Green Things in the Great White

 We have been living in an arctic tundra.  When we go to town, the roads are melted and the sun is shining but up here on the hill, the temperatures are in single digits and the wind drifts the dry snow until the country roads fill back in.  Our driveway is so thick in ice that we ordered and installed a Bluetooth/WiFi mailbox alarm that lets us know when the mailbox has been opened so we don't waste dangerous trips down the driveway to check.  We are used to being able to hear the mail truck clearly, but this amount of snow absorbs so much sound that the only road noise we hear now is the snow plow barreling along like a freight train shaking the ground.  Indoors it is warm with the south rooms of the house bright and cozy from passive solar heating.  I actually have to dust twice as often or the low winter sun shines through the window at such an angle that we can barely see the image on the TV screen for the reflection and layers of lint.

Preparation for warmer days is already under way.  The first seeds up are the Candy onions.  I have many times grown onions from both plants and sets but this is my first foray into seeding them.  I figured that I could be much more flexible with quantities and save the leftover seeds for several seasons making this route more efficient than either ordering plants or buying sets.  They are in the basement on a heat mat now but in a week or so I will transplant each cell into a larger pot and move them to the workshop with the Coleus cuttings. 

The Coleus cuttings are still doing well with 50F degree air temperature and weekly watering.  Some of the plants on the edges are getting a little pale so I rearranged the pots to see if that helps.  The workshop will have to be raised to 60F when I begin adding warm weather transplants.  Right now I have my tub of Dahlia tubers in there where they keep a steady 48F on the floor under the saw.  When I turn up the heat they need to be moved out, probably to the basement bulkhead, but right now outside temperatures are way too low to make the bulkhead a safe storage spot.

I have my seeding schedule mapped out and room for seven trays of seedlings.  Most people in my town are complaining about seven solid weeks of snow and cold with no break, but for me looking out and seeing the great white tundra is easier on my gardening psyche than mud and grass would be.  Come March when the weather is turning I will feel that the work season is imminent and patience will completely desert me.

Cutting Back

Recently I've read several gardening blogs where the gardener is just gardened out.  It happens to all of us.  It usually happens to me in August but I don't start to complain about it until September.  I always look forward to autumn.  Spring is my favorite season because everything is fresh and growing but by Labor Day I am always wondering - "What was I thinking?"  Then I begin to count the days we have left until I can pull it all out or cut it back.

This year I took the easy route.  I cut back.  My husband doesn't see that I've cut back but I feel it.  In fact I sort of feel lazy not growing all of my stored food when I know that I can.  To make me feel better let's make a list of everything I can grow that I chose not to grow this year.  What I felt most was the spring gardening - peas, carrots, onions etc because skipping them meant my gardening started in May not March.

Garlic - When you grow garlic you start your garden a whole winter before.  That's really dragging it out.  I admit I love to see the green shoots come up first thing in March.  Then there's nothing to do but watch them.  They're very low maintenance.  And when you're done you get to make a neat braid.

Onions - I've grown a lot of onions of all colors over the years but I just don't use that many.  So I end up having to make the effort to store them properly and then end up composting half of them.  I like to buy the Long Day Sampler from Dixondale Farms.  The plants come in little bundles when your planting season arrives and you get to spend an hour on a sunny spring day poking holes in the soil with a pencil which is just the right size for the little guys.

Peas (like onions) get you out early in the spring.  They are also labor intensive with all the picking and shelling.  At first I really enjoy some leisurely pea shelling.  They are one of the best garden snacks to munch on when you're out working.  But then about the middle of your late planting harvest you walk by the pea patch and realize "crap there are more peas that need picking".  I consciously enjoyed not having to do that this year.  Luckily I froze enough to last two years.  Maybe I should buy a pea sheller?  I'll have to put that on my wish list.  Heaven knows I love my apple peeler.  Sometimes gadgets actually work.  I wonder if anyone is working on a garden sized pea picker.

