two feet off the ground.

This next pic is yet another from my lone surviving Blacktail Mountain watermelon plant in a scrap SWC.  I'm just waiting for tomatoes to grow on it.  Very odd.



Lastly, I just had to take a pic today of one of my new blueberry bushes.  It's too small to allow it to grow a full harvest, but I like to let a cluster or two mature to taste them while most of the energy goes to developing a sturdy root system and strong canes.  This Jersey will be the first to mature a berry.  Look at them!



I'm worried that if those corn with the V stalks grows much bigger, they'll shade this plant, hehe.  Tough to do from the north, but it could create a canopy.

Anyway, sorry for the random thoughts.  Hope you've enjoyed my miscellaneous pics and have a big weekend planned in your garden.  I've got renovation and plumbing repairs scheduled. /sigh.

June 16, 2009

Well, the weather was much cooler today, though muggy. I think we're finally in for some rain tonight.  Of course that didn't stop us from having a great 3-mile walk sans youngin's tonight when we got home from work.  It was great.  The heart rate wasn't racing quite as much as pushing an old jogging stroller with 45 pounds of 5 year old, but it did allow us to spend a relaxing dinner at Subway mid-walk.  Splitting a foot-long ham and cheese loaded with veggies. Ah, the life. hehe

What does that have to do with a gardening blog you ask?  Well, it isn't really a stretch to say that part of the reason I started my garden was to eat better and live healthier so I can play with my grand kids some day.  Besides, the other reason I started the garden was for a stress reliever, and I can tell you I feel nice and relaxed after that evening.  Lastly, it's my blog and I'll ramble if I want to, hehe.

Now on to the garden.  After my walk today, I took the opportunity when we got home to wander around the garden and water.  I can tell you more broccoli is coming on strong all of a sudden, so I should really figure out how to encorporate it into more meals.  That or resign myself to the fact that I'll need to preserve it or give it away.  I'm sure I could give it away, but having freshish broccoli in the heat of the summer or dead of winter sounds pretty good (yeah, there's a good chance I'll have broccoli to harvest mid-winter, but you get my meaning). 

While I was watering, I decided to take a few snapshots of the other side of the garden for a change.  First is Judy's Minnesota Midget cantaloupe.



Why do you ask are all the plants bunched into the corner of a big 31 gallon Self Watering Container (SWC)?  Well, the third seed didn't germinate but the fourth that I just threw in did.  Anyone want to tell me if the little guy will transplant a foot away?  I don't want to kill it but it does look kinda runtish next to those big guys.  Anyway, I need to figure out a trellis for this area.  Now that I think the big tomato cages are doing fine to contain the tomatoes I really don't need to waste my big trellis on it, but it does need to be sturdy.  Maybe I'll build one of the sturdy conduit ones that Mel pushes and KitsapFG uses so well.  Who knows, I've got another month or so before these need a trellis.



Speaking of tomatoes, I think I mentioned that I took an idea from EG who pinches his suckers (the stems that grow from the middle of a V on a tomato plant) when they're decent size and plants them for succession or back-up plants.  Well, I decided to experiment myself with a decent sized one that I must have missed.  I planted it in the back of my blueberry bed where I had a ton of room in the corner of two fences.  Well, it seemed to take, but silly me, I forgot to water it well during that 90 degree heat we had last week.  I guess I'm spoiled by my SWCs, hehe.  It died of course, but I decided to water it regularly to see if I could revive it.  Sure enough, it looks like it may just pull through.  Wouldn't that be a resilient tomato plant?



Sorry for the poor quality picture, I didn't want to climb into the bed so I zoomed in.  However, you can clearly see new growth on top of the old dead leaves.  I'll keep checking back with this guy to see if it produces anything.

Hehe, continuing the unintentional segways, speaking of blueberries, the plant right next to this tomato is going to be my best producer by far.  Look at all those berries froming...



They almost look ready don't they?  Maybe this is one of my early producers?  It's a Blueray, which matures in July and August, so maybe... Yum!

The next pic is for my good buddy EG who already has corn growing.  I think I told you that I hit these with a shot of fish emulsion yesterday to help them along, hehe.



Notice that some of those stalks are growing side stems at a 45 degree angle?  I'm not sure what to make of that.  I mean last year the stalks did that but not until they were nearly 6 feet tall and the Vs were 3 feet up the stalk.  I wonder if this means I'll grow short corn stalks with multiple ears... wouldn't that be interesting?  I haven't grown this variety before.

