April 9, 2011

I've been dying to get this post out, but the girls deserved yesterday's post all to themselves.  Yesterday I went up to do my every-three-day musical plant game, only to find the reservoirs dry and the plants bumping the lights again.

The good news is that the closest two that are still on the shelf are growing stalky rather than tall.  That's a good sign for appropriate growth.  The rest, despite all attempts to avoid it, are getting a bit leggy.  I may need to stake them more when I harden them off, or they'll flop over.  Speaking of which, do you think it's time to start doing that?  I'm nor relishing the prospect of moving them in and out of the house on those flimsy trays, let alone extricating them from the framework of my light system.  Eek!

The bad news is that this is what I'm dealing with with the first plantings...

So, it was time yet again for another furniture change.  Let's see, what do I have laying around the storage room.  What am I going to do when the kids move up here and I can't use this great southern exposure room over the garden for my light system. Maybe they won't mind sleeping on the couch for a few months each winter? hehe  This box will do...

No pics were taken during the moving process, because I definitely had my hands full with moving out a monitor box and moving in an orange crate while holding a tray full of heavy tomatoes stuck inside the frame of my light system.  How I did it I have NO idea, but here is the result...

I figure this will give me almost a week.  Maybe by then I'll just move them outside during the day and in the dark garage at night. It would throw off their light schedule, but isn't that one of the points of hardening off?  Oh, and what did I find when I was watering them?  One of my Legend tomatoes had set flowers!

I never know whether to pollinate them or pluck them at this stage.  This plant's pretty good sized (not one of the huge ones but the next biggest).  Sure would be nice to have a few early tomatoes, but I hate to have the plant devote all it's energy to tomato production rather than plant growth.  Of course they'll get a shot of fish emulsion when planted out, in addition to my all-purpose fertilizer and Epsom salts.  Thoughts?

Lastly, I was going to create a separate post on this, but it really doesn't deserve it.  I've been playing with milk-jug cloches with some interesting results.  Of course I simply cut the jugs in half and poked vent holes in the "tops".

Then I simply dug them into the soil a bit over the top of my seedlings. In this case it was my tender broccoli and cauliflower starts, one of which got eaten by slugs (see a post a few days ago).

What I found was that the seedlings wilted quickly, kind of like a greenhouse effect, so I was always removing them on "warm" days, as in around 50 degrees. Tonight I just left them off all-together.  I've sprayed for bugs so let's hope the slugs stay away.  Maybe tomorrow I'll hit them with a shot of fish emulsion to jump start them?

Enjoy your garden!

September 10, 2009

Alright, you asked for it, you get pics of my disasterous garden.  In my defense, I'm almost out of broccoli and caulflower seeds and they've turned into a big hit with the big people in my family (namely my wife, who is the first person to tell you she hates those veggies).  So I decided after the plants flowered that I'd see what it took to make them go to seed.  The bumblebees loved them so I let them stay.  The bees were a welcome addition to that area of my garden.

Well, now they look like this...



I think each of those pods needs to dry out and inside are about 10 seeds.  When I opened one earlier they had about that many green seeds. 

Of course I have since seen the package and thee Fiesta broccoli from Territorial is a hybrid.  Oh well, no harm no foul.  These will make a welcome addition to the compost pile. 

Speaking of which, I haven't been doing much adding to it this year.  Three years out from the last time I weed and fed my lawn, it didn't grow at all all summer.  It really didn't turn majorly brown either, just didn't grow.  I'll take that from an effort perspective, but it makes me quite shy of greens in mass quantities for my compost pile.  I figure with the kitchen compost and leaves that are bound to start falling, I'll have one more major flip before I put it to bed for the winter.  For greens I'll use these plants and some handy coffee grounds from Starbucks. 

Lastly, I thought I'd take an overview pic of my garden to scare you all into going out this weekend and cleaning up yours, hehe.  Needless to say the major winner this year were the carrots.  I swear my kids is turning into a rabbit.



Oh, and that monster in the picture is a volunteer tomato plant.  No clue what type it is, but it looks healthy enough.  I figured if I had tomato volunteers I'd just leave them and see what happened.  So far it looks like I'll have a late crop of salad makings, even if I have to ripen them inside.  Not Judy and EG kind of second crop, but pretty decent for the Pacific Northwest.

Enjoy your garden, and let folks know I'm back.  It's kinda lonely without the 400+ folks reading my blog each day, hehe.

July 28, 2009

Wow, where has July gone?  Sorry I haven't posted, but it's been just plain too hot to garden much.  The later part of my vacation was spent on the garage, helping a friend move and playing at the pool with the kids.  Alas, nowhere in there did I mention gardening.  Well, that's not quite true, I did find a use for the mostly cleared bed #1.



