Hello everyone! I hope your gardening endeavors are bringing you great results as Autumn comes into view. I have been so busy with everything that it is often hard for me to get it all completed. Our weather has been wreaking havoc as we have had some real scorchers of days this past month. It felt like I was constantly pouring water on my tomato plants. But, I am glad to report that it was worth the efforts. Here is a recent harvest of tomatoes.
Cucumbers, on the other hand, have been a whole different story. No matter how much water I gave them, they just seemed to drop flowers. And, when they did produce a cucumber or two, the squirrels seemed to beat me to them. I guess they have to eat too. I read in a recent article that the reason squirrels go after tomatoes and cucumbers is because they are thirsty. They nick the fruit and drink as much as they can and then just move on. So frustrating!! But, I am going to try a suggestion that said to provide water sources away from the garden for the squirrels. They will find it and evidence is that you will see much less invasion into your garden. But, you have to start as early as possible in the growing season to "train" them that the water is available. Going to give it a try.
I recently purchased Longevity Spinach plants. These are quite different for many reasons. First, they are perennials so there is a year round harvest . A big plus. Secondly, there is a multitude of health benefits associated with them. There is a lot of evidence of this as they have been grown and eaten in China, Southeast Asia and Africa for centuries. I heard about them through a YouTube channel I follow. They do well outside year round in Zone 8 and above. I am in 7 so I will have to bring them in before the weather turns cold. I currently have them in my greenhouse where they seem to have adapted well. Here is the latest picture of them.
You can eat the shoots and leaves on these. I haven't harvested anything yet as I want to give the plants time to mature. One other point, if you cut off a branch and stick it in soil, it will develop roots and grow. Propagation is apparently very easy. I will try that once I have a good feel for the harvesting and general care of it.
I recently bought a couple mesh raised bed planters thinking I would use them in the spring along side one of my garden beds. I am always looking for more production from the space I have. I found one of these on clearance at the Tractor Supply store near me. They were 33% off so I bought one. Then, my wife and I stopped in to another Tractor Supply store subsequently and found more for 50% off. I couldn't resist. I bought another. If you have a store near you, you might want to stop in and see if they have any if you so desire.
So, I decided to try set one up in my greenhouse to try to grow winter crops. I made up several batches of my soil mix and filled 3 of the 4 cells. I just didn't think the fourth cell would be workable given my space. I am going to plant lettuce, spinach and carrots in them. It's an experiment to see what kind of production I can get. Here is the unit as currently laid out.
There is lots more to do. We are feeling the effects of what was Hurricane Ida. It poured here very early yesterday and then hit us real hard around 2 PM through 8 PM. The rain was monsoonal and the lightning and tornadoes that popped up were frightening. At first blush, the damage was shockingly minor in my garden. It is a beautiful, cooler and calmer day today thankfully. Well, that's all I have to report for now. It is getting busier as I am immersed in fall plantings. So, until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!
Posted on Aug 4, 2021 7:34 AM
It's been waaaaay too long since I posted here. It's funny how life can get soooo busy. And, I have been busy. Not all of it has had to do with the garden and that has impinged on my postings and such things. Hopefully, I can get back to my earlier routine.
On the gardening front, there have been many challenges. The biggest challenge of all has been figuring out where exactly the weak link was in my gardening practices. As a recap, in the fall of 2019, I totally revamped my garden. What resulted was several newly located beds that were never garden beds previously. At the end of 19, I spread a generous amount of compost and other additives and sowed in a cover crop. When I planted them in 2020, most of my plants were strong going in and then they just failed. My results were meager as the plants did try to recover but the damage was just too much for them to overcome. This set me on the quest to right the ship this year.
After extensive research over last winter, I settled on a blend of soil additive ingredients that many "experts" highlighted. After going full in on this, the new plants were better but there still was something a bit off. This was very frustrating for a gardener who produced many great gardens over many years. But, I had to remember that this is part of the gardening experience. So, the quest continued but at least this time, the plants were doing better and progressing.
So, I watched several videos on Youtube to see if I could glean the pearl of info that would set my plants on a better trajectory. After countless viewings, I found one where the presenter was mentioning that when you are buying composted manure, make sure it actually was fully composted. He said that if it isn't, the manure could continue to breakdown in your beds and this would result in a locking up of the available nitrogen in your soil as the manure will absorb the nitrogen at high levels. He recommended a brand of manure that was available in my area.