Carrots -  I love pulling baby carrots.  I hate pulling, scrubbing, storing and using big ole ugly carrots that have to be pried out of the ground with a fork and I tire of baby carrots before they all get away from me and turn into big ole ugly carrots.  My favorite carrots are the finger sized new carrots with their stems trimmed to show just a splash of bright green on your plate, steamed and sprinkled with some brown sugar.  My least favorite carrots are the ones hanging out in the hydrator demanding to be chopped up and put into soup.  I hate demanding vegetables.

Radishes - I like them because they remind me of Easter Eggs. I love to grow a selection of colors. But I never ate them.  The only purpose they served was giving me early, colorful, gardening satisfaction.  Plus you can mix them in with your carrot seeds and when you are pulling radishes you are also thinning carrots.  Therefore I suppose that radishes add structure discipline to a spring garden.

Black Beans - Talk about labor intensive.  Plant them, pick them, shell them, dry them, soak them, cook them.  Sure, it's fun to cook up a batch of black bean soup with all your own beans, onions, garlic and peppers, but how often do I actually do that? Twice a year?  I wonder if the pea sheller would work on them too.

Sweet Potatoes on the left Norland Red potatoes on the right.

Sweet Potatoes - I've grown these for awhile with moderate results.  By far the best year I had was when I grew them in containers.  But most of them were quite small and a hassle to cut up. Turns out you can buy better frozen sweet potato fries than I can ever make from scratch anyway.

Silver Queen sweet corn 2007

Sweet Corn - The guy down at the farm stand does an excellent job and I get to choose which days I eat corn instead of the corn choosing for me.  I do miss not having dried corn stalks to decorate with in the fall.  And I miss the super sweet Gotta Have It variety.   I promise you there is no sweeter sweet corn. It can be fussy to grow because it needs really warm soil to germinate so you may or may not get the corn harvest of your dreams.  

Pumpkins -Now pumpkins are fun.  But they take up too much space.  And no matter how much space you have allotted them they will jump the fence.  They cannot be contained.  That must be why they were called Connecticut Field Pumpkins.  And I don't have a field.  I remember the day Tim came in and asked "why have you diapered the pumpkins?" That's not a diaper folks, that's a hammock.  Lazy pumpkins.

Acorn Squash - a pain to store. Butternut Squash - ditto

Artichokes - a lot of work for something I'd rather look at than eat

Broccoli - Worms.  Need I say more?

.

Cabbage - I don't actually remember growing cabbage.
But there it is.  I wonder what I did with it?

Okra - I would grow Okra just for its ornamental value.  However, it only blooms while I'm at work so this year I finally gave up.  Okra is a hot weather, long season crop, but I've had excellent results with Baby Bubba.  This variety is compact enough to grow in containers so you could start it early.

Chard - I ended up just looking at this too

Parsnips - Now that's not a very pretty picture of Parsnips, but that's what I think of when I think Parsnips. Cold - Mud.   By the time these are ready to eat, I'm totally over the whole garden thing.  Ditto Brussels Sprouts

These Scarlet Runner Beans looked like a living Christmas Tree complete with decorations

Pole beans - too tough and stringy - although easier to pick than the bush kind.  One year I planted both purple and yellow pole beans thinking they would be the ultimate in easy picking - shoulder height and visible against the green.  And they were, but they were nowhere near as good eatin' as my favorite bush varieties.  I usually grow the Purple Queen "bush variety" which climbs about 3-4 feet.  Maybe I'll try them on poles.  Short ones.

Of course, this year I still grew too many tomatoes because - well.... that's just what I do.  What I did not do with tomatoes this year:  canning, tomato sauce, Bloody Mary Mix.  Yep, I've been lazy.  Do I feel guilty about buying my black beans in a can?  A little.  How about the fake baby carrots or the worm free broccoli?  Not a bit.  Pumpkins?  I miss growing pumpkins particularly when I'm at the farm stand trying to choose one or two.  It's worse than choosing a Christmas tree.  When you grow your own you love each of them despite their faults.

One thing I kept noticing as I went back through the years of pictures is Bell Peppers.  Peppers everywhere.  Green ones, red ones, golden ones on beautiful compact plants.  What the hell happened?  Where did I go wrong?  This pepper thing is bothering me.  I want nice peppers.

A perfect, pristine garden path in the days before the raised beds.