Yeah, I know, I'm late for fall planting, but I think I'll be ok.  I planted tons of carrots as they're the best after a frost when the starches turn to sugars.  I also planted some broccoli and cauliflower butting up where I had the lettuce.  Finally I planted a square of radishes and one of green onions.  Not sure if the onions will work, but they didn't work this spring.  Go figure.  Last time I transplanted them from indoor started seedlings and this time I direct-sowed, but it shouldn't have mattered.  I'm trying again.

Not only did I sprinkle finished compost over the bed, but I worked some in. Two kitty-litter buckets full. That should replace any nutrients that the former residents took away (they tasted yummy too).

Another reason I didn't garden much is the heat.  I don't know what's up, but this weather is for the birds... snow birds that is.  I'd expect temps pushing 100 in Arizona or the South, but not here.  We haven't had rain to speak of in weeks.  It's downright insane. 

Now I know what you're thinking if you're a reader from one of those insanely hot places, but we aren't built for that kind of heat here. NOBODY has AC, and fans just push the 85-90 degree interior air around.  I'm ok at work but when I get home, it's an oven. And my poor family, they aren't lucky enough to spend 8+ hours in AC bliss. 

Lastly, the heat's not doing well for the garden.  The cauliflower that was heading nicely is prematurely going to seed, the peas died with tons left to harvest, the potatoes are laying over, and worst of all, there must be hundreds of flowers on my tomato plants that are dying.  I understand fruit won't set above 90 degrees.  Well it's 95 out there now.  Grrr.

Well, that's all for now, stay cool all. I think I'll throw some ice cubes in a bowl and stick it in front of my fan, hehe.

Enjoy your garden!

June 17, 2009

Hmm, if you haven't noticed, there are no pics in my ever-popular Potato Bin page.  I was sure I wouldn't have problems since my garden buddy that hosts this blog site offered up her site to house my potato bin pics so they would never go down.  You may recall I had to spread the wealth after the Times article caused my file server site to overload my bandwidth (I'm cheap and won't pay for service since this is a completely free site, no inflow or outflow).  Anyway, I've emailed Judy to see what's up with the pics.  I have them elsewhere if necessary, but I don't recall the order they're in so it'd be wrong if I replaced the links back to either of my pic services.  Rest assured that the pics will be back as soon as possible.

As for the garden, I took care of some spring cleaning in the cool weather after the heat we've had of late.  In fact, according to Cliff Mass, we've had 29 day without rain, which was a record for spring in Seattle.

I needed to rip out some bolting spinach.



And as you can see, the spinach leaf miners had their way with the spinach yet again, so it didn't go into the compost.  Oh, and I didn't even attempt to save seed because this is a hybrid.

Another plant that unfortunately needed clean-up was the transplanted Spanish Lavender. 



I had big hopes for a small plant that wouldn't spread, but would attract bees like nobody's business to complete the bluberry triangle for proper cross pollination.  Unfortunately it's too late in the season for proper transplanting and this plant is too old to transplant well.  After hearing both those things from my Aunt the flower queen, I didn't feel so bad about killing it.  However, I do plan on buying a new one next  year. I love the space it gives me in the blueberry bed.  Heck, I'd have room for another blueberry plant, though I think I want to plant strawberries in that bed in front of the blueberries.  It would cut down on weeds and I could make a nice patch next to this lavender plant.

Lastly, I had to clean up some errant bumble bees.  They have found their way into our laundry room that's right under their nest. 



So far I've found three huge ones, two of which I've successfully transplanted outside.  My dad says as a kid they would catch them in their bare hands and wouldn't be stung as long as the bees couldn't see light. I'm not that brave, hehe, so I used a gallon mayonase jar, hehe.  Anyway, I say for their sake because if they are coming in through the holes in the ceiling for the pipes, that means they're in the attic and have got to go.  I really want them to have come in through the open back door and made their way to the laundry room (unlikely) trying to get back to their nest.  I am still holding out hope that I can keep this nest until they abandon it in the fall.  They did great on the blueberries and fruit trees, but I've got tomatoes and melons for them to pollinate for me soon.  Grrrr.

Hope you've had a chance to do some spring cleaning (the garage is another matter all-together, 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!

September 30, 2008

Well, I got out in the garden after work again. In fact, the kids were outside when I got home.  I must say I didn't do a whole lot, mostly puttered.  Theraputic. 

Only two of the last batch of peas sprouted so I took a cue from Rebekah and soaked some more peas.  After an hour I just planted them haphazardly in the in the squares that I had one or two seedlings in the hopes that something grows.  It's reminding me of the bush bean incident all over again. You'd think that area of my garden is dead or something, but once they get going they grow fine. 