Lastly, I wanted to share a pic of my lone watermelon from EG that germinated in a scrap SWC.  It seems to be doing pretty well, but I'm kind of curious about it.  It doesn't look at all like a cantaloupe or other melon plant.  In fact, it looks a LOT like a tomato plant...



I swear the seeds looked like black watermelon seeds, which matches the name, Blacktail Mountain Watermelon or something like that.  EG, you growing them?  At least I think it was EG that gave them to me, maybe Judy... hmm?  That reminds me that I should really lable the envelopes with who gave them to me, to thank them when I get a great crop or something... hehe.

Enjoy your garden!

May 26, 2009

Short post tonight as not much to report on, but I had to share.

First off, I was catching up on my blog reading/commenting and came across KitsapFG's blog from the other side of Puget Sound.  I got half-way through her to-do/done list and had to stop to head out to the garden.  I've been seeing holes in my broccoli leaves and she had sprayed with BT, so I thought I should do so.  Thanks KitsapFG! 

However, the big news.  I've got a environmental dilemma here.  I've been planting flowers and other plants to attract bees to my yard.  We don't have honey bees here and haven't for several years, so for us bumble bees do the lion's share of the pollinating, so I love seeing them whenever I can.  I can sit there and watch them on the blueberry bushes.  They bring a smile to my face.

Until now.  I was standing in my kitchen making dinner tonight when outside my kitchen window I saw two fat bumble bees sunning themselves on my siding in the rose garden.  I thought it odd that they wouldn't go home as it was getting close to sundown.  Then I saw a bee fly up into the corner of my garden area above the kitchen window.  Seconds later I saw three fly down from there.  Some quick math made me say some choice four letter words.  Thankfully the kids are at their grandparents tonight, hehe (the last few sentences were literary embellishments).  Needless to say it meant I had a bumble bee nest in my house.  Sure enough, I went out to the rose garden and saw the hole where they were coming out of.  GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Why couldn't they have made their nest in a tree where I could point it out to my sons and say not to shake the tree and make them mad!?  No, they had to make their home where they are not supposed to be.  Now I have to kill them.  I really don't want to kill them. 

Maybe I'll wait until fall when the growing season's over, hehe.  Grrrrr.

Not a happy day in my garden for sure, hope you enjoy yours!

May 25, 2009

Happy Memorial Day all. I hope you made use of the somber holiday to spread life throughout your garden.  Following my utterly exhausting day yesterday, I slept in and got a bit done at my folks place before heading to another BBQ, late as usual for this weekend.  We had fun, but thankfully for the garden's sake it ended early. When I got home I got out into the garden finally. 

I knew this weekend of beautiful weather would do wonders for the garden, and I was right.  We now have cantaloupe sprouts, watermelon and the corn is about 3 inches high.  What's even more special is that I even saw a few broccoli heads starting to form.  That's great since they're now shading the cauliflower and cukes behind them too badly.  Oops. 

Well, that's it for the cool stuff I didn't take pictures of.  Mainly I spent my time over at the potato bins.  I knew I was in for a bunch of soil adding with all the sun we've had.  I had left a bit more than an inch, maybe 3 last time I hilled last week.  Today I had another 6-8 inches of growth.  Amazing.  I'm not sure if it's bad or not, but there were even flowers starting to form.  That's not good if they're stopping growth and heading straight to potato formation this early.  Time will tell.  All I can do is continue to hill. 

I must admit that having 2 bins is about all I could stand.  My back was killing me after hilling each plant by the handfull.  It took two bags of Mel's Mix and another set of boards per bin.  I suppose I could use a scoop of some kind, but this works and I feel better, closer to the dirt my way.  Here's a shot of about how much I tend to leave.



All the lower branches of each plant got burried after I positioned them into a bare spot in the bin, hoping the potatoes grow where I want them.  I've had a few questions about my bins lately, and although I always try to personally reply to questions via email, I thought I'd share this pic with everyone as it seems to be a common issue.  Hope this helps.

While I was watering this part of my garden (I watered the raised beds yesterday), I couldn't help but notice the blueberry bushes are covered in flowers and/or berry starts.



And my other original planting...



Not bad for the second year in the ground.  I can't wait for these babbies to be 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide, hehe.

Speaking of tall plants, look at how well the garlic's growing.  I don't know what type garlic I'm growing, but I would love to know if I can harvest the greens for use as garlic flavored green onions?