Another thing that struck me as I was paging through years of garden photos:  I've had some really nice gardens.  I thought 2015 was the perfect spring and that my garden had never looked better, but 2007 and 2010 were looking pretty good too.  I wonder how many pounds of weeds I've pulled over the years?

I'm down to two tomatoes in the house and half a dozen on the vine.  My Pike County yellow tomato plant recently put out a whole second crop of new tomatoes which are just now ripening.  Just for that it has earned itself a place in next year's list.  Everyone else is done.  Even the Sungold.   There are only half a dozen cherry tomatoes each day not quarts.  But that's a relief because for the past month I've been struggling under an avalanche of tomatoes.  And somewhere in the middle of that I realized that I'd honestly be just as happy with a bacon only sandwich for the most part.  See, this is the sort of crazy talk you get when you eat too many tomatoes.

After this little stroll down memory lane I feel a bit more like a productive gardener.  Just think of the pounds of produce I've dealt with over the years,   It was interesting seeing how I had laid things out and remembering varieties I don't grow anymore.  I had sort of forgotten that there were years when odd things like Collards and Fennel kept me busy experimenting.  I am glad I didn't feel I had to can anything (I did 2 quarts of refrigerator pickles).  I have just enough potatoes to get us through the winter.  I don't have storage issues in the cellar or the freezer.  Life is simple.

Things That are Going Right and Things That are Going Wrong - Yin and Yang

My Annual Garden of Good and Evil post.  It seems every year in July I end up with a post which pretty much sums up how the garden is going for the year.  July is the tell tale time.  May's busy planting season and the June lull where every thing is supposed to grow are over.  In July we begin to reap the benefits and form plans for next year.

Here are some of my Good and Evil posts from years past.
The Good The Bad and The Ugly
The Killing Spree
Mid Summer Slump
The Empty Hod 

Wrong: Geranium in the Chair

Why is this wrong you ask?  I had planned to put a geranium in this spot.  Early in the year, at the "fancy" greenhouse, I spotted these spreading geraniums.  They were absolutely gorgeous.  I bought the nicest one and brought it home and I don't think it has put out a single new leaf all year.  It hasn't spread one bit.  It still looks nice, and it likes where it has been planted, but being in a 12" basket it was almost 3 times as expensive than a single 4" potted geranium.  And at this point in the year, it doesn't look any better than the regular geraniums.  So I won't be buying another one next year.

To be fair, it is right next to my favorite thing for this year which is my combination patio pots.  I just love the color and texture of these.  The old fashioned geranium pales in comparison.

Which brings us to a "Right".  Which is Coleus.  Generally, I consider myself a vegetable gardener.  But I grew up with annual bedding plants and they are family to me.  I visit the greenhouses each spring and check tags and remember the words I grew up reading: Figaro Dahlia, Super Elfin Impatiens, Daddy Mix Petunia, Verbena, Ageratum.  Not a lot has changed.

Over the years I've binged on Pansies, Zinnias, Calibrocha, Sweet Peas, Nasturtiums, Geraniums and Lantana to name just a few.  This year it's Coleus.  It began when I decided that I am tired of trying to choose a shade of pink.  Well... I don't use pink very often.  So I am tired of trying to choose something new in the red/orange/yellow family.  A person can only take so many geraniums and marigolds.  So this year I decided to choose foliage not flowers. Enter;  the Coleus.

Right: Combination Pots

When I was assembling these in my mind I decided to go with contrast.. I put lime/chartreuse in the burgundy pot, and burgundy in the chartreuse pot. I had to buy a bunch of packs of Coleus to get enough of the right colors so I had extra to plant everywhere else. It helped that my friend was selling red spikes in her greenhouse. It wouldn't have been right using green spikes in both. Then, about a week after I'd initially planted the pots, I found the really big spikes. I passed them up initially, but I actually dreamt about them so I went back the next day for them. I used the baby spikes in another planting. 