The reason I'm so adamant about these squares is that they're in the middle of the bed.  The planned trellis configuration will focus all the growth to the middle so it fits under the hoop cover.  At least that's the plan, if I can get these seeds to grow.

After planting I sprinkled some of my doctored 5-10-10 veggie fertilizer with bloodmeal over it and watered it in.  Maybe it's just me but I think the lettuce I fertilized yesterday looks perkier, and so does the cantaloupe!  It's probably just wishful thinking. 

Finally I watered and checked on my next harvest.  My cukes are going gangbusters. I swear I've got 2 more jumbo slicers and a half dozen pickling cucumbers that are either ready now or will be ready this weekend. That and I counted a handful more just starting out. I even hand pollinated one that looked like it needed it.  Insane!

Oh yeah, I found reference to a cool idea for deterring raccoons (and other nocturnal pests).  It's a solar powered red light that blinks like an eye.  Apparently nocturnal animals fear being watched, so they stay away from this.  Not sure how many I'd need but at only $30 a piece, it would be a reasonable investment if the number was small enough.  Interesting.

Well, I'm going to hit the sack early tonight. I stayed up way too late last night getting re-acquainted with GardenGirl's forum.  Whew, I'm on a ton of forums.  They're all great.  Each has their own special people who are equally passionate and knowledgable about gardening etc. But what's a guy to do?  Is it too much to ask for a universal forum and community site.  I must say even in beta mode Freedomgardens.org is the best design, and with over 1,000 members it's always hoppin', but GardenGirl has some high powered contributors and she's very very active on the boards herself.  Then there's Gardenweb and Ft2Garden.com.  Both have dear friends but at least GW it's mostly a few of us helping out others.  Don't get me wrong, it's fun and I love helping others, but I hate it when someone asks a question of me and it takes me a week or more to get back to that thread and see it.  Whew.  I've been thinking that for quite a while now and it's good to get it out.  I'll still be active on all my favorite sites, just maybe not as timely.  And of course all my garden buddies are near and dear to my garden!  And look at the bright side, I've learned a TON this year.  I've got a ton more to learn and experience, but it does me proud when experienced gardeners compliment me on my knowledge and are surprised to find I don't have a full season under my belt, hehe.

Lastly, it's all about the gardens!  Enjoy!

September 29, 2008

Today, after an annoying day at work, I got to do two of my favorite things, play with my kids and play in the garden.  The kids got pushed on the swings and time with dad at a tea party my eldest delivered an invitation for.  For my part I brought the last two plums from the well-harvested tree we dined under.  They had fun, though they aren't fans of the sun going down so early.  Boy are they in for a rude awakening come December!

The garden part of my evening, I started by grabing the bloodmeal and 5-10-10 organic fertilizer mix I made up for the corn and sprinkled it in a plus fashion between my four lettuce seedlings and around my cauliflower.  I also hit the area where my peas aren't sprouting.  Who knows if they're down there, but darn it, one or two plants per square will not make for many meals come winter.  Grrr.  After I fertilized, I watered it in.  Oh, and as a silly side note, I figured out why I've been having really poor water pressure from my hoses.  Someone, likely 2 or 4 years old, unscrewed the adjuster peg in the back.  Tightening it up fixed my pressure issues right away. /sigh.  Kids. hehe

I also checked the temp on my compost pile.  Alas, I think it may be just about done. Although it's tall and deep and I only have a meat thermometer, I couldn't get it to read over 100 degrees anywhere.  Normally the day after I fluff and add it's over 130.  Ah well, I won't be adding too much after the leaves and the grass clippings from the final lawn mowing.  Then it will sit for the winter, hopefully under corregated fiberglass roofing to stay relatively dry.

Other than that, I watered in the blueberries again, and gave the existing blueberries some more water.  I must say a year after I planted those bushes, they still drain like a dream!  Gotta love Mel's Mix with extra peat moss.  The new bushes don't drain so well!

To make EG happy and prove he's not missing anything, I haven't harvested my russett bin.  Here is a pic of it all wrapped up to keep water away to dry out the soil.



I wasn't so worried about covering all the leaves, mostly the top of the bin.  However, if I stake it up, I could probably use that cheap thin plastic drop cloth to cover the cantaloupe to warm it up if it gets too cold to ripen.  You can see how close the cantaloupe is to the potato bin, it's at the bottom right of the picture.

Speaking of cantaloupe, I finally got the courage to pick off some of the redundant female buds.  Looks like I got good pollination, but I didn't really want 6 cantaloupe per plant.  Especially when it was all one plant.  Now I have the three best growing on the most productive plant, and as many as may be growing on the other two.  Odd that the most productive plant is to the north.  /shrug.



Here is a close-up of a baby cantaloupe.  After I took this I found one farther along, but I settled with this pic.  Hehe, I'm reminded of a thread where EG shared a similar pic and took flack for it.  Good times!