I immediately bought several bags and started using it versus my earlier manure. I took the new mix and heavily loaded up the open beds in my garden. Additionally, I used the new mix setting up several plastic pots and mesh grow bags. Along with this, I side dressed the existing plants to hopefully spark more vibrant growth. And, I have to say, the results have been very noticeable.
Weather has been the second biggest challenge this year. We have had some really crazy intense storms that have hampered the garden. It has, as of late, steadied itself. And the garden is looking better for it. All of the plants have taken off and they have begun to offer veggies. Here is a picture that shows the present state of the garden.
A much better garden than I had last year.
Here is a picture of my potted plants which I started a little over a month or so ago. I can't say enough about the black mesh bags versus the orange plastic containers. The mesh bags are definitely superior as they hold water in the soil better than the plastic pots. I have struggled with those plastic pots during the heat wave we had over the last two weeks. Seems like I just kept watering throughout the day with very little payoff. I have a total of 12 of the mesh bags to use next year as I tried the three as an experiment. You can see the difference from these pictures.
Much of my efforts in the last week or so have centered mostly around my fall garden. I applied a good layer of my soil additive around the trellises I built for peas. I soaked my peas last Sunday and planted them Monday. Soaking is supposed to produce seedlings faster and get better growth. This is important as the actual pea pods aren't bothered by a frost but the actual plant is. My understanding is that peas do much better in the fall so I am hopeful.
I also began a planting of 20 spinach seeds in a converted hydroponic system. Instead of using vermiculite, I substituted my garden dirt mix with some vermiculite added to enhance drainage. The plants are growing rapidly so I am looking forward to many harvests.
Knowing that 20 plants were not enough to get a healthy heaping of spinach, I took a vertical fence unit and again, used the soil mix and planted the pots with more spinach. My wife loves spinach for her home made breakfast egg casserole and her muffins. So, there is a need for them.
Speaking of spinach, I ordered two plants of what is called longevity spinach two days ago. I recently viewed a video and this variety was touted as the best spinach to be had. It is chock full of micro nutrients and vitamins and reduces metabolic sugar levels among other benefits. I was unable to buy seeds as it is only sold as plants in the US. It originates from China, Asia and Africa and is a perennial. So, I thought I would give it a try. I'll check back once I get the plants.
I also bought self pollinating cucumber seeds and planted them Saturday. I did this because I was noticing that there weren't that many bees around my plants. This is another of my wife's and my favorite vegetable. As it turns out, after I planted these seeds, there was a resurgence of bees and this move many have been unnecessary.
It should be interesting none the less to see how they perform late in the year. Here's their present progress in the greenhouse.
There is so much going on that I could write much longer. I have planted about 50 bean sets which have come up and are well on their way. I still have to plant beets and another crop of beans. While doing all of this, I naturally am attempting to bring the summer veggies to finality. I have a hot house which I will be setting up in the near future. There is also the need to reconfigure my greenhouse for winter production. Whoever said that once I retired, I would have a lot of free time, was not accounting for the fact of how I garden.
Please continue to read this blog and, if you get the chance, check out my instagram account at veryenthusiasticgardener for more threads. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!
Posted on Jun 17, 2021 11:56 AM
After resolving the issue with my soils, I had to contend with old Mother Nature on many fronts. We whipsawed here and there to the point that one couldn't tell if it was Spring or Summer. Until last week, one just had to wait for the day to see what you were getting. Needless to say the plants were growing a little then stopping a little. We finally had a string of days that were sunny, hot and humid last week. We went from Spring to mid summer in a matter of two days. But, the plants responded and began growth in earnest. It seemed like they were finally in growth mode.
Then, after a weekend of very nice summer temps, mother nature decided that this was enough. Our weather forecast for Monday evening was for thunderstorms and a possibility of maybe even stronger storms if conditions were right. As I was going around my yard picking up things and putting stuff away, my neighbor made a comment that high winds were now being predicted. That was enough for me. I grabbed my 5 potted tomato and cucumber plants and put them into my greenhouse for safe keeping. I then reinforced my trellised tomatoes and cucumbers and put on extra supports for my peppers. That was all I could do.
Later that night, we had two horrendous thunderstorms hit us almost one after another. The first was just plain scary. It had high winds, heavy downpours, vivid lightning and very loud and house shaking thunder. This was accompanied by a long period of hail and what was described as a possible small tornado. Not fun at all.