Wrong: Cantaloupe

I've decided that Cantaloupe is one of those things that I have to plant every year and hope for good growing conditions.  And this year we got them.  We had already hit 90 in May.  But it doesn't seem to matter to the cantaloupes.  To start with I had planned to plant three times as many plants.  My germination rates were awful on all my cucurbits from cucumbers to zucchinis.  I had several varieties from several sources, and I did what I always do and they just didn't want to play.   I was beginning to think that I was going to have a year without squash.  The cucumbers got it in gear afterall and the zucchinis caught up but the cantaloupes are being very stubborn.  The 4th of July weekend, when I should expect to have melons the size of limes, they were still the size of marbles.  This will not be "The Year of the Cantaloupe".

Right: Cucumbers

This has been a good year for Cucumbers.  I have three varieties planted in this bed.  Mid-May when I was worrying that my seedlings would never grow, I bought a pack of my old standby Marketmore '76 from the greenhouse, and those are producing great.  Beside them are 4 "Socrates" which are a seedless self-pollinating (or non-pollinating really) variety which is supposed to be very productive.  The cukes are about the length of a bun-length hot dog and twice as thick.  The skin is spineless and very easy to peel.  And they are nice sweet cucumbers.  We're really enjoying them.

At the far end of the bed are the SV4719CS (F1) which are supposed to be highly disease resistant.
I have a second row of those planted a few weeks behind.  The first 4 plants are producing and they are a good cucumber a little smaller than the Marketmore.

Right: Zucchini

The Dunja zucchini was a little slow to start but is doing awesome now.  This is a great variety.  The leaves are HUGE this year.  It looks like a giant Elephant Ear Begonia.  It is producing heavily and I am picking them small so I don't get over run.  I have several backup plants started but I don't think I'm going to need them for awhile.  Last year I started pulling my first plants and planted my backups Aug 7th.  I know this plant has more than two good weeks left in it.

Wrong: Strawberry Cages

This year my strawberry cages did absolutely nothing towards stopping the chipmunks.  They keep the rabbits and the deer away, but those little chipmunks slip right through.  We have killed 13 chipmunks around the garden shed....and a trap is missing so that's probably number 14.  One chippy was fast enough to avoid getting trapped, but lost his whole tail.  I saw it happen and boy did that little tailless bugger fly!  He hasn't been back.  But if we see him again we've named him "Bob".

Right: Cucumber Grids  

These cucumber grids from Gardeners.com are supposed to let the vines grow up off of the ground (without having to go straight up) and let the cucumbers hang down through where they are easy to pick.  And they are working just as advertised.  I wish I had bought them sooner.

Right / Wrong: Bush Beans

I went ahead and planted some bush beans earlier than I had planned because I was having a hard time looking at bare un-productive dirt.  And I think I have proven that I should not bother to try growing beans on the west side of the tomatoes.  They just don't get the right amount of sun.  The Purple Queen on the east side are doing fine and are almost ready to bloom.

Good Bugs / Bad Bugs

This year we have no cucumber beetles.  NONE!  I've battled them for several years.  In 2014 I had only three, but last year I had a gazillion and they killed the cantaloupe vines before the melons could ripen.  We have had plenty of honey bees, fewer dragon flies (because no mosquitos?  we tiled some drainage ditches) but a lot of lady bugs.  I usually see a couple each year but I'm seeing them every day now from the front landscaping all the way back to the back tree line.

I have seen virtually no Flea Beetles which in past years have killed entire eggplants and ravaged the potatoes.  I think this is because we covered the beds with stabilization mat last winter. The beetles always hatch on the first warm day in April.  I'll be out in the garden getting things ready for planting and I'll notice that the ties the raised beds are made of are covered with millions of tiny flea beetles like someone has spilled pepper.  If you wave your hands over them you can feel them jumping in waves of thousands.  And nothing kills them.  This year, on one of the first warm days in April I was out in the garden and it suddenly dawned on me - no flea beetles.  If the larvae survived the solarization then the beetles themselves were hopelessly trapped under the tightly woven material.  Ha!  Take that.

We've had an average number of Japanese Beetles and Asparagus Beetles.  But even an average plague of them is a hassle.  The Asparagus Beetles have completely killed off the row of asparagus despite my religious removal of all beetles and larvae every day for two years.  Which brings me to my next Yin and Yang.  Dill.

Right/Wrong:  Dill

Because I am not ready to admit complete defeat on the asparagus, and a few stalks still come up, I decided to disguise the ratty row with other things that look like asparagus so the asparagus that did survive could hide in there for another year while I figure this out.  So I planted Dill and Cosmos.  