Finally, after reading on the PTF journal tonight, I found out something VERY disturbing. Territorial Seed Company may have signed a pledge to keep GMO free, but that doesn't mean they don't sell Monsanto seed. Apparently with the acqusition of Seminis seed company in 2005, they acquired ownership of countless popular vegetables, two of which I am currently growing in my garden... Red Sails lettuce and Early Girl tomatoes. I am so mad and disappointed I could spit. One company should not have that sort of monopoly through acquistion. That's what anti-trust laws were made to protect against. People get on Microsoft for anti-trust, but they created products that dominated the market, not through acquisition. Big difference folks. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

Well, on that note I'm hitting the sack.  Long week ahead of me.  Here's to a little garden time for everyone to smooth out the rough edges of the week!

September 28, 2008

Ah, what a glorious day here in the Pacific Northwest!  The sun was shining, there were only wispy clouds in the sky, who'd have known it was fall and that we'd missed most of summer?  Unlike yesterday, I had the entire day to myself for work in the garden.  And boy did I make the most of it!

Thankfully my folks came over to help, because I wasn't looking forward to liberating a corner of my yard and planting my two new blueberry bushes all by myself.  After a half hour of planning, we finally settled on where to put them.



Notice the close proximity to the existing blueberry bushes on the other side of the yard.  I think the bees will have no trouble making the rounds, do you?

Notice that the blueberry bush is still in the transplant bin, that's because I had to mix up some planting soil for them.  Since blueberries are acidic, I wanted to make the soil about as acidic as an orange.  Not easy to do, even though we've got a pretty acidic soil here in the PNW.  So to accomplish that, I took the potato bin soil (Mel's mix minus the peat moss) that I'd amended with a healthy dose of coffee grounds last week and added peat moss and a sprinkle of fertilizer for acid loving plants. 



An hour or so later and presto!



Of course the bush on the right couldn't go there without a bit of work first.  I had a rose bush right next to it.  And since these bushes will eventually grow together, that wouldn't do.  So we moved it.  I sure hope it survives.  It didn't look good a few hours after transplanting.  But here is a shot of all three plants we tinkered with today.



I also hope that the downspout is far enough away at 3 feet to not flood the area with water in the fall and winter months.  If I see it's not doing well, I'll buy a rain barrel and install it there with the overflow over the fence into the front yard.  Apparently you can't kill the tree on the other side of the fence (I have forgotten its name).  Otherwise rain barrels are likely a project for next year.

Finally, if you noticed the scalloped concrete blocks in the various pictures above, well we "borrowed" them from my brother's house and my folks house and my house to piece together a border for the blueberries to match the rose garden.  I think it turned out decent enough for piecemeal.



Now all I have to do is buy some beauty bark and spread it over the area.  I think this time I'll put down landscape fabric between the bushes before I cover it with bark to keep weeds from growing up.  Why beauty bark you ask?  Well it's highly acidic which helps treat the soil as it leaches down.  At least that's what I hoped for when I did it to the existing blueberry bed.  Now it's just a symetry thing, hehe.

After that project was done, I cleaned up the yard.  I hosed down the tarp to put it back over the kids outdoor toys when it rains. It had been used to hold the dirt when I broke open the potato pinata, hehe.  Multitaskers.  Then I also dismantled the yukon gold potato bin for storage in the shed for next year.  I saved the douglas fir boards but recycled the pine 2x2s because they just weren't holding up.



After that project I cut the plastic for the hoop covers.  I sure hope I cut them right so I can cover all three beds now.  Anyway, now that the plastic is cut, I can install all three hoop covers in less than an hour if it looks like it's needed.  While I was in the garden I sprayed Spinosad over all the plants that something's munching.  I sure hope my cauliflower survives. I'm not hopeful.  I scrounged a clear tarp to cover the potato bin to let it dry out.  Then I fertilized the cantaloupe bed with bloodmeal for a nitrogen boost.  I've got a half-dozen or more cantaloupe forming.  I'd be happy if one or two make it before the frost.  Maybe I should have cut off all but one bud per plant, but I just don't have the heart to choose which one makes it.  hehe

Lastly, I was energized but exhausted.  Still I bundled up myself and my eldest and we ventured out into the back 40 for what's likely our final blackberry harvest.  This time I armed myself with a machette and went jungle exploring to find hidden blackberry treasures.  It worked like a charm.  I cleared out a fair amount of old inch-thick dead blackberry canes and picked an over-full gallon ziplock bag of berries in the process.  It was slow going because everything low was relegated to my 4 year old.  He was really good about staying away from the big sharp knife though.  I was proud of him.  We had some great father and son time.  What a perfect end to a productive weekend.  I finally finished up with my arm and back giving out on me just in time to pick up the yard and head inside just as it got dark. 

