Gardening

Spring planting times are iffy.  The weather is uncertain.  Some years, the temperatures are warm in late April; sometimes the nights are chilly in early May.  I used to fight the weather using all sorts of odd methods.

Cover the raised beds with clear plastic, and the soil will heat up.   Surround the large plants with covering of water that warm in the daytime and maintain some warmth at night...  

Put plastic or cellophane hot caps over seedlings.  Used fabrics to cover seedlings.  Put warmed bricks around the.  You name it, I'm probably tried it.

But I've stopped that.   I've been a (mostly) organic gardener all my life (Well, I spray poison ivy carefully) and yet I've been fighting "time".  At this time 10 years ago, my tomato seedlings would be planted.  Now, I am waiting.

There just isn't a better time to plant than the right time.  And the right time for tomato and pepper  seedlings is when the nightime temperature reaches 50F.  So, because we have a streak of chilly weather in the mid-40Fs,  I'm keeping my seedlings inside under high-lumen fluorescent lights another week.  

On the other major gardening note (my trays of lettuces, radishes, pay choy, and celery) I am delaying putting them outside as well.  I set up 2 sawhorses to support the trays on my deck.  But I'm waiting.  And a good thing, too!  We have a serious hailstorm several days ago (rare for here at any time of year) and the hail would have ripped all the lettuce into shreds.  

I want the lettuce etc to have actual sunlight, exposure to the world will bring ladybugs to eat the aphids (a problem indoors where they are safe), and the routine rain will ease watering requirements (frequent and overflow is a problem indoors).  Plus, harvesting is convenient on the deck.  

I planted some brocolli, brussells sprouts, and purple cauliflower last year.  For whatever reason, they didn't grow well.  But they survives the Winter and have an early start for this year.  I harvested a brocolli head and some later side-shoots last week.  Brussels sprouts are always tricky, but this might be the first year I get any worth mentioning.  They are growing fast.

The snow peas are up and climbing the trellis.  It won't be long before they flower and fruit.  I've been missing them in my stir-fries.

I set up an odd trellis for my flat italian beans yesterday.  It is surprising how well mature beans can hide among the leaves, so I had the idea of setting new trellis at an angle in an old bed so the beans would hang down and be more obvious.  I had ignored it for several years so it had junk sapling roots in it that had to be dug and chopped out with a sharpened spade and an ax.  I even broke the old ax handle twisting it a bit and had to replace it.  But I got it done over several days.

I pounded two 8' rebar rods into the ground in front of the bed as supports, then lashed 2 more at an angle for supports to get the most sun for the beans.  Then set some 6' mesh rebar anchored at the bottom and attached at the top.  I have the bean seeds soaking in water overnight.  They sprout better that way and you can see which ones send out a root and which don't.

I'll take pictures of everything when the trays are on the deck sawhorses, the tomatoes and peppers are planted, and the beans are emerging.  The bare bean trellis didn't show up well in a picture.

I also have a lot of flower seedlings, but they aren't ready to plant yet.  Another 2 weeks.

Busy As Bees We Is, Part 3

The small garden crops...

One of the things I love about gardening is the small crops.  I use Square Foot Gardening for those.  The past few days I planted several.  Two kinds of radishes, carrots, beets, kohlrabi, swiss chard, and spinach.  Repeated planting of those every 2 weeks for a month.

Planted small watermelons and cantaloupes.  Next week, I have other stuff to plant.  But Square foot gardening takes time.  For each Square Foot (sq ft), I use a hand cultivator to scratch up the soil 3" deep.  Then I rub the loosened soil between my hands to pulverize it and smooth the sq ft out.  That makes it easier for the roots to spread. 

I poke holes with my fingers to match the number of seeds to plant per sq ft.  After I drop the seeds in, I fill the hole with vermiculite.  It doesn't form a surface crust like soil can.  I get VERY good seed emergence!

I did that first plantings last week.  Already the radishes are up (25 per sq ft), and I think I'm seeing the first spinach (9 per sq ft).  Maybe some beets (16), kohlrabi (4) and 2 chard (4). 

I planted the melons where I can direct them to trellisses.  I save onion mesh bags to support the fruits on the trellis.  Sq ft gardening is all about using space most efficiently.

One problem with sq ft gardening in raised framed beds is knowing where each sq ft is.  I marked them along the edges last year, but the markings faded in the sun.  So I am going to cut a shallow sawcut at each foot measurement soon.  THAT will last!

Tomorrow, the new hummingbird/bee/butterfly bed...

Been Busy, Part 2

Part B) of the projects this past week...  The PVC pipe frames for the concrete 6" mesh wire...

It was an adventure cutting, drilling, and marking the 1" PVC pipe for the trelises.  The cucumbers and pole beans are wandering around the garden surface looking for something to climb.  I thought the pole beans would climb the cornstalks happily, but the corn is a short bicolor variety  and the pole beans need higher supports.

So I'm late in adding the trellises to the enclosed garden.  But maybe not TOO late.  I tested a pole bean and it can be unwound from the corn stalks.  I'm barely getting to the trellises in time!

My delay was due to the difficulty in getting at the concrete mesh.  I stacked in against the fence last Fall to get it out of the way, and the Evil Vines from the neighbor's yard have entirely taken them over. 

It took several hours to rip the D*** vines loose from the wire mesh 2 days ago.  And things are so tight between the new garden enclosure and the fence that I cant just pull out the 30' of concrete mesh to cut it apart on the open lawn.  I'll have to do it where it is.

Fortunately, I have a saws-all.  The metal blade cuts through even concrete mesh like a hot knife through butter.  But I have to construct the PVC frames the comcrete mesh will be attched to first so that I know exactly what sizes to cut.

And that means making the PVC frames first.  I have them in pieces.  Tomorrow, I'll attach them to the framed garden beds.  When the PVC frames are attached solidly, I'll cut the 30' of old trellis concrete remesh to size. 

Pictures will follow...