I know it's tough to tell how tall they are, but that's about 2 feet.  This bed is constantly in need of weeding because I did a very poor job of it when I planted my blueberries.  My folks think I should use the front of this concrete raised bed for strawberries.  I may though I like the idea of containers for strawberries better.  If only I had room for them. Maybe I could hang them from the fence, hehe.  Go vertical?

Hope you had a great Memorial Day weekend.  Mine was about as horrible as it could be with such miraculous weather and two parties attended.  I am going to be so exhausted at work I'll be useless, and still need to desperately mow my lawn.  Hope you enjoy your garden~!

April 30, 2009

Wow, another gorgeous day in the Pacific NW!  When I got home from work I wanted to vent the hoop cover because it was 65 degrees, aka 80+ inside the bed.  However, on the way, I had to take this picture so folks could see what my tomatoes are doing.  They're so droopy it's unreal!



I have no idea what they are, but when I plant them this weekend, they'll not only get the handfull of 5-10-10 organic fertilizer and epsom salt, but I'll hit them with fish emulsion before I cover them with the red plastic mulch. Maybe fertilizer is what they need.  Or maybe they need to be potted up already.  Those are only 2 quart pots.  Of course I guess it cold be a disease carried by the pot. I washed it out very well before I used it. /shrug

Well, while I was venting the bed. I heard the unmistakable sound of kids playing in the back yard (I've taken to closing the gate to keep the kids from pulling the plants out of the garden.  Last week my oldest "harvested" most of the overwintered carrots that ended up in the compost because he wouldn't eat them all.  Then today my youngest "picked" a tulip for mommy, bulb and all.  Joy!

So, after a quick game of tag, aka tire out the kids, we got down to some serious gardening.  I watered the kids bins, the potato bins and the fruit bushes/trees.  Then I decided to fill the bins for planting the corn and watermelon.  Of course I grabbed two bags of used potato dirt from last year.  Again I couldn't believe how many worms were in the sealed bags.  Incredible!  I'll take it for sure.  So the bins got mostly filled with used Mel's Mix.  Then I sprinkled a generous amount of 5-10-10 fertilizer and some bloodmeal for nitrogen in the corn bin. 



Then, on top of all that, I sprinkled a bunch of (mostly) finished compost.  Then I wet it down a bit.



Notice how close the bins are to the blueberry bush.  Well that's temporary for this year only.  You see, I don't plan on letting that bush produce this year so it grows a solid root foundation and sturdy branches.  I did that last year for my first two and I can't wait to let them produce tons of berries!

Oh my word... I just noticed something writing this and looking at the picture above.  I WAS SUPPOSED TO SWITCH THE BINS LOCATIONS!  Now the corn is going to shade the heck out of the carrots.  I sure hope they get enough sun to mature because I really can't move them now Grrrr.

Well, at least the watermelon bin is in the right place.  Tonight after dark I planted four seeds of Black Mountain Watermelon (at least I think it was black), in order to hopefully get 2 plants that I'll let sprawl on the ground behind the rose bush.  Pretty nifty huh? hehe.



The reason that we didn't plant the seeds right away was that we really wanted to go for a walk.  So I decided to soak them.



My wife and youngest are under the weather, but we took it easy (no it's not the swine flu, but we did consider it... symptoms are wrong, but we're watching them).  Anyway, I still burned nearly 1,100 calories on the walk and in the garden.  Not too shabby.  Gardening and exercise.  Life is good. 

Tomorrow morning before work I plan on planting the corn that is soaking overnight.  I am trying Bodacious this time.  It doesn't look like I grew it last year.  If it doesn't work, who cares.  The kids want it and it will be a good way to show them how things grow.

Enjoy your garden!

April 24, 2009

Well, I THOUGHT we had our last frost day last week, but the clear skies yesterday resulted in a cold night.  It got down around 35 is my guess, but it was enough to give us a light frost.  And to think it was bed time when I remembered that I hadn't brought in the plants.  Whew!  Sure the tomatoes probably would have been ok, but I'm not sure about the stevia, which is the only other plants I'm hardening off.

Here's a shot from the kitchen window...



In case you're wondering the yellow funnel in the lower left hand corner is the family chipper shredder.  Since I was the last to use it, it resides here til someone else needs it.

Then, as I was leaving for work, I couldn't help but snap this shot of my coldframe covering the peas germinating in bed #4.  I plan on using my string and 2x2 trellis for that bed since the other bed will get my big trellis again this year.



I must say, I'm happy that the coldframe is really working well.  I planted two rows of squares with peas this spring, but only the peas under my coldframe have germinated at all. 