So I didn't get my garden mucked out and trellis taken down, but I think I've got a bit before the hoop covers are needed.  Let's hope so.  I also didn't weed the garlic bed, though it doesn't need it bad and I can weed when I plant garlic.  Speaking of which, my dad thinks I need to research whether garlic will work with acidic soil in a blueberry bed.  Something I should do soon. Maybe after I'm done here.  Lastly I didn't buy the clear corregated fiberglass to cover my compost bins, but I didn't have the truck.  Again that's something I don't HAVE to do but want to do. 

All in all, not a bad weeked, all things considering.  What's more, I think it recharged me enough to tackle the office again.  Whew!

Hope you all were as productive as I and enjoyed your gardens this weekend!

September 18, 2008

I want to thank everyone who commented on my last post. I was frustrated at being so overwhelmed in my free time when I've been like that for quite a while at work.  I'm so far behind I could work weekends til the end of the year and not catch up, but I won't do that to my family.

Anyway, I wasn't really trying to one-up anyone, just share my frustration.  And thank you DoubleD, I know your work is head and shoulders more hectic, stressful and draining than mine. So when you kicked me in the tail about not being lazy in the evening, it got to me.  Instead of playing with the kids or reading them book after book and making dinner, I got home tonight and had my wife dress the kids for getting dirty outside while I changed.  Then we went outside as the sun was going down (6:30ish) and I sent my wife out to get as many bags of Starbucks grounds for your garden as she could.  While she was on her errand, the kids and I fluffed the compost, using the decomposing kitchen compost, several bags of molding old coffee grounds and shredded paper.  I kept the kids busy garthering up the fallen plums and pears and helping me with the hose to wet down the layers.  After that my wife got back with 10 big bags of grounds.  With the fresh stuff I dumped most of them on top of my dirt pile.  I figured whatever the potatoes took out of the soil (not much since they were only in the bottom six inches), the grounds would put back. 



It was cute, I had my 4 year old hold the well-used vermiculite bag open while I shovelled dirt into it.  He was great and I was so proud of him.  But kids only have so long of an attention span and so after my wife got settled back inside I had her come out and finish up loading 8 bags of Mel's mix to be used for something later.  We didn't finish the job, but we got enough of the dirt off the tarp that we could drag it over the hole where the potato bin was.  The grass was brown so I watered it a bit after sunset and sent the kids inside to eat and get ready for bed.

Then, I was feeling so gung ho about my to-do list that I bundled up and grabbed my steel rake for trying to get the grass and weeds out of the area where the wasps are so I can find the hole where they come out to kill them once and for all.  Unfortunately I'm a wimp and didn't get hardly any of the weeds out before I ran off while being attacked.  I'm a wimp because I was so bundled up that they couldn't get me if they tried.  /sigh

So, I didn't take many pics tonight because it was late and there was no light.  Besides, if you want to see my compost method, check out one of the many posts where I did take pictures.  It's not rocket science, just think lasagna, hehe.

So, two chores down, many more to go.  Tomorrow I hope to get more done, so I can justify the day Saturday for the volunteer work.  And yes, I will have Sunday, but with my grandmother-in-law in town, I'm sure we'll be busy with her so she can see her only great grandchildren.

Lastly, I did take pictures of my dying potatoes.  Guess hoop covers over them won't do any good.  I watered them one last time tonight but that's it.  The clock's starting for three weeks to harvest.



And since I was in the neighborhood, I snapped a pic of my cantaloupe just for Judy.  Seems only the far right plant is producing female flowers, so I hand pollinated several again to make sure it takes.  Not sure I want 5 or so cantaloupe growing off one plant.  I may fertilize again this weekend, probably in the water that I fill the reservoir with.  Give them an organic boost to help them set fruit and mature faster.



Maybe tomorrow I'll enlist my mother and brother to help harvest some plums and maybe even some blackberries.  If I don't do those soon, it'll be too late!  Same goes for harvesting my tomatoes and stuff.  Maybe I can get my brother to swap me some lettuce for tomatoes.  hehe.

Enjoy your garden!

September 15, 2008

Yesterday was busy from sun up, well beyond sundown, so I'll recap yesterday and then do a bit of a garden tour.

Sunday was supposed to be a full day at the Puyallup Fair with the whole family.  Unfortunately we didn't finish up at my father-in-law's on Saturday, so I started out early to get it done fast.  Thankfully we didn't do as much as we had planned, so by noon we were on the road.  It took us 4 hours to drive a half hour to Puyallup due to the incredible traffic. We would be stopped for 10 minutes without moving. 