Once that passed, we went to sleep only to be awoken around 1:30 AM to a high energy lightning storm with even worse thunder. It sounded like bombs going off around us. My poor dog was just spastic. Not a good night at all.
And I woke early as usual to a scene of limbs everywhere. Here is a sampling of our neighbors yards.
Not cool, but, by comparison, we escaped relatively unharmed with only a few small limbs on the ground.
Yesterday, I decided to top dress my beds in preparation for mid-summer plantings. The weather was gorgeous and the humidity of last week is gone, so I figured it would be a good time to get this completed. I added about 3" of soil over the two beds pictured below. The soil was a blend of various inputs which I have changed to this year. When I side dressed my existing plants with this "newer" mix, there was a definite improvement in the growth of the plants. While my previous mix was good in theory, I am convinced that I used a partially decomposed mix of composted manure. After investigation, I found out that if you use unfinished manure, it can lock up the nitrogen in the soil making it unavailable to the plants. I simply changed the manure and things seem to be much better.
As I mentioned earlier, I have 2 cucumber and 3 tomato plants in pots. I am experimenting with these to see if I move them around during the day and keep them in the sun for the most part, will that then give me a greater harvest. My bet is it will. My issue now is that my garden area is being overshadowed by a mature maple tree that has grown over the years. The garden area gets about 6-7 hours of sunlight which may just not be enough. I have a choice, either I have the tree cut back at a pretty substantial cost or I adapt. The tree is not something I am going to cut as it is very beautiful and provides a nice shade for our house and yard. I am starting to adapt as the potted plants are far outgrowing the garden ones. If I go this way, I will then grow these in pots and use the garden area for cooler, less sun intensive plants. It may end up that I plant some tomatoes in the garden for later harvest and pot up a few for early harvest. One has to do what they have to do. Here are the 5 pots as of today.
I don't remember if I ever mentioned the birthday gift my son and daughter-in-law bought me this year. They signed me up to a subscription to receive a monthly seed bank box subscription. I'm not sure how long it's for but I can tell you that it is a very nice gift for any gardener in your family. Each month you get a box with a selection of seed packets along with a card telling you about the seeds. I have received 3 boxes so far and each one has been very interesting. Here is a pic of the box and seeds that I received on Tuesday.
Speaking of seeds, I am going to have to cull my seed collection or get a bigger refrigerator(dorm). I don't think I can get too many more seeds into it at this point. I believe I have about 300 packets in all and given my inability to pass by seed displays without purchase, it has now come to a breaking point. I keep the seeds at about 30 degrees in the unit and I have been able to get the seeds to last 10 or more years. Matter of fact, the the tomato plant in the lower right of the picture above is from seeds that are 14 years old. That's the crux of the issue in that if my seeds last that long and I keep buying new out of habit, I will hit the "push comes to shove" point. I'll figure it out eventually.
Well, that's all I have at this point. There is a lot going on and it is quite busy in the garden now. I'll be updating the overall progress with more pictures soon so please check back. Until next time, Happy Gardening everyone!
Posted on May 30, 2021 4:17 PM
Ever have one of those periods that no matter where you look - you see a problem? It started for me when the tomatoes I transplanted started turning yellow. Along with this, my transplanted cucumbers began to show a similar yellowing around the tips of their leaves. I did some research on this and come to find out - there were numerous reasons for leaf yellowing. They ran the gamut of over watering to a soil deficiency to cold weather. Which avenue I pursued would be just a guess.
I decided that since I had some issues with the soil (Nitrogen) last year, I took the avenue of ruling that out first. So, I used an at home test which was about 3 years old. I did the test and it showed I had normal to high levels of nitrogen, average potassium and high phosphorus. Not a great result. I then bought a new soil test kit and reran the tests. This test gave me a similar result other than the nitrogen looking more average. I also tested the PH of the soil and it ran neutral.
At the end of last year, I had the soil tested professionally with all items at or near normal. I wondered what may have altered this result given we had a very mild winter. I read a few books on soils and what could affect it. Cow manure was a repeating theme. Before planting my winter rye cover crop, I bought several bags of composted manure and worked it into the top layer of my beds. The rye grew fine and I thought all was well. Obviously something went amiss.
As it turns out, the rye and the manure would lock up the nitrogen in the soil. And the manure, if not fully processed, could continue to lock up the nitrogen into the growing season as it continues to decompose. Sigh!
