The Second Half of July

Oh boy. Looks like I haven't updated in a while... The garden looks like a jungle again, but at least I know in which areas things are, even if they are under the weeds. There are no no-mans-land areas like we had last year. I at least have access to all the rows, even if you wouldn't be able to tell where the row ended and the walkway began without having been in there everyday for the last several months.
Here's the Harvest report:

• 7/16:
• boston pickling cucumbers: 3 lb (11, 2 were munched :/ )
• beans (type unknown): 1 oz (3 pods) - these fell off in the storm and were recovered, not really harvested
• nest egg gourd: 1 WAY too large gourd. picked and given to chickens. 
• 7/17:
• garlic. 
• bp cukes: 10 oz (4)
• 7/20:
• kale: 4.5 oz
• red beet: 1 lb (5)
• kohlrabi: 6.5 oz (1)
• bp cuke: 2 lb 2 oz (8)
• chard: 13 oz
• rat tail radish seed pods: 3 oz (40)
• 7/21: 
• bp cuke: 12 oz (4)
• 7/22:
• green tomatillo: 11 oz (7)
• pickling onion: 2 lb 11 oz (48)
• crookneck summer squash: 1.5 oz (1)
• kale: 3 oz
• kohlrabi: 10 oz (1)
• beans: 5 oz (6) 
• rtr seed pods: 1 oz
• lemon cuke: 1 lb 8.5 oz (7)
• bp cuke: 1 lb 13 oz (9)
• 7/24
• lemon cuke: 6 oz (2)
• bp cuke: 1 lb 13 oz (11)
• tomatillo: 3 oz (1)
• 7/25
• cn squash: 10.4 oz (3)
• bp cuke: 1.4 (1)
• 7/29
• lemon cuke: 1 lb 11 oz (10)
• bp cuke: 6 lb 3 oz (20)
• kale: 4 oz
• cn squash: 1 lb 1 oz (3)
• lazy wife beans: 1 lb 12 oz
• scarlett runner beans: 9 oz
• chard: 10 oz
• beet: 3 lb 10 oz
• kohlrabi: 15 oz (3)
• tomatillo: 1 lb (11)
• strawberries(everbearing?): 2 oz (12)
• 7/30:
• cn squash: 1 oz (1)
• rtr seed pods: 1.75 oz
• lw beans: 7 oz
• tomatillo: 11.5 oz (11)
• beet: 1.75 oz (1)
• red wethersfield onion: 4.5 oz (5)
• yellow onion: 2 ob 1 oz
• 7/31: 
• yellow onion: 1 oz (1)
• beet: 4.5 oz (1)
• 2 strawberries... didn't make it inside. CHOMP
• ground cherry: >1 oz (3)
• bp cuke: 2 lb 9 oz (3) (bigger is not better)
• cn squash: 5 oz (1)
• lemon cuke: 1 lb 4 oz (8)

I love lists. :)
Happy growing! <3

Sprung

The first photo above is of our garden on May 22, 2011, and the second picture is from today, May 20, 2012.  It's quite a different place.  For a further comparison, see the header of this blog page.  We're doing some things differently this year.


First of all, we're implementing a more effective wide-row system this year.  I actually dug out paths between the beds and used that soil to create raised beds.  This garden plot has a tendency to flood or hold water in heavy rains because it's so close to the river, and the soil is very silty.  So far, these beds and low paths in between have helped irrigate water on their own.  Last year I tried to make wide beds, but didn't implement it well enough.

In the second picture- this year's picture, dead ahead you can see a strip of green.  This is annual rye grass and clover.  I planted it between a few of the rows to suppress weeds, hold moisture, create biomass for mulching, habitat for insects and animals, and beautify the garden so it would look like one lush green mat.  There is much more planted in the garden than it looks from the picture.  Off to the far left is where most of the action is.  There's a ton of garlic over there, as well as some peas.  The potatoes have really shot up in the last 2 weeks too.  I need to find time to hill some soil on them, as it's about that time.  Previously, I've tried starting the potatoes in a trench, and filling in the trench as the plants grow.  The problem that I found with this is that our soil is much too dense for that, and leads to further compaction, which of course the growing tubers don't like.  So, this year we're going to hill them.

Radishes are coming up, as well as corn and beets.  The jerusalem artichokes are coming up very very fast.  I hope that I like them, because I think we're going to have them for years to come.  Our spinach is coming along, despite the warm weather we've been enjoying.  The weeds are starting to overgrow the onions, but I started to remedy that today, and should finish in the next day or two after work rain or shine.  I still have quite a bit to plant, but it will happen as I can get around to it.  Sunflowers are coming up, and the wheat is starting to get going finally, too.  Hopefully in the next week or so, I'll get around to describing in more detail about the specifics of starting some of these plants.

As Naomi and I were weeding this morning, I was moving around some wooden boards that I haven't made into tripods yet, and I dropped a whole stack of them making a loud CRACK sound.  Instantly, I heard a turkey gobble in response, so I pushed over another stack of boards with the same result.  I had the camera with me, so I crouched down and headed in the direction of the sound- the river bank.  I looked across the river, and there he was...

I love onions!

For the last 2 seasons, I've been meaning to keep track of our garden. This year, I decided that I'd do so with a blog in hopes that someone will follow along, and can glean something from what we've figured out so far.

We started 2012 on Wednesday, December 28, 2011 with 12 packets of onion seeds. They were sown in seed starting mix in flat trays without the cell dividers and put under lights. Right now they're getting 10 hours of lamp light from 7 A.M. until 5 P.M. After 5, I put a blanket over them to keep any residual light out. Here's one of the trays on the 28th.


Here we are a week and a half later, and the little guys are looking great!! What we've got here are Red Wethersfield onions, American Flag leeks, Southport White Globe onions, White Barletta Onions, Australian Brown onions, Giant White Stuttgart onions, Extra Large Carenten leeks, and Yellow Dutch onions. You can see from all this green, that we're making progress!


I've got my fingers crossed and my eyes open for signs of damping off. This is an experiment because the last 2 years of trying onion sets proved to be frustrating at best. I've never had this much success with germinating onion seeds, so I'm feeling positive at the moment. The time when the ground will thaw, however, is a long way off. I've got really high hopes for the leeks. I got some leeks from Grandma's garden this year, and they were awesome!

It's not too late if you want to get some onions started. I only started as early as I did because his giant onion growing friends started theirs a few weeks before me. If they can do it, I can do it!

Allium fever continues outside the house too with all the garlic I planted back in October the day before we got a freak snow storm. This is my first time growing garlic at all, but everything seems to be ok so far. Here are some of them sticking their way out of the hay.


The rest of the garden plot is a sad-looking frozen brown slab at the moment. Well, partially frozen, because it was in the low 60s yesterday. I'm ready for more of that cold we had earlier in the week!