When we finally arrived and found the family, the kids went off to play and I tried to find the gardening/farming section. I also wanted to see the chickens to compare them to SandyGoGreen's. Unfortunately, there were none.  The food wasn't even that good.  And the journey home was even worse, sitting in the parking lot for a half hour without moving.  Maybe the Snohomish County Fall Farm Festival will be better.  Not sure.

So anyway, back to my garden.  You've seen the the box-o-corn that I gave away. Well, I didn't have an opportunity to give away a handful of ears, because they were not developed yet.  Their silks were still white as snow. 



I have tried shaking the stalks around it to get some pollen to fall, and blew on the leaves to get some off of them, but I didn't see anything.  I may be too late for these last planted, slowest growing ears.  We shall see.  It would be good to see if they actually grow, if I can time the harvest right.  These ears may very well be the deciding factor as to whether or not I grow corn next year, or buy it from Eastern Washington at harvest time.  It does take up way too much space, even planted as close as I plant it.  It will also determine if cross pollination was the cause of the poor taste.  Either or both are possible.  Time will tell.

I also took the first pictures of my new blueberry bushes.  I described them to you last post, but here they are in a temporary spot waiting for me to dig up a spot for them.



Look good don't they?  And where do you ask, am I going to plant them?  Well, thanks to my Aunt, here is the perfect spot for them.



I figured it out generally that with a tight fit, one plant can go right on the outside edge of the kiddie pool, and the other in front of the downspout.  With luck it won't crowd the kids window, which will eventually be the office again when they move upstairs.  Unfortunately the rose will have to go, but it's damaged and has seen better days.  I may be able to salvage it, not sure, but it will need to move in a few years when those blueberry bushes grow.  By the way, about 10 feet to the left of this picture are the two existing blue berry bushes.  Perfect spot for bees to travel between the four plants.  I'm so happy that I'll have more blueberries!  They freeze up so well once we get tired of fresh ones.

Oh yeah, and speaking of bees going from plant to plant, here is one of the main reasons I had bees to pollinate my blueberries.  Look how HUGE this lavender's gotten!



Can you believe this is ONE plant!?!  My aunt says it is and I believe her.  So we'll hack it back this fall and let it grow again next year.  Of course the garlic is going right next to it between the lavender and blueberries while I've got room for it.  Someone I was talking to questioned the soil acidity for the blueberries vs. the garlic, but it's worth a try.  Besides, I localized pretty well the acidity for the blueberries.  It shouldn't transfer to the garlic too bad.  I plan on giving plenty of room since the blueberry plants have very shallow roots.

Continuing over on this side of the yard, Judy asked about my canteloupe that she gave me the seeds for.  Here is a good pic of the little guys hanging on.



If I thought I had enough season left to get a ton of production out of these puppies (they're growing well enough that I could if I hadn't planted so late), there'd be a trellis here and I'd have trained them to climb it.  Look at those tendrils reaching for anything.  You can't see the the flowers, but they're there. And even a tiny mellon or two that hopefully were hand pollinated sufficiently.  Only time will tell. And if this weather holds. It's been in the mid 70s which is perfect weather for these Minnesota Midgets!

And right next to them is my last potato bin.  The Butte's have the best shot for the 60 pound average production promised by Greg over at Irish Eyes.



Note that the middle is not holding up well.  I've watered but I think they're dying on their own accord.  They may not need the optional plastic hoop cover to extend the season for further fattening to 100 pounds.  Bake potatoes are nice, but my wife always says the huge ones are too big for her anyway.  I can always have two if necssary, hehe.

Lastly on that side of the yard, my aunt tasted the plums and said they're ready.  Too bad last weekend was too busy.  Maybe this weekend we can harvest plums and blackberries.



Ah, in a couple years, I can see my kids climbing this tree to pick plums for fun.  To be young again!

Enjoy your garden!

P.S.  That nifty number 1 on the Top 100 Gardening sites, well as much as I'd like it to be true, I can verify I'm still getting between 100 and 300 hits a day (thanks to my regulars I bore daily), and Judy claims similar numbers at her blog and her Ft2Garden.com site, so how we started getting 35,000 hits a day is beyond both of us.  We'll take the publicity it generates, but I expect they'll figure out the glitch soon and we'll drop back to the 2,000 or so hits a day we share. /shrug

September 11, 2008

Well, it's been seven years since 9/11, and things in NY are still not right.  And things will never be right for those touched by this tragedy.  But we can all remember and celebrate this great country and how we came together to help those affected.  Now we can come together to stop giving our money to oil producing countries by conserving and taking mass transit and using our feet to go places and shop locally and if I'm forgetting anything, stop by Freedomgardens.org  and they'll fill you in. 