Well, I took a break from posting and went outside to play with the kids with the main purpose of taking a picture of the sprouting peas.  Didn't happen, daddy was outside so I got distracted.  However, between pushing the little guy on the swing forever, and having the kids help pick their toys up off the grass so I could mow tomorrow, I did take some picks of my blueberry beds.  Here they are, starting with the garlic rows shooting up something fierce once the sun came out this spring.



Now, since Sandy commented on my blueberries, I thought I'd share them getting the afternoon sun.  The first is my favorite from my originals.



And here is other one that is an evergreen that grows in small clumps rather than grape-like bunches.



Now for Sandy's blueberries...



I love how this guy has the arm going over it's head.  Not sure if I should tie them up or not, they seem to be doing fine on their own.

Now for my new favorite...



I am really impressed by this little guy.  It didn't look so good a month ago, kinda like I planted it wrong.  Speaking of which, I was watching Gardening with Ciscoe tonight (TiVo recorded it), and he talked a bit about blueberries.  Apparently if I had planted any of these 1/8th inch too deep they would have died.  Thank goodness I got lucky four times, ROFL.  However, he did say in the PNW that April is the time to fertilize your blueberries with Azalea food for acid loving plants.  I also read last night that mulching with coffee grounds helps blueberries.  So at 10:30, I grabbed a flashlight, my fertilizer and a bag of Grounds for your Garden and went out to fertilize and much my blueberries.  Hehe, you should have seen me.  I would have taken pictures, but they would have turned out horrible.  So take my word for it, it was funny.

All I did was sprinkle a bit of fertilizer around the dripline of the plants, then covered with a bunch of coffee grounds.  Then I watered it all in.  I hope they like it.  Oh, and of course I had to hum REM's Gardening at Night. I'm wierd that way.

Enjoy your garden!

April 23, 2009

Ah, the weather started out horrible today.  The rain clouds chased me all the way to work.  Fortunately for me, they only caught me running from my car to the bus at the park & ride.  Good thing too, because it was a downpour.

Last evening there was no post.  I know, duh.  It was because I went to the Mariner's game and didn't get home until 11.  Boy was it cold, but we had GREAT seats!  We were in the front row, third base side over the visitor's dugout. 



In case you're wondering, that's Ken Griffey Jr., who started his career here back in the early 90s and has chosen to end it here, coming back for one year.  Of course, you can probably guess, but the game didn't interest me in the slightest.  I was FAR more impressed by the pre-game show.  I was excited to see that the first pitch was thrown out by none-other than Seattle's very own Ciscoe Morris!  Sure, he's a plant gardener by trade (one of the nation's first Master Gardener's from one of the first classes), but his potato page is linked to my potato page.  Silly, I know, but I'm a gardener.

Anyway, back to today.  The weather started out horrible, but around 2 the clouds cleared, the sun came out and it got up to 55 degrees or so.  When I got home, the kids and I went out and pulled some weeds from the blueberry beds.  Then we had some SERIOUS fun.  It was time for the kids to start their very own gardens.

Of course, they had to do the really hard parts...



No, Logan wouldn't be planting THOSE yellow flowers.



But aren't they cute?  In case you're wondering, those are the scrap pieces left over from our SWC build party a few weeks ago (see instructions link in the upper right hand corner of this blog).  Here they are posing with their chosen gardens!



As you can see, I just set them on top of some landscape fabric.  Notice that I placed them lid-side up, the opposite of EG's method.  It doesn't matter what side is up, but this is safer for the kids.



It took nearly two bags of re-used Mel's Mix from last year's potato bins.  Recall that after the potatoes were out of it, I heavily amended the mix with Starbuck's Grounds for your Garden (note that I've read that coffee grounds are actually 12:1 CN ratio, not 20:1, which makes them near perfect, free, fertilizer).  Anyway, one of the bags was much wetter than the other, and had tons of worms in it.  The kids loved that.  Here they are playing in their gardens...



 Notice in the foreground one of Sandy's blueberry bushes is blooming.  It is the first of my blushes to do so, and the leaves came on so quickly.  As with my other blueberries, these two will get pruned back such that only a few berries mature (for taste tests).  That way, the root systems and branches can get strong and healthy for the next 50 plus years.  Can you imagine these two lifting their kids up to pick blueberries from the top of these 5 foot high plants?  Ok, enough of that.