I was thinking that besides the scourge of beetles, the soil must not be very good here because the asparagus was so easy to defeat.  I did every thing I could do to amend it and without actually digging up the asparagus crowns.  But it doesn't seem to have worked.  Note the gap in the dill row.  There is another gap on the other end were two seed spots side by side came up with nothing.  Twice.  I reseeded.  But just look at the difference in those two plants above.  They came from the same seed pack on the same day, 12 inches apart and have received the same treatment from day 1.    There is also a Cosmos plant behind the taller dill which is doing OK but is quite a bit behind the other plants which you can see flowering orange in the background.  I think I have a few blank spots in my soil quality.  Time to dig the whole thing up?

Right/Wrong: Peppers

Speaking of soil, I am not having good luck with peppers this year.  I've always had only moderate success with them so this year I dedicated a whole bed to them and decided to learn to grow better peppers.  I planted six packs from the local greenhouse instead of starting from seeds like I usually do.  One pack of Jalapenos, three of generic "Red Bell Pepper" three generic "Yellow Bell Pepper" and then tried one of the few varieties that was actually specified on the tag and I recognized which is Red Knight.  

Out of all of those plants, I've only found peppers on 6 plants.  And not a lot.  All of the Jalapenos are doing OK and the two Red Knight on the far end of the bed have some peppers on them.  Now this can caused by a couple of things.  

1.  Poor Pollination.  Peppers are self pollinating, so theoretically, high humidity could affect that.

2.  Too much Nitrogen in the soil.  I haven't tested it but this bed I amended with Kelp Meal to give them a little more Potassium, and when they began to bloom I watered with Epsom Salts for Magnesium so I've done my best there.

3.  Weather.  We have had plenty of hot days averaging in the high 80s and this bed gets the most sun which is about 10 hours.  But cooler night time temps could affect it.  We frequently have nights in the low 50s.  The garden will be a few degrees warmer because of the gravel acting as a heat sink.

Whatever it is - this will not be "The Year of the Peppers"

Right: Potatoes

And finally:  Potatoes.  I can't seem to go wrong with potatoes.  We can check that off my learning curve list.  These are from the bed where the zucchini is.  They are volunteers from two years ago.  There were three plants and this is the last one to go.  The main potato crop is in the garden in tubs and doing well.  The next time I need potatoes I will just dump one tub.  That's the easiest way to grow them.

So that's how this year is shaping up.  We have had warm days, not enough rain and moderate success.

July Update

The July Update:  

Tim wanted to use up the last of our old landscape mulch so we dressed everything up.  It looked so nice that I climbed up on the garden shed roof for a photo op.  I figured it would never look better than it does today.

The apple tree on the left with the herb garden and strawberries under the cage

The cantaloupes are in the chicken run

A view from the garden gate
with the water tank cover in the foreground

Looking back towards the coop and shed

View from the neighbor's end

Bed #1 Resting after Peas.
Carrots remaining and doing great.
I need to use them up so I can solarize this bed.

Bed #2 Lettuce Dwindling
Day old baby cucumbers down the middle

Bed #3 Tomato/Pepper Jungle

The Sweet Peppers are growing
But you can see the plants are suffering from the wet
with septorial spots and yellowing leaves

Jalepenos

The eggplants are HUGE and flowering

My Barlow Jap tomato plant has a dozen fruit set

Bed #4 Peas on their way out

Bed #5 Potatoes

Bed #6 Cucumbers and Bush Beans

The Beans are Beaning and the Cukes are Cuking
There is a Squash Vine Borer Moth in my garden that is escaping capture!!!
Not Good.  Not Good at All!

The Herb Garden

The Summer Squash is producing nicely

The Cantaloupe are covered with flowers

But they've sustained significant damage from the Cucumber Beetles

The cantaloupes are not as gorgeous and unmolested as they were last year.  We'll still have melons but it isn't ideal.  Above is a close up.  The beetles chew on the stems and leaves and weaken them causing them to break or crush at stress points and wilt and kill those leaves or that whole branch of the vine.