This afternoon my brother called to tell me that he had 5 pounds of cukes that he was going to pickle. He'd found a very popular recipie on the internet for dill pickles without the month-long marinade.  Instead you pack the jars with marinade and then store the pickles for two months before eating.  I couldn't get him to hold off since he had some past peak cukes and needed to do it today.  Apparently he's got more cukes ready soon to combine with mine for the next batch.  After going out and skimming off a ton of scum, I think I'm ready to can these as-is and do the next batch the post-canning marinading way.

Anyway, this evening I was trolling the boards and happened upon the GW canatloupe thread again.  I've posted there because all cubrits are pollinated the same and I've had great experience with my cucumbers by hand pollinating.  Well, re-reading it I got curious if I had any female flowers. I've read they follow in about two weeks and I figured it was close.  So I went out at twilight and presto! I've got female Minnesota Midget cantaloupe! (no cracks Granny!)



Again, sorry for the burry photos, I zoomed in all the way to take these and it is very touchy at that resolution.  But you can clearly see the baby cantaloupe there.  I won't bore you with the two others I found, but they weren't nearly as open as this one.  So I pulled the most open male and tickled it, and it's siblings too. You never know if it will work.  I've done it with the cucumbers so why stop now.

Anyway, I highly doubt we'll have the weather to take these to maturity, so I think I'll go for one per plant and pick the rest off to force all the energy into the one cantaloupe.

And while I was out there, I heard my eldest ask "Please can I you pick me a carrot daddy?"  So I couldn't help but grab him one on the way back in...



Not bad, and of course tasty!  He loves them. Now to get my youngest to eat his veggies.  Odd how kids are so different.

Well, lastly tonight, after wasting two days getting a new car, I finally broke down and made up a box for the potatoes.  I followed DoubleD's advice and used a banker's box and drilled 2 inch holes in various spots for ventilation.  Then I drilled tiny holes all over the top.  Then I grabbed some of my compost fodder, you know, the shredded paper and bills and covered the bottom with it.



Then I dumped the bag of yukon gold potatoes in the newly built bin.



See the dirt on them.  I think it was DoubleD that said not to brush off too much of the dirt until I need them.  You don't want to damage the skin.  Though I do have to find the one that I peeled a bit of the skin back hitting it with a shovel when harvesting.  That I'll use first.  Then, I put some more paper over the top to absorb moisture.



Finally, I found it fits on the bottom shelf of the storage shelves we use to store toys.  It's not completely dark but it's shaded from the natural night.  I sure hope these store well. I haven't had any yet, but I hope to find some good recipies for yukon golds.  All I know of is to mix them into mashed taters with russetts or new potatoes. 

Well, as always, let me know if I'm making mistakes.  I'd hate to learn from my mistakes after my potatoes rot or sprout too early.

I can't wait until I can store my second box right next to it filled to the brim with russetts. Here's to hoping I can make that happen!  The bin is dying a bit more and more each day, but I've kept watering it in case it's a water issue.  That's the beauty of Mel's Mix.  It retains moisture well, but it drains incredibly well, so I don't worry about overwatering. It just drains through.

Well that's it for me tonight. Enjoy your garden!

September 7, 2008 Part II

I don't know what I was thinking when I didn't post yesterday.  Sure it was busy, but I've been busy before and still managed to post.  So I decided to post yesterday's today.  In fact, after uploading 33 pictures from my phone, I decided to do three posts, so please go back and read what I just posted.  Enjoy!

Today, Sunday, September 7, 2008 was the day.  I decided to finally harvest my Yukon Golds!  DoubleD told me I could do so any time and gave me great info on how to store them.  I would have done it wrong.  So I laid out a tarp to catch the dirt.



I removed the boards...



And tipped it over with the help of my wife, boy was it heavy!



What's missing from the picture you say?  Well, potatoes for one.  That's right, my experiment was a failure.  I should have had layers and layers of potatoes.  Instead, I had a mountain of dirt.



And at the very bottom I had a cluster of potatoes for each plant I nurtured for an entire growing season.



I guess I should have researched it more and found out that I can't let the plant to grow more than 4 inches or so above the soil before covering it.  It's the only thing I can think of.  Frustrated?   You bet.  But as my buddy at work taught me, it goes shock, anger, denial, acceptance.  Thankfully on most things I cycle through fast and am already at acceptance as I type this.  I'm not sure I will do potatoes next year.  A lot depends on how good these taste and how many Butte's I get.  If I get squat out of all that jungle, I may reconcider doing this again.  All that work for 10.5 pounds of potatoes.  It's probably 5 meals or so, maybe more, but not a year's worth, that's for sure!

Anyway, thanks to DoubleD, I spread out the potatoes in the September sun.  They dried at 75 degrees for several hours.  Perfect weather for long-term storage, if they last that long.



Oh, and I forgot from my garden tour, look at the pretty flowers on the cantaloupe plants!



And look at what I found as I was working.