After they had their fun, we spent about a half hour planting individual carrot seeds into roughly 15x6 rows, square foot method style (the interior measurements are 20 by 13).  Logan got Solar Yellow carrots and Owen got Atomic Red carrots.  Those are their favorite colors.  Of course I've got tons of standard orange and some Purple Haze for variety. 

Here they are proudly standing next to their planted and watered gardens...



 Aren't these junior gardeners cute?  They had a blast and they'll be able to water, thin and watch the carrots grow!  Maybe Logan will keep a journal of the growth.  He loves doing that.

One of the two carrots needs to be picked young or they get tough.  The other tastes better cooked (what carrot tastes better cooked?!).  Alright, they're gag carrots, but the kids will have a blast.  Oh yeah, and I had to mention this.  When I opened the flap, tucked underneath was printed that they were Seminis seeds.  /Sigh.  I knew Ed Hume Seeds got some of their seeds from Monsanto, but I was really hoping that these weren't them.  Ah well, they got my $5.  Hehe.  If it makes the kids happy, cool.

Enjoy your garden, I know these two do!

December 21, 2008

Happy Winter Solstice!

Yay, from here on out the days are getting longer and the sun is getting stronger!  I still can't believe that the City of Seattle postponed their celebration of it until the weather gets better.  Silly, silly city.  You don't postpone the 4th of July until the 11th because it's raining...

Anyway, if we thought we had snow before, it's been snowing pretty much non-stop for a day and a half.  We have over a foot, which must be a new record for us.  I know the cold temperatures are.  We haven't seen temps below 20 degrees in over 50 years. 

The kids had a blast today.  We were only out for about an hour and a half, it was just too cold for them.  And my little guy could barely walk the snow was so deep.  Unfortunately my perfect neighbor gave me a bad time about his spending five hours shoveling his driveway and walk (he's got all of 50 or 75 feet of sidewalk compared to my 250).  So the last half hour was spent racing through with a regular flat shovel (I don't believe in unitaskers).  I got two shovel widths on the sidewalk, so that should be good enough.  I was going to do my 80 year old neighbor's sidewalk but my arms were jello by then and the kids wanted to get inside.  Nothing like fresh chocolate chip cookies and hot cocoa to warm the noes and toes.

I did get to take some pictures.  First, scroll down to see the pic from my office window looking at my blueberries.  See the concrete retaining wall?  Well, now you can't...



And so much for my garlic plants poking through the snow, they're covered now.  Oops, hope that isn't bad.

Anyway, here are the new blueberry bushes, they're not looking so healthy.  I hope they enjoy this feezing snowy period like some perenials...



Well, I think I'll take a page from my good buddy EG's book when I stop the pictures there so I can space them out longer.  That and it'll give you some reason to come back.  Tomorrow I'll show you what the storm did to my raised beds and hoop covers.

Stay warm and dream about your garden!

December 14, 2008

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.  Well, it only snowed overnight, but the freezing temps all day kept the snow from melting.  That was bad news for the garden but good news for the kids.

First the garden.  As expected, the inch or two we got didn't do much to the hoop covers, though it would have been a good idea to re-install the cross pole on the top of bed #2.  Well, here's a shot before I brushed the snow off.



That and the wind kept undoing the fronts of the beds, so I doubled the number of bricks I used to weigh down the plastic.  Thankfully the binder clips held nicely or it could have been worse.

Now I know what you're thinking, what happened to the veggies.  Well, I only snuck a glance at the spinach because the boys wanted to play.  The spinach didn't look so hot, but I'm hopefull it will bounce back after it warms up, sometime late next week if the forecast holds.

When I made it back to the backyard from the garden, I found the kids making snow angels.  How cute!



Then we proceeded to have a snowball fight.  Needless to say I was far more accurate then they, but I let them come right up and get me good to make up for it.



Then we went to the park to play on the big play set.  Here's the little guy coming down the slide... precious!



Lastly, I did take a couple of pics of my unprotected garden area.  I just love this Legacy blueberry bush. It's an evergreen and has the most beautiful shade of red leaf that stands out nicely against snow.



And then there was my garlic.  Several of the cloves must not have sprouted, because I know I planted more than this, but I'll take what grows and know to plant more next year.



Well, tomorrow should be fun trying to make it down the hill to the park & ride.  Maybe I should take the bus.  Not sure.  I went out today and slid a bit.  Others had it much worse because they didn't know what to do.  Still, that hill bothers me.  Too bad it couldn't have held off for a week until my vacation starts.