I had to remediate the soil with plants in place. I pulled out a very old gardening book and did some more research. I also perused my "Youtube" gardener channels and found one with a very detailed soil mix. I decided to use one of the soil mixes as a top dressing around my plants. It was light on manure and strong on other components including organic fertilizer. I went to Lowe's and bought what I needed and made the soil mix. I then put a couple of inches or so around each of the plants and spread the mix about a foot around them and watered it in. I then used a tried and true method to measure the water content of the soil. I stuck long bamboo skewers beside each plant - letting them sit overnight. Then I would extract the skewers to see if they were wet. This greatly reduces over watering and is pretty cheap too. The plants began to show new life early this week as the leaves were green again on all plants.
Just as they began this revival, the weather was set to turn to late winter weather for this weekend. It did not disappoint. We have gotten over 2 inches of rain this weekend so far and the high temps have been in the low 50's. So, to offset this, I covered the plants with my cloches to at least keep them a little warmer over this weekend.
So far, they seem okay but a little droopy probably due to the temps. It is supposed to get into the mid 70's tomorrow so I will take the cloches off but put them on tomorrow night. We definitely need a change of direction in the weather. May certainly has been much wetter and colder than normal. This is the second year in a row where the temps have been off by an appreciable amount. This affects the vitality of the plants and of course, the production of them. As this isn't just in my area, it is affecting a much broader spectrum of our food supplies. I will have to look for ways to grow the plants while protecting them from these swings in the weather. Not sure it can be accomplished, but I'll give it a good attempt. So much to think about these days.
Well, this is all I have at this point. The weather has kind of put everything into a slow pattern for now. Here's hoping it will improve shortly. Until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone!
Posted on May 6, 2021 3:54 PM
It's been pretty hectic in the garden recently. I have been planting my transplants into the garden directly and seeding in some beds while I tend to my plants in the greenhouse. So much to do and so worth it in the long run. Where to start is the real question I am perplexed by right now.
I planted sets of potatoes in the garden and in two grow bags about a month ago. I was a little apprehensive as I was trying a new technique and the potatoes I bought from a local source seemed dubious. Last year was my first foray into potatoes and they turned out okay. They were a tad bit small for my liking but it was, my first attempt.
The local potatoes had very few tubers but I planted them anyways. The red potatoes had numerous tubers which made me feel okay. Well after a month, here is how they are looking in the garden.
The ones on the left are Yukon Golds and the taters of the right are Red Potatoes.
The grow bag potatoes which are more of the Yukon Gold potatoes have taken off rapidly. I would venture a guess that their growth has been faster than the ones in the ground at this time. Here is a side by side shot of their present state after I mounded them up.
Hoping for larger sized potatoes this year as I feel I just might know what I am actually doing.
I also have been seeding in successive green bean plantings. My first planting was almost totally destroyed by what I presume were the neighborhood squirrels.
I replanted the first batch and then planted another set of 9. I always plant them in sets of 9 as that is what fits in a square foot. Green Beans are prolific so I space the plantings about a week apart. We'll share any excess with the in-laws. And, if there are even more, we'll find someone in the neighborhood who I am sure would take them.
I do have tomatoes and cucumber plants that I'm holding in the greenhouse. How much longer is anyone's guess. They can't stay much longer as that will affect the plants output. Here in my region, Mother's Day is the prescribed date to plant the summer season plants. But, the weather isn't exactly following the script. We are looking at highs into the next week or so of only the mid 60's. That means the lows will be at or near 40. And, another factor is most of the days will be partly to mostly cloudy. I will transplant them under cover by mid-week next week if the weather isn't to straighten out. Here is a picture I took about 4 days ago of 5 of my tomato plants. They are healthy at this point so there is hope.
The onions are doing great in the garden but the ones I planted in the container in the greenhouse are having some issues. Not sure what exactly but I believe it's just too hot in there. Even if I open the vent fully and leave the door open with a screen, it's getting into the 80's in there. Next year, I will plant my complete set of onions in the garden under cover.
I am growing plants this year that I am not that entirely familiar with. The change in weather (for whatever reason) is not helping with growing the plants either. Most of the gardeners I know are noticing the weather more than usual. It definitely is a bigger factor than normal.
Well, this is all for now. I will loop back and will try to be more consistent. Until next time, Happy Gardening Everyone.
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