The Grape Arbor

 We have spent the past few days constructing a grape arbor.  We did a little each day.  Digging the holes was the hard part.  We got about 30" down and at that point we hit the shale ledge that runs under most of our yard.  And that's as far as you go.  Even with an auger on a tractor.  You get to the ledge and smoke rolls out of the hole, but no soil.

Day two we set the posts, perfectly plumb, all the same height, and in a perfect line.  Then we tied them together with a 2x6 board along the top that will help stop the posts from pulling towards the center.

Because the cables are under tension.  We put turnbuckles on the end so the cables can be tightened.

Then I spread shredded bark mulch on the soil to keep the roots cool, retain moisture, and discourage weeds.  That makes things look nice and tidy, and the grape vines will be fine with that.

One vine has put on some nice growth.  The other vine, which was sending up growth from below the soil line.... I finally dug it up, rinsed it, scrubbed it and determined that the growth was coming from the root stock, not the variety that was grafted on top.  Which was not what I wanted.  So I replaced it.  I got another Himrod white seedless so both vines are now the same variety.  I kept it in the cold frame for a week, and it has begun to break dormancy above the graft line so I planted it out and we are on our way.

The first vine, which was planted the end of March, is doing well.  I am looking forward to pruning and training it.  It is putting out three shoots.  Two will go along the lower cable and the middle one will be trained up to the next level.

The Bushel and Berry Raspberry Shortcake plant that I potted up last spring is putting out a few little berries.  The plant itself is quite healthy so I am pleased that this experiment it working out.  It just takes time.

It's the Great Pumpkin [Patch] Charlie Brown

 Last year I planted six pumpkin seeds in a far corner of the raised beds, got six pumpkin vines they produced six nice sized pumpkins.  This year, my husband said, since we have all of this room, why not just plant them in the field?  So we asked our friend to bring his tiller up and till a space for them.  We will reimburse him in pumpkins.

This reminded me why we converted to raised beds.

When the soggy clay mixes with the chopped vegetation, you get sticky cob with which to build a house.  We tried raking it, but there was no raking.  We ended up waiting for a dryish day and stomping it flat with our feet to the point where we felt we could get the small tractor with the turf tires on it.  After we stomped it, drove over it, then rolled it, it was manageable again.  I just wanted it flat enough to put landscape cloth over without creating puddles.  If we had left the vegetation untilled, it would have grown under the mat and lifted it.  Ask me how I know.

We have a large roll of road stabilization mat that goes under a gravel base when you want to create a driveway on soft ground.  We can reuse this later.  We rolled out two fifty foot lengths, leaving a 10" gap down the center and tacked it down with large spikes and washers.  Then I planted my pumpkin seeds that I have saved from last year's pumpkins.  Those pumpkins were grown from seeds I saved from a store bought pumpkin the year before.  I think I planted about 78 seeds.  Today when I watered I counted 76 sprouted plants.

I wanted to protect the seeds from squirrels and chipmunks and racoon.  Now that I have sprouts I need to protect those from the crows and ravens.  After that, I will want to protect the small plants from deer.

Once they get about a foot high, they are on their own.  Deer shouldn't be too interested in fuzzy, prickly pumpkin vines.  I plan to train the vines across the twelve foot expanse in either direction.  They should like the warmth of the soil under the black mat, and I won't have to worry about weeds making a mess and competing for water.

Since we will be able to reuse the mat and the seeds were saved, the project is virtually zero cost.   Now I just need them to grow.

Cukes and Zukes

 The pickling cucumber seeds I sowed on May 20th had some poor germination.  I resowed them and they came up well.  This is the end of my old seeds and next year I will start with fresh seeds.  I am hoping for some rain on Saturday, and if we get it I will go out and transplant them so they have better transition day.

I potted up my summer squash, two varieties (Dunja and Clarimore) in each pot.  One will grow left and the other right.  I will keep these in smaller pots until I plant them out when the peas come out.  From the 4" pot they will be bumped up to gallon pots.

The Coleus that I accidentally broke off on May 20th has put out beautiful roots.  I potted it in soil today.  I will leave it under a grow light for a few days before hardening it off to be planted out.

I also filled in gaps in the sweet corn seeds.  Again - older seed.  

Pole Beans

 The last few years I have had a battle getting beans sprouted and growing.  Everything from the seeds disappearing completely (mice?) to the growth points above the cotyledons being chewed off before the leaves get very big.

Gardening is, in large part, an engineering challenge.  I finally decided that if the mice weren't stealing the seeds, then the little brown locusts were munching on the leaves as soon as they opened up.  So I brainstormed a better way to exclude these pests.  I threw a floating row cover over the whole thing and pinned down the edges, hoping that there were no little critters being trapped inside with my beans.