Well, as I'm writing this the temperature's dropped to 24 degrees.  And thanks to DoubleD who set me straight about the averaging of the temperatures, so even if we drop below 20 degrees, it won't change our climate rating, just make me wonder about it.  Isn't there something just plain odd about the weather this year?

October 25-26, 2008

Well, this is going to have to count as my weekend post.  I didn't get in until after midnight last night and was exhausted so not post got done yesterday, though the pics were taken from then.

Of course Saturday started with painting at my folks house, but we ended early to get ready for each familiy's separate evening activities.  Thankfully mine wasn't until later in the evening, so I got TONS of time to work in the garden. Well not tons like a whole weekend, but several hours at least.  And the weather was a cool crisp fall day, so it was good for gardening.

I started by taking care of the mess I made Friday when I made my halloween decorations with my corn stalks.



The first thing I noticed was that the stalks didn't come out of the ground easy at all.  So I used my half-length pitch fork to lossen the root balls.  Then I pulled them up and tried to get most of the Mel's mix off the spider-web like roots before tossing them into my wheelbarrow.



When that was done I simply dumped them on top of my compost pile.  I know compost added to a compost pile is a good way to jump start it, but at the end?  Who knows.  Anyway, I didn't have time, nor the energy to fluff the compost.  I also didn't have a ton of ingredients to add other than the corn stalks.  So they'll just hang out until I get more fall leaves dropping and I mow them up to dump on top.  Should work nicely.



Once the bed was clear, I got 3 big bags of Starbucks grounds and mixed it into the top 6 inches.  I left some of the corn roots to compost in place because I didn't want to pick out all the little roots.



Then, it was time to do a garden tour.  Both figuratively and literally.  My sons' teacher stopped by for a garden tour, but before that I snapped some shots to show off what's been going on over the last week.  Get your fill of pictures now because next week's going to be another one full of late nights so no light for pictures.

Here is a shot of my hoop covers, all holding up very well so far.



I still don't have new piece of plastic to connect to the plastic mostly covering the bed in the foreground, but as you can see, I've figured out how to connect them.  I'll just clip both pieces to the back pipe with my binder clips.  Though I may order professional plastic clips.  They're about a buck a piece in bulk, so that's not bad. 

Now to show you what's in bed #3. 



It's cool to see the clear succession of the cauliflower, as well as the regrowth of leaves in the big middle one.  If you look close you can see the munched leaves on the bottom.



Here is bed #2, with the succession radishes in the foreground, the leaf miner infected mature spinach in the middle and the slow growing peas in the rear.  They should be much bigger by now, but they're growth has been slowed by the cold weather I expect.  What are growing well are all the mushrooms.  They like our soil here I guess.  Either that or my city compost's got them. 

Finally, here's bed #1...



In the foreground are the succession carrots.  You can't really see the sprouts in the row with the shroom in it, but they're there.  The next row is dedicated to my hoop cover temperature experiment that's going very poorly.  On that front, the temp difference is still holding true at 4-5 degrees difference, which would be great if it wasn't for the fact that it's colder INSIDE my beds then outside on the cold gravel covered ground. 



Behind the culprit of my garden anxiety is my succession lettuce.  I'm doing what Steve Solomon said to do for our region.  The big lettuce was planted in the first week of September.  I think it should be bigger than that but the weather sucked.  Next to that you can just see the sprouts of my October succession plantings of the same lettuce varieties.  Those are supposed to grow slowly, so as to provide winter lettuce in December and January!  I can't wait to be harvesting with an umbrella and a heavy coat!



Behind the lettuce is my cold storage for my mature carrots.  They're all ready to harvest, but we don't need them so we'll keep them in the ground until it's time to eat them.  Maybe if we do get colder weather they'll get sweeter, though I think the ground has to freeze for that to happen, and I will do everything in my power to keep that particular ground from freezing.

Lastly, I just love the fall colors, especially when they're all encompassed in my blueberry bushes.  Look how pretty the leaves look...



And of course between the two bushes I planted my garlic, but contrary to what I've read on the web with other folks, my garlic hasn't sprouted yet.  Not sure if it will. I'm doing the plant them and they will come method, meaning I'm not going to think about my garlic until next summer.

Anyway, now here are the new blueberry bushes.



Cool aren't they?  So that's the extent of my garden tour.  I didn't get out into the garden today, because I spent all day over painting. Then when I got home I just crashed and burned.  If I can't recharge next week's going to be hellish.  Thank goodness I can always grab a flashlight and head out into the garden for a few minutes.

Enjoy your garden.