It's tough to see, but there's a fat bumble bee trying to pollinate my fruit for me.  Too bad there are no female flowers yet.

Anyway, it was about this time that my mother and aunt showed up.  You see, enough of the blackberries were ready to harvest.  Not too sweet but tender.  Perfect.



My first order of business, as usual, is to hack back a couple feet of space between the bramble and my back fence.  Haven't they heard of encroachment? hehe



So, my mother and eldest son started picking as I got out my machette and started carving a path for them.  I actually harvested more than I cut because my son's not quite tall enough to pick much.

While we were doing this, my aunt was doing what she always does, she was weeding the rose garden.  It's a never ending battle.  If it weren't for the mature roses and irises, I would napalm the area and start over with raised beds.  Someday maybe, but not anytime soon.

Anyway, it was early in the picking when a very unfortunate accident happened.  My aunt was pulling out some wild grass and weeds that had grown up between the house and the roses when she grabbed a hold of a wasp nest.  By the time my wife got out there and scrapped the clinging wasps off her, she had been stung between a dozen and twenty times on the arms, chest, throat and face.  My wife thankfully only got one sting on her stomach.  Even more thankfully, after they got safely in the house and the mini-swarm had disapated, I grabbed my son and made a dash for the door.  My mother followed shortly thereafter and nobody else got stung. 

A significant dosage of Benadryl, Advil and hydrocortizone later, we called the nurse line and on their advice, shipped my aunt off to the ER.  She's in good health, but 65 and a smoker.  Best not to take chances.  She's fine, but we blew the day.  Nobody went outside until dusk. 

So the dirt is still on the tarp, waiting to be bagged for use down the road for something other than potatoes.  The blackberries still need to be harvested.  The flower beds still need to be weeded. And my row covers still need to be installed.  Oh, and I've got a wasp nest to take care of.  My mother wants me to call an exterminator for $125 if it's the same as last time.  My dad just wants me to walk up with a spray can and do it myself.  We've taken nests out before.  When it's fall and the night-time temperatures drop considerably, they get slow and docile at night and it's easy.  But now it's still 63 at midnight!  No way. hehe.  I guess I've got a call tomorrow.  /sigh

Hope you had a good weekend.  My football team looked pittiful in their season opener and I wasted a day in the garden, on top of my wimpy potato production.  Mine could have been better.  Work tomorrow. Better hit the sack.

Enjoy your garden!

September 7, 2008

Not really sure why I broke up these two posts, but there's just a lot going on, so make sure you check out yesterday since I just posted it, hehe.

This post will be about my garden and bread.  I'll start with the bread to make sure the gardeners actually read it.

I'm not sure what happened with the bread this time.  The dough did rise high up the sides of that Tupperware bowl.  However, when I turned it out on the well flowered board, it stuck firm and was messy.  As a result, the dough didn't fold as much as it was molded and squished into a square.  Even the dough blade got coated and sticky.  Grrr. 

I had hoped to try DoubleD's method (I've been messaging her countless times over the last two days, THANK YOU!).  She uses a clay baker, but upside down.  Her bell pot is down with the flat bottom as a lid.  I figured that's how she gets her bread so tall.  I've since figured that I was mistaken, it doesn't help much. It's just her vast experience.  I had planned on using a pyrex bowl, covered with my pizza stone, to recreate it.  Unfortunately I only have one bowl of that size, so I couldn't bake with it since I used it for the final proof.  The problem is that I couldn't preheat the dish and use it for the final proof.  Silly me.  So I went back to the old standby. 

And yet again, the bread stuck to the pizza stone.  I wonder if folks oil it or not.  Not sure.  It's just really annoying to have to scrape it off.  I did salvage the bottom crust this time though.  Unfortunately, it was think and a bit over browned. Again, not sure why.  Not particularly logical, but whatever.  It still tastes great!



It's also a bit hollow inside.  More experimentation is in order, and maybe some emails to Eric at Breadtopia.  And what the heck, it's only a little flour, natural gas and time.

So, now on to my garden.  I'll finish up this post with a garden tour.



I'm getting more and more tomatoes ripening, this nice weather really is doing the trick!



And see all the new green bean production!  I just harvested last week or so!



The cukes keep plugging away.  I even saw a ton of new females starting to form.  Soon I'll be able to play matchmaker again.

And for the grand finale, I was almost done with my broccoli that I'd harvested, you know, the one EG was drooling over.  Well, I think he flew over here and harvested it.  And didn't do a good job of doing so.  Look at it!



Sure enough, some coon got past my ancient Shake Away application and found the broccoli too tasty to pass up.  Grrr.  I was looking forward to it.  So I put down another layer of Shake Away.  If I can track back to the last time I put it down, I'll know about how long it lasts.

Enjoy your garden!