Underneath the chicken wire cloches that hold the row cover in place are rings from a croquet set to elevate the material up off of the bean sprouts.  These rings fit under the cloches just perfectly.  The cloches hold the fabric down and lengths of conduit seal the edges.

It worked pretty well.  Despite being difficult to water through, it seems to have excluded most of the pests.  I plant two thirds green Seychelles, and one third yellow Monte Gusto because the Monte Gusto out produce the Seychelles by a lot!  I plant in two stages, from the outside to the inside of the bed.  That way when the older bean stalks are done producing I can start pulling the row out from the ends towards the middle.

In about a week I will sow the middle of the row and protect that section the same way.

Gggrrrrr......

 When you look out the window in the morning and the flowers are no longer in a neat and orderly row.  

 I deal with this in one spot or another every year.

The plants should be OK, but the coons will be back for another look.

They always want to make sure.

I'm just glad they haven't done this to the main Dahlia beds (yet).  Or the combination planters.

Or the tomato plants.  I'll sprinkle some Repels-All to see if that helps, but coons will eat any nasty thing so stinky stuff isn't much of a deterrent.

Status Report

 Yesterday I planted my single and 2025 Bee's Choice dahlia tubers.  I still have a tray of Bee's Choice from seed in 4" pots that I am planning to plant after peas like I did last year (in July)

The first planting of peas is not yet blooming.  I'm going to have to bump the Dahlias up to larger pots.

The cucumbers, summer squash and sunflowers are on the move.  My pickling cuke seeds were old.  I've reseeded what has not germinated.  I'll give that a shot before I reorder seeds.

In the beds, Cantaloupe seeds are up.

Sweet Corn seeds are starting

Tomatoes are planted and happy in their new home.

Peppers are also happy and starting to produce already.

The Sweet Potatoes are transplanted.

I am just doing one grow bag this year, to maintain my stock.

The Panola pansies are going gangbusters in the everbearing end of the Strawberry bed.  The Strawberry plants are also doing very well and the berries will start ripening soon.  Whatever weeds are still hiding in that riot are sure not bothering me.

I also have pole beans planted but since I am still trying to find a solution an ongoing pest problem with that crop, I will elaborate later when they start to come up.

Evaluating my Tomato and Pepper Plants

 Tomorrow, Memorial Day, is going to be Tomato and Pepper planting day.  The cold frame is full and needs to be emptied.  I will start delivering plants to family and friends who are expecting them and get my own in the ground.

Remember April 26th when I transplanted tomatoes from cells to pots and found that a lot of my odd colored varieties had been smothered by my Barlow and Amish Brandywine type varieties?  Well they had 4 weeks to get it in gear and they did fine. The Dwarf Plants survived, except for the cherry variety that did not survive transplant.  I replaced that one with a purchased Sun Sugar plant.

Below I placed the pots in the same order as the photo above.  The ones that survived are healthy and a nice plantable size.  The rest are MONSTERS.  I've trimmed the lower leaves in preparation for planting them very deeply.

Most of them show heavy scarring on the stem that I believe is from fungus gnats.  I tried a gnat killer that you water into the soil, but it didn't make a dent.  I caught hundreds on yellow sticky traps.

The ornamental pepper plants are blooming and putting out peppers

I planted the Bell Peppers and Hot Peppers and protected them with frost cloth.

The containers for the ornamentals are filled, and the supports for the tomato plants are driven.  All I have to do is plant.

I put shredded bark mulch in the raspberry/blackberry bed.

When I was weeding the grapevine bed I noticed that the white grape is sending out shoots from the root level.  The first two leaf nodes on the stem still have live looking sprouts, but the main growth is lower.  Because this vine appeared to be self rooted and not grafted, root level sprouts should be fine.  But I will try to keep both levels of vine growing to be sure.  I sent an inquiry to the company to try to verify.  Maybe I should just dig around and take a better look at the roots....

My Dahlias tubers are breaking the soil.

I have been working on annual containers.  This tall white planter contains the Proven Winner's Recipe of the Year Pixie Powder.    It is purely coincidental that I chose the Recipe of the Year.  I've had my eye on this combination for a couple of years because I love flowers in the peach color palette.  It may account for the plants being more readily available though.  Usually by the time I go looking for them, they are sold out.

When I saw these peach colored Esmay Begonias at the local Amish Greenhouse, I snapped them right up.  I didn't really know what I was going to do with them, so now I wish I had grabbed a couple more, but they will fill out.  Their mature width is supposed to be 22".  I'll try to over winter these.  I'm going to use my handful of leftover Profusion Apricot Zinnia plants along the edge of the neighboring landscape bed.